My friend Tracing Woodgrains joined me on the live stream today. Earlier this month, he and I published articles in Quillette one day apart on a similar theme, which is the need for a sane centrism beyond woke leftism and the Trump cult. We try to distinguish between a kind of libertarian-statist axis and one that focuses on whether institutions ar…

Michael Tracey joined me tonight to discuss the fall of the Syrian regime. We speculate about the future of Syria, and express surprise regarding how little Assad did to rally his troops and try to inspire them to fight on. See here for the WSJ piece we refer to. Read more

Bryan joined me on a livestream recently to talk about his new book Self-Help is Like a Vaccine. We discuss topics like parenting, how to live a stress free life, when to stick to one’s principles and when to compromise, and more. We end by taking a few questions from the audience. See Bryan on Milei and populism, which is another one of the issues…

Stephen Goldstein (follow on X) is a postdoc in Evolutionary Virology at the University of Utah Medical School, where he specializes in coronaviruses. He joins me to discuss vaccines and whether you should get them. Short answer: yes. I’ve been delving a bit into the claims of anti-vaxxers, and every time you look at one of their arguments it falls…

Tonight I had a livestream with Mike Tracey on the Hunter Biden pardon, Trump expressing an intent to name Kash Patel as FBI Director, the latest in Syria, and what Trump might do in Ukraine. I explain to Michael why Trump appointing both of his daughters’ fathers-in-law to positions might make sense, as in my view nepotism isn’t necessarily a bad …

Michael Tracey joins me on a livestream today to discuss Matt Gaetz withdrawing his nomination to be Attorney General. We also talk about where MAGA is going, the increasing meaninglessness of the term “neocon”, escalation in Ukraine, and more. Here’s the video Michael sent me showing the missile attack in Dnipro today. I’ve found that livestreams …

I had an hour in my car today and decided to do a livestream where I talked about the Trump appointments so far. We had a few normal days and then it sort of went off the rails. The RFK and Gabbard appointments are particularly shocking, as is Gaetz in a different way. I thought that the Gribbles would be tossed aside after the election and now tha…

I’ve written about my struggles with animal rights before. On the one hand, every ethical argument in favor of veganism is correct. On the other, I want a diet that is high in lean protein and satisfies my taste, and that means eating a lot of chicken and seafood, which are among the worst options from the perspective of minimizing suffering. Lucki…

Rob Henderson joined me on a livestream today to talk about The Penguin, the miniseries that ended last night. See here for our discussion of episodes 1-4, and point eight here on the racial demographics of crime in Gotham. I talk about my theory of the general message of the miniseries, which is that leftist revolutionaries are truly evil people w…

Polymarket gives Trump a 97% chance of Trump winning as I write this. Republicans are taking the Senate, and by a relatively substantial margin. Michael Tracey and I talk about what happened. We get into the Hispanic vote, what a second Trump administration will look like, Trump’s unique magic, how Michael could tell voters’ preferences by their lo…

Just finished a three-hour election day live stream, which started at 1PM ET. Hour 1: Maxim Lott discusses betting markets and where we’re putting our money. Hour 2: Alex Nowrasteh on immigration, and what the vibe is like in DC Hour 3: Rob Henderson, to discuss basic election stuff, the vibes, and we go on some tangents. This is probably going to …