Conversations with Tyler11 Elo 2021

Andrew Sullivan on Braving New Intellectual Journeys

Upon learning he was HIV positive in 1993, Andrew Sullivan began writing more than he ever had before. Believing that he didn't have long to live, he wanted to leave behind a book detailing his best argument for refocusing the gay rights movement on marriage equality and military service. Three decades later and Sullivan has not only lived to see the book published, but also seen the ideas in it gain legal and cultural acceptance. This, along with the fact that the pace and influence of his writing has continued apace, qualifies him in Tyler's estimation as the most influential public intellectual of his generation.

Andrew joined Tyler to discuss the role of the AIDs epidemic in achieving marriage equality, the difficulty of devoutness in everyday life, why public intellectuals often lack courage, how being a gay man helps him access perspectives he otherwise wouldn't, how drugs influence his ideas, the reasons why he's a passionate defender of SATs and IQ tests, what Niall Ferguson and Boris Johnson were like as fellow undergraduates, what Americans get wrong about British politics, why so few people share his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, why Bowie was so special, why Airplane! is his favorite movie, what Oakeshottian conservatism offers us today, whether wokeism has a positive influence globally, why he someday hopes to glower at the sea from in the west of Ireland, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded August 6th, 2021

Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow Andrew on Twitter
Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Thumbnail photo credit: Chad Norman

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(288)

Matt Levine Live at Bloomberg HQ

Is Matt Levine a modern-day Horace? Like Matt, Horace has a preoccupation with wealth and the law. There's a playful humor as he segues from topic to topic. An ability to read Latin. And many of Horac...

14 Helmi 20181h 6min

Charles C. Mann on Shaping Tomorrow's World and the Limits to Growth

At the beginning of their conversation, Tyler dubs Charles C. Mann a tlamatini, or 'he who knows things.' And oh, the things he knows, effortlessly weaving together, history, anthropology, economics, ...

31 Tammi 201855min

Ross Douthat on Narrative and Religion (Live at Mason)

Last year, Tyler asked his readers "What Is the Strongest Argument for the Existence of God?" and followed up a few days later with a post outlining why he doesn't believe in God. New York Times colum...

17 Tammi 20181h 25min

Andy Weir on the Economics of Sci-Fi and Space

Before writing a single word of his new book Artemis, Andy Weir worked out the economics of a lunar colony. Without the economics, how could the story hew to the hard sci-fi style Weir cornered the ma...

20 Joulu 201752min

Doug Irwin on US Trade Policy

Tyler thinks Douglas Irwin has just released the best history of American trade policy ever written. So for this conversation Tyler went easy on Doug, asking softball questions like: Have tariffs ever...

29 Marras 201757min

Sujatha Gidla on Being an Ant Amongst the Elephants (Live)

Sujatha Gidla was an untouchable in India, but moved to the United States at the age of 26 and is now the first Indian woman to be employed as a conductor on the New York City Subway. In her memoir An...

15 Marras 20171h 2min

Steve Teles and Brink Lindsey on The Captured Economy

What happens when a liberal and a libertarian get together? In the case of Steve Teles and Brink Lindsey, they write a book. And then Tyler separates them for a podcast interview about that book, pri...

1 Marras 201752min

Mary Roach on Disgust, Death, and Danger (Live at Mason)

Legal writing was never Mary Roach's thing. She describes that short-lived stint as an inscrutable "bringing forth of multisyllabic words." Instead, she's forged a career by letting curiosity lead the...

18 Loka 20171h 15min