The American Age

111 – Part 1 of 2. We are shaped by the communities we escape from, and the communities we find. What does it mean for a social primate to be "an individual"?

110 – There are communities we belong to by birth and circumstance, and then there are communities we want to belong to. How important are aspirational communities to our sense of self?

109 – We all belong to communities--political, familial, academic, religious, cultural, etc. But what is the balance between individual identity and communal identity? How individual are we?

108 – With the 2020 Presidential Election heating up, the hosts check-in with each other. What's the current state of the Democratic field, and can any of the candidates match the Trump campaign's financial juggernaut?

107 – Concluding their conversation about gender expressions, the hosts reflect on what can be gained by being culturally tolerant and linguistically flexible. What are the concrete benefits of pronoun tolerance?

106 – The hosts walk through the variety of terms for gender expression, and discuss their own responses to them. Given the variety of ways that it's possible to be a human being, why do new terms make us so uncomfortable?

105 – The hosts agree there should be more room for alternative gender identities, but wonder what other options there might be besides new pronoun mashups. Is language what constrains us, or is it something more fundamental? Are our cultural imaginations the issue?

104 – Our end of the year theme returns--again. What do we do with those few days each year that seem to fall off the calendar entirely? That time between Christmas and New Years when the Western world teeters precariously betwixt possibility and failure. We call them "unlucky days."

103 – The fervor over pronoun usage might seem silly to some. Is it "he," "she," or "they"? But language has never been fixed, and how individuals refer to themselves is in constant flux. There's nothing wrong with negotiation, but there might be with something wrong moralizing.

102 – What can you learn about a culture through comedy? What can you learn about people, and maybe more importantly, what can't you learn about them through comedy? The hosts agree it's time to stop canceling people for trying to be funny.