The Past and Present of Privacy and Public Life (with Tiffany Jenkins)

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

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Summary

A paradox of our time is our willingness to bare all to strangers while worrying about who exactly is watching us online and anywhere else. Listen as author Tiffany Jenkins discusses her book, Strangers and Intimates, with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. In this wide-ranging conversation, they explore the role of Martin Luther, J.S. Mill, reality TV, and social media, among other factors, in creating the norms of the public and private spheres over time and today.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:07.9	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Sholem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.8	Go to EconTalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.2	You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.7	Our email address is mail at econTalk.org.
0:30.0	We'd love to hear from you.
0:36.6	Today is April 23rd, 2025, and my guest is author Tiffany Jenkins.
0:41.8	She was last here in January of 2023 talking about plunder, museums, and marbles.
0:47.8	Her latest book, which is our topic for today, is strangers and intimates, the rise and fall of private life. Tiffany, welcome back to Econ Talk.
0:58.9	Glad to be here. I want to let listeners know that some of our conversation today may involve
1:04.2	adult themes, so if you are listening with young children, you may want to act accordingly.
1:10.0	I want to start with the title of the book.
1:12.0	It's a beautiful title.
1:14.0	And after, when I first got the book and I thought, Strangers and Enemates,
1:18.6	it was an interesting title.
1:20.7	And after I finished the book, just that framing of the topics you discuss,
1:27.0	the rise and fall of private life and so much more, it really resonated with me.
1:32.0	So start by talking about why you chose that title and what it means to you.
1:38.0	Well, I originally wanted to write about private life and privacy.
1:43.0	And as I was thinking about it, I was reading
1:46.1	about 19th century Britain. And this was a time when there was a huge influx of people into
1:52.7	cities, Manchester and London in particular. And society, one commentator described it, was a
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