The Glenn Show

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The livestreaming experiment continues here at TGS. I never know what’s going to come at me. I’m operating outside my comfort zone. Of course, that’s what makes it fun. The callers often ask me to weigh in on a whole range of subjects I’d never think up on my own, like embryo screening and the frustrations of Connecticut landlords. (And speaking of landlords, filmmaker and property owner Robert Spruill is back!) I have no meaningful knowledge in these areas, but now I get to learn a little about them, or at least think them through on the fly. Other topics, like Israel-Palestine, student debt, and election security, are more familiar. But I’m still never quite what kind of spin my callers will put on the ball.

In other words, the calls are keeping me sharp and engaged. And I love getting to meet my audience in these brief encounters.

But in order to keep this going, I need your help. Anybody can tune into our livestreams as they happen, and we’re making this one available to everyone, but normally if you’d like to watch the video later, you’ll need to become a full subscriber. The Glenn Show is almost entirely viewer supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get weekly episodes of The Glenn Show earlier than their public release, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

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This episode was originally recorded for Danny and Derek's podcast American Prestige and cross posted here. Subscribe to American Prestige at https://americanprestige.supportingcast.fm/join

Order Glenn's new book, Self-Censorship, here or where you get your books:

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/683p6kk3 Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/4yvz4fta Bookshop: https://tinyurl.com/44rznxww

Video Links

0:00 The origins of Self-Censorship

4:11 Black and conservative in Reagan’s America

8:30 The social science hall of fame

12:45 Jews, assimilation, and the quantitative revolution

17:56 Human universalism vs. ethno-national particularity

21:42 Historicizing “the Jew”

23:47 Danny: Larry Summers can’t see outside his own neoliberal paradigm

27:50 Are we entering a period of, as Marx wrote, “mutual ruin”?

30:46 Is capitalism leading us toward nuclear war?

37:18 What the Manhattan Institute incident taught Glenn about his own book

42:02 Glenn: “I’m rethinking everything”

46:40 Is the right reverting to a pre-New Deal political paradigm?

51:37 Is Israel a reversion to an Early Modern model of nation-building?

58:07 American Jews’s role in Israel’s creation and perpetuation

1:03:04 Why Glenn previously censored himself on Gaza

1:09:30 Glenn: So far, I’m disappointed in Trump

Recorded August 6, 2025

Links and Readings

Danny and Derek’s podcast, American Prestige

Glenn’s new book, Self-Censorship

John Murray Cuddihy’s book, The Ordeal of Civility: Freud, Marx, Lévi-Strauss, and the Jewish Struggle with Modernity

Corey Robin’s book, The Enigma of Clarence Thomas

Glenn’s City Journal essay, “Clarence Thomas and Me”

Seth Schwartz’s book, The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhamad

Omar El Akkad’s book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

Glenn’s post, “I Was Fired by the Manhattan Institute. Here’s Why.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book, The Message

Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch’s book, The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire

Avi Shlaim’s book, Genocide in Gaza: Israel, Hamas, and the Long War on Palestine

Peter Beinart’s book, Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning

Glenn’s conversation with Beinart

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

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In our latest livestream, TGS editor Mark Sussman and I discuss Michel Houellebecq's 2015 novel Submission and its rather unpleasant but compelling critique of modern existence, after which we take questions from viewers and callers. We get into some unexpected territory, like life after death (I don’t believe in it), the existence of alien intelligence (it seems probable to me), and psychedelics (that one’s on Mark). I’m truly enjoying these face-to-face conversations with viewers, and I encourage everyone who can call in to do so on our next stream.

Anybody can tune into our livestreams as they happen, and we’re making this one available to everyone, but normally if you’d like to watch the video later, you’ll need to become a full subscriber. The Glenn Show is almost entirely viewer supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get weekly episodes of The Glenn Show earlier than their public release, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

Subscribe at https://glennloury.substack.com

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

Video Links

0:00 John: Not all of Trump’s demands on Columbia are crazy

3:45 Are the accusations of antisemitism at Columbia apt?

12:43 Ground News ad

14:22 The shifting public perception of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza

24:30 The historical legacy of Gaza’s starvation

27:40 Glenn: There are ways to destroy Israel without an army

32:21 The lull in American race politics

38:22 Has the race debate devolved to Sidney Sweeney’s jeans?

47:27 John’s theory of violent crime among black youths

Recorded August 5, 2025

Links and Readings

John’s April 23, 2024 NYT column, “I’m a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice.”

Peter Beinart’s book, Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning

Glenn’s conversation with Beinart

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book, Between the World and Me

Courtney Moorehead Balaker and Ted Balaker’s documentary, The Coddling of the American Mind

Sidney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad

John’s NYT column, “Do These Jeans Make My Ads Look Racist?”

Glenn and John’s conversation with Randall Kennedy

Glenn and John’s conversation with Keith Ellison

Thomas Sowell’s book, Black Rednecks & White Liberals

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com

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

Order Self-Censorship here or wherever you get your books:

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/683p6kk3 Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/4yvz4fta Bookshop: https://tinyurl.com/44rznxww

In this conversation, my editor Mark Sussman and I discuss Kamala Harris’s forthcoming book, 107 Days, and the dire state of publishing. I’ve been reading a lot of Thomas Sowell in preparation for a major address I have to deliver about his work in the Fall, and I suggest that Sowell might say that the declining profitability of writing and publishing might well be a good thing, insofar as it signals the market’s responsiveness to consumer demand and desire. This leads to a debate about the distinction (and perhaps the conflict) between aesthetic and economic value. Then it’s on to a broader discussion of Sowell. Next we move onto the story of a group of people establishing a Christian, LGBTQ-free, whites-only community in Arkansas. We close out with viewer questions about Brown University’s deal with the Trump administration, which somehow leads to a debate about climate science and the epistemological limitations of modernity. And finally, an evergreen topic: black patriotism.

In the course of this conversation, Mark and I reference Michel Houellebecq’s 2015 novel, Submission. That’s because we plan to discuss the book on our next livestream, which we’ll announce in the coming days. So if you want to participate in the discussion or simply follow along, read the book. We’ll be taking calls, and I’m very curious what you all have to think of this brilliant, provocative, and (be warned) sexually explicit book.

Anybody can tune into our livestreams as they happen, and we’re making this one available to everyone, but normally if you’d like to watch the video later, you’ll need to become a full subscriber. The Glenn Show is almost entirely viewer supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get weekly episodes of The Glenn Show earlier than their public release, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

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

Video Links

0:00 Columbia’s $221 million-deal with the Trump administration

4:11 Rajiv: The charges about antisemitism at Columbia are mostly pretextual

13:34 How is Columbia’s resolution monitor going to assess merit in admissions?

25:31 What really matters in college admissions?

29:47 Why Brown’s agreement differs from Columbia’s

34:16 Rajiv: If the Trump administration wants to destroy universities, it has the resources to do it

40:07 Is Columbia’s Middle East Studies department cooked?

43:15 Free speech is dying in universities and flourishing on podcasts (and Substack)

50:19 Is a full-scale antisemitic backlash on the way?

55:25 The question of genocide

59:45 The Gaza War’s historical legacy

Recorded August 1, 2025

Links and Readings

Rajiv’s post, “The Columbia Deal” at Imperfect Information

Rashid Khalidi’s open letter announcing the withdrawal of his course

Khalidi’s book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017

Roland Fryer’s WSJ piece, “DEI Is Worth Saving from Its Excesses”

Glenn’s new book, Self-Censorship

Colin Wright’s WSJ piece, “Cornell University Discriminated against Me”

Dave Smith and Douglas Murray on the Joe Rogan Experience

Green Beret vet Tony Aguilar on the Tucker Carlson Show

Israeli journalist Emmanuelle Elbaz-Phelps speaks with The Daily about starvation in Gaza

Avi Shlaim’s book, Genocide in Gaza: Israel, Hamas, and the Long War on Palestine

Omer Bartov’s NYT piece, “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.”

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In lieu of a regular episode this week, I’m presenting a version of our latest livestream. Last week we debuted what I hope will be an ongoing feature of these livestreams: viewer call-ins. Nikita has been working on setting this up for a while now, and as you’ll see, we’ve still got some kinks to work out. We were able to take a number of calls from viewers, and on that score, this experiment was a resounding success.

Anybody can tune into our livestreams as they happen, and we’re making this one available to everyone, but normally if you’d like to watch the video later, you’ll need to become a full subscriber. The Glenn Show is almost entirely viewer supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get weekly episodes of The Glenn Show earlier than their public release, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

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

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit glennloury.substack.com

It’s the middle of the summer, it’s hot, and John McWhorter and I are back for another Substack subscriber only Q&A session. In this episode, we take questions about leadership in the black community, critical listening, Percival Everett's novel James, immigration, white women studying black women's history, right-wing identity politics, and the Free Press.

The Glenn Show is supported by listeners like you. To watch and listen to the full version of this episode and get all kinds of other benefits, become a full subscriber at https://glennloury.substack.com.

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

Video Links

0:00 Glenn and Cornel’s early correspondence

2:20 Cornel: “Brother Glenn ain’t never been just a black conservative”

9:34 Ground News ad

11:10 One-eyed and two-eyed reason

19:33 The Loury family legacy

25:01 Does race still matter?

34:32 The black intellectual in a declining empire

45:56 Keeping nihilism at bay in the black community

51:42 Keep the funk, and die with a smile on your face

55:40 The Democratic Party plantation

Recorded July 18, 2025

Links and Readings

Glenn’s memoir, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative

Toni Morrison’s book, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

Ralph Ellison’s book, Shadow and Act

Thomas Sowell’s book, The Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggle

Cornel’s book, Race Matters

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book, The Message

Cornel’s book, Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight against Imperialism

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy

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

Mahalia Jackson’s rendition of Clara Ward’s, “How I Got Over”

John Coltrane’s album, A Love Supreme

Niall Ferguson’s book, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

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

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, The Brother’s Karamazov

Joseph Conrad’s novel, Victory: An Island Tale

Cornel’s 2024 Gifford Lectures

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Video Links

0:00 Zohran Mamdani’s win in the NYC Democratic primaries

12:07 Ground News ad

14:05 The War on Terror and the War in Gaza

28:54 Should Trump fear Mamdani?

32:02 Glenn: Trump is running the table

42:26 John: Glenn, you’re getting caught up in the Trump Show

48:05 Buckley, Reagan, Goldwater, and the legacy of conservatism

53:56 Glenn’s encounters with Willian F. Buckley

59:30 Remembering Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom

Recorded July 7, 2025

Links and Readings

John’s NYT column, “Wokeness Will Always Be with Us”

Peter Beinart’s NYT guest essay, “Democrats Need to Understand That Opinions on Israel Are Changing Fast”

“One Last Time” from Hamilton

Adam Clayton Powell’s “What’s in Your Hand” speech

Sam Tannenhaus’s new book, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America

Glenn’s 1991 appearance on Firing Line

Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom’s book, America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible

Glenn’s 1997 Atlantic review of America in Black and White

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe