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Wisdom of Crowds

Shadi Hamid & Damir Marusic

Agreement is nice. Disagreement is better. wisdomofcrowds.live

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All Episodes

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

47:46

Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/03/07

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveWith the Gaza ceasefire possibly collapsing any minute, we return to the topic of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks and the ensuing war in the Holy Land. Specifically, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic discuss the tension between a belief in universal human rights, on the one hand, and allegiance to one’s ethnic and religious roots, on the other. Joining Shadi and Damir is friend of the pod Peter Beinart, contributing

70:50

A Revolution Has No Allies

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/03/01

J. D. Vance delivers a seismic geopolitical speech at the Munich Security Forum. Vance, Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy get into a shouting match before television cameras. Relations between the United States and Europe are deteriorating before our very eyes. In one of our best episodes of the year so far, we invited the great Ivan Krastev to help us understand what is happening.Ivan is one of the brightest minds in Europe — an incisive analyst, historian of ideas, and ever-present

45:29

The Boom Boom Vibe Shift

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/02/22

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live“Something is happening here and you don’t know what it is,” goes the Bob Dylan track from 1965. That song was directed at the squares who weren’t yet hip to the Sixties. It sounded foreboding then, and it sounds foreboding now, because something is happening, again — something perhaps as great and consequential as the cultural changes of Dylan’s time. For several years now, people have been speaking about a cultural

49:33

Done Saying "Impossible"

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/02/14

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live“I am done saying, ‘impossible’,” announces Damir Marusic. At least, with regard to what Trump might do or could do in the near future. We are still in the midst of a major shakeup in the administrative state. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is combing through Treasury data and cutting government personnel. Trump is delaying the distribution of federal funds. Trump’s policies have full support

43:24

Undertaken by Events

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/02/06

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveDonald Trump and Elon Musk are moving quickly, so we decided to release this episode a few days early. In a half-week of alarming developments, Trump has announced that the United States might send troops to Gaza to transfer the Palestinian population to Egypt or Jordan, and to aid in reconstructing the country. Elon Musk has become the undertaker of government agencies, the wrecker of the civil service. Through the

47:07

The Scramble Before the Storm

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/02/02

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live“The weird right wing men are coming out to the fore in joy,” announces Shadi Hamid. “They’re strutting more than they did in 2016,” observes Damir Marusic. “The counter-elite is becoming the elite,” says Shadi. “There is gonna be a bloodbath,” says Damir: “They will soon be drinking from a fire hydrant of sewage.”Two weeks have passed since the Trump inauguration, as well as its attendant galas, balls and parties

46:50

How Will the Left Respond to Trump?

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/01/26

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveLast week’s episode dealt with the state of the American Right post-election. Today we ask: Where is the American Left going? How will it respond to Trump? “There is a palpable sense of passivity on the Left,” says Damir Marusic. “What I’ve seen is resignation or weird, detached analysis,” says Samuel Kimbriel. Is there more going on than we see? We invited WoC contributor Osita Nwanevu, writer for the New Republic and

45:27

The State of the Right (and the Left)

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/01/19

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveOn the eve of Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic sit down to discuss the state of the Right and the Left in American politics. The conversation picks up where the last podcast episode left off, in a discussion about Damir’s apparent rejuvenation in the wake of Trump’s victory. Given that he didn’t vote for Trump — in fact, he didn’t vote for anybody — why is Damir smiling?Shadi suggests

73:12

The Dawn of a New Era?

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2025/01/13

A new year is before us, and soon, a new president will assume office. What does the future have in store? Trump supporters are happy, and his opponents are full of foreboding. Many people also feel that a new era in American history is about to begin — for better or worse. Damir Marusic and Santiago Ramos discuss the nature of this new era. They begin with the question of fear: Are you afraid of the second Trump term? Santiago explains why the Trump phenomenon seemed more frightening in 2016 than

50:24

Freedom, Justice and McDonald's

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2024/12/29

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveFor some people, “liberal socialism” sounds like an oxymoron. Liberalism is a political idea that promises to protect individual rights. Socialism, on the other hand, is about collective power: the power of workers to organize and, if not quite seize, at least have a say in the administration of the means of production. Liberalism is about freedom, while socialism is about equality. Not so, argues Matthew McManus,

73:42

Christmas Time and Regular Time

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2024/12/24

Damir Marusic has been reading the Bible this year for the first time. So Christine Emba and Santiago Ramos decided it was the perfect occasion for interrogating him about what he’s learned and what he’s been thinking about. In the ensuing conversation, the three discuss Freemasonry, Protestantism, Catholicism, Predestination and how Christianity is receiving new attention in Silicon Valley. Then, the conversation turns to Christmas traditions, and how the contemplative and party-going sides of

63:36

Live Episode: Rebellion or Realignment?

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2024/12/19

As election data analysis continues to pour in, we can be sure of one thing: a large number of working class votes which traditionally would have gone to the Democrats shifted in 2024 toward the GOP. As CNN reported last week: “Trump ran up large margins among White voters without a college degree who belong to labor unions and also significantly improved among unionized non-White workers without advanced education.”So, did Trump’s victory signal a realignment for the working class? Or was it a

50:33

Did Trump Win Over the Working Class For Good?

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2024/12/15

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIn 2024, over 77 million Americans voted for Donald Trump. Friend of Wisdom of Crowds Michael Brendan Dougherty, a writer and conservative commentator at the National Review, was one of them. However, MBD (as he is known) did not vote for Trump in 2020 nor in 2016. In fact, he was an early conservative opponent of Trump. In 2016, MBD wrote: “[Trump] is clearly a product of a decadent society, not the scourge or redeemer

43:45

Thou Hypocrites!

Wisdom of Crowds ·

2024/12/08

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveLast week, President Biden granted his son, Hunter Biden, “a full and unconditional” pardon for any and all offenses from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. Because Hunter Biden has been a politically charged figure since the first Trump term, and because President Biden repeatedly promised that he would not use his power to protect his son, the presidential pardon was, for many, a strategic and moral mistake — an act of

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