Keep Talking Episode 152: Jonathan Zimmerman - The Assassination of Charlie Kirk
Jonathan Zimmeramn is a Professor of History of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of the books "Free Speech: And Why You Should Give a Damn" and "Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools."
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(00:00) intro
(00:27) Polarized, pessimistic America
(02:10) From Birchers to viral clicks
(05:05) Decline of religion as fuel
(08:12) “Love thy enemy” vs “I hate my opponents”
(10:45) Cross-tribe media: why I watch Fox
(13:18) Dopamine diets and tribal brains
(16:02) Roots beyond social: 90s, higher ed divides
(18:40) Education sorts and isolates by degree
(21:15) Overlaps and humbling lessons from Fox (Ukraine, MIC)
(24:05) Charlie Kirk: free-speech ideals and contradictions
(27:22) Assassination & the internet underworld
(30:10) Boys, meaning, and failing institutions
(33:05) Digital cults, religion, and liberal education
(36:10) Learned Hand’s “spirit of liberty”
(38:22) Printing-press analogy, AI, and Postman’s question
(41:05) Phones out K-16 and secondhand distraction
(43:38) Anxiety on campus and adult responsibility
(45:30) Free-speech hypocrisy & the “American Hour” proposal