The Dissidents

This week, Mike and Elizabeth talk about research linking ideology to our habits of attention and memory, including our interpretation of cues related to social status and behaviors.  The episode was recorded before Harvard’s president resigned, but our discussion is relevant to the ongoing controversy about her path to leadership and short lived tenure as president.  The conversation was inspired by a popular online opinion piece proposing that “pathological kindness” (the author’s term, not ours!) leads individuals to act in ways that are ultimately unproductive or socially harmful.   Institute for Liberal Values Podcast notes: Waldfogel, H. B., Sheehy-Skeffington, J., Hauser, O. P., Ho, A. K., & Kteily, N. S. (2021). Ideology selectively shapes attention to inequality. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(14). https://doi-org.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/10.1073/pnas.2023985118 https://unherd.com/2023/10/the-tyranny-of-pathological-kindness/

Winkfield Twyman Jr., former law school professor, writer, and Harvard Law School graduate, joins Elizabeth Spievak for a discussion about Claudine Gay.  Wink questions the moral courage of Harvard's president and has called for her resignation.  Gay's recent congressional testimony is discussed as an example of what is a larger problem on college campuses and beyond.  We talk about what it means to have a moral compass, historical and contemporary examples of moral courage, and what can and should be expected of leaders. Throughout, the issues and challenges are framed in the context of liberal values. Institute for Liberal Values Podcast Notes: Wink's Substack on this topic:  https://twyman.substack.com/p/please-resign-harvard-university https://twyman.substack.com/p/what-does-moral-competence-look-likehttps://twyman.substack.com/p/toby-ziegler-and-a-moral-momenthttps://twyman.substack.com/p/can-you-help-a-sister-outBari Weiss Free Press Articles:  https://www.thefp.com/archive?gclid=CjwKCAiA1fqrBhA1EiwAMU5m_wJQhpNBLyx_TMgEC2p8eJyaacI7qCLA-hZXadnZkEmoQluoeR6ZIxoCaykQAvD_BwE

This week we talk culture, ideological politics, philosophy, and law with the celebrated author of Cynical Theories (Helen Pluckrose) and the Assistant Director at the Bi Foundation and editor-in-chief of Queer Majority (Rio Veradonir).  Helen and Rio speak with Mike and Elizabeth about challenges to liberalism, past, present, and future. They also share their reasons to celebrate and be hopeful.  Podcast Notes: Queer Majority: https://www.queermajority.com/ Bi Foundation: https://bi.org/en/about Bailey, Allison (2014). The Unlevelled Knowing Field: An Engagement with Dotson's Third-Order Epistemic Oppression. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective. The Unlevel Knowing Field: An Engagement with Dotson’s Third-Order Epistemic Oppression, Alison Bailey - Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective (social-epistemology.com) Burke, Edmund (1790). Reflections on the Revolution in France. The Project Gutenberg eBook of Burke's Writings and Speeches, Volume the Third, by Edmund Burke. Dotson, Kristie (2011). Tracking Epistemic Violence: Tracking Practices of Silencing. Hypatia. Tracking Epistemic Violence, Tracking Practices of Silencing on JSTOR  Mills, Charles (2005). "Ideal Theory" as Ideology. Hypatia. Wiley.  "Ideal Theory" as Ideology on JSTOR Paine, Thomas (1791). The Rights of Man. Project Gutenberg. The Writings of Thomas Paine, Complete by Thomas Paine | Project Gutenberg Pluckrose, Helen & James Lindsay (2005). Cynical Theories. Pitchstone Publishing. Amazon.com: Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody (Audible Audio Edition): Helen Pluckrose, James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, Pitchstone Publishing: Books Pluckrose, Helen (2023). The Perilous Pendulum Swing Threatening LGBT Rights. Queer Majority. The Perilous Pendulum Swing Threatening LGBT Rights — Queer Majority Stenner, Karen (2012). The Authoritarian Dynamic. Cambridge University Press. Authoritarian Dynamic (05) by Stenner, Karen [Paperback (2005)]: Stener: Amazon.com: Books

In this Liberal Conversation series of the Dissident’s Podcast, Mike and James discuss the history of liberalism, how power is abused by those factions traditionally associated with the left and the right and how those labels are themselves arbitrary rather than principled. Institute for Liberal Values

Welcome to the Radical Roots of Ethnic Studies, a series of the Dissidents Podcast， with your co-hosts, Jennifer Richmond and Brandy Shufutinsky. In this series we explore the radical roots of liberated ethnic studies, how extreme ideology is infiltrating our schools with the aim to indoctrinate instead of educate, and our search for solutions to empower parents, teachers and students, giving them the tools to embrace inquiry and to express their individuality. This week we speak with Izabella Tabarovsky, a Soviet Jewish Immigrant who has dedicated her research to exploring the spread of Soviet propaganda throughout the modern world. In this podcast she shares with the Soviet origins of antisemitic & anti-zionist propaganda & tropes, both the right & left’s adoption of these ideologies, its influence in today’s American media landscape and education system, and how Hamas used the same protocols put forth by the Russians and subsequently the Nazis to justify a Jewish genocide. Coalition for Empowered Education Institute for Liberal Values Podcast Notes: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Potemkin Village Find out more about Izabella, a Senior Advisor at the Wilson Center, and see her most recent media interviews. ⁠How Soviet Propaganda Informs Contemporary Left Anti-Zionism⁠, Izabella Tabarovsky for Tablet Magazine Let Russian Jews Lead, Izabella Tabarovsky for Tablet Magazine The Cult of ‘Antizionism’, Izabella Tabarovsky for Tablet Magazine Read Izabella’s Afterword for Letters in Black & White

In this week's podcast Armin Navabi, David Bernstein & Mike Burke discuss homophobia in relation to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "pink washing", the future of the two state solution (or lack thereof) and the role that religion plays in how different cultures conceive of power and weakness.Podcast Notes:  Armin Navabi,  “Queers for Palestine” and the Death of Irony — Queer Majority Female Saudi anchor on Al Arabiya confronts Hamas leader Khaled Mashal on his group's terrorism in Israel - Hamas Leader Abroad Rejects Accusations of Transgressions against Civilians on October 7 Attack - YouTube

In this week's episode, Mike and Elizabeth talk about a report that links receipt of undisclosed foreign donations with the erosion of tolerance on U.S. campuses. Larger donations from Middle Eastern and authoritarian countries appeared especially troublesome. Correlational results indicate that a lack of university transparency about their funding sources was concurrent with reported increases in antisemitism and with challenges to norms of free expression.  Elizabeth expresses skepticism regarding any causal inferences.  Mike shares his views about the likely goals of donors from authoritarian countries and specifically discusses funds from Qatar.  Both agree with the authors that more research is warranted. Podcast Notes: The Corruption of the American Mind: How Concealed Foreign Funding of U.S. Higher Education Predicts Erosion of Democratic Values and Antisemitic Incidents on Campus. From the Network Contagion Research Institute: https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/NCRI-Report_The-Corruption-of-the-American-Mind.pdf

Welcome to the Radical Roots of Ethnic Studies, a series of the Dissidents Podcast， with your co-hosts, Jennifer Richmond and Brandy Shufutinsky. In this series we explore the radical roots of liberated ethnic studies, how extreme ideology is infiltrating our schools with the aim to indoctrinate instead of educate, and our search for solutions to empower parents, teachers and students, giving them the tools to embrace inquiry and to express their individuality. This week we speak with Carob Marcelle, an educator, mother and host of Be Not Afraid. Carob moved her family from Washington to Utah in search of a K-12 education for her child that was free of indoctrination. What she found instead was a growing institutionalization of critical social justice throughout both the education system and religious environment. In her concern over the “colonization” of our minds, she has gone in search of ways to promote black history free of critical “resentment” theory. Podcast Notes: Be Not Afraid: https://www.youtube.com/@CarobMarcelle

In this week's episode, Mike and Elizabeth go back to basics with a discussion about balance. We begin and end with contemporary challenges to balance in our personal and professional lives, particularly those posed by DEI initiatives.  Sandwiched between is a deep dive on balance in international relations, with a focus on the Middle East.  Mike employs his background and training to take us through some of the most important historical challenges to balance in the region, from the Ottoman Empire to the crisis unfolding today.   Institute for Liberal Values Podcast Notes: Antal, T., Krapivsky, P. L., & Redner, S. (2006). Social balance on networks: The dynamics of friendship and enmity. Physica D, 224(1/2), 130–136. https://doi-org.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/10.1016/j.physd.2006.09.028

In this week's episode ILV fellows Mike, Elizabeth, and James discuss position statements and ILV's commitment to liberal conversations. First, Mike talks with Elizabeth who argues that organizational statements are of little practical use and may jeopardize the non-partisan and non-sectarian missions of consortiums like ILV.  In the second part of the podcast, Mike and James continue to discuss how dangerously close institutional statements can come to compelling speech. In both segments we talk about antisemitism, war, and the difference between personal and organizational neutrality.  Institute for Liberal Values Podcast notes: https://provost.uchicago.edu/reports/report-universitys-role-political-and-social-action