November 2023 Q&A
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com Glenn and John answer Substack subscriber questions from November 2023.
Dec 06, 2023•6 sec
The Glenn Show
Race, inequality, and economics in the US and throughout the world from Glenn Loury, Professor of Economics at Brown University and Paulson Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute
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Episodes
Erec Smith – Free Black Thought
0:00 Is “black heterodoxy” a euphemism for “black conservatism”? 13:34 Classical liberalism’s role in Free Black Thought 15:07 Erec: I saw things while working as a diversity officer that I can’t unsee 22:47 Why the Democratic Party doesn’t like Erec 30:38 How Free Black Thought is fostering agency in the black community 36:16 Erec: The onus is on us, not affirmative action, to prepare black students for college 45:19 What is rhetoric, anyway? Recorded November 13, 2023 Links and Readings Erec’s...
Dec 01, 2023•55 min
John McWhorter, Daniel Bessner & Tyler Austin Harper – The Gaza War and the Crisis of Liberalism
0:00 The state of campus speech after 10/7 5:48 Daniel: Why are critics of cancel culture silent when it comes to Israel? 15:43 “Explaining” Hamas vs. “excusing” Hamas 26:17 Tyler: American Jewish students worried about their safety have been primed by modern identity politics 29:31 The tension between DEI and antisemitism response teams 38:17 The linguistic ambiguity of “From the river to the sea” 43:41 The irreconcilable conflict between campus social justice and donor funding 47:49 If not lib...
Nov 24, 2023•58 min
Robert Wright – The Gaza War Will Create More Terrorists (Bonus Episode)
0:00 How Bob gave Glenn his start in podcasting 2:05 Is the Gaza War in Israel’s best interests … 11:46 … and if not, what should Israel have done in response to October 7? 18:06 How Hamas gained control of Gaza 26:53 Bob: Some in the Israeli government wouldn’t mind a wider war in the Middle East 36:46 What does “From the river to the sea” actually mean? 46:10 Bob: Every settlement in the West Bank is a war crime 54:20 The psychology of victimhood and retribution 1:00:37 The challenge of spirit...
Nov 19, 2023•1 hr 12 min
Yascha Mounk – The Identity Trap
0:35 A quick announcement 1:46 What led Yascha to write about identity 6:22 An intellectual history of “identity synthesis” 12:15 What’s so bad about “strategic essentialism”? 19:15 From postmodernism to post-civil rights 28:45 The three key claims of identity synthesis 36:02 What led up to the summer of 2020? 45:51 The hermetically sealed ideology of Kendi and DiAngelo 50:45 Yascha’s defense of universalism Recorded October 3, 2023 Links and Readings Yascha’s new book, The Identity Trap: A Stor...
Nov 17, 2023•56 min
Reza Aslan – An American Martyr in Persia
0:00 Persia at the turn of the twentieth century 6:43 Woodrow Wilson’s contradictions 11:14 Did Howard Baskerville escape the prejudices of his time? 16:39 How Baskerville got involved in Persia’s democratic revolution 26:43 How Czar Nicholas II aided the counter-revolution 32:29 The erasure of Baskerville in post-1979 Iran 36:31 The theological origin of the Islamic Republic of Iran 45:01 Reza: Ordinary Iranians actually love American culture 48:51 The internal and external pressures on Iran 57...
Nov 10, 2023•1 hr 6 min
October 2023 Q&A
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com Glenn and John answer subscriber questions.
Nov 08, 2023•7 min
John McWhorter – Thinking Through the Gaza War
0:00 Why John thinks pro-Hamas sentiment on the American left is racist 6:11 Distinguishing between anti-colonialism and antisemitism 12:46 There are great crimes in America’s past. But we shouldn’t let them define us. 17:08 Glenn: We’re standing on the precipice of something catastrophic 27:57 John’s proposal for the US’s role in Israel’s domestic conflict 34:59 Is it right for people to lose their jobs over opposing Israel? 42:07 Why are pro-Hamas leftists supporting an anti-liberal regime? 47...
Nov 03, 2023•54 min
John Mearsheimer – America's Sunk Cost in Ukraine
0:00 Why John thinks Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was rational 6:55 How small states deal with world powers 10:13 If Russia’s action were rational, were the US’s? 16:40 John: The Ukraine invasion violates international law, but Russia has reason to see it as just 21:58 The risk of escalation 29:26 Zelensky’s expert manipulation of the West 33:51 Is it a coincidence that so many recent presidential scandals involve Ukraine? 39:57 Can tolerant liberals tolerate illiberal societies? 45:45 American ...
Oct 27, 2023•1 hr 6 min
John McWhorter & Coleman Hughes – The Colorblindness Controversy and Israel-Hamas
0:00 The blowback from Coleman’s TED Talk 8:50 Did TED intentionally throttle promotion for Coleman’s talk? 17:08 John’s trouble with TED while promoting Woke Racism 20:21 Coleman’s forthcoming book, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America 29:17 Race in public and private life 43:49 Closure on the TED affair 45:14 What are the goals of each side in the Israel-Palestine conflict? 51:58 Will the Israeli military response simply restart the cycle of violence and resentment? 1:0...
Oct 20, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Randall Kennedy & Renu Mukherjee – A Debate on Affirmative Action, Live at Holy Cross
0:00 Introduction by Greg Burnep 4:27 What does affirmative action mean in 2023? 11:06 Randy’s distinction between “disadvantage” and “discrimination” 18:21 Diversity’s double-talk 31:18 Did the Supreme Court say discrimination is allowed at military academies? 34:33 Glenn: Affirmative action distracts us from bigger problems 41:16 Affirmative action is an elite problem 48:48 Affirmative action as an insurance policy 57:42 The stigmatization of affirmative action beneficiaries 1:04:14 Glenn: Aff...
Oct 13, 2023•1 hr 36 min
September 2023 Q&A
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com Glenn and John answer subscriber questions.
Oct 11, 2023•14 min
John McWhorter & Dan Subotnik – The Ibram X. Kendi Scandal
0:00 What’s wrong with critical race theory, anyway? 3:31 Why “black Columbia” pretends that John doesn’t exist 12:08 CRT’s racial power-grab 18:06 Does the Jewish American example apply to African Americans? 23:10 Disguising failure as victimology 32:15 Why Dan thinks the CRT tide is ebbing 39:58 The schadenfreude of the Ibram X. Kendi scandal 51:00 John: “I’m embarrassed for Boston University” 56:40 Glenn: Kendi is just a cog in the fraudulent antiracist machine 1:04:31 The shame of the Kendi ...
Oct 06, 2023•1 hr 12 min
Sabrina Salvati & LaJuan Loury – Dems Take Fire from the Left
0:00 How Sabby got her start on YouTube 6:18 What happened to the Justice Democrats’ “hostile takeover”? 11:31 Is the US sliding into fascism? 19:26 The tension between race and class on the left 27:15 Donald Trump’s rising popularity among black men 32:39 The military-industrial complex and climate change 42:07 Sabby’s argument for worker co-ops 51:20 Finding (somewhat) common ground on immigration 54:18 Demilitarizing the police is one thing, defunding the police is another 59:46 Sabby: “We sh...
Sep 29, 2023•1 hr 11 min
John McWhorter & Tyler Austin Harper – How the Race Game Is Played
0:00 Tyler’s concept of “racial gamification” 6:30 Affirmative action in spirit and practice 13:18 Why can’t we just determine admissions based on academic merit alone? 19:17 The fading popularity of “traditional” affirmative action 22:47 Re-weighting and funding the admissions process 32:28 How can we get white “allies” to act normal around black people? 38:23 Can we have interpersonal colorblindness without political colorblindness? 44:42 Tyler’s scholarly work about the end of humanity 48:10 ...
Sep 22, 2023•53 min
Shep Melnick – The Crucible of Desegregation
0:00 Biden’s new DEI initiatives 7:59 The disparate uses of disparate impact 13:59 Shep’s new book, The Crucible of Desegregation: The Uncertain Search for Educational Equality 23:15 The problem with claims that education is resegregating 29:56 Are we heading back to the bussing debates of the 1970s? 35:52 Shep’s book, The Transformation of Title IX: Regulating Gender Equality in Education 44:20 Glenn’s “uncle” objects to analogies between trans people and African Americans 47:58 Shep: Banning C...
Sep 15, 2023•1 hr 2 min
John McWhorter – Whose Election Narrative?
0:00 Can a white man tell Harriet Tubman’s story? 9:59 What the fall semester has in store for Glenn and John 17:25 How John makes the sausage at the New York Times 22:55 John: We now memorize rap lyrics instead of poetry 36:18 Is wokeness on the wane? 42:12 What John just doesn’t get about Carol Swain 51:46 A Democrat by any other name 56:50 John makes a wild prediction about Trump Recorded August 31, 2023 Links and Readings The Philadelphia Harriet Tubman statue John’s NYT piece, “Two Language...
Sep 08, 2023•1 hr 1 min
August 2023 Q&A
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com
Sep 06, 2023•9 min
Carol Swain – The Adversity of Diversity
0:00 Why Carol joined Black Voices for Trump 9:59 Why should black people support Trump? 16:31 Carol: Democrats stole the 2020 election 26:07 Does Trump face a credible assassination threat? 30:35 The redefinition of white supremacy 35:51 Deracializing the crime debate 39:58 Carol’s new book, The Adversity of Diversity: How Real Training Can Promote Healing in a Post-Affirmative Action World 50:55 Glenn: Affirmative action is one thing, DEI is another 1:04:54 Clarence Thomas v. Ketanji Brown Jac...
Sep 01, 2023•1 hr 18 min
John McWhorter – Sixteen Years of "The Black Guys"
0:00 A sixteen-year-long conversation 5:45 Race and socioeconomics on the cusp of the Obama Era 21:19 The myth of black poverty and deindustrialization 32:56 Glenn pulls rank 37:59 Why Glenn changed his mind about the Manhattan Institute 50:15 Is the think tank world any more “objective” than academia? Recorded August 19, 2023 Links and Readings Glenn and John’s first conversation from November 7, 2007 John’s book, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America John’s book, Winning the Race: Be...
Aug 25, 2023•54 min
Haim Shweky – An American-Israeli at the Ukrainian Front
0:00 Haim’s history with The Glenn Show 7:54 How Haim ended up fighting in Ukraine 17:42 The legionnaire’s lingua franca 27:55 Haim’s riposte to Cornel West on Ukraine 42:27 A pen in one hand and a gun in the other 47:56 Haim: Ukraine’s sovereignty and national identity must be respected 53:34 Is the two-state solution dead? Recorded July 23, 2023 Links and Readings Haim’s writing for this newsletter Haim’s Substack, The Garland Glenn’s recent conversation with Cornel West Haim and Nikita Petrov...
Aug 18, 2023•1 hr 4 min
John McWhorter & Ian Buruma – The Spirit of Wokeness
0:00 The protestant ethic and the spirit of wokeness 10:47 Is comparing wokeness to religion a slander on religion? 21:08 Ian: Wokeness is a distraction from real political problems 28:02 How Ian experienced his own cancelation 41:31 America’s exportation of wokeness 45:45 Has wokeness aided and abetted Trump and Brexit? 52:54 John: Enslaved people did find ways to improve their own lives Recorded August 7, 2023 Links and Readings Ian’s Harper’s piece, “Doing the Work” John’s book, Woke Racism: ...
Aug 11, 2023•1 hr 8 min
July 2023 Q&A
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com
Aug 09, 2023•10 min
Jay Caspian Kang – Affirmative Elitism
0:00 How Jay’s position on affirmative action changed 12:15 Jay: I can’t see the virtue in affirmative action as it’s practiced 20:07 Why did so many Asian students defend policies that discriminated against Asians? 25:35 The hidden cultural argument in the California Mathematics Framework 32:01 Is the “people of color coalition” coming apart? 34:55 Why so little outrage over the SCOTUS affirmative action decision? 42:26 When students internalize artificial trauma narratives 49:06 America can’t ...
Aug 04, 2023•1 hr 15 min
John McWhorter and Peter Arcidiacono – The Economics of SFFA v. Harvard
0:00 Peter’s role in the Supreme Court affirmative action case 8:57 Are legacy admissions affirmative action by another name? 19:17 Why Peter got interested in affirmative action 24:20 Glenn was for affirmative action before he was against it 30:33 Peter: Universities are not honest about admissions 34:20 The brilliance of Roland Fryer 51:17 Campus diversity after affirmative action Recorded July 22, 2023 Links and Readings Glenn’s 2020 conversation with Peter Peter’s paper, “What happens after ...
Jul 28, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Matt Johnson – The Lessons of Christopher Hitchens
0:00 How Matt first encountered Christopher Hitchens 6:07 Matt’s new book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment 8:00 Why Matt thinks Cornel West’s Vietnam-Afghanistan analogy is flawed 14:21 What’s worth preserving in the left-liberal tradition? 21:38 Matt: Identity politics is a “toxin” 27:20 Was affirmative action ever necessary? 35:29 Matt: I wish the left would rediscover Hitchens’s universalism 45:04 Hitchens’s “fearless libera...
Jul 21, 2023•54 min
John McWhorter – The End of Race-Based Affirmative Action
0:00 John: Let’s be honest about what “taking race into account” means in affirmative action 10:09 Glenn: How can anyone argue that race-based affirmative action doesn’t violate the 14th Amendment? 19:29 Why are we so focused on elite institutions? 24:32 John: The University of California works just fine without “racial preferences” 30:28 “You’re pulling the ladder up behind you” is an invalid critique 35:00 John: The fact that racism exists does not justify changing standards 44:04 Why Roland F...
Jul 14, 2023•1 hr 4 min
June 2023 Q&A
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com
Jul 12, 2023•7 min
Jay Bhattacharya – Rewriting the COVID Narrative
0:00 The problem with scientific consensus 6:36 Why Jay and his colleagues were branded “fringe epidemiologists” 15:52 Jay: We need to engage with everyone—even those with mistaken beliefs 25:55 Persuading science skeptics 36:04 How do we stop COVID overreach from happening again? 46:38 Jay: Gain-of-function research is impossible to do safely 55:03 Are some ideas too dangerous to test? 59:30 Jay: Fauci’s blunder was so catastrophic that only history can judge him Recorded June 23, 2023 Links an...
Jul 07, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Cornel West – The Presidential Aspirations of Cornel West
0:00 Why Cornel is running for president 10:45 How Cornel links American militarism abroad and inequality at home 15:15 Cornel’s pitch to skeptical right-of-center voters 20:30 Is there tension between Cornel’s commitment to stopping climate change and his commitment to helping the working class? 33:50 The moral potential and pitfalls of capitalism 37:34 Might Cornel inadvertently hand the election to the Republicans? 41:44 Cornel: Tim Scott and Clarence Thomas are wrong, but they’re sincere 46:...
Jun 30, 2023•1 hr 5 min
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