Podcast
Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Hosted by Clayton Becker and Megan Cox · EN
Two Political Science PhD Students, Comparativist Megan Cox and Americanist Clayton Becker take you through the ways that previous generations have made the world worse by dismantling the legacy of things like the New Deal and the Great Society. From car dependency to political polarization to our over-reliance on dating apps to helicopter parenting, come along to learn about the many different ways that we should Reject Modernity and Embrace Tradition.
18episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Episode 43: Reject Isolation, Embrace Celebration
Dec 2900:51:28Tap to summarizeJust about every culture in the Northern Hemisphere has a festival of lights around this time of year, from Diwali to Christmas to Hanukkah to the Lantern Festival to Yule . It speaks to a deep need for humans to connect at this time of year, yet we constantly hear and read about isolation and loneliness in the depths of winter. It's up to us to be villagers and celebrate with our friends and family.
Transcribe →Episode 42: Reject Tax Cuts, Embrace Civic Commitment
Dec 1501:11:46Tap to summarizeThat top tax rates and general tax burdens have decreased has been much reported on, but an equally important, if less well known, trend is that American states and cities maintain deeply regressive tax systems. Yet, wealthy people in the most regressive places continue to push for further tax cuts for themselves. This is, to put it frankly, precisely backwards and the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
Transcribe →Episode 41: Reject the 50-year Mortgage, Embrace Building Housing
Dec 101:08:30Tap to summarizeTrump's recent "proposal", if we can call it that, for a 50-year mortgage, is one of the worst ideas his administration has ever had that wasn't actively intending to hurt someone or some group. Megan and Clayton take you through why it is such a terrible idea and what we ought to do instead.
Transcribe →Episode 40: Reject the Shadow Docket, Embrace Decisions
Nov 1701:02:14Tap to summarizeRecently, the Supreme Court has been making much greater use of the emergency, or "shadow", docket to make rulings which have real substantive impacts - even though the emergency docket is supposed to be used only for procedural rulings. Listen along as Megan and Clayton talk about why this is such a problem and what we could potentially do to help fix it.
Transcribe →Episode 39: Reject Mere Cancellation, Embrace Cultural Change
Oct 1300:54:47Tap to summarizeA few episodes ago, Megan and Clayton talked themselves into the position that the MeToo movement hadn't actually been very successful in achieving many of its goals. Listen along as they discuss the need to move beyond cancellation into a genuine framework of cultural change.
Transcribe →Episode 38: Reject "Born and Raised", Embrace Transplants
Sep 2201:08:54Tap to summarizeEverybody seems to hate it when new people move to the city. Transplants are held responsible for everything from traffic to displacement. But this image of transplants as some kind of uniquely malicious force doesn't hold up to scrutiny - nor do the protestations of those who want to pull the ladder up behind them. Megan and Clayton discuss why vilifying transplants has the whole situation backwards and why passing policies that allow people to live where they want should be preferred.
Transcribe →Episode 37: Reject Dating Apps, Embrace Meeting Through Friends
Sep 101:09:25Tap to summarizeDating has become an "online first" activity these days, with the plurality of relationships beginning on the internet. This has some pretty substantial negative consequences for our social lives, our romantic relationships, and more generally for community and social connectedness more broadly. In order to remedy these problems, we need to get back to meeting people in person and in particular through friends.
Transcribe →Episode 11: Reject Shareholder Supremacy, Embrace Public Benefit Corporations
Dec 30, 2024Tap to summarizeMuch of the "enshittification" of modern life can be traced to the theory of shareholder supremacy (also called shareholder primacy), which has contributed to a monomaniacal drive towards short-term profits over anything and everything else. Listen as Megan and Clayton take you through the drawbacks of shareholder primacy, and what we might be able to do about it.
Transcribe →