Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

Critic and essayist Jason Guriel joins to talk about Fan Mail and how cultural criticism curdled once gatekeepers vanished and celebration replaced judgment. He makes the case that abundance without curation doesn't democratize culture so much as drown it, leaving readers unsure what's worth their time—or why craft should matter at all. Plus, an analysis of Jack Smith's combative testimony before Congress and how "perjury traps" function when politics, not truth, is the goal. Also, dueling descriptions of Donald Trump at Davos—Pericles to admirers, shambolic horror show to skeptics—and what the split says about our fractured attention economy.

Produced by Corey Wara

Coordinated by Lya Yanne

Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig

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What's your most vivid school memory? Do you remember it as a time of exploration? Was it a place where you could figure out who you were and what you wanted to become?

Or did it feel like it wasn't made for you? Did it feel constricting, or like a place with lots of rules about how you had to act and what you couldn't do?

Your experience of schools likely depended on the administrators, who your teachers were, how your city or state set up the curriculum, and the resources your school received. Writer Eve L. Ewing argues that experience could also be shaped by who you are.

We sit down with Ewing to talk about her new book, "Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism."

What has school meant for students, and who influenced how schools function the way they do? And what are alternatives for how school could work for students?

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• Fiona's memoir, " There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century"
• Fiona's book, "Mr. Putin: The Operative in the Kremlin
• David Frum's interview with Fiona

On this episode of "The Kylee Cast," Leigh Fitzpatrick Snead, a fellow at The Catholic Association and author of the new book "Infertile But Fruitful," joins Federalist Managing Editor Kylee Griswold to share her story of infertility, her bad experience with IVF doctors, her journey to adoption, and her life of faith and joy — because infertile doesn't have to mean unfruitful. 

You can find Leigh's new book here: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/infertile-but-fruitful/

And more of Leigh's work here: https://thecatholicassociation.org/who-we-are/leigh-fitzpatrick-snead/

The Federalist Foundation is a nonprofit, and we depend entirely on our listeners and readers — not corporations. If you value fearless, independent journalism, please consider a tax-deductible gift today at TheFederalist.com/donate. Your support keeps us going.

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 Flying Pig Academy is kind of an insider's how to.

Spending two decades trying to build trust between people who don't look or think alike changes you. It's been like a stereogram where a whole different way of understanding the world pops out at you, like a second picture hidden inside the first one you see. We were beginning to understand these alternative ways of viewing the world when Dr. Jonathan Haidt wrote his groundbreaking book "The Righteous Mind" advancing Moral Foundations Theory as a way to explain differences across the political divide. Then we were off to the races. This is a conversation about what we learned.

Mentioned: Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks piece: The Keys to Understanding American anti-Semitism—and fighting back

The Rise and Fall of European Meritocracy, Ivan Krastev, New York Times.

Check out previous Flying Pig Academy episodes:

Village SquareCast podcast series we're calling "Flying Pig Academy." Check'em out:

• Location, Location, Location OR The First, Second and Third Rule for Building Trust Across Division

• The Righteous Mind OR How Jonathan Haidt wrote THE BOOK for pigs with higher aspirations

• Carom Shots: Why Working Upstream from Conflict is So Powerful OR how to become a civility pool shark

• Criss Cross Applesauce OR How Complexity Changes Everything

• Core Catalyst Model OR What Old Trees Have to Teach Us About Rebuilding Civic Life

• Bad Therapy OR Why We Really Should Think Groupishly to Address Political Division

• Walk Away from That Box OR Why Fixing Civil Discourse Requires Less Politics, not more

President Trump has been raising tensions around the world for weeks by claiming that he would stop at nothing in his quest to seize Greenland from Denmark.

But on Wednesday, he appeared to back down, announcing that he’d reached the framework of an agreement with NATO over Greenland’s future.

Mark Landler, the London bureau chief, explains the ups and downs of Mr. Trump’s Greenland gambit, and why it may signal the beginning of a new world order.

Guest: Mark Landler, the London bureau chief of The New York Times, working with a team of correspondents to cover the United Kingdom.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Trump said he had a framework for a Greenland deal as NATO mulled the idea of U.S. sovereignty over bases.
• For decades, leaders have gathered in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss a shared economic and political future. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump turned the forum into a bracing clash between his worldview and theirs.

Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

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