Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com

0:00 The uncertain future of AI

4:46 What would it mean to “lose the AI race” to China?

8:15 The promise and peril of artificial general intelligence

12:01 The international policy challenges of AI

14:32 Can Trump deliver peace between Russia and Ukraine?

18:46 Are there any good argument for Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense?

23:55 Bob: With Iran weakened, Israel faces a decision: bombs or diplomacy

28:29 The continuing assault on Gaza

32:33 Antiwar speech codes

37:57 Apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing

43:15 Missed opportunities to turn the temperature down in Israel

51:29 Bob: The international community has little sway over Israel

54:25 The advantages of cognitive empathy

Recorded December 17, 2024

Links and Readings

Bob’s Substack, the Nonzero Newsletter

Nonzero on YouTube

Thomas Nagel’s essay, “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”

Bob’s most recent conversation with Thomas Friedman

Glenn’s essay, “Self-Censorship in a Time of War”

Jimmy Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid

Ilan Papé’s book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book, The Message

Bob’s Nonzero essay, “The Truth about Hamas”

Bob’s 2002 Slate essay, “Was Arafat the Problem?”

LaJuan has appeared in a handful of episodes, but I don’t feel like you really know her yet. I wanted to use this episode to introduce you to my lovely wife. We talk about how her difficult early life shaped her political views, how she developed her love of reading and ideas, her alienation from Democrats and the liberal center, and her personal connection to Beyoncé.

This episode is available only to full subscribers to my Substack. If you're listening to the full episode, thank you for all your support. And if you want more of The Glenn Show, in addition a host of other benefits, go to https://glennloury.substack.com and become a full subscriber.

Support The Glenn Show by becoming a full subscriber at https://glennloury.substack.com

Video Links

1:33 Demonization on the right and the left

6:23 Is Trump’s election the nail in the coffin for DEI?

13:50 John: It’s no use pretending that racism in America is as bad as it was 50 years ago

16:33 Ground News ad

18:36 Has Elon Musk “encouraged” or “permitted” more racism on X?

19:30 John: It’s a tragedy that Jordan Neely died, but he needed to be restrained

30:12 If Daniel Penny had been a cop

34:05 ACTA ad

36:18 The glorification of Luigi Mangione

47:06 Cheering for the villain

55:43 Will New York remain a sanctuary city?

Recorded December 13, 2024

Links and Readings

John’s NYT column, “How to Dangerously Misread a Very Important Verdict”

Briahna Joy Gray and Nathan Robinson on Luigi Mangione

Right after I taped this week’s episode with John McWhorter, I got on a call with my creative director Nikita Petrov, expecting some follow ups.

We talked about Syria, the world’s reaction to Trump’s victory, P. Diddy’s parties, the reasons the labor movement never got the same kind of momentum in the US as it did in Western Europe, and more. But we started by connecting two topics from my conversation with John: the surprisingly cheerful reactions to a killing of an insurance firm CEO in New York, and the seeming demise of DEI as a movement.

Normally, free subscribers to the newsletter and podcast have to wait until Friday receive the new episode. And normally Q&A sessions with John McWhorter, in which we answer questions posed by the audience, are only available to full subscribers. But today is no normal day—I’m releasing our Q&A from last month to everyone.

Become a subscriber at https://glennloury.substack.com

Mike Spooner wants to know how I came around to supporting Trump

Substack Reader wants to know if Trump’s reelection signals that we’re entering an era where “reason and common sense once again prevail.”

Michoel Stern senses that I’m becoming more isolationist, and that I don’t want America to be the world’s policeman. So what is the alternative?

Robert Odear asks if there is “an accepted metric for linguistic complexity,” and if there is one, whether linguistically complex societies also tend to be advanced societies.

Nancy wants to know if the triumph over “wokeness” represented by Trump’s election is being felt on campus.

Jonathan E. Burack wants to know why I haven’t responded to this review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Message.

Pete Bradshaw asks what we think of the use of political slurs like “fascist,” “Hitler,” and “commie.”

Cara C. suggests that, while it was wrong for Democrats to use lawfare against Trump, it is acceptable for Republicans to use it against Democrats, if only to teach them a lesson.

Recorded December 1, 2024

Support The Glenn Show by becoming a full subscriber at https://glennloury.substack.com

0:00 Thanksgiving with Glenn and John

0:45 Thanksgiving with Glenn and John

6:50 Glenn the patriarch

10:35 John Lewis’s legacy

15:48 Ground News ad

17:49 From John Lewis to Stokely Carmichael to Jesse Jackson to BLM

25:21 To isolate or to integrate?

27:41 What black activism could have been

32:02 John: The Black Panthers accomplished nothing

40:04 ACTA ad

42:18 James Baldwin’s “nutty” late work

44:45 James Q. Wilson’s prescient attitude toward Glenn’s leftward shift

52:43 The “conservative” absence at the National Museum of African American History

55:11 John’s investigation of contemporary Yiddish speakers

Recorded December 1, 2024

Links and Readings

David Greenberg’s book, John Lewis: A Life

Barbara Fields and Karen Fields’s book, Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life

Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and Charles Hamilton’s book, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

Trailer for Raoul Peck’s film, I Am Not Your Negro

James Baldwin’s book, The Evidence of Things Not Seen

Glenn’s book, Race, Incarceration, and American Values

John DiIulio Jr.’s review of Late Admissions in the Claremont Review of Books

John’s NYT column, “Yiddish is a Supposedly Dying Language That’s Thrillingly Alive”

In this post-show recording with Mark and Nikita, I talk about the holiday blues, the contradictions of racial heterodoxy and racial self-identification, and learning from Yiddish-speakers.

This episode is available only to full subscribers to my Substack. If you're listening to the full episode, thank you for all your support. And if you want more of The Glenn Show, in addition a host of other benefits, go to https://glennloury.substack.com and become a full subscriber.

This episode was released to full subscribers on Monday. If you want early access to weekly episodes, Q&As, and more exclusive content, go to https://glennloury.substack.com to become a full subscriber.

0:47 The Jabbari Lincoln Files, Yaya’s audio spy thriller

5:40 Is Jabbari Lincoln a fictional surrogate for Yaya?

10:05 How Yaya joined the CIA

16:18 What does a CIA analyst do, anyway?

20:42 The lessons of the WMDs debacle

23:08 A Muslim convert at the Agency

28:40 How the 2005 London Underground bombings got Yaya interested in counterterrorism

30:28 Terrorist recruitment and the search for self

35:57 Why Yaya doesn’t use the term “Islamophobia”

38:52 Yaya: Not even freedom fighters have license to kill with impunity

45:06 What would Malcolm X think about African American support of Palestinians?

52:22 Working for the CIA in the post-COINTELPRO era

Recorded November 9, 2024

Links and Readings

1776 Unites

The Jabarri Lincoln Files

Sam Greenlee’s novel, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Ivan Dixon’s 1973 film adaptation of The Spook Who Say by the Door

Yaya’s essay for the Journal of Free Black Thought, “Hamas Are Not Muslim Freedom Fighters”

December 2, 1963 NYT article on Malcolm X’s “Chickens coming home to roost” comment

Yaya’s other podcast, Designated

In this post-show recording with Mark and Nikita, I talk about my conversation with Yaya Fanusie, the sub rosa activities of the CIA, the US's authorization of ATACMS strikes in Russian territory, and more.

This episode is available only to full subscribers to my Substack. If you're listening to the full episode, thank you for all your support. And if you want more of The Glenn Show, in addition a host of other benefits, go to https://glennloury.substack.com and become a full subscriber.

This episode was released to full subscribers on Monday. If you want early access to weekly episodes, Q&As, and more exclusive content, go to https://glennloury.substack.com to become a full subscriber.

0:43 John reconciles himself to Trump’s win

4:06 Glenn: Wake up! It’s time to take Trump seriously!

12:16 Why Glenn feels a sense of excitement about the present moment

14:54 Ground News Ad

16:40 Is Glenn’s attitude all about contrarianism?

21:00 Does John hope that Trump’s administration fails?

26:08 ACTA ad

28:22 John’s trip to Dublin with Richard Dawkins

36:44 John’s questions for Dawkins

41:51 What Dawkins might think about race, culture, and IQ

Recorded November 18, 2024

Links and Readings

John’s NYT piece, “What if I’m the ‘Friend’ Donald Trump Referred To?”

John’s Atlantic piece, “Trump’s Unmonitored Speech”

Max Boot’s book, Reagan: His Life and Legend

Richard Dawkins’s latest book, The Genetic Book of the Dead: A Darwinian Reverie

Dawkins’s book, The Selfish Gene

Dawkins’s book, The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene

Dawkins’s book, The God Delusion

Dawkins’s book, The Ancestors’ Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life