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The Glenn Show

Glenn Loury invites guests from the worlds of academia, journalism and public affairs to share insights on economic, political and social issues.

Hosts:
Glenn Loury
Subscribe to The Glenn ShowSubscribe

Episode length: 3m

TGS Live: Daniel Bessner, Ian Lustick, and Eli Clifton on Israel’s Lobby

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com Glenn sat out last week's livestream, handing hosting duties to historian Daniel Bessner for a conversation with Ian Lustick and Eli Clifton, authors of Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power. Though all three are sharply critical of Israel's actions in Gaza and of U.S. support for them, Danny presses his guests on whether criticism of the lobby risks sliding into antisemitism, whether Israeli influence can truly compel lawmakers, and whether the alliance serves American interests The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 1h 5m

TGS Live: Warren Smith on Critical Thinking for Influencers

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com Glenn talks with filmmaker and YouTuber Warren Smith, author of A Mind of Your Own: Critical Thinking in the Age of Misinformation, a guide for young people navigating claims on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Executive producer Robert Patton-Spruill, Smith's former teacher, helps guide the discussion, which covers the viral moment that launched Smith's Secret Scholar Society channel, his move from filmmaker to creator, and critical thinking in a fragmented media environment. Glenn wonders how audience-driven incentives shape young people's thinking, while stressing the value of intergenerational dialogue. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 1h 4m

TGS Live: Sean Stevens and John McWhorter on Campus Free Speech + Q&A [Free Version]

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com Glenn and John host Sean Stevens of FIRE to discuss the organization's College Free Speech Rankings and the methodology behind measuring campus speech climates, alongside concerns about administrations overreaching under the guise of safety—particularly around Israel-Palestine speech. The show then moves to audience Q&A, covering the earlier Nathan Cofnas conversation, race and IQ discourse, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and AI's impact on labor and education. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

September 2026

Episode length: 1h

TGS Live: Roland Fryer on Breaking Through Self-Censorship

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com Glenn welcomes economist Roland Fryer—his former student and a John Bates Clark Medal and MacArthur "Genius" Grant recipient—for a wide-ranging conversation. Fryer discusses the Carob Trust Prize, a new $1 million award he co-founded with Bill Ackman (on whose selection committee Glenn sits) to reward independent, courageous social science research. The two also revisit Fryer's path into economics, Glenn's early mentorship of him, the conditions for effective DEI policy, the economics of addiction, and the controversy surrounding Fryer's use of cash incentives to boost student learning. Recorded Friday, September 18, 2026 The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Episode length: 42m

TGS Live: John McWhorter and Nathan Cofnas on Race and Intelligence

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com John McWhorter and Glenn talk with Nathan Cofnas, a philosopher of biology who exposed Jason Arday's plagiarism, for a discussion of that affair and Cofnas's own "race realist" views—that racial IQ differences are real and largely innate. McWhorter voices skepticism, questioning whether Cofnas has reckoned with the implications of his position. Glenn argues society lacks evidence to treat these differences as fixed, while maintaining the topic itself must remain open to discussion. Full version The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Episode length: 2m

TGS Live: Ian Rowe, Bradford Wilcox & Delano Squires on Family Structure and Education

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com On this episode of The Glenn Show, Ian Rowe, Bradford Wilcox, and Delano Squires argue that children generally fare best when raised by two married parents in the same household, and that this discussion is too often avoided. Ian and Brad point to a recent American Enterprise Institute report arguing that the National Assessment of Educational Progress should publish the family-structure data it already collects. Ian, Brad, and Delano contend that preparing kids for eventual marriage starts in childhood, through honest information about which choices improve life outcomes. But the debate is far from settled. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 59m

Robert Patton-Spruill – A Wrongheaded Doc about ‘Black Erasure’ in Boston [Bonus Episode]

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com In this bonus episode of The Glenn Show, Glenn and TGS co-producer Robert Patton-Spruill talk about Sabrina Salvati's documentary Removed: Black Erasure in Boston, and how his own attempt to build affordable housing in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. According to Rob, redlining isn't the cause of present-day housing problems for black Bostonians. It's often the community itself that stands in the way. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Episode length: 1h 2m

John McWhorter & Tess Chakkalakal – Was the First Black Novelist Actually Black?

Earlier this summer, I had Tess Chakkalakal, professor of Africana Studies and English at Bowdoin College and author of A Matter of Complexion, a wonderful biography of the writer Charles Chesnutt, on the livestream. That stream was for full subscribers here on the Substack, but today I’m releasing this fascinating conversation for all to enjoy. If you don’t know who Chesnutt is, you’re not alone. Chesnutt was a pathbreaking African American novelist and short story writer publishing in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Despite his accomplishments, his work fell into semi-obscurity after his death in 1932. Yet he is arguably the first major African American novelist. A subtle ironist and a significant figure in turn-of-the-century race debates, he was part of the first generation of black Americans to come of age post-Emancipation.

August 2026

Episode length: 2m

The John Show Live: Jason Arday, Jewish-Adjacency, and Language Myths

Last Friday, with Glenn still on the other side of the world, John McWhorter slid into the host chair for the weekly livestream. The major topic under discussion was the career and death of Jason Arday. As most of you probably know, we cut a segment on Arday from last week’s episode because it was recorded the day before news of Arday’s death broke. Though British officials have not yet made public a cause of death, most commentators speculate that Arday took his own life. It’s a tragic end to a story that bordered on farce. We’re going to be talking about this for some time. In this episode, John weighs in with his early thoughts and takes questions on the subject from the Substack and YouTube chats. Near the end of the episode, we introduce some lighter topics, like John’s self-described Jewish-adjacency and whether bilingual people’s personalities change depending on which language they’re using. Note: There was a glitch in Mark's audio recording that we could not get rid of during post-production. Apologies for the sub-optimal listening experience. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 2m

John McWhorter and Tyler Austin Harper – Why Tyler Left Academia

Glenn and John McWhorter sit down with Tyler Austin Harper, whose Atlantic cover story documents his decision to resign from a tenure-track position at Bates College. Harper offers an insider's account of an institution compromising scholarly standards and treating him as a token in the service of sweeping racial justice policies — a story of administrative pressure, faculty self-censorship, and mission drift. Note: this episode was originally recorded with an additional segment on Jason Arday, the former Cambridge professor who was found dead on August 14th. Out of respect, that portion has been withheld; a separate episode addressing the full Arday story is forthcoming. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 1m

TGS Live: Norman Finkelstein and Eli Lake on Israel and Palestine (with John McWhorter)

Nearly three years after October 7th, Glenn and John McWhorter host two guests with sharply opposing views on Israel and Gaza — in succession rather than debate, to prioritize clarity over conflict. First, Norman Finkelstein discusses his forthcoming book Gaza's Gravediggers, which examines failures within the international human rights community to protect vulnerable civilian populations. Then Free Press columnist Eli Lake argues that Israel's military response has been broadly justified and warns against the growing influence of anti-Israel sentiment in Democratic politics. Glenn and John interrogate both positions in good faith — not to reach a tidy verdict, but to model the kind of serious engagement the subject demands. Buy Norman Finkelstein's new book, Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 2m

TGS Live: Delano Squires on Rebuilding the Black Family

Glenn welcomes back Delano Squires, director of the Heritage Foundation's DeVos Center for Human Flourishing, to discuss his new book, The Vanishing Black Family: How Welfare and Feminism Made Marriage Optional and Children Vulnerable. Squires argues that failures of black political and religious leadership, combined with a welfare system that has done more harm than good, have contributed to the near-disappearance of two-parent households in many black working-class communities. Glenn pushes back on some of Squires's more ambitious claims — including his opposition to gay marriage and his framework of children's rights from conception — while finding common ground on the urgent need to strengthen the black family. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

July 2026

Episode length: 3m

TGS Live Bonus Episode: Steven Teles on Ideological Diversity on Campus

Glenn sits down with political scientist Steven Teles of Johns Hopkins to discuss one of higher education's most stubborn problems: ideological homogeneity. University faculties lean dramatically further left than the broader population, and in some humanities and social science disciplines, the imbalance has become self-reinforcing — conservatives self-censor or don't enter the field at all, shutting down internal debate and compromising academic freedom from within. Teles is working to change that through Johns Hopkins's new Agora Institute and School for Government and Policy, building cross-ideological bridges with institutional backing. Glenn sees the effort as urgent: the Trump administration's funding threats have turned an epistemological problem into an existential one. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 3m

TGS Live: Andrew Day on Trump, Israel, and Iran

Glenn brings back Andrew Day, senior editor at The American Conservative, to make sense of the war-skeptical right's position on the Iran War. With seventeen Americans already killed and peace talks stalled, Day argues Trump's decision to go to war is flatly incompatible with America First principles — delivering no clear national benefit while disrupting supply chains and rattling markets. Day's sharpest claim: Israel's interests drove the U.S. into this conflict, and with American opinion toward Israel souring even among Republicans, continuing to act in lockstep with Tel Aviv could prove fatal to the MAGA coalition by 2028. Another ill-advised Middle East war, another political casualty in the making. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 1m

TGS Live: Karmelo Anthony and the Content of Our Character

John McWhorter returns as Glenn and John reflect on the nation's 250th birthday and the state of Black America. Both express disappointment — not at racism's persistence, but at cultural attitudes that continue to hold Black Americans back. Using the Karmelo Anthony case as a touchstone, they push back hard against victimhood narratives that treat race as a mitigating factor for individual wrongdoing. But Glenn and John diverge on colorblindness: while John laments the persistence of racial identity, Glenn argues that race as a positive site of collective identification — embodied in institutions like the black church — remains valuable and shouldn't be abandoned in the name of an abstract principle. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 3m

TGS Live: 250 Years of Contradiction with Rajiv Sethi

Last week’s Independence Day installment of The Glenn Show brought the team together—along with special guest Rajiv Sethi—to talk about American identity, broadly conceived, on the occasion of the nation’s 250th birthday. Who were we, and who are we? What face do we present to the rest of the world? What makes American culture “American”? How do we manage the social challenges facing a coherent nation comprising an uncountable plurality of ethnic, racial, religious, and political groups? The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 1m

John McWhorter on Karmelo Anthony’s Grand Narrative

Recorded amid Glenn's vacation, this month's conversation with John McWhorter covers New York politics, crime, and culture. They discuss Mayor Zohran Mamdani's growing influence after his endorsed candidates swept their Democratic primaries, signaling a possible left-wing realignment within the party akin to the Tea Party's and MAGA's reshaping of the right. They also dig into the trial and sentencing of Karmelo Anthony for the killing of Austin Metcalf, weighing competing explanations — including a Sowellian theory of cultural inheritance — and Glenn's skepticism toward treating the case as fundamentally racial rather than personal and circumstantial. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

June 2026

Episode length: 1m

TGS Live: John McWhorter on a Black Helen of Troy, the Voting Rights Act, and Teen Takeovers in Chicago

John McWhorter returns for another wide-ranging conversation, starting with his latest book-in-progress on American English dialects and his remarkable productivity as a writer. From there, Glenn and John tackle the social media controversy over Lupita Nyong'o's casting as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan's upcoming Odyssey adaptation, weighing in on race, casting norms, and where society should ideally be headed. They then take on the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais and its implications for the Voting Rights Act — a take sure to generate pushback. The conversation closes with the Memorial Day "teen takeover" chaos in Chicago and Glenn's pointed criticism of Mayor Brandon Johnson's response. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

May 2026

Episode length: 4m

TGS Live: An Israeli Historian’s Lament for His Country

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com Glenn sits down with Israeli-American historian Omer Bartov to discuss his new book, Israel: What Went Wrong—a rigorous and deeply personal account of the contradictions at Israel's founding and how they've shaped the country's present. Bartov traces the legal, political, and religious tensions that have fueled belligerence in the occupied territories and eroded democratic norms at home, all while grappling with his own complicated relationship to his homeland. Glenn, neither Jewish nor an expert on Israeli politics, finds in Bartov a credible and emotionally honest guide through an extraordinarily complex situation. Whether you agree with Bartov or not, his expertise demands serious engagement—and that's exactly what this conversation offers. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Episode length: 1h 3m

TGS Live: Clifton Duncan’s Crusade against Philistinism

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com Glenn welcomes back actor and writer Clifton Duncan to discuss the challenges facing artists in an era of intense political polarization. Clifton is currently developing a one-man show about the life and work of Thomas Sowell, and also writes about art, politics, and identity on his Substack, The State of the Arts. The conversation explores a delicate tension: while politics has always inspired great art, ideological conformity can suffocate it. Clifton argues for art's intrinsic value and its unique power to illuminate universal human experience through the specific and singular. It's a crusade against philistinism, and Glenn happily counts himself an ally. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

March 2026

Episode length: 1m

Steven Pinker – When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows

Glenn Loury welcomes Steven Pinker to discuss his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows. Pinker—author of The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Rationality—explains how “common knowledge” works in everyday life. Drawing on vivid examples—from a Soviet-era joke about dissent to the rise and fall of GameStop and crypto ads during Super Bowl LVI—Pinker shows how shared awareness shapes seduction, threats, markets, and politics. Loury and Pinker explore how strategic ambiguity, spirals of silence, hierarchy, and nuclear policy all hinge on a familiar question: not who knows what, but who dares to say aloud what everyone knows. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

February 2026

Episode length: 34m

Chloé Simone – The Dark Side of Identity

The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported. If you’re not yet a full subscriber and want access to livestreams, Q&As, commenting, and other good stuff, click below to support TGS. We can’t do what we do without you. Click here to become a full subscriber. Video Links 0:00 Chloé’s theory of enchantment 3:54 Can a legal remedy solve a spiritual problem? 4:29 The human problem of stereotyping 8:26 Why Chloé thinks the rise of white identity politics was “totally predictable” 10:56 Ground News ad 12:46 Derrick Bell’s case against Brown v. Board of Education 14:49 The subject-citizen in Israel and the U.S. 17:01 Chloé’s year of mourning 19:09 Can a listening campaign help ease tensions in Israel? 23:26 An “aha” moment in Bethlehem 28:34 Chloé critique of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s analysis of Israel-Palestine 31:56 Does race have a future? Recorded February 13, 2026 Links and Readings Theory of Enchantment Chloé’s Substack post, “The First CRT President” Derrick Bell’s essay, “The Unintended Lessons in Brown v. Board of Education” Derrick Bell’s book, Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism Chloé’s Substack post, “The G-Word” James Baldwin’s book, The Fire Next Time Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book, The Message Coleman Hughes’s book, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America Thomas Chatterton Williams’s book, Self-Portrait in Black and White: Family, Fatherhood and Rethinking Race Báyò Akómoláfé’s home page This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

January 2026

Episode length: 1h 5m

Michael Shermer – A Skeptic’s Guide to 2026

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com Video Links 0:00 The crisis of belief and the crisis of speech 4:30 Michael: Deport the criminals, leave the gardeners 10:37 Michael’s list of the biggest, craziest, and most dangerous conspiracy theories 15:47 When trust in institutions breaks down 22:06 Why well-meaning people make absurd claims 26:01 Is Trump uniquely dangerous to American institutions? 29:04 Where Michael gets his news 31:49 How liberal institutions lost the plot 36:15 The roots and appeal of QAnon 41:06 Down the Jeffrey Epstein rabbit hole 44:47 Michael’s definition of truth 51:23 The stakes of religious belief 58:47 Can we live with “I don’t know” as the answer to the big questions? Recorded January 19, 2026 Links and Readings Skeptic magazine Michael’s new book, Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters Michael’s book, Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational Michael’s book, Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? The Free Press Glenn’s most recent conversation with Charles Murray Murray’s book, Taking Religion Seriously Martin Rees’s book, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces that Shape the Universe This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Episode length: 58m

Daniel Bessner – Making Sense of the Donroe Doctrine

This conversation with Daniel Bessner is only one segment from last week’s livestream, which also included a conversation with my team about ICE’s action in Minnesota and an appearance by Murtaza Hussain, who came to talk about his reporting on the Epstein Files. The full show is available here, but only for full subscribers. So if you want access to everything—including viewing privileges for new streams and access to video and podcast versions afterward—consider signing up. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience supported. We need your help in order to keep delivering the show week after week, along with all the other content we post here. So to those of you who are already full supporters: thank you for all you do. And if you’re not yet a supporter, please consider becoming one. Video Links 0:00 Trump’s ambitions in Venezuela 2:09 The downsides of American empire 5:44 Is Trump protecting US interests or engaging in regime change?
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