Maiden Mother Matriarch with Louise Perry

Samuel Johnson was one of his history's great readers. He read constantly: while he walked, while he ate, while he socialised. He insisted that one ought to read for five hours a day, and to read on every subject one could. This was newly possible for eighteenth century people, who suddenly had access to affordable books.

But Johnson understood that he was unusual. "People in general do not willingly read, if they can have anything else to amuse them," he conceded. "The progress which the understanding makes through a book, has more pain than pleasure in it."

James Marriott's new book is on the rise and fall of reading. He argues that reading is fundamentally unnatural and difficult, which is why the rise of radio, television, and the internet has so readily displaced books. James also argues that reading has profound effects, not only on our brains, but also on our politics. Democracy and literacy have historically gone hand in hand. As we become post-literate, will we also become post-democratic?

James Marriott is a columnist and critic at The Times of London. His new book is titled The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society.
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In this bonus episode for paid subscribers, Rob Henderson and I discussed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's comments on "woke 1" and the shift towards a new kind of progressive politics that's currently underway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Something called 'populism' is on the rise across much of the world. It's difficult to pin down exactly what the term means, but most of us have a sense that we know it when we see it. Trump in the United States, Farage in Britain, Hanson in Australia – all of these politicians have adopted a particular kind of posture towards the public and towards the political establishment.

Richard Hanania thinks that populism is a very bad thing, since he argues that it reliably leads to 'kakistocracy' – that is, government by the worst, least qualified, and most unscrupulous.

Richard didn't always feel this way. He used to be on the far right and, as a pseudononymous writer, endorsed white supremacist and other radically anti-progressive positions. He later disavowed those views and shifted towards a more mainstream conservative position, gaining influence on the MAGA Right. Recently, he's shifted again, becoming one of the most vehement Right wing critics of MAGA and of populism more broadly.

Richard Hanania is an UnHerd columnist, the president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, and the author of a Substack focused on foreign policy, American politics, and social science.
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In this bonus episode, I spoke to former radical feminist (well, sort of) Meghan Murphy about beauty treatments. How should feminists think about, for instance, botox? How should individual women navigate this issue? And what have we, personally, had done? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back in 2013, the Obama administration endorsed an ad campaign that came to be derisively known as the “pajama boy” campaign. “Pajama boy” was actually an adult man who encouraged young adults to make the case for Obamacare over Thanksgiving dinner with their relatives. “Wear pajamas. Drink hot chocolate. Talk about getting health insurance.” was the tag line. Most people thought it was pretty silly and the image survives now as an online meme.
In retrospect, “pajama boy” was actually a little bit sinister because it was symptomatic of a shift in the culture. While families have always fallen out over personal conflict, it is now increasingly common for relationships to break down over politics. This is directly downstream of a new expectation that confronting relatives about political disagreements at the family dinner table is not just acceptable, but actually virtuous.
My guest today has written a book about the rise of family estrangement, and particularly of adult children going ‘no contact’ with their parents. The proximate trigger for this new kind of divorce is often political: arguments about Trump, or Covid, or gender identity are common. But behind these individual conflicts, Noelle Mering argues, is a profound shift in our attitudes towards the family, and the mainstreaming of a troubling idea: that some members of our own families are expendable.
Noelle Mering is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington D.C. and author of the new book ‘No Contact: How a Seductive Ideology Broke Families and Friendships and How We Can Repair Them.’ She is also a wife and mother of six children.
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