In this episode I talk with geostrategist Martin Skold. We initially focus on his book, The Race with No Finish Line — what powers compete over, the difference between Alpha and Beta powers, and how all this applied to the naval arms race between Britain and Germany prior to WWI. We then move on to the current situation of the US as global hegemon facing the rising power of China. This includes the possibility of US reindustrialization, the weird effects of the petrodollar, and whether the US has any core competencies left to leverage.

You can follow Martin on X and learn more at his personal web site.

His post on the Triffin Dilemma is on J. Daniel Sawyer’s blog Unfolding the World: “The Dollar, the Debt, and the Decline of American Power.”

As always, I’m grateful to my listeners and subscribers. If you’d like to become a subscriber, you can do so with the button below. You can also leave a one-time tip of any size with Stripe or with Paypal.

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In this episode, I talk with professional boxer and fight promoter Eric Watkins. How do boxers make money? What’s involved in arranging and promoting a fight? How has social media changed the sport?

Check out Eric’s website, Real Fight Promotion, for tickets or to livestream the latest fights in Morgantown, West Virginia. You might also be interested in his Athete Store.

You can follow him on Facebook and see his personal fight record at BoxRec.

Here he is winning a fight with a broken arm.

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Bullfish Hole is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jasonmanning.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode I interview sociologist Bradley Campbell about his recent book, How to Think Better about Social Justice: Why Good Sociology Matters. We discuss whether social justice is a useful concept, whether good sociology exists, why bad sociology is harmful, dealing with the Great Awokening, and the lessons of 19th century utopian communities.

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In this installment, we cover America’s history of mob justice, from colonial times up to the heyday of lynching in the Jim Crow era. Prepare to learn unexpected facts and shocking details about punishment at the hands of Judge Lynch.

I spent a lot of time on this one, and the full 2.5 hour show is for paid subscribers only.

My reading list for this episode:

In this episode, sociologist Brad Wilcox talks about his book Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization. Topics include the effects of marriage, advice for a happy marriage, the risk of divorce, why marriage declined, and why marriage rates vary across groups.

My apologies that the audio quality is a little lower than usual; one of us was at an airport.

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A shorter installment this time, looking at the clash between Scots Irish frontiersmen, American Indians, and Quaker leadership in Pennsylvania Colony, culminating in the Conestoga Massacre and the Paxton Boys Uprising.

Below I include a map and links to my reading list.

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Reading list:

Franklin, Benjamin. 1764. “A Narrative of the Late Massacres.”

Kenny, Kevin. 2009. Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn’s Holy Experiment. New York: Oxford University Press.

Olson, Alison. "The Pamphlet War over the Paxton Boys." The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 123, no. 1/2 (1999): 31-55.

Vaughan, Alden T. "FRONTIER BANDITTI AND THE INDIANS: THE PAXTON BOYS'LEGACY, 1763–1775." Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 51, no. 1 (1984): 1-29.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jasonmanning.substack.com/subscribe

In my Collective Violence class at WVU, we cover Bacon’s Rebellion to illustrate some of the fault lines of social distance and social status in colonial America. It’s also useful to contrast the nature and severity of violence in internal conflicts versus external ones. Here I give a more detailed account of the rebellion. To give some context, this episode also covers the Anglo-Powhatan Wars and the expansion of Virginia Colony.

Below I include some maps that might be helpful, followed by links to my reading list.

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Reading List

Tales from the Revolution: Bacon’s Rebellion and the Transformation of Early America by James D. Rice.

Plain Paths and Dividing Lines: Navigating Native Land and Water in Seventeenth Century Chesapeake by Jessica Lauren Taylor.

"Fighting" Fire" With Firearms: The Anglo-Powhatan Arms Race in Early Virginia," by Frederick J. Fausz, J., in American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

“Bacon’s Rebellion,” by Ethan Schmidt, in Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History, edited by Steven L. Danver.

“The Causes of Bacon’s Rebellion,” by Warren Billings, in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.

"Bacon's Rebellion, the Grievances of the People, and the Political Culture of Seventeenth-Century Virginia,” by Tarter Brent, in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.

And yeah, I also looked up stuff on Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Virginia.

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In this episode I talk to sociologist of religion Dr. Christopher Scheitle about his recent book, The Faithful Scientist: Experiences of Anti-religious Bias in Scientific Training.

How many scientists are religious? What even counts as religious? And how do they cope with an environment that assumes atheism?

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Bullfish Hole is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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In this installment we consider how the social structure of past societies generally differs from present ones, and also the specific social and cultural cleavages in early Colonial America. Indians, Puritans, Quakers, Cavaliers, Borderers, and a mass of indentured servants and slaves — the first big spasms of collective violence deal with enemies without and within.

This one may have a slightly different energy from the first installment, as a technical problem meant I had to re-record this a second time. Hopefully you still enjoy it.

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Edit 10/19: Slight revision to file to cure some voice weirdness. No substantive change.

Bullfish Hole is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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In this episode executive/life coach Harsha Perera talks about his journey from studying economics to working in finance to the world of coaching. What in the world is a life coach? How does one decide to become one? How does one break into the business? What sort of issues do they deal with?

You can find the professional page for Harsha’s coaching practice here.

You can follow him on Twitter here.

He has in own podcast series, The Harsha Reality, on Youtube.

And you can buy a copy of his book Machine Ego: Tragedy of the Modern Mind from Amazon.

Thanks for stopping by!

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jasonmanning.substack.com/subscribe