Conversations with Coleman

My guest today is David Chalmers. David is a professor of philosophy and neuroscience at NYU and the co-director of NYU Centre for Mind, Brain and Consciousness. David just released a new book called "Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy", which we discuss in this episode. We also discuss whether we're living in a simulation, the progress that's been made in virtual reality, whether virtual worlds count as real, whether people would and should choose to live in a virtual world, and many other classic questions in the philosophy of mind and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Jacob Mchangama. Jacob is a lawyer and writer based in Denmark. He's the founder of Justitia, a think tank focused on human rights and freedom of speech. Jacob is also the producer and narrator of the excellent podcast called Clear and Present Danger. Jacob and I discuss his brilliant new book: Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media. We talk about the Danish cartoon controversy and Charlie Hebdo. We also discuss the so-called "Milton's curse"; which is the habit of hypocritically defending free speech for some, but not for others. I think this point is relevant to some of the bans that we've been seeing on Russian state news. We talk about the notion of power relations and its relationship to free speech, the relationship between censorship and human nature, and the importance of having a culture of free speech in addition to having laws that nominally protect it. We also talk about the origins of what Jacob calls "egalitarian free speech" in ancient Athens, the First Amendment and its evolving interpretation over time, and the alleged exceptions to protected speech such as hate speech or shouting fire in a crowded theatre. We go on to discuss whether censorship actually works, big tech companies and their role in censoring speech, similarities between the rise of the printing press and the rise of the Internet, cancel culture, the threat to free speech posed by China and the CCP, and much more. This was one of my favorite conversations that I've had so far this year, and I hope you enjoy it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Briahna Joy Gray. Briahna was the national press secretary for Bernie Sanders and his 2020 campaign. Before that, she was a columnist and Senior Politics Editor at The Intercept. Her work has also appeared in many other outlets like Rolling Stone magazine, Current Affairs, New York Magazine, and The Guardian. Briahna currently hosts the Bad Faith Podcast, which I hope to go on soon. We talk about how Briahna's international childhood influenced her worldview. We discuss American exceptionalism and patriotism, and whether they're justified, how identity-politics crowds out the issues of poverty in class, the effects of crime in poor neighborhoods, and the cancellation of Whoopi Goldberg. We argue about the extent to which culture is a cause of racial and ethnic disparities. We go on to talk about our cultural obsession with four-year colleges and the prospect of instead supporting vocational schools much more than we currently do, minimum wage laws, and socialism generally. I really enjoyed this one and I hope you do too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Cathy Young. Cathy is one of my favorite journalists around today. She is a writer at The Bulwark and also a cultural studies fellow at the Cato Institute, a columnist for Newsday, and a contributing editor to Reason. Cathy, who was born in Moscow and came to the United States with her family in 1980, is also the author of the books; Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood, Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality. This episode is all about the war in Ukraine. Now, it's an unusually dense episode but I really recommend you pay attention to this episode because Cathy is just a wealth of information. We spend the first half-hour discussing the modern history of Russia, from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, where Cathy spent her childhood and her young adulthood to the Yeltsin era and the rise of Putin. We spend the next half-hour discussing the recent history of Ukraine, from the Orange Revolution in 2004-2005 to the Euromaidan protests and the Revolution of Dignity. We go on to discuss the alleged role of NATO expansion and creating this crisis, the role of Kremlin propaganda, the alleged presence of Nazis in Ukrainian leadership, American hypocrisy and foreign policy. We also talk about the DIS analogy between the war in Iraq and the war in Ukraine, the cancellation of everything Russian, the prospect of NATO intervention in Ukraine, the concept of nuclear blackmail, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Matthew Yglesias. As many of you may know, Matt was the co-founder of Vox, along with Ezra Klein, who I had on the show last year. Matt is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and writes The Slow Boring blog and newsletter on substack. In this episode, Matt talks about why he left Vox for substack and we discuss Matt's book "One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger", in which Matt argues that America should increase its population by means of increasing the native birth rate, as well as increasing immigration. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Ashley Rindsberg. Ashley is an American novelist and journalist now based in Israel. His book is The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History. We discuss the little-known history of major errors made by the New York Times. We also talk about the concept of authority, what makes the times different from other papers, the idea of objective truth, and the many problems with the 1619 project. We finally go on to speak about how to determine what's true in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Jeffrey Maurer. Jeffrey has been a comedy writer, a speechwriter, and a stand-up comic. He was the senior writer for John Oliver's show Last Week Tonight. Jeffrey is now a substack writer and his substack is called I might be wrong. In this episode, we talk about the rise of political comedy in America, how political polarisation has changed American television, the problem of preachiness in comedy both on the right and the left, and the fine line between funny and offensive. We also discussed the mechanics of joke writing, the culture of the comedy cellar (which is my favorite comedy club), and the importance of laughter. We go on to speak about how wokeness hurts the Democratic Party, the cancellation of Winston Marshall formerly of the band Mumford and Sons, how Democrats could win in the midterms, gender pronouns, audience capture, and much more. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Dr. Zubin Damania aka ZDoggMD. Zubin is a USCF Stanford-trained internal medicine doctor and founder of Turntable Health, an innovative primary care clinic. He was also a hospitalist for many years and now hosts the podcast "The ZDoggMD Show" Zubin and I talk about the differences between mainstream western medicine and alternative medicines, the politicization of COVID information, the misinformation around the mRNA vaccines, the hatred directed at the unvaccinated, and the absurdity of many vaccine mandates. We also discussed the social stigma associated with getting COVID whether Long COVID is biological, psychological or both, the placebo effect and the nocebo effect, and the risk of myocarditis for young men getting the mRNA vaccines. We also go on to speak about the dishonesty in public health messaging, the failures of the CDC and the FDA, the racial triaging of COVID antivirals, whether there are systemic racism in modern medicine, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Matt Taibbi. Matt is a writer, journalist, and podcaster. He's a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and co-host of the "Useful Idiots" Podcast. He won the National Magazine Award in 2008 and is the author of many books, including The Great Derangement, Griftopia, and Hate Inc. In this episode, Matt and I talk about the Substack revolution, the paternalism in public health messaging, why Trump won in 2016, and the perception that people like Matt and myself are right-wing. We also discuss censorship from big tech, book bans in public schools, whether COVID-19 leaked from a lab, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Renee DiResta. Renee is the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory. She led a multi-year investigation into the IRA, Russia's fake news factory, and she's advised Congress. She's also an ideas contributor at Wired and The Atlantic. In this episode, we talk about the difference between misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. We talk about public health messaging, hashtags, and trending topics and the effect they can have on the real world, the increasing power of influencers and independent content creators like myself. We also discuss censorship and algorithms on big tech platforms like Twitter and Facebook and how Wikipedia can act as a source of accurate knowledge. We go to speak about how one should do research on topics one cares about in a context where one can't always trust mainstream sources, how to avoid audience capture as a content creator, and whether math is racist. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Rob Reich. Rob is a political science and philosophy professor at Stanford University. He is the Director of Stanford's McCoy Centre for Ethics and Society and Associate Director of Stanford's Institute for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence. Rob is also the author of "Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better", and the co-author of "System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot", "Digital Technology and Democratic Theory", "Philanthropy in Democratic Societies: History, Institutions, Values" and many more. We talk about the culture of Silicon Valley, the problem with optimization, the externalities caused by Big Tech, and the problem of censorship by Big Tech. We also go on to discuss artificial intelligence, the famous "Experience Machine" thought experiment, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Emily Oster. Emily is a Professor of Economics at Brown University and the author of "Expecting Better", "Crib Sheet" and "The Family Firm". She has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard and prior to teaching at Brown, she was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. This episode is all about children and families. We discuss the surprising truth about whether women can drink caffeine and alcohol during pregnancy, the difference between randomized trials and observational studies, the problems with nutrition research, and the concept of a natural experiment. We also talk about overly cautious public health messaging, how the principles of business management can apply to managing a family, the rising complexity of having a family in the modern age, the arms race of extracurricular activities, and how much parents should push their kids to do things they don't like. We go on to discuss the difference between public, private and charter schools, why certain charter school networks have been so successful, what to feed your kids and the degree to which our adult tastes are shaped by the foods we eat as children, the overdiagnosis of ADHD and the prescription of Adderall to children. Finally, we talk about the effect of social media on children, the harmful effects of school closures during COVID, and how to raise happy kids.​​​​​​​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we step into Season 3 of Conversations with Coleman, here’s a retrospective look into some of the big themes from 2021 and some of my favorite episodes from the last season of the show, while also sharing some thoughts for the upcoming season. Canadian Myocarditis study: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.02.21267156v1.full.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Tim Flannery. Tim Flannery is a monologist and paleontologist. He was the chief commissioner of the Australian Climate Commission and Chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council. He was named Australian Humanist of the year in 2005 and Australian of the Year in 2007. He is currently a fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne. Tim is also the author of his new book "The Climate Cure: Solving the Climate Emergency in the Era of COVID-19" In this episode, we talk about the Glasgow Climate Change Conference and where the world is at with respect to our carbon reduction goals. We also talk about the trade-off between industrialization in developing nations and reducing carbon emissions and whether we're in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. We go on to discuss whether climate change is making natural disasters worse, the efficacy of lifestyle changes, like becoming a vegetarian, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Michelle Telfer. Michelle is an Australian Pediatrician and Head of the Gender clinic at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. She's the lead author of the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for trans children, and she is also a former Olympic gymnast. In this episode, we talk about gender dysphoria, particularly in children and adolescents. We also talk about the difference between puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery as well as the complications of all three. As I say to Michelle, the size of my podcast audience basically guarantees that someone listening is either trans themselves or the parent of a trans kid. Therefore I hope this episode is useful to them as well as interesting to everyone else. I'm especially concerned about the process by which it's decided that a young person should undergo irreversible medical operations. Michelle is very much on the inside of this process, and I came away pleasantly surprised by the degree of rigor at her clinic. There are two ways to mess this up. First, by making it too easy for teens and preteens to make irreversible changes to their bodies, thereby guaranteeing that some of them will forever live with regrets. Second, by making it too difficult for trans kids to make the kinds of changes that will give them a shot at happiness. That's the tightrope we have to walk on this issue and from what I can tell Michelle is successfully walking it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today needs no introduction. Joining me in today's episode is John McWhorter. John has a new book called "Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America". This is an excellent book and I highly recommend you to read it. In this episode, we talk about what "wokeness" is, as John defines it, and whether the woke can be persuaded. We also talk about the progress America has made on race, the extent to which actual racism is still a problem, Robin DiAngelo and White Fragility. Finally, we go on to talk about what a real programme of uplift would look like for Black America. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Nicquel Terry Ellis. Nicquel is the senior writer for CNN's Race and Equality team. Before that, she was a national correspondent for USA Today covering race inequality and activism. She has also spent six years working in local news with the Detroit News and the Asbury Park Press. I often receive the criticism that I only talk to people like John McWhorter, Sam Harris and Glenn Lowry, who agree with me about the problem of wokeness and the moral panic around racism and white supremacy. However, the people making that charge only see the tip of the iceberg. They don't see the dozens of requests and emails I send to prominent people on the other side of this issue to come on my show, all of which get rejected. Ibram Kendi is the only such attempt that I've made public. Nicquel is really the first mainstream media person, in a long time, that disagrees with me on the race issue but is willing to talk about it. So I'm grateful to her for that. Unfortunately, I did not have that much time with Nicquel but in the future, I hope to go deeper into all of these subjects with people who disagree with me. In this episode, Nicquel and I talk about the biases of the mainstream media, on the topic of race. We talk about racial disparities and the use of force by the police. We also talk about George Floyd, Tony Timpa and Ma'Khia Bryant. Towards the end of the podcast, we go on to discuss whether Black America as a whole is making progress or sliding backwards, and much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Bonnie Snyder. Bonnie is an educator with over 20 years of experience in a variety of roles including teacher, counselor, administrator, and professor in both public and private schools. She's a graduate of Harvard University with a Master's Degree in Counseling from Virginia Tech and a Doctorate in Higher education from Penn State. She is also the High school Outreach Fellow at FIRE: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Bonnie's latest book which is the topic of today's conversation is "Undoctrinate: How Politicized Classrooms Harm Kids and Ruin Our Schools―and What We Can Do About It". This conversation is very much a follow-up to my podcast with Christopher Rufo and Kmele Foster. This will also probably be the last guest that I'll address this topic within the near future, for fear of boring you all to death. In this episode, we talk about political indoctrination in K-12 classrooms and the power struggle between parents and teachers, critical race theory and the state laws attempting to ban it, and the political leanings of America's teaching population. We also talk about free speech and forced speech, the consequences of self-censorship, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today needs no introduction, so I won't give him one. Today's guest is Steven Pinker, and he has a new book called "Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters." We talk about what rationality is, we talk about rationality's PR problem, whether rationality has increased or decreased over time and how to apply reason to everyday life choices. We also discuss the behavioral economics revolution and cognitive biases, what it means to be intellectually humble, why people love conspiracy theories and when is it okay to be irrational. We go on to talk about the role "reason" has played in the enormous progress humanity has made since the dawn of civilization, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Nicholas Christakis. Nicholas is a physician, a sociologist, and a professor at Yale University. He'll be known to some of you as the professor who kept his composure in front of a mob of students screaming about Halloween costumes back in 2015 or he may be known to you as the author of many books, including "Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social networks and How they shape our lives", "Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society" and "Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live", which will be the focal point of our conversation today. Nicholas and I talk about how the polarized media has harmed our ability to deal with COVID. We talk about the end goal of herd immunity. We talk about whether the incredible speed of the rollout of the vaccine is suspicious. We talk about the ethics of requiring or strongly pressuring people to get the vaccine. We talked about the ethics of encouraging booster shots when many around the world have yet to get their first vaccination. We also discuss Ivermectin and much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Ryan Holiday. Ryan is the best-selling author of many books, including "Trust Me, I'm Lying", "The Obstacle is the Way", "Ego is the Enemy", "The Daily Stoic" which is also the name of his podcast, and his latest book: "Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave". Ryan is also the former Head of Marketing at American Apparel. In this episode, we talk about Ryan's strange career path from marketing to becoming the modern face of stoicism. We talk about stoicism, what it is and how to apply it to your life. We talk about mindfulness meditation, how to deal with traumatic experiences, and how to pursue goals while also letting go of the results. We talk about narcissism. We also talk about far-left campus-style politics and its adversarial relationship with the principles of stoicism. We talk about social media and the battle for our attention and much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Andy Norman. Andy is a philosopher and the director of the humanism initiative at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the founder of CIRCE, the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative. In this episode, we discuss his new book "Mental immunity: Infectious ideas, Mind parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think." We talk about how bad ideas operate like parasites. We talk about the notion of a mental immune system. We talk about the virtues and dangers of being open-minded. We discussed Richard Dawkins's notion of selfish genes and his coinage of the word "Meme". We talked about conspiracy theories, we talked about whether you should seek out disagreements with your friends and family or whether you should simply keep the peace. We talk about policies like stop and frisk and how to weigh lives saved against more abstract moral gains. We talk about what makes good ideas, "good" and bad ideas, "bad". We talk about the Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment. We talk about cultures of cheating and cultures of honesty in different sports, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Kmele Foster. Kmele will be known to many of you as the co-host of The Fifth Column Podcast which is one of my favorite podcasts. He's also the co-founder of a media company called Freethink, and a former co-host of The Independents on Fox Business Network. This episode was sort of a post mortem on two other recent episodes, the one with Christopher Ruffo, and the one with David Hogg. Kmele was one of the co-authors of a New York Times op-ed, critical of the anti CRT laws that Ruffo had a hand in writing. And it seemed to me that that piece had misrepresented the content of those laws. So we spend the majority of the conversation talking about anti CRT laws in general, that op-ed in particular, and the wider conversation about indoctrination in K–12 education. Towards the end of the podcast, we make a hard pivot and discuss gun control, because Kmele is a proud gun owner. Many of you didn't like the podcast with David Hogg because he's not a gun violence expert. And that's true, of course. But I just want to make it clear that this podcast is not reserved for experts. If you have 1.1 million Twitter followers due to your activism on some topic, that's reason enough for me to have a conversation with you. Kmele is also not a gun expert by any means. So if you're upset by that, you can consider this your trigger warning. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Jesse Morton. Jesse has an incredibly interesting life story. He was born in America, converted to Islam as a young adult, became radicalized, and devoted his life to doing everything he could to help Al-Qaeda from America, including creating the very first English language jihadist propaganda magazine, which later famous magazines like Inspire and Dubuque would be modeled after. So after a long journey away from Islamism, he now runs an organization called Parallel Networks, which works on deradicalizing people who are involved in extremist political and religious movements of all kinds. I enjoyed this one a lot, and I hope you do too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Professor Abhijit Banerjee. Professor Banerjee is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, an econ professor at MIT, and a co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Banerjee and I discussed the difference between empirical work and theoretical work in economics. We talk about Banerjee's Nobel Prize-winning research on alleviating global poverty. We talk about whether immigrants drive down wages for native workers, the role of financial incentives and driving human behavior. We speak about welfare, the effect of globalism on American industries like manufacturing, and the social consequences of having whole industries die out, and much more. #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #AbhijitBanerjee #nobelprize #Economics101 #Economics102 #poverty #globalism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Helen Joyce. Helen is a staff journalist at the Economist magazine, and has been an editor there since 2005. She also has a PhD in mathematics from University College London. Helen just released a controversial new book called "Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality." Now, this is one of those books that is likely to be misrepresented on Twitter and in some media as transphobic but is in fact a deep and thoughtful attempt to navigate all the complex issues at the intersection of gender identity and public policy. Helen and I discussed the difference between gender and sex, evolving definitions of gender, the different waves of feminism, gender dysphoria and related phenomenon like autogynephilia, trans identity as well as gender neutrality. We talk about hormone treatments, puberty blockers, detransitioning, and the age at which people should be able to make these kinds of decisions. We discuss gender pronouns, the logic of sex-segregated spaces, such as locker rooms, bathrooms, sports, and prisons. And finally, we talk about the phenomenon of social contagion as it applies to gender identities. #AdYou’ve probably heard your wife, sister, mother, daughter, or friends talk about their love of Rothy’s women’s shoes. Well now, they’ve brought their sustainable materials, washable design, and innovative craftsmanship to men’s shoes. From the unbeatable comfort to the fact that you can wash them, these shoes check every box. If you hate when your favorite white sneakers or light-colored shoes get dirty, Rothy’s men’s shoes are for you. Their innovative washable construction means your shoes look like they were brand new with every wash. In addition, Rothy’s men’s shoes are knit with 100% recycled materials. Welcome the fall season in style! Head over to www.rothys.com/COLEMAN and get $20 off your first purchase today! #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #HelenJoyce #transgender #genderdysphoria #genderidentity #genderpronouns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Professor Peter Doherty. Professor Doherty is a Nobel Prize-winning veterinary surgeon. His prize-winning research focused on how the immune system reacts to viruses. He is also the author of "Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know", "An Insider's Plague Year" and many other books. This episode is about all things COVID. Professor Doherty goes into detail about the physiology of COVID and what happens when you get infected. We talk about the way MRNA vaccines work, whether masks and lockdowns work, the ethics of pressuring people to get vaccinated, the reasons why people choose not to get vaccinated and more. We also talk about Ivermectin and its potential use as a treatment or prophylactic. I assume I have some audience overlap with a Darkhorse podcast, which is run by Brett Weinstein and Heather Heying. I know that some people have drawn the lesson from listening to that show that taking Ivermectin is better than getting the vaccine. So if that describes you, please listen to Professor Doherty discuss Ivermectin. Finally, there's a lot of biological detail in this podcast, but I highly recommend you stick it out because Professor Doherty is a brilliant thinker and an excellent communicator. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. #AdWhen hiring gets hard, you need Indeed, the jobsite that makes hiring incredibly simple - just Attract, Interview, and Hire. In fact, with Indeed you can do all of your hiring in one place - even interviewing! Don’t just hope your perfect candidate will find you, Indeed’s hiring tools help you cut through the noise to hire faster and smarter. In fact, Indeed Instant Match provides a list of quality candidates whose resumes are on Indeed the moment you post a sponsored job. With Indeed, you can save time and money by setting your must-have qualifications and only paying for the quality candidates that meet them. Get started RIGHT NOW with a free 75$ sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at www.indeed.com/CONVERSATIONS The Offer is valid through September 30th. Terms and conditions apply. #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #PeterDoherty #COVID19 #virus #vaccination Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Amy Chua. Amy Chua is a professor at Yale Law School. Her books include World on Fire, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, The Triple Package, Political Tribes, and many more. She's made Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people in 2011 and has been a guest on many TV shows, including Good Morning America, The Today Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher. Amy and I spoke on August 26 and discussed the situation in Afghanistan. We talked about how our failure to recognize the importance of ethnic differences hampered our military efforts there. We talk about our inept withdrawal and abandonment of our allies. And on a lighter note, we discuss a now resolved situation with her employer, Yale Law School. #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #AmyChua #Afganistan #Americanforeignpolicy #Tribes #Whatwentwrong #America #War #Withdrawal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Christopher Rufo. Christopher is a documentary filmmaker and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He has almost single-handedly led the national fight against Critical Race Theory, as it manifests in public schools and in workplaces. I haven't said much about this subject yet. So it was great to finally dive into it. Christopher and I talk about where Critical Race Theory comes from. We talk about diversity training in the workplace, segregating people by race, various anti-critical race theory state laws and whether they are a good idea, what business owners and CEOs can do to fight critical race theory, and much more. #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #ChristopherRufo #CriticalRaceTheory #CRT #Education #Schools #DiversityTraining #Race #Segregation #AntiCriticalRaceTheory #StateLaws Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is a Pre-Recorded Q&A. A majority of these questions were sent to me via text and a handful via Instagram. In this episode, I answer questions about rap culture, The Roland Fryer Study on racial disparities in police shootings, The 'Veil of Darkness' Study by Stanford, meditating on psychedelics, my thoughts on the term "Critical Race Theory", progressive tax, and several other topics. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. If you would like to send in your questions for the next Q&A session, you can directly send them to me through text message. You will be able to find that function at https://colemanhughes.org. For those of you who are considering joining our community, sign up at https://colemanhughes.org #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #Q&A #PoliceShootings #RapCulture #Psychedelics #Meditation #VeilofDarkness #ProgressiveTax #CriticalRaceTheory #CRT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is David Hogg. David is a Gun Violence Activist and a History Major at Harvard University. He rose to national prominence after surviving the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. He is also the Co-Author of the New York Times Best Seller: #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line This episode is all about gun violence. Despite surviving a mass shooting, David feels and I agree that mass shootings get more attention than they should and that we should pay at least as much, if not more attention to the far greater number of people getting murdered in violent neighborhoods every day. David and I clash somewhat over the right approach to gun control. We spend a good deal of time arguing about whether it makes sense to have armed security guards in schools. We talk about the Second Amendment and the role historical context should play in our assessment of modern-day policies, and much more. #Ad Ground News is a news comparison platform, empowering readers to see how sources with different underlying biases are covering a story and form a balanced view of the day’s most important news. The platform itself is apolitical. It’s for anyone who’s not afraid of having their opinions challenged, and open to seeing multiple perspectives on controversial issues. Their Blindspot feature enables you to check your news blindspot, and see stories that aren't being reported by one side of the political spectrum, that you would otherwise miss in your bubble. So if you're trying to be an informed consumer of the news, I could not recommend Ground news more. You can check out this platform via www.ground.news/coleman or you can directly download the app from Apple App Store or Google Play Store. #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #DavidHogg #America #GunControl #GunViolence #2ndAmendment #AssaultWeapons Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is all about China. My guest is Michael Beckley, who's an associate professor of Political Science at Tufts University and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He's received awards from the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association and he's been featured in numerous media outlets, including the Financial Times foreign affairs, foreign policy, The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post. Michael is also the author of the book Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World's Sole Superpower. Many people are worried that China will one day surpass America as the world's leading superpower. Michael Beckley doesn't think so. He thinks that China's extremely fast growth since the late 20th century is unsustainable and that its flaws will soon lead to a decline, which is an interesting counterpoint to my conversation with Neil Ferguson many months ago. I really enjoyed this one and I hope you do too. #Ad When we try to get healthier, we tend to think of the food we have to hold ourselves back from instead of focusing on giving ourselves more of what our bodies need. Noom uses a psychology-based approach to help us change our mindset for good because building better habits means a more sustainable journey to better health. With Noom, you’ll take a path toward better health one step at a time. Their psychology-based approach helps you change your mindset rather than demanding a whole new lifestyle. Noom teaches you about food and the psychology of eating. It helps you better understand your cravings, not seeing any food as “bad” food. By customizing a program for you based on your personal goals, Noom fits into your life, on your terms. Start building better habits for healthier, long-term results. Sign up for your trial at www.noom.com/COLEMAN #Ad When hiring gets hard, you need Indeed, the job site that makes hiring incredibly simple -- just Attract, Interview, and Hire. In fact, with Indeed you can do all of your hiring in one place -- even interviewing! Don’t just hope your perfect candidate will find you, Indeed’s hiring tools help you cut through the noise to hire faster and smarter. In fact, Indeed Instant Match provides a list of quality candidates whose resumes are on Indeed the moment you post a sponsored job. With Indeed Assessments, choose from ONE HUNDRED and THIRTY-FIVE SKILLS TESTS, to help make sure you’re finding applications from people with the skills you need. Get started RIGHT NOW with a free 75$ sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at www.indeed.com/CONVERSATIONS The Offer is valid through September 30th. Terms and conditions apply. #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #MichaelBeckely #America #China #Superpower #AI #Technology #Military #EconomicTrends Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is actually a recording of an event I did a few weeks ago for the organisation Braver Angels. The mission of Braver Angels is to depolarise our politics by setting up dialogues between people who disagree on stuff. In that spirit, they set up this conversation between myself and Rakim Brooks, who is the Senior Campaign Strategist and Systemic Equality Campaign Manager for the ACLU. This was moderated by my friend John Wood Jr, a great Writer and National Leader for Braver Angels. We talk about Critical Race Theory, Group Psychology and Tribalism. The role history should play in our current political discourse, and we feel lots of questions from the audience. There were some interesting disagreements between me and Rakim and also many points of agreement. I hope you all enjoy this. #Ad Brilliant is a website and app that teaches you how to think and solve problems with fun, interactive lessons in STEM. With Brilliant's hands-on approach, you'll learn by doing instead of listening to lectures. It’s a better and more fun way to learn. All of Brilliant's courses have storytelling, code-writing, interactive challenges, and problems to solve. Brilliant offers many well-curated sequences of problems that help you to master all sorts of technical subjects and achieve your goals in STEM. To check out the many courses available and find the one that’s right for you, you can go to http://brilliant.org/CWC and sign up for free. The first 200 people that go to this link will get 20% off the annual Premium subscription. #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #CriticalRaceTheory #CRT #BlackAmerica #Poverty #ColorBlindness #CancelledCulture #PhilosophicalDivide #WorkingOnConversation #TheMythOfRace #Reparations #StructureOfSociety #BraverAngels #RakimBrooks #JohnWoodJr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today who probably needs no introduction is Ezra Klein. Ezra Klein is a Journalist and Political Writer. He co-founded Vox before leaving for the New York Times where he's now a Columnist. He also hosts the podcast The Ezra Klein Show, which I've been listening to for many years. Ezra and I talk about a wide range of subjects. We talk about his background as a smart kid who got horrible grades, the over prescription of Adderall to children, Cancel Culture, Race-Conscious Public Policy, and how the American Political System could become healthier. #Ad GiveWell is a nonprofit dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities and publishing the full details of our analysis to empower as many donors as possible to make informed decisions about their donations. GiveWell has spent more than a decade researching charitable organizations and only recommends a few of the HIGHEST-IMPACT EVIDENCE-BACKED charities. GiveWell publishes all of their research and recommendations on their site FOR FREE, no signup required. They also don’t take a cut of your donation. They allocate your tax deductible donation to the charity you choose. If you’ve never donated to GiveWell’s recommended charities before, you can have your donation matched up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS before the end of August or as long as matching funds last. To claim your match, visit https://www.givewell.org/ and pick PODCAST and “Conversations with Coleman” at checkout. #Ad Whether you’re a parent, student, millennial, or just someone having a hard day, Talkspace can provide the support to help you feel better with a single message. Talkspace offers individual and couples therapy, in addition to medication prescription services. Set goals with your therapist and they can help make sure you’re really progressing. Talkspace therapists help you develop tools to cope in difficult times. Start feeling better with a single message. Match with a licensed therapist when you go to https://www.talkspace.com/ and get $100 off your first month with the promo code COLEMAN. #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #ColemanHughes #EzraKlein #CancelCulture #Politics #Gerrymandering #Filibuster #PolicyMaking #SocialMedia #FreeSpeech #Wokeness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today probably needs no introduction. Today I'm talking to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ayaan is a Writer, Activist, and former Politician. She is also a New York Times best-selling author. If you haven't read her memoirs, Infidel and Nomad, then you've missed out on one of the most beautiful story arcs that I've ever encountered. Her new book is called Prey: Immigration, Islam and the Erosion of Women's Rights. Her thesis is that the wave of migration from Muslim majority countries into Europe has caused an increase in Sexual Violence towards women in receiving countries. This is an uncomfortable topic, but an important one nonetheless. And there's no one better to discuss it with Ayaan. Unfortunately, I was not able to get Ayaan on video so this will be an audio-only episode. #Ad Ground News is a news comparison platform, empowering readers to see how sources with different underlying biases are covering a story and form a balanced view of the day’s most important news. The platform itself is apolitical. It’s for anyone who’s not afraid of having their opinions challenged, and open to seeing multiple perspectives on controversial issues. Their Blindspot feature enables you to check your news blindspot, and see stories that aren’t being reported by one side of the political spectrum, that you would otherwise miss in your bubble. So if you're trying to be an informed consumer of the news, I could not recommend Ground news more. You can check out this platform via ground.news/coleman or you can directly download the app from Apple App Store or Google Play Store. ConversationswithColeman #CwC #AyaanHirsiAli #ColemanHughes #M e t o o #Immigration #Men #Prey #Abuse #Sexualharassment #Muslim Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before I get to my guest today, I have two announcements. The first is that there's limited edition merchandise is available for fans of the show! You can check that out at Colemanhughes.org. My second announcement today is about my interview with Michael Shellenberger from a few weeks back. It seems that Michael made some very misleading or outright false claims about the connection between climate change and extreme weather events. Specifically, he said that climate change did not contribute to the intensity of wildfires in California and Australia. It was a surprising claim to me at the time, but I didn't push back in the moment. Although in retrospect, I should have because it turns out this is not the consensus of the climate science community. Some of his other claims, including that we're not in a sixth mass extinction are at the very least far more controversial than he indicated. So to rectify this, I'm going to get a mainstream climate scientist on the show very soon, and cover all of these topics in detail. My guest today is Glenn Greenwald. Glenn probably needs no introduction as he's among the most famous journalists in the world. He is also a constitutional lawyer and author of four New York Times bestselling books on politics and law. In this interview, we talked about the philosophical through line in his career as a journalist. We talked about free speech, the surprising similarities between George Bush's war on Islamic terror and Joe Biden's war on white supremacist terror. We also spoke about false accusations of racism, Glen's experience raising mixed race kids in Brazil, the danger posed by elites who don't realise they live in a bubble, President Biden's race based policy for pandemic aid, and Glenn gives his advice to young journalists. #Ad When hiring gets hard, you need Indeed, the jobsite that makes hiring incredibly simple -- just Attract, Interview, and Hire. In fact, with Indeed you can do all of your hiring in one place -- even interviewing! Indeed’s hiring tools help you cut through the noise to hire faster and smarter. In fact, Indeed Instant Match provides a list of quality candidates whose resumes are on Indeed the moment you post a sponsored job. Indeed Instant Match helps you make a shortlist of great candidates, fast. Get started RIGHT NOW with a free 75$ sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.com/CONVERSATIONS The Offer is valid through September 30th. Terms and conditions apply. ConversationswithColeman #CwC #GlennGreenwald #Politics #Power #Fear #Hypocrisy #PartyReversal #Media #Journalism #FreeSpeech #WaronTerror #JoeBiden #GeorgeBush #DueProcess #Security #NSA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For my members who have signed up via my website, I'm pleased to announce that transcripts are now available for Season One of Conversations with Coleman. For those of you who haven't signed up via my website, I'd recommend making the switch so you can claim these amazing benefits via https://colemanhughes.org Today's episode is a recording of a live Q&A that I did a few months ago. I talked about how to have difficult conversations, what anti-racist books I'd recommend for children, the consequences of identity politics, blackness as an identity, the overuse of racism, cultural diversity and its relationship to racial disparity, and several other topics. I'll be doing another Q&A soon. If you're a supporter of the show, this time, you'll be able to submit questions directly to me through text message. You will be able to find that function at https://colemanhughes.org. For those of you who are considering joining our community, sign up at https://colemanhughes.org Stay tuned, for more updates! #Ad Brilliant is a website and app that teaches you how to think and solve problems with fun, interactive lessons in STEM. With Brilliant's hands-on approach, you'll learn by doing instead of listening to lectures. It’s a better and more fun way to learn. All of Brilliant's courses have storytelling, code-writing, interactive challenges, and problems to solve. Brilliant offers many well-curated sequences of problems that help you to master all sorts of technical subjects and achieve your goals in STEM. To check out the many courses available and find the one that’s right for you, you can go to brilliant.org/CWC and sign up for free. The first 200 people that go to this link will get 20% off the annual Premium subscription. #ColemanHughes #ConversationswithColeman #CwC #DifficultConversations #Antiracist #Books #Children #IdentityPolitics #Blackness #Identity #Racism #CulturalDiversity #RacialDisparity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today requires a longer-than-normal preamble. I'm speaking with Charles Murray, who is a Political Scientist, Writer, and W.H. Brady scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Murray has been a controversial figure throughout his whole career, but especially since the publication of "The Bell Curve" in the '90s. The most controversial claim in that book was that the mean IQ gap between black and white Americans is partly genetic in origin, meaning it cannot be fully closed by changing the environment in which black kids grow up. As you'll hear in the podcast, I suspect Murray is wrong about this and that huge cognitive changes are possible in the long run for black America by means of environmental interventions. I did not have Murray on to rehash the empirical claims he made in The Bell Curve. I had him on to discuss his new book, "Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America". This book has a slightly different emphasis than The Bell Curve. In facing reality, Murray argues that we have to face two truths about race in America, or else the American experiment is doomed. These two truths, according to Murray, are that different races have different mean levels of cognitive ability and that different races have different crime rates. Murray believes that the only way to fight back against the idea that America is a racist nation and to fight against the proliferation of race-based public policy is to bring his empirical claims from The Bell Curve into the mainstream. Now, I strongly disagree with Murray about this, as you'll hear.... #Ad Talkspace is the #1 online therapy platform that has thousands of licensed therapists trained in over 40 specialties, including anxiety, depression, relationships, and more. Your therapist can help you set and achieve your goals. Talkspace is a fraction of the cost of in-person therapy. Instead of waiting for an appointment, you can send unlimited messages to your therapist 24/7 and they’ll engage with you daily, 5 days a week. As a listener of this podcast, you’ll get $100 off of your first month with Talkspace. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com. Make sure to use the code COLEMAN to get $100 off of your first month and show your support for the show. #ConversationswithColeman #ColemanHughes #CharlesMurray #RaceScience #Perils #IQ #CwC #Podcasts #ConversationPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Joseph Henrich, a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Joseph is also the author of the books, "The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous", "The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter" and "Why Humans Cooperate: A Cultural and Evolutionary Explanation (Evolution and Cognition)" We talk about the ways in which cultural practices have shaped human biology, why culture is the real reason why humans dominate over the animal kingdom, the implicit wisdom in many tribal cultural traditions, lactose intolerance, and other ways that culture has interacted with genetics, so-called WEIRD cultures (Western Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) and how they differ from more traditional cultures and much more. #Ad We deserve to know what we’re putting in our bodies and why, especially when it comes to something we take every day. Ritual’s clean, vegan-friendly multivitamin is formulated with high-quality nutrients in bioavailable forms your body can actually use. These multivitamins do not contain Sugars, GMOs, major allergens, synthetic fillers, or artificial colorants. Ritual is offering listeners of this podcast 10% off during the first three months. Visit ritual.com/Coleman to start your ritual today. #Ad Are you concerned about your privacy when browsing the internet? Internet service providers can sell information to Ad companies and tech giants, who then use your data to target you. ExpressVPN creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet, so no one including your ISPs can peep on your online activity. It is also available on all your devices – phones, laptops, and routers—so everyone who shares your Wi-Fi can be protected as well. Visit my special link EXPRESSVPN.com/Coleman to get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free! #ColemanHughes #JosephHenrich #Evolution #Culture #WEIRD #WesternEducated #Industrialized #Rich #Democratic #ConversationswithColeman #CwC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another Conversation with Coleman! To date, we have given around 400 free subscriptions to those who have expressed financial challenges. With the growing impact of this podcast, I hope to continue providing free memberships to those with financial difficulties. To continue doing this, we have started a campaign to pay it forward. Help us grow the Conversations with Coleman community so we can continue providing free access to those who request it. Please consider paying it forward by making a donation via https://colemanhughes.org My guest today is Anthony Barksdale. Anthony was the Acting Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department from 2007 to 2012, and has worked at various levels of policing as well as with the FBI. He's now also a commentator for CNN. Anthony and I discussed the national conversation on policing and racism. We talked about the shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and how Martial Arts training could prevent the need for cops to use deadly force. The possibility of substituting cops with mental health professionals, the shooting of Rashard Brooks, and when it makes sense to let suspects flee a crime scene. The over-policing of low-level drug crime and prostitution, the Ferguson effect and the current mass retirement of police officers, the defund movement, qualified immunity, the psychological dynamic between an officer and a suspect during a routine traffic stop, and about how to get rid of bad cops. I admire Anthony so much, and I'm so glad that I'm able to bring him to an audience that may have not have heard of him before. You can see me express that admiration throughout the conversation. So I really hope that you guys find this one valuable. #Ad Hiring is one of those things you don’t want to mess up. You can find the right people to help you complete your vision with Indeed. Indeed is the job site that makes hiring as easy as 1, 2, 3. Post, screen, and interview - all on Indeed. Get your quality shortlist of candidates whose resumes on Indeed match your job description faster, only pay for the candidates that meet must-have qualifications, and schedule and complete video interviews in your Indeed Dashboard. Get started RIGHT NOW with a free 75$ sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.com/CONVERSATIONS The Offer is valid through JUNE 30th. Terms and conditions apply. #Ad No matter where you're selling; Amazon, Etsy, or your own website, ShipStation funnels all of your orders into one simple interface that you can manage from anywhere, even your cell phone. You'll also get access to amazing discounts with major carriers including UPS, FedEx, and USPS that are normally reserved for Fortune 500 companies. Ship more in less time! Just use my offer code "Coleman" to get a 60-day free trial. Just go to shipstation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the page, and type in "Coleman" #ConversationswithColeman #ColemanHughes #AnthonyBarksdale #DeputyBarksdale #American #Policing #Crisis #CwC #Podcasts #ConversationPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm pleased to announce that supporters of the show will be able to interact with me through text messages. If you are considering joining our community, you can sign up at colemanhughes.org/ Today's guest is Michael Shellenberger. Michael is a journalist, author, environmental activist and was dubbed ‘Hero of the Environment’ by Time Magazine. He's the Founder and President of Environmental Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to eradicating poverty and saving the natural environment. He's co-written and written a number of books, including An Ecomodernist Manifesto, and Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, which is the topic of today's conversation. We talked about the trade-off between reducing global carbon emissions and allowing third world countries to industrialize, how civilization would adjust to rising sea levels, whether climate change would lead to military conflict over scarce resources, the claim that we have to cut carbon emissions in half in the next decade, the importance of nuclear energy, cryptocurrency and its environmental consequences, are humans causing a mass extinction, is banning plastic bags a good policy, and much more. #Ad Brilliant is a website and app that teaches you how to think and solve problems with fun, interactive lessons in STEM. With Brilliant's hands-on approach, you'll learn by doing instead of listening to lectures. It’s a better and more fun way to learn. All of Brilliant's courses have storytelling, code-writing, interactive challenges, and problems to solve. Brilliant offers many well-curated sequences of problems that help you to master all sorts of technical subjects and achieve your goals in STEM. To check out the many courses available and find the one that’s right for you, you can go to https://brilliant.org/cwc and sign up for free. The first 200 people that go to this link will get 20% off the annual Premium subscription #ColemanHughes #MichaelShellenberger #Environmentalist #ClimateChange #Apocalypse #Myth #CwC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Wilfred Reilly. Wilfred is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Southern Illinois University and a Law degree from The University of Illinois. He is also the author of the books "Taboo: 10 Facts You Can't Talk About" and "Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War" Wilfred and I talked about the undiscussed progress that America has made on racial issues, racial disparities and to what degree they can be attributed to current racism, past racism, or other factors like group cultural differences, public misperceptions surrounding racism and the cops, hate crime hoaxes and why people manufacture them, and much more. #Ad A therapist can help you identify the habits and patterns that might be holding you back, and how to move forward in the right direction. I recommend Talkspace for therapy. You can sign up online and start therapy the same day. You can text, video, or send unlimited voice messages 5 days a week to your licensed therapist, so it’s incredibly convenient to have virtual sessions from the comfort of your home and fraction of the cost of in-person therapy! As a listener of this podcast, you’ll get $100 off of your first month with Talkspace. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com and use the code COLEMAN to get $100 off of your first month. #Ad We deserve to know what we’re putting in our bodies and why, especially when it comes to something we take every day. Ritual’s clean, vegan-friendly multivitamin is formulated with high-quality nutrients in bioavailable forms your body can actually use. These multivitamins do not contain Sugars, GMOs, major allergens, synthetic fillers, or artificial colorants. Ritual is offering listeners of this podcast 10% off during the first three months. Visit ritual.com/Coleman to start your ritual today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Daniel Schmachtenberger. Daniel is a founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue. His writing is focused on ways of improving the health and development of individuals and society, with a focus on catastrophic and existential risk, civilization and institutional decay, collective action problems, social organization theories, and the relevant domains in philosophy and science. Daniel and I spend a lot of time talking about the effect of new technology on our ability to problem solve as a society, the disadvantages of democracy relative to autocracy, how much of our behavior can be attributed to human nature and how much to culture and much more. #Ad Hiring is one of those things you don’t want to mess up. You can find the right people to help you complete your vision with Indeed. Indeed is the jobsite that makes hiring as easy as 1, 2, 3. Post, screen, and interview - all on Indeed. Get your quality shortlist of candidates whose resumes on Indeed match your job description faster, only pay for the candidates that meet must-have qualifications, and schedule and complete video interviews in your Indeed Dashboard. Get started RIGHT NOW with a free 75$ sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.com/CONVERSATIONS The Offer is valid through JUNE 30th. Terms and conditions apply. #Ad ExpressVPN hides your IP address and lets you control where you want sites to think you’re located. You can choose from almost 100 different countries, giving you access to a diverse range of Netflix libraries you can enjoy! But it’s not just Netflix. ExpressVPN works with any streaming service; Hulu, BBC iPlayer, YouTube and much more. If you visit my special link right now EXPRESSVPN .com/Coleman you can get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free! Support the show, watch what you want, and protect yourself at EXPRESSVPN .com/Coleman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Scott Barry Kaufman. Scott is a cognitive scientist who has taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, The University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. He is the author of the latest book "Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization" and the host of The Psychology Podcast. In 2015, he was named one of the "50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world" by Business Insider. Scott and I talked about his background as a learning disabled child and internet hacker. We also talked about the psychology of victimhood and trauma, dark empaths, mindfulness meditation, spiritual narcissism, psychedelics, free will and its implications for praise and blame, and the benefits of adversity. #Ad No matter where you're selling; Amazon, Etsy, or your own website, ShipStation funnels all of your orders into one simple interface that you can manage from anywhere, even your cell phone. You'll also get access to amazing discounts with major carriers including UPS, FedEx, and USPS that are normally reserved for Fortune 500 companies. Ship more in less time! Just use my offer code "Coleman" to get a 60 day free trial. Just go to shipstation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the page and type in "Coleman". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Michael Shermer. Michael Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine, the host of the Michael Shermer Show, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. For 18 years he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He's the author of New York Times bestsellers, ‘Why People Believe Weird Things’, ‘The Believing Brain', ‘Why Darwin Matters’, ‘The Science of Good and Evil', ‘The Moral Arc’, ‘Heavens on Earth', and ‘Giving The Devil His Due’, which is the subject of today's podcast. Michael and I talked about the declining relevance of Christianity on the political landscape today, threats to free speech, QAnon, conspiracy theories, and why people believe them. We talked about the one conspiracy theory I do believe in and laws that would ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Julia Galef. Julia Galef is an author and podcaster. She's the Co-founder of the Centre for Applied Rationality and the host of the podcast "Rationally Speaking". In this episode, we discuss her new book, "The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't". We talked about the difference between intelligence and open-mindedness, the tension between pursuing the truth dispassionately and belonging to a tribe, the notion of instrumental rationality, the trade-off between building a larger audience and remaining true to one's principles, and whether affiliating with a political party makes it harder to form true beliefs. #Ad We deserve to know what we're putting in our bodies and why, especially when it comes to something we take every day. Rituals clean, vegan friendly multivitamin is formulated with high quality nutrients in bioavailable forms your body can actually use what you won't find sugars, GMOs, major allergens, synthetic fillers and artificial colorants. Ritual is offering listeners of this podcast 10% off during the first three months. Visit ritual.com/Coleman to start your ritual today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. This episode is actually a recording of an event I did many months ago with Brittany King, an up-and-coming freelance writer. We talked about Brittany's background, leading her local BLM chapter, her experience studying with Ta-Nehisi Coates, her evolving views on race and identity politics, how American race politics affect many people's views of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the causes of the 2020 summer riots and many similar topics. This recording was created at an event hosted by the Brotherhood Synagogue that features a moderated Q&A. Just a heads up that the audio quality is not the best. #Ad If you are concerned about your privacy when browsing the internet, try Express VPN. Visit my exclusive link ExpressVPN.com/COLEMAN and you can get an extra 3 months FREE on a one-year package. #Ad I had the privilege of making an appearance in the documentary Better Left Unsaid, which looks at the philosophical underpinnings of the radical left and their extreme-right counterpart. The film includes interviews with some great thinkers who have a lot of value to add to this conversation including; Steven Pinker, Noam Chomsky, Janice Fiamengo, and more. You can stream /purchase the film via betterleftunsaidfilm.com. The film is available on Google Play and iTunes as well. i-Tunes - https://bit.ly/BLU_i-Tunes Google Play -https://bit.ly/BLU_GPlayUS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Jesse Singal, Jesse Singal is a journalist and author. He was a contributing writer for New York magazine for years and has written for The Atlantic and many other outlets, and he's now on Substack. Jesse and I discuss his new book, ‘The Quick Fix : Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills’. We discussed the replication crisis in psychology, why so much psych research gets debunked in the long run. We talked about the problem with notions like self-esteem, power, posing, grit and other fads in psychology. And we spent a good deal of time talking about the implicit bias test and its flaws. #Ad No matter where you're selling; Amazon, Etsy, or your own website, ShipStation funnels all of your orders into one simple interface that you can manage from anywhere, even your cell phone. You'll also get access to amazing discounts with major carriers including UPS, FedEx, and USPS that are normally reserved for Fortune 500 companies. Ship more in less time! Just use my offer code "Coleman" to get a 60 day free trial. Just go to shipstation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the page and type in "Coleman". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Tristan Harris. Tristan is a computer scientist and president of the Centre for Humane Technology. He was named TIME 100's 'next leader shaping the future', and Rolling Stone magazine's '25 people shaping the world'. Tristan is the co host of Your Undivided Attention, consistently among the top 10 tech podcasts on Apple. Tristan was also the primary subject of the acclaimed Netflix documentary 'The Social Dilemma', which we talked about in this episode. Tristan and I talked about the problems created by social media both for our individual happiness and for the health of society as a whole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest is Desi-Rae Campbell. Desi-Rae is a YouTuber, writer, and artist. Her show which I've been on is called 'Just Thinking Out Loud'. Desi-Rae and I talk about racial identity and 'blackness', the notion of racial pride, the differences between America and Desi-Rae's homeland of Jamaica with respect to racial identity, how children think about race, affirmative action, immigration, and more #Ad : Today's episode is sponsored by our friends at Ritual. We deserve to know what we're putting in our bodies and why, especially when it comes to something we take every day. Rituals clean, vegan friendly multivitamin is formulated with high quality nutrients in bioavailable forms your body can actually use what you won't find sugars, GMOs, major allergens, synthetic fillers and artificial colorants. Ritual is offering listeners of this podcast 10% off during the first three months. Visit ritual.com/Coleman to start your ritual today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices