The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk and Daron Acemoglu examine how the digital age severed the link between economic growth and shared prosperity.

Daron Acemoglu is an economist at MIT and a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics. His latest book is What Happened to Liberal Democracy?

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Daron Acemoglu discuss why liberal democracy’s post-war formula for shared prosperity broke down, how the rise of a college-educated professional class produced a cultural backlash against “social engineering,” and how to shape the future of artificial intelligence.

We’re delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values.

This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama examine what people still get wrong about “the end of history.”

Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss the true meaning of “the end of history,” why the struggle for recognition—rather than material interest—is the engine of historical progress, and how his thesis holds up 35 years on.

Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here.

We’re delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values.

This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

Connect with us!

⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠

X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠

YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yascha Mounk and Katja Hoyer also discuss what the Islamist attack on Berlin’s Pride parade says about the state of Germany.

Katja Hoyer is a visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her latest book is Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Katja Hoyer discuss why the Weimar comparison is so tempting (and so often misleading), what genuine enthusiasm for democracy in 1919 Germany can teach us about how democracies fail, and whether political fragmentation or economic crisis was the more decisive factor in Weimar’s collapse.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

Connect with us!

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X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion

YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

LinkedIn: Persuasion Community
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Francis Fukuyama discusses the experiences and individuals that shaped him.

Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion.

We have a treat for you today! To mark the publication of Francis Fukuyama’s memoir In the Realm of the Last Man, we’re launching a multi-part series about his intellectual eras. Here, Francis Fukuyama reflects on his life, from his family’s experience of Japanese-American internment, to surprising family secrets discovered in letters, to the political and social fallout after changing his mind about the Iraq War.

Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here.

And, if you’ll be in Oxford, UK on Friday, September 4, Francis Fukuyama will be in conversation with Nigel Warburton about his memoir—learn more and get tickets here.

We’re delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values.

This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

Connect with us!

⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠

X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠

YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yascha Mounk and Claude Steele discuss why diversity can produce anxiety—and how it differs from prejudice.

Claude Steele is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University. His latest book is Churn: The Absurd Abyss of Race in America.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Claude Steele discuss why diversity produces psychological tension even in the absence of explicit prejudice, whether American schools are truly as racially segregated today as they were in the 1950s, and how the fear of being stereotyped affects both minority and majority group members in integrated settings.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

Connect with us!

Spotify | Apple

X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion

YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

LinkedIn: Persuasion Community
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices