Honestly with Bari Weiss

The Case for American Seriousness

Jun 15, 2022

Catherine Boyle, a venture capitalist and former journalist, advocates for a renewal of America's innovative spirit. She challenges the prevailing cynicism about individual potential and the nation's decline. Boyle discusses how 'seriousness' is a crucial quality of extraordinary entrepreneurs, linking it to national strength. She emphasizes that America’s entrepreneurial spirit still thrives in unexpected places, urging a shift from passive criticism to active engagement in building solutions for vital issues like housing, education, and cybersecurity.

15:35

Episode guests

Catherine Boyle

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

4min

The Essence of Entrepreneurial Seriousness

3min

The Decline of American Seriousness and the Case for Innovation

5min

The Call to Build a Resilient America

3min

We live in a culture that is driven by nay-saying. In one corner, people insist that the individual stands no chance against structural and systemic maladies. From the other, people say that we are in inexorable decline as a civilization and that decadence is everywhere we turn. Both wind up arguing against risk-taking, against the possibility of creating new things and new worlds.

How can we recover the adventurous, optimistic, forward-thinking, risk-taking attitude that has made America the most innovative country in the history of the world?

Today, the venture capitalist (and former journalist) Katherine Boyle explains how. She makes the powerful case that that spirit of building is very much alive in America—just not in the places that we once assumed we’d find it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices