EP 15: Letters to the Sons of Society

There has been a story on the progressive left for some time now that individual actions are largely futile. That for society to change, we must instead focus on systems. Our guest on the program today belongs to a generation that was raised on this message. But now she’s written a powerful piece about the costs that come with such a worldview — and how volunteering in her community helped her to rethink it.Rachel Cohen is a reporter for vox.com, covering American social policy. Her essay is ...

16 Okt 202423min

The period often referred to as The Great Awokening is winding down now, and we’re starting to get a better understanding of what happened. Our guest on today’s program argues that we have seen these kinds of social justice-styled movements before in American history — and that they are in fact driven by, as he puts it, “frustrated erstwhile elites condemning the social order that failed them and jockeying to secure the position they feel they deserve.” Musa al-Gharbi is an Ameri...

9 Okt 202451min

Statistics Canada released new data last week, showing that in 2023, the fertility rate in Canada reached a record low — just 1.26 births per woman — making us one of the “lowest low” fertility countries in the world. It’s true that material conditions, like the housing crisis, have play a role. But there is something else going on, all across the West. Our guest on today’s program has published a fascinating book about that something else: a profound ambivalence towards childbearing. Anastas...

2 Okt 202438min

The activist left in America has been very visible in recent years, often dominating the public conversation online and in prominent institutions. But our guest on today’s program says that the modern left is curious in that it is “largely leaderless” — that no one in particular is “speaking directly for it, or to it” — making this “a singular moment” in the country’s history. Ross Barkan is an American journalist, novelist, and Substacker, and a contributing writer to The New York Times Maga...

25 Sep 202446min

This week saw the arrest of an armed man in Florida, in the wake of an apparent assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump — the second in roughly two months. Our guest on the program today is a reporter who’s been covering the rise of political extremism in America for The Washington Post. In this episode, which was taped in late August, she shares the insights she gained reporting on a man who went to prison for uttering threats against Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene...

18 Sep 202427min

The social and economic crises that we are experiencing in Canada are frequent topics of conversation in this country, with many Canadians expressing the belief that we have seen a decline in quality of life. Our guest on the program this week is a former foreign policy advisor to Justin Trudeau’s government — but today he’s on the show to talk domestic policy, and what he sees as “a betrayal of the Canadian dream.” Omer Aziz is a former Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and a contributi...

11 Sep 202422min

One of the big stories of this summer was immigration. Canada has had a decades-long, bipartisan, pro-immigration consensus — but in recent months, that has collapsed. And one of the most contentious parts of our system is now the Temporary Foreign Worker program, which was deregulated during 2022 in the midst of pandemic labour shortages. Our guest on the program today was just in Halifax at the Prime Minister’s cabinet retreat, making the case that the low-wage, non-agriculture stream of th...

4 Sep 202424min

The news cycle is currently dominated by the American presidential election — but there’s also a lot going on here in Canada. Our guest on the program today is a veteran journalist and the publisher of a reporter-owned and operated outlet in Ottawa. As you’ll hear, there’s been no shortage of consequential stories this summer. Tara is away this week, but she asked podcaster Aaron Pete to bring you this interview with Holly Doan, the publisher of Blacklock’s Reporter. You can find Tara Henley ...

28 Aug 202434min