Category: Interviews

Matthew Pressman on the Liberal Values That Shaped the News

Mike talks with media expert Matthew Pressman, an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Seton Hall University. Prior to earning his doctorate in history, Dr. Pressman worked for eight years at Vanity Fair, where his articles about the news media won the 2010 Mirror Award for Best Commentary (digital media). He’s the author of On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News.

Topics Mike & Matt discuss include:

  • the shift from ‘straight news’ to interpretation
  • the meaning of objectivity in the news
  • how commercial pressures shape news coverage
  • the inherent conservative bias of pre-1960s news media
  • the conservative critique of ‘liberal media’
  • racism and sexism in newsrooms and news coverage
  • the rise of the reader-oriented newspaper
  • the media’s response to Donald Trump
  • if today’s media is better than the pre 1960s media

    Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible    . If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support.

Aquinas and the Market: Theologian & Economist Mary Hirschfeld on a Humane Economy

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Mike talks with theologian and economist Mary Hirschfeld about her book Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy. Professor Hirschfeld started her career as an economist, getting her Ph.D. from Harvard and then working and teaching in the field for the next 15 years. She then made a fascinating career change, going back to graduate school and earning a doctorate in theology from Notre Dame. She’s currently an Associate Professor of Economics and Theology at Villanova University.

Topics Mike and Professor Hirschfeld discuss include:

  • what theology can bring to a discussion of economics
  • what Thomas Aquinas – a medieval Dominican friar – can contribute to our understanding of 21st century economics
  • why economics isn’t as value-neutral as many people think
  • money, desire, and happiness
  • ‘maximizing your utility’ vs. ‘ordering your life’
  • why private property is a good thing
  • inequality and economic justice

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to patreon.com/politicsguys

Patrick Deneen on Why Liberalism Failed

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Mike talks to Patrick Deneen, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. In his book Why Liberalism Failed, Deneen argues not only that liberalism has failed (which you probably picked up from the title) but more importantly, he argues that it failed because it was based on a fundamentally unsound understanding of human beings.

In this talk, Mike and Professor Deneen discuss the individual autonomy, liberalism & capitalism, how liberalism’s success led to its failure, virtue ethics & Judeo-Christian values, education, Alexis de Tocqueville, Wendell Berry, and lots more.

Patrick Deneen on Twitter

Recommended Reading:

Articles
The World Is Better Than Ever. Why Are We Miserable? (Andrew Sullivan on Steven Pinker and Patrick Deneen)
Can Democracy Save Us? (Ryszard Legutko’s review of Why Liberalism Failed.)
The Dead End of the Left? Augusto Del Noce’s Critique of Modern Politics.

Books
The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy. Christopher Lasch
The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics. Christopher Lasch
The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. Christopher Lasch
The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies. Ryszard Legutko
The Crisis of Modernity. Augusto Del Noce
The Age of Secularization. Augusto Del Noce
The World-Ending Fire. Wendell Berry
Democracy in America. Alexis de Tocqueville

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

Tyler Cowen on Stubborn Attachments to Prosperity and Freedom

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Mike talks with Tyler Cowen, a professor of Economics at George Mason University, blogger at Marginal Revolution, host of the ‘Conversations with Tyler‘ podcast, regular contributor at ‘Bloomberg Opinion‘, and author of a number of books including The Great Stagnation, Average is Over, The Complacent Class, and most recently Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals.

Topics Mike & Tyler discuss include:
– Why we should focus more on economic growth.
– The importance of sustainable growth.
– How future people should be valued.
– Why human rights should trump even economic growth.
– Economic growth and human happiness.
– Tyler’s specific policy recommendations.

Follow Tyler on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

Jamie Susskind on Future Politics

Mike talks with author, speaker, and practicing barrister Jamie Susskind. Jamie studied history and politics at Magdalen College, Oxford before turning to law, and is a past Fellow of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. His recently released book is Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech.

Mike and Jamie discuss:

  • the digital lifeworld
  • the nature of power
  • increased state scrutiny and the loss of privacy
  • the power, promise, and peril of algorithms
  • the future of liberty
  • alternatives to democracy
  • the wealth cyclone
  • and lots more!

Jamie Susskind on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

Psychiatrist Justin A. Frank Puts Trump on the Couch

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Mike talks with Dr. Justin A. Frank, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and a physician with more than forty years of experience in psychoanalysis. He’s the bestselling author of Bush on the Couch, Obama on the Couch, and most recently, Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.

Mike & Dr. Frank discuss:

  • Donald Trump’s impressive psychological strengths
  • what Dr. Frank sees as the president’s ‘creativity and brilliance’
  • how Donald Trump is like George Costanza
  • how Donald Trump has become his own mother
  • Barack Obama’s ‘obsessional bipartisan disorder’
  • Trump’s understanding of loyalty
  • if Donald Trump is fit to be president
  • and lots more

Dr. Frank on Twitter

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Greg Lukianoff on the Coddling of the American Mind

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Mike talks with Greg Lukianoff, attorney, New York Times best-selling author, and President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). He’s the author of Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate, Freedom From Speech, and FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus. Most recently, he co-authored The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure with Jonathan Haidt.

Mike and Greg discuss
– the 3 Great Untruths of modern American society
– fragile kids
– tribalism and ‘us vs. them’ thinking
– white male privilege
– Stoicism, Buddhism, and modern psychology
– and lots more

Follow Greg on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

Sami Saydjari on Cyber-Threats

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Mike talks with cybersecurity expert Sami Saydjari. He’s been deeply involved in the fields for over three decades, working for organizations including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Security Agency, and NASA, among others. He has published numerous papers, consulted national leaders on cybersecurity policy, and educated the public through interviews with national media including CNN, PBS, ABC, the New York Times, Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. He’s also the author of the recently published book, Engineering Trustworthy Systems: Get Cybersecurity Design Right the First Time.

Topics Mike & Sami cover include:
– Security issues with voting systems
– Hacking infrastructure
– If military command & control systems are safe
– Why more complex = more hackable
– Sami’s cybersecurity policy recommendations

Sami on the Web

Follow Sami on Twitter

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Onkar Ghate on The Enduring Appeal of Ayn Rand

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Mike talks with Onkar Ghate, a senior fellow and chief philosophy officer at the Ayn Rand Institute. Dr. Ghate is the Institute’s resident expert on Objectivism and serves as its senior trainer and editor. He has taught philosophy for over ten years at the Institute’s Objectivist Academic Center.

Dr. Ghate studied economics and philosophy at the University of Toronto and worked in the financial industry prior to joining the Ayn Rand Institute in 2000. He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1998 from the University of Calgary.

Mike & Dr. Ghate Discuss:
– Why Ayn Rand would hate Donald Trump
– Misunderstanding ‘selfishness’
– Objectivism and Judeo-Christian Values
– Why Rand wasn’t a Libertarian or a Conservative
– The 75th anniversary of Rand’s The Fountainhead
– Are there American politicians who embody Rand’s values?
– And lots more!

The Ayn Rand Institute on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

Michele Gelfand on Rule Makers & Rule Breakers

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Mike talks to University of Maryland cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand about her new book, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire the World.

Topics Mike and Michele discuss include:

  • the importance of culture in understanding politics
  • why some cultures are ‘tight’ and others are ‘loose’
  • the advantages and disadvantages of tightness and looseness
  • tight culture support for ‘loose’ Donald Trump
  • the geography of tightness and looseness in the United States
  • threat perception, political ideology, and tightness
  • if the United States should be tighter or looser than it is
  • how tight and loose cultures can better communicate
  • and lots more

Follow Michele Gelfand on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.