Moral Mayhem

In this episode, we sit down with Richard Hanania, prolific blogger, political commentator and author of the book "The Origins of Woke". We explore how civil rights law has shaped modern culture, debating the unintended consequences of anti-discrimination policies. We also discuss declining fertility rates, examining cultural versus economic factors. The conversation concludes with a discussion on...

In this episode, we sit down with Bryan Caplan, economics professor at George Mason University and author of several popular books including Open Borders, The Myth of the Rational Voter, and most recently Build Baby Build. We dive into Bryan's case for radical deregulation in housing, exploring how both the left and right could find common ground on the issue. In the next segment, we discuss Bryan...

In this episode, we chat about the increased normalization and diagnosis of mental health conditions like ADHD, autism and depression, exploring the balance between the benefits of increased awareness and the potential risks of over-diagnosis and false positives. We also flirt with the relationship between psychological dysfunction, personal identity and free will. Get full access to Moral Mayhem...

In this episode, we talk about the difference between accepting and pathologizing sex differences, parsing the bell curve of the opposite sex, dynamics of the dating market, what pick up artists get right and more. In the last segment, we also talk about how the anti-woke crowd, that we usually agree with, are reading Andrew Huberman totally wrong. Links to mentions: Regan's appearance on Alex Kas...

Links and Resources: Tickets to Regan's Salon: End of Faith by Sam Harris Wikipedia: Karl Popper - Paradox of Intolerance You can email us your thoughts, feedback or ideas for episodes to moralmayhempod@gmail.com Get full access to Moral Mayhem Podcast at moralmayhem.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, we respond to Freddie DeBoer's case for socialism , in which he concedes that capitalism has driven massive welfare improvements, yet contends that it's rational to replace this process with a much more redistributive one now that society has made "sufficient" progress. We lay out all the reasons why we disagree and also hash out our mutual disagreements on the moral need for redi...

In this episode, we explore the question of why people value education? Do revealed preferences make a better case of education as a costly signal or a mechanism for human capital development? While it's obvious to most people that the answer is unlikely to be binary, we hash out our priors and work through some of the arguments for either side. Get full access to Moral Mayhem Podcast at moralmayh...

Links: Get full access to Moral Mayhem Podcast at moralmayhem.substack.com/subscribe

Malcolm Collins joins us to explore the alarming decline in fertility rates and its potential consequences for civilization. We discuss the role of religion and the rise of a "shadow religion" threatening to sterilize the world.  Malcolm also shares his take on the implications of depopulation, the dangers of fascistic ideologies posing as progressivism, and the importance of a culture t...

In this episode, Regan and I talk about topics that have landed Canada, her homeland, in the news recently - immigration, euthanasia and yes...wokeness. Get full access to Moral Mayhem Podcast at moralmayhem.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, we interview Sam Hammond, a senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, about AI's potentially transformative impact on our institutions and economic growth. Sam shares his insights on how AI might affect centralization, coordination, and cooperation, drawing from his background in institutional economics. We explore various AI scenarios, the changing nature o...

In this episode, we explore why our career choices often fail to align with our stated values.  We discuss what helped each of us course correct and delve into the  interplay of money, meaning, and personal risk tolerance in career decisions. We explore the hidden influence of status quo bias, the strategic tradeoffs between intellectual stimulation, impact, and well-being, and the implications of...

In this episode, we interview Bob Fischer,  a philosopher and senior researcher at Rethink Priorities. While discussing his work estimating the intensity of valenced states of farmed animals,  we touch on likelihood of sentience, hedonism as a theory of moral value, evolutionary functions of pleasure and pain, correlation between intelligence and intensity of experience states  We also discuss the...

In this episode, we interview Garett Jones , an economist at George Mason University Our discussion, initially aimed at Garett's latest book The Culture Transplant ends up delving into themes across his works - IQ as an externality, mechanisms that drive institutional quality, cultural persistence in immigrant diasporas, theories of assimilation and more. We also take a ambitious short detour...

In this episode, Vaishnav presses Regan on her observations of India. We riff on food, arranged marriages, sexual conservatism , politeness vs niceness and more. Get full access to Moral Mayhem Podcast at moralmayhem.substack.com/subscribe

Guilty pleasure episode - we couldn't help but comment on the ongoing saga on twitter, catalyzed by Eliezer Yudkowsky's endorsement of buying a call option on love i.e communicating to your partner that the contract of marriage comes with an option to leave them for someone with mate value >=X.   Get full access to Moral Mayhem Podcast at moralmayhem.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode,  we try and bring you both an outside and inside view on EA.  We discuss both its features and its bugs but as general supporters of the movement, we take liberties to meditate on it's cultural ethos, ideological biases and inconsistencies..  Get full access to Moral Mayhem Podcast at moralmayhem.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, we ask two broad questions about immigration from the host country's perspective: What are the parameters that make immigration net positive for the host country? How should immigration policy change to maximize human welfare? Resources and Links: Net economic cost of immigration (Netherlands) : https://demo-demo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Borderless_Welfare_State-2.pdf Re...

In this episode, Regan and I get abstract about another topical talking point: Free Speech.   We unpack our intuitions on the the cash value of free speech,  incitement to violence and offense as limiting principles, and the edge cases (no pun intended) of pornography and hate speech. We conclude by unwisely opining on anti-semitism and Harvard's new found first amendment absolutism. Get full...

In this episode, we dissect identity politics and its usefulness as political tool. Unfortunately, we don't stop there and ruminate on identity itself and ever ever so lightly brush against disability and fat activitism. Get full access to Moral Mayhem Podcast at moralmayhem.substack.com/subscribe

In our debut episode of 'Moral Mayhem,' we delve into the deeply contentious Israel-Palestine conflict, focusing on a critical yet overlooked perspective. We set aside the political details of the current conflict and focus on the underlying morality of advocating for Palestinian statehood, examining how the right to self determination trades off against individual liberty and welfare of...