This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live What constitutes justifiable warfare—and how should the overall impact of conflicts be evaluated? With the United States being so closely associated with Israel’s war, is it possible to still envision America as a “force for good” in the world? One of America’s leading leftist intellectuals, Samuel Moyn, joins us to debate these questions and much more. Sam is the Chancellor Kent Professor of History at Yale...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Why do Americans struggle so much to understand Palestinians? A former advisor to the Palestinian leadership and a participant in the doomed 2008 Annapolis peace talks, Khaled Elgindy has written arguably the definitive account of America’s blind spot. In Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump, Khaled chronicles how time and time again the U.S. has failed to see the Palestinians as...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live After nearly a month of being consumed by the Israel-Hamas war, and take a step back to evaluate the prospects of an end to the violence, while still probing their own priors. Damir argues that “moral clarity” is often anything but clarifying, but concedes that “realism” can be self-defeating, because people can’t help but think in both emotional and moral terms during a conflict like this. Meanwhile, Shadi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live In a charged and often emotional conversation, and welcome Robert Nicholson, the president of the Philos Project, to discuss the pro-Israel perspective as the war in Gaza intensifies. Many Israeli voices have veered sharply to the right. However much we may disagree with these views, we have to understand them. Robert, a Christian and self-described Zionist, expresses empathy for the Israeli perception of an...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Two weeks after Hamas’s brutal attack on Israeli civilians, tensions have skyrocketed as Israel begins an offensive against Gaza from the air and the ground as the area home to over a half million Palestinians is plunged into darkness. What could have been done to avoid this renewed war and what are the best possible paths toward ending violence? This week, and invite on to discuss. Peter writes at his...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live After Hamas fighters massacred hundreds of Israeli civilians, Israel is now massed on Gaza’s borders ahead of an operation that will likely devastate the Palestinian population. This week, and sit down and unpack their complex thoughts and feelings about what is going on. What is the appropriate way to speak about atrocities after the fact? In the imm…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live What are the most valuable parts of our transient lives and how does our appraisal of them change as we age? This week, and take a step back from larger questions around current events to visit a recurring theme at Wisdom of Crowds around meaning. The episode centers around Damir’s recent Monday Note, “A Lost Sense of Wonder”, where he reflects on the pursuit of enchantment including in close relationships...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live As the leaders of the major political parties show stark signs of advanced age, their supporters are bending over backwards to defend their own while criticizing their opponents. Politics at its purest. This week, Shadi and Damir return from summer break to dive into the latest developments in D.C. as the next election looms. They discuss the self-interest and rank hypocrisy of the Republican Party conveyed in...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live This week, we’re pulling one of our favorite and most explosive episodes from the archive. This one, from May 2022, with socialist intellectual on the role of America on the world stage. We encourage all of you, especially our newest Substack subscribers, to have a listen and tell us what they think in the comments. And if you aren’t yet a subscriber, …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Capitalism is a revolutionary force. It is not conservative. So why have conservatives gone along with market fundamentalism for so long? Sohrab Ahmari, a convert to Catholicism, has been known as a culture warrior. This time he returns to the podcast to make a surprising argument. Ahmari, the founder and editor of Compact magazine, argues in his new book Tyranny, Inc., that it’s the economy, stupid. Private...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live We’re living in the most prosperous time in human history with more material abundance and comfort — and yet something just feels… off. This week, and take a trip to the heartland to find out what that something is. In this special live recording from the Lyceum Movement’s Tallgrass Ideas Festival in Iowa, Shadi and Sam join political theorist Susan Laehn to grapple with whether a sense of meaning precedes or...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live At a time of disruption in the workforce, rapidly shifting gender norms, a dearth of role models and declines in mental health, men are facing a distinct set of challenges that are prompting a renewed understanding of masculinity. For the last few years, viral right-of-center personalities have dominated the conversation offering men guidance that much of mainstream media has viewed as radioactive. But as the...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Are Muslim communities increasingly tilting to the right? After about two decades of being alienated by Republicans, American Muslims continue to align themselves with the Democratic Party. But as the country polarizes and the progressive agenda makes gains, writers like our guest find it increasingly untenable for Muslims to continue nodding along with the left’s conceptions of gender identity, sexuality, and...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Does the United States Supreme Court’s legitimacy hang in the balance — or is it itself the balance keeping the union centered? After handing down blockbuster decisions this term on gerrymandering, executive authority and affirmative action, the highest court in the land is facing fierce criticism from progressives in the media and in elected office. This week, we welcomed Washington Post columnist back on the...

Shadi, Christine, and Sam head to Aspen to record a live episode of the show. The crowd gets involved. The broad topic of the conversation was decline. We don’t always know how to express it, but many of us feel it: There’s something wrong with America today. The mood is tense. More Americans say they won’t have children because of climate change and other future catastrophes. But are things really as bad as they seem? Is decline something we need to accept—or is there a case for a new...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live There is the Europe of politics. There is the Europe of ideas. But there is also the Europe of actual people, who live, love, die, and dream. How they live and how they hope is shaped by mass migration, climate change, the war in Ukraine, and any number of other disruptions. Who are they and what do their lives actually look like? This week, British journalist Ben Judah talks to and about his outstanding new...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live How important are ideological labels and how might they change over the next generation? A lot is on the minds of and this week as the two go on a winding discussion about political identity and ideological shifts amid a tribalistic political culture. The guys discussed the rarity of prominent figures publicly changing their political identity and the friction among Americans in mixed ideology...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Why is therapy replacing God on dating apps? If bad things happen, were they “meant to be”? When we say that everything happens for a reason, what do we even mean? This week, Shadi and Damir are back on the podcast together with close friend and guest to discuss her stunning new essay, “Do Liberals Have a God Problem?” Recently, Rachel noted a striking contrast on dating apps: men who openly state their...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live As organized religion declines, particularly among younger Americans, a constellation of spiritual and sense-making phenomena appear to be taking its place. This week, and Editor-at-Large are joined by the author whose upcoming book Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians, chronicles how our sense of self has evolved over time alongside political, religious and societal...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Are big ideas still possible? Are there any “new” ideas left—and what makes an idea new in the first place? If we need new ideas to shake ourselves out of decadence, we should be careful what we wish for. Wokeness is one such “comprehensive framework.” Others might prove similarly frightening. This week, Shadi is joined by New York Times columnist and author of The Decadent Society and the political...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live This week, Damir stages an intervention for Shadi. Lately, Shadi’s become gradually detached from the world of current events and political media. Damir probes to understand why, therein unraveling an episode that goes off the beaten path to discuss progress, happiness and meaning at a time when everything feels existential. Shadi maintains that while he isn’t divorcing himself from the commentariat, he’s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Can a cohesive nation survive without a common identity or shared values? That question is at the heart of this week’s podcast with political theorist . Last week, David’s essay in Wisdom of Crowds rebutted the claim that the Israelites can be understood as a modern nation. Throughout history, various peoples, David argues, have coalesced around a shared sense of “peoplehood” without a claim to a nation. From...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Why is Trump such a formidable candidate, despite everything? How can someone who lies so readily be seen as authentic? With the Republican presidential campaign heating up, —co-host of “Know Your Enemy” and one of the most fascinating leftist writers around today—returns to the podcast to argue that Trump has something special that Ron DeSantis doesn’t have and likely never will. Pundits often argue that...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live An anti-natalist subculture has flourished for years online. These days, it feels like it’s taking hold in the real world. This week, writer and internet historian Katherine Dee and Editor-at-Large Christine Emba join Shadi and Damir to make sense of this underground phenomenon—and its broader implications for how we live today. Do people really believe that suffering makes life not worth experiencing? And what...

With the world feeling increasingly unstable, Damir and Shadi turn to foreign policy. Can the United States can back its bluster abroad, including in defense of Taiwan? All of this is happening as Donald Trump re-enters the national spotlight. The guys contrast the former president's manic approach to deterrence with the current and preceding administrations. Shadi is comforted the White House is staffed by vaguely smart and competent people, but thinks there may be something to Trump's...