The Hanania Show

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comThings start out peaceful enough, as I tell Inez about my appearance the other day on the Dennis Prager Show (go to September 27, 1 hour and 10 minutes in here to watch). We got along very well. I reflect on some amazing clips I just saw of Prager, a few hours after we spoke, explaining to young people at ASU that masturbation is not evil, which of all the weird religious views out there is one of those I find most puzzling. I particularly love when he told them that if you believe masturbation is evil, you alienate people from God, and you have a different God than he does. I originally saw that clip on Twitter, but the account that posted it got suspended. I then found it on YouTube, starting at 1 hour and 20 minutes here. See here and here for shortened clips from Twitter, but the entire 12 minutes or so in the original video are glorious, and I love that it’s been driving some of the biggest trad weirdos crazy. We then consider my idea of the pagan nature of Christian support for Trump. But the main event of this conversation is our chance to finally discuss the famous 2021 Time article, which is a starting point for getting to the heart of what we really disagree about, which is Trump’s actions between the 2020 election and January 6, and how bad they were. Previously, I had a well-known conservative friend bring the Time article to my attention. Then Inez talked about it. And just recently, I was reading a random profile of JD Vance, and it just appears in the context of a discussion about election fraud. So conservatives apparently think about this piece a lot. From my perspective, Inez acknowledges a lot of facts about what happened but has to engage in some serious mental gymnastics to deny that Trump tried to change the results of the election and this is really a big deal, and liberals are completely correct in freaking out about it. She wants to create an equivalency between that and how Hillary Clinton behaved in 2016, Russiagate, and other things, and I think this is conflating topics that have nothing to do with one another. Her view is that this gets down to “trust in institutions,” while I think that’s way too broad of a perspective to say much of anything when you’re jumping around from what Mark Zuckerberg is doing, to the Democratic Party, to the FBI, to the media, and whoever else. All this strikes me as a kind of moral “get out of jail free” card, the kind played by race hustler types when trying to argue for systemic racism. I have to reference once again my piece on conservatism as an oppositional culture. This probably got more heated than any other podcast, which is good, as you want to get to the root of serious differences. Many of you will agree with Inez, and she is a good debater, so let us know what you think.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comI begin this week by bellyaching to Inez about all the other shows I’ve been doing. It’s a good problem to have, as it means there’s interest in my book. That being said, I’ve done 8 in the last 5 days on the same topic, in addition to others last week, and more to come next week. I hope to do many more! But for now I’m glad to be able to talk about something else, and therefore was really looking forward to this conversation. We talk about Ibram Kendi’s anti-racism grift blowing up, and how funny that is. This involves an important debate on Kendi’s IQ, and whether liberal white women are attracted to him (my theory) or feel sorry for him (Inez’s). We close on the rape and sexual assault allegations against Russell Brand. Can we separate the different parts of the story from one another? How about the motivations behind the allegations and their substance? I think there are very important philosophical differences between us on questions like this, and we hope to get to them over the next few weeks. On a different note, starting tomorrow I’ll be at the Manifest 2023 conference in Berkeley as a guest of honor. A lot of interesting people are also attending, including Nate Silver, Scott Alexander, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Aella, Robin Hanson, and former CSPI podcast guest Jonathan Anomaly. Now that’s a party! So make sure to come say hello if you’re also there.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comThis week, Inez and I talk about my impression of the FIRE/Free Press debate I attended last night on whether the sexual revolution has failed. I don’t know how much we disagree. We both believe that telling women to live like they’re characters in Sex and the City has been a mistake. I’m just an extreme skeptic with regards to questioning people’s choices, at least in their personal lives. Inez asks whether there’s a contradiction here between trusting the masses to make personal decisions and distrusting them on politics, and I refer to my recent piece on this. I was recognized by many people at the debate, and this stirred a discussion on how we each feel about being public figures. Inez hates fame, while I enjoy it, and she prefers influence. I think it certainly sounds better to want to change the world, but I can’t help it. I just love attention, and will indulge in it as long as I can get it on my own terms. This made me think about how many writers and public intellectuals clearly want fame based on how they behave, but you rarely hear any of them admitting it. It seems to be a kind of taboo. This is certainly a bad trait if it comes at the expense of telling the truth. Still, I feel like fame is so clearly a motivator in the world of ideas that it’s probably not good to leave the impulse unexamined.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comInez and I begin with the question that is on everyone’s mind this week: Is Obama gay? When he said that he made love with men in his mind, was he speaking metaphorically or literally, or at least “literally” in the sense that gay things were literally happening in his imagination, if not real life? This topic is in the news because of Tucker’s interview

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comInez joins me this week to talk about Mitch McConnell freezing up again, and what it says about old people dominating society more generally. This leads to a discussion on whether we rely too much on medical technology and the extent to which we should accept limits on human nature. We both agree gerontocracy is a problem, but while Inez thinks that the…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comInez and I talk about the debate last night. I present my theory of what DeSantis is doing, and why I think he’s just trying to be the guy standing there at the end, hoping that Trump collapses. Which is unlikely, but what else is he going to do? We talk about the idea that Vivek is too polished, Inez’s hatred of Nikki Haley and why she bothers me less,…

This week, Inez and I talk about the song taking the world by storm, Rich Men North of Richmond. This sparks a discussion about how much we should be listening to the cries of the masses and seeing them as reflecting upon the elites. Inez wrote a piece on the California Republican Party and how they’ve been “cucking,” as the kids say, and I wonder whether it makes sense for them to do so. We close by debating the value of moving to the center more generally, and in particular the political impacts of abortion. Forewarning: we’ll be paywalling these conversations starting next week, so please consider becoming a paid subscriber in order to keep getting them.Listen here or watch on YouTube.Links* Rich Men North of Richmond* Inez on the California Republican Party* Me on abortion as a political issue, here and here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.richardhanania.com/subscribe

After a two-week hiatus, Inez and I are back to discuss recent events. My critique of my old views and internet persona have led some to ask about my old research on why public figures shouldn’t apologize. Of course, my view is that if you did something wrong, you should admit it. Even if it was the case that it would have been better for me to reply with defiance, and it most certainly wasn’t, I don’t think I could’ve done so and remained honest with my audience.I talk about the strangeness of Matt Yglesias getting denounced by his followers for having interacted with me on Twitter. The discourse is in a sad state when we can’t have any kind of contact with people we disagree with. I tell Inez that I think that part of the issue is liberals having long existed in a bubble of privilege, where they don’t have to engage with any ideas, or even people, that make them uncomfortable. With Twitter and Substack now supporting free speech, and the declining power of cancellation journalism, power appears to be shifting and the left may find itself forced to become more tolerant by necessity.In this context, we discuss whether we are actually over the worst of cancel culture. I think that we are. Particularly when it comes to influencing the right, left-wing unpersoning campaigns are becoming less effective.At about the 45 minute mark we talk about a recent Tablet piece on Obama. I only read the part about him fantasizing about gay sex, whatever that says about my mental state. But Inez says there’s more in there suggesting that perhaps the former president is having an outsized and inappropriate role in running the country today, which I’m quite skeptical of. But again, she read the piece and I didn’t, so decide for yourself. Finally, we close by talking about the supposedly new track that DeSantis has taken on the question of whether Trump won the 2020 election.Listen here or watch on YouTube: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.richardhanania.com/subscribe

Inez begins by telling me about her recent move within NYC. This leads to a discussion about housing prices and the American dream, which finally transitions to a debate over immigration, nationalism, and social cohesion. We had planned on discussing Trump’s coming indictment for his activities surrounding the 2020 election, but didn’t have time for it. We’ll get to it next week, by which time the indictment is almost sure to have been handed down.The conversation closes with a discussion about Taylor Lorenz, and whether I was correct to praise her bravery on Twitter.Listen here or watch on YouTube.Links:* Me on Substack Reads, Taylor Lorenz a few weeks later* Me praising Taylor Lorenz* Amy Wax and Jason Richwine arguing for immigration restriction This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.richardhanania.com/subscribe

This week, we begin by talking about Twitter having just given me $1,700 for being such a successful influencer. Getting free money from a corporation isn’t something that happens every day, so it was a very pleasant surprise. This leads to a discussion about how each of us uses the platform and what the incentives of this profit-sharing model will mean for how Twitter functions in the future.From there, we talk about Inez’s forthcoming report on what she thinks should be done about student loans. The approach preferred by the left has the problem of letting universities off the hook. Inez thinks it would be good policy and good politics for the right to tie forgiveness to the taxation of university endowments. This strikes me as being at the very least superior to what the Biden administration has been trying to do, and I could find myself supporting it based on the details.Throughout the process, we talk about just how horrible the expansion of higher education has been for society, whether one is thinking about the economy, the labor market, family formation, or the culture more generally. The idea that college is simply bad has become a pretty standard belief among conservatives, and that’s something I’m glad to see. We’ll find if Inez’s proposal goes anywhere and potentially helps us do something about it.Listen here or watch on YouTube:Links* The message you get when Twitter decides to share ad revenue * My Tweet on NYT on student debt* Reuters on Biden’s new plan for student loan forgiveness This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.richardhanania.com/subscribe