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.

Former Democratic organizer Brianna Wu joins Adaam James Levin-Areddy for a conversation about her journey from leftist activism to clashing with leftists about antisemitism and the recklessness of transgender politics. Wu opens up on the challenges that come with standing up to one’s own tribe, the importance of defending liberal values, and how to think responsibly—and compassionately—about sex and gender.

On the Agenda:—How Gamergate changed everything—The (de)evolution of progressive politics—October 7 and Jewish mothers—Can normie liberalism bridge the partisan divide?—Transgender health care vs. transgender politics

Show Notes:—The Pros and Cons of ‘Queer’ (w/ Jamie Kirchick)—Jesse Singal for The Dispatch: How The American Media Distorted the Transgender Debate

Religious scholar Tomer Persico, now a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, returns to help us unpack why liberalism is special — and why it’s now in crisis.

Mentioned in this episode:

-Our first conversation with Tomer, about the implications of seeing ourselves as made in the image of God

-Yascha Mounk, who talked to us about how identity politics is straining liberalism

-Tom Holland, the Liberal who lost his faith

-Sarah Isgur, who survived Trump’s DOJ

Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.

On the agenda:

-Why Liberalism [3:10-13:30]-Defining Liberalism & Individual Rights [13:31-18:23]-The Government's New Responsibility: Protect Individual Rights [18:24-29:43]-The Importance of Unprescribed, Artful Negotiations of Power [29:44-48:05]-Nationalism & Mass Conscription [48:06-1:02:32]-The Problem Liberalism is facing now [1:02:33-1:18:20]

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

To write The Other Significant Others, journalist Rhaina Cohen interviewed couples around the country who have committed to sharing their lives with each other — just not their beds. These pivotal yet hard-to-define relationships have existed throughout history, but we lack the vocabulary to talk about them (let alone a legal framework to protect them). Adaam and Vanessa — platonic partners themselves — talk to Rhaina about the nomenclature that helps/hinders us, the lack of templates for meaningful friendships, and the unspoken-about-elephant in these relationships (yes, sex).

Mentioned in this episode:

-Rhaina on the Ezra Klein Show

-Our conversation about friendship infrastructure with David French

-Our conversation about solitude with Bill Deresiewicz

Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.

On the agenda:

-On words, romance, and indefinable friendships [0:00-33:06]-The legal difficulties platonic partners face [33:07-40:24]-Putting marriage on/off its pedestal [40:25-47:28]-On polyamory [47:29-53:49]-The challenges of relationships with no defaults or templates [53:50-1:03:36]-Friendship & solitude [1:03:37-]

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