Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address. 

The second in the series, after "Location, Location, Location" is an homage to our intellectual hero (and lucky for us, our friend and colleague) Dr. Jonathan Haidt who - literally - wrote the book for Pigs With Big Dreams. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.

Miss the first Flying Pig Academy Episode? Find it here.

Oh and if you haven't watchrf the "hive switch-y" Almost Famous Tiny Dancer scene we mention toward the end of the episode, here's your chance.

The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Funding for this podcast was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

John McWhorter is one of the greatest living experts on the English language—and many others, too. He’s an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia, a columnist at The New York Times, and he’s an unsung Broadway aficionado. He once told us he could not do an interview because he was busy rehearsing a cabaret show for his bungalow colony. It all sounds like a scene out of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

But in his day job, he is thinking about words, language, and—the not-so-controversial topic of pronouns. John is a true independent mind. He has been one of the most outspoken critics of liberal excess—his last book was called Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. But now? Now he’s taking a position that we suspect will provoke the other side.

In his new book, Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words, John makes the provocative case that the English language evolves in ways that don’t always make sense. But, he says, that’s okay. And he takes it a step further—saying the wide adoption of they/them in the singular, instead of he/him or she/her, works.

What are the stakes of these little words? For example, as a society, are we disrespecting women (and men) when we fail to acknowledge, in our language, who has dealt with the challenges of womanhood or manhood and who has not?

And what are the consequences of letting children adopt they/them pronouns, especially if it pushes them toward medical transition? At the same time, how do we create a society that is kind and inclusive but also reflective of reality? And can we even have both?

The broader context of this language conversation is about what can and cannot be said. We talk about this broader context—the state of the woke left, but also the rise of the woke right.

Bari puts all of these questions to the premier linguist and culture expert John McWhorter on this episode of Honestly.

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Paris Marx is joined by JS Tan to discuss his experience seeing first hand how Microsoft deployed its cloud and machine learning services to help Chevron extract more oil and gas, and the state of tech worker organizing around climate change.

JS Tan is a PhD student at MIT, researching cloud computing in the US and China. He’s a a member of Collective Action in Tech and writes the Value Added newsletter.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Read JS Tan’s “Oil Is the New Data” piece in Logic Magazine.

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Harry Holzer—former Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor—joins to discuss his concerns over Biden-era regulations alienating voters and thwarting progress. Plus, large protests in Zimbabwe pit Emmerson “The Crocodile” Mnangagwa against crowds urged on by Blessed “Bombshell” Geza. And Democrats embark on their “We Don’t Hate You” tour in an attempt to reconnect with alienated voters.

Produced by Corey Wara

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Your new iPhone goes through a lot before you peel the plastic off and finally boot it up. Further Apple purchases might have to go through more thanks to the Trump administration's tariffs.

From its assembly, to its packaging, to its shipping, to stocking, to purchase, it's a long process. So, what does it actually look like? Why is this the way we do it? And what could be done to make things better?

This is our new series,"How Did This Get Here." We explore how goods make their way to us from overseas to our hands. This week we discuss iPhones.

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Hello!

Today we have on Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff for AOC and one of the formers leaders of the Justice Democrats. Saikat is currently running for Congress against Nancy Pelosi. We talk about the possibilities of a Democratic Tea Party, how progressives need to think about actually doing stuff, and a lot about housing. This was a great episode and one that I think should inform you on what the political landscape could look like if the Democratic Party actually has a full-on rebuild.

Enjoy!

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