Francis and Konstantin are two professional comedians in London, England, whose recent guests include Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay, Douglas Murray, Coleman Hughes, and many others. They interviewed me on (humor-deficient) postmodernism, identity politics, cancel culture, how to fix education, and optimism about the future despite these dark times. Here’s the video. A rough transcription is
Triggernometry: interview Read More »
[I’m teaching biomedical ethics this semester and so revisiting some posts on innovation and progress.] Current infant mortality rates are less than half of one percent, and it is awful for parents who lose a child. But in the 1700s, infant mortality rates were over 50%. I came across this in Robert K. Massie’s Catherine
Some appalling infant mortality numbers from history Read More »
I’ve been getting grief from several directions — accusing comments that I’ve been (a) soft on Trump, (b) in the bag for Trump, (c) too hard on Trump, and (d) changed my tune on Trump. Each claim is a mystery to me. My practice is rarely to comment directly on day-to-day or week-to-week political issues
Emotion trumping Trump assessments Read More »
“The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail—its roof may shake—the wind may blow through it—the storm may enter—the rain may enter—but the King of England cannot enter!” (William Pitt, March 1763 speech. Pitt was a British Whig politician, including being Prime Minister
On property rights as a check against political power, Pitt edition Read More »
We are having two debates at the same time, on both sides of the mind/body split: Person A says: “Let good and bad germs fight it out in our bodies. That’s how individuals and groups develop physical strength.”Also: “Let good and bad ideas fight it out in our minds. That’s how individuals and groups develop
Covid and Social Media: the same debate in two forms Read More »
I guest-hosted The Atlas Society Asks program and interviewed classicist Victor Davis Hanson for 30-minutes on what we moderns can learn from the classics about human nature and war. Some of the questions we covered: Is a lesson of history that freer societies prevail over authoritarian ones? E.g., how the Greeks were able to defeat
Victor Davis Hanson interview: war and foreign policy Read More »
2150 years ago, the historian of Rome wrote: Text: “In the natural, spontaneous course of events, the first [political] system to arise is monarchy, and this is followed by kingship, but it takes the deliberate correction of the defects of monarchy for it to develop into kingship. Kingship changes into its congenital vice—that is, into
Polybius on degenerate democracy Read More »
The techno-pessimists are wrong about our jobs and careers and the impact of robotics. The Robots Will Free Us is Episode 47 in my Open College with Dr. Stephen Hicks podcast series. “There’s a perennial divide between the technological optimists and the technological pessimists. We see that playing out right now among those assessing the
The Robots Will Free Us [Open College] Read More »