What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?

[Horace]

Good conversation on Bari Weiss's Honestly today, with Jay Bhattacharya, new head of the NIH. The previous one, under Biden, called him fringe and dangerous, but it's difficult to believe that to be the actual case. He just disagreed with the mainstream at the peak of the panicked reaction to COVID, and paid the reputational price. He seems like the best-case scenario for a scientist you'd hope would be part of RFK Jr's administration.

[jon-nyc]

There are independent thinkers, and there are contrarians. The latter consider themselves the former but it’s really just another style of groupthink.

[Horace]

@jon-nyc said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

There are independent thinkers, and there are contrarians. The latter consider themselves the former but it’s really just another style of groupthink.

I'm sure you'd allow that Bari is in the former camp, and I'm sure you won't listen to this interview to hear how strongly she disagrees with your characterization of Jay. And I'm sure you don't actually know anything about Jay, including that the former NIH head who called him fringe and dangerous, eventually apologized.

[jon-nyc]

Bari Weiss interviewed Niall Ferguson about the tariff mess. I was expecting a lot of sane-washing like with the Harris interview but it was much more of a nuanced and big-picture discussion. Highly recommended.

[Horace]

The Niall Ferguson interview was good.

Rogan had on Douglas Murray and a guy named Dave Smith, a popular libertarian podcaster in the rogan-sphere, who takes the other side of lots of issues Murray is passionate about. Murray's intent coming on the podcast was to stick up for the more mainstream positions that he thinks are underrepresented on Rogan.

[jon-nyc]

Murray was on Andrew Sullivan’s pod this week. They went at it a bit as Sullivan’s more balanced with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I got his book which came out this week. Saving to listen to it on a flight Sunday.

[Horace]

Here's a novelty. Tim Tebow talks to Jordan Peterson.

Link to video

[jon-nyc]

Sam talked to Douglas Murray in his latest. Worth a listen. I just started listening to Murray’s new book.

[Horace]

Tucker and Glenn Loury. Loury was "fired" by the Manhattan Institute recently, over his sympathy for the Palestinian perspective.

I don't listen to Loury much anymore and no longer subscribe, but I'll try to make my way through this. I failed the challenge of his book, to accept his brutal honesty and transparency and not lose respect for him. So much of it was so gross. But, he's still an interesting and honest thinker.

Link to video

[jon-nyc]

Bari Weiss’s latest is ‘How China Conquered Apple’.

Scary and sad but a must-listen.

[jon-nyc]

Just listened to Tyler Cowen interview Jack Clark, cofounder of Anthropic.

Very interesting and wide ranging discussion on AI and its effect on the economy, government, education. Not heavy futuristic stuff for the most part, but things we’ll see in the next 5+ years.

Highly recommended.

[Horace]

Cowen recently signed on with FP. He's actually why I subscribed. I'm actually slightly iffy on Weiss herself these days.

[jon-nyc]

Me too, honestly, as regards Weiss. I think things changed a bit when her funders took a very public pro-Trump stance.

But I hold out hope she might be turning it around. She was criticized by people such as Claire Lehman and Andrew Sullivan, whom she surely imagines as part of her 'tribe'. Also the tariff stuff is probably not so popular in her circles.

We'll see.