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An update on ReImagining Liberty and a preview of my new show, The Inner Life of Liberalism. Subscribe to The Inner Life of Liberalism in your favorite app: Apple Podcasts Spotify All other podcast apps

It’s been a hot minute since the last episode. So let me start by telling you what’s been going on, because it actually tees up today’s conversation. The short version is, I’ve been neck deep in getting a very cool new project ready for launch. It’s called Liberalism.org and is an online magazine of liberal ideas, which I’m leading in collaboration with my colleagues at the Institute for Humane Studies. It launched on March 12. As part of this project, I’m hosting a new bi-weekly podcast called The Liberalism.org Show. It’ll be half hour interviews with contributors to the site, which means interviews with some of the most interesting minds in liberalism today. You can look for that wherever you get your podcasts. All of this just swamped me, and I had to take a step back from ReImagining Liberty. I’m glad you stuck around through the hiatus. And to bring us back, I’m actually joined today by one of those colleagues on Liberalism.org, Jason Canon. He’s Director of Public Scholarship at the Institute for Humane Studies, and for at least the last year, he and I have been talking non-stop about a shared intellectual project about what it means to think of liberalism as a practice. Or a set of practices. You’ve heard me discuss versions of this in quite a lot of prior episodes, but today I wanted to bring Jason on for a deep dive, and to establish a foundation for future conversations. We talk about what it means to view something as a practice, how practice theory plugs holes in liberal theorizing, why this approach is largely overlooked by contemporary philosophers of liberalism, and what that oversight means missing out on. I loved this conversation with Jason. Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

The rise of Nick Fuentes. The self-immolation of the Heritage Foundation. The Great Replacement conspiracy theorizing endemic on X. The right very clearly has a significant antisemitism problem, with anti-Jewish hate spreading from the fringes, to the conservative mainstream, and out into the broader political culture. And this hate interacts with, supports, and leads to further hate, directed at other groups, including misogyny, racism, and ethnic and religious nationalism. On today’s episode, I’ve brought on Elad Nehorai. He’s a writer, activist, and social and political commentator, and founder of Justice Marketing. We have a deep conversation about the role antisemitism plays in the ideologies of the contemporary right, how their continued use of X is normalizing such views among American journalists and media elites, and the prospect of a post-Trump GOP drifting even further into outright neo-Nazism. Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

The ideologies that shape our world can be awfully weird. The one that combines the most influence with the most weirdness is arguably Rationalism, which grew out of backwater blogs to have the ears, and influence the minds, of people like Elon Musk and JD Vance. To talk about what Rationalism is, why we should care about its beliefs and arguments, and the impact it's had outside those strange corners of the internet, I've brought back Samantha Hancox-Li. She's a writer, game designer, editor at Liberal Currents, and host of the Neon Liberalism podcast. Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Regimes falter when opposition media is strong. But America's legacy media has failed to live up to the dangers of the political environment and the authoritarianism of Trump's administration. We need stronger opposition media, making full-throated defenses of liberalism. But what does that look like? I'm joined today by Adam Gurri, founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal Currents, which is currently fundraising to take their indispensable publication to the next level. Adam and I talk about the state of media, what it means to carve out principled opposition, and how stronger opposition media can see us through the coming years and towards a future for liberalism. Liberal Currents fundraiser: https://gofund.me/be2b76bf9 Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Welcome to ReImagining Liberty, a show about the emancipatory and cosmopolitan case for radical liberalism. I'm Aaron Ross Powell. It's still possible Trump succeeds in his project of authoritarian consolidation, but between the dramatic losses the GOP suffered in the elections on November 4th, the infighting in the conservative coalition, and the Epstein scandal, the prospects for that consolidation are looking more remote. All this makes the "How do we rebuild when Trump is behind us?" question feel less like a pipe dream. Which is why I was so happy to see my friends at The UnPopulist launch their new "Reconstruction Agenda" project, headed by frequent ReImagining Liberty guest Andy Craig. Andy is mapping out what that reconstruction should look like, and what reforms present the best opportunities to strengthen and rebuild the institutions of liberal democracy. Joining me today alongside Andy is Shikha Dalmia, founder and editor of The UnPopulist. Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Today's episode is about the Constitution. It's a clear-eyed assessment of the assaults on it by the Trump administration, and a deep discussion of how we should think about constitutional interpretation and constitutional defense. Things aren't good. There's no denying that. But things also perhaps aren't as bad, at least not yet, as the most shrill of the doomers insist. To dig into all this, I'm joined by Evan Bernick. He's a law professor at Northern Illinois University and has been one of the most thoughtful, persistent, and effective critics of the risible scholarship the Trump administration is using to justify its assault on birthright citizenship. Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

The future of liberalism depends upon the coalitions liberals can build, both to defend institutions now and to reform them when the time comes. As my friend, and past ReImagining Liberty guest, Jason Kuznicki says, "The future is a conversation." So today I've brought on two smart liberals, with very different ideas about what liberalism means in practice, for a conversation about common ground. Matthew McManus is an assistant professor at Spelman College, author of The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, and frequent ReImagining Liberty guest. Matt Zwolinski is a first time ReImagining Liberty guest, an omission I'm thrilled to rectify. He's a professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego, co-author of The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism, and founder of the seminal—but now sadly defunct—blog Bleeding Heart Libertarians. This episode is prompted by a review Zwolinski wrote of McManus's book, a review that noted their shared values and dug into why, in each of their cases, those values led them to quite distinct policy conclusions. And that's our topic for today. It's a conversation about agreement, disagreement, and how to have productive conversations about liberalism. Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Today things get particularly radical, with an introduction to left market anarchism. I'm joined by Zak Woodman, host of the Mutual Exchange Radio podcast from the Center for a Stateless Society. We talk about whether we need a state at all, the dangers a powerful government poses, even if its values are arguably good ones, and why the aims of the left are better advanced through free markets than state control of the economy. We end with a call to take anarchist ideas seriously, even if you don't ultimately accept them, because they contain lessons for how to navigate and respond to our contemporary authoritarian moment. Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

I've got a special bonus episode for you today. In August, I attended the second annual Liberalism for the 21st Century conference in DC, organized by the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism. That's the group that runs The UnPopulist, a publication I occasionally guest host for on their Zooming In podcast. I led a special live recording of that show at the conference, a conversation with journalist (and ReImagining Liberty guest) Radley Balko and commentator Charlie Sykes. I framed the conversation around the second Trump administration as vigorous effort to roll back the Civil Rights Movement, legally, institutionally, and culturally. This led to a deep and spirited discussion. I hope you enjoy this very ReImagining Liberty adjacent discussion.

Cathy Reisenwitz's "Sex and the State" is one of the handful of newsletters I consider indispensable. She writes, from what I'd label a radical liberal perspective, about culture and gender in ways I consistently find illuminating. And she was my guest on episode 50 of this show, on misogyny and the political divide, which remains one of my favorites. So when she and I were recently chatting about the future of the liberty movement, and what's needed in our authoritarian moment, I wanted to get her back on. We discuss her early days in the liberty movement, why she left, what's brought her back, and what she learned in the intervening years. Then we discuss making the case for liberty, and why the right's focus on cultural issues has given it a leg up in persuading many Americans to its side. A strong case for liberty demands taking social issues seriously, and interrogating social patterns and their origins. Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

The political right, including more right-wing sorts of self-identified libertarians, are rather down on feminism. For those right-wingers, their hostility is understandable, because feminist insights challenge truths the right imagines to be natural and immutable, about equality, and gender, and hierarchy. But for radical liberals, feminist theory offers powerful tools for understanding and critiquing power and its use by the state. Today I have on my friend Kelly Vee for a discussion of these ideas and their place within a radical liberal framework. Kelly is an individualist anarchist-feminist and a graduate of Tulane University with degrees in accounting and finance, which she puts to good use when she’s not writing about mental health, feminism, and the State.

An introduction to the people and ideas most central to the ideologies of Trumpism and post-liberalism. The last episode of this show was about what ReImagining Liberty is. With frequent guest Cory Massimino, I talked about the values and perspective behind ReImagining Liberty's approach to liberalism, and how it's distinct from right-libertarianism. Today's episode is a nice companion to that. Not just because it also features a frequent guest, this time my friend Matt McManus, but because it runs further with the theme of distinctions. Namely, in this case, the ideas of the anti-liberalism of the far right. Our topic is the contemporary right-wing canon, the thinkers whose ideologies have come to dominate, and whose writings are giving form to the authoritarian fascism challenging liberal values and virtues. Matt McManus is an Assistant Professor at Spelman College and the author of The Rise of Postmodern Conservatism and The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, among many other books. Here's Matt's essay on "The Modern Far Right Canon" that was the spark for today's conversation.

A conversation about the the values underlying radical liberalism, and what distinguishes it from more right-wing forms of libertarianism. You can think of this episode as kind of a soft reboot of ReImagining Liberty. Or a back-to-basics. This is a show about politics, but it's a politics grounded in a particular set of values and a particular perspective, and with the political and policy specifics downstream of those. Ever since the election, I've spent a lot of time on those specifics, as well as on the policy details of what the forces of illiberalism are up to. And that's important. But I want to bring the show back, at least a bit more, to those values and that perspective. What is it about the kind of radical liberalism motivating this show that sets it apart? What are those values? What is that perspective? So today's episode is the start a series of conversations on just that. And it's framed around change. I've brought back my very first guest, and my dear friend, Cory Massimino. He has been, it is fair to say, one of the biggest influences the evolution of my intellectual and moral approach to politics over the last ten years. We talk about how our views have shifted, what it means to be a radical liberal, and what sets the kind of radical liberalism at the heart of ReImagining Liberty apart from the right-leaning libertarianism many are familiar with. Cory is an independent scholar and a Fellow at the Center for a Stateless Society, where he hosts the podcasts Mutual Exchange Radio and The Long Library.

Today's episode gets a bit meta. I've done something like ninety ReImagining Liberty shows, and hundreds more on other podcasts, but I've never done one on the place of podcasting itself in the political environment. This even though podcasting has been one of the big themes of politics lately, in many ways blamed for the rise, or at least persistence, of the ideologies that have reshaped our political culture and institutions. I'm delighted to bring on Landry Ayres for that. You probably recognize his name, especially if you're a long-time ReImagining Liberty listener, and especially if you listen all the way through to the end credits. Landry has been my producer for the better part of a decade, going all the way back to Free Thoughts, the show I hosted for eight years before this one. He is also Creative Director at the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism and Managing Editor and Senior Producer at The UnPopulist. Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.