Acknowledging the black middle class … How the Democratic Party works against progressives … Briahna: The interests of political parties no longer reflect the interests of voters … Should we increase taxes on the very rich in order to fund the social safety net? … Briahna makes the case for Medicare for All … Should we cancel student debt? … The left-right alliance over intervention in Ukraine …

Greg’s work with the Jazz Leadership Project … How does a “black” art form operate within a corporate environment? … What’s left of the legacy of Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray, and Stanley Crouc … Black culture after the postmodern turn … Greg’s work with the Institute for Cultural Evolution … Greg’s critique of Black Lives Matter … Rooted cosmopolitanism and the “Faustian bargain” of whiteness … Greg’s very accomplished daughter …

What is Glenn’s goal as a public intellectual? … Glenn has his critique of affirmative action … … … but is articulating the critique enough? … Glenn: My raison d’être is to give voice to my contempt for the failures of my people … Stephanie: At a certain point, you’re not describing reality, you’re influencing it … The case for integralism … “Evolution is beautiful, but it’s not pretty” … Glenn’s critique of Stephanie’s “promiscuous pragmatic pluralism” … A preliminary look into the married life of the Lourys …

The NYT commemorates the tenth anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death … What really happened between Martin and George Zimmerman? … How John’s relationship with The Root frayed … Learning from the O.J. Simpson case … Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown on the big and small screen … Where are the consequences for those who get it wrong? … Remembering Scott Joplin …

Some unspeakable truths … Are comics now afraid to speak their minds onstage? … The difference between telling the truth and getting a laugh … Can jokes actually do harm? … Nikki Jax on comedy and trans issues … Who actually “cancels” comics, audiences or corporations? … Sam Jay on artistic freedom and mob mentality … Q&A: I’m worried people won’t understand that my one-woman show is satire. What should I do? … Q&A: Does comedy have real power or is it ‘just jokes’? … Q&A: Do comics sometimes inadvertently reinforce wrongheaded points of view? … Q&A: Why are Ivy Leaguers so unfunny? … Q&A: Are college campuses inhospitable environments for comedy? … Q&A: What got Roland suspended at Harvard? … Q&A: Does the general public need social media training? … Q&A: Is there a way to stop corporations from folding to social media pressure campaigns? …

The principle that race shouldn’t matter and the fact that it does … The high stakes of affirmative action … In defense of Charles Murray … Are there facts we’re better off not knowing? … When does affirmative action make sense and when is it counterproductive? … Is belief in God irrational? … Suffering and the illusion of self … Finding meaning in secular community …

Matt’s brief career as a professional basketball player in Mongolia … What drove Putin to invade Ukraine? … Are there limits to Putin’s power in Russia? … Putting ourselves in Russia’s geopolitical shoes … The appeal of Russian nationalism … Did we learn anything from Iraq and Afghanistan? … Did Russiagate obscure Americans’ ability to see Russia’s actions clearly? … The value of public apologies … Matt: Journalists are now in the narrative business … The foreign policy language barrier … Matt’s recommends some modern Russian writers … Matt answers the most pressing question of our time: Celtics or Nets? …

Daniel: Putin’s actions in Ukraine demonstrate the decline of American global hegemony … Did the Soviet Union have the same expansionist ambitions as the US? … How the war in Ukraine could increase nuclear proliferation … Daniel: It’s absurd that people got so upset about Whoopi Goldberg’s Holocaust comment … Does the US have “mass politics” anymore? If not, is that a bad thing? … When does it pay to privatize? … What’s so bad about utopianism? … Is true meritocracy possible within a highly unequal society? … The uses (and possible abuses) of game theory …

Glenn contemplates exiting academia … Why should Jeffrey Lieberman lose his jobs over a tacky tweet? … The historical significance of the word “Negro” … The revolt against “Latinx” … Why Glenn doesn’t capitalize “black” … Why does “blackness” take precedence? … Glenn: Tenure without mandatory retirement can be a problem … Will the US send troops to Ukraine? …

Matt’s new book, What Next, Chicago?: Notes of a Pissed-Off Native Son … Piecing together the puzzle of race, crime, and corruption … Some Chicago success stories … Matt: Charter schools are a necessity in Chicago … Chicago’s thriving Latino communities … Is increased enforcement the best way to solve Chicago’s crime problem? … What is disrupting traditional family structures in Chicago’s black communities? … Darryl Smith, the (unofficial) Mayor of Englewood … The decline of the South Side and the efforts to revive it … So, what’s next for Chicago? …

John: Don’t dismiss West Side Story just because it was written by white men … If the Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action, will higher education “resegregate”? … Are meritocracy and racial diversity initiatives inherently opposed to each other? … What, if anything, are we losing when we give significant weight to racial preference? … John: Certain Black academics are valued for the way they represent their race rather than their scholarly achievements … The perils of the DEI industry …

Steven’s recently reissued and updated book, The Economist’s View of the World: And the Quest for Well-Being … Why is Steven, a political scientist, interested in how economists think? … The virtue of markets … Opportunity costs explained … If everyone needs water and almost no one needs diamonds, why are diamonds more expensive than water? … Prices, incentives, and compensation … Would unlimited unemployment benefits help or harm unemployed people? … Is it rational to expand our reliance on nuclear power? … The difficulty of reducing healthcare costs … COVID’s opportunity costs …

Ilya Shapiro’s controversial tweet about Biden’s imminent Supreme Court nomination … John dips out and Glenn delivers a soliloquy … John returns and clarifies his academic resume … Why John thinks that Georgetown shouldn’t fire Ilya Shapiro … Why should race be a factor in Biden’s Supreme Court pick? … Should Biden have announced the gender and race of his pick ahead of time? … John: “There’s real ideological diversity in the Black community” … How bad was Whoopi Goldberg’s statement about the Holocaust? … Glenn and John agree that Joe Rogan’s use of the n-word is not cause for cancelation …

Larry’s new book, Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life … Why did Larry, a serious academic economist, write a financial advice book? … Why investing in stocks may not be as safe as it seems in the long term … Larry: If a personal finance product is complicated, it’s a swindle … An economist’s guide to divorce … Is a free online Stanford education more valuable than a debt-laden traditional degree? … Why does the government offer student loans? … Larry: “We’re all self-made people at some level” …

What political values does Joe Biden represent? … Do new election laws amount to race-based voter disenfranchisement? … Glenn: Black people are free. But what should we do with that freedom? … John changes his mind about Eric Adams … John addresses linguistic informality and Sidney Poitier in his recent columns … Amy Wax: heterodox thinker, provocateur, or racist? …

Heather’s deep dive into African American literature … The impact of George Floyd on violent crime rates … Heather: Why doesn’t the mainstream media cover the violent deaths of black children? … The difficulty of addressing black out-of-wedlock birth rates … Who has the moral authority to advocate for traditional family structures? … Heather: Giuliani was one of America’s greatest mayors … Glenn: Lowering academic standards threatens the foundation of our civilization … Looking for Black leadership … Was the reaction to the crack epidemic a “moral panic”? …

The significance of Sidney Poitier’s Caribbean origins  … Revisiting the Lani Guinier controversy  … How Guinier’s views eventually triumphed … Where are the “heterodox” black women?  … Glenn: I’m worried about the stability of our electoral process … Are we on the precipice of violent political conflict? … An update on John’s prodigious output …

Bob: “There is no monolithic ‘Black Community’” … How much anti-poverty spending actually goes to poor people? … Recalibrating welfare’s perverse incentives … Can community faith-based interventions scale up? … The moral inconsistencies of progressive policy … What should we focus on instead of race? … How the Woodson Center is working to restore communities … Why is there no religious dimension to current racial justice movements? … The Glenn Show gives back …