Honestly podcast

Bari Weiss and former CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo engage in a wide-ranging conversation. Their discussion of China’s influence on American universities is of most interest as a bipartisan issue inextricable from concerns around academic freedom and foreign influence. “Our colleges and universities are deeply dependent on the Chinese Communist Party,” Pompeo says. “They have enormous influence because of the resources they’re providing.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Podcast

An excellent conversation with FAIR Advisors Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Kmele Foster. They discuss family, discrimination, and individualism. They talk about the enormous influence of Milton Friedman on Foster’s thinking and political activism—most notably, Friedman’s book, Capitalism and Freedom. They discuss the vital importance of dignity and self-worth as well as the American Experiment and how America gave rise to the global abolitionist movement. They also discuss whether we have forgotten what a positive male role model looks like, and the importance of such role models.

Boghossian Substack

As part of his Reverse College Tour, Peter Boghossian visited Purdue University and presented the following claim to students: “When deciding between what’s true or false, the belief of persons in historically oppressed groups should get special consideration.” From here, “the conversation delved into how people interpret what is true or false, and if there are different types of truth…” As Boghossian notes, “This question rests at the heart of many current political and social disputes.”

The Glenn Show

A conversation between FAIR Advisor Glenn Loury and Heterodox Academy co-founder, NYU psychologist, and co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt. The two discuss Haidt’s recent Atlantic piece, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.” They discuss Haidt’s concept of “structural stupidity,” the influence of social media on groupthink, and the role of religion (or lack thereof) in heterodox thinking.

Eli Steele

FAIR Advisor Eli Steele documents the journey of Jodi Shaw, a librarian at Smith College. After an incident on campus that did not involve Shaw, a project on which she had been working was canceled due to cultural appropriation. “If Jodi thought she could escape the toxic cloud of racial strife…she was wrong… The racial mask of whiteness was now imposed upon her.” The cancelation was the beginning of Shaw’s journey to seek truth and stand up against racial discrimination.

Conversations with Coleman

An excellent conversation with Coleman Hughes and Harvard’s Roland Fryer. They discuss Roland’s relationship with his grandmother, America’s progress on racism, “whether race consciousness can ever be a good thing” and “the nebulous concept of systemic racism.” They talk about Roland’s work on racial bias, police shootings and arrests and his ride-alongs with police. They also discuss Roland’s DEI company, Sigma Squared.

UATX

The University of Austin officially launched classes for undergrads in June with its Summer 2002 Forbidden Courses program. FAIR Advisors Niall Ferguson, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Bari Weiss and Peter Boghossian are teaching courses and leading workshops. Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks, Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership, is also leading a workshop.

Aspen Ideas

In this Q&A, FAIR Advisor Chatterton Williams argues for moving beyond race in favor of seeing one another as individuals. “I want to live in a world where we accept that a person’s physical characteristics and ostensible color category cannot adequately tell us how they will think or act… I want to continue to recognize and oppose the injustice of racism while simultaneously advocating for and modeling an America in which my children never fall for the lie of race in the first place.”

Conversations with Coleman

Coleman Hughes talks with Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff, and Rikki Schlott. They discuss what has changed since Jonathan and Greg published "The Coddling of the American Mind" in 2018, the effect of social media on political polarization and mental health, Jonathan's recent Atlantic essay ‘Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid’, and other related topics.

The Dishcast

FAIR Advisor Andrew Sullivan talks with Francis Fukuyama (PhD ‘81) about the threats to liberal democracy.

City Journal

An edited version of a speech in which Loury blames demagogues and ideologues for peddling false narratives, insists the American Dream applies to black Americans (and those who say otherwise are telling a patronizing lie), pleads with black people to take up the burdens of freedom, and that equality ”is something we must wrest with our bare hands from a cruel and indifferent world by means of our own effort, inspired by the example of our enslaved and newly freed ancestors.”

Conversations with Coleman

Coleman and Yascha discuss Yascha’s new book, The Great Experiment. Topics include group psychology and tribalism, nations built around ethnic groups vs. ideas, the challenges of multi-ethnic democracies, threats to diverse democracies, why diverse democracies can be less stable than diverse autocracies, colorblindness, white identity politics, if increased contact between racial groups is the antidote to racism, if diversity is an inherent good, demography as destiny, the fluidity of racial identity, assimilation, and more.

Multiple Sources

With the May 2022 launch of FAIR Advisor and Harvard Alum (MBA ‘93) Ian Rowe’s new book, Agency, he has taken part in a number of great conversations on the ideas in his book and beyond.

Kirk Center

This spring, FAIR Advisors Ian Rowe and John Wood Jr. joined the Kirk Center in visiting colleges to discuss alternatives to CRT and if there are other helpful approaches to race issues in America. As part of an effort to ensure colleges have the opportunity support viewpoint diversity and the competition of ideas, FAIR advisors “were making thoughtful arguments many had never heard on their campuses before that night.”

Lex Fridman Podcast

Excellent, in-depth podcast with Glenn Loury covering MLK and Malcolm X, slavery, equity, math and economics, racial groups, black patriotism, Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, universities, cognitive inequalities, Sowell, Obama, mortality and the meaning of life.

FAIR Perspectives

In this episode, Angel Eduardo and Melissa Chen talk with FAIR Advisor Thomas Chatterton Williams about his opposition to identity categories, the cultural and ethnic valence of black identity, the challenges of abandoning race and racialized language, CRT, France’s approach to race policy, and more.

Commentary

Wilfred Reilly offers a sharp critique of the “ongoing attempt, by widely read academics and public intellectuals such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, to redefine the concept of racism” and calls on “thinking” individuals to “reclaim the classic meaning of a critical term.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Podcast

Hirsi Ali and Hill talk about free speech, immigration, and individual agency. While they express deep concern about the equity agenda and victimhood, they are optimistic about young people’s resilience, Americans’ determination to solve problems, and the importance of those modeling what it’s like to stand up to threats to our republic.

The American Mind

Jason D. Hill’s powerful piece warns of institutionalized racial self-segregation at universities, the elevation of the “black body” as possessing unassailable truth and the “terrible disservice” universities are doing to its students (and the country) in promulgating a “new totemic racial religion.”

Boghossian College Tour-USC

Peter Boghossian asks USC students about Social Justice in the classroom. Can they voice their opinions freely in class? Are there stances deemed unacceptable? For anyone who’s not on a college campus (and even for those who are), this 12-minute footage is illuminating.