Lean Out with Tara Henley

The American journalist H. L. Mencken once said that “puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.” This comment resonates now more than ever, with the emergence of a new sanctimonious, humourless movement that targets all of the things that make life most worth living, from sports and comedy to art and food and special occasions.

Tara's guest on the podcast today argues that history will likely not remember these “woke” zealots well — and that, at the heart of their movement, there is a deep distrust of humanity.

Noah Rothman is the associate editor of Commentary Magazine. He’s also the author of The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

We talk a lot on this podcast about the ascendent woke ideology. But there is not yet anything like consensus on what this political movement actually is, what values define it — and who advances its agenda. 

Tara's guest on the podcast today has tackled these questions in a new book. She argues that woke ideology is an elite phenomenon. That it has breathed new life into old prejudices like sexism, racism, and homophobia. And that elites are unaware how unpopular these ideas are with the public.

Joanna Williams is founder of the Cieo independent think tank and a columnist at Spiked. She’s also the author of How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement that Threatens Democracy, Tolerance and Reason.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the big debates in journalism right now is over the role of objectivity. Is this an ideal worth upholding — or should we be moving on to other models, like the “moral clarity” ideal recently proposed in the New York Times?

This debate resurfaced last week at a panel discussion hosted by the Columbia Journalism School, “The Objectivity Wars.” Tara's guest on the program today was on that panel.

David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. He’s also a columnist at Politico. He recently published a longform piece titled “The War on Objectivity in American Journalism” in the Liberties journal.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Advocates against pandemic school closures have been ringing the alarm for some time. They were all but ignored two years ago. But the tide is now starting to turn, with mainstream media outlets reporting on the impacts of these closures on children.

Tara's guest today has been speaking out about these policies since 2020. And he recently published a powerful paper arguing that extended school closures were, in fact, a moral catastrophe — and one that we must ensure never happens again.

Shamik Dasgupta is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With school back in session for the year, it’s a good time to take a look at the lessons that we’re passing on to the next generation of children. Are we giving them the tools that they need to succeed in life? 

Tara's guest on the program today thinks there’s room for improvement. And his new book takes aim at the “blame the system” and “blame the victim” cultural narratives that he believes impede kids’ ability to recognize, and harness, their own agency. 

Ian Rowe is an educator and entrepreneur, and the founder of Vertex Partnership Academies. He’s a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a visiting fellow at the Woodson Center. He’s also on the board of advisors for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism. His new book is Agency.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The fall is here, and the Lean Out podcast is back — renewed, refreshed, and ready to dive in on the debates of the day.

There’s no better way to kick off the season than with our brilliant guest today, who’s been ringing the alarm on pessimism about the West. He grew up in the Soviet Union under communism, and moved to the UK in his youth, forging successful careers as a translator, a comedian, a political commentator, and most recently, a podcaster. 

Konstantin Kisin is co-host of the Triggernometry podcast. His new book is An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With summer winding down and the Lean Out podcast about to go on hiatus for several weeks, Tara wanted to leave you all with a really compelling story — a story of one of Canada’s most famous journalists, an investigative reporter and war correspondent who cared deeply about the truth. 

This is also the story of that reporter’s son and his quest to understand his father, a quest that took him around the world and inspired him to put pen to paper.

Eric Reguly is the European bureau chief for The Globe and Mail newspaper. He’s also the son of the late Bob Reguly. Eric’s new book is Ghosts of War: Chasing My Father’s Legend Through Vietnam. 

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

“Workers across the developed world have been moving away from traditional working-class parties, while the left has shed most of its connections to anyone outside the email economy, and working-class concerns increasingly meet with progressive resentment and hostility…”

These are the opening lines of a recent piece from Tara's guest today, titled “The New Workers’ Movement” and published in Compact Magazine. In it, he argues that by 2022, this has all become pretty obvious. And that the really interesting question is: What comes next for working-class politics?

Malcom Kyeyune is a writer, podcaster, and political commentator based in Sweden. He’s also columnist for Compact Magazine.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In recent years, Canada — like the United States — has been engaged in a national conversation on race. But Tara's guests on today’s program say that that conversation does not always acknowledge the diversity of opinion within communities of colour. Particularly when it comes to critical race theory. 

Jamil Jivani is a lawyer, an author and a columnist at the National Post. He’s also a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, where he helped found the Speak For Ourselves initiative. It recently published a series of essays on critical race theory, including one from Samuel Sey. Samuel Sey is a Canadian writer and thinker who blogs at SlowToWrite.com. He’s also a spokesperson on critical race theory for Parents As First Educators.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

If you follow Tara's Substack, you know that over the past six months she has frequently covered the vaccine mandates in Canada. She has been raising questions about the scientific rationale for these mandates — and this week Canada got some answers.

Tara's guest on today’s podcast published new reporting at Bari Weiss’s Substack, Common Sense, in a piece titled “Court Documents Reveal Canada’s Travel Ban Had No Scientific Basis.”

Rupa Subramanya is a columnist for the National Post. Her reporting received international attention earlier this year when she published a piece on the trucker convoy, also for Bari Weiss, titled “What the truckers want.”

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com