Talking Politics—History of Ideas: Fukuyama on History [History/Politics, solo narrator]
- Francis Fukuyama is a political writer whose name I've heard but is someone I honestly did not know much about.
- This episode walks through the big ideas of his famous essay and subsequent book called The End of History and the Last Man (1992).
- He largely argues that liberal democracy is the best idea we have been able to come up with for how to organize society.
- China's modern rise using state-run capitalism might provide a counter-argument, but Fukuyama isn't willing to concede this until at least 20 more years, and it is overall difficult to say if the last 350 years of democratic western society is a blip or not vs much older forms of political organization.
You're Wrong About: The Challenger Disaster [history/science, discussion]
- Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall are journalists who research a person or event from history and explain to the other what the public has gotten wrong about that person/event.
- This episode details the full story of what went wrong with the Challenger disaster, and Hobbes does an incredible job keeping it interesting throughout.
- Spoiler alert: it may have had to do with an O-ring, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Incompetence, bureaucracy, and all the rest.
Resistance: Shake the room [politics/policing, compelling narratives about resisting]
- Tagline: "A new show about refusing to accept things as they are."
- The first three episodes consist of three amazing stories, which collectively add up to Resistance being one of my favorite new shows from the past few months.
- This episode is a tense look at what it looks like to be intimidated by the police inside your own home.
VIDEOS, ARTICLES, AND OTHER LINKS
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