Frames of Space

Victor Kumar is an associate professor of philosophy at Boston University and the writer behind the Substack "Open Questions." He is known for his writing on political polarization, and the cultural reasons behind the state of civil culture in America. In this episode, I got a chance to speak with him about why he believes in the importance of a large Overton window, the positions he held about lockdowns during the pandemic, and whether or not universities should engage in affirmative action on behalf of conservatives. Show Notes "We Need to Talk" by Victor Kumar, Open Questions "The Fragmentation of America" by Victor Kumar, Open Questions

Elena Bridgers is the writer behind the Substack "Motherhood Until Yesterday." She is known for her writing on evolutionary biology: specifically, the nature of hunter-gatherer societies, and how that explains why motherhood is so difficult in the present. In the episode, I got a chance to speak with her about the tradeoffs that come with gender equity, how parenting has changed her conception of contemporary feminism, and the ways in which hunter-gatherer societies were neither patriarchal nor matriarchal. Show Notes "Regan Arntz-Gray on the Different Interpretations of Feminism" from Frames of Space "But WHY Do We Want Gender Equality?" by Elena Bridgers, Motherhood Until Yesterday "Of course motherhood drives the gender wage gap" by Ruxandra Teslo, Ruxandra's Substack "Three years ago, I bought an obscure academic book that changed my life" by Elena Bridgers, Motherhood Until Yesterday Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies by Sarah Blafer Hrdy

Lars Doucet is the President of the Center for Land Economics and the writer behind the Substack "Progress and Poverty." Lars is a Georgist, which means he believes that land is fundamentally different from other forms of property. From his point of view, we shouldn't be taxing what people build, earn, or produce—we should be taxing the value of the location itself. In this episode, I got a chance to speak with him about the concept of a land value tax (LVT): why it reduces rent costs, how it can increase government revenue without decreasing productivity, and the extent to which an LVT is compatible with the YIMBY movement. Show Notes civicmapper.org "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom" by Jonathan Haidt "The Land Trap: A New History of the World's Oldest Asset" by Mike Bird

Blaise Brosnan is a good friend of mine, and I've had many conversations with him over the years about the divisions within the MAGA movement. He currently studies as a PhD candidate at UCLA, and I brought him onto my podcast to better understand the civil war that's happening within the Republican Party right now. So in this episode, we spoke quite a bit about the recent interview between Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, the misconceptions that Democrats have about right-wingers, and the degree to which anti-Semitism is tolerated in Republican Party politics. Show Notes "Liberals Read, Conservatives Watch TV" by Richard Hanania "The New GOP Survey Analysis of Americans Overall, Today’s Republican Coalition, and the Minorities of MAGA" from The Manhattan Institute "Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and the Right’s ‘Groyper’ Problem" from The Ezra Klein Show "Populism fast and slow" by Joseph Heath, In Due Course This episode will continue publishing episodes weekly until the end of the month, after which time it will return to its traditional biweekly uploading schedule.

Announcement: this podcast will be going on holiday for the rest of December, so this is the last new episode you'll be seeing on this feed in 2025. But I'll be back to regularly scheduled episodes beginning on January 1st of the new year :) Rana Mitter is the ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, and an expert on understanding the nature of Chinese politics: government, culture, values, and much more. In this episode, I got a chance to speak with him about how China's Zero COVID policies increased resentment towards the Chinese government, the nature of China's investments in renewable energy, and whether the Chinese economy is poised to overtake the American economy within the next few decades. Show Notes "American Energy Policy Cannot Afford to Be This Dumb" by Derek Thompson "America: the failed state" by Francis Fukuyama, Prospect Magazine "Modern China: A Very Short Introduction" by Rana Mitter

Joseph Heath is a political philosophy professor at the University of Toronto and the writer behind the Substack "In Due Course." He is known for his commentary on critical theory, the nature of capitalism, and how our psychological tendencies influence our political beliefs. In this episode, I got a chance to speak with him about the differences between intuitive thinking and analytical reasoning, why common sense is sometimes wrong, and what all of that has to do with the rise of populism. Show Notes "Populism fast and slow" by Joseph Heath, In Due Course "Why populism became popular" by Tim Harford, The Financial Times Enlightenment 2.0 by Joseph Heath Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz

Habib Fanny writes the Substack "Politidoc." He used to write about politics on the Q&A site Quora, where he amassed over 100k followers from writing there for over a decade about topics such as electoral trends, race relations, and how negative polarization affected his ideology. In this episode, I got a chance to speak with him about why non-white voters swung away from the Democratic Party in 2024, how to strive for good-faith communication when writing for a social media algorithm, and the Insurrection Act. Show Notes "Populism fast and slow" by Joseph Heath, In Due Course "The Enemies of Liberalism Are Showing Us What It Really Means" by Ezra Klein, The New York Times "Trump's deployment of troops to US cities is perfectly legal, and that's a problem." by Habib Fanny, Politidoc

Lakshya Jain is a political data analyst and co-founder of Split Ticket, a data journalism project known for its sharp election modeling and nonpartisan vote breakdowns. He currently leads the polling operation over at The Argument, a magazine devoted to making the persuasive case for liberal democracy—not by avoiding political conflict, but by engaging it head-on. In this episode, I got a chance to speak with him about the results of the 2025 US elections, what Gen Z voters want from elected officials, and whether Zohran Mamdani serves as a model for how future Democrats should campaign for office. Show Notes "How popular is Donald Trump?" by Nate Silver and Eli McKown-Dawson, Silver Bulletin "It will shock you how much this shutdown never happened" by Lakshya Jain, The Argument "Gen Z's Political Shift: Why Young Voters Are Turning on Democrats (Feat. Lakshya Jain)" from FYPod

Elizabeth Bruenig is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. She is one of the rare journalists today whose work moves seamlessly between politics, theology, and ethics, and grief—without flattening any of them. There’s a line of hers I keep coming back to: Beauty tells you where to look. That's how she writes. And it's how she sees the world. In this episode, I got a chance to speak with her about the pain and divinity that come from a forgiving attitude, the rightward turn of modern American Christianity, and how she wants others to remember her. Show Notes On Human Slaughter by Elizabeth Bruenig

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