25. Free Speech, Free Love

Does college need to be reimagined? A new experimental university committed to free speech called the University of Austin drew mockery on Twitter when it was first announced, but the place is no joke: The college got 3,500 inquiries from professors in its first week, and has since raised $100 million dollars. Nancy and Sarah can’t help feeling invigorated by this kind of innovation (even if Sarah is confused by the name, since it’s pretty close to her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin). We share our admiration for a recent speech given by founding trustee and journalist Bari Weiss at the university’s inaugural event, where she diagnoses our current malaise and dares to be optimistic — even patriotic — about what comes next. How do we conserve the best of American values while creating new things?

Speaking of innovations, we discuss a recent New Yorker essay about a “hook-up app for the emotionally mature,” which caters to alternative sexualities, ethical non-monogamy, and kink. Nancy is reminded of Sarah’s observation that each generation tries to hack sex; Sarah is fascinated by the popularity of the app’s “Fantasy Bunker,” exclusively for virtual sexting and folks who prefer the safe sex of the cloud to IRL action. As technology gives us more choices for expressing our desires, we wonder: Can pleasure really be engineered? And whatever happened to making out?

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Episode Notes:

“Dr. Jill's Taco Gaffe, and Narrative vs. Truth, with Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch,” The Megyn Kelly Show

“The Evil of Banality,” by Jake Siegel (Tablet)

“‘Are You Are Becoming A Republican Or Something?’ Sarah Hepola On Letting Down The Left Without Ever Leaving It,” The Unspeakable Podcast with Meghan Daum

“Why Republicans Shouldn’t Want Donald Trump to Run Again,” by Ben Dreyfuss (Substack)…

… and one more from Ben, who’s on a roll this week: “If you think Jon Stewart should run for president, you should go to a mental asylum.”

All you might ever want to know about Peter Boghossian, except maybe that the first time he and Nancy met they ate barbecue and the conversation was so intense, the meat was flying!

Peter later asked Nancy to make videos about her experience covering antifa in Portland summer 2020. There are ten (!). Here’s one and the link to the series.

“The New Founders America Needs,” Bari Weiss speech to incoming class at UATX, audio (Honestly podcast)

“The New Founders America Needs,” written version (Common Sense)

“A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’” by Douglas Belkin (Wall Street Journal; may be paywalled)

Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, by Sarah Hepola

St. John’s College curriculum “focused on the most important books and ideas of Western civilization”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has one of the most devastating and interesting histories of any living person, including having to go into hiding after Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who’d worked with Hirsi Ali on a short film (“Submission”), was assassinated by an Islamic extremist.

1883 official trailer

“The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake,” by David Brooks (The Atlantic)

Gratuitous but super-cool interactive graphic showing the evanescence of internet superiority

“The Hookup App For the Emotionally Mature,” by Emily Witt (The New Yorker)

Outro Song: “Light and Day,” The Polyphonic Spree

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