The DC Salon
Episodes
IS THERE A MORAL AESTHETIC
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Liberties Journal hosts a monthly conversation in this iteration of which dozens gather to together ask and answer the question IS THERE A MORAL AESTH...
IS ICONOCLASM MORAL
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Liberties Journal hosts a monthly conversation in this iteration of which dozens gather to together ask and answer the question IS ICONOCLASM MORAL?
DC SALON 17: Does Success Help?
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Liberties Journal hosts a monthly conversation in this iteration of which dozens gather to together ask and answer the question Does Success Help?
DC Salon 16: Is Curiosity Dangerous
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chris McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends gather in the Liberties Journal offices to ask and answer the question "Is Cu...
DC Salon 15: Is There Honor Without Revenge
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer the question Is There Honor Without Revenge?
NYC Salon 3: Can We Change How We Love
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty New Yorkers together ask and answer the question "Can We Change How We Love?"
DC Salon 14: Can We Change How We Love
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer the question "Can We Change How We love?"
DC Salon 13: Can We Learn To Be Alone?
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Liberties Journal's associate publisher and managing editor together with sixty of their closest friends ask and answer the question "Can We Learn To ...
DC Salon 12: Can People Change
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chris McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and thirty of their closest friends assemble on New Years eve to together ask and answer the question "Can People Cha...
DC Salon 11: Is Art More Beautiful Than Nature?
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer the question "Is Art More Beautiful Than Nature?".
DC Salon 10: Can We Choose Our Beliefs?
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer the question "Can We Choose Our Beliefs?".
DC Salon 9: May We Despair?
24 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer the question "may we despair?".
DC Salon 8: Can Nonbelievers Pray?
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer: Can Nonbelievers Pray?
WRB x Liberties Salon 7 - Propaganda: Do You Know It When You See it?
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends discuss what propaganda is and whether it is easily identifiable.
WRB x Liberties Salon 6 - Should you Like Your Friends?
25 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, of the Washington Review of Books, and Celeste Marcus host a conversation in which a group of interested parties ask and answer...
WRB x Liberties Salon 5 - Is Loyalty Possible Without Nationalism?
13 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, of the Washington Review of Books, and Celeste Marcus host their spiciest salon yet. Is nationalism inherently evil? Is it the ...
WRB x Liberties Salon 4 - Should art be useful?
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, of the Washington Review of Books, and Celeste Marcus host a salon of interested parties who together ask and offer answers to ...
WRB x Liberties Salon 3 — Should love be healthy?
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, of the Washington Review of Books, and Celeste Marcus host a salon of interested parties who together ask and offer answers to ...
WRB x Liberties Salon 2 — Is Forgiveness Possible?
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher McCaffery, of the Washington Review of Books, and Celeste Marcus host a salon of interested parties who together ask and offer answers to ...
Episode 34 - Celeste Marcus
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Host Chuong Nguyen talks to Celeste Marcus about her most recent essay, After Rape: A Guide For The Tormented. They consider questions like, "Why...
WRB x Liberties Salon 1 - Are Books Worthwhile?
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chris McCaffery, of the Washington Review of Books, and Celeste Marcus, managing editor of Liberties, host a salon in which they and a group of lively...
Episode 33 - Khalil Sayegh
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian born and raised in Gaza, talks about his experience in the peace-building world and how he intends to change it.
Recording: Liberties X Interintellect Salon: Arash Azizi
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Recording of a salon held on October 19th with Arash Azizi about socialism, liberalism, and the Israeli Palestinian conference. EVENT UPDATE: This sa...
Episode 32 - Benjamin Moser
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the first in a series Liberties X Interintellect salons, Benjamin Moser joins Celeste Marcus to discuss his forthcoming book The Upside Down World....
Episode 31 - Agnes Callard and Becca Rothfeld
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Becca Rothfeld and Celeste Marcus pepper Agnes Callard with questions about motherhood, among them: how it changes one, whether it's possible to p...
Episode 30 - Justin E H Smith
04 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Justin E H Smith joins Celeste Marcus to discuss the thought and style of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Episode 29 - Agnes Callard
20 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Agnes Callard and Celeste Marcus use "Scenes from a Marriage," the television series directed by Ingmar Bergman and released in 1973, to consider them...
Episode 28 - Jared Marcel Pollen
28 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jared Marcel Pollen joins Leon Wieseltier to discuss Václav Havel and the proper relationship between power and justice.
Episode 27 - Celeste Marcus
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus discuss the rise of the radical Israeli right and the peculiar pain of responsible loyalty to a state
Episode 26 - Justin E. H. Smith
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Justin E. H. Smith joins Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus to discuss the gamification of reality, and the pernicious compulsion to control and descr...
Episode 25 - William Deresiewicz
14 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
William Deresiewicz joins Celeste Marcus to discuss his upcoming book "The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society." In this conversat...
Episode 24 - Morten Høi Jensen
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Morten Høi Jensen joins Celeste Marcus to discuss literary biography as a failed genre, the impossibility of a writer ever achieving intimacy with he...
Episode 23 - Celeste Marcus & Leon Wieseltier
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus discuss La Ruche, Soutine, the romantic, fleeting world of the School of Paris, and its brutal destruction du...
Twenty-Second Episode - Laura Kipnis
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Kipnis joins Celeste Marcus to discuss Laura's most recent essay for Liberties, "Gender: A Melee," in which she debunks the bad faith arguments ...
Twenty-First Episode - Richard Thompson Ford
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Thompson Ford joins Leon Wieseltier to discuss what the legacy of slavery can and cannot explain about America.
Twentieth Episode - Martha Nussbaum
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Martha Nussbaum joins Leon Wieseltier for a conversation about the relationship between the body and the soul.
Nineteenth Episode - Becca Rothfeld and Agnes Callard
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Agnes Callard and Becca Rothfeld join Celeste Marcus to discuss the movie The Night Porter.
Eighteenth Episode - Leon Wieseltier
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus discuss the many dimensions of the horror in Ukraine. “If you want to deter such obscenities, and if you want to ...
Seventeenth Episode - Holly Brewer
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Holly Brewer joins Celeste Marcus to discuss the intellectual history of a pernicious racist idea contemporary scholars wrongly attributed to John Loc...
Sixteenth Episode - Michael Kimmage
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Kimmage and Leon Wieseltier discuss the rhetoric of declinism which is both ubiquitous and inaccurate, its origins, and the dangers it poses.
Fifteenth Episode - Benjamin Moser
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Moser, in conversation with Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus, argues that translation is a form of cultural appropriation that does not app...
Fourteenth Episode - Jewher Ilham
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jewher Ilham, Uyghur activist and the daughter of celebrated economist Ilham Tohti (now serving a life sentence in jail in China), joins Leon Wieselti...
Thirteenth Episode - Agnes Callard
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Agnes Callard joins Celeste Marcus to discuss the movie Winter Light (1963), faith, faithlessness, body hatred, and, of course, Ingmar Bergman.
Twelfth Episode - Mamtimin Ala
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mamtimin Ala, a Uyghur activist and intellectual, talks with Celeste Marcus not only about the Uyghur genocide in China, but also about the syncretist...
Eleventh Episode - Michelle Dauphinais Echols
02 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michelle Dauphinais Echols talks with Celeste Marcus about the alleged rape and torture of her nine cousins, the Charbonneau sisters, at St. Paul's In...
Tenth Episode - Becca Rothfeld
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Becca Rothfeld and Celeste Marcus discuss Sanctimony Literature, the relationship between art and politics, and how to evaluate political art.
Ninth Episode - Ramachandra Guha
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ramachandra Guha talks with Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus about Modi's disastrous mishandling of the pandemic in India, the ensuing disaster, and...
Eighth Episode - Andrea Marcolongo
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Andrea Marcolongo talks with Celeste Marcus about how the pandemic has altered her self-perception as a writer, and about what a writer's role is.&nbs...
Seventh Episode - Elliot Ackerman and Leon Wieseltier
30 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Elliot Ackerman and Leon Wieseltier talk with Celeste Marcus about American foreign policy. Regarding the decision to pull all troops out of Afghanist...
Sixth Episode - David Greenberg
25 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
David Greenberg talks with Celeste Marcus about the process of renaming public spaces and buildings, concerns about how such decisions are made,...
Fifth Episode - Leon Wieseltier
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus discuss the catastrophe in Syria: "We’re commemorating two terrible things: the destruction of a country and a so...
Fourth Episode - Thomas Chatterton Williams
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Chatterton Williams talks with Celeste Marcus about making sense of and participating in the vicissitudes of American culture from across the o...
Third Episode - Shawn McCreesh
18 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Shawn McCreesh talks with Celeste Marcus about what it was like to grow up in a suburb of Philadelphia ravaged by the opioid crisis.
Second Episode - Michael Ignatieff
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Ignatieff, rector of Central European University, chats with Celeste Marcus about what it was like to watch America desecrate its own sacred i...
First Episode - Leon Wieseltier
04 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus talk about hope and fear, and how to keep our heads in all our crises.