Philosophy For Our Times

Publicly listed emails

emily.baker@artandideas.org

Looking for the right person? Join Podseeker to find direct host and producer contacts and manage your podcast outreach.

Taking down the cultural elite | Catherine Liu

September 08, 2026

What is managerialism? Why is the meritocracy sliding into technocracy? Does suffering make us seem more pure?We tend to think that today’s progressive politics advances equality through moral awareness and identity. But Catherine Liu argues that it has been captured by the professional managerial class, which replaces material redistribution with virtue signalling and cultural status. In this interview, Liu examines how universities, identity politics and trauma culture can obscure class str...

The chains of freedom | Daniel Markovits, Elizabeth Anderson, Yaron Brook

September 01, 2026

Is freedom always an absolute good? For freedom to be beneficial and practical, does it need constraining? Are attacks on freedom really the first step to tyranny?From freedom from tyranny and poverty to the right to free speech, we assume freedom is always desirable. But critics argue the consequences of freedom are less obviously desirable than we imagine and frequently unknown. Kafka wrote, "It is often better to be in chains than to be free," and Sartre that, "we're condemned to be free" ...

The secret history of cool | Joel Dinerstein

August 25, 2026

Who was the first person to be cool? What connects the civil rights movement and Albert Camus' 'The Rebel'? How has the coopting of black terminology impacted American society more broadly?From James Dean to Kate Moss, we know cool when we see it. But its history goes back to jazz music and the civil rights movement. Academic Joel Dinerstein reveals the forgotten history of this elusive concept. "Entertaining and insightful" - New York TimesJoel Dinerstein is the author of The Origins of...