Wisdom of Crowds

Yesterday, the philosopher Michael Sandel won this year’s prestigious Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture . The million-dollar prize is a lifetime-achievement award given to an individual “whose ideas have profoundly shaped human self-understanding and advancement.” We were lucky to have Professor Sandel on our podcast last summer, along with his son, fellow-philosopher Adam Sandel, and Wis...

This week we have a very special guest: Robert Malley , a veteran American diplomat and Middle East expert. From advising President Clinton at Camp David to serving as President Obama’s top White House official for the Middle East and then as Biden’s Special Envoy for Iran, Malley has spent decades at the heart of U.S. diplomacy. Today he joins Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic to discuss his new book...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Last week, Wisdom of Crowds philosopher-in-residence Samuel Kimbriel wrote an essay about the political use of Christianity within MAGA, contrasting the sincerity of Erika Kirk’s piety with the propagandistic use of the Lord’s Prayer in a recent military recruitment video. Shadi Hamid reflected on Samuel’s piece and...

Today we have a return guest: Jordan Castro . Jordan is a writer and the deputy director of the Cluny Project , a think tank of sorts for cultural entrepreneurs. The last time Jordan appeared on Wisdom of Crowds , we discussed his first novel, The Novelist . Now Jordan has a second book, Muscle Man , about a disgruntled middle-aged academic who tries to find an answer to his frustrations in weight...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Today’s guest is Geoff Shullenberger , the managing editor of Compact and a writer whose articles and reviews have appeared in American Affairs , The Chronicle of Higher Education , The New Atlantis , UnHerd , and more. Last week, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Geoff wrote an incisive piece titled, “The Ret...

Our episode this week is more on the serious and somber side. Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk and speculate about its consequences. What are we learning about America and American politics in the wake of that horrible shooting? Is America heading toward low-grade civil war—like the Years of Lead in Italy during the 1970s? Does the Right control the culture a...

The Lyceum Movement is a nationwide grassroots organization that aims to build a healthier public discourse by bringing diverse groups of people together to investigate first principles. Every August, Lyceum hosts a big event in Des Moines: the Tallgrass Ideas Festival . And for the last three years, Wisdom of Crowds has been there, hosting a live taping of our podcast. This year, the Festival’s t...

A special treat from the Aspen Ideas Festival : a panel discussion about American community and politics, featuring a father–son philosophical duo. Michael J. Sandel is a professor at Harvard University, where he teaches political philosophy. His famous “Justice” course has been viewed by tens of millions worldwide. His son, Adam Sandel , is a philosopher, award-winning teacher, and holder of the...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live American Primeval on Netflix. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on Hulu. Ballerina Farm on Instagram. American culture is living through a Mormon moment. It is a sign that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing in confidence and strength. But what are the drawbacks to becoming mainstream? What are...

President Donald Trump federalized DC law enforcement this week, raising all sorts of questions — about democracy, authoritarianism, sovereignty and legitimacy — that are natural fits for us to discuss here at Wisdom of Crowds. Yes, Trump’s use of emergency powers to justify the takeover is constitutional, even if he is stretching the concept of what counts as an emergency. But Damir Marusic feels...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live “ ‘Barbarism’ is a word that keeps coming to my lips lately,” writes Damir Marusic in a brilliant new article this week. Barbarism seems to be the only real word that describes what comes after the liberal international order. But Damir isn’t pointing to the supposed barbarism of our enemies. His article points to th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Women and men are having a hard time finding each other. A lot of women are giving up on finding a mate. Some women with mates are worried that their men don’t have any friends. Everyone hates dating apps. People are having fewer babies. These are among the many depressing stories that the media is telling about love...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Dead almost six years, Jeffrey Epstein is back in the news . The sordid details of his crimes, and the elaborate conspiracy concerning elites that he may or may not have been a part of, have become a central issue within the MAGA coalition. Conspiracy theories in general are now a part of daily political life. None o...

What is happiness? Why are so many Americans — by their own admission — unhappy? These are the central questions in this special episode, live from the Aspen Ideas Festival . At the festival, our house philosopher, Dr. Samuel Kimbriel, hosted a discussion with three distinguished thinkers. Adam Sandel is a philosopher and assistant district attorney in Brooklyn whose latest book is titled Happines...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live It’s the summer doldrums, so this week, Wisdom of Crowds is taking a break from politics and war and Trump. Instead, we are talking about culture. Our guest, Paul Elie , is one of the leading culture and religion writers in the United States. His words have appeared in the New Yorker , the Atlantic , and the New York...

Last month, Francis Fukuyama was scheduled to come to Washington, DC for a live taping of Wisdom of Crowds . Unfortunately, as subscribers know, Frank lost his voice the morning of his scheduled appearance, and we were forced to cancel. However, we were able to record a bit of conversation with him and Shadi Hamid the following day, with a few colleagues asking questions. The conversation ended up...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live “War is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bond and some free.” So said the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus . In his essay this week, Santiago Ramos says the opposite: “… war is a necessary evil; it is not what preserves the great achievements of the human race....

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live The Israel-Iran war is about to enter its sixth day. As of this recording — Wednesday evening, June 18 — President Trump has not announced whether the United States will join the Israeli war effort. During this unpleasant lull, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic invited Sohrab Ahmari to discuss what we can expect from the...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live The war between Iran and Israel is bound to determine the future of the Middle East and, possibly, the whole world. The time is fitting, then, to release Shadi Hamid ’s and Santiago Ramos ’ conversation with Abbas Milani , professor of political science and Iran Studies at Stanford University. Professor Milani is a w...

It’s finally happened: Israel has attacked Iran. Wisdom of Crowds executive editor Santiago Ramos joined Damir Marusic for a live-streamed emergency q&a about the latest Middle East crisis. What do we know? What can we expect in the near future? What does this mean for the Middle East in the long term? And why does Damir think that Israel is America’s “junkyard dog”? For those who missed it, here...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Why do artists try so hard to shock the public? Why is Kanye West singing about Hitler? Why are New York artists dabbling with fascism? The novelist and cultural critic Țara Isabella Burton joins Damir Marusic and Santiago Ramos to discuss these questions and more. Last week, Tara published an essay on Wisdom of Crow...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Is tech replacing humanity? Or is it sharpening the question of what it means to be human? What does it mean to live a good life — as opposed to passable life? What features of humanity become more important by contrast and necessity in the technological age? Is it possible to find a higher version of humanity in ord...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live We live in an increasingly weird world, where the weirdness is facilitated and accelerated by the Internet. We live in a world full of instantly-available bizarre pornography and terrorist attacks inspired by misanthropic ideologies whose manifestos are published online. Katherine Dee , an Internet ethnographer, writ...

As subscribers of Wisdom of Crowds will know, the war in Gaza has preoccupied Shadi Hamid for over a year now, and has taken a central place in his political thinking. Damir Marusic begins this episode by challenging Shadi on this point. Is he giving too much importance to one political and moral cause over all others? And is he giving too much importance to morality as such in geopolitics? The co...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Our special guest this week, David Polansky is a political theorist and commentator who lives in Canada. A frequent contributor to Wisdom of Crowds , he joins Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic to discuss two excellent recent essays. The first one, titled “Does Canada Exist?” is about Canadian national identity, an issue...