What’s lost when we opt for the convenience of technology over the difficult, awkward, thrilling realities of human interaction? With so much tech to reach for, when do we lose the ability to interact with each other – or even understand ourselves? And with the AI revolution already afoot, is humanity just f*cked? Vanessa’s back from mat leave and ready to dive into our tech-saturated, under-socialized world with Christine Rosen — senior fellow at AEI, co-host of the Commentary podcast, and author of The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World.

On the agenda:

-Happy returns and the pleasure of ambiguity [0:00-5:55]

-Information isn’t knowledge [5:56-9:03]

-The pleasure of ambiguity and the value of discomfort [9:04-20:47]

-How tech mediates and impairs us [20:48-47:38]

-Humanity in the age of AI [47:39-1:24:18]

Mentioned in this episode:

* Panic Porn and Trauma Creep (w/ Christine Rosen)

* The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

Jonah Goldberg, host of The Remnant and author of Suicide of the West, joins Adaam for a session of unfettered nerdery and gloom, in which definitions shall be debated, Straussian hats worn, and metaphors unapologetically mixed. They cover the meaning of “utopianism,” the revolutionary force of monotheism, the power of language, the messianic urge from Christ to the Jacobins, the lack of new ideas, the obstinacy of human nature, and the importance of gallows humor.

On the agenda:

-Jonah’s origin story [2:00]

-Monotheism, a radical idea [6:00]

-Postmodernism and the charisma of words [19:00]

-Utopianism, left and right [27:00]

-Maimonides against Messianism (and Sayyid Qutb) [38:00]

-Are ideas dangerous? (On Rousseau, the Jacobins, Strauss, Annihilism) [53:00]

-Dark humor and Holocaust jokes heuristics [1:21:00]

-Blindspots [1:43:00]

Also:

-Adaam and Ruth Weisse on the 10th Commandment

-Adaam and Yuval Levin talk about the nature of liberalism, beauty and conservatism

-Howard Jacobson at Tablet Magazine on the death of a tailor

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

It is an extra (((special))) episode on Uncertain Things as Ruth Wisse, senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund and author of Jews and Power, hosts Adaam for Friday afternoon cookies and Talmud. The two discussed the wave of resentment that threatens to consume American culture (or Annihilism, as Adaam stubbornly calls it), the problem (or lack thereof) of inequality, the Jewish rejection of Weakness Worship, and what it means to stand witness to evil.

On the (((agenda))):

-Neocons love assimilation [1:30]

-Accents are genocide [9:00]

-The idea that disparity is evil is evil [17:00]

-Charity and dignity (and pity) [27:00]

-Gratitude, resentment, and feminism [34:00]

-What’s up with American Jews… plus American liberalism… plus standing witness to evil [48:00]

Also:

-Adaam and Yuval Levin talk about the nature of liberalism, beauty and conservatism

-Howard Jacobson at Tablet Magazine on the death of a tailor

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

AEI Senior Fellow Yuval Levin rejoins the pod to discuss the enemies of continuity. He and Adaam debate the definition of conservatism and whether it’s the Annihilist urge that dominates the contemporary left or something else entirely. Oh, and if that’s not nerdy enough for you, they also go on a semi-Burkean detour to adjudicate whether beauty in art is related to truth (because someone had to!).

On the agenda:

-Cultural continuity and the modern conservative [00:10]

-The hubris of knowledge [10:19]

-Who are the enemies of continuity [17:54]

-Solipsism as morality [26:28]

-Rousseau and the new Jacobins [31:23]

-Redemptive destruction [39:00]

-Is despair anti-conservative? [48:54]

-Beauty [53:31]

Also:

-Our previous chat with Yuval Levin about Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine

-Adaam on the Jacobin temptation

-Yuval on American renewal

-Ken Goshen on why contemporary art sucks

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

Dan Senor, host of the Call Me Back podcast and co-author of The Genius of Israel, is bullish on Israel. Is there anything that could change his mind? He and Adaam discuss what makes Israeli society strong and what might make it turn against itself. They also can’t resist some media naval gazing and debate whether the fall of sense-making gatekeepers is a boon or a curse.

On the agenda:

-Brave new media

-Could anything make Dan go bearish on Israel?

-Something bigger than yourself

-The abominable dilemma (why Israel negotiates with terrorists)

-War is hell (and the rest is sentimentality)

-How to criticize Israel in an anti-Zionist era

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

Alan Dershowitz is one of the most prolific legal scholars (and civil rights litigators) in this country of ours. In his latest book, The Preventive State, he takes the first step in developing the jurisprudence of what Philip K. Dick called precrime. Dershowitz argues that we need a better — and more transparent — legal system for calculating how many civil liberties we’re willing to sacrifice in order to prevent potential harm. He and Adaam debate what such a system would look like, what’s at stake of being lost, where do rights even come from, and whether the law is a rebellion against God.

On the agenda:

-Starting a conversation while canceled

-False positives and false negatives

-Kant in the streets, Bentham in the sheets (or: the Straussian case for legal ambiguity)

-Our rights come from our wrongs

-AI paving the path to Omelas

-The Talmudic rebellion

Also:

-Read Adaam’s piece on Jewish Law as the triumph against divine totalitarianism

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

Coleman Hughes, author of The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America and writer for The Free Press, argues that recent progressive theories about antiracism have looped all the way back to racism. He joins Adaam to discuss the power of language to reveal and distort, the moral confusions of revolutionary activism, the aesthetics of social justice, and how this all relates to Israel’s war on Iran.

On the agenda:

-Coleman’s backstory and the march through the institutions (or at least Columbia)

-What do you mean, Neo-racism? (Speak plainly!)

-Social science versus social redemption

-Ta-Nehisi Coates composes mood music (and conceals reality)

-What’s up in Israel

-The West doesn’t understand death cults

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.

Is there hope for Palestinians in Gaza after the war? What will happen to Hamas? Does anyone still want a Two State Solution? And will the war with Iran change the game? Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and director of Realign for Palestine, joins Adaam James Levin-Areddy to discuss. Ahmed seeks to refocus the Palestinian mission from armed resistance against Israel to self-governance, independence, and prosperity. He and Adaam debate what this will take, and whether the window for such a vision is closing.

Further readings:

-On their first conversation, Adaam and Fouad discussed the view from Gaza

-Earlier on the day this was recorded, Adaam spoke with Nadav Eyal about Israel’s war in Iran

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.

Former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) President Greg Lukianoff join Adaam to discuss their upcoming book War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail. The three dig into what makes liberalism in general and free speech in particular so powerful, so radical, and so rare. Is too much information a danger for free speech? Why are some institutions resilient to ideological capture while others cave? Do generational tensions pose a threat to liberal values? What does it really mean to defend free speech?

On the agenda:

-Free speech is eternally radical (00:30)

-The Skokie Affair made Adaam fall in love (10:47)

-Generational tensions at the ACLU, or: maintaining institutional integrity (26:13)

-Real liberalism is (and always was) hard (51:12)

-Marketplace of Ideas vs. Pure Information Theory, or: the importance of knowing falsities (1:01:06)

-AI and the problem of Too Much Information (1:10:02)

-Blindspots (1:23:55)

Show notes:

-Greg’s Substack: The Eternally Radical Idea

-Upcoming rerelease of Aryeh Neier’s Defending My Enemy with additional material by Nadine

Art by Niv Tishbi

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.

Perspicacious podcaster Mike Pesca, host of The Gist and author of Pesca Profundities, joins Adaam to partake in principled, punny, and peppily pugnacious perorations. On the agenda: the creeping nihilism of American society (and should we be worried about it), the comedy of Signalgate, the state of the media, and the revenge of the cancelled.

On the agenda:

-Podcasting with Pesca [00:00]

-Misinformation and media [10:52]

-Objectivity [14:55]

-Signalgate [27:54]

-Nihilism in America [35:37]

-Jan 6 and Oct 8 [42:36]

-Surviving cancellation [51:19]

-Judicial overhauls [56:43]

-Constitutionalism and its discontent [01:00:05]

-Blindspots [01:04:19]

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.