Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Street Porter and the Philosopher

This episode features Cass Sunstein, leading legal scholar, bestselling author, and one of the most influential thinkers on liberalism, law, and public policy. He joins Rebecca Lowe to explore the relationship between the arts and liberalism. They discuss what makes a work of art “liberal,” the representation and role of choice in music and popular culture, the moral and aesthetic limits of political messaging in art, how liberal societies shape and are shaped by the culture they produce, and much more.

Welcome to the first episode of our new podcast season about Liberalism and the Arts, with our guest Sunil Iyengar who directs the Office of Research & Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. Sunil sits down with Henry Oliver to discuss the state of reading in America, including the long-term decline in book and literature reading, the growth of audiobooks and digital formats, what these shifts mean for children and literacy, how reading relates to civic and social life, the importance of schools, libraries, and access to books, and much more. New episodes of this podcast season will come out every two weeks.

Last week, Cass Sunstein gave the inaugural Emerging Scholars Lecture at the Mercatus Center, where both of us work. We’re delighted to share the transcript and recording of his talk, 'Hayekian Behavioral Economics', here on our Pursuit of Liberalism substack. We hope you enjoy it! Henry and Rebecca.

In this episode, Henry and Rebecca discuss the liberalism of the poet Seamus Heaney. Henry thinks it’s Heaney’s individualism that makes him a liberal. Rebecca thinks that Heaney’s focus on depicting reality is just as important, to this end, if not more so. But they agree that he’s really great…

[Transcript coming soon!]

Thanks to GPT for the picture!

In this episode, Henry and Rebecca discuss the liberalism of the late playwright Tom Stoppard. Henry thinks he’s “one of the great geniuses of English literature”. Rebecca is a little less sure. But they agree that his plays offer a great route into debating liberalism…

[Transcript coming soon!]

This episode features Christopher Scalia, a literary scholar, essayist, and author of “13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read).” He joins Henry Oliver to discuss Henry Adams’s “Democracy,” a sharp and darkly comic novel about power, corruption, and political life in Washington D.C. They discuss whether democracy can survive cynicism, the moral compromises of politics, the relationship between virtue and government, why good people leave public life, the enduring relevance of 19th-century political fiction, and much more.

Welcome to the fourth episode of our new podcast season about liberalism and the arts. Tyler Cowen is the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University, the co-author of the Marginal Revolution blog, and the writer of many books, including, most recently, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI Revolution. He joins Rebecca Lowe to discuss whether Britten’s War Requiem is a liberal work of art. They consider it in the context of pacifism, religion, universalism, experimentation, and oppression, and debate the best anti-war works.

Welcome to the sixth episode of our new podcast season about liberalism and the arts.

Zena Hitz, founder of the Catherine Project, and Hollis Robbins, professor of English, join Rebecca Lowe to read and debate the Declaration of Independence. They discuss its place in American life and education, its political context, its poetic and rhetorical qualities, its powerful impact over time, and much more.

Welcome to the fifth episode of our new podcast season about liberalism and the arts. Celeste Marcus, executive editor of Liberties and author of the first English-language biography of Chaïm Soutine, joins Henry Oliver to discuss Soutine's life and work. They explore his journey from a small village near Minsk to the center of the Paris art world, his obsession with artistic originality, and the extremes of his work from carcasses to tenderness. Along the way, they discuss Rembrandt, Dostoevsky, the idea of the ‘art monster’, and the relevance of Soutine's success to the promise of liberal society.

Erwin Dekker, historian of economic thought and a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, joins Henry Oliver to discuss his book, The Viennese Students of Civilization. They explore the intellectual world that shaped F. A. Hayek, how Austrian liberalism differs from rights-based, utilitarian, and libertarian traditions, why markets and law should be understood as evolved cultural institutions, what Vienna's café culture contributed to modern social science, how American individualism reshaped Austrian economics, and much more.

Ben Brophy, vice president of strategic engagement at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, joins Rebecca Lowe and Henry Oliver to reflect on the first season of The Street Porter and the Philosopher. They discuss questions that arose across the episodes, including the extent to which a work of art can count as liberal, how artistic experiences can contribute to a good life, and why classical liberals should appeal to the arts and philosophy alongside economics. They also look ahead to a new season focused on big arguments, including episodes on pluralism, the relation between liberalism and conservatism, and the possibility of alien life…