Defending Liberalism, Talking My Sordid Work History, and Taking Shots at a Professional Placekicker

Three recent appearances by me you might enjoy...

from Dissident Dialogues

When I started this Substack, I intended it to be a repository for non-Reason-related writings and appearances that had nowhere else to be shown. My hopes for this site are evolving, of course, and I’m now making a point of putting my weekly Reason Interview podcast up here with notes or two about the guest and/or the topic being covered, plus tossing up occasional pieces (such as last Thursday’s remembrance of Willie Mays and my father) and bringing to light older pieces made fresh again by world events (like this one about Tiananmen Square’s Tank Man).

In the spirit of my original impulse, I’m excited to share three recent appearances by me that are scattered across the glorious series of tubes we will always know as the Information Superhighway.

First up is a debate I participated in at the Dissident Dialogues conference that was held in New York City in May. This was a really sharp coming together of a wide range of thinkers, writers, and provocateurs organized by

Winston Marshall

and the people at UnHerd. The debate was about whether liberalism’s emphasis on individual rights and autonomy, limited government, and economic and cultural freedom had failed and, if so, what to do about it. To me, the idea that liberalism has been tried and found wanting is ridiculous. We live in a world that is far from perfect but so much better even than the one I was born into 60 years ago. We are richer and freer than we were—and we are way too quick to take such progress for granted. Indeed, to the extent that we have mainstreamed existential angst, we should recognize that as a virtue not a failing of the system. Yet many people on the right and the left are declaring in favor of something like post-liberalism, where they get to limit yours and my choices in the name of a world they prefer.

Mary Harrington

and

Sohrab Ahmari

argued against liberalism while UnHerd’s editor Freddie Sayers and I lined the other side of the barricade. UnHerd’s Flo Read moderated. It’s a very spirited and lively conversation. If you are at all a Reason-style libertarian, I think you will enjoy my comments here. And if you’re not, you will find them an endless source of future ways to troll me.

Next up is a recent appearance on Kevin Williamson’s How the World Works, the podcast he does for the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) about people’s employment history. I’ve worked at Reason for 31 years, so this has been a long haul for me (though I did change my duties every few years, so it’s really been like four or five very distinct jobs over time). It was a trip to talk about my jobs as a teenager and college student (I paid my way through my last year of Catholic high school and all of my post-secondary degrees), including various strange and tough factory jobs I had (thank you, Johnson & Johnson Personal Products division, among others). And we also talked about my stint working at teen mags, music mags, and movie mags after I graduated college and before I went back to grad school. I am pretty sure I’m the only political journalist who interviewed the Twa Coreys (Haim and Feldman), not to mention characters such as Ozzie Osbourne and Slash. My lower-middle-class roots are one of the reasons I defend liberalism so deeply. The economic freedom that comes with it allows for mobility and self-expression through work, things I think many of my peers in the media take for granted.

Kevin’s own journey, which started in Lubbock, Texas is extremely fun and interesting too and it was a pleasure to talk with him about this all.

Finally, I’m happy to share my second and latest appearance on Live from the Table, the podcast put out by Noam Dworman, the owner of the Comedy Cellar in New York City, and his colleagues Periel Aschenbrand and Dan Naturaman. My fellow guest is the novelist,

Feminine Chaos

podcaster, and

The Free Press

columnist

Kat Rosenfield

. I’m a huge admirer of her work (have interviewed her several times about it for Reason) but she and I got into a bit of a Twitter fight related to the already-forgotten commencement speech by Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Buttrick. Noam pulled us both on his show and tried to get us to fight, which isn’t really what happened. Instead, we five produced a very wide-ranging and interesting discussion of lots of stuff, including the small-but-visible movement to return to ‘traditional’ gender roles, what sort of big changes came to our daily domestic lives over the past 50 years, whether having children is an unalloyed social and personal good, etc. Take a listen:

A final note if you live in the New York City area: This Thursday, I’ll be participating in Open To Debate’s presidential debate viewing party along with John Donvan and Clea Conner at Maxwell Social. There will be live commentary, drinks, and food. The event is free but there’s a suggested donation. Should be a great crowd and good fun. Go here for details.