Uncertain Things

The indispensable Eli Lake — contributing editor at Commentary Magazine and staff writer and podcaster at The Free Press — returns to the pod to mark the destruction of mass murderer and DSA heartthrob Hasan Nasrallah along with the top brass of his terror gang in Beirut this weekend. This leads to a discussion about the nature of warfare and the importance of escalation, the inanity of American media, and also what the decline of norms in the Roman Republic portends for the future of the American experiment. Si vult pacem, face bellum?

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On the agenda:

-Bad week for the axis of a******s

-The deescalation trap

-Eli and Mehdi Hasan

-Muh norms

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

Caitlin Flanagan returns! The unapologetic author of On Thinking for Yourself (a selection of her excellent essays for The Atlantic) comes to talk to us about the fall of Western civilization, what happens when you let church-going go, what happened to universities, and why (though a Catholic herself) Caitlin has started wearing a Star of David.

Check out (the juicier) part two of this conversation (for paid members only) here.

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

On the agenda:

-Praising our AI overlords

-A post-apocalyptic, post-church West

-Dangerously under-educated

-Why Caitlin wears the Star of David

-When/how universities went wrong [

-On parenting and Ballerina Farm

-P.S. - Adaam’s reflections on wearing the Star of David

Mentioned in this episode:

-Our previous episode with Caitlin (Uncertain Things)

-On Thinking for Yourself (Caitlin Flanagan)

-Calvin Coolidge’s Address at the Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UCSB)

-Overtime: Bob Costas, Coleman Hughes, Caitlin Flanagan | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

-From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life (Jacques Barzun)

-Part two of this conversation (Uncertain Things LOCKED)

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

Nick Gillespie — editor at large at the libertarian institution that is Reason Magazine (and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie) — comes on the pod for an IRL conversation about 'The Agony of Abundance,' the paradoxical state in which we’re more prosperous, yet more dissatisfied, than ever. We discuss the negative narratives peddled by the media — a misdirection that’s untethering us from reality — and debate the limitations libertarianism and liberal thinking in an ever-more tribal world. And, before we go, we dive into psychedelics and whether they’re really worth all the fuss.

Uncertain Things is a reader-supported publication. To support this rag-tag podcast crew of two, consider becoming a paid member.

On the agenda:

-00:00 Housing Preamble

-04:12 Welcome to Uncertain Things

-06:01 Our Negative Perceptions vs. Reality

-23:39 Mass Misdirection

-33:28 Trust and the U.S. and Israeli Governments

-41:05 Liberalism vs. Tribalism

-01:08:57 On Generating a Liberal Revival

-01:24:08 Debating Psychedelics

Mentioned in this episode:

-The Economic Theory That Explains Why Americans Are So Mad - Ezra Klein Show

-The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture - Amazon

-Big Tech Panic (w/ Shoshana Weissmann) - Uncertain Things

-What to Expect When No One's Expecting: America's Coming Demographic Disaster - Amazon

-‘They Aren’t Who You Think They Are’: The inside story of how Kanakuk—one of America’s largest Christian camps—enabled horrific abuse. - The Dispatch

-In Praise of Privilege - Uncertain

-Psychedelic Libertarianism with Nick Gillespie - Coleman’s Corner

-The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less - Amazon

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

PLEASE NOTE: We are releasing this episode in the immediate aftermath of the alleged assassination attempt on President Trump. Details and facts presented in this conversation are still being corroborated and are subject to be updated/corrected.

Recurrent guest Misha Thomas (“The Liberal Who Voted for Trump” / “Blackness and the Other Side of Trauma”) was visiting family in Pittsburgh yesterday when he decided to check out his first ever Trump Rally with his partner. After waiting for hours under the hot sun, they saw Trump take to the stage — and minutes later, heard rounds of bullets going back and forth. Misha shares his first-person account of what seems to have been an attempt to assassinate the former president.

To support us and gain access to exclusive content, consider becoming a paid member of Uncertain on Substack. Check out our free ‘Uncertainty’ newsletter for updates and rants. Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk.

Nellie Bowles is back! The journalist, writer of the TGIF newsletter, and co-founder of The Free Press (along with her wife Bari Weiss) returns to discuss her new book, Morning After the Revolution. In it, she chronicles the unfortunate series of events that led her to leave The New York Times in 2021. We get into that in this conversation, too (diving into the backlash she received for covering the more violent 2020 protests in Portland and Seattle) — as well as the stories of Progressive absurdism that pepper the book. And before we wrap, we get into Nellie’s thoughts on being a newly converted Jew in the wake of October 8th.  

Uncertain Things is a reader-supported publication. To support this rag-tag podcast crew of two, consider becoming a paid member.

On the agenda:

-Surviving the NYT in 2020 [1:40-23:41]

-Absurdity and anarchy [23:42-37:18]

-The joys and pains of becoming Jewish [37:19-51:06]

Mentioned in this episode:

-Our previous conversation on San Francisco’s lunacy

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

William Deresiewicz — author of (the newly updated) Excellent Sheep, The Death of the Artist, and The End of Solitude — returns to the pod! This time we dive into one of the institutions we love to hate: elite universities. We dwell on and debate the protests at Columbia (et al.), the reasons why it’s all gone so wrong, and whether or not the solution is just to raze them to the ground.

Check out our ‘Uncertainty’ newsletter for updates and rants. To support us and gain access to exclusive content, consider becoming a paid member of Uncertain on Substack. Follow @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.

On the agenda:

-The context for Excellent Sheep, c. 2014 [2:39-12:21]

-The student as customer / PC police officer [12:22-27:32]

- The emptiness inside [27:33-40:02]

-To fix or ruin the elite reputation? [40:03-49:54]

-Getting into the protests & elite failure [49:55-58:58]

- What exactly went wrong [58:59-1:08:08]

-The answer isn’t yoga [1:08:09-1:29:36]

Mentioned in this conversation: 

-Our last conversation with Bill

-Vanessa’s newsletter on solitude/friendship

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

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, author, and former Columbia Journalism School dean (to us!), Steve Coll, takes us deep into the conspiracy-plagued mind of Saddam Hussein, the subject of his latest book The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq. We go deep into the wonky journalism weeds — including what it took for Coll to get his hands on the Saddam tapes. And we ask our former dean the eternal question: Is J-School worth it?

-What it takes to put a book like this together [0:00-19:15]

-The Saddam tapes [19:16 -23:46]

-Inside the conspiracy rabbit hole [23:47-29:52

-Behind the conflicting perceptions [29:53-41:12]

-Oil, Israel, and failed policies [41:13-49:46]

-The U.S.-Israel relationship [49:47--53:32]

-How the media is covering the conflict [53:33-57:43]

-Objectivity and the rifts in journalism today [57:44-1:06:44]

Check out our ‘Inscrutable’ blog and ‘Uncertainty’ newsletter for thoughts and rants. To support us and gain access to exclusive content, consider becoming a paid member of Uncertain on Substack. Follow @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.

With Vanessa off for the weekend to explore the world of psychedelics, the podcast has been hijacked by a cabal of furious, loud, and lubricated Jews. Adaam, 3 martinis and a Laphroaig in, is joined by Newsweek opinion editor and author of Second Class Batya Ungar-Sargon, and Free Press reporter and host of The Re-Education podcast Eli Lake. The three have gathered to refute Jonathan Glazer’s Jewishness being worth hijacking by anyone. In proper Talmudic engagement, Batya spits fire, Eli plays devil's advocate, and Adaam speaks up for the grammar Nazis. Be warned, this may be our most petty, potted, parochial, and problematic episode yet.

Check out our ‘Inscrutable’ blog and ‘Uncertainty’ newsletter for thoughts and rants. To support us and gain access to exclusive content, consider becoming a paid member of Uncertain on Substack. Follow @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.

Authors and co-hosts of the Cut the Bull podcast, Charles Love (Race Crazy) and Wilfred Reilly (Taboo, Hate Crime Hoax) join us for a lively conversation/debate about race, history, and K-12 education — and Vanessa gets put in the hot seat. Questions covered include: Should Black history be separate from American history? Are we over-indexing on sex and gender in the classroom? Is social media an “environmental toxin” — or just another misdirection from the left? And, of course, what are the biggest blindspots on the left and the right?  

-Where we’ve been [0:00-4:47]

-Eric Adams, “environmental toxins,” and the Left [4:48-10:43] 

-1619 and documenting history [10:44-30:54] 

-Black history vs. American history [30:55-42:43] 

-Sex and gender in the classroom [42:44-59:29] 

-Diagnosing the misdirection [59:30-1:03:36] 

-The failings of integration [1:03:37-1:09:20] 

-How to fix education [1:09:50-1:13:18] 

-Blindspots on the Left and the Right [1:13:19-1:18:39]

Check out our ‘Inscrutable’ blog and ‘Uncertainty’ newsletter for thoughts and rants. To support us and gain access to exclusive content, consider becoming a paid member of Uncertain on Substack. Follow @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.

Dr. Einat Wilf is an Israeli writer, speaker, former (and future?) politician, podcaster (We Should All be Zionisists), and co-author of The War of Return. In this episode, we dive into some historical context for the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Vanessa asking all the ignorant questions you were too afraid to ask: What/who was there in Israel before 1948? Was displacement a part of the Zionist vision? Why did displacement happen? Then we pivot to the subject of Dr. Wilf’s book: The right of return, and the fundamental reason why peace, until this day, has been impossible. We conclude with a deep dive into UNRWA — the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees — and explain the role it’s played in perpetuating the conflict, to this day. 

On the agenda: 

-Zionism’s Parents and the Land of Israel [3:22-11:33]

-The Disappointment of Emancipation/The Possibility of Self-Determination [11:34-21:21]

-On Sovereignty and Displacement [21:22-53:29]

-The Refugee Question [53:30-1:02:37]

-UNRWA & Palestinian Identity [1:02:38-1:33:58]

-Where do we go from here? [1:33:59-1:42:30]

Check out our ‘Inscrutable’ blog and ‘Uncertainty’ newsletter for thoughts and rants. To support us and gain access to exclusive content, consider becoming a paid member of Uncertain on Substack. Follow @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.