Season 5

With the world becoming more repressive, what would an ethical policy even look like?

& other US politics inside baseball

From the right's ultimate ethical appeal, to hardly mentioned.

Thinking about how voters think politically

Why the parties are so different, & why that's changing

The American right's obsession with gender

Reactionary centrists didn't listen, won't learn, & can't lead

The demographic that has been at the forefront of activism—and of warning of what is to come.

The strange historical reality behind the inspiration for so many political systems, & what we can learn from it.

Being ignored was annoying, was it also unjust?

The history of, and modern threats to, this core american freedom

Making sense of what happned to the right

The right is obsessed with declining birth rates, what, if anything, should be the liberal response?

My response to the latest round of NYTs articles

Breaking down Labour's lurch to the right, and what comes next?

What is bigotry, how should we think about it, and why a strategy of appeasement will never work.

My thoughts on the Manchester by-election

Greg & I have both recently argued that, as horrific as this moment is, it offer liberals an opportunity to push a different vision on immigration & reset the politics of the issue. We discuss what we're up against, the challenges facing us, what us winning might look like, and how we get there.

Does the UK have Wine Moms? & other listener questions

What is academic tenure, what are the main arguments for or against it? Why has it gotten harder to get, and to what extent should public scholarship be a criteria for it? Deepa Das Acevedo discusses her book The War on Tenure.

Why are fascists so interested in fictional universes like Star Trek or Lord of the Rings? And is there a link between the rise of the far right and the decline in creativity in mainstream entertainment?

What is Fascism, what was its relationship to socialism historically, and what is it today?

What comes after the murder in Minneapolis.

Across the world mainline political parties have faced a challenge from the far-right. Across the world, they've struggled to offer a counter narrative on immigration. Why?

I recently had a viral article with The New Republic, profiling the American's who saw all this coming from the start. It was a huge project, and I'm really pleased it resonated with so many. I think it's a much more common experience that we realise. 

​

In this episode, after asking them so many questions, one of my interviews (and my wife, Irina) joins the podcast to ask me some - what it was like writing this, and what I took away from it.

Liberal Current's Editor in Chief Adam Gurri joins the podcast - How the centrist political media has enabled fascism, and what needs to be done differently.

Reactionary centrism has both failed & cannot learn from it's mistakes.

Tom & I debate if the current Labour Government is on the right track - Should they give ground on cultural issues?

What is bioethics? Why do Black and white Americans experience such differential healthcare outcomes? And what are the drawbacks to social justice concepts from academia becoming mainstream?

I'm joined by the founder and director of The Good Law Project - the organisation fighting the UK's anti-trans bathroom ban in court. We cover rights and freedoms in the UK, the complex legal mess we find ourselves in, and how the rest of us should respond.

Measuring our anti-fascist preparedness vs the US

Originally a symbol of mobility, of escape and adventure, we have now built much of our world around the car. Has doing so liberated us? Moore & Kay argue that it has not.

Does my argument that the left should not threaten abstention survive Liam's case that we can't impose message discipline on online communities? An open free-form chat.

Liam Bright discusses his influential White Psychodrama paper & we give our takes on the various cultural products arising from white guilt. Is the era of 'high woke' over, and is there anything to be learnt from it?

James S. Fishkin, the Pioneer of deliberative polling joins the podcast. We discuss the nature of public opinion, how it can be changed, the positivities of consensus, 'activist disfunction' and can deliberation help cure our current democratic death spiral.

I recently wrote that liberalism must reject neutrality and instead embrace a comprehensive vision of what is good for people, one that takes the fight to fascism. I defend that view against concerns from Alec Crisman and we debate our very different visions about what liberals can - or should - try to achieve in the age of Trump.

From Ancient Egypt, to Ethiopia, to the Islamic tradition, Africa had a rich - & truly ancient - tradition of philosophy prior to European Colonization.

​

Peter Adamson and Chike Jeffers join the podcast to discuss.

What is democracy and why is it failing? Natasha Piano joins the show to discuss her recent book, Democratic Elitism: The Founding Myth of American Political Science.