Josh Szeps interviews me at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. Conversation topics include: indigenous land acknowledgments, white guilt, the relationship between white guilt and the enlightenment project, Hollywood’s progressive bias as seen in movies like The Woman King and Hidden Figures, and much more.

Glenn Loury reflects on his memoir, Late Admissions, and the process of recalling his life experiences. He discusses the powerful and galvanizing experience of reliving his past, including memories of his mother, admiration for his father, and personal struggles with addiction and infidelity. The conversation then shifts to the transformation of the South Side of Chicago over time and the unraveling of the Black family structure. The impact of cultural and societal changes, as well as class...

The conversation examines the future of wokeness, the implications of generational turnover, and much more.

This conversation covers a range of topics including Nellie Bowles' experience as a writer, the challenges of balancing science writing and comedy writing, the reality of homelessness and drug addiction in cities like San Francisco, the rise of autonomous zones like CHAZ/CHOP, and the idealism and limitations of progressive movements. The conversation explores the concept of human nature and the limitations of systems that try to change it. It delves into the history of Antifa in Seattle and...

Rob Henderson discusses his memoir and the impact of his early life experiences. He challenges the overemphasis on education as a measure of success and highlights the importance of stable family structures. Rob also questions the narrative of overcoming trauma and the limitations of post-traumatic growth. He acknowledges that some foster parents have ulterior motives, such as financial gain. Additionally, he explores gender differences in foster care and the challenges of addressing single...

Today we discuss Abigail Shrier's new book, "Bad Therapy". She explains the harmful effects of therapy, particularly on children and adolescents, and the risks associated with overdiagnosis and overmedication. Shrier also explores the treatment prevalence paradox, where the rates of mental health issues continue to rise despite increased access to therapy. She emphasizes the importance of authoritative parenting and the negative impact of excessive mental health interventions in schools....

My guest today is Mary Harrington. Mary is a writer and contributing editor at UnHerd. She's the author of a great book called Feminism Against Progress. In this episode, we talk about her general critique of feminism, we talk about what she calls progress theology, we talk about the changing social status of motherhood, we talk about the Barbie movie, gender dysphoria, and much more

My guest today is Philip Goff. Philip is a philosophy professor at Durham University. He's the author of Galileo's Error and Why the Purpose of the Universe. Philip believes that science gives us objective reasons to believe that there's value in the universe and he comes at this from a very different angle than say Sam Harris, who reaches the same conclusion for different reasons in his book, The Moral Landscape. Philip relies heavily on the so-called fine tuning argument. So we talk a lot...

My guest today is Cindy Yu. Cindy Yu is an assistant editor at the Spectator Magazine, and she's the host of the "Chinese Whispers" podcast, which is actually one of my favorite podcasts. We talk about whether China will invade Taiwan. We talk about whether the West should adopt a Cold War-like mentality towards China. We discuss the phenomenon of Chinese espionage in the West. We talk about the wave of immigration from Hong Kong into the UK. We discuss the nosedive in China's birthrate over...

My guest today is Nick Gillespie. Nick is a prominent libertarian journalist and commentator best known for his work at Reason Magazine, where he's been for around 30 years. In this episode, we discuss Nick's experience getting engaged at the recent Burning Man. We talk about psychedelic drugs, the promise they hold, as well as the dangers they contain. We talk about the evolution of the libertarian movement in America. We talk about how we should message about drugs to kids. We talk about...

My guest today is Munira Mirza. Munira Mirza is a British public policy analyst and cultural commentator. She served as the Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture of London under Boris Johnson when he was mayor, and later served as director of The Number 10 Policy Unit under Johnson when he was prime minister. In this episode, we talk about Munira's early days as a Marxist, her interest in art and museums, her views on Brexit, her views on multiculturalism in the UK, the Israel-Hamas war and...

My guest today is Rory Stewart. Rory Stewart is a British politician, diplomat, and author who served as a member of parliament from 2010 to 2019. He held several governmental positions, notably as a Secretary of State for International Development in 2019, and was known for his extensive work in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rory has authored several books, such as "The Places In Between", about his solo walk across Afghanistan, and his new book, "Politics on the Edge", a memoir from within. Rory...

So I've gotten criticism lately that I've created an echo chamber of pro-Israel guests, Benny Morris and Andrew Gold being the two examples. So I went on Twitter and asked who I should get to deliver the Palestinian perspective. and many people suggested my guest today, who is Yousef Munayyer. Yousef is a Palestinian-American writer and political analyst based in Washington, D.C. He was the executive director of the US campaign for Palestinian rights, and previously he directed the Jerusalem...

Here is my final response to Chris Anderson and Adam Grant on the TED debacle.

Andrew Gold, who I had on this podcast earlier this year, asked me if I wanted to hop on with him and discuss the Israel-Hamas war and I said, sure. We talk all about the war in Israel and Gaza. As you'll hear, Andrew and I agree that there is simply no moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel. And as you'll hear, I'm also quite sympathetic to the policies that Israel has had to take in order to protect itself from terrorism. I plan to have many more conversations about this topic and I...

My guest today is Eric Kaufmann. Eric is a political scientist who's written several great books, including "Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?" and "Whiteshift". Eric was a professor at Birkbeck College, University of London for many years. I think he was actually the head of the department there, before he was pushed out for his political views. So we talk about that story at the top of this interview. We also talk about a whole bunch of other topics. We discuss the sociologist Daniel...

My guest today is Yascha Mounk. Yascha is a German born political scientist, author, and lecturer known for his research on the rise of populism and the challenges to liberal democracy. He has authored several influential books, including "Stranger in My Own Country", "The People vs. Democracy", and his new book, "The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time" A few episodes ago, I had Christopher Rufo on the podcast to discuss his analysis of why wokeness came to dominate so many...

The organization’s tagline is “ideas worth spreading.” But they attempted to suppress mine.

My guests today are Scott Adams and Noam Dworman. Scott Adams is an American writer, commentator, and cartoonist best known for creating the comic strip Dilbert. In addition to his cartooning work, Adams has authored several books and frequently comments on a range of topics from media bias to psychology to the mechanics of persuasion. Noam Dworman is the owner of the Comedy Cellar in New York and is a good personal friend of mine who has his own podcast called "Live From the Table", which is...

My guest today is Christopher Rufo. Christopher is a political activist and filmmaker known for his opposition to Critical Race Theory or CRT. He's a senior fellow and director of the Initiative on Critical Race Theory at the Manhattan Institute and he's the author of a new book called "America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything" In this episode, we talk about the German philosopher Herbert Marcuse and the role he played in popularizing critical theory. We talk...

My guest today is Jens Heycke. Jens is a researcher, writer, and competitive cyclist. He studied economics and Near East Studies at U. Chicago, the London School of Economics, and Princeton. His book is called "Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire: Multiculturalism in the World's Past and America's Future" In this episode, we talk about the origin of the term "melting pot", as well as the origin of the concept of multiculturalism. We talk about the goal of cultural assimilation. We talk...

My guest today is Garett Jones. Garett is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University. His interests include macroeconomics, the micro foundations of economic growth, IQ, the power of culture, and public choice economics. The books we focus on in this episode are "10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less" and "The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move To a Lot Like the Ones They Left" We talk about...

My guests today are Hyram and Verlan Lewis. Hyram and Verlan are brothers. Hyram is an associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, Idaho, and Verlan is a political scientist at Harvard Center for American Political Studies. Together, Hyram and Verlan have written a very interesting new book called "The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America" ​​​​​​​In this book, they challenge the widely held belief that the political left and right...

Today's episode is a recording of a debate that occurred a few weeks ago between me and Jamelle Bouie, who is a columnist for the New York Times. This debate was hosted by TED as well as Open to Debate, formerly known as Intelligence Squared. The motion was, "Does Colorblindness Perpetuate Racism?" Jamelle took the affirmative and I took the negative. Now there's a long backstory to this debate surrounding my recent TED Talk on color blindness and and I go into the details of this in the...