ReImagining Liberty

Regimes falter when opposition media is strong. But America's legacy media has failed to live up to the dangers of the political environment and the authoritarianism of Trump's administration. We need stronger opposition media, making full-throated defenses of liberalism. But what does that look like? I'm joined today by Adam Gurri, founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal Currents, which is currently fundraising to take their indispensable publication to the next level. Adam and I talk about the state of media, what it means to carve out principled opposition, and how stronger opposition media can see us through the coming years and towards a future for liberalism.Liberal Currents fundraiser: https://gofund.me/be2b76bf9Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowellProduced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Welcome to ReImagining Liberty, a show about the emancipatory and cosmopolitan case for radical liberalism. I'm Aaron Ross Powell.It's still possible Trump succeeds in his project of authoritarian consolidation, but between the dramatic losses the GOP suffered in the elections on November 4th, the infighting in the conservative coalition, and the Epstein scandal, the prospects for that consolidation are looking more remote.All this makes the "How do we rebuild when Trump is behind us?" question feel less like a pipe dream. Which is why I was so happy to see my friends at The UnPopulist launch their new "Reconstruction Agenda" project, headed by frequent ReImagining Liberty guest Andy Craig. Andy is mapping out what that reconstruction should look like, and what reforms present the best opportunities to strengthen and rebuild the institutions of liberal democracy. Joining me today alongside Andy is Shikha Dalmia, founder and editor of The UnPopulist.Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowellProduced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Today's episode is about the Constitution. It's a clear-eyed assessment of the assaults on it by the Trump administration, and a deep discussion of how we should think about constitutional interpretation and constitutional defense. Things aren't good. There's no denying that.But things also perhaps aren't as bad, at least not yet, as the most shrill of the doomers insist. To dig into all this, I'm joined by Evan Bernick. He's a law professor at Northern Illinois University and has been one of the most thoughtful, persistent, and effective critics of the risible scholarship the Trump administration is using to justify its assault on birthright citizenship.Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

The future of liberalism depends upon the coalitions liberals can build, both to defend institutions now and to reform them when the time comes. As my friend, and past ReImagining Liberty guest, Jason Kuznicki says, "The future is a conversation." So today I've brought on two smart liberals, with very different ideas about what liberalism means in practice, for a conversation about common ground.Matthew McManus is an assistant professor at Spelman College, author of The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, and frequent ReImagining Liberty guest. Matt Zwolinski is a first time ReImagining Liberty guest, an omission I'm thrilled to rectify. He's a professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego, co-author of The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism, and founder of the seminal—but now sadly defunct—blog Bleeding Heart Libertarians.This episode is prompted by a review Zwolinski wrote of McManus's book, a review that noted their shared values and dug into why, in each of their cases, those values led them to quite distinct policy conclusions. And that's our topic for today. It's a conversation about agreement, disagreement, and how to have productive conversations about liberalism.Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Today things get particularly radical, with an introduction to left market anarchism. I'm joined by Zak Woodman, host of the Mutual Exchange Radio podcast from the Center for a Stateless Society. We talk about whether we need a state at all, the dangers a powerful government poses, even if its values are arguably good ones, and why the aims of the left are better advanced through free markets than state control of the economy. We end with a call to take anarchist ideas seriously, even if you don't ultimately accept them, because they contain lessons for how to navigate and respond to our contemporary authoritarian moment.Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

I've got a special bonus episode for you today. In August, I attended the second annual Liberalism for the 21st Century conference in DC, organized by the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism. That's the group that runs The UnPopulist, a publication I occasionally guest host for on their Zooming In podcast. I led a special live recording of that show at the conference, a conversation with journalist (and ReImagining Liberty guest) Radley Balko and commentator Charlie Sykes. I framed the conversation around the second Trump administration as vigorous effort to roll back the Civil Rights Movement, legally, institutionally, and culturally. This led to a deep and spirited discussion. I hope you enjoy this very ReImagining Liberty adjacent discussion.

Cathy Reisenwitz's "Sex and the State" is one of the handful of newsletters I consider indispensable. She writes, from what I'd label a radical liberal perspective, about culture and gender in ways I consistently find illuminating. And she was my guest on episode 50 of this show, on misogyny and the political divide, which remains one of my favorites. So when she and I were recently chatting about the future of the liberty movement, and what's needed in our authoritarian moment, I wanted to get her back on.We discuss her early days in the liberty movement, why she left, what's brought her back, and what she learned in the intervening years. Then we discuss making the case for liberty, and why the right's focus on cultural issues has given it a leg up in persuading many Americans to its side. A strong case for liberty demands taking social issues seriously, and interrogating social patterns and their origins.Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

The political right, including more right-wing sorts of self-identified libertarians, are rather down on feminism. For those right-wingers, their hostility is understandable, because feminist insights challenge truths the right imagines to be natural and immutable, about equality, and gender, and hierarchy. But for radical liberals, feminist theory offers powerful tools for understanding and critiquing power and its use by the state.Today I have on my friend Kelly Vee for a discussion of these ideas and their place within a radical liberal framework. Kelly is an individualist anarchist-feminist and a graduate of Tulane University with degrees in accounting and finance, which she puts to good use when she’s not writing about mental health, feminism, and the State.

An introduction to the people and ideas most central to the ideologies of Trumpism and post-liberalism.The last episode of this show was about what ReImagining Liberty is. With frequent guest Cory Massimino, I talked about the values and perspective behind ReImagining Liberty's approach to liberalism, and how it's distinct from right-libertarianism. Today's episode is a nice companion to that. Not just because it also features a frequent guest, this time my friend Matt McManus, but because it runs further with the theme of distinctions. Namely, in this case, the ideas of the anti-liberalism of the far right. Our topic is the contemporary right-wing canon, the thinkers whose ideologies have come to dominate, and whose writings are giving form to the authoritarian fascism challenging liberal values and virtues.Matt McManus is an Assistant Professor at Spelman College and the author of The Rise of Postmodern Conservatism and The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, among many other books.Here's Matt's essay on "The Modern Far Right Canon" that was the spark for today's conversation.

A conversation about the the values underlying radical liberalism, and what distinguishes it from more right-wing forms of libertarianism.You can think of this episode as kind of a soft reboot of ReImagining Liberty. Or a back-to-basics. This is a show about politics, but it's a politics grounded in a particular set of values and a particular perspective, and with the political and policy specifics downstream of those. Ever since the election, I've spent a lot of time on those specifics, as well as on the policy details of what the forces of illiberalism are up to. And that's important. But I want to bring the show back, at least a bit more, to those values and that perspective. What is it about the kind of radical liberalism motivating this show that sets it apart? What are those values? What is that perspective?So today's episode is the start a series of conversations on just that. And it's framed around change. I've brought back my very first guest, and my dear friend, Cory Massimino. He has been, it is fair to say, one of the biggest influences the evolution of my intellectual and moral approach to politics over the last ten years. We talk about how our views have shifted, what it means to be a radical liberal, and what sets the kind of radical liberalism at the heart of ReImagining Liberty apart from the right-leaning libertarianism many are familiar with.Cory is an independent scholar and a Fellow at the Center for a Stateless Society, where he hosts the podcasts Mutual Exchange Radio and The Long Library.