EP 45: School in the time of Covid

If you’re a fiction reader and you’ve noticed that novels are getting more political — and more overtly aligned with the progressive political project in particular — there’s a reason for this. Big publishing houses are increasingly hiring what are called “sensitivity readers,” to vet authors’ work to ensure that it doesn’t cause offence. Tara's guest on the podcast today has written a piece about this trend for Reason Magazine. It’s titled “Sensitivity Readers Are the New Litera...

7 Heinä 202216min

For all of the mainstream media’s coverage of Donald Trump, there’s not a very deep understanding of the Republican Party under that president, or, indeed, the forces that led up to his election. In the liberal press, there just has not been that much curiosity about the nuances of the American conservative movement — and the historical and political forces driving it. But Tara's guest on the program today says the history of the American right is actually a rich and complex one, with numerou...

6 Heinä 202235min

As the pandemic winds down, another public health emergency rages — and it is not getting as much attention. We're speaking, of course, about the opioid crisis. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief medical officer of health, recently tweeted that the latest data shows that in 2021, 7,560 people died of opioid-related overdose. On average, 21 people died and 17 were hospitalized every day. Tara's guest on the program today penned an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun in 2020 warning that our pandemic ...

29 Kesä 202240min

The realignment of left and right is something we talk about a lot on this podcast, as we try to make sense of the current moment. This political shakeup is producing new politics, new alliances, and new conversations. To keep up with the pace of such shifts, Lean Out is now expanding to two episodes a week, to better document these developments in real time. Tara will still be interviewing an author every week, but now she'll also be interviewing a journalist — about a newly-pub...

28 Kesä 202217min

Last week, amid growing pressure, the Canadian government suspended vaccine mandates for domestic and outbound international air and rail travel — as well as for the federal civil service and the federally regulated transportation sectors. But this debate is far from over, as the government stated that it will not hesitate to reimplement vaccine mandates in the future. The question is: Is such a policy backed by science? A recent peer-reviewed paper in the BMJ Global Health medical journal ar...

22 Kesä 202234min

There was big news out of the United States last week for those who follow the ongoing debate over the state of free speech. FIRE, the preeminent free speech organization for higher education, is expanding beyond campus. And the organization has been renamed the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Tara's guest on the podcast today says its expanded mandate is a result of 2020, the worst year for free speech in his entire career. And he wants us all to think deeply about why ...

17 Kesä 202233min

The pandemic, as we know, has been a different experience for different people. Some of us, the laptop class, isolated and worked from home. But others of us, the essential workers, were out there every day doing the work that it took to keep society from collapsing. The stories of the working class have often gone untold, but Tara's guest on the podcast today has dedicated himself to interviewing working people — on his podcast, in his reporting, and in his new book. And he believes their ex...

15 Kesä 202236min

“Men and women exist. Occasionally, we even like each other. We exist because of these two simple truths.” These are the opening lines of a powerful new book that dives into the crisis in contemporary heterosexuality. It’s been called a “feminist defence of masculinity,” and it is a clear-headed and compassionate look at where we’ve gone wrong. Nina Power is a British writer, philosopher, and fellow Substacker. She’s also a senior editor at the new American journal of radical politics, Compac...

8 Kesä 202230min