Peter’s role in the Supreme Court affirmative action case ... Are legacy admissions affirmative action by another name? ... Why Peter got interested in affirmative action ... Glenn was for affirmative action before he was against it ... Pet

Diversifying the Scientific Imagination (Glenn Loury & Sylvester Gates)

Mar 17th, 2023 1h

What led Jim to the forefront of physics ... Jim explains supersymmetry ... Is there racism in the sciences? ... The role of culture and imagination in the sciences ... The scientific “big bang” in Europe ... How Jim accounts for racial di

The Tyranny of Merit (Glenn Loury & Michael Sandel)

Jan 6th, 2023 1h

Some of Michael’s key works ... Meritocratic ideals and meritocratic fantasies ... The animus against elites ... Shouldn’t innovators reap their rewards? ... Does more profit create more value? ... Renewing the dignity of work ... Th

What Explains Persistent Racial Inequality? (Glenn Loury & Laurence Kotlikoff)

Sep 16th, 2022 1h 12m

Introducing Glenn Loury ... What is “social capital”? ... Racial inequality and self-segregation ... Glenn: “The jig is up” on affirmative action ... Balancing preferences and colorblindness ... Rethinking the welfare state ... Why Glen

Recalibrating Affirmative Action (Glenn Loury & Peter Arcidiacono)

Sep 18th, 2020 1h

Peter: "Mismatch theory" is not a front for racial prejudice ... The problem of data transparency and affirmative action ... Who gets access to affirmative action data? ... Repairing the “broken trust” of America’s racial history ... Woul

Police Defunding and Its Discontents (Glenn Loury & Peter Moskos)

Aug 24th, 2020 1h

Peter: The police aren’t hated, but politicians are listening to the haters ... What is driving rising violent crime rates in NYC? ... The problem of discussing racial disparities in crime and policing ... Contesting Jill Lepore’s account

Is Trump a moron? (Glenn Loury & Aryeh Cohen-Wade)

Mar 19th, 2018 54m 1s

Aryeh claims he has definitive proof that Trump is a moron … Glenn: Trump has unique insight into voters' dissatisfactions … Does Trump, as president, deserve our respect? … Assimilation vs. alienation in Black Panther (contains spoilers) … Am

Claudine Gay, MLK, and GLENN'S NEW BOOK (Glenn Loury & John McWhorter)

Jan 22nd, 2024 42m 26s

Preorder Glenn’s forthcoming memoir, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative ... Why Glenn wrote a memoir (and why you should order it now) ... A ringing endorsement from John ... What does Martin Luther King Jr. Day mean in 202

Getting Unions Out of Government (Glenn Loury & Philip Howard)

Dec 29th, 2023 1h

Philip’s early work on post-nuclear war recovery ... What’s wrong with the EPA, OSHA, and the EEOC? ... Philip: We’ve degenerated into a culture of distrust ... The problems of national security and public health ... Are public employee un

An Ex-DEI Director Speaks Out (Glenn Loury & Tabia Lee)

Dec 18th, 2023 1h

Tabia’s early career as a teacher ... Tabia’s “rough ride” as a DEI director ... The antisemitism problem at De Anza ... The inescapable BIPOC binary ... From disagreement to deplatforming ... Why Tabia found support among students but not

The Truth about George Floyd's Death (Glenn Loury & John McWhorter)

Dec 8th, 2023 1h

A new documentary about George Floyd’s death raises new questions ... John: “We’ve been lied to” about George Floyd’s death ... The price of a “poetic truth” ... Was the Derek Chauvin jury intimidated into delivering a guilty verdict? ... G

What Black America Needs to Thrive (Glenn Loury & Erec Smith)

Dec 4th, 2023 1h

Is “black heterodoxy” a euphemism for “black conservatism”? ... Classical liberalism’s role in Free Black Thought ... Erec: I saw things while working as a diversity officer that I can’t unsee ... Why the Democratic Party doesn’t like Erec

Gaza & the Crisis of Liberalism (Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Tyler Austin Harper, and Daniel Bessner)

Nov 29th, 2023 1h

The state of campus speech after 10/7 ... Daniel: Why are critics of cancel culture silent when it comes to Israel? ... “Explaining” Hamas vs. “excusing” Hamas ... Tyler: American Jewish students worried about their safety have been primed b

The Identity Trap (Glenn Loury & Yascha Mounk)

Nov 17th, 2023 1h

A quick announcement ... What led Yascha to write about identity ... An intellectual history of “identity synthesis” ... What’s so bad about “strategic essentialism”? ... From postmodernism to post-civil rights ... The three key claims of

An American Martyr in Persia (Glenn Loury & Reza Aslan)

Nov 13th, 2023 1h

Persia at the turn of the twentieth century ... Woodrow Wilson’s contradictions ... Did Howard Baskerville escape the prejudices of his time? ... How Baskerville got involved in Persia’s democratic revolution ... How Tsar Nicholas II aided

Thinking Through the Gaza War (Glenn Loury & John McWhorter)

Nov 3rd, 2023 1h

Why John thinks pro-Hamas sentiment on the American left is racist ... Distinguishing between anti-colonialism and antisemitism ... There are great crimes in America’s past. But we shouldn’t let them define us. ... Glenn: We’re standing on t

America's Sunk Cost in Ukraine (Glenn Loury & John Mearsheimer)

Oct 30th, 2023 1h

Why John thinks Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was rational ... How small states deal with world powers ... If Russia’s action were rational, were the US’s? ... John: The Ukraine invasion violates international law, but Russia has reason to se

A Debate on Affirmative Action, Live at Holy Cross (Glenn Loury, Randall Kennedy, and Renu Mukherjee)

Oct 13th, 2023 1h

Introduction by Greg Burnep ... What does affirmative action mean in 2023? ... Randy’s distinction between “disadvantage” and “discrimination” ... Diversity’s double-talk ... Did the Supreme Court say discrimination is allowed at military a

The End of Ibram X. Kendi? (Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, and Dan Subotnik)

Oct 9th, 2023 1h

What’s wrong with critical race theory, anyway? ... Why “black Columbia” pretends that John doesn’t exist ... CRT’s racial power-grab ... Does the Jewish American example apply to African Americans? ... Disguising failure as victimology ..

Dems Take Fire from the Left (Glenn Loury, LaJuan Loury, and Sabrina Salvati )

Sep 29th, 2023 1h

How Sabby got her start on YouTube ... What happened to the Justice Democrats’ “hostile takeover”? ... Is the US sliding into fascism? ... The tension between race and class on the left ... Donald Trump’s rising popularity among black men

How the Race Game Is Played (Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, and Tyler Austin Harper)

Sep 22nd, 2023 1h

Tyler’s concept of “racial gamification” ... Affirmative action in spirit and practice ... Why can’t we just determine admissions based on academic merit alone? ... The fading popularity of “traditional” affirmative action ... Re-weightin

The Crucible of Desegregation (Glenn Loury & Shep Melnick)

Sep 15th, 2023 1h

Biden’s new DEI initiatives ... The disparate uses of disparate impact ... Shep’s new book, The Crucible of Desegregation: The Uncertain Search for Educational Equality ... The problem with claims that education is resegregating ... Are we

Whose Election Narrative? (Glenn Loury & John McWhorter)

Sep 8th, 2023 1h

Can a white man tell Harriet Tubman’s story? ... What the fall semester has in store for Glenn and John ... How John makes the sausage at the New York Times ... John: We now memorize rap lyrics instead of poetry ... Is wokeness on the wa

The Adversity of Diversity (Glenn Loury & Carol M. Swain)

Sep 3rd, 2023 1h

Why Carol joined Black Voices for Trump ... Why should black people support Trump? ... Carol: Democrats stole the 2020 election ... Does Trump face a credible assassination threat? ... The redefinition of white supremacy ... Deracializing

What Were We Thinking in 2007? (Glenn Loury & John McWhorter)

Aug 25th, 2023 1h

A sixteen-year-long conversation ... Race and socioeconomics on the cusp of the Obama Era ... The myth of black poverty and deindustrialization ... Glenn pulls rank ... Why Glenn changed his mind about the Manhattan Institute ... Is the t