logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2024
1h 14m

America’s reactionary moment

Vox
About this episode
What just happened? It’s been almost two weeks since the presidential election, and many Americans are still grappling with the result. The political reckoning will probably last for months, if not years, and we may never know exactly why voters made the choices they did. But one thing is clear: the roughly 75 million people who voted for Trump were saying “ ... Show More
Up next
Nov 17
How to survive awkward encounters
We all know what awkwardness feels like. It's that jolt of discomfort when the social script breaks down, and no one knows what to do next. But what if awkwardness isn’t a flaw to fix but a window into how we live together?  Sean’s guest today is Alexandra Plakias, associate p ... Show More
56m 52s
Nov 10
Truth in an age of doublethink
We use “Orwellian” to describe everything from campus dust-ups to authoritarian crackdowns. But what did George Orwell actually stand for, what did he get wrong, and what can we learn from him about our age of surveillance capitalism and distraction? Sean’s guest is Laura Beers, ... Show More
52m 16s
Nov 3
The case against free will
We all think of ourselves as authors of our lives. The difference between our happy ending and someone else’s tragic one are the choices we each make. But what if none of that’s true? Sean’s guest today is Robert Sapolsky, a biologist and neuroscientist at Stanford University and ... Show More
58m 50s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2024
The Long Simmer of Political Violence in America
America is not new to political violence, but the near-assassination of Donald Trump is an attack without comparison in 21st-century politics. How do process it? What happens next? And how true are the claims, as President Joe Biden put it in the immediate aftermath of the shooti ... Show More
23m 44s
Nov 2024
Novara FM: How MAGA Went Mainstream w/ Joshua Citarella
In 2016, the alt-right seemed to come from the internet and infest politics. In 2024, the internet and politics have become identical. Are we swimming in the world the alt-right built for us? Perhaps no one knows the world of online politics better than Joshua Citarella, an artis ... Show More
1h 18m
Jun 2024
The Biggest Political Divide Is Not Left vs. Right
<p>The biggest divide in our politics isn’t between Democrats and Republicans, or even left and right. It’s between people who follow politics closely, and those who pay almost no attention to it. If you’re in the former camp — and if you’re reading this, you probably are — the l ... Show More
1h 10m
Nov 2024
On the Edge of History: Shrink-Wrapping the Election Stakes
In our 27th episode, hosts Dr. John Gartner and Dr. Harry Siegel are joined by Dr. Stefan Ducat, to dive into all the latest drama in the pivotal pre-election landscape, underlining the dramatic importance of the imminent election on global stability and America’s future.  Make s ... Show More
2h 22m
Jul 2023
The Case Against Democracy - Curtis Yarvin
Curtis Yarvin, also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is an American blogger. He is known, along with philosopher Nick Land, for founding the anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic philosophical movement known as the Dark Enlightenment or neoreactionary movement (NRx). He argu ... Show More
1h 13m
Sep 2024
What's it like to cover a US election?
Days after the drama of the first U.S. presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, host Jack Blanchard asks senior journalists on both sides of the Atlantic — what's it really like to cover an American election? Podcaster and author Jon Sopel reflects on his years ... Show More
47m 45s
May 2019
115: THE EVE OF THE WAR with special guest Stephen Bush of the New Statesman
As the EU Election clock ticks remorselessly down to zero we’re joined by the New Statesman’s political editor STEPHEN BUSH to survey the campaign so far and predict the upshot. What will Labour’s “all things to everyone” stance to do its vote? How do we fight the Brexit Party’s ... Show More
1h 13m
Sep 12
America is in a dark era of political violence
<p>Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and commentator, was shot and killed while hosting an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Utah Governor Spencer Cox says it was a political assassination. Kirk, 31, co-founded the conservative youth organization, <a href="https:/ ... Show More
50m 34s
Sep 14
America’s New Age of Political Violence — with Barbara F. Walter
Scott speaks with Barbara F. Walter, professor at UC San Diego and author of How Civil Wars Start, about what the Charlie Kirk assassination reveals about America’s political future. They discuss how leaders exploit crises, why the U.S. is at higher risk of civil unrest, and how ... Show More
36m 56s
Jan 2025
The Epiphany: What Joyce, the Dead, Musk and Twitter Teach Us About Economic Power
We explore today's seismic changes in media and society, by tracing historical parallels between James Joyce’s&nbsp;<em>The Dead</em>&nbsp;(1907)&nbsp;and today’s digital age. Joyce’s observations on in The Dead about generational divides, the rise of newspapers, and societal shi ... Show More
33m 46s