Podcast appearances and mentions of Louis Menand

In this episode I look at the contrast, ruptures, and uncertainties among three early Pragmatists: Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, as detailed in Louis Menand's bestselling The Metaphysical Club. I also examine Randolph Bourne's use of Pragmatism to justify cosmopolitan immigration and the unaccountable bureaucracy of the American Association of University Professors.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2024 is: qua • KWAH • preposition Qua is a preposition used in formal speech or writing that means “in the capacity or character of (someone or something).” It is used synonymously with as to indicate that someone or something is being referred to or thought about in a particular way. // The artist qua artist is less interesting to me than the artist as a human being. See the entry > Examples: “He [Charlie Chaplin] financed his own films; he wrote them; he took music credit; he even choreographed. Most of the cast and crew were on his payroll. He even co-owned his distribution company. The box-office take went straight into his pocket. He was not beholden to anyone, but he was not indispensable, either. Losing the Chaplin studio had a negligible impact on the movie business qua business.” — Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023 Did you know? A preposition is a word—and almost always a very small, very common word—that shows direction (to in “a letter to you”), location (at in “at the door”), or time (by in “by noon”), or that introduces an object (of in “a basket of apples”) or a capacity or role (as in “works as an editor”). As such, prepositions tend not to attract as much attention as other parts of speech (unless there is some foofaraw about whether or not it's okay to end a sentence with one). Qua, however, though very small is not very common—at least in everyday speech or writing. As one 20th-century usage writer commented, “Qua is sometimes thought affected or pretentious, but it does convey meaning economically.” Qua's meaning is quite specific—it can substitute for the phrase “in the capacity or character of” or the preposition as in the right context, as in “they wanted to enjoy the wine qua wine, not as a status symbol.”

In this episode I revisit Louis Menand's collection of Pragmatist writings, Pragmatism: A Reader, with an eye toward the more recent writers. I discuss Richard Rorty's Postmodernist Bourgeois Liberalism and Richard Bernstein's Pragmatism, Pluralism, and the Healing of Wounds.

In this episode I look at some of the early pragmatist writings, in particular The Will to Believe by William James, and The Ethics of Democracy by John Dewey. This episode is the first of a two part series on this book.

Na estante desta semana, a ficção foi posta de lado. As “Outras Crónicas”, de António Lobo Antunes, surgem como uma espécie de despedida do autor à “piscina para crianças” onde exercitava a mão para a arte (para ele) maior do romance. Um ensaio de grande fôlego contribui para se entender melhor como os Estados Unidos se tornaram a potência cultural dominante no período da Guerra Fria: chama-se “O Mundo Livre” e é da autoria de Louis Menand. Um outro ensaio monumental tem agora um primeiro volume em português; trata-se do clássico “Cadernos do Cárcere”, do marxista italiano Antonio Gramsci. Por fim, uma síntese breve sobre o elemento mais discreto (mas decisivo) da tecnologia que usamos diariamente: “Algoritmo”, aquela coisa (palavra que dá para tudo) que sabe mais sobre nós do que nós próprios.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us cheer for the little dog that doesn't have a chance. The underdog.We like them because they need us.Underdogs are those little dogs that rise above their circumstances and overcome their disadvantages. It is the underdog we see in our mind when we say, “It's not the size of the dog in the fight that matters; it's the size of the fight in the dog.”Underdogs do the best they can. They push and struggle and hope for a brighter future. They remind us of ourselves.“The scientific literature suggests that fans of losing teams turn out to be better decision-makers and deal better with divergent thought, as opposed to the unreflective fans of winning teams.”– Dr. Jordan Grafman, a researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders (2011)That's interesting, don't you think? People who cheer for little David in his fight against big Goliath are reflective, good decision-makers, and unafraid to think new thoughts.We cheer for the underdog, always and forever. We go out of minds with ecstasy when the underdog finally wins. That's our dog! We look at each other and we know, “That little dog is you and me.”The underdog is a cultural hero.“How do human beings put into words their ideas about the meaning of human life? How do they convey through art and religion their beliefs about the significance of human life? They do it partly by investing in certain transcultural stories, like the one about the adventures of a culture hero, which, after a period of trial and hardship, always ends in triumph.”– Barry Lopez, Horizons, page 323Do you know what has me concerned?The United States began as a nation of underdogs, but it took us barely 10 generations to become a nation of overdogs, victors, champions, and our values have changed because of it.Today we believe, “Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing.“We want more subscribers, more influence, more likes, more admirers, more fame, and more money. How much is enough? “Just a little bit more.”I suspect Louis Menand was contemplating all of this in June, 2011 when he wrote:“In a society that encourages its members to pursue the career paths that promise the greatest personal or financial rewards, people will, given a choice, learn only what they need to know for success. They will have no incentive to acquire the knowledge and skills important for life as an informed citizen, or as a reflective and culturally literate human being.”Wouldn't it be great to have a nation – and a government – of people who were informed citizens and reflective, culturally literate human beings?Wouldn't that be great?Roy H. WilliamsCurt Tueffert has spent four decades helping people enjoy world-class sales success. When it comes to selling, Curt has seen it all, done it all. Qualify customer prospects, help them past their hesitations, and never feel rejection when rejected: Curt can tell you how. According to roving reporter Rotbart, this week's episode will instantly boost your batting average in the great game of selling. MondayMorningRadio.com

In this episode, I recommend Louis Menand's new book, The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021), and I begin talking about reading and interpreting New Testament letters.

Chair: Bob Carr Louis Menand, the author of Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Metaphysical Club, tells the story of America after the Second World War in his latest book, The Free World. With references to luminaries such as Jack Kerouac, Elvis Presley, Susan Sontag and James Baldwin, Menand explores the significant cultural figures of the Cold War period, when “ideas mattered, painting mattered, movies mattered, poetry mattered". Supported by the Consulate of the United States. Event details: Thu 09 Mar, 2:30pm

In light of J.D. Salinger's recent passing and on reflection of his literary contributions, The New England Quarterly took a trip back to its December 1997 issue (70:4) and one of the journal's most popular articles. Pulitzer Prize-winner and NEQ editorial board member, Louis Menand interviews author Stephen J. Whitfield on his article "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye." They discuss the impact of Salinger, the political and social climate during the time of Catcher, and contemplate how Cold War is viewed today. The conversation was recorded on February 24, 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In light of J.D. Salinger's recent passing and on reflection of his literary contributions, The New England Quarterly took a trip back to its December 1997 issue (70:4) and one of the journal's most popular articles. Pulitzer Prize-winner and NEQ editorial board member, Louis Menand interviews author Stephen J. Whitfield on his article "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye." They discuss the impact of Salinger, the political and social climate during the time of Catcher, and contemplate how Cold War is viewed today. The conversation was recorded on February 24, 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In light of J.D. Salinger's recent passing and on reflection of his literary contributions, The New England Quarterly took a trip back to its December 1997 issue (70:4) and one of the journal's most popular articles. Pulitzer Prize-winner and NEQ editorial board member, Louis Menand interviews author Stephen J. Whitfield on his article "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye." They discuss the impact of Salinger, the political and social climate during the time of Catcher, and contemplate how Cold War is viewed today. The conversation was recorded on February 24, 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

In light of J.D. Salinger's recent passing and on reflection of his literary contributions, The New England Quarterly took a trip back to its December 1997 issue (70:4) and one of the journal's most popular articles. Pulitzer Prize-winner and NEQ editorial board member, Louis Menand interviews author Stephen J. Whitfield on his article "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye." They discuss the impact of Salinger, the political and social climate during the time of Catcher, and contemplate how Cold War is viewed today. The conversation was recorded on February 24, 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Alex, Emily, and John discuss George Orwell's landmark fable ANIMAL FARM (1945). Is the satirical allegorical novella funny? Does it secretly loathe the animals on the farm? What truth does it capture about life inside a totalitarian system?  In addition to the fable, Alex, Emily, and John chat about Louis Menand's character study essay about George Orwell that appeared in the New Yorker  in 2003, entitled "Honest, Decent, Wrong." The last third of the pod touches on the negative influence of smart phones, digital photography vs. film photography, and Charlie Chaplin.

This week, a Quinta-less Alan and Scott were joined by their Lawfare colleagues senior editor Molly Reynolds and managing editor Tyler McBrien to talk over some copycat-ing that's been taking place in the national security space, including:“Hoppin' the Fence at Lulapalooza.” In a clear echo of the Jan. 6 insurrection, followers of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sacked the country's parliament this past week, just days after his successor Lula da Silva was sworn in—and while Bolsonaro himself was visiting former U.S. President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. What's the relationship between Jan. 6 and Brazil's recent experience? Is this the beginning of a dangerous global trend?“The Divider House Rules.” After fifteen votes, Rep. Kevin McCarthy is now the Speaker of the House. But to get there, he had to make a lot of concessions—many of which are now showing their face in the House rules and in committee appointments, while others remain secret. What constraints has McCarthy accepted in order to win office? And will they mean for the coming Congress?“C'mon, Man!” Several months after FBI agents raised former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate to recover classified documents, lawyers for current President Biden have acknowledged that they located a few classified documents from his time as vice president in Biden's private office as well. Critics in Congress and elsewhere are crying out that this reflects a double-standard, but does it? How big a deal is this, and what will it mean for the ongoing Mar-a-Lago investigation?For object lessons, Alan passed along Rick Martinez's winter-friendly recipe for pozole verde. Scott recommended revisiting an old classic, Louis Menand's “The Metaphysical Club,” as a reflection on the emergence of pragmatism as an American intellectual tradition. Molly endorsed Melissa Clark's latest cookbook, “Dinner in One,” even if you have to go to the bottom of the ocean to get a copy. And Tyler invoked Kyle Chayka's concept of "ambient tv" to justify his viewing of season 3 of “Emily in Paris.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's our best books of 2022, one of our favourite episodes to record as by this point we've done all the hard work of reading, now it's time to sit back and consider which, of all the books we read in 2022, were our very favourites. That might be a new release or it might be a backlist gem. We've also got the books that got us through difficult moments, the books that made us laugh or cry, and the ones we recommended and gave to friends. As we're nothing if not critical we've got some books that didn't quite live up to our expectations before we finally crown our top three books of 2022.  As snow falls gently around the shed, the fairy lights twinkle, the mulled wine is warm, and we discuss our favourite reads of 2022 with regular special guest, journalist Phil Chaffee. Books mentioned are listed below, but if you want to be surprised look away now. Book recommendations for Best Books of 2022 Favourite new release: Laura loved TRUST by Herman Diaz, Phil's favourite (with also-rans The Marriage Portraitby Maggie O'Farrell and Love Marriage by Monica Ali) was THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw, while Kate loved SEVEN STEEPLES by Sara Baume (with honorable mentions Housebreaking by Colleen Hubbard and Briefly: A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens) Favourite backlist title: Phil picked THE BETROTHED by Alessandro Manzoni (with also-rans The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toíbín, and Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig). Kate loved The Homemaker by Dorothy Canfield-Fisher but her favourite was O CALEDONIA by Elspeth Barker. Laura went for WIVES AND DAUGHTERS by Elizabeth Gaskell. Favourite non-fiction reads: For Kate it was THE PALACE PAPERS, Tina Brown's engaging examination of the British royal family and our collective fascination with (or indifference) to them. Kate's also-rans were Fall by John Preston (did Robert Maxwell fall or was he pushed?), 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (if we did but have the time to discuss it) and Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake (book everyone says is great turns out to be great). Laura only reads non-fiction when her book club forces her too, but luckily she did end up reading CASTE by Isabel Wilkerson, a book that changed her view of the world within the first fifty pages. Phil loved Putin's People by Catherine Belton and Not One Inch by M.E. Sarotte, but his overall favourite was THE RED PRINCE by Timothy Snyder. Favourite Book Club reads. Top of the pile for Laura was MICHEL THE GIANT by Tété-Michel Kpomassie while Phil preferred EIGHT MONTHS ON GHAZZAH STREET by Hilary Mantel. Kate loved The Heart is a Lonely Hunterby Carson McCullers but her ultimate choice was LIGHT PERPETUAL by Francis Spufford Favourite comfort reads: For Phil it was EITHER/OR by Elif Batuman; he now only wants to read books narrated by her protagonist Selin. Laura escaped to a creepy Swiss hotel with THE SANATORIUM by Sarah Pearse while Kate sank into the arms of old friend E.M. Delafield with THE DIARY OF A PROVINCIAL LADY. A book that made us laugh or cry: For Kate it was A HEART THAT WORKS by Rob Delaney. Phil enjoyed THREE MEN IN A BOAT by Jerome K. Jerome (in audiobook form read by Hugh Laurie). Laura loved Small by Claire Lynch and The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, but her final choice was THE BREAD THE DEVIL KNEAD by Lisa Allen-Agostini A book we pressed on a friend: Runner-up for Phil was We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole but his favourite was THE FREE WORLD by Louis Menand. Laura's pick was THE SIXTEEN TREES OF THE SOMME by Lars Mytting Books we read that didn't quite live up to our expectations: THE ABSOLUTE BOOK by Elizabeth Knox promised much for Laura but ultimately didn't deliver. Phil really didn't get on with A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanigahara (and has *really* thought about why) and for Kate LIBERATION DAY by George Saunders didn't quite meet the soaring heights of his other books. Overall Book of the Year: Laura's standout was THE TREES by Percival Everett. Kate loved After Sappho by Selby Wyn Schwartz and The Door by Magda Szabó but her overall favourite read was LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry. Phil meanwhile loved the Elena Ferrante Neopolitan quartet, but his overall book of the year is, as mentioned earlier, THE FREE WORLD by Louis Menand. A few other books we mention in passing: Golden Hill by Francis Spufford The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon Babel by R. F. Kuang A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt The Little Library Parties and The Little Library Christmas by Kate Young Find full shownotes and links to related podcast episodes at our website thebookclubreview.co.uk, where you'll also find a transcript and our comments forum. No matter when you listen to this episode you can always drop us a line there and let us know what you thought of it. Tell us your favourite reads of 2022, we'd love to hear about them. You can also sign up for our bi-weekly-ish newsletter and find out details of our new Patreon channel. To keep up with us between episodes follow us on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or email us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com. If you enjoyed this episode please don't forget an easy way to give something back is to let people know about the show, whether through a quick rating on your podcast app, or letting people know via social media. We really appreciate it.

1848 was the Year of Revolutions in Europe. It was also the year that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, proposing a new, classless society. As revolutions erupted across the globe, many turned to the ideals of Communism to replace old and fast-crumbling feudal systems. But Communism didn't take off everywhere. Harvard professor Louis Menand explains the successes and failures of Marx & Engels' vision since the publication of the manifesto. Louis Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor or Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard, where he also holds the title Harvard College Professor, in recognition of his teaching. He is the author of books such as The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University and The Metaphysical Club, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod. Join the conversation on the Lyceum app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

1848 was the Year of Revolutions in Europe. It was also the year that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, proposing a new, classless society. As revolutions erupted across the globe, many turned to the ideals of Communism to replace old and fast-crumbling feudal systems. But Communism didn't take off everywhere. Harvard professor Louis Menand explains the successes and failures of Marx & Engels' vision since the publication of the manifesto. Louis Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor or Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard, where he also holds the title Harvard College Professor, in recognition of his teaching. He is the author of books such as The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University and The Metaphysical Club, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod. Join the conversation on the Lyceum app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

1848 was the Year of Revolutions in Europe. It was also the year that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, proposing a new, classless society. As revolutions erupted across the globe, many turned to the ideals of Communism to replace old and fast-crumbling feudal systems. But Communism didn't take off everywhere. Harvard professor Louis Menand explains the successes and failures of Marx & Engels' vision since the publication of the manifesto. Louis Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor or Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard, where he also holds the title Harvard College Professor, in recognition of his teaching. He is the author of books such as The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University and The Metaphysical Club, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod. Join the conversation on the Lyceum app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

1848 was the Year of Revolutions in Europe. It was also the year that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, proposing a new, classless society. As revolutions erupted across the globe, many turned to the ideals of Communism to replace old and fast-crumbling feudal systems. But Communism didn't take off everywhere. Harvard professor Louis Menand explains the successes and failures of Marx & Engels' vision since the publication of the manifesto. Louis Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor or Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard, where he also holds the title Harvard College Professor, in recognition of his teaching. He is the author of books such as The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University and The Metaphysical Club, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod. Join the conversation on the Lyceum app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

1848 was the Year of Revolutions in Europe. It was also the year that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, proposing a new, classless society. As revolutions erupted across the globe, many turned to the ideals of Communism to replace old and fast-crumbling feudal systems. But Communism didn't take off everywhere. Harvard professor Louis Menand explains the successes and failures of Marx & Engels' vision since the publication of the manifesto. Louis Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor or Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard, where he also holds the title Harvard College Professor, in recognition of his teaching. He is the author of books such as The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University and The Metaphysical Club, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod. Join the conversation on the Lyceum app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Thanks to everyone who came to our recent "Book Lunch" on Friday September 9th, featuring Louis Menand's "The Free World". In case you missed it, here it is for you to enjoy and share with us! #bobdylan #jacksonpollack #newcriticism #structuralism #coldwar #sovietunion #american #vietnam #elvispresley #jamesbaldwin #susansontag #hannaharendt #thebeatles #georgemartin #lioneltrilling #unesco #rolandbarthes #jojhnlennon #familyofman 4pulitzerprize #williamfaulkner #themetaphysicalclub #americanstudies #williamjames #newyorker #johndewey #charlessanderspeirce #oliverwendellhomesjr #pragmatism #unitedstates #nationalhumanitiewsmedal #barackobama #nationalendowmentforthehumanities #NEH #harvardlawschool #columbiauniversity #1950s #1960s #20thcentury #GeorgeKeenan #MartinLutherKingJr --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mitch-hampton/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/mitch-hampton/support

William Deresiewicz, author of the new book "The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society," discusses how technology is changing our sense of self, how every aspect of higher education is failing, the late Harold Bloom, Great Books courses, and more!Recorded August 18, 2022LINKS:Bill's new book, "The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society"https://www.amazon.com/End-Solitude-Selected-Culture-Society/dp/125085864XBill's essay, "Why I Left Academia (Since You're Wondering)"https://quillette.com/2022/08/17/why-i-left-academia-since-youre-wondering/Bill's essay in Liberties, "Soul-Making Studies"https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/soul-making-studies/Louis Menand on Great Books courseshttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/20/whats-so-great-about-great-books-courses-roosevelt-montas-rescuing-socratesBill's personal websitehttps://billderesiewicz.com/Follow @WDeresiewiczFollow @AryehCW Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1940s France, a little 50-seat cinema opened that would launch one revolution on international movie screens...and arguably a second one in the streets of Paris. Host Rico Gagliano delves into the wild history of the Cinémathèque Française and its legendary founder, Henri Langlois.Featuring interviews with directors Barbet Schroeder (BARFLY, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE) and Luc Moullet (BRIGITTE ET BRIGITTE), plus New Yorker writer Louis Menand, Amy Nicholson of the podcast "Unspooled" and many more.The second season of the MUBI Podcast titled “Only in Theaters” tells surprising stories of individual cinemas that had huge impacts on film history, and in some cases, history in general.After listening, check out an extended interview with Barbet Schroeder in the latest “MUBI Podcast: Expanded” piece. The filmmaker dives deeper into memories of the French New Wave, talks about his Oscar-winning film REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, and recalls working with Pink Floyd in the late ‘60s. Read the article here.To stream some of the film we've covered on the podcast, check out the collection Featured on the MUBI Podcast. Availability of films varies depending on your country. MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor. A place to discover and watch beautiful, interesting, incredible films. A new hand-picked film arrives on MUBI, every single day. Cinema from across the world. From iconic directors, to emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI's curators.And with MUBI GO, members in select countries can get a hand-picked cinema ticket every single week, to see the best new films in real cinemas. To learn more, visit mubi.com/go

In this new episode, host Rainer Schulte sat down with Harvard Professor Louis Menand for a virtual conversation on the future of the humanities. In December 2021, Menand published an essay in The New Yorker titled “What's so Great about Great-Books Courses,” which is certain to be of interest to those who study and teach the Humanities. Menand was previously an associate editor of The New Republic, editor of The New Yorker, and contributing editor of the New York Review of Books. He is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker. In 2016 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. His most notable book, The Metaphysical Club won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in History, the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians, and the Heartland Prize from the Chicago Tribune. Dr. Menand's most recently published book, The Free World, offers a new intellectual and cultural history of the postwar years and is one of The New York Times's 100 best books of 2021.

This week, the panel is joined by June Thomas, co-host of Working (Slate's podcast on the creative process). They begin by digesting HBO's Julia Child series, Julia, starring one of June's favorites: Sarah Lancashire. Then, the panel dives into the world of AI with After Yang. Finally, the panel answers Dana's very important question: is Chris Pine the Robert Redford of our time?  In Slate Plus, the panel discusses their favorite Canadian cultural products. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements Dana: An audiobook which revolutionized the way Dana thinks about Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway read by Juliet Stevenson (of Truly, Madly, Deeply fame). June: The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War by Louis Menand about a wide range of ideas from World War 2 to The Cold War. Steve: An essay by general interest writer and professor Justin E. H. Smith, titled “The Punk-Prophet Philosophy of Michel Houellebecq,” for Foreign Policy, in which he writes an uninhibitedly intelligent assessment of the famed French novelist and essayist. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Nadira Goffe. Outro music is "I Want a Change" by The Big Let Down. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the panel is joined by June Thomas, co-host of Working (Slate's podcast on the creative process). They begin by digesting HBO's Julia Child series, Julia, starring one of June's favorites: Sarah Lancashire. Then, the panel dives into the world of AI with After Yang. Finally, the panel answers Dana's very important question: is Chris Pine the Robert Redford of our time?  In Slate Plus, the panel discusses their favorite Canadian cultural products. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements Dana: An audiobook which revolutionized the way Dana thinks about Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway read by Juliet Stevenson (of Truly, Madly, Deeply fame). June: The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War by Louis Menand about a wide range of ideas from World War 2 to The Cold War. Steve: An essay by general interest writer and professor Justin E. H. Smith, titled “The Punk-Prophet Philosophy of Michel Houellebecq,” for Foreign Policy, in which he writes an uninhibitedly intelligent assessment of the famed French novelist and essayist. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Nadira Goffe. Outro music is "I Want a Change" by The Big Let Down. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Angela Westwater at 257 Bowery, 2020, photo by Alexei Hay Angela Westwater co-founded Sperone Westwater Fischer in 1975 with Italian art dealer Gian Enzo Sperone and German gallerist Konrad Fischer, opening a space at 142 Greene Street in SoHo, New York. (The gallery's name was changed to Sperone Westwater in 1982.) An additional space was later established at 121 Greene Street. The founders' original program showcased a European avant-garde alongside a core group of American artists to whom its founders were committed. Notable early exhibitions include a 1977 show of minimalist works by Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Sol Lewitt; seven of Bruce Nauman's seminal early shows; six early Gerhard Richter shows; two Cy Twombly exhibitions in 1982 and 1989; eleven Richard Long exhibitions; and the installation of one of Mario Merz's celebrated glass and neon igloos in 1979 -- part of the gallery's ongoing dedication to Arte Povera artists, including Alighiero Boetti. Other early historical exhibitions at the Greene Street space include a 1989 group show, "Early Conceptual Works," which featured the work of On Kawara, Bruce Nauman, Alighiero Boetti, and Joseph Kosuth, among others; a 1999 Fontana exhibition titled "Gold: Gothic Masters and Lucio Fontana"; and selected presentations of work by Piero Manzoni. From May 2002 to May 2010, the gallery was located at 415 West 13 Street, in a 10,000-square foot space in the Meatpacking District. In September 2010, Sperone Westwater inaugurated a new Foster + Partners designed building at 257 Bowery. Today, over 45 years after its conception, the gallery continues to exhibit an international roster of prominent artists working in a wide variety of media. Artists represented by Sperone Westwater include Bertozzi & Casoni, Joana Choumali, Kim Dingle, Shaunté Gates, Jitish Kallat, Guillermo Kuitca, Wolfgang Laib, Helmut Lang, Amy Lincoln, Richard Long, Emil Lukas, David Lynch, Heinz Mack, Mario Merz, Katy Moran, Malcolm Morley, Bruce Nauman, Otto Piene, Alexis Rockman, Susan Rothenberg, Tom Sachs, Peter Sacks, Andrew Sendor, and William Wegman. Past exhibitions, press, and artworks can be found on the gallery website. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Westwater received her BA from Smith College and her MA from New York University. She arrived in New York City in 1971 and landed her first job as a “gallery girl” at the John Weber Gallery at 420 West Broadway. From 1972 to 1975, she served as Managing Editor of Artforum magazine. In 1975, the same year the gallery was founded, Westwater was appointed to the Board of Trustees of The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, where she has served as President since 1980. The books mentioned in the interview are The Free World, Art and Thought in the Cold War by Louis Menand and A Life of Picasso, The Minotaur Years by John Richardson. Joana Choumali, Untitled (Ça Va Aller), 2019, mixed media, 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches (24 x 24 cm), 16 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches (41,3 x 41,3 cm) Joana Choumali, WE ARE STILL NOW, 2022, mixed media, 4 parts; 38 1/2 x 78 inches (97,8 x 198,1 cm)

 Our intrepid hosts investigate poetry reading cliches and surmise which poets of the past (and present) would have committed these heinous crimes -- and in broad daylight, too!Poets we mention include:1) Read a fabulous essay by Emily Wilson on Sappho here. 2) Many of (Sagittarius) William Blake's artworks can be viewed online through the National Gallery of Victoria here.3)  Catullus's manuscripts are viewable online here; you'll need to be able to read Latin.4)  Aaron references James Wright's "The Sumac in Ohio," which ends:"Before June begins, the sap and coal smoke and soot from Wheeling steel, wafted down the Ohio by some curious gentleness in the Appalachians, will gather all over the trunk. The skin will turn aside hatchets and knife blades. You cannot even carve a girl's name on the sumac. It is viciously determined to live and die alone, and you can go straight to hell." Wright was a Sagittarius. 5) The poem we reference by Maxine Kumin about wearing the clothes she traded with Anne Sexton can be found here (navigate to the poem on the left side of the website). Kumin is a June 6 Gemini (like Aaron). 6)  H.D. (Virgo) is primarily a poet, but she also wrote prose and translated from the Greek.  7) Go watch Louise Glück talk about making poems here, particularly about her poem "Landscape" in Averno (first published in Threepenny Review). You'll thank me for showing this to you. Glück is a Taurus. 8) Terrance Hayes is a Scorpio. Visit his website here. 9)  The National Portrait Gallery had a terrific show on Gertrude Stein (Aquarius) in 2011. You can view much of the show online here. And of course there's a story that Anne Carson recounts in her book, Glass, Irony and Godabout why Hemingway friend-broke-up with Stein (in the essay "The Gender of Sound") that we recommend. (The story will not improve anyone's opinion of Hemingway.)  10) Joyce Carol Oates (Gemini) issued an apology after railing against the use of singular they/them pronouns. You can read a recap of the ugly mess here. 11)  Ezra Pound was a Scorpio as well as a poet, translator, and critic. His "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste" is instructive advice for poets.  Louis Menand wrote an essay for the New Yorker about Pound's rabid antisemitism ("The Pound Error," June 16, 2008). 12) Allen Ginsberg was a Gemini. You can read a collaborative poem called "Pull My Daisy" here. Kerouac adapted that into a film starring Ginsberg and others in their circle; Pull My Daisy can be watched here. 13)  Read more about Christina Rossetti on the Victorian Web, one of the best online resources about writers in the long 19th century. Rossetti is a Sagittarius. 14)  More about John Keats can be found here. Aaron and James also recommend Anahid Nersessian's terrific book Keats's Odes: A Lover's Discourse.&

I veckans avsnitt berättar Ida om sina vilda äventyr i Umeå (lämnade aldrig hotellet) och deltagande i den 15:e upplagan av litteraturfestivalen Littfest. Pontus befinner sig på Gotland och är sugen på att kasta sig över det nysläppta storverket 'The free world. Art and thought in the cold war”' av idé- och kulturhistorikern Louis Menand när han kommer hem. Dessutom: I hela Sverige ser vi att människor reser sig för att hjälpa människor på flykt och att bistå Ukraina i deras kamp mot Rysslands invasion. Ligger det i vår folksjäl och identitet en känsla av att tillhöra "den humanitära stormakten Sverige", med förebilder som Raoul Wallenberg, Dag Hammarsköld och Olof Palme? Är att hjälpa människor i nöd i själva verket vårt lands definition av vad det innebär att vara en god människa? "Yummie" på den här veckans ämnen alltså, tack för att ni är med oss!

“I'm not a prophet,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote in his controversial concurring opinion in McDougall v. County of Ventura. Second Amendment attorney Sean Brady disagrees. Joining appellate attorneys Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis, Sean says Judge VanDyke will be proven correct: the Ninth Circuit in the last several years has granted en banc review of every panel decision favorable to the Second Amendment, and has denied review to every unfavorable decision.(And a few days after taping, On March 8, 2022 the Ninth Circuit granted en banc review of McDougall.)McDougall involved Covid-19 orders shutting down gun ranges. The McDougall decision found Governor Newsom's executive orders violated the Second Amendment.Sean explains how the Ninth Circuit, and other circuits, have adopted a line of Second Amendment analysis that follows more closely Justice Breyer's dissent in D.C. v. Heller than the Supreme Court's majority. That is why, after writing the opinion for the panel, Judge VanDyke also wrote a concurrence, reaching the same conclusion but using this alternative line of analysis.But wasn't Judge VanDyke's concurrence jarring and off-putting? Perhaps. And it is an unusual style for a judge to resort to. But the three attorneys agreed that Judge VanDyke meant it, quite deliberately, to be at least slightly offensive: an affront to the modern taste for cool and logically seamless forms of persuasion. Judge VanDyke genuinely believes that, however it happened, the train has gone off the tracks, and it will take some shoving and heavy breathing to put it back again.Sean Brady's biography and LinkedIn profile.Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.Sign up for Tim Kowal's Weekly Legal Update, or view his blog of recent cases.Other items discussed in the episode:McDougall v. Cnty. of Ventura, 23 F.4th 1095 (9th Cir. Jan. 20, 2022).Louis Menand, American Studies.DC v. Heller, 552 US 1035 (2007).McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010).Duncan v. Becerra, 742 F. App'x 218 (9th Cir. 2018).Peruta v. California, 137 S. Ct. 1995, 1997 (2017).Young v. Hawaii, 992 F.3d 765 (9th Cir. 2021).Tim Kowal, “The Doomsday Provision,” the term coined by Judge Kozinski.NPR, “

What is the value of a humanities education, especially for historically underserved students? What is the place of the humanities in American higher education? Beginning with a discussion of Louis Menand's essay, “What's So Great About Great-Books Courses?” (The New Yorker, Dec. 2021) and Brian Rosenberg's response (“This Is the Way the Humanities End,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 2022), Boyle and Rosenberg's conversation explores tensions between the research and education missions of the modern university, the role of the humanities teacher, what's at stake in how we think about the purpose of general education, and more. Links: Louis Menand, “What's So Great About Great-Books Courses?” Brian Rosenberg, “This Is the Way the Humanities End"

The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas by Gal Beckerman An “elegantly argued and exuberantly narrated” (The New York Times Book Review) look at the building of social movements—from the 1600s to the present—and how current technology is undermining them “A bravura work of scholarship and reporting, featuring amazing individuals and dramatic events from seventeenth-century France to Rome, Moscow, Cairo, and contemporary Minneapolis.”—Louis Menand, author of The Free World We tend to think of revolutions as loud: frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. But the ideas fueling them have traditionally been conceived in much quieter spaces, in the small, secluded corners where a vanguard can whisper among themselves, imagine alternate realities, and deliberate about how to achieve their goals. This extraordinary book is a search for those spaces, over centuries and across continents, and a warning that—in a world dominated by social media—they might soon go extinct. Gal Beckerman, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, takes us back to the seventeenth century, to the correspondence that jump-started the scientific revolution, and then forward through time to examine engines of social change: the petitions that secured the right to vote in 1830s Britain, the zines that gave voice to women's rage in the early 1990s, and even the messaging apps used by epidemiologists fighting the pandemic in the shadow of an inept administration. In each case, Beckerman shows that our most defining social movements—from decolonization to feminism—were formed in quiet, closed networks that allowed a small group to incubate their ideas before broadcasting them widely. But Facebook and Twitter are replacing these productive, private spaces, to the detriment of activists around the world. Why did the Arab Spring fall apart? Why did Occupy Wall Street never gain traction? Has Black Lives Matter lived up to its full potential? Beckerman reveals what this new social media ecosystem lacks—everything from patience to focus—and offers a recipe for growing radical ideas again. Lyrical and profound, The Quiet Before looks to the past to help us imagine a different future.

This is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.This is a conversation I’ve been wanting to have for a long time. I met Kevin several years ago, and it was a big moment for me. This was the first time I’d ever met a real author. Of course I said something foolish. Of course he has no recollection of such foolish statements. I’m a huge admirer of his first book, The Most Dangerous Book, which tells the story behind Ulysses—one of the most controversial manuscripts of all time. It’s got an incredible cast of characters from James Joyce to Hemingway to Ezra Pound to Sylvia Beach. That book really drew me into to Kevin’s style of writing and the way he’s able to bring social analysis to bear on literary and intellectual themes.Kevin Birmingham has a PhD in English from Harvard. He actually studied under Louis Menand, whom I’ve also had on the show and is one of my all-time favorite authors. In this conversation, I definitely ask Kevin about Menand’s influence—a bit toward the end. Kevin has won numerous awards including the PEN New England Award and the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism. The occasion for our conversation today is the publication of his new book, which came out in November 2021. It’s called The Sinner and the Saint, and it tells the story of the creative process behind Dostoevsky’s masterpiece Crime and Punishment. Since it’s a Russian novel, the creative process entails a great deal of suffering. The book also ties in the true story of how Dostoevsky’s thriller was inspired by the real life crimes of a Frenchman, Pierre François Lacenaire. (I’d like to imagine that all French criminal masterminds are named Pierre François.)Of course I’m a cognitive scientist by training, so I don’t have a lot of background in literary analysis. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve enjoyed Kevin’s books so much, helping me, as a layman, to understand books—at least aspects of books anyway—that I wouldn’t otherwise have the tools to grasp. There’s a passage I especially love from Kevin’s recent book: “One measure of Dostoevsky’s talent is that he could make something as small as a wink turn all the gears in a complex relationship. Porfiry’s tiniest movement is either an involuntary twitch or a cunning signal. Either it means nothing or it spells out Raskolnikov’s doom. He doesn’t know how to read it, and he can’t even tell if it happened. Raskolnikov wonders if all of his blinks look like winks, if the inspector’s eyes always gleam on a horizon between empty sky and unsounded fathoms. He begins to scrutinize every detail: the way the inspector positions his body, the tone of his voice, the way he emphasized the word she. In Dostoevsky’s murder story, the detective is the mystery.”At any rate, talking to Kevin is like having a private seminar with your favorite professor. He’s able to spin some really great answers. It was a fun conversation, and I’m really looking forward to sharing it with you!Kevin’s Three Books:James Baldwin: Notes of a Native SonJames Joyce: UlyssesFyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and PunishmentLike this episode? Here’s another one to check out:I’d love to know what you thought of this episode! Just reply to this email or send a note directly to my inbox. Feel free to tweet me @CodyKommers. You can also leave a rating for the show on iTunes (or another platform). This is super helpful, as high ratings are one of the biggest factors platforms look at in their recommender system algorithms. The better the ratings, the more they present the show to new potential listeners.Also: If you’d like to unsubscribe from these weekly podcast emails, you can do so while still remaining on the email list that features my weekly writing. Thanks for following my work! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.com/subscribe

From artistic experimentation to an explosion in pop music, Louis Menand speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about American art, culture and ideas between 1945-65. They touch on the Beatles making waves in the US, the rise of counterculture, and how silent compositions and messy canvases redefined the boundaries of art. (Ad) Louis Menand is the author of The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War (HarperCollins, 2021). Buy it now from Waterstones:https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-Histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fthe-free-world%2Flouis-menand%2F9780007126873 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“I just try, like any writer, to be entertaining and interesting. I want people to get some pleasure and to learn something.”--Louis Menand (1952), American Critic and essayist.

Rhian E. Jones, editor of Red Pepper and writer and editor of several books including two about music and one on popular culture, joins us to talk about social class as it pertains to UK popular music and its major influences.    The conversation starts roughly in the Twentieth Century with brass bands, Joe Hill, and music hall, then wends its way inexorably to the Thatcher years, the revolutionary truth about lemons, a song about a motorcycle, and eventually to the present day, Grime, and working class access to music.    We have put together a playlist to accompany this episode, available on Spotify and Apple Music.   Our Patreon   Buy our merch     Second Row Socialists on Twitter     Comradio on Twitter       Alternative Left Entertainment     Follow ALE on Twitter     Rhian's Twitter    Red Pepper on Twitter    Clampdown - Pop-cultural wars on class and gender by Rhian E Jones (2013)    Triptych : Three Studies of Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible by Larissa Wodtke, Rhian E Jones, Daniel Lukes (2017)    Under My Thumb: Songs that hate women and the women who love them by Rhian E Jones, Eli Davis (2017)    Paint Your Town Red : How Preston Took Back Control and Your Town Can Too by Matthew Brown, Rhian E Jones (2021)   Music playlist - Spotify    Music playlist - Apple Music     Nixon's "Great Silent Majority"    Citations Needed | Episode 119: How the Right Shaped Pop Country Music    The Elvic Oracle: Did Anyone Invent Rock N Roll? - Louis Menand in The New Yorker (2015)    Trashfuture - Britainology 9: UK Rave Culture    History of Factory Records    One leaf that David Cameron should take out of Thatcher's book - Barbara Gunnell in The Guardian (2011)    Cover of the first Stone Roses album    James of Manic Street Preachers wears a balaclava on TOTP    Richey Edwards: The mysterious disappearance of the Manic Street Preachers star, 25 years on - Ed Power in The Independent (2020)    ‘McDonalds' Music' Versus ‘Serious Music': How Production and Consumption Practices Help to Reproduce Class Inequality in the Classical Music Profession - Anna Bull and Christina Scharff (2017)    Trashfuture - A Functioning State? Never Seen One of Those feat. Sanjana Varghese. (inc "Housekeeping")    Resonate. The Community Owned Music Service     Metropolitan Police apply for court order to stop gang members making drill music, in unprecedented move - Chris Baynes for The Independent (2018)    How UK Ravers Raged Against the Ban - Frankie Mullins in Vice (2014)

Wherein the narrator finally revisits and posts a conversation with historian, New Yorker staff writer, and Harvard professor Louis Menand about his latest book THE FREE WORLD: ART AND THOUGHT IN THE COLD WAR. The narrator explains why this is the most mind-widening and -altering book he read in 2021...and then goes on to explain why it took six months for him to work up the courage to post it. EMAIL: thousandmovieproject@gmail.com PATREON: www.patreon.com/thousandmovieproject

Hello friends,It's a new Monday of a new year. Hope yours is fantastic. And however it is, and wherever you are, here's some Jane Austen podcasting to power your Monday. Louis Menand is a New Yorker writer and a Harvard professor who tries to get his Harvard students to read and understand and appreciate the stories of Jane Austen, among other classic authors - that's his day job. He co-teaches and co-founded a year-long freshman Humanities course at Harvard, with author and professor Stephen Greenblatt - the course is called “Humanities 10: An Introductory Humanities Colloquium.” Menand says that the conversations in that popular Harvard class - and also the ways we read Jane Austen - are getting more global in scope, and more historical. Our perspectives, you might say, are expanding. This conversation is the last of our Season 2 series of podcast episodes - you can listen to the entire series on Spotify and Apple,  or play/stream them straight from the Austen Connection website. It was a New Yorker article Louis Menand wrote in September 2020 that captured our attention: Titled “How to Misread Jane Austen,” the piece examines current books and thinking about Austen, and how she is interpreted in today's world. The ideas of Austen scholars like Helena Kelly, author of Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, and Tom Keymer, author of Jane Austen: Writing, Society, Politics, are explored.Menand is himself the author of several books uniting history, culture, and ideas: His latest is The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War. We interrupted Menand's book tour to see if he'd like to take a break from the Cold War to talk with us about Jane Austen. Lucky for us - he welcomed the diversion.Menand says Austen is important not just as an early, seminal novelist in English, but also as an innovator. You have to understand Austen to understand groundbreaking experimentalists like James Joyce. Like anyone teaching Austen, Menand and his colleagues also have to get creative in the effort to convince their students about the relevancy of the Regency world. Drawing from wedding and marriage announcements in the New York Times and the New York Daily News, professors Menand and Greenblatt get their freshmen students to see that we're all inhabiting a world of status and class, and money and marriage, that we have to navigate. In this conversation, Menand discussed the Courtship Plot and how part of understanding marriage in Austen is understanding math in Austen. That specific Regency-era formula for capital, interest rates, and income is key to decoding the motivations and the stakes influencing Austen's heroes and heroines. We also talked about the novel Emma. For Professor Menand, this novel is really about Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax. As many of you know, I very much agree!Enjoy this conversation!—--And, thank you for tuning in, friends.Please let us know any comments or back-talk you have for us on any of the dialogue here - about math, marriage, money, and Austen. And: Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill and Emma. And, who out there is teaching Jane Austen?As a journalism professor who has never taught literature, it'd be wonderful to hear how you take on the challenge of making Austen relevant and engaging to students today - whether at the high school, college, or graduate level. Any special tricks? New approaches? General philosophy? Get in touch, teachers. You can simply reply or email us at austenconnection@gmail.com - or comment here: Meanwhile, thanks for listening.Have a wonderful, safe, first week of this hopeful 2022,Yours truly,Plain Jane Cool linksLouis Menand's The Free World Helena Kelly's Jane Austen, the Secret Radical Tom Keymer's Jane Austen: Writing, Society, Politics If you are contributing as a paid subscriber to the Austen Connection, you are a member of the Charlotte Lucas Loyalty Club - and you rock. Thank you! If you appreciate this podcast, project, and the labor that goes into creating it, and would like to support the work, you can contribute as a paid subscriber and join the Charlotte Lucas Loyalty Club. You are also very welcome to sign up for the newsletter and join this community for free. The Austen Connection is free and available to everyone. Thank you for being here.  Get full access to The Austen Connection at austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe

Louis Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor of Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M.Bass Professor of English at Harvard University. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker Magazine and has served as an associate editor at The New Republic and a contributing editor at The New York Review of Books. His book The Metaphysical Club earned him the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for history and the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians. In 2016, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama. Most recently he is the author of the triumphant new book The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War, which was published in April 2021 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Louis Menand Book Recommendations: Tristes Tropiques - Claude Levi-Strauss Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham - Carolyn Brown Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 - Tony Judt Warhol - Blake Gopnik Wolf Hall Trilogy - Hilary Mantel About The Inquiring Mind Podcast: I created The Inquiring Mind Podcast in order to foster free speech, learn from some of the top experts in various fields, and create a platform for respectful conversations. Learn More: https://www.theinquiringmindpodcast.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinquiringmindpodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theinquiringmindpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanGGoldberg TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdKj2GeG/ Subscribe to the Inquiring Mind Podcast: Spotify: http://spoti.fi/3tdRSOs Apple: https://apple.co/3lGlEdB Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3eBZfLl Youtube: https://bit.ly/3tiQieE

The Cold War was not just a contest of power. It was also about ideas, in the broadest sense―economic and political, artistic and personal. In The Free World, the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize–winning scholar and critic Louis Menand tells the story of American culture in the pivotal years from the end of World War II to Vietnam and shows how changing economic, technological, and social forces put their mark on creations of the mind. How did elitism and an anti-totalitarian skepticism of passion and ideology give way to a new sensibility defined by freewheeling experimentation and loving the Beatles? How was the ideal of “freedom” applied to causes that ranged from anti-communism and civil rights to radical acts of self-creation via art and even crime? With the wit and insight familiar to readers of The Metaphysical Club and his New Yorker essays, Menand takes us inside Hannah Arendt's Manhattan, the Paris of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, Merce Cunningham and John Cage's residencies at North Carolina's Black Mountain College, and the Memphis studio where Sam Phillips and Elvis Presley created a new music for the American teenager. He examines the post war vogue for French existentialism, structuralism and post-structuralism, the rise of abstract expressionism and pop art, Allen Ginsberg's friendship with Lionel Trilling, James Baldwin's transformation into a Civil Rights spokesman, Susan Sontag's challenges to the New York Intellectuals, the defeat of obscenity laws, and the rise of the New Hollywood. Stressing the rich flow of ideas across the Atlantic, he also shows how Europeans played a vital role in promoting and influencing American art and entertainment. By the end of the Vietnam era, the American government had lost the moral prestige it enjoyed at the end of the Second World War, but America's once-despised culture had become respected and adored. With unprecedented verve and range, this book explains how that happened.

Hello friends,Today we bring a new podcast episode and conversation that I think you will love. It's with Damianne Scott, an educator, writer and speaker in the Jane Austen community - she teaches literature at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College and Cincinnati State University. And she's the host of the Facebook page, Black Girl Loves Jane. She's also working on a very intriguing project right now - rewriting the story of Jane Austen's Persuasion into the setting of an African-American megachurch. In her own book project, Persuaded, due out from Meryton Press next year, Ms. Scott makes Anne Elliot a PK - or preacher's kid. And as Dr. Cornell West has pointed out, in a legendary talk at the JASNA Annual General Meeting of 2012, Jane Austen was also a PK, or preacher's kid. This is a world that Damianne Scott knows well, and it's a world I also am not unfamiliar with - I also, as it happens, am a PK - so I really enjoyed this conversation. Ms. Scott says that as a student of 19th century literature, which she has loved since middle school, she often has found herself the only Black student in the room. So she appreciates the nontraditional casting of shows like Bridgerton, but has also watched and addressed the backlash that has arisen from that production and from the PBS series Sanditon.An article Damianne Scott contributed to JASNA.org, or the Jane Austen Society of North America online, addressed the pineapple controversy surrounding the Sanditon series. A chorus of viewers felt that using the pineapple emoji as a fan symbol for the show was insensitive to the cultural weight and the connotations of colonialism and of the slave trade carried by that symbol. Damianne Scott weighed in, and she weighs in here, in this conversation, saying she hopes people and the community of Austen lovers and fans will continue to grow and understand that - as she says - Austen doesn't want to be put up on a pedestal: Jane Austen, she says, wants to be among the people. I love that.Press play here (above) to stream this from any device, or find the Austen Connection podcast on Spotify or Apple. Enjoy!And for you word lovers, here's an excerpt from our conversation:Plain JaneLet me talk a little bit first about Persuasion. So why do you love the story of Persuasion?Damianne ScottWell, I love the story of Persuasion … It was my first Jane Austen novel that I read in college. And the first one I did a paper on. So that was one reason why I loved it. Second, I do enjoy the movie, the one that [from 1995], with Ciarán Hinds, the BBC, is one of my favorite adaptations. And then I like it now. Because Anne Elliot is very adaptable for any woman today, who is over a certain age who is not married, who has no children, and who has come to bear the responsibility  - either willingly or unwillingly - to be the caregiver of their parents, and their finances, the dependable child in the household. And I find that very relatable to me, because I am not married, have no children, and have become the pseudo-caregiver [and] financial-responsibility person, in my family. So it speaks to me. The other thing is, I think that Persuasion in itself, again, is very adaptable to what I'm doing now with my rewriting of it and modernizing it. Anne - she's always criticized by her father for the way she looks. There's that famous scene where, you know, she's talking, and he's like, “Oh, your skin looks better today, you changed cold creams”! And he talks about the naval officers, and he talks about Admiral Croft and how, you know, he looks pretty well for somebody who was in the Navy!Plain Jane  And it's very funny, like, it's a source of humor, but also it's just, you feel Anne's pain. I mean, any woman in the world feels Anne's pain with all of this. We're also laughing at it.Damianne Scott Because he's totally ridiculous! Like, really. So it is very funny. And so my adaptation- it's a little focused on physicality. So my Anne does not necessarily have a skin issue, but she has a weight issue. And then, because she's in this community, a small community - well, not a small community, but anyone who knows about African-American megachurches, which is where my book takes place ... people can still pretty much know your business, because it's a small community.Plain Jane So let me - I have to ask you more about this: I want you to talk about this retelling, but I will just say, I grew up going to Black churches. And I grew up going to megachurches. But never a Black megachurch.Damianne Scott Well, there actually are not that many.Plain Jane Well, I grew up in a sort of evangelical background. So I didn't love the megachurches … So can we just pause for a second and you tell me: Why that setting? Why the Black megachurch?Damianne Scott Well, because I'm familiar with it. It is, you know, my world. I go to church now. And so, though my church was not a megachurch, in the terms of how we think of it, when I was growing up, it had about 500 members. And at that time, so those were like mid-'80s, that was a big number of people. And then my pastor, he was the head bishop of the state of Ohio, for our denomination. So I'm very used to that church, where everybody knows your business. And you know what it means to be a preacher's kid, so I wasn't a preacher's kid. But I know what it means to be a preacher's kid and deacon's kid, someone-of-authority's kid, everybody talking about what's going on and everybody else. It is a village mentality. Plain JaneYeah, that's so true. And it is like a village. You were starting to say everybody knows each other's business. It's like the “four and twenty country families.” But I love what you're sayingd: there's a hierarchy, it can be a very wonderful, close community. It can also be a fairly oppressive community. And nobody shows this better than Jane Austen, right? I just have to say, Dami, so you were going to megachurches in the ‘80s; I remember going to the megachurches in the ‘80s. And this was in Atlanta. I would not have stepped foot in there without, like, [full] makeup, hair …!Damianne ScottOh yeah. Plain JaneSo, whole thing. And I kind of resented that, you know? So what was your experience? What  has been your experience in the church?Damianne ScottSo … I think I am not critiquing the church as a whole, pastors as a whole, as [much as] this particular pastor. But yeah … I came from a denomination for a long time [where] you didn't wear makeup, so that wasn't a problem. But you know, we were dressed, you didn't go to church and pants … you put together your hair, no jeans, there was no such thing as wearing jeans to church, on a Sunday morning. … if you're a woman, you wear a skirt. … I didn't resent it, because that's all I knew. I didn't feel oppressed by it. Especially when I was young. My friends were there, my family was there. That's where I participated in things, where I cultivated my speaking abilities or my writing abilities. So it didn't find it oppressive, to me, growing up at all. And then as I grew up, something altered and changed. I did start seeing things a little different, because then I realized, you know, church is also business. And so sometimes, it's all business, just like with all denominations … preaching one thing and doing the other. And so there is a little greed aspect to some churches - not all, of course. So … with this hierarchy, there is a power trip … Because of how the system was set up in America, systematically, the racism, the church was the only place where Black people could have clout. So if you are a pastor, or deacon, if you're a missionary, you have power. You have clout. What you say, goes. And so if you are the child of a pastor, a bishop, or whatever, people are looking at you. They expect you to act a certain way, be a certain way, do things a certain way, because you are not only reflective of Christ … but you're also reflected on that power structure. If you do something, you are challenging that power structure, that whole thing might fall down. And so Sir Walter, my character, he is a pastor of a megachurch. But he also has some gambling issues, and some spending habit issues. And he puts his church into debt, where he's almost losing the church and the upper limits of his power and his clout in the community. And then he has these children and one of them … is fiscally responsible and capable and efficient and knows how to run things. He doesn't see her value because she doesn't represent what he thinks a daughter should look like. Physically. … She's someone with intelligence. She's kind of challenging his wisdom … his thought process. And so that makes it really Austen. Even though it's 2021.Plain Jane That's so great. Everything you're describing is this character - that's so Austen, a character, a strong woman, a smart woman who's undermined and undervalued, and just how frustrating that can be. But Jane Austen just shows people how to go forward. So that's kind of what appeals to you about the story of Persuasion? You mentioned a teacher encouraged you, in your Facebook Live [event]. You called it an adult fairy tale, in a way because she does persevere, doesn't she? And is gracious. How does she get by? How does she survive? And why is this an adult fairy tale?Damianne Scott Well, I guess the fairy tale part is because there is no, necessarily, fairy godmother, or magic  - just that Anne kind of realizes that what she wants is important and valued. That she should move on. I mean, the only reason why she doesn't marry Wentworth in the first place is because Lady Russell and her family, and the small community that she's involved in, is like, “No, he has no money. He doesn't represent what we represent, being gentry … You can't marry him, he has no money.”And of course, during that time, having money was the most important thing - you're not marrying somebody necessarily for love, you're marrying somebody for connections, growing the family, making sure you're not starving, especially if you're a woman. So all your sisters are not starving. So this is what you're getting married for, you're marrying for the benefit of society, and particularly your small society. And so what Anne does is realize at the end: “Bump that! Now I'm wanting to do what I want to do, where my voice is heard, and I'm gonna marry this man that I love, that I probably [should have]  married eight years ago, but I listened to y'all.”And so I think the magic is that she realizes her own worth. And that there was somebody who already recognized it and she kind of let it slip away. And she gets a second chance to rectify it, which is something most of us do not get - that second chance to rectify a decision that we made incorrectly. And I think that's why it's a fairy tale.Plain Jane All right! … Do you find yourself having to explain to people about why you love Jane Austen, that it is about hardship? It is about endurance and survival? It's not just about finding somebody to, you know, to marry and carry you off. That it is about what it is like to get through life with responsibility, and how to do it graciously, and how to, hopefully, how to find happiness?Damianne Scott … My friends, they just don't understand that at all. They think of Austen as, you know: the dresses, the balls, the bonnets. And it is, let's not get it twisted: It's part of it. That is the appeal for people who read it today or look at the movies today. It's the romance. Because I mean … all the major novels that she wrote, all the main characters get her man, they get married. We may not see the marriage, but we know they get married. So for some people, that is the appeal of Austen, that is what they look at for Austen. That's why they read Austen and that's all they want. And that's fine. Others, like myself, I'm interested in also the other themes that are going on, the nuances. Because the nuances of the dance, [for instance]: Well, why are they doing that particular dance? Why can't women inherit from their fathers? Why [is it] they cannot work? What was going around in England at that time, to make it the way it is? That is what interests me also. And so, in the community itself … my biggest push is just trying to get them to understand not only the historical, which many of them already do, because that's why they're Janeites, and they really dive in and they're really scholarly about it, where I'm not as scholarly about a lot of the issues. But my biggest question is just to see that it's text, it's ideas that are open to all people. And... that it can be open to other people who might not necessarily have been in the thought of, or the mind of, Austen when she wrote those novels.Plain JaneWell I love that. And I want to hear more about that, Dami. So you started the Facebook page Black Girl Loves Jane to basically do what? To kind of put a stamp on that?Damianne Scott Yeah, well it initially started as something really for me to do, where I could share Jane Austen's quotes and wits and books and all that. That was in August of 2018. So it's pretty new. Just something to, like, put a quote of the day or a photo of the week. And then I would share something that was happening in my life that that wisdom either expresses or answers for. And then my goal was to then have other people share their experience that is similar to the quote that I placed out there today. And I call it Black Girl Loves Jane because I'm a Black girl! So I was a Black girl who loves Jane, which is an oddity! It's not completely, like, not heard of - you know, I've met and seen other women of color who love Jane. But for my circle, I am the odd man out and in college, here I am trying to get my master's degree in English, and I am the only African American who's in a Victorian class or British Romantic class, you know, trying to read Shelley and Austen and talk about these things. And I'm the only one there. And so what Anne does, is realize at the end: “Bump that! Now I'm wanting to do what I want to do, where my voice is heard, and I'm gonna marry this man that I love, that I probably [should have]  married eight years ago, but I listened to y'all.”So that's how it started. And I just like classics in general. So it's not just Austen. I love Hardy. I was presented to Hardy when I was 14 in school. So Hardy was who I started off with, because my teacher did not believe that I would like Austen. Because he was like, “Oh, you like Hardy? You're not going to like Austen because Austen is happy and they get married.”  … We never could read anything modern. So every book we read in high school from ninth to 12th grade when we had to do a book report was a classic. You know, everything else was Hardy, or Eliot, or Dickens, or Austen. So I was like, “Okay, this is a world I'm not used to. I've never been introduced to these classics before. So here we go.”My first book I read was Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Like, “This is what's happening in England in the early 1900s?! Okay! My goodness!” I read Hardy, and then [continued in] high school, college. And then it has eventually over time has evolved to just trying to make the case, in whatever small way I can, that Austen is not just for Caucasian people, that Austen is not just for people from Britain, that there are other cultures that can benefit from the lessons of Austen, or from other classic literature as well. Because anything I deem to be classic is something that is relatable to everyone, if you're willing to do the teaching to make it relatable. I think part of the issue, especially in high schools today, and maybe in some colleges … is that we teach these books, particularly these books that are in the canon, as unrelatable to anyone who's not white, or young … or whatever, and we tell you, “You're never going to understand it.” And really what it is, is the teachers are going to have to figure out a way to make it relatable and teachable for whatever generation they are presented with. And so part of my reason for writing my version Persuaded, part of my reason for why I read other modernization versions of Austen's novels and other classic novels, is because I have this hope. I want to have this hope that it's reachable even to this generation, and that if we don't learn how to make it reachable to the next generation, they're going to die. These classics are not going to be classics anymore. They're not going to want to teach Austen, or Dickens, or Toni Morrison. They're not going to want to teach them anymore because they won't feel they are relevant today. And so, books like, hopefully books like mine, but also Pride by Ibi Zoboi is giving that attention, making that way. And also Unmarriageable [by Soniah Kamal] which I just read too, is making that way, that it is so relatable! These are my people! Even if it is, you know, 1789 when it's written, and I'm reading it in 2021. These are my people. This is what's going on in my life in my world, too. And she's speaking to me. And so that is what my goal is.Plain JaneAwesome! Listeners can't hear that I'm snapping at Dami. I love it. It just makes Austen so much richer, when people realize [that], like I feel like they have already with Shakespeare. So I think you're - hopefully, you're right, and I am too, because I have the same hope -  that it's just a matter of imagination. It's just a matter of changing the way we see it, changing the way we teach it.Damianne ScottI always try to - even with my students,  because I teach English Composition, but I have taught upper-level classes as well about literature - and I'm always trying to get my students to understand that period just means it happened at a certain period of time. And the themes and experiences that we are having are the same themes and experiences that they'll be having 75 years from now, and the way that they were having 75 years ago, if you get through all that superficial stuff, right? Yes, you might have to practice some of the language because Shakespeare is no easy man, by any means! But the themes, the lessons, really what he was saying is just as modern today as anything else.Plain JaneLet me ask you, Dami, what would you like to see in any kind of Persuasion adaptation? What do you think makes it work for today? Because there are also two films coming out.Damianne Scott There is, and one I'm really excited about because one is going to be a color blind or nontraditional Persuasion, what they're calling nontraditional casting, where the Wentworth character is going to be played by a person of color.Plain Jane Oh, is it Cosmo Jarvis? Yes. Okay.Damianne ScottYes. So he's, going to be playing Wentworth. And then Mr. Golding, Henry Golding, who I adore, he is playing Mr. Elliot. Cousin Elliot, I guess. … So, it's nontraditional casting. And so that's what I was excited about, that we had that happening in the era of course of Bridgerton, which I also loved. But [it] also got a lot of flack. And those who are Jane Austen fanatics did not appreciate Bridgerton, some have not appreciated casting for this new Persuasion. And it's because of the nontraditional casting. So for the past six months or so, I've been doing some talks and things like that. I did one for “Race and the Regency” for Jane Austen & Co., where I'm pushing this idea: “Why not? Black people were there. Why are we acting like Black people are not there? There are people of color there, there are people from South Asia, India, were there during that time.” So I don't understand why people get upset about this notion … as if Austen was this historical document that could not be altered. It's fiction! It's fiction! Everything in it is fiction. I guess in England during that time, there is the wars going on at the time. All that has happened. I know this is happening, but again, it's still a fictionalized world, some of the cities don't even exist, really, in England. And these are fictionalized stories. And so the hullabaloo about Bridgerton, particularly, it's the greatest thing right now, is somewhat disconcerting to me. Which is why I make Black Girl Loves Jane, because I just don't understand it. That icing out of cultures who are sometimes forced to read Austen, but they can't be in Austen? They can't be in an Austen film, but you're gonna make them read it as part of the literary canon that you have in school, but then they can't be in it? Doesn't make sense to me. [P]art of my reason for why I read other modernization versions of Austen's novels and other classic novels, is because I have this hope: I want to have this hope that it's reachable even to this generation.So I'm really excited about that. And I'm looking for not only for Persuasion to do it, but I'm looking forward to a time where it's not a big deal. So that is what I'm looking forward to, not only with Persuasion, but all novels and really, you know, all classic novels. Where it's just not a big deal. And I don't always go into it, you know, by any means, looking at any kind of film or book. I'm like, ‘Oh, there's no Black people in it. So I'm not gonna read it, or people of color.' That's not me at all. But I do when I'm looking at it. And as I get more past the the surface stuff, but to the actual discussions about modernization and race and class, there's discussions to be had: … “What is wrong with this scene? Or, what's wrong with this theme that is being carried out through this period? Why was it established? What's wrong with it? And how have we rectified it? Or have we rectified it in 21st century England or America? Are there still class systems that's going on? Are they still based on race? Are they still based on it?” I am just saying that, like you said, the new normal has to come about where it's not such a big deal. I don't know if you know that I published an article in JASNA. Plain Jane Thank you for  reminding me - Yes, I did.Damianne Scott Well, one of the things I mentioned is, and that's part of the problem, I said, is that there is this need to hold on very tightly -  for many British citizens, but it's the same here in America as well - to this history that is not accurate. So this why people get upset with Bridgerton, or nontraditional casting in some Dickens movies, is because they're holding on to this idea of what they believe they are. And even though their history was told to them incorrectly … the challenge of it that's coming about in these last few years, it's very disconcerting for people. So this is why people have a cow. When you're going to have a multiethnic person play Wentworth, this is why people are upset that you have as the high royal in a drama going on in 1830 Regency be a Black queen. This is why people had a cow when the Jane Austen museum said, “Oh, we're going to establish and talk about how Jane lived during this time slavery,” and people have a cow about it.It's because it is challenging an idea and a history that is so ingrained in them, that, “Who will I be, if I am not the owner of Shakespeare or Austen or the Bible, or, for us in America, this great southern tradition? Who are we, if I don't have this? Or if you're telling me that I was wrong, or that my ancestors were wrong for what they did back then. And so therefore, you're now deeming me to be wrong.”And that is part of what solutions are going to have to come about. Because the change is coming. But how can we bring people along? Because it's scary to say to somebody, “Okay, you don't own Austen. I know you're Caucasian, I know you're a woman, and I know you might just want to tackle the stories of love and romance in these novels. But there's something else going on. Jane lived in a time of extreme upheaval. And if you say you love Austen, then you have to love all Austen. And some of what's was going on with Austen is not pretty.” Not necessarily with her, because she was a supporter of abolition, but what was going on around her was not pretty. And it's not all about the balls and the dresses, and that's scary for people. And so my hope is also that we can just have these dialogues where people don't feel like we're attacking or trying to take away something from them, but instead, understand and come to realize that we're trying to add to something that they already have.Plain Jane What would you like to see in our conversations going forward to be more equitable and inclusive? In our conversations about Jane Austen?Damianne Scott I guess what I really would like to see in the future is just this real, true understanding that people of color are not trying to - like what we've just discussed - invade people's space. What we're trying to do is say that we were always there. And that we want to be seen. And that we want to be accepted. Now, does that mean you have to go back and change 250 years of history? Well, no. You can never change that slavery, you can never change that there was a feudal system, and there were the landed gentry - you can't change it. But the idea that we are … this exclusive club, that is a problem. Because the change is coming. But how can we bring people along? Because it's scary to say to somebody, “Okay, you don't own Austen. I know you're Caucasian, I know you're a woman, and I know you might just want to tackle the stories of love and romance in these novels. But there's something else going on. Jane lived in a time of extreme upheaval. And if you say you love Austen, then you have to love all Austen.”So, hopefully, the future is that when we have these discussions, and have these conferences and have these things, that we are interested in the needle-point, and the dancing, and the foods that Austen ate; but we're also interested in the history of what was going on with the slave trade that was happening at that time. And we're also interested in how they were treating women. And we're also interested in talking about what they were doing with the tea that they were taking from India. And then we're also interested in, in all these other maybe somewhat earthy discussions about Austen and that are just as prevalently produced and advertised and populated and attended, as the latest discussion about how to make a bonnet. I am for you learning how to make a bonnet. I want to learn how to make a bonnet too. But I also want you to know that often, we put Austen on a pedestal. Austen does not want to be on the pedestal. We put her on there. And we make her so unreachable: She can only be talking about “this,” she can only be presented “this way.” As long as we keep Austen on that pedestal. she's going to die. Her words, her wisdom, is going to die. Because the one thing my generation - Generation X, Y or millennial - we're not looking for people to put on pedestals. We want people who want to be among the people. And Austen is among the people if you let her be. -------Thank you for being here, friends. Please talk back to us - let us know your thoughts on what Damianne Scott says here about how we read, and teach, and talk about Austen, and how we can make Austen more relatable. Teachers and professors, how do you introduce Jane Austen's stories to your classes today? Do you find that it's helpful to, as Damianne Scott says, consciously think about how to engage young, diverse readers with the classics and to help them see, as she says so beautifully, that Austen is speaking to all of us? And is among us? Let us know! It would be fascinating to continue this discussion! You can comment, here:Meanwhile, watch for more conversations coming up, including new podcast conversations with Ayesha at Last author Uzma Jalaluddin, Island Queen author Vanessa Riley, and Harvard professor and long-time New Yorker writer Louis Menand on “How to Misread Jane Austen.”  Thanks to you for listening, engaging, and making this the wonderful community and conversation that is growing and thriving. Invite a book-loving friend to join us! Have a wonderful week. You can stay in touch with us on Twitter at @AustenConnect, on Facebook and Instagram at @austenconnection, or you can simply reply/comment here. Stay well and stay in touch,Yours affectionately,Plain Jane Cool linksHere's Damianne Scott's piece for JASNA.org on PBS's Sanditon series and the pineapple controversy: https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/volume-41-no-2/scott/Here's our piece on Damianne Scott and BGLJ Facebook page in the Christian Science Monitor: https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2021/0917/Is-Persuasion-the-Jane-Austen-story-we-all-need-right-nowMeryton Press - where Damianne Scott's retelling Persuaded is due for release next year: https://merytonpress.com/More on the upcoming Persuasion film adaptation, starring Cosmo Jarvis, Dakota Johnson and Henry Golding: https://deadline.com/2021/05/dakota-johnson-netflix-henry-golding-persuasion-cosmo-jarvis-suki-waterhouse-richard-e-grant-nikki-amuka-bird-1234754639/*This post was updated to reflect that Damianne Scott also teaches at Cincinnati State University. Get full access to The Austen Connection at austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe

In 1872, a group of men that included future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., father of modern psychology William James, and eccentric polymath Charles Sanders Peirce, formed a philosophical society, called the "Metaphysical Club," to exchange and discuss ideas. While very little is known about how this conversational club was conducted over its nine months of life, we do know that each of its individual members made significant contributions to a uniquely American philosophy called pragmatism, and that pragmatism would in turn greatly influence everything from legal theory to education.My guest today profiles the lives and thinking of each of these interesting men in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book: The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. His name is Louis Menand, he's a Professor of English at Harvard, and today we have a conversation about what the philosophy of pragmatism is about, why Holmes, James, and Peirce, as well as the intellectual John Dewey, arrived at, embraced, and forwarded its principles, and how pragmatism shaped American life between the Civil War and WWI. We end our conversation with why pragmatism fell out of favor, and whether it remains salient today.Resources Related to the PodcastAoM Podcast #576 on American philosophy, including pragmatismConsequences of Pragmatism by Richard RortyJohn Dewey and American Democracy by Robert WestbrookConnect With Louis MenandLouis's Faculty Page at Harvard

In which RJ, Sarah, and Dave talk travel selves, generational generalizations, optimistic pitfalls, and forgiving bad fathers. Also, Sarah spies some aliens and RJ jumps off several cliffs. Click here (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/psychology-travel-vacation-identity-transformation/2021/10/07/19e2615c-2204-11ec-8200-5e3fd4c49f5e_story.html) to read “You're a Different Person When You Travel” by Jen Rose Smith in The Washington Post. Click here (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/its-time-to-stop-talking-about-generations) Louis Menand's essay “It's Time to Stop Talking about ‘Generations'” in The New Yorker. Click here (https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/09/hope-optimism-happiness/620164/)to read Arthur Brooks piece on The Difference Between Optimism and Hope. Click here (https://comment.org/death-and-forgiveness) to read Joseph Keegin's essay on Death and Forgiveness.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We talk about trust and distrust in government. What is the history of distrust in government in the US? How has it been weaponized in the last half-century? What do we lose when we have a blanket distrust in government: who loses and who gains? What motivates strategic attempts to weaken government? In what way is distrust a weapon in the arsenal of attempts to weaken or reduce government? Guests: Amy Fried, John Mitchell Nickerson Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine Steven Webster, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Indiana University To learn more about this topic: How Republicans Stoke Anti-Government Hatred by Luisa S. Deprez in Washington Monthly, August 27, 2021 Covid vaccine resistance and the Capitol riot stem from the GOP long weaponizing distrust, by Noah Berlatsky in NBC New Think, Aug. 3, 2021 Are Liberals to Blame for Our Crisis of Faith in Government? by Louis Menand, August 9, 2021 in The New Yorker At War with Government: How Conservatives Weaponized Distrust from Goldwater to Trump by Amy Fried and Douglas B. Harris, August 2021 Rebuilding Trust in American Institutions By Sonal Shah & Hollie Russon Gilman Jan. 27, 2021, Stanford Social Innovation Review American Rage: How Anger Shapes Our Politics, Cambridge University Press, by Steven W. Webster, Indiana University. August 2020 Stoking the Beast By Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic JUNE 2006 Key findings about Americans' declining trust in government and each other, Pew Research Center, July 22, 2019 The Republicans waged a 3-decade war on government. They got Trump. By Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann Jul 18, 2016, Vox Prerecorded on 9/13 using Zoom technology. The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther,Judith Lyles, Wendilee O'Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League's priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board. The post Democracy Forum 10/15/21: In Government We Trust — Or Do We? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Biden backed the Progressive Caucus in insisting that the bipartisan infrastructure bill not be voted separately from the reconciliation bill. But the question remains: What does Kyrsten Sinema want? Harold Meyerson comments. Also: The co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA, Melina Abdullah, will talk about the LAPD showing up in force at her house twice in the week since she filed a lawsuit over last year's similar incident – we call it ‘swatting,' and we also call it retaliation. plus: we'll talk about the use of the concept of ‘freedom' during the cold war – Louis Menand will explain - His book is ‘The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War'--has been longlisted for the National Book Award.

There's no business like the idea business. That seems an apt motto for *The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War,* a comprehensive new book by Louis Menand. Menand, who splits his time writing for *The New Yorker* and teaching at Harvard, is fascinated by the culture heroes who successfully brought their wares to market between 1945 and 1965. Also fascinated is producer Ken Gordon and in this episode, he interrogates Menand—who, by the way, snagged a Pulitzer for his 2001 book, The Metaphysical Club*—about his multi-dimensional new volume. Menand admits that his ideal reader isn't some corner-officed CEO, but we think that any executive who aspires to be a systems thinker should consult *The Free World* to appreciate the panoramic context surrounding our famed American innovations. Despite the deep cultural focus, *The Free World* is, from certain angles, a business book. “The ideology of creation is that we don't talk about the business side of it,” says Menand. “But without the business side of it you can't get your product out to people.” *The Free World,* Menand says, details “the growth and maturity of the American culture industries. That would include Hollywood, the music business, book publishing, magazine publishing, and the art world. And also the university. All those industries boom after 1945.” Our interlocutors discuss the social networks that helped the characters in *The Free World* succeed—the *dramatis personae* includes everyone from Jean-Paul Sartre to Susan Sontag to The Beatles to James Baldwin and their many colleagues and friends—and how these compare to today's digital communities. “I'm an analog dinosaur,” Menand says, adding that, during his Zoom-enabled pandemic teaching, his students were busy kibbitzing in the chat: “They're carrying on a separate conversation, most of which is in kind of digital language I don't even understand.” The talk here is smart and informative—the flat nature of the web's cultural landscape (“There's just an endless amount of stuff which all more or less has the same degree of temperature,” says Menand. “It's like heat death in thermodynamics”), the surprises Menand found in writing (“Every time you open a door, there's a whole story behind it”), the psychological importance of feeling free, and more—all of which will make you think about our present moment and how current social networks, market forces, and creative thinkers can and will align to take new ideas and make them real. Host: Kenji Ross Engineer: Kyp Pilalas Producer: Ken Gordon

Andrew Cuomo resigns as New York governor.  What's next? Christiane speaks to New York State Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins.  American is almost out of Afghanistan but the Taliban is moving in with rapid speed, seizing its seventh provincial capital in five days. We speak to former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and former Pakistani Ambassador to the U.N Husain Haqqani.  What is the true meaning of freedom and how its core values lie deeply within American culture today.  Our PBS guest, Louis Menand on his new book, “The Free World.” Finally, veteran SNL comedic host, Cecily Strong on her new memoir, “This Will All Be Over Soon,” reflect on losing her cousin to brain cancer and her own isolation during the pandemic.   To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

As the United States celebrates the fourth of July, Fareed brings on an array of experts to examine the state of the country right now. To discuss how history will view this moment in American political life Fareed hosts a panel discussion with two Pulitzer-prize winning historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham. Then, after a turbulent year for race relations in America, Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer-prize winning historian and Harvard professor, tells Fareed about the successes and shortcomings of the movement for racial justice in America. Plus, what's next for the American economy after a period of intense changes? Ruchir Sharma, chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, explains why, economically, America is the come-back nation of the past decade. And lastly, from social media to streaming services, Pulitzer-prize winning historian and Harvard professor, Louis Menand, looks at the boom of cultural products that are being made and consumed in America today.  GUESTS: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jon Meacham, Annette Gordon-Reed, Ruchir Sharma, Louis Menand To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

I discuss the discussion of kitsch in Louis Menand's book The Free World.

Beyond Blade Runners and Replicants, there must be a place “Over the Rainbow” for us to exist in solidarity and equanimity. And certainly, the 21st Century hovering above us should be a cause for hope, not despair; yet even with this new century being no way near its quartermark, it's already given us a planet wheezing from ecological crisis-to-crisis, where an untenable economic system of neo-feudalism ravages plants and animals, as well as the rights of those we love (or should love). In the Terror & Twilight of Our Broken Age, what ideology best speaks and acts from a place made from compassion and love? Instead of passively looking at the new century that hangs in the sky, blinking obliquely above us, we should instead reorganize our motions to The North Star of Human Decency, namely that of Anarchy. For this 21st episode of The Future Is A Mixtape, Matt & Jesse will finally come out of the “political closet” and show some raw & real skin: they are both Anarchists Without Adjectives, and they believe that this ideology of love is the only practical solution to the world's byzantine disorders, fraught with confusion, warbling on without a just antidote. In their most personal and revealing podcast since the show's first episode, Jesse & Matt explore their disparate journeys to humanity's greatest romance, Anarchy; they will describe its origin story, its turbulent relationship with authoritarian communists and how this political philosophy is not only the most idealist of ideologies, but also why it's the only one which can ride inside us--whispering out “hope” for a utopian future. HELPFUL RESOURCE GUIDES ABOUT ANARCHY: The Most Popularly Cited and Shared Introduction to Anarchy: David Graeber's “Are You an Anarchist? The Answer Might Surprise You?!” Thomas Giovanni in the Black Rose Anarchist Confederation: “Who Are the Anarchists and What Is Anarchism?” Have More Specific Questions? Go to An Anarchist FAQ from The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective. The Anarchist Library: A Deep Database and Archive of Out-of-Print & Hard-to-Find Articles, Books, Speeches and Interviews on Anarchy America's Legendary AK Press, Which Runs as a Worker-Cooperative Since 1990, and Publishes Important as well as Far Reaching Works of Political Theory, Journalism, Fiction and Non-Fiction Works. Freedom: The Oldest (& Once Longest Running) Anarchist Newspaper in Print (1886-2014) Get a ‘Memorial Copy' of Freedom's Last Print Issue for February/March 2014 KEY FIGURES & WORKS ON ANARCHISM: Lao Tzu (604 BC - 501 BC) → Most Important Work On Early Notions Anarchy: Tao Te Ching Chuang Tzu (370 BC - 287 BC) → Most Important Work On Early Notions Anarchy: The Book of Chuang TzuGerard Winstanley (1609-1676) → Most Important Work On Early (Western Notions of) Anarchy: The New Law of Righteousness (1649) William Godwin (1756-1836) → Most Important Work On Early (Western Notions of) Anarchy: Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) Max Stirner (1806-1856) → Most Important Work On Anarchy: The Ego and His Own: The Case of the Individual Against Authority (1844) Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) → Most Important Work On Anarchy: What Is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government (1840) Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) → Most Important Work On Anarchy: God and the State (1882) Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) → Most Important Works On Anarchy: The Conquest of Bread (1892) & Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Emma Goldman (1869-1940) → Most Important Work On Anarchy: Living My Life (1931) David Graeber (1961 & Still Kicking) → Most Important Works On Anarchy: Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology (2004) & The Democracy Project: A History, A Crisis, A Movement (2013) MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Judy Garland's “Over the Rainbow” & Where to Watch the Legendary Film in All of Its Proto-Camp Glory The Legendary Theme Song for the Reading Rainbow & Where to Watch the Show in All of Its Kid-Camp Fury Anarchists and Molotov Cocktails! Why Do Black Lives Matter? Why Do Comrades Lives Matter? Because the Police Are Still Swinging Butcher-Batons and Gatling-Guns Against People's Heads: Here, Here, Here, Here, Here and Lastly Sophia Wilansky--a Hero of the Dakota Pipeline Protest--Finally Speaks Out Here. The Rectum & The Shithole of the State Jesse Herring: “Anarchy is a dream . . . Anarchy is a beautiful dream. Anarchy is the North Star of Human Decency” Ursula K. Le Guin's Most Famous Quote: “What is an anarchist? One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice.” What Is Anarcho-Primitivism? A Working Primer (However, if you want a popular conception of the idea, you can watch this popular piece of “ManArchy.” If you want the documentary version, you can watch this instead. Or--fuck all--if you just want a visual sight-gag of Anarcho-Primitivism, you can watch this ode to pre-millennium dread.) The Creators of Novara Radio, Aaron Bastani and James Butler, Discuss the Ideas of Anarchism in This Podcast: “What Is Libertarian Communism?” Ursula K. Le Guin's Official Website & Her Blog MusingsUrsula K. Le Guin's Career-Defining Magnum Opus: The Dispossessed (1974) The New Yorker: Julie Phillip's “The Fantastic Ursula K. Le Guin” Structo Magazine: Euan Monaghan's Interview with Ursula K. Le Guin: “Ursula K. Le Guin on Racism, Anarchy and Hearing Her Characters Speak” (2015) The Anarchist Library: “Anarchism and Taoism” A Working Biography of Paul Goodman: an American Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Psychotherapist and Anarchist Philosopher A History of Revolutionary Catalonia in Libcom: “1936-1939: The Spanish Civil War and Revolution” A Summary of The Dispossessed in Wikipedia Ursula K. Le Guin's Description of “The Wall” in in the opening paragraph of The Dispossessed:“There was a wall. It did not look important. It was built of uncut rocks roughly mortared. An adult could look right over it, and even a child could climb it. Where it crossed the roadway, instead of having a gate it degenerated into mere geometry, a line, an idea of boundary. But the idea was real. It was important. For seven generations there had been nothing in the world more important than that wall. Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on.” An Online Interview with Ursula K. Le Guin, Generated from Questions by Readers of The Guardian: “Chronicles of Earthsea” The Rules of Being a Mormon in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or Mormon Church) In Ask Gramps: “Do I Need to Confess Masturbation to My [LDS] Baptist?” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: “Why and What Do I Need to Confess to My Bishop?” {Which Basically Avoids Mentioning All the Sex and Dirty Parts in Case Readers Become Too Inspired} Catholic Online: “A Guide to Confession” Terry Eagleton in The Chronicle of Higher Education: “In Praise of Marx” Karl Marx's Capital: Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy (Originally Published in 1867; This Was Translated & Reprinted in 1992) David Harvey: A Companion to Karl Marx's Capital (2010) Louis Menand in The New Yorker: “Karl Marx, Yesterday and Today” Mary Gabriel's Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution (2011) Rachel Holmes' Eleanor Marx: A Life (2015) Ralph Nader's Most Notable Works:   Breaking Through Power: It's Easier Than We Think (2016) The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future (2012) “Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us”: A Novel (2011) A Fantastic Essay on Barack Obama's Patina-Presidency: “The Gap Between Rhetoric and Action: The Failed Foreign Policy of Barack Obama” Matthew Snyder's Ph.D. Dissertation: Welcome to the Suck: The Film and Media Phantasm's of The Gulf War (2008) Noam Chomsky's Most Notable Works on Politics & Anarchy: On Anarchism (2013) Who Rules the World? (2016) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media (1988; 2002) Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration and Power (2017) On Language: Chomsky's Classic Works Language and Responsibility and Reflections on Language in One Volume (1998) Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy (2007) Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky (2002) The Anarchist Library: Workers' Solidarity Federation's “History of the Anarchist-Syndicalist Trade Union” The Anarchist Library: Rudolph Rocker on Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism in “The Reproduction of Daily Life” Mikhail Bakunin, The Founder of Modern Anarchism: Mark Leier's Bakunin: The Creative Passion (2009) America's Most Famous Anarchist & Greatest Dissident; as Seen in Candace Falk's Love, Anarchy & Emma Goldman (1990), and Also in Kevin and Paul Avrich's Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman (2012) Michael Albert, the co-founder of Participatory Economics (Parecon): as Seen in the Graphic Novel-ization Parecon: Sean Michael Wilson and Carl Thomspon's Parecomic: Michael Albert and the Story of Participatory Economics (2013) The Big Think: “Do Scientists Have a Special Responsibility to Engage in Political Advocacy?” Michael Albert's Parecon: Life After Capitalism (2003) & Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society (KAIROS) (2017) Andrew Anthony in The Guardian: “Ex-diplomat Carne Ross: The Case for Anarchism” IMDb: John Archer and Clara Glynn's The Accidental Anarchist (About Carne Ross' Epiphany Toward Anarchy After Becoming Disillusioned of Serving State Power) Biola Magazine: “What Are the Key Difference Between Mormonism and Christianity?” Jehovah's Witnesses (JW.org): “What Happens at a Kingdom Hall?” Reddit: “How to Make Molotov Cocktails”  (!!!) David Graeber's Most Famous Essay on Anarchism: “Are You an Anarchist? The Answer Might Surprise You?!” The Anarchist Library: “An Anarchist FAQ” Bakunin on Karl Marx's Idea of Socialism Within the State: “A dictatorship of the proletariat is still a dictatorship.” The Anarchist Library: Wayne Price's “In Defense of Bakunin and Anarchism” (Responses to Herb Gamberg's Attacks on Anarchism) The First International (AKA the International Workingmen's Association) The Socialist International David Harvey's Most Recent Work: Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason (2017) David Graeber's Idea of Baseline Communism Is Fully Explored in His Most Important Work: Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Lord of the Rings & Gandalf's Anxiety & Terror of the Rings Corrupting Powers: “Don't Tempt Me Frodo!” Jonathan Franzen About Those Facebook “likes” in The New York Times: “Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.” Jim Dwyer's Article on Marina Abramovic's Art Project to Stare at People, Eye-to-Eye, Twenty Minutes Each for Hours and Hours; As Explored in The New York Times: “Confronting a Stranger, for Art” Buzzfeed: “Watch Six Pairs Stare Into Each Others' Eyes as a Love Experiment” The Guardian: “Literary Fiction Readers Understand Others' Emotions Better, Study Finds” Annie Murphy Paul in Time Magazine: “Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer” Adam Gopnik Explores the Paris Commune in The New Yorker: “The Fires of Paris” The Anarchist Library: Murray Bookchin's “To Remember Spain: The Anarchist and Syndicalist Revolution of 1936” Noted Correction: Matthew incorrectly stated that members of Congress receive lifetime pension after only being in office one term (two years); In actuality, members of congress receive pension after five years (but Senators do get pensions after just one term of six years). For more information on this, go to FactCheck.org's article on the subject. Margaret Atwood's Interview on Canada's Q TV Where She Discusses Her Creation of God's Gardeners in The Year of the Flood (2009) & How Environmental Activists Must Make Friends with the Religious for a Truly Big Tent Movement to Save the Planet; Also Talks About the Split Between Christian Fundamentalists & Environmental Christians Who View Humans as Stewards of the Earth. Jessica Alexander in The Atlantic: “America's Insensitive Children?” {How Schools in Denmark Teach Students Empathy From a Young Age} Kevin Carson in Center for a Stateless Society: “Libertarian-splaining to the Poor” Learning About Worker Cooperatives: A Working Definition from the Canadian Worker Co-Op Federation Alana Semuels in The Atlantic: “Worker-Owned Cooperatives: What Are They?” National Community Land Trust Network: An FAQ About Community Land Trusts Mikhail Bakunin: “To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.” {For More Quotes by Bakunin, Hit Up His Wikiquote} The Future Is A Mixtape's First Three Episodes Exploring The Poison Pyramid: What Jesse Calls An Unconsciously Inspired Anarchist Idea-Shape: Episode 001: The Desire For Certainty: On the Terrifying Costs of Religious Tyranny Upon Humanity Episode 002: The Invisible Hand: Explores the Death-Dealing Nature of Capitalism Episode 003: Star-Fuckers: Concerns Our Toxic Relationship to the Cult of Celebrity-Worship Mikhail Bakunin's Quote on God as a Bad Boss: "A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished.” Vivir la utopía: Juan A. Gamera's Documentary on the Anarchist Revolution in Catalonia: Living Utopia (1997) Peter Kropotkin's The Conquest of Bread (1892: 2017 Edition Translated by Jonathan-David Jackson) Utopia As Seen George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia Where He Describes How Everyday Workers Were in the Saddle of the 1936 Revolution: "The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle." Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster (2009) Why is it that the German Air-Bombings during WWII (The Blitz) caused suicide rates to plummet so dramatically? British scientists discover the reason as seen in The Telegraph's article: “Terror Attacks Cause Drop in Suicide Rates as They Invoke Blitz Spirit” PBS NewsHour: “Sebastian Junger's Tribe Examines Loyalty, Belonging and the Quest for Meaning” How Spending $25 on Others (Instead of Keeping It for Yourself) Creates More Happiness; as Seen in The New Republic Interview with Scientists: “Want to Be Happy? Stop Being Cheap!” Time Magazine: “Do We Need $75,000 a Year to Be Happy?” The US Military-Industrial-Complex: $700 Billion on Murder and Machinery: Alex Emmons in The Intercept: “The Senate's Military Spending Increase Alone Is Enough to Make Public College Free” Armistead Maupin: “There is your biological family and then your logical family.” As Seen in His Autobiography, Logical Family: A Memoir Is Kamala Harris America's Future President or Just Another Transactional Politician Buried in Corporate Money? Universal Basic Income (UBI) or Universal Basic Dividend (UBD)? Matthew Bruenig's Essay-Report: “How Norway's State Manages Its Ownership Of Companies” (From the People's Policy Project) Michael Zannettis in The People's Policy Project: “Why Americans Are Going to Love Single Payer” Alan Moore's Most Important Works, Both Past and Present: Watchman (Released in 1986-87; Reprinted 2014) V for Vendetta (Released in 1989; Reprinted in 2008 Jerusalem: A Novel (Hardback Release: 2016 & It's 1280 Pages!) From Hell (2004) When V for Vendetta was published it was seen as an SF allegory for Margaret Thatcher's World Gone Mad; As Seen in George Monbiot's Excellent Essay in The Guardian: “Neoliberalism -- the Ideology at the Root of All Our Problems” But There's A World We Can Have from the Anarchist Principles of Mutual Aid, Solidarity and Community Wealth: Marcin Jakubowski's Open Source Ecology Project & It's Philosophy The Making of “America's Most Radical City” as Explored with the Founding of Cooperation Jackson; Jackson's History of This Struggle Is Also Explored in Ajamu Nangwaya & Kali Akuno's Book  Jackson Rising (2017) Feel Free to Contact Jesse & Matt on the Following Spaces & Places: Email Us: thefutureisamixtape@gmail.com Find Us Via Our Website . . . The Future Is A Mixtape Or Lollygagging on Social Networks: Facebook Twitter Instagram