Dialogues with Richard Reeves
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Robert Tracy McKenzie on democracy for sinners
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"The main reason we find it difficult to think critically about democracy is that it requires us to think critically about ourselves." That's the view...
Yascha Mounk on race, democracy and liberal patriotism
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Diverse democracies are new, wonderful, but potentially fragile: that's the claim, the promise and the warning from my guest today, Yascha Mounk. Yasc...
Frank Fukuyama on how to rescue liberalism
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's not news that liberalism is under pressure. And one of the most prominent liberals of our era is Francis Fukuyama. As he writes in his latest boo...
Christine Emba on ethical sex
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Something's wrong with our sex lives. That's according to Christine Emba. In her new book, Rethinking Sex: A Provocation she argues that too many peop...
Clare Chambers on leaving our bodies alone
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"Every body is wrong; no body feels right". So says philosopher Clare Chambers, who defends the idea of the unmodified body, both as a political and a...
Jonathan Gottschall on the stories we tell ourselves
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"Human beings can no more give up narrative than we can breathing or sleeping." So says my guest Jonathan Gottschall. But why are stories so important...
Reid Hoffman on how real friends make us better
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What are friends for? To "help us be better versions of ourselves" is Reid Hoffman's answer. He has spent a lot of time thinking about the nature and ...
Roland Betancourt on queer Byzantines
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“I am less interested in showing that the Medieval world was modern, than in showing how Medieval, in many ways, the modern world is.” That’s Ro...
Oliver Burkeman on surrendering to time
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster.”...
Bill Kristol on holding the center
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What should sensible Republicans do now? That’s the question Bill Kristol has been wrestling with since the nomination of Donald Trump - and it’s ...
Anne-Marie Slaughter on progressive patriotism
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anne-Marie Slaughter is an optimist, and a patriot, and an advocate for both personal and national renewal. We talk about the difference between renew...
Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the price of liberty
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
My guest today, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is one of the most important intellectuals working today on issues of free speech, human rights, feminism and foreign...
Philip Collins on how words can save democracy
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you find yourself saying, perhaps of a political speech, “Well, that’s just rhetoric”, you are getting things exactly wrong. That’s accordi...
Ron Daniels on how to fix America‘s colleges
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I’ll be honest. I didn’t expect a book from someone leading a university to say anything terribly interesting. Maybe my view of higher education h...
Fiona Hill on Trump, Putin and populism
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“People should not underestimate Donald Trump’s abilities as a retail politician", says my guest today, fellow Brit-American Fiona Hill. "He knows...
Sheryll Cashin on white spaces and Black hoods
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“Residential segregation not only affects opportunity, it alters politics”. That’s one of the claims of my guest today, Georgetown scholar Shery...
Nick Gillespie on canceling yourself
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What does “cancel culture” really mean, and how big a problem is it? Nick Gillespie, editor at large at Reason, has given these questions more tho...
Kathryn Paige Harden on genetic egalitarianism
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What have genes got to do with inequality? It’s a thorny question. But it one that Kathryn Paige Harden squarely addresses in her book and in this e...
Evan Osnos on America‘s fire and fury
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What made America into a tinderbox, ready for Donald Trump's spark? That's the question Evan Osnos, staff writer for the New Yorker, set out to answer...
Erika Bachiochi on sex, equality and abortion
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Should feminists be pro-life? Should conservatives support more welfare for families? Who is Mary Wollstonecraft? What did RBG get right and wrong? I ...
Emily Oster on COVID, kids and parenting
16 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How should we approach decisions about children, especially our own? That's the question that motivates my guest today, Emily Oster. She is a Professo...
David Brooks on how the elite broke America
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Who broke America? Quite likely, you did. David Brooks, my guest today, describes how the new elite, the "bobos" as he once labelled them (bourgeois b...
Tyler Stovall on white freedom
26 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“To be free is to be white, and to be white is to be free. In this reading, therefore, freedom and race are not just enemies but also allies”. Tha...
Carole Hooven on testosterone and masculinity
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What makes a man? My guest, Harvard evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven, has a one-word answer: testosterone. She is the author of the new book T: Th...
John Gray on why cats are wiser than philosophers
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"I do not believe the United States can now claim to be a liberal political culture". That's just one of the big claims made by the philosopher John G...
David French on how judges are saving the republic
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
America is either a plural republic or it dies. Right now, the judiciary is keeping pluralism shielded from attacks from both the political left and r...
Joseph Henrich on how religion changed sex, families and culture
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What made some societies so individualistic, so democratic, and so rich? The short version of Joe Henrich’s answer is: religion. By undermining kin-...
Jeremiah Johnson on the new neoliberalism
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is the difference between a liberal, a neoliberal, a new liberal, and a progressive? In this joint episode with The Neoliberal Podcast, hosted by...
Jennifer Morton on creating a better elite
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Societies always have an elite - but my guest today thinks we need a better one. Philosopher Jennifer Morton says we draw our leaders from too narrow ...
Jonathan Rauch on how to know what's true
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How do you know what's true? Who do you trust? These are questions that are no longer academic, philosophical ones, but at the heart of our politics a...
Nick Clegg on Facebook's Trump decision
04 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Facebook just imposed a two-year ban on Donald Trump for inciting the Jan 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. I talked to Nick Clegg, VP for Global Affair...
Cass Sunstein on Noise and nudges
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If bail decisions were made by an Artificial Intelligence instead of judges, repeat crime rates among applicants could be cut by 25%. That is because ...
Mustafa Akyol on liberalizing Islam
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is Islam compatible with liberal values, like human rights and gender equality? Mustafa Akyol, my guest today, believes so: but only if Islam itself b...
Martha Nussbaum on #MeToo, Title IX and sexual assault
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
My guest on this episode is an intellectual giant, the philosopher and legal scholar Martha Nussbaum. Her work has been kaleidoscopic in scope, coveri...
Chris Mason on the moral case for Mars and beyond
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Mason is a Professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, and works with NASA on the impact of space travel on the...
Liz Bruenig on the return of the death penalty
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The federal death penalty returned with a vengeance at the end of Donald Trump's term, with 13 of the 17 executions of the last 60 years taking place ...
Jonathan Haidt on making free speech better
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
My very first guest is NYU Professor and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, best known for his books The Righteous Mind in 2012 and The Coddling of t...