Podcast appearances and mentions of Adrian Wooldridge

The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

Play Episode Listen Later May 8, 2026 49:56

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comAdrian is a journalist and an old friend. We arrived in America on the same plane in 1984 and spent the first few days together in the same hotel room. After more than 20 years writing for The Economist, he became the global business columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He's the author of several books, including The Aristocracy of Talent, and the co-author of many more with John Micklethwait, including The Right Nation. Adrian's new book is The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism. It's a terrific tonic for a philosophy as vital as it is in eclipse.For two clips of the episode — on how Enlightenment ideas got corrupted, and Big Tech's threat to liberalism — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: raised in rural Shropshire; his parents both teachers; his dissertation on the 11-plus (an exam that changed my life); when IQ tests were a liberal cause; Luther and the Reformation; the religious civil wars leading to the Enlightenment; Hobbes as a proto-liberal; the humanism of Erasmus; Montesquieu and the spirit of liberalism; John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism; Isaiah Berlin and pluralism; Graham Wallas and the Great Society; Lippmann; Leo Strauss; Thatcherism; consumerism vs. self-improvement; meritocracy threatened by the left; Foucault's folly; the EU and managerial liberalism; Brooks' bobos; affirmative action and DEI; why liberal democracy in Iraq didn't work; Oakeshott; Schmitt and friend-enemy; Trump's stark illiberalism and neo-royalism; King Charles; Putin ushering in a strongman era; Biden's open borders; the migration crisis and Brexit; the buffoonish Boris; the struggling Starmer; high culture and other upsides to elitism; Abundance; Deneen and post-liberalism; and Europe stepping up for Ukraine.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. We have some real stars coming up: Ben Rhodes on Iran and speech-writing, Harvey Mansfield on modernity, HW Brands on the life of George Washington, John Gray on Trump's new world, Bob Wright on the evolutionary force of AI, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Jerusalem Demsas on the state of the left, Daniel McCarthy on conservatism, Stephen Grosz on the struggles of love, and Robby George on pretty much everything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

america ai donald trump europe joe biden ukraine european union iran talent vladimir putin iraq abundance brexit genius dei economists iq enlightenment big tech boris reformation george washington luther king charles liberalism erasmus schmitt hobbes foucault john gray starmer shropshire john stuart mill montesquieu great society aristocracy ben rhodes bloomberg opinion deneen isaiah berlin thatcherism leo strauss lippmann daniel mccarthy tiffany jenkins adrian wooldridge bob wright jerusalem demsas john micklethwait oakeshott stephen grosz

Circling Liberalism's Wagons | Interview: Adrian Wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2026 68:19

It's Brit week here on The Remnant, and after starting off with a crowd-pleaser (Charlie Cooke), Jonah Goldberg decided to follow up with someone new. Adrian Wooldridge, global business columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, joins Jonah to talk about the meaning of liberalism, limiting principles, immigration, tolerance, individualism, non-Western liberalism, Big Tech, kids, public broadcasting, FDR, positive liberties, John Stuart Mill, and the transatlantic Aalliance. Show Notes:—Adrian Wooldridge: The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism—David Brooks: Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There—Daniel Burns in National Affairs: “Liberal Practice v. Liberal Theory”—Larry Siedentop: Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism—Jonah's last book: Suicide of the West—Hannah Arendt Remnant The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch's offerings—including access to all of Jonah's G-File newsletters—⁠click here⁠. If you'd like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

western suicide big tech franklin delano roosevelt remnant dispatch liberalism circling wagons john stuart mill bloomberg opinion jonah goldberg adrian wooldridge

How Politicians Broke Our World: Ian Shapiro on Raising Ourselves Up After the Fall

Play Episode Listen Later May 5, 2026 52:18

“The current crisis was far from inevitable. Politicians made consistently bad choices. In doing so, they fostered a crisis of confidence in political institutions, empowered anti-system candidates, and produced a new Cold War as dangerous as the last.” — Ian Shapiro The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 was a moment of extraordinary euphoria. Fukuyama even described it as the end of history. But what seems to have really fallen in November '89 was the vitality of democracy. Almost forty years later, we have Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and, perhaps most worrying of all, Keir Starmer. Callous and inept politicians are breaking our democratic world. Our job is to put it back together. That's the thesis of a new book by Ian Shapiro — Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale. In After the Fall, Shapiro argues that it's politicians who have created today's crisis of democracy. His pivotal moment is 2008 rather than 1989. The global financial crisis was the inflection point — the moment at which the corruption of the neoliberal order became self-evident, when elites bailed out the banks and we see the birth of left and right wing illiberal populism. The roots go back before 2008. Clinton's greatest failure, Shapiro argues, was not NAFTA or welfare reform. It was Russia. Yeltsin wanted to join NATO. Even Putin, in his early years in power, acknowledged that Russia considered itself European. George Kennan, Brent Scowcroft and Richard Nixon warned that expanding NATO eastward would create a new enemy. Clinton ignored them all. So history repeated itself in the form of Versailles rather than the Marshall Plan. So how to raise ourselves up after this fall? What road to take? Maps, Shapiro suggests, aren't always helpful. The New Deal had no GPS algorithm. FDR invented it on the fly. What democratic governments need now, he insists, is massive investment in physical, technological, and labor market infrastructure. Charismatic leaders matter. But the ideas matter more. We need politicians who take risks. Otherwise we'll be saddled with Keir Starmer and our current crisis of extraordinary dysphoria. Five Takeaways • 2008, Not 1989, Was the Inflection Point: The fall of the Wall in 1989 produced euphoria. The real break came nineteen years later. The 2008 financial crisis exposed the neoliberal model, undermined the supremacy of the US-led world system, and — crucially — left behind a large population that would subsequently be mobilizable by political entrepreneurs. Elites bailed out the banks and returned to business as usual. They didn't realize that business as usual was over. From 2008 you can draw a straight line to 2016, to Brexit, to Trump, to every anti-system surge that followed. • We Repeated the Mistake of Versailles: After World War II, the Marshall Plan invested in the defeated powers — Germany, Japan — and folded them into the new security and economic architecture. After World War I, Versailles punished Germany, and Keynes predicted the results. After the Cold War, the victorious West chose Versailles over Marshall. Yeltsin wanted to join NATO and the EU. Even early Putin said Russia considered itself European. Kennan, Scowcroft, Nixon all warned that expanding NATO eastward would create a new enemy. Clinton ignored them. We created the enemy we warned ourselves about. • Politicians Broke the World — Not Capitalism, Not Culture: Shapiro's subtitle is precise. The crisis of democracy was not caused by inevitable economic forces or cultural shifts. It was caused by specific bad decisions by specific politicians at specific moments of choice. Clinton on NATO expansion. Bush on the Iraq War and the refusal to build a genuine rules-based international order after 9/11. Obama on the financial crisis response. These were decisions, not fates. They could have been made differently. Which means the current situation is not irreversible — and that future decisions can be made better. • Starmer as Exhibit A: Having Power Without Ideas: Shapiro's prescription for what democratic governments need: a policy agenda. His cautionary tale: Keir Starmer. Starmer came into office with a massive parliamentary majority — he could have passed legislation that attracted 50 or 60 backbench no votes and still won. He had nothing to pass. Tiny step left, tiny step right, reverse, repeat. His comparison: Trump's main policies came out of Project 2025 — put together not by Trump himself but by people who created the ramp he ran on. Without a ramp, even a charismatic leader stumbles. Without ideas, power is squandered. • The New Deal Had No Blueprint: FDR Made It Up: The lesson for what comes next. The New Deal — the last great democratic reconstruction — was not designed in advance. Roosevelt made it up as he went along, trying things, abandoning what didn't work, building a coalition of extraordinarily unlikely bedfellows. What democratic governments need now, Shapiro argues, is massive infrastructure investment: physical infrastructure, tech infrastructure, labor market infrastructure. The CHIPS Act model. Incentivize business to retrain the workforce for the tech revolution and the green transition. Chancellor Merz in Germany has just borrowed half a trillion euros for this. Without it, there will be another Trump. And another. And another. About the Guest Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs at Yale University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of After the Fall: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy — How Politicians Broke Our World (Basic Books, May 5, 2026), Uncommon Sense, The Wolf at the Door (with Michael Graetz), and many other books. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut. References: • After the Fall: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy — How Politicians Broke Our World by Ian Shapiro (Basic Books, May 5, 2026). • Episode 2881: Adrian Wooldridge on The Revolutionary Center — the companion episode on the crisis of liberalism that Shapiro's book diagnoses. • Episode 2895: Glyn Morgan on The Rise and Fall of American Europe — the international dimension of Shapiro's argument about the post-Cold War missed opportunities. • Episode 2880: Gal Beckerman on How to Be a Dissident — on the tradition of resistance that Shapiro's “roads not taken” argument implicitly invokes. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than th...

Why the Future of Europe Is Wales: Glyn Morgan on the Rise and Fall of American Europe

Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2026 40:41

“Post-war Europe is essentially an American protectorate. Europeans don't like to admit that. They only came to realize just how dependent they were on the United States in 2025, when Trump basically leveraged US security and forced Europe into a very disadvantageous trade deal.” — Glyn Morgan Post Second World War Europe was always an American project. At least according to The Rise and Fall of American Europe by Glyn Morgan, the Director of the Moynihan Center of European Studies at Syracuse University and a proud Welshman. All that post-war civilizational jazz — the Marshall Plan, NATO, the EU — weren't really European achievements. Instead, they were American-designed ideas and institutions that proud Europeans boasted they had built themselves. For Morgan, post-war Europe was, in fact, little more than a US protectorate. Gaul colonized by Rome. Wales as a backwater of Great Britain. Europeans only discovered this unpalatable truth in 2025, when Trump leveraged their security dependence to force a ruinous trade deal. JD Vance made the official press announcement at the Munich Security Conference. Today's crisis of NATO is its obit. The original architects of American Europe were deeply Europeanized Americans — Bill Bullitt, who loved France; George Kennan, who spoke better German than most Germans; Ivy League Libs who cherished Europe as a café-rich sibling of New York City. That imaginary continent lasted eighty years. Morgan defines its MAGA replacement as “civilizational America.” It's a United States that sees itself as a distinct civilization with distinct interests, willing to transact with Russia and China and leave an increasingly marginalized Europe to fend for itself. Wales is the future of Europe, Morgan says. The Welsh lost the Darwinian struggle for world power very early — conquered, then absorbed and shrunken into a rainy museum for English romantics. Sheep, rugby and singing ex-miners. That's the fate of 21st century Europe. Bon Voyage. And don't forget your umbrella. Five Takeaways • American Europe Was a US Protectorate: The story Europeans like to tell is that they built post-war Europe themselves — the Marshall Plan, the Treaty of Paris, the Treaty of Rome, the EU. Morgan's counter: the construction of post-war Europe was theorized by Americans and pushed through by American pressure. Europeans resisted and begrudgingly went along. NATO provided the security. The EU organized the trade. Democratic nation states were the units. Enlargement was the engine. Europeans got comfortable inside this structure and convinced themselves they were in charge. Trump's arrival in 2025 revealed the truth they had been avoiding for eighty years. • The Architects: Bullitt, Kennan, and the Europeanized Americans: The Roosevelt Democrats who built American Europe were deeply European in origin and values. Bill Bullitt loved France. George Kennan spoke better German than most Germans. They were steeped in the idea that America and Europe were one civilization. They wanted to rescue Europe both from the Europeans themselves and from the Soviet threat they were among the first to identify clearly. Bullitt and Kennan broke with Roosevelt over the Soviets — Roosevelt thought a deal could be struck; they said no. A strong democratic Europe as a bulwark against Soviet communism was the founding logic of the whole enterprise. • Trump and Vance: The Return of Isolationism: American isolationism — powerful in the 1930s, defeated by Pearl Harbor, marginalized through the Cold War — has returned. It returned in JD Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2025, and in Trump's leveraging of European security dependence to force a disadvantageous trade deal. Morgan's framing: what has emerged is “civilizational America” — a United States that sees itself not as the guarantor of European democracy but as a distinct civilization with distinct interests, willing to transact with Russia and China and leave Europe to manage its own affairs. • Putin and Trump Are Playing the Same Playbook: Putin seeks a Europe of nation states — not the integrated EU — where he can deal transactionally, playing different European states against each other. Europeans were slow to realize that's what they were facing. Then they faced the same thing from Trump. The beneficiary of the collapse of American Europe, Morgan argues, is China: investing in Eastern Europe, doing trade deals across the continent, acquiring economic leverage while Russia and America compete for security dominance. A Chinese Europe in fifty years is not inconceivable. • No Solution: Look to Wales: Europe faces an impossible dilemma. Rebuild the military and lose the welfare state. Or preserve the welfare state and rely on security that may no longer be provided. De Gaulle's line: it is a fundamental error to think that to every problem there is a solution. At some moments there is no solution. We await a Bismarck; we have mediocre politicians who can only stop things from getting worse. The bleak future: a pleasant museum, highly dependent on American tech, visited by Chinese and American tourists. Morgan is from Wales. Wales lost the struggle for world power very early. He can see what's coming. About the Guest Glyn Morgan is Director of the Moynihan Center of European Studies at Syracuse University and the author of The Rise and Fall of American Europe (Polity, August 2026) and The Idea of a European Superstate. References: • The Rise and Fall of American Europe by Glyn Morgan (Polity, August 2026). • Episode 2875: Daniel Bessner on Cold War Liberalism — the companion episode on the Cold War liberal tradition that built American Europe. • Episode 2887: Steven J. Ross on The Secret War Against Hate — referenced in the interview; the American neo-Nazi tradition that ran alongside American Europe. • Episode 2881: Adrian Wooldridge on The Revolutionary Center — the crisis of liberalism that American Europe's collapse is accelerating. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual intervi...

Make Hungary (and America) Boring Again: Marc Loustau on Why Orbán Lost and How to Defeat Trump

Play Episode Listen Later May 3, 2026 43:20

“Orbán rigged the electoral system to highly benefit the winner. He thought he would never face the realistic possibility of losing. When someone actually threatened his plan, he just couldn't imagine it. And that person got more than 55% — a two-thirds-plus majority. Orbán shot himself in the foot.” — Marc Loustau On April 12, Viktor Orbán — the populist who invented the illiberal playbook — got booted out of office by the Hungarian electorate. His defeat, says Marc Loustau, Harvard PhD and fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University, represents a playbook for defeating illiberalism. Orbán had rigged the electoral system so dramatically — giving the winner 1.5 votes for every vote the loser got — that when Péter Magyar got more than 55 percent of the vote, Orbán's own system destroyed him. The gods must have their fun — Hungarian poetic justice. Orbán's cronies, Loustau reports, are fleeing to Dubai with their hot rod car collections and ill-gotten gains from sixteen years in power. But the mid- and upper-tier bureaucrats, Loustau warns, are still in office. Not having any other skills, they're going to be difficult to dislodge. Making Hungary a functional democracy again won't happen overnight. The goal of Péter Magyar's government, Loustau says, is to “make Hungary boring again.” That should be the lesson for the anti-Trumpists in his native America, Loustau says. Build the broadest possible coalition, never kick anyone out of it, and refuse to be drawn onto the deadly culture-war terrain. When Orbán banned the Budapest Pride parade to force Péter Magyar to take a stand on LGBTQ issues, Magyar flew to a Greek island. It was, Loustau says, the smartest move of the campaign. Make America boring again. The anti-Hollywood playbook for defeating illiberalism. Are you watching Gavin & Kamala? Five Takeaways • Poetic Justice: Orbán's System Destroyed Him: Orbán rigged Hungary's electoral system to massively benefit the winner: if you get more than 55 percent of the vote, you get roughly 70 percent of parliamentary seats, and effectively 1.5 votes for every vote your opponent receives. He did this because he never imagined anyone could get above 50 percent against him. When Péter Magyar did — comfortably — Orbán's own system gave Magyar a supermajority. Loustau's verdict: it is rare that there is genuine poetic justice in life. This is one of those moments. • The Cronies Are Heading for Dubai: Sixteen years of a two-thirds majority in parliament allowed Orbán to pack every institution in Hungary with loyalists — friends, family, friends of friends — from top to bottom. In the end, this became part of his undoing: when you bleed out talent and fill institutions with cronies, you end up with an inept government. The most visible Orbán figures are now heading to Dubai with their hot rod car collections. But the mid-level “authoritarian cadre circles” burrowed into every institution will be much harder to remove. It will take years to restore functional public services. • Make Hungary Boring Again: The incoming government's agenda, in Loustau's formulation, is to make Hungary boring again. No more brinkmanship between Russia, Brussels, and Washington. No more geopolitical risk-taking. Hungary belongs in the EU, and if the EU likes anything, it is stultifying bureaucracy. That, paradoxically, may be the best thing for ordinary Hungarians. It does not signal the end of the far-right threat globally. So long as Putin is alive, Loustau argues, we must remain vigilant. • Magyar Goes to Greece: The Culture War Lesson: One of Orbán's favourite tactics was to force opposition politicians to take a stand on LGBTQ issues. He banned the Budapest Pride parade specifically to create a trap for Magyar — either come out against the ban and look soft on “family values,” or attend the parade and look radical. Magyar's response: he went on holiday to Greece. He wasn't even in the country. Loustau calls it one of the slyest moves of the campaign. The lesson for Trump's opponents: never engage on the terrain your opponent has chosen. • Can Disaffected Trumpians Defeat Trumpism? Magyar came from within Orbán's government and broke with him at a moment of genuine moral crisis — a scandal involving pardons for those who covered up sexual abuse at state-run orphanages. That moral authority gave him a platform. Loustau's honest assessment: disaffected Trumpians who had any dealings with Trump are radioactive, perhaps permanently. But the broader lesson holds: when government inaction harms the innocent and powerless, someone who stands up and says “enough is enough” can build a majority. Magyar didn't win on policy. He won on decency. About the Guest Marc Loustau is a Harvard PhD, Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University in Budapest, and author of the At the Edges Substack. He writes on Central and Eastern European politics, religion, and society. References: • At the Edges by Marc Loustau — his Substack on Central and Eastern European politics. • Episode 2880: Gal Beckerman on How to Be a Dissident — the companion episode on the theory of resistance that Magyar's campaign enacted. • Episode 2881: Adrian Wooldridge on The Revolutionary Center — on the crisis of liberalism that Orbán exploited and Magyar may have reversed. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters: (00:31) - How significant was the Hungarian election in historical terms? (01:30) - Orbán's authoritarianism: model for the world, now defeated (02:56) - Was the left paranoid? How did Orbán actually lose? (03:50) - Poetic justice: Orbán rigged the system and it destroyed him (05:46) - Corruption uncovered: the regime unraveling (06:38) - Sixteen years of cronyism: what remains? (07:51) - Authoritarian cadre circles: how long to dislodge them? (08:24) - The cronies heading for Dubai with their hot rod collections (10:38) - Romania, Ceauşescu, and celebrat...

Tom Junod On Masculinity And His Dad

Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2026 59:26

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comTom is a journalist and author. A former staff writer at GQ and Esquire, the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was based on his Esquire article on Fred Rogers. He's currently a senior writer at ESPN, and his new memoir is called In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man. It was an intense conversation — about dads, sex, Catholicism, and growing older.For two clips of the episode — on being your dad's wingman as a kid, and the dark secrets that Catholic families often carry — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: his dad's serious injury at Normandy; emulating leading men in Hollywood; selling women's handbags; his extreme vanity and obsession with scents; “the first metrosexual”; women flocking to him; making Tom complicit in his countless affairs; how men benefitted from the early Sexual Revolution more than women; Vatican II; Tom's close relationship with his Catholic mom; Tom fearing his dad; the friends who worshipped him like a celebrity; hiding his Brooklyn accent; hiding extreme porn and dildos in his briefcase that Tom found; sadomasochism and bondage; dad's sleeping with both Zsa Zsa and Ava Gabor; a mystery mistress who spoke at his dad's funeral; Tom's grandmother who was a notorious adulteress in the press who pimped out Tom's dad and his aunt; and the challenge of writing my own memoir.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. We have some real stars coming up: Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” Jerusalem Demsas on the state of the left, Ben Rhodes on Iran and speech-writing, Harvey Mansfield on modernity, Daniel McCarthy on conservatism, HW Brands on the life of George Washington, John Gray on Trump's new world, Bob Wright on the evolutionary force of AI, Stephen Grosz on the struggles of love, and Robby George on pretty much everything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

ai donald trump hollywood man iran espn catholic masculinity neighborhood catholicism george washington gq esquire normandy beautiful day john gray fred rogers sexual revolution vatican ii ben rhodes daniel mccarthy tiffany jenkins adrian wooldridge tom junod bob wright jerusalem demsas stephen grosz

How Liberalism Lost Its Edge And How It Can Find It Again

Feudal Future

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 27, 2026 44:55 Transcription Available

Liberalism didn't start as a comfortable status quo. It started as a revolt against feudal hierarchy and rigid orthodoxy, and it stayed alive by reinventing itself when capitalism and concentrated power threatened to rot the system from the inside. That's the premise behind our conversation with Adrian Wooldridge, author of The Revolutionary Center, The Lost Genius of Liberalism, and it's the thread that ties together everything we wrestle with here. We trace how earlier liberals confronted the robber barons, rebuilt ladders of opportunity, and used trust busting and institutional reform to keep liberal democracy resilient. Then we ask the uncomfortable modern question: what happens when liberalism becomes the establishment, dominating universities, media, and elite culture? Adrian lays out three paths people drift toward when that happens: the far left, the nationalist right, or a reinvention from the center that keeps freedom of thought and divided power while taking concentrated power seriously again. From there, we go straight at the biggest modern accelerator of oligarchy: Big Tech. We talk about monopoly power, the attention economy, disinformation, and why addiction-based social media can undermine the rational, self-controlled individual that liberal society depends on. We debate free speech and the dangers of repression disguised as “safety,” then get concrete about policy: antitrust enforcement, Section 230, and how AI could either deepen surveillance and control or empower workers and entrepreneurship. We also zoom out to geopolitics, Trump-era uncertainty, Russia and China, and rising European extremism, because a world without reliable liberal leadership makes domestic renewal even more urgent. If you care about liberalism, populism, antitrust, tech regulation, free speech, AI, and the future of liberal democracy, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this conversation with a friend, and leave a review with the strongest argument you heard, what did we miss?Support Our WorkThe Center for Demographics and Policy focuses on research and analysis of global, national, and regional demographic trends and explores policies that might produce favorable demographic results over time. It involves Chapman students in demographic research under the supervision of the Center's senior staff.Students work with the Center's director and engage in research that will serve them well as they look to develop their careers in business, the social sciences, and the arts. Students also have access to our advisory board, which includes distinguished Chapman faculty and major demographic scholars from across the country and the world.For additional information, please contact Mahnaz Asghari, Associate Director for the Center for Demographics and Policy, at (714) 744-7635 or asghari@chapman.edu.Follow us on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-feudal-future-podcast/Tweet thoughts: @joelkotkin, @mtoplansky, #FeudalFuture #BeyondFeudalismLearn more about Joel's book 'The Coming of Neo-Feudalism': https://amzn.to/3a1VV87Sign Up For News & Alerts: http://joelkotkin.com/#subscribeThis show is presented by the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, which focuses on research and analysis of global, national and regional demographic trends and explores policies that might produce favorable demographic results over time.

ai donald trump china russia european addiction students policy big tech associate director chapman demographics liberalism alerts adrian wooldridge neo feudalism lost its edge

Greg Lukianoff On Free Speech Fights

lost british labour liberals liberalism green party tories liberal democrats reform uk adrian wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2026 37:51

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comGreg is a lawyer, journalist, and author. He's the president of FIRE — the best free-speech group out there. His books include The Coddling of the American Mind (written with Jonathan Haidt), The Canceling of the American Mind (written with Rikki Schlott), and War On Words (written with Nadine Strossen). You can find him on Substack at The Eternally Radical Idea.For two clips of our convo — on whether Biden or Trump has been worse on free speech, and how to decrease wokeness on campus — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: his Russian dad's 100th birthday the day we taped; how he fled the Soviets as an orphan and came to America speaking 7 languages; his British mom coming over as a nanny; growing up among immigrants in Danbury as both a football player and nerd; studying 1st Amendment law at Stanford; the wane of gifted-and-talented programs (which Greg once taught); the declining support for free speech; family breakdown and protecting kids from bad speech; the perils of social media; race wars on X; censorship against porn and age-restriction laws; where Greg disagrees with Jon Haidt; free speech as a form of bullying; Nick Fuentes; how banning people from X increases groupthink; Jon Rauch; sex changes for kids; gay promiscuity; Covid censorship; AI worries; the killing of Charlie Kirk; the infamous Larry Bushart case; the Ozturk case; Rubio's anti-speech crusade against immigrants; Israel and BDS; antisemitism on campus; heckling vs shout-downs; viewpoint diversity; the FCC and Carr; jawboning and merger threats; the Ellisons; Trump threatening law firms; “hate” crimes; mass arrests in UK over speech; the Varsity Blues cheating scandal; and South Park.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Tom Junod on his dad and masculinity, Jerusalem Demsas on the state of the left, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” HW Brands on the life of George Washington, Ben Rhodes on Iran, Harvey Mansfield on modernity, John Gray on Trump's new world, and Robby George on everything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

covid-19 america ai donald trump israel uk british fire joe biden russian iran stanford fights substack free speech amendment carr charlie kirk george washington south park fcc rubio canceling soviets jonathan haidt john gray american mind bds nick fuentes varsity blues coddling danbury greg lukianoff ben rhodes nadine strossen tiffany jenkins adrian wooldridge tom junod rikki schlott ozturk jerusalem demsas jon haidt

How liberals lost the fight

The News Agents

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2026 59:18

In a world of increasing extremes, Liberalism itself has come to be an insult. From 'metropolitan liberal elites' to 'bleeding heart liberals' the liberal establishment seems bewildered and fresh out of devoid of new ideas in the face of populist extremes. Labour, Tories, Liberal Democrats – all now struggling to hold their own against Reform UK and The Green Party, both of which have taken populism from opposite ends of the spectrum to the heart of British politics.This week, Lewis is joined by Adrian Wooldridge to discuss the complexities of the liberal argument in a fractured world, and what a renewed liberalism might look like.The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

The Revolutionary Center: Adrian Wooldridge on the Lost Genius of Liberalism

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2026 50:46

“Liberalism was founded in the middle of the eighteenth century as a revolutionary philosophy — a philosophy that tried to subvert the old world. That set of beliefs has continued to be radical and revolutionary. When liberalism fell into decadence, it examined itself, subverted itself, and became once again a revolutionary faith.” — Adrian Wooldridge We've lost our revolutionary center. At least according to Adrian Wooldridge, the distinguished British political writer. That revolution, Wooldridge insists, is the genius of liberalism — the radical eighteenth-century ideology that shaped the modern world. Today, however, he argues in The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism, “liberalism” has become conservative, perhaps even reactionary, in its senescent infatuation with cultural identity. Meanwhile, the biggest threat to liberal individualism is big tech: fragmenting attention, spreading misinformation, manipulating choices through algorithms designed to excite emotion rather than inform reason. Rather than making us geniuses, Silicon Valley is turning all of us into idiots. To the ramparts then, Wooldridge pronounces. Liberals need to seize back the revolutionary center. Or, as Wooldridge, a Fellow of All Souls, would spell it, centre. Five Takeaways • Erasmus and the Liberal Way of Life: Liberalism begins not as an ideology but as a way of living. Erasmus, charting a middle path between the Reformation and the counter-Reformation, offers the founding insight: a good life involves reading books, drinking wine, having discussions, and not bullying people to adopt your faith. What liberalism adds to this is intellectual skepticism — the recognition that you can't be absolutely certain of your beliefs, and therefore that power must be constrained by constitutions. When liberalism became purely associated with political philosophy, Wooldridge argues, it lost this sense of liberalism as a way of life — and that loss is part of what needs to be recovered. • Bobo Orthodoxy and Its Wounds: The liberalism of the last forty years has been Bobo liberalism — bohemian bourgeois, David Brooks' term. Maximum individual freedom in both the marketplace and personal conduct; no judgementalism on lifestyle choices; celebration of diversity and immigration as ipso facto goods. It did a great deal of good. Gay marriage. The dismantling of corporatist economics. But it also created problems it couldn't see, because its own philosophy prevented it from acknowledging them. In Britain: the Bobo establishment's inability to confront the grooming gangs, because its multiculturalist assumptions made it terrified of accusations of racism. In America: tent cities, drug addiction, the social costs of choices that nobody felt entitled to criticize. • Big Tech Is a Bigger Threat Than Putin: Wooldridge's most provocative claim: the biggest threat to liberalism is not Putin or Xi but the tech oligarchy. Putin is a dictator; that system will eventually collapse. But big tech is dismantling liberal individualism from within. Liberalism's foundational premise is that individuals, as the building blocks of society, must be well-informed, capable of self-control, and able to act as rational agents. What information capitalism is deliberately engineering — through algorithms designed to excite emotion, fragment attention, and spread misinformation — is the destruction of all three of those conditions. These companies need to be broken up. Not on socialist grounds. On liberal ones. • Liberalism as Senescence: Biden and Harris: Exhibit A for the Bobo orthodoxy's exhaustion: the 2024 election. Biden, visibly too old to lead, unable to string sentences together; a whole liberal establishment around him, imprisoned by its own assumptions, running a candidate nobody could defend. Then Harris — chosen, in Wooldridge's blunt phrase, as an affirmative action candidate. The old liberal establishment — Pelosi and the rest — had been in power since the 1990s, had accrued all the defects of the establishment, and had no blueprint to address the real problems people were encountering. The last time British liberalism looked this dead was the 1890s. Then a new programme and new talent arrived: Churchill, Lloyd George, Asquith. • The Revolutionary Center: Save Capitalism from Itself: Wooldridge's prescription is not to destroy capitalism but to reform it, as Teddy Roosevelt and Louis Brandeis did. Break up vast conglomerations of economic power. Tax inherited wealth. Recreate the conditions for a mass middle class. Brandeis's argument: if people can buy votes, you can't have democracy. If people have vast fortunes, you can't have democracy. You need to save capitalism in order to make it the best version of itself. Mill understood this too: once he saw that factory owners and workers had structurally different choices, he began supporting trade unions and moved left on economics. A radical center is not a soft center. It is a center that is willing to blow up the orthodoxies that have calcified within liberalism itself. About the Guest Adrian Wooldridge is the global business columnist at Bloomberg Opinion and former political editor and Bagehot, Schumpeter, and Lexington columnist at The Economist. He is the author of The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism (Pegasus Books, 2026), The Aristocracy of Talent, and Capitalism in America (with Alan Greenspan). He holds a DPhil from All Souls College, Oxford, and lives in London. References: • The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism by Adrian Wooldridge (Pegasus Books, 2026). • Episode 2880: Gal Beckerman on How to Be a Dissident — the companion conversation on liberalism, dissidence, and the question of the revolutionary center. • Episode 2869: Jacob Mchangama on The Future of Free Speech — the free speech crisis that contextualises Wooldridge's argument about liberalism's lost genius. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTube

Why Are Young People Abandoning the Political Centre? (Your Radical Questions with Adrian Wooldridge)

The Today Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2026 27:15

Amol puts your Radical questions to Adrian Wooldridge, a Bloomberg columnist and author of ‘Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism'. They discuss individualism and society, a decline in support for the centre ground, the potential dangers of nostalgia, and how the political centre could engage young people. GET IN TOUCH  * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480  * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk  Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday.  Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC's media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.  Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davies. Technical production was by Jonny Baker. The editor is Sam Bonham.

digital bbc political independent radical bloomberg technical young people bbc radio liberalism abandoning bbc one centrists amol university challenge adrian wooldridge amol rajan jonny baker sam bonham

Jeffrey Toobin On The Pardon Power

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2026 27:03

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comJeff is a lawyer and a contributing opinion writer for the NYT, after a long run at The New Yorker and CNN. He has written many bestselling books, including True Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Oath, The Nine, and Too Close to Call. He appeared on the Dishcast in 2024 to talk lawfare, and in this episode we discuss his latest book, The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy.We recorded this episode a while back, and we're posting it this week after Trump promised mass pardons for White House staffers before he leaves office. For two clips of our convo — on Biden's corrupt pardons, and Trump's obscene pardons — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: how pardons can be a beautiful act of mercy; the varying powers among the states; Lincoln's amnesty for Confederate soldiers but not leaders; Andrew Johnson's pardon for Jefferson Davis; Johnson's impeachment; the thousand pardons of Rutherford B Hayes; Ford pardoning Nixon; Jimmy Carter pardoning resisters to the Vietnam War; the Willie Horton furlough and ad; HW's pardons for Iran-Contra; Clinton pardoning his own brother and Marc Rich; Dubya's refusal to pardon Scooter Libby against Cheney's wishes; Dubya advising Obama to have a set protocol; Trump pardoning crooks like Charles Kushner and Paul Manafort who could have testified against him; the blanket pardon of January 6ers; Kim Kardashian's role in Trump's pardons; the ICE killings in Minneapolis; and the need for presidents with some basic virtue.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Greg Lukianoff on free-speech fights, Jerusalem Demsas on the state of the left, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” HW Brands on the life of George Washington, Ben Rhodes on foreign policy, and Tom Junod on his dad and masculinity. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

donald trump joe biden barack obama white house cnn ice minneapolis new yorker true crime clinton kim kardashian nyt vietnam war george washington confederate jimmy carter oath cheney paul manafort andrew johnson jeffrey toobin misdemeanors hw iran contra greg lukianoff jefferson davis ben rhodes too close rutherford b hayes dubya tiffany jenkins adrian wooldridge tom junod pardon power willie horton jerusalem demsas scooter libby marc rich

Reclaiming the Centre: Is the Old Political Order Dead? (Adrian Wooldridge)

The Today Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2026 61:40

This week, the columnist and author Adrian Wooldridge joins Amol to argue that liberalism is not only the best ideology for the future, but that it's also under serious threat. Wooldridge sees populist movements on the right and identity-focused politics on the left as potentially fatal to liberal principles. The once dominant post-war philosophy has had a bad rap recently, so why should we bring it back? Has liberalism itself grown complacent? Is it now an out-of-touch establishment, failing to address modern challenges like social cohesion and corporate power? To survive, Wooldridge says, we must take radical steps to renew liberalism for the modern age and embrace the political centre again. GET IN TOUCH    * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480  * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk    Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday. Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC's media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.  Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davies. Technical production was by Jonny Baker. The editor is Sam Bonham.

digital bbc independent radical reclaiming technical bbc radio bbc one wooldridge amol university challenge political order adrian wooldridge amol rajan jonny baker sam bonham

Derek Thompson On Meaning In Our Web World

CapX presents Free Exchange

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 10, 2026 36:35

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comDerek Thompson is a long-time writer at The Atlantic. His books include Hit Makers, On Work, and Abundance, which he co-wrote with Ezra Klein. Derek also has an excellent substack and hosts a podcast called “Plain English.”This episode was recorded on March 17. For two clips — on the impact of Abundance, and the difference between being alone and anti-social — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: growing up near DC; theater his first love; the two of us trading stories of stage acting; pursuing journalism after 9/11; how writing has evolved in the 21st century; conspiracy theories online; AI creating doubt; strategizing the Abundance book; Virtually Normal; books as totems; blue vs red city governance; housing deregulation; “procedural fetish” vs Trumpian chaos; government spurring innovation; Derek's piece “The Anti-Social Century”; OnlyFans; looking at smartphones in a gay bar; Kierkegaard; Camus; tradition as a ballast; meaning through limits; fatherhood; Hegseth reveling in dominance; Nietzsche; the tribalism of early humans; wokeness and the Trump cult; liquid modernity; consumerism replacing meaning; the fertility crisis; the growing dominance of Orthodox Jews in Israel; and Oakeshott and infinite games of non-winning.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” HW Brands on the life of George Washington; Greg Lukianoff on free speech, and Tom Junod on his memoir and masculinity. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Adrian Wooldridge: How centrists fight back

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 8, 2026 48:53

Liberalism is under its greatest threat since the 1930s. The question is whether its defenders have the nerve to admit why – and the ideas to fight back.Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg columnist and author of "Centrists of the World Unite!", joins CapX editor Marc Sidwell for an unsentimental diagnosis of liberalism's crisis — and an unexpectedly combative case for its recovery. The liberal tradition that defeated totalitarianism and built the modern world is not, he argues, exhausted. It has been betrayed: hollowed out by a self-satisfied establishment on one side and captured by identitarian collectivism on the other, while the intellectual energy of the age flows freely to the post-liberal right.But the book's argument is ultimately one of recovery. Liberalism has reinvented itself before — in the 1890s, a dying Gladstonian creed gave way to a new liberalism that produced Keynes, Beveridge and a generation that rebuilt the post-war world. The genius is latent. The question, as Wooldridge puts it, is whether today's liberals can sound something other than a faltering trumpet.Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

acast bloomberg westminster fight back liberalism keynes centrists beveridge wooldridge world unite adrian wooldridge capx

Downstream: Is Liberalism Finally Waking Up to the Crises it has Caused? w/ Adrian Wooldridge

Novara Media

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2026 87:35

Liberalism, in one form or another, has been the pervading political ideology of the past 200 years. It has become so pervasive, as an ideology, that it lays claim to the middle ground and common sense itself. But liberalism is a set of dogmas and doctrines like any other political ideology, and unfathomable horrors as […]

politics capitalism communism crises waking up liberalism resonance downstream novara adrian wooldridge

Centrists of the world unite!

The Lowdown from Nick Cohen

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2026 43:57

Centrists of the World, Unite! The world needs the path of Liberalism out of today's madnessNick Cohen and Adrian Wooldridge discuss Adrian's book "Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism." They discuss how liberal institutions and ideologies have become corrupted across multiple domains - from "Woke" identitarianism on the left to neoliberal capitalism and global managerialism. Adrian identifies three main liberal overreaches: left liberals pushing extreme social policies, neoliberals promoting unfettered markets, and globalists supporting unmanaged immigration and multinational institutions.They discuss how these failures created conditions for authoritarian populism, with examples like Trump and Brexit, though Adrian argues these represent bad solutions to real problems rather than legitimate alternatives. They also talk about how tech companies pose a civilisational threat to liberal values by manipulating preferences and fracturing attention, and concluded with optimism about liberalism's historical pattern of revival after apparent deaths, suggesting current incremental adjustments by politicians like Sir Keir Starmer could lead to a new liberal renaissance.Read all about it!Adrian Wooldridge @adwooldridge is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and an author. His book Centrists of the world, unite! The lost genius of liberalism" has just been published. Adrian's book lays out a centrist agenda for today's problems. It reminds us of the dynamism and fixed principles that have shaped the successes of liberalism and warns us against splitting into sub-groups that fail to grapple with the common good.Nick Cohen's @NickCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

world donald trump uk writing brexit acast substack woke unite liberalism centrists sir keir starmer bloomberg opinion world unite adrian wooldridge nick cohen

Tom Holland On Our Christian World

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2026 40:01

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comTom is a historian, translator, and podcaster. He hosts with Dominic Sandbrook the most downloaded history pod in the world, “The Rest Is History.” He's the author of many books, including the two we discussed this week: Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic, and Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. Those two erudite, beautifully written books made a huge impact on me.For two clips of our convo — on the paradoxical power of Christ's crucifixion, and the Christian roots of “secular” — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: growing up in Oxford and near Stonehenge; dinosaurs his first passion; how the past is more interesting than the present; Pontius Pilate; Cato; Caesar in Gaul and conquering Rome; Hegseth reveling in death; the war prayer at the Resolute Desk; Trump's pre-Christian values; Socrates; Paul the Apostle; turning the other cheek; agape; Christ's silence and withdrawal; logos; the Gospels; the Gnostic Gospels; the Book of Revelation; Exodus and Israel; martyred Christians in the arena; Augustine; the emergence of Islam; the Koran as the literal word of Allah; the Crusades; Pope Gregory VII making the Church sovereign; Machiavelli and mastering the secular; the Reformation; toppling idols; Nietzsche and the death of God; Marx; the Sexual Revolution; #MeToo; Dawkins and the New Atheists; the religion of wokeness; racism as a collective sin; Michael Pollan and “All You Need Is Love”; Fleming Rutledge's The Crucifixion; the awe of cathedrals; and the new wave of cultural Christianity.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Derek Thompson on abundance, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” Greg Lukianoff on free speech, and Tom Junod on his memoir and masculinity. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

At the Heart of the American Center: Corey Nathan on How to Talk Politics and Religion Without Killing Each other

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2026 37:04

“We can survive. Can we thrive? That's a different question.” — Corey NathanRobert Mueller died last week. Educated at Princeton, this Vietnam veteran won a Purple Heart and then enjoyed decades of public service under presidents of both parties. But the current president celebrated Mueller's death. Such are the vagaries of American history.In contrast, Corey Nathan — host of the Talking Politics and Religion Without Killing Each Other podcast — isn't celebrating Robert Mueller's death. Nathan is from suburban northern Los Angeles County, very much at the heart of the (mythical?) American center. We discussed whether it's possible to have a civic conversation anymore. Like so many Americans, Nathan falls back on what he calls “data.” Apparently 85% of Americans are what a recent study calls the “exhausted majority.” They see themselves as anything but extreme. All they want to do is take the kids to soccer practice, enjoy their barbecue, and talk to the neighbour without the conversation degenerating into verbal war.Nathan's own story offers hope. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family whose roots go back eight hundred years to what is now Chernihiv in Ukraine. In his late twenties, he became a born-again Christian. His father seriously considered sitting Shiva for him — the mourning ritual for a dead family member. But he valued his relationship with his son more than his theological convictions. Twenty-five years later, the conversations are richer than ever. If an Orthodox Jewish father and his born-again Christian son can keep talking, maybe even the current American President could sit Shiva for Robert Mueller. Five Takeaways• 85% of Americans Are the Exhausted Majority: The Hidden Tribes study by More in Common found that only 6–7% on the right and 7–8% on the left are what we'd think of as extremes. The rest — 85% — are far more nuanced in their views. They want to go to the barbecue, take the kids to soccer practice, and have a conversation with the neighbour without it turning into a war. The conflict entrepreneurs on both sides have taken all the oxygen.• Mueller Was Everything We Say We Want in Our Kids: Purple Heart. Ivy League education. Used his degrees for public service instead of money. Served under presidents of both parties. Stayed on at the FBI after 9/11 when the country needed him. And the current president said he was glad he died.• ICE Came to the Neighbouring Church: Nathan's pastor had to have the conversation: if ICE comes, they're welcome to worship — but here are our legal obligations. A suburban mom was shot in her front seat two months ago. Is anything visibly wrong in the American suburbs? Today, at his house, no. But these things are happening all over the country.• His Father Almost Sat Shiva for Him: Nathan grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family. In his late twenties, he became a born-again Christian. His father seriously considered performing the mourning ritual for a living son. But he valued the relationship with his child more than his theological convictions. Twenty-five years later, the conversations are richer than ever.• We Can Survive. Can We Thrive? Nathan's family lived in what is now Chernihiv, Ukraine, for eight hundred years. One day to the next, nothing changed — until the Cossacks burned the houses and the Bolsheviks came. Democracy isn't perfect, but it's the system that lets us thrive, not just survive. About the GuestCorey Nathan is the host and producer of Talking Politics and Religion Without Killing Each Other, a top 1% podcast. He lives in northern Los Angeles County.References:• Talking Politics and Religion Without Killing Each Other — Nathan's podcast.• Episode 2849: How Stories Can Save Us — Colum McCann on Narrative Four, referenced in the conversation.• Episode 2846: How to Be Agreeably Disagreeable — Julia Minson on disagreeing better. Nathan is the practitioner to Minson's science.About Keen On AmericaNobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters:(00:31) - Introduction: Robert Mueller dies, Trump says he's glad (03:25) - Mueller as American tragedy: David Frum and the centrist view (05:48) - The exhausted majority: Hidden Tribes and the 85% (08:40) - Is the left as bad as the right? (10:15) - Braver Angels, shell-shock, and the people who just want a barbecue (13:53) - If a foreigner landed in your suburb, would they notice anything wrong? (15:33) - ICE at the neighbouring church. A mom shot in her front seat. (17:43) - The secret sauce of talking without killing (20:26) - Colum McCann, Narrative Four, and storytelling as civic repair (22:04) - Does democracy really matter if you've got soccer practice? (24:04) - Surviving vs. thriving: eight hundred years as strangers in a strange land (25:19) - The First Amendment's two halves: freedom of and freedom from (28:55) - An Orthodox Jew becomes a born-again Christian. His father almost sits Shiva. (32:04) - The revolutionary centre: Adrian Wooldridge and the lost genius of liberalism

Jonah Goldberg On Conservatism, Blogging, Dogs

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2026 39:11

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comJonah is a journalist, author, and podcaster. He spent two decades at National Review before joining The Dispatch, where he writes the G-File and hosts the Remnant podcast. He's also a columnist for the LA Times, a commentator for CNN, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He's the author of Liberal Fascism, The Tyranny of Clichés, and Suicide of the West.For two clips of our convo — on how Oakeshott is needed more than ever, and how dogs make us more human — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: growing up on the UWS; his legendary mom and her role in the Lewinsky saga; his dad who discovered Dilbert; joining the first co-ed class at Goucher; Clinton's poor character; the Drudge Report; the Starr report; Mike Kinsley starting Slate; launching the G-File as one of the first blogs; the heterogeneity of The Corner; Mickey Kaus; Breitbart; the power of the hyperlink; Twitter killing the blogosphere; why democratizing the parties was a big mistake; the Iraq War; Liberal Fascism and the administrative state; FDR; Vought and DOGE and performative vandalism; the Biden and Boris betrayals on immigration; oikophobia; the Israel lobby and the gay lobby; Netanyahu's f**k-yous to Obama; the war for oil in Venezuela; Hegseth's “no quarter”; Trump's response to Mueller's death; weaponizing the DOJ; how the Trump and Obama cults differed; Saul Alinsky; David French and free speech; the debt crisis; the religious right; Bill Bennett's hypocrisy; and how Trump talks about dogs.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Derek Thompson on abundance, Tom Holland on the Christian roots of liberalism, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” Greg Lukianoff on free speech, and Tom Junod on his memoir and masculinity. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

The need for muscular liberalism

Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2026 49:45

Adrian Wooldridge speaks to EI's Paul Lay about his new book, Centrists of the World Unite! The Lost Genius of Liberalism. He believes that the West can only overcome its current malaise by rediscovering and reviving the liberal tradition.Image: Engraving of the frontispiece from Thomas Hobbes's ‘Leviathan' (1651). Credit: Alamy

west ei leviathan liberalism muscular centrists thomas hobbes world unite adrian wooldridge paul lay

Matt Goodwin On The Earthquake In UK Politics

OH GOD, WHAT NOW? Formerly Remainiacs

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 20, 2026 50:21

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comMatt is an author, pollster, campaigner, and policy advisor. He recently ran for Parliament as a Reform candidate and came in second. He's also a presenter at GB News and a writer on Substack. He's the author of many books, including National Populism and Values, Voice and Virtue, and his new book is Suicide of a Nation: Immigration, Islam, Identity.For two clips of our convo — on the flood of non-white migrants to the UK, and how accusations of racism shape the migration debate — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: born in Hertfordshire to working-class parents who divorced young and worked for the NHS; addiction in the family; his terrible time at an all-boys school; the first in his family to go to college; Burke and Oakeshott; a semester abroad in downtown Detroit; the losers of globalization; being a conservative in academia; thehounding of Kathleen Stock; Douglas Murray; Charles Murray; the falling popularity of liberal democracy; David Cameron; the migration crisis; Brexit; the Red Wall swinging to the right; Nigel Farage and Euroskepticism; plunging fertility rates; Roger Scruton; Lasch and Burnham; the betrayal of Boris on migration; the rapid influx of Muslims to the UK; assimilation in the US; the disappearance of a shared national memory; the illiberalism of Islamic Brits; same-sex marriage; wokeness; anti-speech laws in the UK; the Iraq War; and the new war in Iran.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Jonah Goldberg on the state of conservatism, Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Derek Thompson on abundance, Tom Holland on the Christian roots of liberalism, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” and Tom Junod on his memoir and masculinity. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Can Centrism save the world… again?

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 17, 2026 65:58

The Mandelson Files are beginning to dribble out and they don't look good for Keir Starmer. Will this be the final albatross round the PM's neck? Zoë Grünewald and Rafael Behr talk over the unfurling consequences of the second-worst files in the world. Plus, liberalism has taken a battering this past decade, but don't worry! Centrism can still save the world. Bloomberg columnist Adrian Wooldridge's new book Centrists of the World Unite! is a battle cry to get liberalism back into the game. What went wrong? What does liberalism even mean in the 21st Century? Does anything unite left liberals, neoliberals and managerial liberals and why do they keep screwing up? And in the battle between liberalism and tech power, who wins? Buy Centrists of the World Unite! through our affiliate bookshop and you'll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org's fees help support independent bookshops too ESCAPE ROUTES • Adrian recommends Southland on Netflix. • Zoë recommends anything by the Danish painter Anna Ancher but if you can get to the Dulwich Picture Gallery it's definitely worth a visit. • Raf has been reading Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Rafael Behr. Audio and Video Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

netflix art bloomberg danish zo save the world bookshop chris jones oh god keir starmer video production southland centrists cornershop daniel dennett centrism world unite adrian wooldridge rafael behr dulwich picture gallery podmasters group editor andrew harrison

Adrian Wooldridge on the Lost Genius of the Political Center

The Good Fight

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2026 57:19

Yascha Mounk and Adrian Wooldridge explore how liberalism reinvented itself through past crises—and what that means for its survival today. Adrian Wooldridge is the global business columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He is the author or co-author of 12 books, including Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Adrian Wooldridge discuss how liberalism emerged as a solution to concrete historical problems, why the fundamental challenges liberalism addressed in the 17th and 18th centuries have returned in new forms today, and what lessons the origins of liberalism offer for defending it against contemporary threats. We're delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. That liberalism is under threat is now a cliché—yet this has done nothing to stem the global resurgence of illiberalism. Part of the problem is that liberalism is often considered too “thin” to win over the allegiance of citizens, and that liberals are too afraid of speaking in moral terms. Liberalism's opponents, by contrast, speak to people's passions and deepest moral sentiments. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, aims to change that narrative. In podcast conversations and long-form pieces, we feature content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠ | ⁠Google⁠ X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠ YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

lost political values genius liberalism centrists yascha mounk bloomberg opinion john templeton foundation adrian wooldridge

Eli Lake On Israel And The Iran War

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2026 42:53

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comEli is a journalist and an old friend. He's a former senior national security correspondent for The Daily Beast and Newsweek, and a former columnist for the Bloomberg View. He's now a reporter for The Free Press, a contributing editor at Commentary Magazine, and the host of his own podcast, Breaking History. He's one of the most dogged defenders of Israel in America. Who better to slug it out with?For two clips of our convo — on the double standard of US aid to Israel and NATO, and escalation of settlements in the West Bank — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: Eli's speech at his bar mitzvah on Jewish views of nuclear proliferation; his Zionist sleepaway camp; the Iran-Contra affair; the Oslo Accords; the Second Intifada; Saddam and WMDs; mugged by the reality of the Iraq War; the rise of Hamas in Gaza; the Obama-Netanyahu feud; the Iran nuclear deal; Schumer's commitment to Israel; the Golden Dome; Israel's contributions to the US; the horrors of October 7; the Judeo-fascists in Bibi's cabinet; US bombs sent to the IDF for Gaza; the 12-Day War that “obliterated” Iran's nuke facilities; the mass slaughter of protesters in Iran; the shifting reasons for the current war; the lack of any public debate or Congressional approval; the farce of Hegseth; Witkoff and Kushner's “negotiations” with Iran; international law; assassinating the leadership in Iran; Lindsey Graham's fanaticism; Tucker Carlson; the dead schoolgirls; oil prices; and evangelical support for Israel.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Matt Goodwin on the political earthquake in the UK, Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Derek Thompson on abundance, Jonah Goldberg on the state of conservatism, Tom Holland on the Christian roots of liberalism, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, and Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism.” As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Kathryn Paige Harden On Genes And Morality

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2026 40:14

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comPaige is a scientist and writer. She's a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she directs the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and serves as Director of Clinical Training. She's the author of The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, and her new book is Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, The Problem of Blame, and The Future of Forgiveness. It's about the eternal question of what sin is; and where it comes from; and whether our guilt is justified. We had a great chat.For two clips of our convo — on the proclivity for violence in our genes, and even religion! — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: growing up in a conservative religious household outside Memphis; not knowing any non-evangelicals until college; original sin and Augustine; Aquinas; Calvinism; genetics as predestination; how humans evolved to be more cooperative and non-violent than apes; the genes of violent criminals; the overwhelming disparity of men versus women in prison; accountability vs punishment; free will; God in the gaps; the genetic predisposition for faith; Tourette's at BAFTA; addiction; how drugs change your brain; AA as Christianity with the theology removed; mental illness; my bipolar and borderline mother; Pascal; philosopher Hanna Pickard; poet Carl Phillips; how genes affect horniness; testosterone and sex; the documentary Seven Up; how identical twins become more similar in middle age; and my initial reactions to the war in Iran.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Matt Goodwin on the political earthquake in the UK, Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Derek Thompson on abundance, Jonah Goldberg on the state of conservatism, Tom Holland on the Christian roots of liberalism, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, and Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism.” As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

god director university texas uk future christianity forgiveness iran blame vice james harden morality aa genetics pascal genes tom holland bafta tourette calvinism aquinas jeffrey toobin women in prison derek thompson jonah goldberg clinical training tiffany jenkins matt goodwin adrian wooldridge seven up carl phillips hanna pickard

Michael Pollan On The Mystery Of Consciousness

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2026 38:33

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comMichael is quite simply one of the best nonfiction writers out the planet: a real role model. He's been a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine since 1987, and he's the bestselling author of many books, including How to Change Your Mind — which I reviewed in 2018 — and its sequel, This Is Your Mind on Plants, which we discussed on the Dishcast in 2021. This week we covered his new book, A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness.For two clips of our convo — on the magic of spontaneous thoughts, and the consciousness of kids — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: toasters and other things that don't have consciousness; Thomas Nagel's bat; panpsychism; Francis Crick trying to solve consciousness; the global neuronal workspace theory; how brains are not like computers; AI and consciousness; Proust; James Joyce; Wordsworth and the Romantics; William James and stream of consciousness; Lucy Ellmann's Ducks, Newburyport; words on the tip of your tongue; phenomenology; letting your mind wander; Addison's Walk at Oxford; how smartphones distract from thinking; Trump taking up our headspace; Oakeshott and “the deadliness of doing”; AI and UBI; Allison Gopnik's lantern vs spotlight consciousness; how a child's brain resembles an adult's on psychedelics; ego death; the default mode network; meditation; the flow state of deep reading; the benefits of boredom; habit and ritual; my 10-day silent meditation retreat; the sentience of plants; Buddhism and Matthieu Ricard; the soul; the film Into Great Silence; and the disenchantment of the Enlightenment.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Derek Thompson on abundance, Matt Goodwin on the earthquake in UK politics, Jonah Goldberg on the state of conservatism, Tom Holland on the Christian roots of liberalism, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” Tom Junod on his memoir and masculinity, and Kathryn Paige Harden on the genetics of vice and virtue. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

ai donald trump uk new york times walk mystery oxford consciousness plants buddhism enlightenment ducks tom holland change your mind ubi james joyce proust michael pollan william james jeffrey toobin romantics wordsworth derek thompson newburyport jonah goldberg francis crick matthieu ricard thomas nagel tiffany jenkins matt goodwin adrian wooldridge tom junod oakeshott this is your mind into great silence

Sally Quinn On Bezos, Washington, And Life

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2026 51:17

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comSally is a journalist, columnist, TV commentator, author, wife to Ben Bradlee, and legendary DC hostess. Who better to talk to about the implosion of The Washington Post? She also founded the Post's religion website, “On Faith.” She's the author of six books, including the spiritual memoir Finding Magic, and We're Going to Make You a Star — about her time at “CBS Morning News.” Her latest novel is Silent Retreat, and she's now working on a memoir called Never Invite Sally Quinn. Her energy at 84 is, well, humbling. We had a blast.For two clips of our convo — on Sally's initial impression of Bezos, and the time Bill Clinton called her the b-word — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: born in Savannah, GA, and learning voodoo as a kid; moving as an Army brat; her general dad who captured Göring and helped create the CIA; at Smith College wanting to be an actress; rebelling against Vietnam and the wishes of her dad by marrying Bradlee; the Georgetown party circuit and how it's grown more partisan; throwing a pajama party for Goldwater; dating Hunter S. Thompson; Watergate and Woodstein; the Grahams; Tom Stoppard; Hitchens; Howell Raines; Newt's revolution; Bill's womanizing; Hillary defending her cheater; the Monica frenzy; Obama rising on merit; Barack the introvert; Jerry Brown; the catastrophe of Biden running in 2024; Dr. Jill's complicity and cruelty; Jon Meacham; Maureen Dowd; David Ignatius; Bradlee's dementia; declining trust in journalism; Bezos nixing the Harris endorsement; his life with Lauren Sanchez; sucking up to Trump; the Will Lewis debacle; Sally's spiritual life; silent retreats; Zen meditation; the humor in Buddhism; the denial of death; debating the the Golden Rule; children in Gaza; and the need more than ever for in-person gatherings.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Michael Pollan on consciousness, Derek Thompson on abundance, Matt Goodwin on the UK political earthquake, Jonah Goldberg on the state of conservatism, Tom Holland on the Christian roots of liberalism, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” and Kathryn Paige Harden on the genetics of vice. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com. A listener writes:Thanks for all these good episodes. Is Vivek still planning to be a guest soon? I have been looking forward to that episode.He got cold feet. Too bad. On the other hand, I tend to avoid active politicians. Because they're rarely as candid as I'd like a guest to be. Oh well.A fan of last week's pod who lives near Atlanta writes, “The longtime Dishheads on the Mableton cul-de-sac definitely approve of your interview with homegrown talent Zaid Jilani”:I agree with his description of Mableton as a bit like the United Nations; I see that diversity in our grocery stores and local restaurants. He mentioned how he was often the only Pakistani and thus perceived as a nonthreatening minority. It makes me wonder how much the diversity mix affects how people perceive immigration? If a large group from one country arrives, does that seem more like an invasion? If a similar number arrives but from a wide range of locations, does that seem more like the normal American melting pot?After 30 years of living in Mableton, this may partly explain why I am not bothered by immigration in the way that you are, Andrew. I expect to see and hear all sorts of people wherever I go in my neighborhood. Today the teller at the bank spoke accented English. There are regular clerks at my grocery store who are immigrants. Our new HVAC was installed by immigrants. As an Atlanta suburb, there are many people descended from African slaves. European ancestry is merely one possibility off the long colorful menu around here.I think pace and numbers matter. A slower pace and fewer — with no massive homogenous populations arriving at once. And a new emphasis on Americanization over “multiculturalism”.From a listener who wants to “Make Democrats Great Again”:Great conversation with Zaid Jilani last week. I am very concerned that hardly any Democrats are being at all introspective, trying to figure out where they went wrong and how to become a party that can actually win elections — maybe even hearts and minds. They are only defined as anti-Trump, and their only hope is for Trump to go down in flames — which he very well might, but all they aspire to is winning as the least-worst party.The policy directions for reclaiming sanity and moderate voters are obvious (to me, at least). Here are my top three issues:1. AffordabilityThe longest lever to affect affordability is housing. Democrats have been complete failures in this regard, with strongholds like California and NYC being the least affordable places. When they talk about “affordable housing,” they only mean housing that is forced below market rate for the few poor people lucky enough to get it. They offer no solutions for the middle class or young people.The solution is obvious: build more. Plough through the various restrictions that are preventing housing from being built. There is no reason housing can't be cheap, except for NIMBY politics. Scott Weiner in California has been doing great work on this.Health care is the second-longest affordability lever. Obamacare made some progress, but not nearly enough, especially in terms of keeping costs down. But I'm not sure we're ready for another push on this; I say focus on housing.2. ImmigrationObviously there should be some immigration, and obviously we have structured our economy such that many jobs are only done by immigrants. But the Democrats' policy of simply not enforcing immigration law is untenable, especially for a group asking to be put in charge of law enforcement. We need those migrant workers, so find a way for them be here legally. Not through amnesty, but through some sort of bureaucratic process: have the employers fill out a form; have the prospective worker fill out a form in some office in Mexico; have someone process the form; and give them a green card.This is simple stuff! And yes, it would be helpful to admit that open borders, sanctuary cities, and subverting the law were not good ideas.3. CultureEnd wokeness. America is not a country consumed by white supremacy, and the people who voted for Trump are not racists. There are hardly any racists! And drop the other insanities, like the trans stuff.The message needs to be, “We are the Democrats and we want to help anybody from any state who needs help.” Hard to convince struggling white people in the South that you're going to help them when you seem to despise them. Love your brother, for crying out loud. And naturally, today's woke Democrats would be much more accepting of this message if it came from a racial minority candidate.Another wanted to hear more:I wish you had asked Zaid about Josh Shapiro. Also, when Zaid talked about affordability, he never mentioned housing — which is why there are so many ex-Californians in his home state of Georgia and elsewhere. “Build Baby Build” should be the slogan of the Democratic Party, rather than gaslighting Americans into believing housing prices will come down because we are getting rid of immigrants (Vance).Here's a dissent:About 20:30 into your interview with Zaid Jilani, he said that the root of all the Abrahamic faiths is that the meek have rights. You replied that this applied more to Christianity and Islam than to Judaism. I say this neither rhetorically nor to admonish you, but how much do you know about Judaism? Your comment is completely mistaken. Just what do you think Judaism says about the meek?Another has examples:In Genesis, you find that all humans were created b'tzelem Elohim (in the image of God). Moreover, Jewish texts consistently frame care for the poor as a legal obligation and moral imperative, not mere charity. Every Jewish child learns that promoting economic justice is mandated. It is called tzedakah.This religious mandate has manifested itself in the real world. Jews have been disproportionately represented in social justice movements aimed at promoting human equality. It wasn't an accident that two of three civil rights movement activists murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan were Jewish.Points taken. Big generalizations in a chat can be dumb. My quarrel may be semantic: the meek is not merely the weak. It's about the quiet people, those easily trampled upon. Like many of Jesus' innovations, it takes a Jewish idea further.Another listener on the Zaid pod:I wonder if you ever play the game of “which time would you like to go back to”? I do! And only half-jokingly, I often say 1994 in DC. Something about, for example, Christopher Hitchens on CSPAN in a dreary suit jacket discussing such *trivial* aspects of politics in a serious way. How perfect! When I listened to your episode with Zaid Jilani about how the left can win, it seemed dated to about this period in the early ‘90s.Ah yes, the Nineties. They were heady times and I think we all kinda realized it at the time. The economy was booming, crime was plummeting, Annie Leibovitz took my picture, and we had the luxury of an impeachment over a b*****b. Good times.On another episode, a listener says I have a “rose-colored view of President Obama”:In your conversation with Jason Willick, you said that Obama was a stickler for proper procedure and doing things the right way. I might instance, on the other side:* Evading the constitutional requirements on treaties in pursuit of the Iran deal (an evasion that the Republicans were stupid enough to go along with)* Encouraging the regulatory gambit of “sue and settle”* The “Dear Colleague” letter* “I've got a pen and a phone”Points taken. Especially the DACA move. But compared to Biden and Trump? Much better. One more listener email:I've been following you for years, but more recently I became a subscriber, and it's a decision I don't regret! I usually listen to the Dishcast over the weekend, and I always find it extremely stimulating, but there is also something relaxing about the length and scope of your conversations.I want to respond to something you said in your Claire Berlinski episode on the subject of Ukraine. Although I appreciate your position in defence of international law, you implied that Russia's claim to Ukrainian land is somehow “historically legitimate.” This is not only problematic from a logical standpoint (does Sweden have a historically legitimate claim to Finland and Norway, or does the UK have a claim to the Republic of Ireland, the US, and all its former colonies?), but also not based on historical reality.Unfortunately, this is not the first time your comments on Ukraine seem come through the prism of a Russian lens. I am sure it's not intentional; perhaps that's not a subject you have invested much time in, which is legitimate. However, I find it a bit surprising that, as we approach the fifth year of Russia's full-scale invasion, you still don't seem to have had the curiosity to explore this and invite any specialist on Ukraine. If Timothy Snyder is too political these days, I would recommend Serhii Plokhy — possibly the most eminent historian of Ukraine — or Yaroslav Hrytsak. They would each be a very interesting conversation.The Dishcast has featured many guests with expertise on the Ukraine war, including Anne Applebaum (twice), John Mearsheimer, Samuel Ramani (twice), Edward Luttwak, Fiona Hill (twice), Robert Wright, Robert Kaplan, Fareed Zakaria, Douglas Murray, Edward Luce, and Niall Ferguson.A reader responds to last week's column, “The President Of The 0.00001 Percent”:Like you, I'm not against people getting rich. A lot of good is done by a few people who have enough money to seed research and the arts, and pursue things that ordinary worker bees would never have the margin of time or resources to pursue. Good so far.But all strong forces need regulation and/or protective barriers, whether it's the weather, sex, patriotism, or capitalism. What's going on now is obscene. Progressive taxation is a social good: it doesn't stop anyone from getting richer and richer; it doesn't remove the positive motivators for success; it just means that the farther they get, the higher their proportionate contribution to the system that lets them get there. There are various ways to tweak the dials, but there is nothing philosophically wrong with tweaking them in a way the sets some outer limit. Let it be very high, but let it not be infinite.Here's a familiar dissent:You were right to torch the nihilism of the .00001 class. You were right to call out moral evasions. But when you referred to “the IDF's massacre of children in Gaza,” you collapsed a morally and legally distinct reality into a slogan. Words matter. “Massacre” implies intent. It suggests that the deliberate killing of children is policy rather than tragic consequence. That is a serious charge, and it deserves serious evidence.The governing reality in Gaza is not that Israel woke up one morning and decided to target children.

america god tv love jesus christ american california health new york city donald trump english israel uk washington mexico americans russia european christianity joe biden ukraine russian dc ireland army south barack obama jewish african iran vietnam harris jews sweden republicans ga washington post democrats mississippi points islam cia norway jeff bezos gaza united nations finland republic ukrainian progressive encouraging zen judaism buddhism massacre bill clinton democratic party georgetown californians tom holland golden rule watergate hvac obamacare daca pakistani idf in genesis elohim ku klux klan c span abrahamic hunter s thompson nineties smith college michael pollan newt nimby christopher hitchens jeffrey toobin jerry brown josh shapiro douglas murray niall ferguson anne applebaum derek thompson hitchens annie leibovitz plough evading tom stoppard fiona hill fareed zakaria jon meacham robert wright goldwater americanization lauren sanchez silent retreat grahams jonah goldberg finding magic make you john mearsheimer david ignatius robert kaplan maureen dowd bradlee cbs morning news tiffany jenkins matt goodwin serhii plokhy scott weiner edward luce ben bradlee adrian wooldridge will lewis on faith edward luttwak dear colleague zaid jilani samuel ramani sally quinn mableton howell raines claire berlinski woodstein

Zaid Jilani On How The Dems Can Win

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2026 46:17

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comZaid is a young center-left journalist (after the young center-right journo we had on last week, Jason Willick). Zaid worked as a reporter for The Intercept and as a reporter-blogger for ThinkProgress, United Republic, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Alternet. He's now on Substack at “The American Saga” — subscribe!For two clips of our convo — on what the Dems should do on immigration, and whether Ossoff and Buttigieg could be strong contenders for the presidency — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: his parents immigrating from Pakistan; born and raised outside Atlanta in Newt Gingrich country; growing up Muslim in the South; tithing and agape; starting a student magazine at UGA; Mamdani and affordability; higher taxes on the rich; universal childcare; Ossoff and “the Epstein class”; the Dems' denialism over Kamala; identity politics killing the party; how Dems should respond to AI; data centers hiking energy bills; Waymo; Trump's success at closing the border; asylum reform; the left crying wolf over racism; Stephen Miller the wolf; Eric Kaufmann's Whiteshift; pushing left-racism on a racially tolerant public; Jasmine Crockett; Dem leaders cowed by activists; transqueer ideology; Bad Bunny; Israel and the Dems; foreign aid; Tom Massie; Ro Khanna; gerontocracy; Obama's success in red states; rumors of Stacey Abrams being closeted; AOC; Warnock; Newsom's left-wing baggage; the silo of Bluesky; Renee Good; and the indoctrination of kids on gender.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Sally Quinn on the WaPo and silent retreats, Michael Pollan on consciousness, Jeffrey Toobin on the pardon power, Derek Thompson on abundance, Matt Goodwin on the UK political earthquake, Jonah Goldberg on the state of conservatism, Tom Holland on the Christian roots of liberalism, Adrian Wooldridge on “the lost genius of liberalism,” Tiffany Jenkins on privacy, and Kathryn Paige Harden on the genetics of vice. An abundance of riches! And a lot of reading for yours truly! As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

ai donald trump israel uk south barack obama muslims pakistan substack epstein alexandria ocasio cortez blue sky bad bunny kamala dem gavin newsom tom holland dems pete buttigieg stacey abrams uga waymo intercept newt gingrich warnock michael pollan stephen miller wapo jeffrey toobin jasmine crockett ro khanna derek thompson jonah goldberg ossoff american saga alternet thinkprogress eric kaufmann tiffany jenkins matt goodwin adrian wooldridge zaid jilani united republic sally quinn whiteshift progressive change campaign committee

Vol.087 财富增长的要素，和个人能参考的一切

infoier | 设计乘数

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2025 29:59

在这一期，我会分享这本书中的主要洞察，以及我阅读时的一些想法：《The birth of plenty》，中文翻译过来应该叫做财富的诞生，也有中文的译本，作者是威廉·伯恩斯坦。这本财富的诞生核心的观点只有一个，就是一个团体或者国家财富的增长主要由4个因素组成：基于普通法的财产权、科学理性主义、先进的资本市场，以及运输和通信的巨大进步。这是非常具有洞察力的发现，而整本书，用了大量的事实来对这个观点进行验证，这些事实是具有帮助的，并且对个人的日常生活决策也很有借鉴意义，我想逐个地来进行分享。参考文献 William J. Bernstein. The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World Was Created. McGraw-Hill, 2004. （中文版：《财富的诞生》）张笑宇. 文明三部曲（商贸与文明、技术与文明、产业与文明）. 中信出版社 Friedrich A. Hayek. The Road to Serfdom. University of Chicago Press, 1944. （中文版：《通往奴役之路》） Ronald H. Coase. The Firm, the Market, and the Law. University of Chicago Press, 1988. （相关产权经济学理论） Francis Bacon. Novum Organum (The New Organon). 1620. （中文版：《新工具》） Marc Levinson. The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. Princeton University Press, 2006. （中文版：《集装箱改变世界》） John Micklethwait & Adrian Wooldridge. The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea. Modern Library, 2003. （中文版：《公司，一个革命性概念的历史》） Tom Nicholas. VC: An American History. Harvard University Press, 2019. （相关讨论风险投资史）配乐：Orange Peel. Kikagaku Moyo

university law market birth prosperity firm hayek chicago press mcgraw hill francis bacon princeton university press harvard university press serfdom orange peel adrian wooldridge modern library kikagaku moyo john micklethwait marc levinson world smaller box how shipping container made william j bernstein ronald h coase

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 7/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 7:25

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 7/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge https://www.amazon.com/Aristocracy-Talent-Meritocracy-Modern-World/dp/1510768610/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1658009977&refinements=p_27%3AAdrian+Wooldridge&s=books&sr=1-2 The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, the esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. 1936 BERLIN OLYMPICS

talent modern world meritocracy aristocracy berlin olympics adrian wooldridge talent how meritocracy made

Preview: Conversation with Adrian Wooldridge, Author of "The Aristocracy of Talent," on the Historic Struggle to Identify Merit Over Inherited Privilege Through the Centuries. More Later.

conversations struggle talent identify historic privilege merit centuries inherited aristocracy adrian wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 2:27

Preview: Conversation with Adrian Wooldridge, Author of "The Aristocracy of Talent," on the Historic Struggle to Identify Merit Over Inherited Privilege Through the Centuries. More Later. 1944 Stork Club NYC

Preview: Adrian Wooldridge, Author of "The Aristocracy of Talent," on the Rise of Modern Meritocratic Elites. More Later.

modern talent john f kennedy winston churchill elites aristocracy joseph kennedy adrian wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 2:36

Preview: Adrian Wooldridge, Author of "The Aristocracy of Talent," on the Rise of Modern Meritocratic Elites. More Later. 1963 Joseph Kennedy's son, JFK, and Winston Churchill's son, Randolph Churchill.

Preview: Adrian Wooldridge Explores How Meritocratic Elites Historically Distrusted Both Popular Democracy and Hereditary Aristocracy, Favoring Rule by the Most Talented. More Later.

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 2:32

Preview: Adrian Wooldridge Explores How Meritocratic Elites Historically Distrusted Both Popular Democracy and Hereditary Aristocracy, Favoring Rule by the Most Talented. More Later. 1845

explore historically talented hereditary elites aristocracy favoring adrian wooldridge popular democracy most talented

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 1/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 10:30

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 1/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge https://www.amazon.com/Aristocracy-Talent-Meritocracy-Modern-World/dp/1510768610/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1658009977&refinements=p_27%3AAdrian+Wooldridge&s=books&sr=1-2 The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, the esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. 1796 JOSEPHINE

talent modern world meritocracy aristocracy adrian wooldridge talent how meritocracy made

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 2/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 8:20

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 2/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge https://www.amazon.com/Aristocracy-Talent-Meritocracy-Modern-World/dp/1510768610/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1658009977&refinements=p_27%3AAdrian+Wooldridge&s=books&sr=1-2 The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, the esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. 1813 ALEXANDER I OF RUSSIA

talent modern world meritocracy aristocracy adrian wooldridge talent how meritocracy made

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 4/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 9:25

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 4/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge https://www.amazon.com/Aristocracy-Talent-Meritocracy-Modern-World/dp/1510768610/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1658009977&refinements=p_27%3AAdrian+Wooldridge&s=books&sr=1-2 The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, the esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. 1912 HAROLD CLARK MACDONNELL

talent modern world meritocracy aristocracy adrian wooldridge talent how meritocracy made

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 5/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 11:35

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 5/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge https://www.amazon.com/Aristocracy-Talent-Meritocracy-Modern-World/dp/1510768610/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1658009977&refinements=p_27%3AAdrian+Wooldridge&s=books&sr=1-2 The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, the esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. 1908 GRAND PRIX

talent grand prix modern world meritocracy aristocracy adrian wooldridge talent how meritocracy made

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 6/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025 7:15

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 6/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge https://www.amazon.com/Aristocracy-Talent-Meritocracy-Modern-World/dp/1510768610/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1658009977&refinements=p_27%3AAdrian+Wooldridge&s=books&sr=1-2 The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, the esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. 1920 FRANCE

france talent modern world meritocracy aristocracy adrian wooldridge talent how meritocracy made

BEFORE DEI, AFTER DEI: 8/8: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge