Best David Sehat Podcasts (2024)

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MindPop 42: Polyamory 37:45

6M ago37:45

37:45

Polyamory. If you’ve been paying any attention lately, you’ve probably heard the term. TV shows, books, magazines, and social media are abuzz with what appears to be widescale experimentation in consensual non-monogamy. But what does it mean? Where did the idea come from? How is it different than swinging, friends-with-benefits, having a side piece…

1
MindPop 41: Food Safety, Food Politics 47:36

5y ago47:36

47:36

E. coli. Listeria. Salmonella. When you turn on the news, it's hard not to hear about some tragic outbreak caused by lettuce, or beef, or something unknown. Why do outbreaks occur with such regularity? Is a failure of big government? Or is it big business putting profits above its customers? Or is it a regulatory state that is underfunded and overt…

1
MindPop 40: HAL 9000 43:49

6+ y ago43:49

43:49

When we think about AI, many of us have in mind HAL 9000 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. But AI is here and it is not quite like the movies. So what does AI look like today? How it reshaping contemporary society and government? Whose interests does it serve and, for those pessimistic about its influence, is there anything that can be done to …

1
MindPop 39: Solitude 36:30

6+ y ago36:30

36:30

What does it mean to be alone? Is aloneness, as Thoreau said, necessary to live deliberately? Or is it perhaps a curse of modern life made worse by mass media and cultural fragmentation? In this episode, American Studies scholar Ina Bergmann talks about the cultures of solitude in past and present.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 38: Network Error 31:41

6+ y ago31:41

31:41

How should we understand public debate in the era of social media? Can the internet be salvaged for democracy promotion? Or is it a Trojan horse for a dystopian future? Phil Howard of the Oxford Internet Institute talks about social media and politics.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 37: Truth and Post-Truth 34:02

6+ y ago34:02

34:02

How do we maintain a sense of fact and reality in a post-truth age? Are there any objective and universally accepted arbiters of truth left? How can democratic government, or even democratic argument, work without a mutually accepted body of information? Oxford politics scholar Nadia Hilliard talks about truth and post-truth in American government.…

1
MindPop 36: A Conservative Revolution 29:23

7y ago29:23

29:23

What was the impetus behind the American Revolution? Why were the revolutionaries who set up American institutions so concerned to protect property? What political implications does the founding moment have for today? Birmingham political historian Tom Cutterham talks about the conservative impulses in the American Revolution and what radical polit…

1
MindPop 35: Black Humanism, Black Struggle 34:41

7y ago34:41

34:41

"What can you say about God in light of human suffering in the world?" asks Rice religion scholar Anthony Pinn. "Nothing," he says, "because there is no God." In this conversation, we talk about black humanism and its connection to black activism and empowerment. Does black humanism betray African-American cultural tradition? Can you motivate peopl…

1
MindPop 34: Taking a Knee 42:46

7y ago42:46

42:46

Are white NFL team owners like modern slave masters? Do symbolic gestures produce fruitful political conversations? What kind of historical reckoning would be necessary for real social and political change? Williams historian Gretchen Long considers what the NFL protests signify about race in the United States today.…

1
MindPop 33: Politics and Hope 40:06

7y ago40:06

40:06

How does one recover from catastrophe? Why does politics fail and how does one find courage to continue? What can be done to recover the possibilities of collective action? Intellectual historian Richard King does a deep dive into the thought of Hannah Arendt, looking for some answers.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 32: Disaster Politics 43:08

7y ago43:08

43:08

Why do presidents so often mess up disaster relief? Why is Congress so useless when it comes to rational planning and policy? Is any way to create a change in the political dynamic? Oxford political historian Gareth Davies talks disaster politics.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 31: Ideas and Progress 35:48

7y ago35:48

35:48

Pulitzer prize-winning historian Daniel Walker Howe talks about contemporary politics, the antebellum era, his disagreements with other historians (including his disagreements with MindPop host David Sehat), and why, in spite of Donald Trump, he still believes in progress.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 30: What is religious freedom? 28:55

7y ago28:55

28:55

David Sehat talks to Tisa Wenger, Associate Professor of Divinity at Yale University, about the meaning of religious freedom and the contemporary invocations of religious freedom by white, conservative Christians.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 29: What is an evangelical? 34:40

7y ago34:40

34:40

David Sehat talks to Melani McAlister, Associate Professor of American Studies and International Affairs at George Washington University, about evangelicalism, its meaning, and its place in American and global politics.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 28: What is the Religious Left? 31:46

7y ago31:46

31:46

David Sehat talks to Marie Griffith, John C. Danforth Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, about her work and how she sees this religious and political moment.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 27: What is a fact if no one listens? 18:17

7y ago18:17

18:17

David Sehat talks to Besheer Mohamed, senior researcher at Pew Research Center, about the problem of objective knowledge in this partisan moment.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 26: Was America a Christian nation? 25:30

7y ago25:30

25:30

David Sehat talks to Peter Manseau, Lilly Endowment Curator of American Religious History at the National Museum of American History, about his own religious past and the way that he seeks to reflect the nation's religious past back to itself in a contested moment.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 25: Is this the midlife crisis? 28:08

7y ago28:08

28:08

David Sehat takes a road trip with his friend Ben Wise, Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida, where they talk about ambition, midlife, and the puzzles of meaning.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 24: Originalist Fallacies 26:22

7y ago26:22

26:22

David Sehat explains the problems of constitutional originalism as one component of the larger incoherence of the conservative movement.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 23: Is common ground possible? 36:48

7y ago36:48

36:48

David Sehat talks to Martha S. Jones, SOBA Presidential Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, about whether common ground is possible or desirable in this political moment.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 22: Where is blackness now? 31:52

7y ago31:52

31:52

David Sehat talks to Christopher Cameron, Associate Professor of History at UNC-Charlotte, about what blackness means in this political moment.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 21: Where is the Left now? Part 4 32:33

7y ago32:33

32:33

David Sehat talks to Andrew Hartman, Professor of History at Illinois State University, about the state of the Left, its moral panic about Donald Trump, and the Left's tortured relationship to liberalism and the market.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 20: Where is the Left now? Part 3 21:35

7y ago21:35

21:35

David Sehat talks to Sarah Leonard, Features Editor at The Nation, about the state of the journalistic Left, the relationship of the Left to liberalism, and whether she thinks the Democratic Party is a potential vehicle for leftist politics.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 19: Where is the Left now? Part 2 19:29

7y ago19:29

19:29

David Sehat talks to Bhaskar Sunkara, publisher and editor of Jacobin magazine, about the state of the Left and his vision of the American political future.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 18: Where is conservatism now? Part 3 27:03

7y ago27:03

27:03

David Sehat talks to Kevin den Dulk, Paul Henry Chair in Christianity and Politics at Calvin College, about evangelicals in the conservative movement, their surprising support for Donald Trump, and the risks of politicization to communities of faith.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 17: Where is conservatism now? Part 2 40:04

7y ago40:04

40:04

David Sehat talks to Nicole Hemmer, Assistant Professor at UVA's Miller Center, about conservative media and whether the echo chamber causes conservative epistemic closure.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 16: Where is conservatism now? 52:25

7y ago52:25

52:25

David Sehat talks to Daniel McCarthy, editor-at-large for The American Conservative, about the state of conservatism today and why (oh why) he voted for Donald Trump.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 15: How does change happen? 33:38

7y ago33:38

33:38

David Sehat talks to Michael Todd Landis, Assistant Professor at Tarleton State University, about how political change occurred in the past and how it might be effected in the present.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 14: Is the planet doomed? 38:24

7+ y ago38:24

38:24

David Sehat talks to Kim Cobb, Georgia Power Chair and College of Science ADVANCE professor at Georgia Tech, about threats to the planet and the state of American climate politics.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 13: The Republican Party, from Reagan to Trump 38:35

7+ y ago38:35

38:35

David Sehat explains the ascendancy of Donald Trump as a symptom and an extension of Republican intellectual failure.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 12: Has American Zionism failed? 34:07

7+ y ago34:07

34:07

David Sehat talks to Marni Davis, associate professor of history at Georgia State University, about American Zionism, its critics, and her own tortured feelings toward Israel as an American Jew.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 11: Should scientists march? 29:49

7+ y ago29:49

29:49

David Sehat talks to Joshua Weitz, professor of biology at Georgia Tech, about the attack on science, the values of science, and why he is marching.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 10: Is the college classroom dead? 30:14

7+ y ago30:14

30:14

David Sehat talks to Jeff Young, Senior Lecturer in History and guru in digital instruction at Georgia State University, about the digital revolution in higher education and the media, economic, and political challenges to traditional teaching.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 9: What is it between Mormons and Trump? 31:10

7+ y ago31:10

31:10

David Sehat talks to Ryan Rowberry, Associate Professor of Law at Georgia State University and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, about Mormons' tortured relationship to Donald Trump and their idea of constitutional faithfulness.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 8: Is constitutional originalism legitimate? 26:23

7+ y ago26:23

26:23

David Sehat talks to H. Robert Baker, Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University, about constitutional originalism as a mode of legal interpretation and as rhetoric to justify sweeping legal change.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 7: Is this what decline looks like? 29:12

7+ y ago29:12

29:12

David Sehat talks to Jake Selwood, Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University, about whether the stories of decline that explain contemporary politics have any legitimacy in this political moment or, in fact, in any political moment.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 6: Has identity politics wrecked liberalism? 24:38

7+ y ago24:38

24:38

David Sehat talks to Mike O’Connor, author of A Commercial Republic: America’s Enduring Debate over Democratic Capitalism, about the place of racial and gender concerns within contemporary liberalism and about whether those concerns have led the Democratic Party into electoral exile.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 5: Will machines supplant the human? 27:49

7+ y ago27:49

27:49

David Sehat talks to Greg Mohler, Chief Scientist of the Quantum Systems Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, about big data and whether computers have supplanted the soul.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 4: Is big data a force for good? 29:49

7+ y ago29:49

29:49

David Sehat talks to Joy Rohde, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and History at the University of Michigan, about the use of big data in military strategy and foreign policy and about the potential loss of individual agency, moral integrity, and justice in a big data regime.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 3: Where is the Left now? 29:48

7+ y ago29:48

29:48

David Sehat talks to Andrew Hartman, professor of history at Illinois State University, about the state of the Left today, about its relationship to the Democratic Party, and about the current vogue for Marx within and outside of the Leftist political tradition.By David Sehat

1
MindPop 2: Is isolationism the way forward? 29:07

8y ago29:07

29:07

David Sehat talks with Christopher McKnight Nichols, Associate Professor of History at Oregon State University, about the dilemmas facing the United States in the world, the shortcomings of existing foreign policy approaches, and his attempted rehabilitation of an idealistic isolationism to guide the United States in the future.…

1
MindPop 1: Is evangelicalism in crisis? 31:44

8y ago31:44

31:44

David Sehat talks to Molly Worthen, Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, about the state of evangelicalism, about its place in the Republican Party and in the wider American culture, and about its future prospects.…

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