My guest today is Richard Reeves. Richard Reeves is a Senior Fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute, where His research focuses on social mobility, inequality, and the middle class. Richard's new book is called "Of boys and men" and it's all about the specific problems facing men in American society.  In this episode, Richard and I talk about whether there's any need to address male-specific problems in the first place. We discuss whether gender differences come from nature or nurture. We talk about the so-called feminization of society. We talk about the advantage that girls have in our education system, the wisdom of age segregation in K-12 schooling, the gender disparity and ADHD diagnoses, how the labor market has become less male-friendly, the suicide gap between men and women, the intersection of race and maleness, the unique struggles of black boys, and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Freddie DeBoer. Freddie is an independent writer on substack and has been published in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and many other places. His book "The Cult of Smart" was named one of the 10 best books of 2020 by New York Magazine. In this episode, Freddie and I begin by discussing Karl Marx, the legacy of Marxism, and the so-called "labor theory of value". Freddie sees much more value in Marxism than I do so we disagree somewhat on that. We move on to discuss intelligence and the broken system of American higher education. A lot of that conversation is directly relevant to President Biden's recent student loan forgiveness executive order, although we recorded this right before that news broke. Finally, Freddie and I talked about wokeness and social justice ideology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Will MacAskill. Will is an associate professor of philosophy at Oxford University. He is the co-founder and president of the Centre for Effective Altruism. Will is also the director of the Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research. In this episode, we discuss his new book "What We Owe the Future". We talk about whether we have a moral obligation to the billions of humans that will be born in the next several 1000 years, and how to weigh those obligations against those of living humans. We discuss population ethics in general, and Derek Parfit's Repugnant Conclusion thought experiment. We discuss the role of economic growth in humanity's long-term future and how to weigh that against present-day wealth inequality. We talk about the ethics of abortion, and the notion of moral progress. We also discuss the possible AI futures that lie ahead of us and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Claire Lehmann. Claire is an Australian journalist and the founder of Quillette, which is the online magazine that I use to write for. In this episode, Claire and I talk about why she founded Quillette, and how she maintains its original purpose as a magazine. We discuss the so-called "IDW" (the intellectual dark web) and the perception that it fractured into two camps on COVID issues. We discuss the difference between Australian and American COVID policy. We talk about the phenomenon of audience capture and how to fight it. We also talk about gun control in America and Australia, and much more.  Check out the Conversations with Coleman - Spanish Channel: https://bit.ly/CwCSpanish Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Rafael Mangual. Rafael is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Head of Research at their policing and public safety initiative. His new book is called "Criminal (In)Justice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts Most". In this episode, we discuss the nationwide push for defunding and de-policing starting in the summer of 2020. We talk about the so-called root causes of crime. We talk about Ava DuVernay's documentary "13th" and Michelle Alexander's book "The New Jim Crow". We discuss the causes of mass incarceration. We talk about cash bail and bail reform. We also go on to talk about legalizing weed and much more.  Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code [20COLEMAN] at MANSCAPED.com! #ad #manscapedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Ian Rowe. Ian is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the founder of Vertex Partnership Academies. He's also an educator who ran a charter school called Public Prep in the South Bronx for many years.  In this episode, we discuss his new book "Agency". We talk about the obstacles facing low-income Black and Hispanic kids at the schools Ian teaches in. We discuss the problems with the narratives handed to these kids by both the left and the right which Ian calls the "blame the system" mindset and the "blame the victim" mindset respectively. We talk about the challenges faced by charter schools in general and the political opposition they face. We also talk about the role of religion and upward mobility and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is David Bernstein. David is a professor at George Mason University Law School and the executive director of their liberty and Law Centre. His new book is called "Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America". Topics covered in this episode include the definition of race and the historical origins of America's Big Five racial and ethnic categories, which are Asian American, Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and White. We discuss the problems with all of these categories and how those problems manifest in race-based affirmative action programs and race-based social spending in general. We talk about the phenomenon of racial fraud trials where judges have to determine the race of individuals seeking to qualify for certain programs. We discuss the malleability of racial identity, and how commonly our racial identities can change in response to incentives. We also go on to discuss the prospect of what David calls "a separation of race and state". I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I'm going to try something new. Instead of publishing an interview that I did myself, or a Q&A where I answer your questions, I'm going to use my platform to publish an interview conducted by somebody else. Now, this requires a bit of an explanation. My friend Desh Amila, who's a filmmaker and producer, organized an event with Julian Assange in 2017. He filmed the event at the time and then forgot all about it until a few days ago when he came across the footage by coincidence. When Desh offered to publish this footage using my platform, I was hesitant at first, because I worry that publishing this on my podcast would give people the impression that I support Julian Assange's actions, or that I support WikiLeaks as an organization. So let me say this upfront - I'm agnostic about whether Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have done more good than harm for the world, as their supporters must believe. It's just not clear to me, and my publishing of this interview should not be taken by anyone as an endorsement either of him or of WikiLeaks. As all of you are aware, I'm a big defender of free speech and transparency. Therefore, you might expect that I would always take the side of the whistleblower who reveals important secrets held by governments or powerful corporations. For example: I had Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower on this show just a few months ago and I gave her a very friendly interview because I thought that what she revealed about Facebook was clearly a net good for the world. However, my support for free speech and transparency in general, doesn't automatically extend to every specific release of hacked information, especially in cases where that information could hurt people. You will be able to hear more of my thoughts on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in the introduction to the episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is a Q&A where I answer questions sent to me by supporters of the podcast. Usually, I only release these episodes to members only, but I'm releasing this one to the public because I felt the questions were particularly good. If you have any burning questions you'd like to ask me, and if you'd like to be a part of the next Members Exclusive Q&A, you can join the Coleman Unfiltered Community and become a member today via https://colemanhughes.org/unfiltered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Katie Herzog. Katie is the host of the very funny "Blocked and Reported" Podcast along with Jesse Single. She is a great visual artist and was also a staff writer at "The Stranger" for many years.  In this episode, we talk about Katie's upbringing as a lesbian in a less than accepting environment. We also discuss the rapid rise in the salience of trans issues in the past couple of years, the element of social contagion, and the recent rise of Gen Z girls with gender dysphoria. We talk about the mission creep of gay rights organizations and the increasing salience of drag queens in the culture as well as the backlash against them. We discuss the concept of being non-binary and the difference between male and female sexuality. We also talk about pedophilia and so-called virtuous pedophiles. We discuss puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender reassignment surgery. Katie also gives advice to parents with gender dysphoric children. We go on to talk about trans women in sports and the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Zac Kriegman. Zach was a director of data science at Thomson Reuters before he got fired for posting a fact-based criticism of Black Lives Matter in an internal memo. This is one of the worst examples of Cancel Culture and enforced orthodoxy around the issue of race that I've seen in a while. Zach was fired for pointing to research by Roland Fryer who I just had on the podcast, and others, which showed that there was no anti-black bias in police shootings as well as that DOJ investigations into police departments in certain cases caused an increase in homicides due to the police pulling back. Now as a director of data science at a major media company that has a respected fact-checking wing, part of Zac's job was to ensure that Thomson Reuters was using data accurately and he got fired for doing exactly that. Now he's suing Reuters for wrongful termination. In the meantime, Zac has a substack, where he has posted the memo which got him fired, as well as some other essays. You should definitely go check that out.  In this conversation, we talk about the circumstances surrounding his firing and we primarily speak on the substantive issue of BLM and the effect it has had on policing and crime. I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do too.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Jonathan Haidt. I just had Jonathan on the show a few weeks ago with Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott, but I wanted to get him back for a one-on-one. I'm glad I did because this turned out to be a really great conversation. It actually felt more like a private phone call than an interview, which I thought was really cool. I also thought it was really cool that John brought up the first email that I ever sent to him back when I was just a random Columbia undergraduate trying to understand why some of my professors seemed totally insane.  In the episode, we talk about humor and offensive jokes. We discuss reasons why social media sucks so much as a forum for serious conversations. We also talk about the pros and cons of the internet, the progress America has made on issues like racism, and whether protest movements are still a useful practice. We also go to talk about Elon Musk potentially buying Twitter, 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 Winston Marshall. Winston is a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning band "Mumford and Sons", in which he played lead guitar and banjo for 14 years. He left the band after writing a tweet that praised a book by Andy Ngo. As many of you may remember, Andy Ngo is a journalist that got beaten to a pulp by Antifa extremists. Winston wrote a pretty mild tweet approving of Andy Ngo's book on Antifa and as a result, was pressured to leave Mumford and Sons and he eventually did. He now has a podcast called "Marshall Matters" which this conversation will also be aired on, so you can go check that out.  In this episode, we discuss Winston's time with Mumford and Sons. We discuss the influence of Jordan Peterson on his thinking and even on his songwriting. We talk about cancel culture in particular with regards to the music industry in Hollywood. We talk about my position on reparations for slavery. We also talk about the differences between America and the UK and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Sam Koppelman. Sam is a best-selling author and top speechwriter for many prominent politicians. Sam just co-wrote a book with former Attorney General Eric Holder called "Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote-A History, a Crisis, a Plan" In this episode, we talked about voter fraud, voter ID laws, voter suppression, and gerrymandering. We discuss the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the so-called "gutting of that act" in 2013. We also talk about the great replacement theory and much more. As you'll hear in the episode, I'm skeptical of the narrative that voter suppression is a huge problem, that voter ID laws are racist, and so forth. While Sam doesn't quite go that far, I think there is some distance between his position on these topics and my own. As we near the midterms, I'm gonna have a few more guests like this that deal with electoral politics. I hope you enjoy this conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Roland Fryer. Roland is an economics professor at Harvard University. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant and the Bates medal. Roland is probably among the top five most frequent guest requests that I get. So it was really exciting to finally have him on the show. In this episode, we discuss Roland's childhood and the many obstacles he had to overcome in order to become a top-notch economist. We talk about his relationship with his grandmother and his father, our relationships to our own racial identities, the progress that America has made in fighting racism, and whether race consciousness can ever be a good thing. We also talk about why high school is boring for so many people and what can be done about it, stand-up comedy, and the power of humor. We discuss Roland's famous empirical work on the prevalence of racial bias and police shootings and arrests, and the implications of this research for the Black Lives Matter movement. We go on to talk about Roland's meeting with President Obama, what Roland learned by doing ride-alongs with police officers, data-driven ways to improve K through 12 education, the nebulous concept of systemic racism, Roland's alternative Diversity Equity and Inclusion company, and much more. *My apologies for the drop in Roland's audio quality in this episode. Unfortunately, we faced some network issues during the time of recording, thus the drop in quality. Despite the technical inconvenience, I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a recording of a live event that I did with Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff, and Rikki Schlott. Jonathan Haidt is a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business. He is also the co-founder of Heterodox Academy, which I once wrote a blog post for back when I was probably 21 years old. Jonathan is the author of many books including "The Happiness Hypothesis", "The Righteous Mind", and "The Coddling of the American Mind" with his co-author Gregory Lukianoff.  Greg Lukianoff is the president of FIRE which is the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and probably the pre-eminent defender of free speech on college campuses. Greg is also the producer of several documentaries about free speech and is also a trained lawyer. Rikki Schlott is a columnist for the New York Post, a fellow at FIRE, a contributor at Reason Magazine, and the host of the Lost Debate Podcast.  We all discuss what has changed since Jonathan and Greg published "The Coddling of the American Mind" back in 2018. We talk about the effect of social media on political polarization and mental health. We also discuss Jonathan's recent viral Atlantic essay called "Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid", and many other related topics. Unfortunately, because of the constraints of the live event, this is a shorter podcast than usual. However, I'm getting Jonathan back on the podcast very soon to have a full-length discussion about all this stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Yascha Mounk. Yascha is a political scientist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University. He's also the founder of "Persuasion", which is a great online magazine I really recommend you all read. He is also the host of "The Good Fight" podcast. Yascha has a new book out called "The Great Experiment", which is what we'll be discussing in today's episode. We talk about group psychology and tribalism, their origin, and human nature. We discuss the difference between nations that are built around specific ethnic groups on the one hand and nations that are built around abstract ideas on the other, the challenges faced by multi-ethnic democracies, the threats to diverse democracies from the right and from the left, and why diverse democracies can be less stable than diverse autocracies. We talk about colorblindness, white identity politics and wokeness, whether increased contact between racial groups is the antidote to racism, and whether diversity is an inherent good or a contingent good. We go on to talk about the idea that demography is destiny, the fluidity of racial identity and how one's identity can change in response to social incentives, what it would look like to have a colorblind legal regime in America, immigration and cultural assimilation, and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is actually a recording of a live event I did at TED in Vancouver with Tim Urban. Tim Urban is the author of the blog "Wait But Why?" and also of the upcoming book "The Story of Us". My thanks to the TED team for inviting me to have this conversation. ???????Tim and I talked about procrastination, the shortness of life, artificial intelligence, political polarisation, and much more. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to film this event, so this will be an audio-only episode. 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 Frances Haugen. Frances is a data engineer, scientist, product manager, and whistleblower.  ???????In this episode, we discuss the psychological effects of Instagram on teenagers, the subculture of Tumblr, the cross-check system at Facebook, Facebook's policy toward misinformation, and much more. I really enjoyed this episode and I hope you do too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Richard Dawkins. I assume most of you know who he is, but in case you've been living under a rock; Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and emeritus fellow at Oxford University. If I listed all the awards he's received in his lifetime, this description will not end. His books include The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion, Unweaving the Rainbow, and many others. His latest book is called "Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution" in which he explores and explains the phenomenon of flight both in the animal world and in manmade technology. We didn't get to discuss this book in this episode, but I really recommend you all check it out.  In this episode, we discuss technological progress, whether race is a social construct or biological reality, the mystery of consciousness, the concept of a meme (which Richard invented), religion and its relationship to a happy life, whether wokeness plays the role of a religion in people's lives, and finally, Richard gives his advice to up and coming scientists. 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 Andrew Yang. Andrew Yang is a businessman, attorney and author. He is known for his presidential bid in 2020 and his bid for New York City mayor in 2021. This podcast was recorded at Andrew's studio and jointly released on his podcast which is called "Forward". In this episode, we discuss my upbringing and background in music, how philosophy is taught, why race shouldn't matter, the democrats use of identity politics, office culture, the future of work, automation, and AI. 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 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