Guest: Simon Hankinson, Co-Founder, The Ben Franklin Fellowship; Senior Fellow, The Heritage Foundation

Host: Phil Linderman, Chairman, The Ben Franklin Fellowship

In this bold and wide-ranging conversation, BFF Chairman Phil Linderman sits down with BFF co-founder and board member Simon Hankinson to discuss his powerful new book, The Ten Woke Commandments – You Must Not Obey(July 2025). Drawing on his 25 years as a U.S. diplomat and his current role as a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, Hankinson takes on the forced orthodoxy of the modern Left—from gender ideology and media censorship to cultural self-loathing and bureaucratic overreach.

Hankinson and Linderman explore the implications of cancel culture on diplomacy and public service, what it means to dissent with principle, and how The Ben Franklin Fellowship offers a home for foreign affairs professionals grounded in truth, liberty, and national interest.

This episode also offers a window into Simon’s life before and after diplomacy: a British-trained lawyer, teacher, global public servant, and now one of Washington’s leading voices challenging the ideological capture of American institutions.

If you’ve ever felt silenced, sidelined, or suspicious of the new commandments of the elite class — his conversation is for you.