This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live After nearly a month of being consumed by the Israel-Hamas war, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic take a step back to evaluate the prospects of an end to the violence, while still probing their own priors. Damir argues that “moral clarity” is often anything but clarifying, but concedes that “realism” can be self-defeating, because people can’t help but think in both emotional and moral terms during a conflict like this...
Nov 03, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live In a charged and often emotional conversation, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic welcome Robert Nicholson, the president of the Philos Project , to discuss the pro-Israel perspective as the war in Gaza intensifies. Many Israeli voices have veered sharply to the right. However much we may disagree with these views, we have to understand them. Robert, a Christian and self-described Zionist, expresses empathy for the Isra...
Oct 27, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Two weeks after Hamas’s brutal attack on Israeli civilians, tensions have skyrocketed as Israel begins an offensive against Gaza from the air and the ground as the area home to over a half million Palestinians is plunged into darkness. What could have been done to avoid this renewed war and what are the best possible paths toward ending violence? This week, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic invite Peter Beinart on to d...
Oct 20, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live After Hamas fighters massacred hundreds of Israeli civilians, Israel is now massed on Gaza’s borders ahead of an operation that will likely devastate the Palestinian population. This week, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic sit down and unpack their complex thoughts and feelings about what is going on. What is the appropriate way to speak about atrocities after the fact? In the imm…...
Oct 13, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live What are the most valuable parts of our transient lives and how does our appraisal of them change as we age? This week, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic take a step back from larger questions around current events to visit a recurring theme at Wisdom of Crowds around meaning. The episode centers around Damir’s recent Monday Note, “A Lost Sense of Wonder” , where he reflects on the pursuit of enchantment including in c...
Sep 24, 2023•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live As the leaders of the major political parties show stark signs of advanced age, their supporters are bending over backwards to defend their own while criticizing their opponents. Politics at its purest. This week, Shadi and Damir return from summer break to dive into the latest developments in D.C. as the next election looms. They discuss the self-interest and rank hypocrisy of the Republican Party conveyed in a ne...
Sep 17, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live This week, we’re pulling one of our favorite and most explosive episodes from the archive. This one, from May 2022, with socialist intellectual Daniel Bessner on the role of America on the world stage. We encourage all of you, especially our newest Substack subscribers, to have a listen and tell us what they think in the comments. And if you aren’t yet a subscriber, …...
Aug 25, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Capitalism is a revolutionary force. It is not conservative. So why have conservatives gone along with market fundamentalism for so long? Sohrab Ahmari, a convert to Catholicism, has been known as a culture warrior. This time he returns to the podcast to make a surprising argument. Ahmari, the founder and editor of Compact magazine, argues in his new book Tyranny, Inc. , that it’s the economy, stupid. Private power...
Aug 18, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live We’re living in the most prosperous time in human history with more material abundance and comfort — and yet something just feels… off . This week, Shadi Hamid and Samuel Kimbriel take a trip to the heartland to find out what that something is. In this special live recording from the Lyceum Movement ’s Tallgrass Ideas Festival in Iowa, Shadi and Sam join political theorist Susan Laehn to grapple with whether a sens...
Aug 12, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live At a time of disruption in the workforce, rapidly shifting gender norms, a dearth of role models and declines in mental health, men are facing a distinct set of challenges that are prompting a renewed understanding of masculinity. For the last few years, viral right-of-center personalities have dominated the conversation offering men guidance that much of mainstream media has viewed as radioactive. But as the chall...
Aug 07, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Are Muslim communities increasingly tilting to the right ? After about two decades of being alienated by Republicans, American Muslims continue to align themselves with the Democratic Party. But as the country polarizes and the progressive agenda makes gains, writers like our guest find it increasingly untenable for Muslims to continue nodding along with the left’s conceptions of gender identity, sexuality, and sec...
Jul 28, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Does the United States Supreme Court’s legitimacy hang in the balance — or is it itself the balance keeping the union centered? After handing down blockbuster decisions this term on gerrymandering, executive authority and affirmative action, the highest court in the land is facing fierce criticism from progressives in the media and in elected office. This week, we welcomed Washington Post columnist Jason Willick ba...
Jul 14, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Shadi, Christine, and Sam head to Aspen to record a live episode of the show. The crowd gets involved. The broad topic of the conversation was decline. We don’t always know how to express it, but many of us feel it: There’s something wrong with America today. The mood is tense. More Americans say they won’t have children because of climate change and other future catastrophes. But are things really as bad as they seem? Is decline something we need to accept—or is there a case for a new optimism?...
Jun 30, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live There is the Europe of politics. There is the Europe of ideas. But there is also the Europe of actual people, who live, love, die, and dream. How they live and how they hope is shaped by mass migration, climate change, the war in Ukraine, and any number of other disruptions. Who are they and what do their lives actually look like? This week, British journalist Ben Judah talks to Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic about ...
Jun 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live How important are ideological labels and how might they change over the next generation? A lot is on the minds of Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic this week as the two go on a winding discussion about political identity and ideological shifts amid a tribalistic political culture. The guys discussed the rarity of prominent figures publicly changing their political identity and the friction among Americans in mixed ideo...
Jun 09, 2023•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Why is therapy replacing God on dating apps? If bad things happen, were they “meant to be”? When we say that everything happens for a reason, what do we even mean? This week, Shadi and Damir are back on the podcast together with close friend and guest Rachel Rizzo to discuss her stunning new essay , “ Do Liberals Have a God Problem? ” Recently, Rachel noted a striking contrast on dating apps: men who openly state t...
Jun 02, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live As organized religion declines, particularly among younger Americans, a constellation of spiritual and sense-making phenomena appear to be taking its place. This week, Damir Marusic and Editor-at-Large Christine Emba are joined by the author Tara Isabella Burton whose upcoming book Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians , chronicles how our sense of self has evolved over time alongside ...
May 26, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Are big ideas still possible? Are there any “new” ideas left—and what makes an idea new in the first place? If we need new ideas to shake ourselves out of decadence, we should be careful what we wish for. Wokeness is one such “comprehensive framework.” Others might prove similarly frightening. This week, Shadi is joined by New York Times columnist and author of The Decadent Society Ross Douthat and the political ph...
May 21, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live This week, Damir stages an intervention for Shadi. Lately, Shadi’s become gradually detached from the world of current events and political media. Damir probes to understand why, therein unraveling an episode that goes off the beaten path to discuss progress, happiness and meaning at a time when everything feels existential. Shadi maintains that while he isn’t divorcing himself from the commentariat, he’s recognizi...
May 12, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Can a cohesive nation survive without a common identity or shared values? That question is at the heart of this week’s podcast with political theorist David Polansky . Last week, David’s essay in Wisdom of Crowds rebutted the claim that the Israelites can be understood as a modern nation. Throughout history, various peoples, David argues, have coalesced around a shared sense of “peoplehood” without a claim to a nat...
May 05, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Why is Trump such a formidable candidate, despite everything? How can someone who lies so readily be seen as authentic? With the Republican presidential campaign heating up, Sam Adler-Bell —co-host of “ Know Your Enemy ” and one of the most fascinating leftist writers around today—returns to the podcast to argue that Trump has something special that Ron DeSantis doesn’t have and likely never will. Pundits often arg...
Apr 28, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live An anti-natalist subculture has flourished for years online. These days, it feels like it’s taking hold in the real world. This week, writer and internet historian Katherine Dee and Editor-at-Large Christine Emba join Shadi and Damir to make sense of this underground phenomenon—and its broader implications for how we live today. Do people really believe that suffering makes life not worth experiencing? And what is ...
Apr 21, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live With the world feeling increasingly unstable, Damir and Shadi turn to foreign policy. Can the United States can back its bluster abroad, including in defense of Taiwan? All of this is happening as Donald Trump re-enters the national spotlight. The guys contrast the former president's manic approach to deterrence with the current and preceding administrations. Shadi is comforted the White House is staffed by vaguely...
Apr 14, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live With artificial intelligence threatening to take over our imaginations, Shadi and Damir this week decided to talk through some of the philosophical quandaries with none other than political philosopher and Wisdom of Crowds contributing writer Samuel Kimbriel. The Crowd takes on ChatGPT, existential risk, "the simulation", navigating uncertainty and whether we can know what is real. After a recent encounter with Cha...
Mar 20, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live With Ron DeSantis embracing an aggressively illiberal agenda of cultural reaction, how worried should we be? This week on the podcast, The New Republic's Osita Nwanevu—one of the most original leftist thinkers working today—joined us to debate the future of the Republican Party and the dangers of 2024. Very quickly, the conversation morphed into a spirited exchange on whether it's American institutions—or the madne...
Mar 10, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we're bringing you something special: our first recording with a live audience! Hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Governance and Markets and moderated by the center's director, Jen Murtazashvili (a friend of the Crowd), we had a freewheeling discussion about Shadi's new book, The Problem of Democracy . Shadi made his case for decoupling democracy and liberalism—what he calls "democratic minimalism." Instead of viewing democracy as a means to other ends, it should be ...
Mar 03, 2023•2 hr•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live This week, we were excited to have author Luke Burgis on the pod, to talk about a hot topic: desire. Specifically, mimetic desire—the idea that desires are often generated through our human propensity to copy each other. He's written an excellent book, Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life , that affected both of us deeply. First theorized by the French philosopher Rene Girard, and present in everyt...
Feb 10, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live In recent months, Shadi has drawn a lot of online ire for saying that liberals were needlessly (and harmfully) catastrophizing ahead of the November midterms. We decided to talk to one of Shadi's smartest and most eloquent critics on this count—our friend Damon Linker, a former columnist at The Week and current author of the excellent Substack , Eyes on the Right . We argue about what's "normal" polarization, and w...
Jan 13, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live This was one of the richest conversations we've recorded in a while. Our guest this week is Robert Nicholson, the founder of The Philos Project , an organization that promotes Christian engagement with the Middle East, and host of The Deep Map , a new podcast that explores the religious and historical roots of conflict in the region. We asked Robert about what he thinks Westerners misunderstand the most about Middl...
Dec 18, 2022•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live The boys are back in town! Damir is back from yet another globetrotting trip, so the Crowd is returning to podcasting after a brief hiatus. Beginning with Kanye West's recent antisemitic interview with Alex Jones and dinner with Donald Trump, we discussed the success Democrats have had with pinning crazy candidates and viewpoints on the GOP. Shadi is concerned that overheated rhetoric about the death of democracy m...
Dec 09, 2022•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
