My friend John Ganz and I reformed our intermittent podcast this week to talk about New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s interview with PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Among the topics covered:* Why Thiel is obsessed with Greta Thunberg, who he seems to think is the Antichrist;* What “steelmanning” is, and why it’s damaged Thiel’s ability to answer questions from even friendly interviews;* The Zohran Mamdani campaign as anti-Thiel politics.You can listen to the podcast here, or on whatever platforms you get your podcasts from.A reminder! Read Max, whether in text or audio form, is the product of an extensive amount of work--research, reporting, deliberation, writing, editing, recording, staring at the wall, etc. Nearly all of my compensation for that work comes from paying subscribers, whose generosity represents about 90 percent of my total income. If you find Read Max rewarding to you at all: If it makes you laugh, smile, think, sigh, whatever: Please consider upgrading your subscription. Not only will you help ensure its continued existence, you’ll also get access to a second, paywalled newsletter every week featuring recommendations for books, movies, and music that you might not otherwise know about. Get full access to Read Max at maxread.substack.com/subscribe

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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