Conversations with Coleman

My guest today is Maryam Namazie. Maryam is an Iranian-born writer and activist living in the UK. She's the spokesperson of "One Law for All" and "The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain". She has co-authored many books, including "Sharia Law in Britain: A Threat to One Law for All and Equal Rights", "Enemies Not Allies: The Far-Right"  and "Political and Legal Status of Apostates in Islam".

This episode is all about the current uprising in Iran. Miriam and I talk about the death of Masa Amini in police custody and the protests that her death has caused all over Iran. We talk about the Iranian morality police and the laws and customs governing how Iranian women have to dress and behave. We discuss the strange alliance of conservative Islam and Western intersectional feminism. We discuss the legacy of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 which turned around into an Islamic state. We talk about the robust black market for Western and secular content in Iran. We also talk about what we in the West can do to support Iranian women and protesters, and much more. 

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My guest today is Richard Reeves. Richard Reeves is a Senior Fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute, where His research focuses on social mobility, inequality, and the middle class. Richard's new book is called "Of boys and men" and it's all about the specific problems facing men in American society. 

In this episode, Richard and I talk about whether there's any need to address male-specific problems in the first place. We discuss whether gender differences come from nature or nurture. We talk about the so-called feminization of society. We talk about the advantage that girls have in our education system, the wisdom of age segregation in K-12 schooling, the gender disparity and ADHD diagnoses, how the labor market has become less male-friendly, the suicide gap between men and women, the intersection of race and maleness, the unique struggles of black boys, and much more. 

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My guest today is Freddie DeBoer. Freddie is an independent writer on substack and has been published in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and many other places. His book "The Cult of Smart" was named one of the 10 best books of 2020 by New York Magazine.

In this episode, Freddie and I begin by discussing Karl Marx, the legacy of Marxism, and the so-called "labor theory of value". Freddie sees much more value in Marxism than I do so we disagree somewhat on that. We move on to discuss intelligence and the broken system of American higher education. A lot of that conversation is directly relevant to President Biden's recent student loan forgiveness executive order, although we recorded this right before that news broke. Finally, Freddie and I talked about wokeness and social justice ideology.

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My guest today is Will MacAskill. Will is an associate professor of philosophy at Oxford University. He is the co-founder and president of the Centre for Effective Altruism. Will is also the director of the Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research.

In this episode, we discuss his new book "What We Owe the Future". We talk about whether we have a moral obligation to the billions of humans that will be born in the next several 1000 years, and how to weigh those obligations against those of living humans. We discuss population ethics in general, and Derek Parfit's Repugnant Conclusion thought experiment. We discuss the role of economic growth in humanity's long-term future and how to weigh that against present-day wealth inequality. We talk about the ethics of abortion, and the notion of moral progress. We also discuss the possible AI futures that lie ahead of us and much more. 

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My guest today is Claire Lehmann. Claire is an Australian journalist and the founder of Quillette, which is the online magazine that I use to write for.

In this episode, Claire and I talk about why she founded Quillette, and how she maintains its original purpose as a magazine. We discuss the so-called "IDW" (the intellectual dark web) and the perception that it fractured into two camps on COVID issues. We discuss the difference between Australian and American COVID policy. We talk about the phenomenon of audience capture and how to fight it. We also talk about gun control in America and Australia, and much more. 

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My guest today is Rafael Mangual. Rafael is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Head of Research at their policing and public safety initiative. His new book is called "Criminal (In)Justice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts Most".

In this episode, we discuss the nationwide push for defunding and de-policing starting in the summer of 2020. We talk about the so-called root causes of crime. We talk about Ava DuVernay's documentary "13th" and Michelle Alexander's book "The New Jim Crow". We discuss the causes of mass incarceration. We talk about cash bail and bail reform. We also go on to talk about legalizing weed and much more. 

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My guest today is Ian Rowe. Ian is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the founder of Vertex Partnership Academies. He's also an educator who ran a charter school called Public Prep in the South Bronx for many years. 

In this episode, we discuss his new book "Agency". We talk about the obstacles facing low-income Black and Hispanic kids at the schools Ian teaches in. We discuss the problems with the narratives handed to these kids by both the left and the right which Ian calls the "blame the system" mindset and the "blame the victim" mindset respectively. We talk about the challenges faced by charter schools in general and the political opposition they face. We also talk about the role of religion and upward mobility and much more. 

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My guest today is David Bernstein. David is a professor at George Mason University Law School and the executive director of their liberty and Law Centre. His new book is called "Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America".

Topics covered in this episode include the definition of race and the historical origins of America's Big Five racial and ethnic categories, which are Asian American, Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and White. We discuss the problems with all of these categories and how those problems manifest in race-based affirmative action programs and race-based social spending in general. We talk about the phenomenon of racial fraud trials where judges have to determine the race of individuals seeking to qualify for certain programs. We discuss the malleability of racial identity, and how commonly our racial identities can change in response to incentives. We also go on to discuss the prospect of what David calls "a separation of race and state".

I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do too.

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Today I'm going to try something new. Instead of publishing an interview that I did myself, or a Q&A where I answer your questions, I'm going to use my platform to publish an interview conducted by somebody else. Now, this requires a bit of an explanation. My friend Desh Amila, who's a filmmaker and producer, organized an event with Julian Assange in 2017. He filmed the event at the time and then forgot all about it until a few days ago when he came across the footage by coincidence. When Desh offered to publish this footage using my platform, I was hesitant at first, because I worry that publishing this on my podcast would give people the impression that I support Julian Assange's actions, or that I support WikiLeaks as an organization.

So let me say this upfront - I'm agnostic about whether Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have done more good than harm for the world, as their supporters must believe. It's just not clear to me, and my publishing of this interview should not be taken by anyone as an endorsement either of him or of WikiLeaks. As all of you are aware, I'm a big defender of free speech and transparency. Therefore, you might expect that I would always take the side of the whistleblower who reveals important secrets held by governments or powerful corporations. For example: I had Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower on this show just a few months ago and I gave her a very friendly interview because I thought that what she revealed about Facebook was clearly a net good for the world. However, my support for free speech and transparency in general, doesn't automatically extend to every specific release of hacked information, especially in cases where that information could hurt people.

You will be able to hear more of my thoughts on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in the introduction to the episode.

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Today's episode is a Q&A where I answer questions sent to me by supporters of the podcast. Usually, I only release these episodes to members only, but I'm releasing this one to the public because I felt the questions were particularly good.

If you have any burning questions you'd like to ask me, and if you'd like to be a part of the next Members Exclusive Q&A, you can join the Coleman Unfiltered Community and become a member today via https://colemanhughes.org/unfiltered

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