The Glenn Show

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In our latest Q&A, John McWhorter and I take questions on troubled black communities, the N-word, issues on which we've changed our minds, ratcheting down political tensions in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, and how we handle personal security.

The Glenn Show is almost entirely viewer supported. If you like what you hear, head over to my Substack and become a full subscriber. You'll get monthly Q&As with John McWhorter, and a whole lot more.

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

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Last Friday, I hosted a livestream featuring Nikita Petrov, Robert Patton-Spruill, and call-ins from viewers. Once again, our topic is the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

We talk about my own cancelation by the Manhattan Institute, warding off the tyranny of the majority, the worrisome comments of truly powerful people like Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Pam Bondi, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s intervention in the Kirk debates, and what I dream the leader of our nation would say (and still can say) as the post-assassination temperature continues to rise. I talk with callers about the dynamics of backlash, plausible deniability, and the spiritual impetus to ease political tensions.

Listen, I need your help.

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 measly $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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Video Links

0:00 Why Marc thinks nothing works

6:45 Who decides the winners and losers in public trade-offs?

12:50 Penn Station and public interest logjams

20:29 Marc: We have Trump because people feel that government doesn’t work

28:17 Two progressive conceptions of power

33:03 Finding the balance between centralized and dispersed power

39:05 Ok, nothing works. So how do we get things working?

51:28 Marc: We need a return to Hamiltonian governing

55:03 The new class of moderate Democrats trying to get things done

Recorded September 6, 2025

Links and Readings

Marc’s new book, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

Marc’s book, The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community

Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Robert Caro’s book, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book, Abundance

Jennifer Pahlka’s book, Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better

Yoni Applebaum’s book, Stuck: How the Privileged and Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity

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 this episode, co-hosted with my editor Mark Sussman, I talk with viewers about the murders of Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska, the “black crime” canard, the effects of immigration on black employment, and other weighty topics. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though. A call from Richard Kim—a newly tenured professor of philosophy at Loyola University in Chicago—gave me the opportunity to reminisce about Father Richard John Neuhaus, a friend who offered me great comfort during one of the most difficult periods of my life. And of course, we hear from Robert Patton-Spruill aka the Landlord Guy aka the Housing Provider aka the Evil Landlord.

In order to keep doing these streams and recording weekly episodes of The Glenn Show, I need your help. Anybody can tune into our livestreams as they happen. But 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 measly $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.

To subscribe, go to https://glennloury.substack.com

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

Video Links

0:00 The upcoming Hoover Institution conference honoring Thomas Sowell

5:37 Sowell’s apprentice work at the University of Chicago

12:58 Ground News ad

14:45 Hayek’s influence on Sowell

19:55 Jason: No one is smarter than the market

24:58 The unconstrained vision vs. the constrained vision

33:04 Sowell’s contribution to economic literacy

37:44 Sowell’s tough early life and his path to Marx

]47:55 Jason: Sowell’s willingness to weigh in on race hurt his career

53:58 Sowell’s evisceration of The Bell Curve

Recorded on August 25, 2025

Links and Readings

Jason’s writing for the Wall Street Journal

Jason’s book, Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell

Thoma Sowell’s memoir, A Personal Journey

Sowell’s book, Knowledge and Decisions

Sowell’s book, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Conflict

Sowell’s book, Ethnic America: A History

Sowell’s book, Race and Culture

Sowell’s book, Migration and Cultures: A World View

Friedrich Von Hayek’s essay, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”

Hayek’s review of Knowledge and Decisions

Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein

Sowell’s book, The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

Sowell’s book, The Quest for Cosmic Justice

Milton Friedman’s TV show, Free to Choose

Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life

Sowell’s American Spectator review of The Bell Curve, “Ethnicity and IQ”

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On this week's livestream, Nikita and I are joined by filmmaker, professor, master distiller, and "housing provider" Robert Patton-Spruill. And he does not disappoint. He begins by informing me of a connection between us: his father, then a professor of acting and directing at Boston University, used to smoke weed in front of my house. From there we get into a range of subjects, including the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, the role of faith and the church in our lives, the power of wealth to create change, AI and ChatGPT, and October 7th. Robert then cedes the stage for a while, and I take calls from viewers Jack Apple, Eric Ingram. William Schafer, Rouxbe, and Scott Kushner.

Putting viewers in the spotlight has opened a whole new dimension of the show, and we’re going to keep exploring it. So if you want to talk to me directly, tune into the next livestream, which we’ll be announcing soon. But in order to keep doing these streams and recording weekly episodes of The Glenn Show, I need your help. Anybody can tune into our livestreams as they happen. But 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 piddling $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 What Thomas Sowell means to Emily

3:54 What’s the difference between a conservative and a classical liberal?

10:59 Ground News ad

12:45 Sowell’s interventions in price theory and microeconomics

19:31 The parallel careers of Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams

24:51 Emily: Trump is not fulfilling Sowell’s vision of liberty

33:37 A Sowellian critique of expert-driven COVID policies

45:08 The risks of uncertainty in Trump’s economic policies

53:46 The future of classical liberalism

58:01 The Mont Pelerin Society’s intellectual landscape

1:01:15 Glenn’s departure from classical liberalism

Recorded August 19, 2025

Links and Readings

Friedrich Von Hayek’s book, The Constitution of Liberty

Hayek’s essay, “Why I Am Not a Conservative”

Thomas Sowell’s book, Knowledge and Decisions

Bart Wilson’s book, Humanomics: Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations for the Twenty-First Century

The Mont Pelerin Society

John Cochrane’s review of Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative

Hayek’s book, Law, Legislation, and Liberty

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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On this recording of my latest livestream, I sit down with my editor, Mark Sussman. Inspired by a recent memo posted by liberal moderate think tank Third Way, Mark and I talk a bit about the communicative dynamics of progressive nomenclature, e.g., “chestfeeding” rather than “breastfeeding” and other awkward neologisms. Can the Democrats afford to get mired in these debates while they’re facing so much anger and dissatisfaction from their own constituency? We take comments and calls on the subject from viewers familiar and new. Scott Kushner and Robert Spruill pop in to give their views. Mark and I debate Trump and what will happen to MAGA when he eventually either cedes the stage or passes away. We talk about the Minnesota school shooter’s gender identity and what, if anything, it has to do with the awful slaughter at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. And of course, Gaza comes up.

I’m loving this new feature of the show, but in order to keep it and all things TGS afloat, 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 piddling $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.

To subscribe, go to https://glennloury.substack.com

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

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 How woke campus culture degrades mental health

5:47 The rise of “microaggressions”

'8:21 The harms caused by discourses of harm

13:47 The digital lives of children

19:08 Why Courtney and Ted produced Coddling themselves

24:56 A Nigerian immigrant’s encounter with campus progressivism

32:36 Is Trump’s anti-DEI posture aiding free speech on campus?

37:58 Ted and Courtney’s decision to homeschool their child

41:48 How comedy brings us together

48:26 Ted and Courtney take on the Rob Henderson story

Recorded August 8, 2025

Links and Readings

The Coddling of the American Mind doc

The Coddling of the American Mind book

Dead Poet’s Society

The Canceling of the American Mind

Greg Lukianoff conversation

Can We Take a Joke

Coddling movie Substack

Noam episodes

Rob Henderson, Troubled

Rob Henderson episode

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In this edition of the Q&A, Glenn and John take questions on MLK and white moderates, audience capture, civilian casualties in Gaza, "I have to do X" vs. "I get to do X," Trump's performance as president, the role of trustees and administration in determining university policy, and race and genes.