Wisdom of Crowds

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIn this week's episode, we were joined by our friend Aaron Sibarium, a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon. Aaron recently reported a piece showing how three states were rationing COVID drugs on race-based criteria. The article made a splash. Fox News covered the story, Trump referenced it in a speech (sloppily as always), and Twitter tried to rebrand it as a right-wing talking point.Prioritizing woke ideology over medical realities can cost lives. But we tried to stay true to the Wisdom of Crowds ethos and made our best faith effort to ask whether race-based triage can ever be justified on practical or philosophical grounds. Is this the result of good intentions going off the rails, or is something more sinister at work?Required Reading:- "Food and Drug Administration Guidance Drives Racial Rationing of COVID Drugs" by Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon)- "Hospital System Backs Off Race-Based Treatment Policy After Legal Threat" by Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon)- "Hospitalization and Mortality among Black Patients and White Patients with Covid-19" (New England Journal of Medicine)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIt used to be called "political correctness." It had its heyday in the 1990s, then it went underground. While we weren't paying attention, an entire architecture of speech restrictions was being built on campuses across the country. Greg Lukianoff, CEO of FIRE and co-author of the bestselling The Coddling of the American Mind, joins us to discuss what he calls the "second great age of political correctness."When people say cancel culture isn't real, are they arguing in good faith? One part of the story is the lack of diversity in American universities—in disciplines like anthropology, the ratio of liberal to conservative professors is 42 to 1. If we care so much about diversity, why don't we seem to care viewpoint diversity?Required Reading:- "The Second Great Age of Political Correctness" by Greg Lukianoff (Reason)- "How To Keep Your Corporation Out of the Culture War" by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (Persuasion)- "The Polarization Spiral" by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (Persuasion)- The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education- The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium by Martin Gurri- Manliness by Harvey Mansfield

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveThis week we were joined by Sam Adler-Bell, cohost of the Know Your Enemy podcast. We examined the New Right, their earnestly held belief that liberals have already won the battle for the soul of the country, and America's crisis of legitimacy. Is it even worth trying to bridge the gap between left and right on cultural issues?Required Reading:- "The Radical Young Intellectuals Who Want to Take Over the American Right" by Sam Adler-Bell (New Republic)- "Young, Radical, and on the Right (w/ Nate Hochman)" by Know your Enemy- "Shadi Hamid on Being an Anti-‘Woke’ Progressive" by Matt Lewis- "Michael Brendan Dougherty on Identity, Culture, and the False Promise of Liberation" by Wisdom of Crowds- "Ross Douthat on Decadence, Wokeness, and UFOs" by Wisdom of Crowds" by Wisdom of Crowds- "Sohrab Ahmari on Liberalism, Tradition, and Political Catholicism" by Wisdom of Crowds- Trump’s Full Inauguration Speech 2017 

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