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Video Links

0:00 Intro

1:10 John feels Glenn’s pain

2:36 Glenn: “I’m tired of being the black guy who has to call b******t on the race narrative”

9:21 The monotonous groove of the race discourse

12:35 John: “This is the most seismic sociopolitical shift of my lifetime”

19:17 Ground News ad

21:10 The H-1B conflict on the right

26:24 The hard truths of global competition

30:09 Luigi Mangione, folk hero?

36:09 ACTA ad

38:22 Glenn and John’s 2025 status

44:52 Living on the edge of a weekly deadline

46:45 Why did Al Jolson wear blackface?

Recorded January 5, 2025

Links and Readings

Charles Sheeler’s painting, “River Rouge Plant”

Coleman Hughes’s book, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America

JD Vance’s book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

Matt Taibbi on coverage of Luigi Mangione’s personal style

Glenn’s forthcoming book, Self-Censorship

Richard Bernstein’s book, Only in America: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer

Trailer for Al Jolson’s film, Mammy

It may be cold outside, but the first Q&A of 2025 is a hot one. John and Glenn talk negotiating the modern mediasphere, the German language, education after affirmative action, code switching, social media and AI, and maintaining a friendship in spite of political differences.

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

In retiring from academia, I'm giving up what was once a vital source of intellectual inspiration. How should I go about replacing it? I'm talking through the problem with Nikita and Mark.

In this bonus episode, I sit down with my son, Glenn Cartman Loury II, to talk about the big topics: life, death, and change. This is a heavy, real conversation. We “reminisce” about caring for Linda—my wife and Glenn’s mother—during the final stages of terminal cancer. We talk about who we were then, who we are now, and why we work so hard to change our lives. I’m seeking solace from my son, and true solace can only come from confronting reality, rather than turning away from it and taking refuge in comforting illusions.

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 and become a full subscriber at https://glennloury.substack.com

0:00 Intro

3:01 January 15, “Why Glenn wrote a memoir”

9:18 February 2, “The three dimensions of black conservatism”

15:50 Ground News ad

17:52 February 16, “Were Glenn and John too credulous about The Fall of Minneapolis?”

23:07 March 22, “What do we mean by 'colorblindness' today?”

34:39 April 5, “John: We weren’t wrong to ask the questions we asked, even if our answers came up short at first”

37:40 May 17, “Has Israel gone too far in Gaza?”

41:53 ACTA ad

44:07 June 14, “Inside the collapse of Ibram X. Kendi’s research center”

49:22 June 28, “Can John account for his 'emotional and irrational conclusions' about Trump and his recent conviction?”

59:35 August 16, “Glenn: Kamala Harris is no Barack Obama”

1:05:08 August 28, “Vladimir X asks Glenn and John about Gaza”

1:18:19 October 11, “Glenn: Ta-Nehisi Coates's book is brilliant”

1:26:32 October 25, “John: Coates is a beautiful writer, BUT …”

1:28:54 November 4, “A revisionist history of the Trump presidency (or presidencies)”

1:35:47 November 22, “Glenn: Wake up! It’s time to take Trump seriously!”

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