The Glenn Show

0:00 How Bob gave Glenn his start in podcasting

2:05 Is the Gaza War in Israel’s best interests …

11:46 … and if not, what should Israel have done in response to October 7?

18:06 How Hamas gained control of Gaza

26:53 Bob: Some in the Israeli government wouldn’t mind a wider war in the Middle East

36:46 What does “From the river to the sea” actually mean?

46:10 Bob: Every settlement in the West Bank is a war crime

54:20 The psychology of victimhood and retribution

1:00:37 The challenge of spiritual transformation

Recorded November 13, 2023

Links and Readings

Bob’s Substack, the Nonzero Newsletter

Brown University faculty’s call for a ceasefire

Glenn’s conversation with John McWhorter, “Thinking Through the Gaza War”

Bob’s Nonzero Newsletter piece, “The Truth about Hamas”

John Judis’s 2013 New Republic piece, “Clueless in Gaza”

John Judis and Ruy Texeira’s book, Where Have All the Democrats Gone?: The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes

Bob’s Nonzero Newsletter piece, “The ‘River to the Sea’ Rorschach Test”

Bob debates Eli Lake on Israel-Palestine

Jimmy Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

Bob’s book, Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

The documentary Disturbing the Peace

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0:35 A quick announcement

1:46 What led Yascha to write about identity

6:22 An intellectual history of “identity synthesis”

12:15 What’s so bad about “strategic essentialism”?

19:15 From postmodernism to post-civil rights

28:45 The three key claims of identity synthesis

36:02 What led up to the summer of 2020?

45:51 The hermetically sealed ideology of Kendi and DiAngelo

50:45 Yascha’s defense of universalism

Recorded October 3, 2023

Links and Readings

Yascha’s new book, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time

Michel Foucault’s book, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences

Edward Said’s book, Orientalism

Gayatri Spivak’s essay, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”

Glenn’s debate with Kmele Foster, Shelby Steele, Robert Woodson, and Reihan Salam

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

Tommie Shelby’s book, We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity

Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault’s 1971 debate on Dutch television

Derrick Bell’s book, Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

Derrick Bell’s essay, “Serving Two Masters: Integration Ideals and Client Interests in School Desegregation Litigation”

Mahalia Jackson singing “We Shall Overcome”

Roy D’Andrade’s article, “Moral Models in Anthropology”

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0:00 Persia at the turn of the twentieth century

6:43 Woodrow Wilson’s contradictions

11:14 Did Howard Baskerville escape the prejudices of his time?

16:39 How Baskerville got involved in Persia’s democratic revolution

26:43 How Czar Nicholas II aided the counter-revolution

32:29 The erasure of Baskerville in post-1979 Iran

36:31 The theological origin of the Islamic Republic of Iran

45:01 Reza: Ordinary Iranians actually love American culture

48:51 The internal and external pressures on Iran

57:21 The amorality of foreign policy

Recorded October 25, 2023

Links and Readings

Reza’s book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Reza’s new book, An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville

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Glenn and John answer subscriber questions.

0:00 Why John thinks pro-Hamas sentiment on the American left is racist

6:11 Distinguishing between anti-colonialism and antisemitism

12:46 There are great crimes in America’s past. But we shouldn’t let them define us.

17:08 Glenn: We’re standing on the precipice of something catastrophic

27:57 John’s proposal for the US’s role in Israel’s domestic conflict

34:59 Is it right for people to lose their jobs over opposing Israel?

42:07 Why are pro-Hamas leftists supporting an anti-liberal regime?

47:01 Glenn and John’s responsibilities as teachers

52:26 What’s next on TGS

Recorded October 28, 2023

Links and Readings

John’s Free Press piece, “The Ultimate Condescension Toward Palestinians”

Adam Shatz’s LRB essay, “Vengeful Pathologies”

Joe Biden’s Oval Office address on Israel and Ukraine

Reza Aslan’s book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Reza Aslan’s new book, An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville

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0:00 Why John thinks Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was rational

6:55 How small states deal with world powers

10:13 If Russia’s action were rational, were the US’s?

16:40 John: The Ukraine invasion violates international law, but Russia has reason to see it as just

21:58 The risk of escalation

29:26 Zelensky’s expert manipulation of the West

33:51 Is it a coincidence that so many recent presidential scandals involve Ukraine?

39:57 Can tolerant liberals tolerate illiberal societies?

45:45 American Russophobia didn’t cause the war, but it’s not helping

49:19 John: If Putin is overthrown, his replacement will probably be even more brutal

53:35 The foreign policy establishment’s grip on both Democrats and Republicans

Links and Readings

John’s Substack

John’s book, with Sebastian Rosato, How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy

John’s essay, “Bound to Lose”

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0:00 The blowback from Coleman’s TED Talk

8:50 Did TED intentionally throttle promotion for Coleman’s talk?

17:08 John’s trouble with TED while promoting Woke Racism

20:21 Coleman’s forthcoming book, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America

29:17 Race in public and private life

43:49 Closure on the TED affair

45:14 What are the goals of each side in the Israel-Palestine conflict?

51:58 Will the Israeli military response simply restart the cycle of violence and resentment?

1:02:15 The threat of post-October 7 overreaction

Links and Readings

Coleman’s Substack, Coleman’s Corner

Coleman’s podcast, Conversations with Coleman

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

Coleman's conversation with Glenn Greenwald about the TED Talk

Coleman’s TED Talk, “A Case for Color Blindness”

Coleman’s Free Press piece, “Why Is TED Scared of Color Blindness”

Coleman’s conversation with Jamelle Bouie

Geroge Packer’s Atlantic piece, “Israel Must Not React Stupidly”

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0:00 Introduction by Greg Burnep

4:27 What does affirmative action mean in 2023?

11:06 Randy’s distinction between “disadvantage” and “discrimination”

18:21 Diversity’s double-talk

31:18 Did the Supreme Court say discrimination is allowed at military academies?

34:33 Glenn: Affirmative action distracts us from bigger problems

41:16 Affirmative action is an elite problem

48:48 Affirmative action as an insurance policy

57:42 The stigmatization of affirmative action beneficiaries

1:04:14 Glenn: Affirmative action has been a net positive, but it’s time to stop

1:07:14 Q&A: Does historical injustice alone justify affirmative action?

1:10:33 Q&A: Can and should colleges use loopholes to get around Students for Fair Admissions?

1:14:50 Q&A: Does the “need” for affirmative action say something race or education?

1:16:27 Q&A: What is the impact of SFFA beyond the university?

1:23:35 Q&A: What about class-based affirmative action?

Recorded September 20, 2023

Links and Readings

Randy’s book, Race, Crime, and the Law

Randy’s book, For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law

Glenn’s conversation with Jay Caspian Kang

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Glenn and John answer subscriber questions.

0:00 What’s wrong with critical race theory, anyway?

3:31 Why “black Columbia” pretends that John doesn’t exist

12:08 CRT’s racial power-grab

18:06 Does the Jewish American example apply to African Americans?

23:10 Disguising failure as victimology

32:15 Why Dan thinks the CRT tide is ebbing

39:58 The schadenfreude of the Ibram X. Kendi scandal

51:00 John: “I’m embarrassed for Boston University”

56:40 Glenn: Kendi is just a cog in the fraudulent antiracist machine

1:04:31 The shame of the Kendi scandal

Recorded September 30, 2023

Links and Readings

Dan’s book, Toxic Diversity: Gender, Race, and Law Talk in America

Frantz Fanon’s book, The Wretched of the Earth

Adam Schatz’s forthcoming biography, The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon

Glenn’s conversation with Norman Finkelstein

Glenn and John’s conversation with Don Baton

Glenn and John’s conversation with James Beaman

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