Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I'm the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs Magazine,

and I am here with one of our longest-serving contributors to Current Affairs Magazine,

a gentleman who, if you've been reading Current Affairs for a few years, you will have seen a number of articles by,

from capitalism is collectivist to oil age, and we are so delighted that he has finally produced his first book.

The book is Progress, how one idea built civilization and it now threatens to destroy it.

It is available from St. Martin's Press.

It discusses a number of the themes that Sam Miller MacDonald has covered in current affairs.

We are delighted to welcome Sam Miller McDonald to the program.

Sam.

Delighted to be here.

Thanks for having me.

Well, congratulations on the progress book. We're excited to dive into it with you.

You managed to piss off the Spectator magazine. I was delighted to see, which...

Yeah, they weren't very happy about it. Called it the rats of a self-hating American.

What I loved is they said that the book radiates self-regard arrogance and flannel,

which since the last time I saw you, you were in fact in flannel.

I will say that one out of three of those is not inaccurate.

I'll take that one. That's fair. Yeah, radiates flannel. What's where you've had flannel? Like, what's their

problem? I don't know what that means, even, you know, what would it mean? For a book to radiate flannel?

Yeah. That one, that one baffled me me a lot of that one baffled me but

i think yeah the british elites have not been happy about it i will say you are uh for our audio

listeners and readers you are in fact in a suit and tie and not in uh not in flannel with us today

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