Facing Reality
The Glenn Show
Glenn Loury
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2021
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Here is my conversation with Charles Murray (of The Bell Curve fame) about his new book, Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America. We review the argument of his book—that the "American Creed" of fair play and equal treatment for all is imperiled by a failure to reckon with the actual differences across racial groups in measured intelligence and participation in violent crime. We explore the evidence for his claim about racial differences, the extent to which these facts are being denied, and the plausibility of his concern that said denial threatens to undermine the republic. We also discuss the effectiveness of policy interventions aimed at reducing racial disparities.
As always, I’m curious to know what you think.
0:00 Intro
1:37 How Charles deals with his notoriety
5:26 Charles's new book, Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America
13:49 Grappling with the fact of group disparities
21:04 Threats from the left, threats from the right
27:33 The shift in white attitudes toward race since the 1950s
35:11 What would happen if white people revolted?
41:13 Charles: Black people are not genetically inferior
50:36 Why small differences in ability can have major consequences
54:29 Charles: We need universal, not race-based, public policy solutions
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from BloggingHeads TV. |
| 0:08.7 | We're underway. |
| 0:09.7 | Hello, Charles. |
| 0:10.7 | Good morning, let. |
| 0:13.8 | This is Glenn Loury. |
| 0:14.8 | It's the Glenn Show BloggingHeads.tv and Patreon.com. |
| 0:18.4 | I'm with Charles Murray. |
| 0:20.6 | Charles barely needs an introduction, but I'm going to give him one anyway. |
| 0:23.9 | This is a great social scientist who's written, you know, books that have shaken the |
| 0:29.6 | foundation of our intellectual lives. |
| 0:32.7 | I can count them losing ground for a decade, set the terms of the debate about welfare reform. |
| 0:40.1 | If you look at Bill Clinton's welfare reform in 1996, you'll see the imprint of his 1984 |
| 0:46.4 | book, The Bill Curve with Richard Herndstein is still being talked about a quarter century |
| 0:51.1 | later, an engagement with the question of human intelligence, the differences amongst |
| 0:57.8 | people in their intellectual and cognitive capacities and the implications of that for |
| 1:02.1 | American social life, notorious and also profoundly influential book, a very brave book coming |
| 1:10.3 | apart. |
| 1:11.3 | I'm leaving out books. |
| 1:13.4 | I'm leaving out human accomplishment, for example. |
| 1:16.2 | I'm leaving out human diversity, which I discussed here at the podcast with Amy Wex, |
| 1:23.8 | so impressed me with the audacity of the intellectual project undertaken to survey these |
| 1:30.0 | vast literatures, but okay, that's enough appraising Charles Murray's book. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Glenn Loury, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Glenn Loury and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.