A conversation with Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy where we take the pulse of Israel and discuss how he came to question the Zionist project and where we might go from here.

Jay Shapiro breaks down arguments being presented by popular thinkers such as Sam Harris and from Zionists who defend Israel. He walks through the complications of deciphering the popularity of Islamism and Jihadism and Hamas and he outlines the mentality of "tribal essentialism".He teases a trilogy of upcoming episodes with Gideon Levy, Richard English, and Miko Peled.

Deciphering IDF intentions

Settler expansion

Roman Abramovich

Birthright

Zionism as Colonialism

The Arab Spring

Menachem Begin

Irgun, Stern Gang, Hagana

Two State Solutions

One State Hopes

More information and recommendations at whatjaythinks.com

David Livingstone Smith has been studying "dehumanization" for decades and has written three books on the subject. In this episode Jay and Smith apply his findings to the current conflict in Israel and broaden their scope to examine how a rising modern factor of "Distance" interplays with violence.

Jay Shapiro's personal essay and account of how the disfigurement of American Judaism has forged an existential crisis for something much bigger than survival of the state of Israel.

A nuanced look at the morality of intentions and self-deceptions in the Israel Palestinian conflict.

A look at the moral distinction between collateral damage, intentional civilian targeting, and something much more common and psychologically complex which the Jewish experience makes Israel particularly suspectable to.

Referenced in this episode:

The Rest Is Politics - Yuval Noah Harari

Slavoj Zizek - Bookfair Speech on Israel and Palestine

Essay published at What Jay Thinks: What Jay Thinks

Is there any hope for that strained or broken relationship that's become a causality of the political divide? Is common ground found best by going towards our superficial commonalities or in the direction of our deepest existential fears and hopes? Are the toxic business models of social media too much for us to overcome?

Monica Guzman is the blue leaning daughter of two Trump voting Mexican immigrants and is the head of storytelling for Braver Angels - an organization dedicated to healing our partisan divide. She just published a book entitled "I Never Thought of it That Way". If she can't help us, no one can.

This episode also begins with a related special comment and essay from Jay about so-called "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and the current crises in Ukraine.

What is it like to be a baseball bat?

This episode is a dive into the philosophical approach known as Object Oriented Ontology (OOO) with the author and philosopher Ian Bogost. Ian Bogost is a video game designer, author, and philosopher known for his most recent book Play Anything, but this episode is all about his book Alien Phenomenology: or What is it Like to be a Thing?

How many countries are there? 197? 193? 180? It depends who you ask and who is counting. What constitutes a "state"? How does that differ from a "nation"? Why do certain claims of self determined statehood go unrecognized while others are accepted and others are disputed. How do we respond to Putin's actions in Ukraine? How does the diminished and tarnished role of US global leadership affect world stability? Will Europe step up and fill the void? Is China really the threat that we fear they are? Have western democracies and economies become overconfident in a post-Cold War period?

In a conversation which places current headlines in a historical and legal context, Finish International Lawyer and Scholar Tero Lundstedt breaks down the blind spots in international law which continue to haunt the once-believed-to-be-peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union.

Does 2+2 really equal 4? What realm of truth am I in when I speak about my pain? What kind of truth claim is it to speak about the existence of "Poland"? How about the existence of ghosts and gods?

Spencer Greenberg breaks down his taxonomy of truth claims to help us better understand what we and others might be saying when we declare something to be true. He also lays out his personal philosophy of Valuism, a deceptively simple yet illuminating framework that can guide your behavior and focus your mind on what really matters to you.

Spencer's work and his intrinsic values test can all be found here: https://www.clearerthinking.org/

Spencer's essay on the "Seven Realms of Truth" can be found here: https://www.spencergreenberg.com/2019/03/the-7-realms-of-truth-framework/

Is it possible that the default position of libertarianism which has so deeply influenced politics, economics, and philosophy since the enlightenment could produce an ecosystem which stalls our ability to handle the existentially daunting task of freedom? Does the political structure of libertarianism dissolve into a fantasy the moment it encounters a problem of the commons like COVID or climate change? Is a conception of libertarianism as a "freedom from" preferrable to a conception of it as a "freedom to"? Have the economists owned the conversation for too long in this arena? Is a strong-arm government really the biggest threat to individual freedom? Will intentional libertarian blindness maximize a version of our selves that we aren't so proud of? Where does libertarianism end and anarchy begin?

Jay tangles with the editor of Reason Magazine and proud libertarian Nick Gillespie in a 2 hour conversation through the weeds of freedom.