How Charles Murray (Almost) Predicted the Trump Era

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Oct 15, 2025

Dive into the complexities of Charles Murray's 'Coming Apart,' which explores the divide between America's cognitive elite and the working class. The hosts examine Murray's influences and career trajectory, highlighting how right-wing funding shaped his ideas. They take a quiz to reveal their cultural bubbles and critique Murray's moralistic prescriptions. Key discussions focus on the impact of socioeconomic changes that Trump capitalized on and the dangers of Murray's views on race and IQ. Ultimately, they advocate for democratic solutions to inequality.

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ANECDOTE

Heritage Internship Came With Murray Books

Matthew Sitman recalls receiving Murray's Human Accomplishment during a Heritage Foundation internship as part of conservative promotion networks.
He uses the memory to show how movement institutions circulate and amplify favored books.

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INSIGHT

Bubble Quiz Targets Elite Readers

Murray includes a 25-question "Do you live in a bubble?" quiz to measure elite insulation and cultural distance.
The hosts take the quiz to illustrate how the book speaks to people inside the bubble, not those it describes.

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ADVICE

Use The Bubble Quiz To Measure Distance

Take Murray's bubble quiz to gauge cultural distance and self-awareness.
Share scores with communities to prompt discussion about elite insulation and policy blind spots.

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What Is Coming Apart About?

01:17 • 1min

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Why Murray Feels Pre-Trump

02:31 • 2min

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Murray's Background and Influences

04:37 • 17min

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How Right-Wing Funding Built Murray's Career

21:53 • 5min

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From Losing Ground to The Bell Curve

27:00 • 3min

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Murray as a Conservative Movement Figure

30:18 • 6min

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Opening Scene: America Before 1963

35:56 • 4min

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The New Upper Class and Cognitive Sorting

40:21 • 2min

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Do You Live in a Bubble? The Quiz

42:15 • 14min

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Interpreting Our Bubble Scores

56:10 • 4min

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Why the Bubble Can Fuel Resentment

01:00:02 • 4min

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Murray's Four Founding Virtues

01:03:50 • 4min

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Comparing Fishtown and Belmont

01:07:21 • 3min

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The Upper Class's Role: Preach or Patronize?

01:10:46 • 4min

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Missing Political Economy in Murray's Account

01:14:52 • 3min

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Why Trumpism Exploited Murray's Blind Spots

01:17:40 • 5min

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Murray's Cultural Pessimism and Toynbee

01:22:30 • 3min

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Murray's Prescriptions vs. Political Reality

01:25:08 • 2min

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The Dark Underbelly: IQ, Eugenics, and Democracy

01:27:10 • 4min

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How to Address Inequality Democratically

• Mentioned in 12 episodes

Dark Money

The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

Jane Mayer

In this meticulously researched book, Jane Mayer exposes the systematic efforts of a network of extremely wealthy conservative Republicans, led by the Koch brothers, to influence American politics. The book delves into how these billionaires have funded various organizations to shape academic institutions, think tanks, courts, statehouses, Congress, and the presidency according to their radical free-market beliefs. Mayer highlights the opaque nature of political finance, the use of non-profit front groups to hide donors, and the significant impact of the Citizens United decision on the rise of 'dark money' in politics. The book provides a comprehensive and historical view of the financial takeover of US politics and its social consequences.

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• Mentioned in 8 episodes

Losing ground

American social policy, 1950-1980

Charles Murray

In 'Losing Ground,' Charles A. Murray argues that the ambitious social programs of the 1960s and 1970s, intended to alleviate poverty, actually made matters worse for their supposed beneficiaries. Murray contends that increased government spending on welfare led to higher unemployment, declining education quality, increased crime, and the breakdown of families. He suggests that these programs created incentives for behaviors that were destructive in the long term and advocates for the abolition of certain welfare programs and a return to more traditional social policies.

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• Mentioned in 44 episodes

The Bell Curve

Charles Murray

#9625

• Mentioned in 5 episodes

The Big Sort

Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart

Bill Bishop

In 'The Big Sort,' Bill Bishop uses startling demographic data to demonstrate how Americans have spent decades sorting themselves into alarmingly homogeneous communities at the city and neighborhood level. This phenomenon has resulted in a country that is ideologically inbred, where people do not know or understand those living just a few miles away. Bishop delves into the history, economics, and changing political landscape to explain how this came to be and its dire implications for the country. The book provides a compelling big-picture account of America, highlighting the consequences of this way-of-life segregation and its impact on democracy.

#6086

• Mentioned in 8 episodes

A Study of History

Arnold J. Toynbee

In 'A Study of History', Arnold J. Toynbee presents a philosophy of history that examines the genesis, growth, and fall of every human civilization. The work, published between 1934 and 1961, identifies recurring patterns in the rise and decline of civilizations, attributing their development to creative responses to challenges and their decline to the failure of their leaders to continue responding innovatively. Toynbee also explores the role of religious and spiritual systems, cultural exchanges, and the impact of internal and external factors on the trajectory of civilizations. The book is known for its meticulous research, extensive use of primary sources, and analytical depth, making it a seminal work in historiography.

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• Mentioned in 13 episodes

Coming Apart

The State of White America, 1960-2010

Charles Murray

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• Mentioned in 2 episodes

Human Accomplishment

The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950

Charles Murray

This episode is the second in our occasional series on important, controversial, or unusually relevant conservative texts from the recent past. Here we take up Charles Murray's 2012 book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. With its focus on the ascendence of a new "cognitive elite," cultural divides, and the pathologies afflicting working and lower class whites, the book might seem prophetic of the Age of Trump — but the reality is more complicated. Murray's oversights, it turns out, are as interesting as his insights. We walk listeners through Murray's account of how America "came apart," take the test he provides to see how thick our class/cultural bubbles are, then rip into the moralizing prescriptions with which he concludes the book. Along the way we discuss Murray as an emblematic success story of the right-wing welfare state and intellectual pipeline, revisit his obsession with race and IQ, and more!

Sources:

Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 (2012)

— Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (2003)

— Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 (1984)

Jason DeParle, "Daring Research or 'Social Science Pornography'? Charles Murray," New York Times, Oct 9, 1994

Jane Mayer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (2016)

Pew Research Center, "Religious Landscape Study," Feb 26, 2025

Quinn Slobodian & Stuart Schrader, "The White Man, Unburdened," The Baffler, July 2018

"Do you live in a bubble? A quiz." PBS Newshour, Mar 24, 2016.

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