This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Christine and Damir kick things off by discussing a memoir about the fall of Communism in Albania. Damir reflects on his own post-Communist background, and ponders why Communist nostalgia affects only some countries, while others are not looking back. He wonders wheth…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live This week’s podcast is a recording of a live event. Rachel M. Cohen, a senior policy reporter for Vox, recently published an essay where she asks: “To our generation, being a mom looks thankless, exhausting, and lonely. Can we change the story?” As listeners know, thi…

America is badly polarized. It’s a fact so pervasively acknowledged that pointing it out starts to feel like saying the sky is blue. Unlike a blue sky, however, growing polarization in America presents a difficult challenge. Because America is both incredibly diverse and a vibrant democracy, polarization starts to eat away at our politics. Many att…

Editor’s note: We haven’t done an episode quite like this before. I absolutely loved this conversation with the novelist Jordan Castro, one of the most exciting young American authors writing today. Because it was such a rich conversation, we’re leaving out the paywall so that everyone can have a listen. —Shadi Hamid, co-founder, Wisdom of Crowds W…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live In a late-night confab, Damir and Sam explore the meaning of experiences of wonder, which they each have written about for Wisdom of Crowds. For Sam, these unique experiences are the foundation for his beliefs about the nature of the world and human life. Damir, on th…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live A recently-published memoir making headlines suggests a trend: Polyamory is going mainstream among high-status Americans. Culture critic and environmental studies professor Tyler Austin Harper joins Christine and Shadi to make sense of this fad, and explain why it’s b…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Christine and Damir discuss two personal essays from New York magazine that went viral last week. The first deals with divorce, the second with getting scammed. A flabbergasted Damir can’t believe they were published; he wonders if anyone outside New York would care t…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Jason Blakely of Pepperdine University joins Shadi and Damir to discuss his new book, Lost in Ideology: Interpreting Modern Political Life. A professor of political science, Jason claims that everyone has an ideology. The point is to be aware of it, and to remember th…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Our brand new Executive Editor, Santiago Ramos, joins Shadi and Damir to discuss his first-ever essay for Wisdom of Crowds, “Empathy for the Devil.” The essay is about the need for cognitive empathy in politics. But Damir wants to discuss something slightly different:…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Are ideas overrated? Shadi’s recent column (and controversial tweet) exploring the reasons behind Trump’s popularity launches a discussion about what exactly drives politics. Are politicians motivated by winning more than ideology? Do voters respond to strong personal…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Three months into the Israel-Gaza war, Shadi, Damir, and Sam get philosophical about morality and international relations. Is it realistic to expect states to behave morally? Is the Western concern for human rights real? Or is it merely a mask for self-interest and im…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Longtime member of the Crowd and WoC contributor once called episodes when Shadi and Damir just chew over stuff “train wrecks”. (He meant it in an affectionate way — we think.) Well that’s what this episode is: a classic back and forth that ranges far and wide. Shadi …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Aaron Sibarium, a star reporter over at the Washington Free Beacon covering the campus culture wars, joined us this week to talk about Claudine Gay’s resignation. Aaron’s reporting on Gay’s plagiarism was instrumental in her eventual downfall. We start the episode dis…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live This week, our in-house philosopher and very own Editor-at-Large returns to the podcast for a one-on-one discussion with about wealth, ambition and whether they are the paths toward happiness. How do societal values, especially those in American culture, influence our…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live We’re thrilled to publish the audio from our first major event in collaboration with Aspen Institute’s Philosophy & Society Initiative. P&S and Wisdom of Crowds have grown up together and are both relentlessly focused on getting down to first principle questions. Clic…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live What constitutes justifiable warfare—and how should the overall impact of conflicts be evaluated? With the United States being so closely associated with Israel’s war, is it possible to still envision America as a “force for good” in the world? One of America’s leadin…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live Why do Americans struggle so much to understand Palestinians? A former advisor to the Palestinian leadership and a participant in the doomed 2008 Annapolis peace talks, Khaled Elgindy has written arguably the definitive account of America’s blind spot. In Blind Spot: …