Rob Tracinski talks with Brad Thompson, author of America's Revolutionary Mind, about the philosophical ideas behind the founding of America. The conversation includes: the Declaration of Independence as an ideological road map to the founding of America, the Enlightenment religion of the founders, the meaning of equality, America's moral awakening on slavery, the actual "beau ideal" of communism, and the rise of illiberal conservatives and the "Bronze Age Pervert."

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

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Rob Tracinski talks with Helen Pluckrose, editor of Areo magazine and co-author of Cynical Theories, about the roots of today's "woke" culture war in the philosophical school of Postmodernism. The conversation includes: how a philosophy of radical skepticism became dogmatic and authoritarian, how we lost both individualism and universalism, how coronavirus made our ideological bubbles more impenetrable, was Immanuel Kant the first Postmodernist, have we reached peak wokeness, and liberalism as an intellectual system.

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

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Rob Tracinski talks with Washington Post columnist George F. Will about the rising statism of the right. The conversation includes: how he became more "libertarian," the "loaded pistol" of populism and the virtues of elitism, the paradox of American conservatism, the substance of Donald Trump's style, the "most important election in the history of the planet," and a self-declared pessimist's case for optimism.

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

Support us at patreon.com/SalonoftheRefused.

Rob Tracinski talks with Jaroslav Romanchuk, President of the Scientific Research Mises Center in Minsk, about the "Revolution of Order" in Belarus. The conversation includes: the world's most orderly protest movement, how the coronavirus pandemic fueled the uprising, how a housewife became the leader of a united opposition, why this is happening now after 26 years of dictatorship, Vladimir Putin's dilemma, and how Belarussians intend to avoid the pitfalls of other post-Soviet transitions.

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

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Rob Tracinski talks with Jason Crawford, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and blogger at Roots of Progress, about progress and the need to recognize it and study it. The conversation includes: how progress really took off 200 years ago, why then, whether progress has begun to stagnate, why the Ancient Greeks never really had a concept of progress, bringing the study of progress into schools, and what we can do to build a culture of achievement.

Check out Crawford's Progress Studies for Aspiring Young Scholars.

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

Support us at patreon.com/SalonoftheRefused.

Rob Tracinski talks again with Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, following up after nearly a month of the coronavirus lockdown. The conversation includes: whether social distancing is working, whether the experts were lying about masks, the conditions under which we can re-open the economy, the cycle of panic and neglect, and our disastrous dress rehearsal for the next pandemic.

See also Dr. Adalja's article on how to reopen the economy.

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

Rob Tracinski talks with Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. The conversation includes: How COVID-19 is different from the flu, the risk of "surge mode" overwhelming our health care system, what the US government has done and where it has failed, what individuals can do--and whether we're panicking.

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

Rob Tracinski talks with Cathy Young, writer at Quillette, The Bulwark, and elsewhere, about our plight stuck between illiberal strands of both the right and the left. The conversation includes: Political Correctness and Soviet art and literature, how the nationalist right reminds her of the Soviet Union, why the Tea Party movement failed, the symbiosis of far-left and far-right radicals, the pitfalls of the Intellectual Dark Web, what will cause the "progressive" left to implode, and the spelling skills requires to become an "elite."

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

Rob Tracinski talks with David French, lawyer and writer for National Review, about "David French-ism" and the debate between liberal and illiberal conservatives. The conversation includes: life as an "ism," how Donald Trump gives people permission to be bad, how liberalism defends itself with its own "antibodies," Protestants versus Catholics, how campus insanity used to be much worse, how the nationalization of politics fuels the culture war, the Gresham's Law of the Internet, and the future of the word "liberalism."

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

Support us at patreon.com/SalonoftheRefused.

Rob Tracinski talks with Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, about the legacy of the Enlightenment. The conversation includes: exactly how good the state of the world is, "thick" versus "thin" philosophy, the Counter-Enlightenment backlash, Ayn Rand, the welfare state, and why it's ironic that everyone is so eager to watch "Game of Thrones."

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

Support us at patreon.com/SalonoftheRefused.

Rob Tracinski offers a brief overview of how Ayn Rand offered a rational, secular basis for morality, in contrast both to the religious arguments of the conservatives and to the subjectivism of secular intellectuals. Topics covered include: how to explain Ayn Rand's argument in seven minutes, how defenders of religion rely implicitly on a secular basis for morality, how Ayn Rand's rational approach to morality is liberating, and what to do if Bernie Sanders tries to run you down in a truck.

This is part of a new series within Salon of the Refused offering short explainers and longer conversations about the distinctive contributions of Ayn Rand's philosophy.

For more commentary and analysis, visit The Tracinski Letter at www.TracinskiLetter.com.

Support us at patreon.com/SalonoftheRefused.