For years, I used to recite the quip, “My dentist recommended that I stop reading The Philadelphia Inquirer because it was causing me to grind my teeth.”
Once upon a decade, the media used to be a sense-making apparatus that did its best to call balls and strikes. Then the primetime cable news shows burst onto the scene with their low-nutritional-but-calorie-dense offerings of political junk food to an ever-widening pool of political junkies; and every night, Americans sat in their couches and armchairs, rolled up their sleeves, and awaited their fix. Afterward, they marched themselves off to bed feeling frustrated, angered, but also enlightened that “their side” (team blue or team red) has got an intuitive finger on the pulse of all societal ills for which the “other side” was responsible.
…and then came podcasts, longform conversations had by “actual adults,” otherwise what Americans and other Westerners were starving for. A group of thinkers dubbed The Intellectual Dark Web (Eric Weinstein, Bret Weinstein, Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Glenn Loury, Douglas Murray, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Steven Pinker, and others) became the ethos of this novel means of broadcasting and communicating. Their conversations and analysis became to politics and sociology what replay reviews became to NFL Football and Major League Baseball. Let’s call balls and strikes, while allowing plenty of room for heterodox thinking, in quest of truths and facts, irrespective of where they land. Political parties are not your hometown football team; they don’t deserve blind devotion or pom-pom waving. Societies are complex archetypes that cannot be hashed out in short segments by talking heads controlled by corporate overlords. So, podcasts came to the rescue to fill in the blanks that were far beyond the capabilities of cable news shows and a sagging institution called print media.
However, predictably, “podcast land” has become a crowded space. Presently, it is a jungle of swinging elbows, fighting for air and space, so one must be choosey. Dark Horse has been one of my favorites. Its hosts are evolutionary biologists Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. Bret and Heather view all matters through an evolutionary lens and the remarkable adaptability of humans. The podcast blends science, nature, and politics. The Glenn Show, hosted by Glenn Loury, a public intellectual and economist, features a biweekly conversation with John McWhorter. On the off week, Professor Loury discusses, race, politics, and culture with other great thinkers of our time. In a recent episode, he discusses the life, writings, and impact of Thomas Sowell.
Another favorite is Triggernometry, hosted by Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin. Kisin, a British/Russian commentator, takes the lead and is a huge proponent of The Western Experiment as a force for good in the world. My honorable mentions are Modern Wisdom, hosted by Chris Williamson, and Lex Fridman’s podcast. Fridman’s podcasts require time—some approach and exceed three hours—but are well worth the investment.
Below is a brief (ten-minute) commentary by Konstantin Kisin on how over-corrections yield unfortunate consequences.
Michael's Corner 
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