Context with Brad Harris
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info_outline Urban Versus RuralContext with Brad Harris
There’s a lot that’s dividing Americans right now - lots of divisive narratives that have captivated lots of people. One of those narratives features the apparent widening political divide between urban and rural culture. But, the truth is that the evolution of America’s urban and rural communities has always been symbiotic.
info_outline Notes On TribalismContext with Brad Harris
"Notes on Nationalism" was an essay written by George Orwell in 1945, just as World War II was ending. It caused quite a stir at the time, but most people these days have never heard of it. Nonetheless, "Notes on Nationalism" remains one of the most powerful examples of Orwell's timeless insight into human nature; in this case, focused on our instinct to gang up on each other, our instinct for tribalism.
info_outline The Fate of UniversitiesContext with Brad Harris
Like many others, I’ve begun to worry about the fate of higher education in American society.
info_outline Explaining Postmodernism: A Conversation with Stephen HicksContext with Brad Harris
Postmodernism planted the seeds of the illiberalism that's erupting throughout our society today. The battle of ideas postmodern thinking provokes could very well determine the fate of liberal democracy our lifetime.
info_outline Escaping the Cycle of HistoryContext with Brad Harris
"History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes."
info_outline Reflections from A Distant MirrorContext with Brad Harris
Plague, political chaos, the looming prospect of another civil war... what century are we in?
info_outline 2+2=5Context with Brad Harris
I went slightly mad producing this episode. But then, the line between our reality and the fiction of 1984 has become far too blurry for my comfort.
info_outline All Things Being EqualContext with Brad Harris
One of the worst features of our society, we are told, is wealth inequality. But, what is the historical truth about wealth inequality?
info_outline Approximating PerfectionContext with Brad Harris
The history of calculus may seem irrelevant to most of our going concerns, but as author and mathematician Strogatz shows, the spirit of calculus expresses one of the best ideas humanity has ever had: greatness is not to be found in the end, but in the effort.
info_outlineWhat’s that line attributed to Mark Twain?...
"History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes."
As the authors Neil Howe and William Strauss wrote in their best-selling book The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny, published in 1997, “The reward of the historian is to locate patterns that recur over time and to discover the natural rhythms of social experience.”
According to the pattern they predicted, we should currently be in the midst of a great historical crisis. Are we? If so, what happens next?
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