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Wisdom of Crowds

Shadi Hamid & Damir Marusic

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52:28

Paul Elie on Culture and Crypto-Religiosity

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/07/12

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIt’s the summer doldrums, so this week, Wisdom of Crowds is taking a break from politics and war and Trump. Instead, we are talking about culture. Our guest, Paul Elie, is one of the leading culture and religion writers in the United States. His words have appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the New York Times. Paul’s latest book, The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s, tells the story

39:25

Is History Still Over? with Francis Fukuyama

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/07/03

Last month, Francis Fukuyama was scheduled to come to Washington, DC for a live taping of Wisdom of Crowds. Unfortunately, as subscribers know, Frank lost his voice the morning of his scheduled appearance, and we were forced to cancel. However, we were able to record a bit of conversation with him and Shadi Hamid the following day, with a few colleagues asking questions.The conversation ended up being a quasi-“state of liberalism” address, perfect for July 4th weekend.The conversation begins with

52:42

War is the Father of All

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/06/28

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live“War is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bond and some free.”So said the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. In his essay this week, Santiago Ramos says the opposite: “… war is a necessary evil; it is not what preserves the great achievements of the human race. War threatens those achievements, and we are lucky that more has not been destroyed already.” Santiago

59:58

Sohrab Ahmari on the Israel-Iran War and its Aftermath

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/06/19

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveThe Israel-Iran war is about to enter its sixth day. As of this recording — Wednesday evening, June 18 — President Trump has not announced whether the United States will join the Israeli war effort.During this unpleasant lull, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic invited Sohrab Ahmari to discuss what we can expect from the war and its aftermath. In recent days, Sohrab has emerged as an essential commentator on the Iran Israel

47:49

Abbas Milani on the Future of Iran

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/06/15

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveThe war between Iran and Israel is bound to determine the future of the Middle East and, possibly, the whole world. The time is fitting, then, to release Shadi Hamid’s and Santiago Ramos’ conversation with Abbas Milani, professor of political science and Iran Studies at Stanford University. Professor Milani is a world-renowned authority on Iran, having published Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran and The Shah, a

32:19

Livestream: War in Iran

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/06/13

It’s finally happened: Israel has attacked Iran. Wisdom of Crowds executive editor Santiago Ramos joined Damir Marusic for a live-streamed emergency q&a about the latest Middle East crisis. What do we know? What can we expect in the near future? What does this mean for the Middle East in the long term? And why does Damir think that Israel is America’s “junkyard dog”? For those who missed it, here is the video!If you missed the live stream and wish you hadn’t: there’s never been a better time to

55:47

What Kanye West Thinks He's Doing

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/06/07

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveWhy do artists try so hard to shock the public? Why is Kanye West singing about Hitler? Why are New York artists dabbling with fascism?The novelist and cultural critic Țara Isabella Burton joins Damir Marusic and Santiago Ramos to discuss these questions and more. Last week, Tara published an essay on Wisdom of Crowds titled “The Point of Pissing People Off.” In it, she tries to figure out whether there is something

40:05

The Future of AI and the Future of Humanity

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/06/01

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIs tech replacing humanity? Or is it sharpening the question of what it means to be human? What does it mean to live a good life — as opposed to passable life? What features of humanity become more important by contrast and necessity in the technological age? Is it possible to find a higher version of humanity in order to thrive?For this week’s episode — a live taping of Wisdom of Crowds — we invited Santi Ruiz to

49:20

Sex and Death and Norms and Shame

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/05/24

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveWe live in an increasingly weird world, where the weirdness is facilitated and accelerated by the Internet. We live in a world full of instantly-available bizarre pornography and terrorist attacks inspired by misanthropic ideologies whose manifestos are published online. Katherine Dee, an Internet ethnographer, writer and friend of Wisdom of Crowds, joins Christine Emba and Shadi Hamid to talk about the recent terrorist

75:14

How to Think About Power and Morality

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/05/17

As subscribers of Wisdom of Crowds will know, the war in Gaza has preoccupied Shadi Hamid for over a year now, and has taken a central place in his political thinking. Damir Marusic begins this episode by challenging Shadi on this point. Is he giving too much importance to one political and moral cause over all others? And is he giving too much importance to morality as such in geopolitics?The conversation eventually shifts when Damir tells Shadi that he is an “activist” when he writes in favor of a

47:27

Make Greatness Great Again

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/05/11

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveOur special guest this week, David Polansky is a political theorist and commentator who lives in Canada. A frequent contributor to Wisdom of Crowds, he joins Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic to discuss two excellent recent essays. The first one, titled “Does Canada Exist?” is about Canadian national identity, an issue that has become more relevant since Donald Trump has taken to calling Canada the 51st state, and while

48:58

"A Nation of Trumps"

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/05/03

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveTrump has been in office for one hundred days, and Damir Marusic thinks America deserves him: “I do tend to intuitively see Trump and Trumpism as a correction on a social order that has lost its way and is somehow badly out of tune,” Damir wrote earlier this week. “Something is broken and unsustainable, and has been so for a while.”Christine Emba and Shadi Hamid have questions. Why is Damir still “ebullient” (his words)

44:28

Trust Your Mind!

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/04/26

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveThis episode is a bit “meta”: it’s about what it means to keep an open mind, how to trust your conscience, why we should all avoid groupthink, and the phenomenon of “self silencing” — keeping your views to yourself when you’re afraid it might be too costly to say them out loud. But of course, this being Wisdom of Crowds, we link these meta-topics to the politics of the day. Jenara Nerenberg is a journalist, producer,

50:57

How to Get Un-Stuck

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/04/18

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIs it possible to move up in this world? Are Americans stuck? Our guest today is Yoni Appelbaum, an American historian and staff writer at The Atlantic magazine. His new book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity, explores the various ways the American dream has been stymied — by the consolidation of property and wealth, the abuse of environmental regulations, the legacy

44:59

Is there a Method to Trump’s Madness?

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/04/11

It’s been an exceptionally crazy week, even by Trump-era standards. So we decided to experiment with the podcast this week by doing a live-stream recording. Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic discuss whether there is a method to Trump’s madness about tariffs and everything else — or whether we have to accept that we are ruled by a Mad King, who himself does not know what he will do from one moment to the next. It’s free for all subscribers, so give it a listen!Required Reading:* Shadi’s interview with

48:59

Ross Douthat on Why We Should All Be Religious

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/04/04

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIn 2012, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat published Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, a book about how mainstream American religion was devolving into the prosperity gospel, superstitious cults and other forms of heterodox faith. Thirteen years later, the American religious landscape has changed, and Ross wrote a new book tackling a much more basic question: why you should be religious at all. He

45:13

The Romanticism Debate

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/03/28

This week, we tried an experiment: a Substack live event! Matthew Gasda wrote a popular article about Romanticism, his contribution to an ongoing debate. Samuel Kimbriel had a few disagreements with Gasda’s piece. In the spirit of Wisdom of Crowds, we hosted our first-ever live-streamed Substack debate.It went pretty well! We hope to host more. By popular demand, here is a video recording of that debate. Please continue the discussion in the comments below!— Santiago Ramos, executive editorRequired

46:19

Samuel Moyn on Democracy and the Courts

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/03/26

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveFriend of Wisdom of Crowds and frequent podcast guest Samuel Moyn is a professor of law and history at Yale University, and author of several books, including Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War (2021, Macmillan) and Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times (2023). He is also the author of a recent article saying that no, sorry, the courts cannot save

51:20

Is Democracy Ending?

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/03/20

Recent events suggest that the balance of power is breaking down. Trump is achieving executive supremacy. In less fancy terms, Trump looks like he’s becoming a dictator. Rule of law might be slipping away. Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic agree about all this. But they disagree about which recent event is the true inflection point.Shadi thinks it’s the Mahmoud Khalil case: it’s a straightforward government action against freedom of speech, intended to have a chilling effect on the population. Damir

55:02

Why do "Sensitive Young Men" Love Trump?

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/03/14

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveMana Afsari is a writer and sometime contributor to Wisdom of Crowds, whose career has taken her from the RAND Corporation, to a job as an assistant to a great American poet, to the position of Research Associate at the Aspen Institute’s Philosophy and Society Initiative. In January, Mana published an essay titled, “Last Boys at the Beginning of History,” a fascinating reported piece about the young men with

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