Here’s something different for you. In this episode of The Glenn Show, I sit down with artist, writer, and TGS Creative Director Nikita Petrov to discuss two fundamental questions: “What the hell is going on?” and “What is to be done?” If those questions sound both deep and broad, there might be a reason. They occurred to Nikita in the wake of a recent psychedelic experience. Not your typical TGS fare, to be sure!

The conversation begins with Nikita explaining what he’s learned from working with me and observing my relationships with others. I confirm his suspicions: I am in a very exciting and satisfying stage in my life and career. Nikita then goes on to describe the meditations on human interconnectedness he experienced during his trip. He wants to know: How can we tell a healthy connection from an unhealthy one? Can we formulate a theory as to how to make such a distinction? And how can we apply such a theory to my own present area of concern, the rise of CRT? I try to explain why I think CRT promotes “unhealthy” human connections, and why it risks shutting us off from the richness of human art, culture, thought, and knowledge. We then discuss the relationship between ideology and identity, and we find some parallels between Russian and African American history and politics. And finally, we try to get to the heart of what makes a “Glenn rant” a Glenn rant.

I’d love to know what you think. Let me know in the comments. And don’t forget to check out Nikita’s YouTube channel and his newsletter, Psychopolitica!

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0:00 Glenn's book leave

1:45 A psychedelic experience inspires Nikita to talk to Glenn

16:23 Healthy vs. unhealthy human connection

23:12 Glenn: Critical race theory is “self-absorbed and small”

38:03 Rising above “sectarian obsession”

49:14 A brief history of Russian political infantilization

57:28 Is Glenn the Jimi Hendrix of ranting?

Links

Glenn’s conversation with Cornel West and Teodros Kiros

Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem

Irving Howe, A Margin of Hope: An Intellectual Autobiography

Nikita’s newsletter, Psychopolitica

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