Neoliberalism and its discontents

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2019

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Neoliberalism” is one of the most confusing phrases in political discourse today. The term is often used to describe the market fundamentalism of thinkers like Milton Friedman and Frederich Hayek or politicians like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. At the same time, critics often place more progressive figures like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and even Elizabeth Warren under the neoliberal banner. This raises an important question: what the hell is neoliberalism? I decided to bring on two guests today to help us answer that question. Wendy Brown is a professor of political theory at UC Berkeley, author of Undoing the Demos and In the Ruins of Neoliberalism, and one of the foremost critics of neoliberalism, not only as a set of economic policies but a “governing rationality” that infects almost all aspects of our existence. Noah Smith is an economist, a columnist at Bloomberg, and is known for his robust defenses of some (though not all) neoliberal positions, which earned him the prestigious title of Chief Neoliberal Shill of 2018. We discuss: - The differences between neoliberal theory and “actually existing neoliberalism” - Neoliberalism as not only a set of economic policies but a form of “public reason” that influences our very conception of what it means to be human - How neoliberal thought came to dominate almost every aspect of our lives - Whether neoliberalism is an inherently anti-democratic project - The relationship between neoliberal economic policies and traditional morality - The differences between New Deal liberalism and Obama-era neoliberalism - Whether a growth-driven economic model is compatible with our planet's ecological limits Book recommendations: How Asia Works by Joe Studwell Law Without Future by Jack Jackson Democracy in Chains by Nancy McLean My book is available for pre-order! You can find it at www.EzraKlein.com. Want to contact the show? Reach out at ezrakleinshow@vox.com You can subscribe to Ezra's new podcast Impeachment, explained on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or your favorite podcast app. Credits: Producer and Editor - Jeff Geld Researcher - Roge Karma Engineer - Topher Routh Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Prescription weight loss injections are all over the news right now.
0:05.0	People want them, people can't get them, everyone is talking about them.
0:08.0	They seem to work by removing hunger, but what does that really mean?
0:12.0	This episode of Gastropod, we talked to people who've taken these drugs and felt their hunger suddenly disappear.
0:17.0	We also talk to the researchers who are figuring out the science of hunger and fullness,
0:22.0	how it works and how it shapes our lives, plus why each of us experiences it so differently.
0:28.0	Come with us behind the headlines to hear what these drugs can tell us about the feelings that bookend each and every meal.
0:34.0	Listen to Gastropod wherever you get your podcasts.
0:37.0	What I'm interested in is exposing the difference between the idea that all that happened in the 70s is we put capitalism on steroids,
0:46.0	we just kind of amped it up and unleashed it and deregulated it and privatized a lot of public goods,
0:52.0	versus a new order of reason in which the state exists in order to facilitate markets and backs off from all forms of social justice intervention.
1:15.0	Hello, welcome to the audience on the Vox Media podcast network.
1:18.0	I'm going to start with some announcements, including one I'm very excited to make for a long time.
1:22.0	My book has existed as a character on this show, but always operating a little bit off stage, right?
1:28.0	Something that is happening in the background that is clearly ordering a lot of my thinking and a lot of my interviewing,
1:33.0	but who knows what it's going to be.
1:35.0	The book is now moving from abstraction to concrete reality, which is thrilling and a little bit scary,
1:40.0	but we have a release date at the end of January.
1:42.0	We have a title why we're polarized. We have a website.
1:45.0	You can go to www.eserkline.com and you can check it out. You can preorder.
1:50.0	I'm going to be doing a lot of sort of AMAs and having people interview me about the book when it comes out.
1:56.0	So I think having it in hand will make that a lot richer as a podcast experience.
	...

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