What was it like to live through the fall of Kabul? How should we think about the American withdrawal from Afghanistan? And with famine enveloping the country amid an unprecedentedly severe state collapse, how should we approach—and deal with—the ruling Taliban authorities?This week we are joined by Dr. Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili and Dr. Omar Sadr, both of the newly-launched Afghanistan Project at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Governance and Markets, to talk about what lies ahead for the long-suffering Afghan people.Recommended Reading:- "Afghanistan: a Vicious Cycle of State Failure" by Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili- The Afghanistan Project - Center for Governance and Markets, University of Pittsburg- "Afghans at risk of near-universal poverty, UN report warns" by Peter Beaumont (The Guardian)- "In Afghanistan, the threat of widespread famine looms as drought and hunger continues" by All Things Considered (NPR) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

As Biden struggles to get his massive spending bill passed, WoC's former Associate Editor Matt Winesett joins Shadi and Damir to talk about guns, gentrification, opera, the race for Governor of Virginia, and the sad state of the Republican Party. Required Reading: Matt's essays at WoC. "Trump's Look Backward Poses Peril for GOP," by Gerald F. Seib (WSJ). The Citizen app. "Glenn Youngkin's Viral 'Child' Ad is Missing Important Context," by Glenn Kessler (WaPo). "Nice Woke Parents" (Wisdom of Crowds). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

Damir and Shadi talk about health security theater during this latest phase of the pandemic, before going on to discuss how technocratic approaches tend to worsen and exacerbate polarization in democratic societies. Also: can anyone make a moral case for democracy without recourse to God? Required reading: The Islamic World Today: Issues and Perspectives (Brigham Young University) "The danger of bringing religious zeal to the political realm," by Shadi Hamid (Deseret News). "One in 5,000," by David Leonhardt (NYT). Public Opinion, by Walter Lippmann. "Limits to Democracy," by Roger Scruton (New Criterion). "Solutionism Is Not the Solution," by Damir Marusic (WoC) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

It's no secret that the United States is in a bad place. Fiona Hill saw the chaos and blunders up close, as deputy assistant to President Trump and top Russia advisor at the White House. In November 2019, she was a witness in House hearings during the Trump's first impeachment. Fiona has a new book out There Is Nothing For You Here and is back at the Brookings Institution. She joins Shadi and Damir to talk about whether she would would have agreed to work under Trump knowing what she knows now. Was there anything redeeming about Trump in the flesh? Fiona also discusses growing up poor in British coal country, seeing our divisions from inside the Trump administration, and how to apply the lessons other countries have learned in building unity at home. Does America need a national reconciliation process? Can the country's divides be fixed through policy innovation or must Americans resign themselves to living with people who are beyond the pale? Required Reading: There is Nothing For You Here, by Fiona Hill Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy "The Role of Islam in European Populism" by Shadi Hamid (Brookings) "Dealing with the Dignity Deficit", by Damir Marusic (The American Interest) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveElbridge Colby joins Shadi and Damir to talk about his challenging new book The Strategy of Denial, an unflinchingly clinical argument for confronting China. Does China's authoritarianism make it our enemy, or is confrontation inevitable regardless? Will our allies stick by our side just because China is a bully? And what does Henry Kissinger get wrong about power politics?Required Reading:- "Will the Next American War Be with China?" by Benjamin Wallace-Wells (New Yorker).- Age of Ambition, by Evan Osnos.- "Diplomacy is a Dirty Business," by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds).- Federalist No. 11.  

Is America the most successful third world country on earth? Shadi and Damir welcome Samuel Goldman, author of the new book After Nationalism, onto the podcast for a raucous discussion on national identity, the likelihood of another civil war, and the possibility that, because it has more in common with Latin America than Europe, the United States may be the best place on the planet. Required Reading: After Nationalism, by Samuel Goldman. A symposium on the book at Law and Liberty. Sam's column at The Week. Bruno Maçaes on dreampolitik. "The Case Against Consensus," by Shadi Hamid. "Who Are America's Peers," by Samuel Goldman. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

This summer, the inherent ugliness of the world reasserted itself. And yet we Americans still found a way to make it all about us, who we think we are, and what we think we represent. Shadi and Damir sit down to talk about the remarkable frivolity of our politics today, and whether there's any way out. Required reading: Shadi's recent Friday Essay on Carl Schmitt. Damir's recent Friday Essay on the Missionary Position. Damir's tweet on politics. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

How did it all go wrong? Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, a leading scholar of Afghanistan, joins Damir and Shadi to dissect the Taliban's victory and discuss what it tells us about the failures of America's nation-building effort. Why did the Afghan government collapse so quickly? Have the technocrats and NGOs in the democracy promotion industry been completely discredited? And for the sake of the Afghan people, should we now help the Taliban succeed in governing the country? Things get heated. Murtazashvili is director of the Center for Governance and Markets and associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan. She lived in Afghanistan for 3 years, conducting fieldwork in rural villages across the country, and previously worked at the US Agency for International Development and the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.   Recommended reading: Jen Murtazashvili in the Washington Post "Afghanistan is not the Balkans," by Thomas Barfield (ResearchGate) Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History, by Thomas Barfield (Amazon) Nassim Taleb on the Taliban's refusal to deadlift "When Terrorists and Criminals Govern Better Than Governments," by Shadi Hamid, Vanda Felbab-Brown, and Harold Trinkunas (The Atlantic) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveParents in the 1990s believed they were doing their children a favor by instilling in them the ethos “do what you like, follow your dreams, and things will work out.” But Michael Brendan Dougherty, author of  My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son's Search for Home, argues that sometime in the 2000s, this promise of liberation revealed itself as a curse, feeling more like abandonment than instruction. In a wide-ranging conversation, he, Shadi, and Damir talk about the meaning and importance of identity, where modernity falls short, the promise and peril of nationalism, and much more. In Part Two, available here for subscribers, the conversation continues with a discussion about immigration in America and Europe, if Islam is the religion of the future, whether white Americans have a distinct identity, and if right-wing governments in Poland and Hungary are harbingers of the future or the last gasps of a dying ideology. Subscribe here to listen to the rest of the discussion. Members will also have access to our recent two-part conversation with Ross Douthat as well as our weekly Friday Essays. Recommended Reading: My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son's Search For Home, by Michael Brendan Dougherty (Amazon) "Critical Race Theory as Metaphysics," by Michael Brendan Dougherty (National Review) "Why the Fight Over Critical Race Theory Matters," by Michael Brendan Dougherty (National Review)

Wisdom of Crowds associate editor Matt Winesett joins Damir and Shadi to debate Donald Rumsfeld's legacy and if his mistakes permanently discredited nation building and democracy promotion abroad. They also discuss how younger Millennials perceived the Iraq War, whether Bushism or Trumpism would better serve the GOP's future, how much politicians' personal character ultimately matters, and much more. Their conversation continues in a bonus episode, out next week. Subscribe here to get it straight to your inbox. Recommended Reading: “The Defense Secretary Who Let Bin Laden Get Away,” by Peggy Noonan (The Wall Street Journal) “The Hubris of Donald Rumsfeld,” by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds) “Oh, the Audacity!” by Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds) Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream, by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam (Amazon) American Conservatism: Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition, by Andrew Bacevich (Amazon) "Dispatches From the Conservative Bubble," with Matt Winesett, Damir Marusic, and Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds) "The Poetry of D. H. Rumsfeld," by Donald Rumsfeld (Slate) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe