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Making Sense with Sam Harris

#99 — What Happened to Liberalism?

Making Sense with Sam Harris

Waking Up with Sam Harris

Samharris, Currentevents, Politics, Ethics, Religion, Neuroscience, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.629.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2017

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sam Harris speaks with Mark Lilla about the fate of political liberalism in the United States, the emergence of a new identity politics, the role of class in American society, wealth inequality, and other topics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're

0:12.1

hearing this, you are not currently on our subscriber feed and will only be hearing

0:16.2

the first part of this conversation. In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense

0:20.7

Podcast, you'll need to subscribe at samharis.org. There you'll find our private RSS feed

0:26.1

to add to your favorite pod catcher, along with other subscriber-only content. We don't run ads

0:31.2

on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support of our subscribers.

0:35.8

So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming one.

0:46.8

Today I'm speaking with Mark O'Lillah. Mark is a professor at Columbia University

0:51.7

and a prize-winning essayist for the New York Review of Books and many other publications.

0:58.6

His books include The Shipwrecked Mind, The Stillborn God, The Reckless Mind, and His latest book,

1:06.7

which is what we discuss, is The Once in Future Liberal. And Mark and I talk about essentially

1:13.4

the nature and history of liberalism in the United States and how identity politics has changed it.

1:20.3

And we talk about the ways in which identity politics may or may not be legitimate.

1:26.0

We talk about the role of class in American society, wealth inequality,

1:32.3

and we disagree about a few things. We agree about others, but it was a very enjoyable conversation.

1:38.5

And one that many of us who care about the future of politics have been having more and more.

1:44.1

So now without further delay, I bring you Mark O'Lillah.

1:54.5

I am here with Mark O'Lillah. Mark, thanks for coming on the podcast.

1:57.5

Good to be here.

1:59.6

So we have a mutual friend in Andrew Sullivan. I think that was our connection and Andrew,

2:04.9

someone who I have sparred with to our mutual amusement and benefit. And he's the great example for

2:11.9

me, of someone who you can disagree stridently with and still become friends. This is really the

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