Richard Hanania is, I believe, the most controversial person to appear on this podcast (though I’m curious if the subscribers can offer up some competitors for that title). Based on his public profile one might think his book, The Origins of Woke, would be a searing polemic. But it’s not. It’s really more of a law history with a focus on how legal decisions determine institutional policy and cultural norms. I think most people assume law to be downstream of culture. This book asserts that it’s mostly the other way around.
Some of these legal decisions, like sports-relevant Title IX, you’ve heard of. Others are more obscure and yet massively influential. Whatever one’s political persuasion, the idea of judicial ruling as skeleton key to culture is worth discussing. And so we discuss that, plus other topics. For example…
* Why did Richard want to appear on House of Strauss?
* I met Richard, did not like his manner, but was intrigued
* Can Richard define “woke”?
* Discussing The Origins of Woke
* How we overrate the importance of peoples’ secret motives
* What’s the deal with Title IX?
* I explain how Kenny Smith got pilloried during Sabrina Ionescu vs. Steph Curry
* The Hanania vs. Yarvin debate (Democracy vs. Monarchy)
* One major thing the most outraged critics of Hanania and Yarvin are right about
* Republicans come off like weirdos now
* Richard, Glenn Greenwald and others who fight against their own audiences
* Does Matt Yglesias secretly like Richard?