Neon Liberalism

Join host Samantha Hancox-Li and guest Adam Gurri, founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal Currents, as they discuss the crisis—the malaise—that has befallen the Western world, the historical roots of the problem, and perhaps most importantly: what we can do to revitalize liberalism for the 21st century.

Are you sad? Lonely? Can't get a girlfriend? The reactionary right promises a total philosophy of life—not just a politics, but a comprehensive way of living (and explaining why it's all the libs' fault). Can liberalism speak to the same anxieties? Host Samantha Hancox-Li argues that it can, but to understand why, we need to return to the roots of liberalism in the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and ultimately the ideas of freedom, reason, and responsibility.

If you remember anything from high school civics, it's the phrases "separation of powers" and "checks and balances." That separation and those checks are under the greatest attack we've seen in our lifetimes. But why does that matter? How does it affect the character of society? Join Samantha Hancox-Li and guest Robert Black, constitutional scholar and author of "The Evening Constitutional," as we dig into the origins of the concept of limited government, the essential paradox of how limitations on sovereign power are even possible, and what that means for resistance in our fraught era.Robert's newsletter: https://eveningconstitutional.net/

Samantha and Lucian Staiano-Daniels, author of "The War People," discuss the connection between liberalism and toleration and the dark history of religious civil war. How did the European Wars of Religion give birth to our concept of toleration? And is this history enough reason today to embrace toleration? Can religious civil wars be won—or is there a deeper reason to want to live in a diverse and pluralist society?

Samantha and fellow Liberal Currents editor Jason Briggeman discuss the economics of liberal democracy, starting from the basic question "why are all the rich countries liberal democracies?" Did liberal democracy cause the Industrial Revolution? What is the role of imperialism in the modern economy? And perhaps most importantly: what does this have to do with the philosophical foundations of liberalism?

Join host Samantha Hancox-Li for a discussion of the difference between liberalism as an assumed default and liberalism as an active project. Even as the progressive base—and Americans generally—grow increasingly outraged at Trump II's attacks on our Constitution, elite liberals in media and journalism wring their hands and debate how much we should concede to the right. The end of history left them with a hollow conception of liberalism—as a mere referee between the right and the left—not as an active force fighting for itself. How can we regain that energy going forward? Listen and find out.

There's a lot of gender happening these days—and feminism, the political movement that ought to be at the forefront of responding to the MAGA backlash, is in its wilderness years. Join Samantha and guest Jude Doyle, author of the forthcoming book DILF, for a wide-ranging conversation about the history of the third wave, the meaning of patriarchy, and why a renewed focus on bodily autonomy and self-determination for all people needs to be the focus of feminism going forward.DILF book link: https://bookshop.org/a/115699/9781685892159

Join Samantha and guest Alan Elrod, president and CEO of the Pulaski Institution, as they talk about how the spectacle of deliberate cruelty—troops on the streets, deportations of firefighters, the public performance of vileness—is not an accident or a distraction, but is a core part of the Trumpian project to remake American culture. Creating the mass basis for an authoritarian movement has always involved generating a certain "enthusiasm" for the project beyond direct command and control.

Join Samantha and guest Maia Mindel as they talk about Trump's latest attack on the Federal Reserve, give some historical context for central bank independence, and struggle with the difficult question of how to balance technocratic expertise with democratic accountability. Plus some cats.

Join Samantha and guest Dara Lind, Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council and former immigration reporter for Vox and ProPublica, as they talk the state of Trump's mass deportation program, the question of its constitutionality, and the bigger question of how immigration in America became such a nightmare—and what we can do about it.