Yascha Mounk returns for round two! If you missed part one of our conversation with the political theorist, writer, and podcaster about his latest book, The Identity Trap, stop now and listen to that episode first.
We pick up where we left off last time and get deep into debate about strategic essentialism, the privileging of marginalized voices, and the incoherencies of standpoint theory. We also ask Yascha why he disagrees with John McWhorter’s theory that the proponents of the Identity Synthesis are members of a new religion. Plus, Yascha plays relationship counselor for your sparring hosts and his dog finally gets outside.
Follow Uncertain Things on uncertain.substack.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
On another note, we will be attending Yascha’s Oct 4 talk at the Streiker Center in NYC. See you there?
Also check out:
-Our talk with James Kirchick about the contradictions of our current gender debates.
-Our talk with Yuval Levin on the moral failure of civic institutions in the age of narcissism.
-Our talk with Tom Holland about his lost faith in liberalism.
On the agenda:
-Re-capping Round 1 [0:00-3:03]
-On Justice, essentialism, and race (the implications of standpoint theory) [3:04-15:12]
-Who Gets to Speak for their Race? [15:13-23:49]
-The Catastrophes of Unsalvageable Liberalism [23:50-32:15]
-On intention and persuasion [32:16-42:03]
-The woke religion? [42:04-50:31]
-The Identity Synthesis [50:32-54:43]
-Outtake: Against Monocausal Explanations [55:00-57:25]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
Marxism vs. The Media (w/ Batya Ungar-Sargon)
What We Lose When We Break Free (w/ Yuval Levin)
Sex, Feminism, and the Madding Crowd (w/ Caitlin Flanagan)
A Thousand Narratives: America Rewrites Its History (w/ Moshe Sluhovsky)
Finding The Angels of Capitalism (w/ Dr. Dawn Carpenter)
The CIA Analyst Who Saw It Coming (w/ Martin Gurri)
The Post-Trump Tipping Point (w/ Nadav Eyal)
Perestroika Begins at Home (w/ Matt Welch)
America, Inc. (w/ Adam Winkler)
On Honor and Justice (w/ Tamler Sommers)
How to Steal Wealth From Workers — With the Best of Intentions (w/ Zohar Goshen)
Post-Colonial Absurdities, Post-Caste Delusions (w/ Yashica Dutt)
Why Anti-Racism Trainings Fail (w/ Chloé Valdary)
Why Empathy's Bad — And Suffering Hurts So Good (w/ Paul Bloom)
Art: WTF Happened? (w/ Ken Goshen)
Chomsky, Katy Perry, and the Algorithm God (w/ Adam Neely)
Time to Talk About Secession? (w/ David French)
Biased Journos, Young Radicals, and Pre-Election Spooks (w/ Robby Soave)
The Liberal Who Voted for Trump (w/ Misha Thomas)
You Can Be a Dictator, Too (w/ Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL