Political theorist, writer, and podcaster Yascha Mounk returns! Last time, we spoke about Yascha’s last book: The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure. This time, Adaam got to air his personal grievances as we dove into the thorny topic of his latest book: The Identity Trap.
Yascha covers a ton: he traces the intellectual history of the postmodern ideas that captured the academy in the 2010s; he explains how these once-fringe ideas subsequently infiltrated the mainstream Left; he puts the tenets of identity-based politics to the philosophical test (analyzing the logical strengths and weaknesses of ideas like standpoint theory and cultural appropriation); and he defends liberalism as the best political framework we have to dismantle the injustices of our current world order (the very thing lefties, with their identitarian tendencies, are supposedly trying to do).
Of course, dear listener, we barely scratched the surface of all that in one hour. Instead, we got deep into Said, Spivak, and Foucault, panopticons and all — and so this conversation with Yascha continues soon, in part two.
Check out our ‘Uncertainty’ newsletter for updates and rants. To support us and gain access to exclusive content, consider becoming a paid member of Uncertain on Substack. Follow @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.
On the agenda:
- Cannibalism & grievances [0:00-6:05]
- Who are you trying to persuade? [6:06-22:28]
- The children of Foucault [22:29-38:11]
- The Said/Spivak Pivot [38:12-47:13]
- Strategic Essentialism [47:14-1:02:14]
- The Woman Question [1:02:15-1:09:50]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
Down the Saddam Rabbit Hole (w/ Steve Coll)
Three Drunk Jews Refuting Jonathan Glazer (w/ Batya Ungar-Sargon & Eli Lake)
What the Left Gets Wrong About Black History (w/ Charles Love & Wilfred Reilly)
Zionism and the Refugee Machine (w/ Dr. Einat Wilf)
What Iran Wants (w/ Arash Azizi)
Diaspora Palestinian to Hamas Apologists: Debate Me, Bro (w/ John Aziz)
Disgusting 'Journalists' (w/ Batya Ungar-Sargon)
How the Left Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Butchery of Jews (w/ Eli Lake)
Liberals Against Identity, Round 2 (w/ Yascha Mounk)
Big Tech VS Democracy (w/ Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami, & Jeremy Weinstein)
The Pros and Cons of 'Queer' (w/ Jamie Kirchick)
A Huge Outpouring of Human Misery (w/ Peter Turchin)
The Long Shadow of Complexity (w/ David Krakauer)
Welcome to the Content Age (w/ William Deresiewicz)
San Francisco Burning (w/ Nellie Bowles)
Doom of the Public (LIVE w/ Niall Ferguson & Martin Gurri)
Be My Guru (w/ Helen Lewis)
The City and the Citadel (w/ Michael Kimmelman)
Fragments of Meaning
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Dairyland Frights
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL