Notable Speeches

On Feb. 14, 2026, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke at Germany's 62nd annual Munich Security Conference.Mr. Rubio called for a renewed transatlantic alliance rooted in the shared heritage, including a close spiritual and cultural connection, that binds the United States and Europe.A transcript of his remarks is at https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/02/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-at-the-munich-security-conference

On Feb. 14, 2025, U.S. Vice President JD Vance spoke at Germany's 61st annual Munich Security Conference. He warned European leaders of the "threat from within, arguing that some European governments have warred against democratic values by trampling freedom of conscience and failing to respect the voices of their citizens.He also said leaders have done a disservice to their citizens by not controlling immigration.A transcript of his remarks is at https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/18/vance-speech-munich-full-text-read-transcript-europe/

Former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm discusses his book The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate, which he co-authored with statistician John Early and economist Robert Ekelund. The book details how faulty government data has led to a massive misperception about wealth and poverty in the U.S. The Myth of American Inequality won the 2024 Hayek Book Prize awarded by the Manhattan Institute. In politics, Phil Gramm served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, initially as a Democrat, and later as a Republican. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1985 and retired from office in 2002. Before entering politics, Phil Gramm taught economics at Texas A&M University.

Donald Trump's May 23 address in The Bronx, New York, will prove to be one of the most significant speeches of the 2024 campaign — so predicts social commentator Roger Kimball, editor of The New Criterion. "Among other things, it will be seen to mark the moment when Trump's gathering momentum became unstoppable," Mr. Kimball argues in an article posted at American Greatness. The former president gave a wide-ranging address to several thousand enthusiastic supporters at an early evening rally held in Crotona Park, a public park in the South Bronx. A full transcript is available at https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/trump-speaks-at-rally-in-the-bronx

The cultural ideology of "wokeism" isn't new. It has a pedigree traceable to philosophers of previous centuries, including René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, and Jacques Derrida. In this address, Catholic Bishop Robert Barron, one of America's most influential religious leaders, describes how the ideas of such philosophers have formed the foundations of "critical theory" and "woke" ideology. Bishop Barron serves the diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and founded Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. He delivered this address on June 21, 2023, at a conference sponsored by the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich.

This episode features the second inaugural address of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, delivered outdoors to a crowd of several thousand gathered at the Florida State Capital Building in Tallahassee on Jan. 3, 2023. After narrowly winning the governor's seat in 2018, he won a resounding re-election victory in 2022. Although Gov. DeSantis (R) has not announced any intention to run for president in 2024, many political observers speculate that he will do so. Mr. DeSantis, a Florida native, is a Navy veteran, a former federal prosecutor, and a former Congressman. A transcript of his second inaugural address is available here.

Viktor Orbán, Europe's longest-serving Prime Minister, visited the U.S. in early August to speak at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, held in Dallas, Texas. He said Western civilization, which defeated the enemies of freedom in the past, is now "at war with itself." But "we Hungarians know how to defeat the enemies of freedom on the political battlefield." Mr. Orbán described several policies his government has implemented, including a successful border-protection system, tax laws that reward marriage and larger families, and a law-and-order approach to public safety that has made Hungary "the safest country in Europe." If you have a comment or question about the Notable Speeches podcast, email [email protected].

In July, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito spoke at a Religious Liberty Summit hosted by the University of Notre Dame Law School's Religious Liberty Initiative. "We can't lightly assume that the religious liberty enjoyed today in the United States, in Europe, and in many other places will always endure," he said at the Summit's evening gala on July 21. "Religious liberty is fragile, and religious intolerance and persecution have been recurring features of human history." The 2022 Religious Liberty Summit was held in Rome, Italy, where Notre Dame has one of its overseas campuses. The gala event took place at Rome's centuries-old Palazzo Colonna. If you have a comment or question about the Notable Speeches podcast, email [email protected].

This episode features an address by Dr. Kristen Collier, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and director of the school's Program on Health, Spirituality & Religion.  She spoke on July 24, 2022, at Michigan Medicine's annual White Coat Ceremony welcoming new med students Dr. Collier's address generated controversy, not because of her remarks but because of her views on abortion. She is pro-life. Some students walked out rather than listen to her remarks. This podcast presents her speech in full. She spoke about the need for physicians to focus on patients as human beings, not simply as "cases." If you have a comment or question about the Notable Speeches podcast, email [email protected].

On March 24, 2022, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki addressed the National Conservatism Conference meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Speaking via video, Mr. Morawiecki urged support for Ukraine in the wake of Russia's invasion and he said "we must rebuild the Western world worthy of Ukraine's heroism." "Ukrainians have resurrected the idea that freedom and independence are values worth living and even dying for," he said. Mateusz Morawiecki has been the Prime Minister of Poland since 2017. He is a member of the Law and Justice party. Early in this address, he mentions his recent visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, together with his Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, Slovenia's Prime MinisterJanez Janša, and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala. If you have a comment or question about the Notable Speeches podcast, email [email protected].