Episódios
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Iranian historian and writer Arash Azizi comes on the pod to share his perspective on the Israel-Hamas conflict today — and why he believes ceasefire is the only viable path forward for Israel’s war with Hamas. Along the way, Azizi gives us on an overview of Iran’s politics since the Revolution of 1979 (i.e. how Soleimani became The Shadow Commander) and explains the country’s current stance toward Israel (which stands in contrast to the position of many Iranians). His second book about the country’s recent protest movements — What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom — will be out next year.
On the Agenda:
-Unpacking the Iranian Revolution (and the Left’s participation)
-Arash’s background
-Soleimani’s appeal (How we consolidated supreme power)
-Iran’s stance on Israel vs. Iranians’ sentiments
-Debating ceasefire
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.
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John Aziz is a British Palestinian musician who has come into the public spotlight since October 7th for tweeting out for peace and against Hamas. In this conversation, we unpack why it’s so controversial for a Palestinian like John to be pro-peace, the trauma both sides aren’t acknowledging or addressing, and the overly-simplified, ironic, Star Wars narratives of the Western Left. Follow him on X and read John’s article in The Atlantic here.
On the agenda:
- John’s Background [0:00-08:37]
-The Challenge of Advocating for Peace [08:38-18:34]
- The Trauma on Both Sides [18:35-24:51]
-Why is so hard to speak out against Hamas? [24:52-29:59]
-New Ideology, New Leaders [30:00-38:36]
-The Star Wars Ideology of the Western Left [38:37-54:33]
- LGBT+ in Gaza [54:34-1:01:03]
- "I'll Debate Anyone" [1:01:04-1:02:51]
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.
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Friend of the pod Batya Ungar-Sargon, deputy opinion editor for Newsweek and author of Bad News, returns for a deep, contentious conversation about the responsibility of journalists covering the Israel-Hamas war, the people worth expending energy on (versus relegating as enemies), and the uncomfortable embrace of moral certainty.
While much vitriol is expended on the “journalists” bringing shame to the (let’s face it, already pretty scumbag) profession, we also shout out the reporters doing good, honest analysis, even if we don’t always agree with their positions: Zaid Jelani, Lee Fang, and Arash Azizi.
On the agenda:
-The Moral Imperative of Remembering [1:55-9:11]
-On Emotions and Moral Certainty [9:12-16:54]
-Disgusting "Journalists" [16:55-20:39]
-On Journalistic Responsibility / Objectivity [20:40-26:36]
-Debating How - and Who - to Trust [26:37-38:39]
-Liberal vs. Jewish Values [38:40-52:14]
-On Moral Equivalence and Retaliation [52:15-58:24]
-Who is reachable? [58:25-1:07:22]
-The battle continues [1:07:23-1:12:40]
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.
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Note: This episode is far more explicit — and way more rage-ful — than your average.
As you have likely read by now in the news, last Saturday, a group of Hamas combatants infiltrated Israel and massacred about 1300 people, mostly civilians.
Usually, Uncertain Things is all about embracing epistemological uncertainty. This conversation is not about that. To help Adaam process his rage and achieve some much-needed catharsis, he turned to returning guest, Eli Lake. Eli — host of The Re-Education Podcast, contributing editor to Commentary, and columnist for the New York Sun — did not disappoint, bringing some awesome, righteous outrage toward the American Left.
On the agenda:
- Hamas and their attack on Israel [0:00-7:15]- Contextualizing the catharsis to come [7:16-17:04]- Eli’s moral outrage [17:05-25:17]- On policy: blockades and Iran [25:18-29:22]- Back to our previously scheduled outrage [29:23-35:19]- Predicting the fallout [35:20-43:54]- Debating the culture of life, the culture of death [43:55-1:01:58]- Coexisting with evil [1:01:59-1:05:29]- The Left IRL [1:05:30-1:07:46]- The rage returns [1:07:47-1:13:51]
- Outro: On moral relativism and forgiveness [1:14:10-22:58]
We also recommend:
-Adaam’s first impressions, on Jonah Goldberg’s The Remnant
-Adaam’s bleaker thoughts, on the Dispatch Live
-David French and Sarah Isgur’s conversation on the Law of War and Anti-Semitism on Advisory Opinions
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.
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Yascha Mounk returns for round two! If you missed part one of our conversation with the political theorist, writer, and podcaster about his latest book, The Identity Trap, stop now and listen to that episode first.
We pick up where we left off last time and get deep into debate about strategic essentialism, the privileging of marginalized voices, and the incoherencies of standpoint theory. We also ask Yascha why he disagrees with John McWhorter’s theory that the proponents of the Identity Synthesis are members of a new religion. Plus, Yascha plays relationship counselor for your sparring hosts and his dog finally gets outside.
Follow Uncertain Things on uncertain.substack.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
On another note, we will be attending Yascha’s Oct 4 talk at the Streiker Center in NYC. See you there?
Also check out:
-Our talk with James Kirchick about the contradictions of our current gender debates.
-Our talk with Yuval Levin on the moral failure of civic institutions in the age of narcissism.
-Our talk with Tom Holland about his lost faith in liberalism.
On the agenda:
-Re-capping Round 1 [0:00-3:03]
-On Justice, essentialism, and race (the implications of standpoint theory) [3:04-15:12]
-Who Gets to Speak for their Race? [15:13-23:49]
-The Catastrophes of Unsalvageable Liberalism [23:50-32:15]
-On intention and persuasion [32:16-42:03]
-The woke religion? [42:04-50:31]
-The Identity Synthesis [50:32-54:43]
-Outtake: Against Monocausal Explanations [55:00-57:25]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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Political theorist, writer, and podcaster Yascha Mounk returns! Last time, we spoke about Yascha’s last book: The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure. This time, Adaam got to air his personal grievances as we dove into the thorny topic of his latest book: The Identity Trap.
Yascha covers a ton: he traces the intellectual history of the postmodern ideas that captured the academy in the 2010s; he explains how these once-fringe ideas subsequently infiltrated the mainstream Left; he puts the tenets of identity-based politics to the philosophical test (analyzing the logical strengths and weaknesses of ideas like standpoint theory and cultural appropriation); and he defends liberalism as the best political framework we have to dismantle the injustices of our current world order (the very thing lefties, with their identitarian tendencies, are supposedly trying to do).
Of course, dear listener, we barely scratched the surface of all that in one hour. Instead, we got deep into Said, Spivak, and Foucault, panopticons and all — and so this conversation with Yascha continues soon, in part two.
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:
- Cannibalism & grievances [0:00-6:05]
- Who are you trying to persuade? [6:06-22:28]
- The children of Foucault [22:29-38:11]
- The Said/Spivak Pivot [38:12-47:13]
- Strategic Essentialism [47:14-1:02:14]
- The Woman Question [1:02:15-1:09:50]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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We bring in the fall with a big conversation about big tech, with the authors of System Error: Stanford professors Rob Reich (expertise in: political science, philosophy, ethics, democracy, digital technology), Mehran Sahami (software engineering, in particular machine learning and AI, and VC funding), and Jeremy Weinstein (political science, government, social impact). We cover the systemic drivers in tech (VC-capital, utopianism, and the “optimization mindset”), bemoan the resulting decline in our democratic values, get into our classic “can politicians really be trusted to regulate this sh*t?” debate, enter into our novel “does any one care about privacy really” debate, and, of course, consider the moral implications of soylent. If you didn’t get enough after this conversation, you’re in luck – we have another tech-focused episode coming soon.
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:
- Riding the emotional rollercoaster of life [0:00-6:22]
- The Optimization Mindset [6:23-22:37]
- Utopianism [22:38-28:58]
- Systemic Drivers & the VC problem [28:59-40:31]
- Non-regulatory Solutions [40:32-46:56]
- Privacy: Who cares? [46:57-51:30]
- The great regulation debate [51:31-1:04:39]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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James (Jamie) Kirchick is an author, columnist for Tablet magazine, historian, podcaster, and staunch believer in/defender of liberal values — and he’ll speak up against any party/group currently trampling on them. He began his journalism career writing about domestic and foreign politics; his first book, The End of Europe focused on the rise of populism in the continent (paid subscribers — stay tuned for some bonus content on this topic!).
The first part of this conversation is all about Jamie’s second book, The Secret City, which explored the fascinating gay history of Washington D.C. and how the extreme homophobia of our country gave way, rather rapidly over the course of the 20th century, towards cultural acceptance and legal equality. The second half of this conversation we debate the pros and cons of the word “queer” and the “queer movement” — which Jamie discussed at length in his thought-provoking Liberties article “From Queer to Gay to Queer” (you can find a truncated version of his argument in his article for The Atlantic, “The Struggle for Gay Rights Is Over”).
If you want to hear the preamble that precipitated this conversation, check out our episode with Eli Lake about art and offense.
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:
[0:00-12:31] Introducing Jamie
[12:32-38:22] Our history of homophobia
[38:23-44:27] Male homosexuality vs. Female
[44:28-49:09] The success of gay civil rights
[49:10-56:10] Revising history and coercing expression
[56:11-1:00:24] Assimilation vs. radicalism
[1:00:25-1:16:42] The excesses of the Queer liberation movement
[1:16:43-1:27:38] On pronouns and terminology
[1:27:39-1:37:49] Social contagion, gender nonconformity, and kids
[1:37:50-1:45:04] Political scandal and revolution
[1:45:05-1:48:40] Blindspots
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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Scientist-turned-historian Peter Turchin returns! Peter first came on the pod a few months ago to discuss the famous prediction he made in 2010 that we were headed for crisis, circa 2020. Last time, we covered the controversy he’s stirred up within the historical discipline, the methodologies behind cliodynamics/his data-based predictions, and the drivers of social unrest (in particular, elite overproduction). This conversation — recorded on the heels of the publication of his new book End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration — we pick up where we left off. Peter explains it all: how do we prevent all-out civil war? What’s the most likely outcome if we keep on the path we’re currently on? And is he more of a Harry Seldon or a Leto II?
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:
-L’intro [0:00-3:30]
-A quick re-cap [3:30-7:29]
-Breaking the rules [7:30-15:04]
-Clearly in crisis [15:05-19:28]
-The British Empire circa 1848 (the Chartist Period) [19:29-26:57]
-A huge outpouring of human misery [26:58-33:46]
-Culture as a prerequisite for reform [33:47-40:57]
-The social psychology of the New Deal [40:58-45:22]
-A new generation of elites without a culture of reform [45:23-53:48]
-Designing a science of history [53:49-58:05]
-Charismatic Jesus Types [58:06-1:10:48]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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David Krakauer is the President of the Santa Fe Institute — an academic institution that conscientiously bucks the overly-siloed and ideological bents of most universities these days. Krakauer is an evolutionary biologist who studies “the evolution of intelligence and stupidity on Earth.” He joined us on the pod for a wide-ranging conversation covering the history of complexity science, the inadequacies of the academe, the aesthetic “third way” between maximalism and minimalism, and the artifacts that make us smarter (like pianos) versus the ones that really don’t (GPS, for one).
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:
-Intro to David [0:00-03:24]
-The history of complexity science [03:25-12:36]
-The folly of disciplines [12:37-18:11]
-The limitations of language [18:12-31:11]
-Judgment vs. impact [31:12-37:05]
-Complexity as dialectical exercise [37:06-40:25]
-Complexity as the third aesthetic option [40:26-44:13]
-Why we need narrative [44:14-51:33]
-The problem(s) with the academy (i.e. the morgue of dead ideas) [51:34-1:04:19]
-SFI projects that disrupted institutional thinking [1:04:20-1:11:44]
-Machine learning and the drawbacks of supercomputing [1:11:45-1:16:34]
-Testing the limits of our cognitive understanding (complementary vs. competitive cognitive artifacts) [1:16:35-1:24:37]
-On curation, control, and complacency [1:24:38-1:34:29]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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William Deresiewicz — author of Excellent Sheep, The Death of the Artist, and The End of Solitude — has lived many lives. He’s been an orthodox Jewish boy who lost his faith; a journalism school student unimpressed by the pretensions of the profession; a literature professor who (blasphemously) loved books and teaching. Today, he’s an author, essayist, and nostalgic ex-New Yorker. No matter where he’s been in life, Deresiewicz has often been on the outside looking in, which is maybe why he’s able to see and analyze our culture so clearly. We start off this conversation diving into The Death of the Artist, and how the concept/role of the artist has evolved and changed throughout history; we then meander into a discussion on community, solitude, and cities; and conclude by diving into his two definitions of the word “culture,” while unpacking the techno-solutionism of America.
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:
-Phantasms, Batman, and Bill [0:00-6:00]
-The first paradigm - artist as artisan [6:01-17:04]
-The second paradigm - artist as bohemian [17:05-27:55]
-The third paradigm - artist as professional [27:56-33:40]
-To the fourth paradigm [33:41-39:41]
-Artist as producer vs. truth teller [39:42-57:53]
-Art and community [57:54-1:01:59]
-Solitude and cities [1:02:00-1:19:25]
-Culture vs culture [1:19:26-1:40:06]
Mentioned in this conversation:
-Washington Post’s Leonard Downie Jr. on moving beyond “objectivity”
-The Herd of Independent Minds
The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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Nellie Bowles is one of the few journalists who lives and writes in the Venn diagram of both Adaam and Vanessa’s interests. For years she was the tech reporter for The New York Times and her epic 2022 piece on San Francisco’s decline for The Atlantic deservedly kicked up a lot of attention, including from your podcast hosts — for different reasons, of course. In 2021, she left “mainstream” media and started the independent media outlet The Free Press with her wife Bari Weiss (where she writes the TGIF newsletter). In this conversation we talk about SF (following up on our conversation with Vishaan Chakrabarti), tech culture, ideological capture, media mediocrity, and the joys (really) of parenthood.
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:
-Nellie, great writer, enthusiastic new parent [0:00-7:24]
-The s**t show that is San Francisco [7:25-17:56]
-Preserving painted ladies vs. laundromats [17:57-29:18]
-The saga of Chesa Boudin [29:19-44:15]
-Covering tech’s heart, mind, and scams [44:16-1:09:19]
-Wrapping Up and Being Kind [1:09:20-1:13:52]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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Behold! The recording of our first ever live event! We were graced by the thoughts, arguments, and non-English accents of Niall Ferguson — economic historian, fellow at Stanford, and author of many books, including Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe — and Martin Gurri — a former media analyst for the CIA and author of The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium (a.k.a the Uncertain Things bible). We dug into all manner of apocalyptica: the collapse of our media institutions (so long credibility), the increasing tensions with China (hello Cold War II), and the despair that has engulfed our minds. Plus, we learn the answer to all our woes: Thomas Hardy.
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.
On the agenda:
-Great Debate, Real Humans, and Computer Failure [0:00-7:53]
-Vietnam War vs. Today [7:54-20:56]
-Trump Derangement Syndrome [20:57-27:54]
-Cold War II in the Internet Age [27:55-44:07]
-If Our Cold War Turns Hot [44:08-49:09]
-Pathologies, Ideologies, and Despair [49:10-58:58]
-Crisis of American Education [58:59-1:02:20]
-What Keeps Our Guests Up at Night [1:02:21-1:06:33]
-The tradeoffs of Cold War II [!;06:34-1:11:19]
-Peak humanity [1:11:20-1:14:55]
-Ukraine/Taiwan Scenarios [1:14:56-1:16:19]
-Human Agency and Thomas Hardy [1:16:20-1:19:21]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
Special thanks to Niall, Martin, and Connor Lynch for making this event possible.
Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/turatti/6726041123
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Journalist Helen Lewis spent much of last year knee-deep in gurus — the Steve Jobs, Russell Brands, and Jordan Petersons who captivate (and capture) audiences with their spiritual aura and (increasingly) podcasts — while reporting The New Gurus. She postulates that they derive their popularity, in part, to the decline of religion in our societies, a topic she explored in her reporting for The Church of Social Justice and The Roots of Woke Culture. In this convo, we cover religion, gurus, genius, feminism, and her infamous interview with Jordan Peterson.
Find more of Helen's work at The Atlantic or on her Substack.
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.
On the agenda:
-The first Uncertain Things event! [0:00-3:21]
-Setting up Helen [03:22-6:50]
-The decline of religion [06:51-20:38]
-Words, names, and language [20:39-29:26]
-The Joe Rogan test [29:27-43:23]
-Gurus, genius, and the content economy [43:24-51:33]
-Journalists, human-sized narratives, and strong men [51:34-1:09:32]
-How to Interview Jordan Peterson(s) [1:09:33]
-Religion replacements [1:22:04-1:26:36]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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Vanessa has admired the New York Times’ architecture critic Michael Kimmelman ever since she was a starry-eyed youngster starting her urban journalism career. Now that his latest book The Intimate City is out, it was the perfect excuse to have him on the show. She and Adaam ask Michael what it was like at the Times in the late ‘80s when he started out, continue the conversation they started with Vishaan Chakrabarti about Progressives’ urban failings, discuss the non-profit journalism division that he helped spawn, and contemplate the importance of time when it comes to making (and appreciating) great cities.
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.
On the agenda:
-Criticism, Community, and other Pet Topics [0:00-10:05]
-The New York Times, from Shabby Palace to Citadel [10:06-26:12]
-Anacostia, the High Line, and Gentrification [26:13-36:07]
-What’s Community (and Preservation) Anyway? [36:08-47:56]
-A Culture of Fear of Change [47:57-56:20]
-The Role of the Critic [56:21-1:09:59]
-The Pragmatism of Houston [1:10:00-1:18:51]
-Walking Through the City [1:18:52-1:23:50]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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The Personal, The Political, and The Urban. Adaam and Vanessa discuss the episodes from the year that stuck with them most — and reflect on the unexpected ways these conversations are thematically linked together.
With Mark Lilla, they continued mulling on the questions they began considering back in season one with Tom Holland and Tomer Persico — i.e. where do we derive morality in a post-religious age? What are the socio-cultural and religious undercurrents that can help explain our current malaise? Perhaps most pointedly, “how much morality is enough?” And to what extent should we disentangle the political from the personal (at this point, Adaam — with an assist from his mother — brings Christopher Hitchens into the conversation.)
They then revisit their conversation with Yascha Mounk, in which Adaam and Yascha debated the extent to which oppression gives groups meaning — and, thus, the extent to which liberal democracy (as much as we love it) can actually undermine group cohesion. Adaam and Vanessa also reflect on diversity and nationalism, and their (inverse?) relationships to democracy.
From the rise of fervent nationalists, they veer into a conversation about apathetic urbanites — and revisit their interview with Vishaan Chakrabarti. They reflect on Americans’ seeming inability to demand better urbanism, and ask: will we ever get the locally-rich cities we need?
They close with a quick reflection on their varied, lively conversation with Christene Rosen, in which we (ironically enough) weaved the political with the personal (what can we say, internal consistency is just not one of our values - #cognitivedissonance).
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If you haven’t already, make sure to check out these great episodes:
-Philosopher Mark Lilla
-Urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti
-Political Theorist Yascha Mounk
-Commentator Christene Rosen
On the agenda:
-[0:00-8:15] End of year preamble and predictions
-[8:16-14:16] Musing on Mark Lilla
-[14:17-21:56] Must the personal always be political?
-[21:57-32:17] Noodling on Yascha Mounk
-[32:18-37:29] Considering Vishaan Chakrabarti
-[37:30-41:12] Christene Rosen reflections and our year-end conclusions
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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