Uncertain Things

Latest Episodes:

Disgusting 'Journalists' (w/ Batya Ungar-Sargon) Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

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 @UncertainPodon your social media of choice.

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How the World Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Butchery of Jews (w/ Eli Lake) Oct 12, 2023

Show notes

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

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

Liberals Against Identity, Round 2 (w/ Yascha Mounk) Oct 02, 2023

Show notes

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.

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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.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

The Identity Infection, Round 1 (w/ Yascha Mounk) Sep 18, 2023

Show notes

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.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

Big Tech VS Democracy (w/ Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami, & Jeremy Weinstein) Sep 12, 2023

Show notes

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.

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.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

The Pros and Cons of 'Queer' (w/ Jamie Kirchick) Aug 11, 2023

Show notes

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.

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.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

A Huge Outpouring of Human Misery (w/ Peter Turchin) Jul 08, 2023

Show notes

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?

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.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

The Long Shadow of Complexity (w/ David Krakauer) Jun 06, 2023

Show notes

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).

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.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the Content Age (w/ William Deresiewicz) May 08, 2023

Show notes

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.

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.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

San Francisco Burning (w/ Nellie Bowles) Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

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.

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.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe

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