The Glenn Show

This regular TGS guest was recently a clue on Jeopardy ... Is race-conscious math education as radical as it sounds? ... Why diversity, when done right, can be an asset ... John on The View, Glenn on Bill Maher ... The strange case of Jussie Smollett ... Does the American “white-Black” binary make sense anymore? ... If America is irredeemably racist, why do so many non-white people immigrate here? ... What’s the matter with “culture”? ...

The “common sense” of the Woke Left sees so many issues, from the historical effects of redlining to the relationship between race and IQ, as matters that no longer require discussion. “Redlining is responsible for present-day racial wealth disparities, period. There is no relationship between race and IQ, period. End of discussion.”

But the discussion is not over, these matters and many others are not settled. Treating them as such just papers over matters of vital concern that require serious thinking. John and I have in some sense made it our mission to unsettle these so-called settled questions. And in the course of doing it, we’ve unsettled the people that consider the questions settled as well. We talk a bit about in this week’s conversation.

I begin by talking to John about reaching what may be the current high-water mark of his fame: He was a clue on a recent episode of Jeopardy. There are perhaps more data-driven ways of understanding how fame works, but if the writers on Jeopardy know who you are, you must be exerting some kind of influence on the culture. We then move on to discuss attempts by activists to change math curricula in order to (these activists claims) make them more accommodating to black students. Some argue that these changes don’t alter the fundamental character of math education, but John strongly disagrees. Which is not to say that considerations of diversity have no place in the sciences. Graduate programs in technical fields could take more risks in who they admit to their programs without lowering their overall standards. Doing so might net them the next Roland Fryer (or even the next Glenn Loury). We then return to the small screen. John talks about going on The View to promote Woke Racism, and I talk about debating Michael Eric Dyson on Bill Maher’s Real Time. With the Jussie Smollett verdict in, we reflect on the bizarre story the Empire actor tried to sell and his maybe even more bizarre refusal to admit he lied. We then go on to discuss America’s “black-white” racial binary. With so many people of so many different backgrounds, ethnicities, and colors now populating the country, does this mindset still make sense? And finally, we ask why cultural explanations for racial disparities are still taboo for so many people.

As always, this was a stimulating, deep, and fun conversation with my good friend. I hope you enjoy it!

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0:00 This regular TGS guest was recently a clue on Jeopardy

2:23 Is race-conscious math education as radical as it sounds?

14:17 Why diversity, when done right, can be an asset

19:55 John on The View, Glenn on Bill Maher

26:34 The strange case of Jussie Smollett

43:42 Does the American “white-black” binary make sense anymore?

49:39 If America is irredeemably racist, why do so many non-white people immigrate here?

58:18 What’s the matter with “culture”?

Links and Readings

John’s appearance on Nathan Robinson’s podcast

Stephon Alexander’s Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider’s Guide to the Future of Physics

David Austen-Smith and Roland Fryer, “An Economic Analysis of ‘Acting White’”

Andrew Sullivan, “The Woke: On the Wrong Side of History”

Matt Taibbi, “The Red-Pilling of Loudon County, Virginia”

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

How Rav got his start on the crime, policing, and identity politics beat ... Why is a Canadian college student writing about race and crime in the US? ... Rav: We need police reform but also more police in black communities ... Will hiring more black police officers make police departments “less racist”? ... Glenn: It’s ridiculous to say that violent crime is driven only by poverty ... Is it possible that racial disparities in crime rates have a genetic basis? ... Are there any effective alternatives to prison? ... Why Asian American women are out-earning white men ... What’s behind the historic rise in homicide rates? ...

The audiovisual experiments continue here at The Glenn Show. In some of our recent conversations, John McWhorter and I talked about how we would reply to “Simone,” a fictionalized version of one of my students at Brown who believes that systemic racism causes most or all of the racial disparities in the US. I think Simone is wrong about that, but this idea is so widespread that John and I agreed that we can’t just brush it aside. We need to address and refute it head on.

We attempted to do that in this conversation. And I think we did a pretty good job! But in a comment, a reader, Adam, pointed out that we neglected to anticipate some very strong arguments that Simone might have made in her own defense. I replied to Adam, but I think our exchange deserves a more prominent place, so I recorded an audio version and Nikita Petrov created some visuals to go along with it.

We’re looking to produce more content like this in the future, but we’d love your input. Let me know what you think in the comments!

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This week on TGS we’ve got Rav Arora. He’s a compelling writer on race matters in the US. He’s also a college undergraduate, though it would be a mistake to underestimate him. He’s already published in a number of widely read outlets, including the New York Post, Quillette, and City Journal. He’s also got a Substack called Noble Truths, where he writes about psychedelics, meditation, and cultural trends.

I begin by inquiring into Rav’s intellectual background. What is this young guy from Canada doing writing about race and crime in the US, anyway? Rav talks about how the summer of 2020 led him to rethink his views and begin writing about them for the public. Rav is quite critical of the way that race, crime, and policing are covered in the US media, but he’s got a nuanced view of things. He talks about why he thinks we need police reform and also more police on the streets. We then move on to a discussion of systemic racism. I say it’s not inconceivable that a police department with a disproportionately high number of black officers could perpetuate racial inequality, though Rav doesn’t seem quite convinced that’s the case. From there, we discuss the misguided claim that violent crime in some black communities is driven solely by poverty. When the question of genetic factors in crime rates comes up, I don’t demure. I don’t know whether there actually is a genetic component, but I’m not ready to dismiss it out of hand. And we round out the discussion by touching on alternatives to incarceration, the increasing earning power of Asian American women, and the recent historic rise in US homicide rates.

Rav and I covered a lot of ground in this one. He’s a vital new voice, one I’ll be paying close attention to—I hope you will, too.

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0:00 How Rav got his start on the crime, policing, and identity politics beat

10:33 Why is a Canadian college student writing about race and crime in the US?

21:30 Rav: We need police reform but also more police in black communities

31:34 Will hiring more black police officers make police departments “less racist”?

43:26 Glenn: It’s ridiculous to say that violent crime is driven only by poverty

50:04 Is it possible that racial disparities in crime rates have a genetic basis?

55:09 Are there any effective alternatives to prison?

1:00:52 Why Asian American women are out-earning white men

1:10:23 What’s behind the historic rise in homicide rates?

Rav’s Substack, Noble Truths

Aldon Morris’s Scientific American essay, “From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter”

Rav’s Quillette piece, “A Peculiar Kind of Racist Patriarchy”  

Urban Labs’ Becoming a Man program

David Frum’s 2016 interview with Barry Latzer about crime waves

Last year’s famous study of the “Minneapolis effect”

The Marshall Project’s analysis of race and victimization in 2020

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

Are Glenn and John wasting their time by talking about race? ... How Glenn and John’s families shaped their attitudes toward race ... Looking back on past radicalism ... Glenn: Is my anger necessary? ... Can “Omar” change his ways? ...

John and I often talk about how we feel about race in America, but we rarely delve into why we feel the way we feel. What factors in our own lives primed us for those emotional responses? While John and I often agree about where the politics of race have gone wrong, we just as often experience very different feelings about these matters.

I start the discussion off by raising a question a friend put to me recently: are we wasting our time engaging with “red meat” issues in the race debate? Should we stick to the hard data before wading into the culture war? This leads us to discuss our very different emotional responses to the people we disagree with. I tend to go to anger and John tends toward empathy. We look to our respective pasts to try to understand why we diverge in this way. In fact, we stay in the past for a while, looking back on our exposure to Afrocentrism and black radicalism in our youths and to the skepticism that often attended those encounters. Finally, we work our way back around to “Omar.” Personally, I believe that the Omars of the world can and must lay claim to their agency. That they often refuse to is source of constant frustration and, yes, shame.

It’s an intense episode. It’s also one marred by technical difficulties. John lost his connection at several points during the conversation, and finally what had been a dialogue became a monologue. Apologies for the rough edges!

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0:00 Are Glenn and John wasting their time by talking about race?

10:36 How Glenn and John’s families shaped their attitudes toward race

20:42 Looking back on past radicalism

27:15 Glenn: Is my anger necessary?

33:26 Can “Omar” change his ways?

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

Why high inflation is a potentially dire problem ... Are we headed the way of Weimar Germany and Argentina? ... How short-term government spending can function as a longterm investment ... The looming threat of the fiscal gap ... Why is the US’s fiscal gap so large compared to that of other countries? ... Larry: We’re on the path to becoming a second-rate country ... Why Larry thinks we should index taxes to inflation ... Can we pay for what we’re spending without printing money? ...

In this week’s TGS, my old friend Larry Kotlikoff, an economist at Boston University, is back to talk about some of our most pressing economic concerns. Chief among them is the inflation rate, which has hit a 30-year high. By some accounts, inflation is now threatening to do major, possibly longterm damage to the US economy. But are things as bad as they seem? Larry will take us through his analysis and talk about some other looming economic troubles. If you want to understand how these things work, Larry is your guy.

We begin by discussing just why high inflation poses such a dire threat to the economy. Obviously it’s something to be concerned about, but will it get bad enough to send us the way of Weimar Germany? This leads us to discuss Biden’s recent policy decisions, including the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Larry argues that it’s not as costly as it sounds when you consider that it’s parceled out over the course of a decade. Larry is much more concerned about the fiscal gap, which is enormous and, according to Larry, could eventually lead the US into insolvency. Larry sees this as a problem that can only be solved by responsible political leadership, but we have trouble naming any current politicians with the influence to get it done.

It’s always great to have Larry on the show (even if he has a tendency to make some pretty frightening predictions about the future). As always, I’m interested to know what you think!

This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.

Want to give the gift of The Glenn Show this holiday season? Click below to purchase a subscription for a friend or loved one.

0:00 Why high inflation is a potentially dire problem

9:00 Are we headed the way of Weimar Germany and Argentina?

20:37 How short-term government spending can function as a longterm investment

30:02 The looming threat of the fiscal gap

37:08 Why is the US’s fiscal gap so large compared to that of other countries?

41:30 Larry: We’re on the path to becoming a second-rate country

46:37 Why Larry thinks we should index taxes to inflation

53:36 Can we pay for what we’re spending without printing money?

Links and Readings

Steven Rattner’s NYT guest essay, “I Warned the Democrats about Inflation”

Larry Summers’s WaPo op-ed, “On inflation, it’s past time for team transitory to stand down”

Larry’s website

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

A couple weeks ago in this space, I published an autobiographical sketch called “The Double Life.” It elicited such a strong reaction from readers that I wanted to revisit it, so I recorded an audio version and Nikita Petrov, my creative director, created a video feature to go along with it. I plan to do more of these audio/video pieces in the future, mostly for subscribers. Let me know what you think of this new feature in the comments!

This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, ad-free versions of the podcast, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.

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