In this episode, Michael Moynihan kicks things off by dissecting Bill Crystal's bizarre "inner social Democrat" tweet celebrating Eugene Debs, contrasting it with Debs' actual call to "abolish the capitalist system." This segues into busting the popular myth that socialists just "want Sweden"; as someone who lived there, Moynihan reveals Sweden is actually a "very capitalist country," plagued by a disastrous rent control system with 10 to 20-year waitlists. Then, journalist Josh Szeps joins to reveal his "grand unifying theory": Dick Cheney is the "most influential person... in our lifetime" and the true architect of today's political polarization, arguing his "eat or be eaten" worldview and norm-breaking (like the Scooter Libby affair) set the stage for the Trump era. The conversation also explores the nature of faith and atheism, comparing the profound, post-tragedy wisdom of Nick Cave to the "flippant dismissiveness" of new atheists like Richard Dawkins.
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