Lean Out with Tara Henley

If you're a regular listener of Lean Out, you know that Tara is pretty concerned about the state of the left. Her guest today has concerns of his own. Ben Burgis is a philosophy professor, a columnist for Jacobin magazine, and host of the Give Them An Argument podcast. His recent book, Canceling Comedians While the World Burns, is a brilliant critique of the contemporary left. Ben Burgis makes the case for a smarter, funnier, and more strategic left - that's today on Lean Out.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In today’s media environment, there are often a lot of unanswered questions. Because narratives are so powerful, and because the media is so polarized, there are often pieces of information that don’t quite fit with any given story. For example: that Trump managed to increase his support among Black voters in the 2020 election, particularly Black men. What happened? Tara's guest on the podcast today has one possible answer. Jason L. Riley is a conservative commentator in the U.S. He’s a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His latest book is The Black Boom, and he joins Tara today to make the case that the lives of working-class Black people improved significantly under Donald Trump's economic policies.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Given the state of the world right now, it’s probably fair to say that a whole lot of us are currently lost in a downward spiral of doomscrolling, utterly overwhelmed by the news. But Tara's guest on the podcast today says things have been bad like this for some time – that, in fact, our civilization is in a form of decline. Andrew Potter is an associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. He’s a former editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen, a former public affairs columnist for Maclean’s Magazine, and a former director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. His latest book is On Decline: Stagnation, Nostalgia, and Why Every Year is the Worst One Ever. He joins Tara today for a surprisingly upbeat conversation about the state of our country, and of our world.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With the violence in Ukraine dominating headlines, the world is feeling dark — and uncertain. So today on the podcast, we’re going to spotlight a story of hope. Chris Hedges is a former war correspondent for the New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He’s also a Presbyterian minister and a bestselling author. In his latest book, The Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison, he tells a remarkable story that highlights both the evils of mass incarceration and the capacity of the human spirit to overcome. Hedges has been teaching inmates since 2010. In The Class, he chronicles one group’s powerful journey writing a play — and how healing it was for the twenty-eight students involved, who were serving a combined 515 years behind bars. Chris Hedges is Tara's guest on today’s episode of Lean Out.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The world has gone mad. In recent weeks, many people have reached out to say they feel overwhelmed by how divided we are. Many feel like the mainstream media is not doing a good enough job at digging into the complexity of the issues we’re facing, and that it is failing to reflect the full spectrum of views and experiences out there. Today's guest has thought deeply about the challenges facing the media. Mónica Guzmán is a Seattle journalist. She’s also a director at Braver Angles, a grassroots organization that works to address polarization -- and a former fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Mónica is the author of a new book, I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. She joins Tara today on the podcast to talk about the book, and the overlooked superpower that she says we all need to rediscover – the magic of a good conversation.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The trucker convoy protest in the capital has dominated the news for the past few weeks, with many Canadian commentators expressing shock and disbelief that the country is experiencing such a forceful wave of populism. But at least one person is not surprised at all. Jeff Rubin is an award-winning Canadian author. He’s the former chief economist at CIBC World Markets, and a former Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. His latest book is called The Expendables: How The Middle Class Got Screwed By Globalization - and it has turned out to be quite prescient. On today's episode, Jeff Rubin joins Tara for a deep dive into the economic conditions driving the current unrest. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

As we all think through the class tensions that have surfaced in Canada, it’s a good time to take a closer look at an ethos held by many of those shaping the dialogue. This group of decision-makers and opinion-shapers, which includes the media, is often referred to in leftist circles as the professional managerial class. Catherine Liu, professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine, has recently published a fierce and funny polemic on the PMC, titled Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class. In her conversation with Tara, Liu touches on everything from mommy bloggers to land acknowledgements — and argues that we must insist on viewing society’s struggles through an economic lens.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This week — as our culture finds itself embroiled in numerous debates around speech — Danish lawyer Jacob Mchangama has published a brilliant new book that provides a historical perspective. Jacob is the founder and executive director of Justitia, a human-rights think tank based in Copenhagen. Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media is a deeply-researched, engaging, and humane title that grew out of Clear and Present Danger, Jacob’s podcast project on the global history of free speech. Here, in his wide-ranging discussion with Tara, Jacob touches on everything from Athenian democracy to Orwell and Mandela — and makes the case that censorship is not a good solution to the societal tensions we are living through.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Today on a special bonus episode of Lean Out, Tara speaks with lawyer, author, and broadcaster Jamil Jivani - who goes public about his recent firing from his radio show, and talks about why he thinks diversity of thought is such an important principle in media.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

It’s been called a pandemic within a pandemic. On today's episode of Lean Out, we dive into the opioid crisis in North America - and why it's underreported. Journalist Travis Lupick joins Tara to discuss his new book, “Light Up the Night: America’s Overdose Crisis and the Drug Users Fighting for Survival,” which tells the story of two women, both drug activists who’ve made a huge mark. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com