Musa al-Gharbi, sociologist, journalism professor, author of the new book 'We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite' (Princeton University Press), and today's popular explorer of Pierre Bourdieu's ideas around symbolic elites and symbolic capitalism talked to me about being an outsider in academia, how symbolic elites buy their legitimacy, and why intellectuals living in fear of cancellation is such bad news for everyone.

Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth joined me to talk about virtue and the arts, the campus and the political student of the future, and why he believes the humanities will save us.

Quillette founding editor Claire Lehmann joined me for this exceptional episode where we dive into all the conditions, ideals, and effort that ensure that a new magazine dedicated to democracy and free speech can achieve its goals.

Author, rationalist, finance expert Jacob Falkovich visited The Hope Axis. We talked about data and dating, rationality in love, fertility and polyamory, f*ckability as capital, what most people get wrong about love and family, and why people are not having kids (or even sex).

NYU professor Erica Robles-Anderson joins to discuss her theory of media generations, human suffering, ways of togetherness, what we can learn from megachurches, and the ways out of the loneliness epidemic (if that exists).

National Book Award winning Phil Klay, author of Redeployment and Missionaries, joined me for a conversation about humour and the absurd, humanity and violence, fatherhood and history, and what there remains to hope and work for.

The great Katherine Dee (Default Friend) joined me for this lively discussion (debate?): we talked about happiness, free speech, online creativity, subcultures, why the internet is a good thing, what the kids do on social media these days, 90s digital anthropology, Tumblr, wokes, and more!

Noah Smith and I kick off my new podcast series The Hope Axis. We talk about the future, the economy, India, China, and of course America. We look at ways to be excited about what's coming, and what to do about it as individuals.