Institutionalized: Recent Episodes
Nebulous Media
Charles Fain Lehman & Aaron Sibarium are two friends and reporters who spend a lot of time wondering: are our institutions failing? This podcast is their effort to have these discussions in public, with some of the smartest people they know. Using their experience as DC-based journalists, this podcast discusses how our problems come down to how our institutions—our colleges, our businesses, our government, our media—function, or don’t.
On this episode we sit down with Garett Jones to discuss to discuss the dark sides of immigration.
Recommendations: The Godfather Movie Disneyland with the Death Penalty by William Gibson Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration by Bryan Caplan From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 by Lee Kuan Yew The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move To a Lot Like the Ones They Left by Garett Jones
On this episode we sit down with Josiah Neeley to discuss the politics and production of energy.
Recommendations: Do Elephants Have Souls by Caitrin Keiper The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move To a Lot Like the Ones They Left by Garett Jones Time to Think Small: How Nimble Environmental Technologies Can Solve the Planet's Biggest Problems by Todd Myers
Questions? Comments? Email us at institutionalized@nebulouspodcasts.com
This week, Kevin Sabet joins us to talk about the legalization of marijuana and whether it is inevitable.
Recommendations: The Age of Addiction by David Courtwright The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control by David Musto Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn't Want You to Know
This week we are joined by Matt Kroenig to discuss nuclear weapons, the likeliness of nuclear war and how we can avert it.
Recommendations: 24 (TV show) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy: Why Strategic Superiority Matters by Matt Kroenig Arms and Influence by Thomas C. Schelling
Questions? Comments? Email us at Institutionalized@nebulouspodcasts.com
On this episode we sit down with Charles McElwee to discuss why Pennsylvania is a bellwether for national political trends.
This week we sit down with Michael Hartney to discuss one of America’s biggest unions, Teachers unions. We dive into their genesis, political power, and secret to resiliency.
Recommendations: Revitalizing Local Democracy: The Case for On-Cycle Local Elections by Michael Hartney The Irishman Locally Elected School Boards Are Failing by Vladimir Kogan
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Contact us at Institutionalized@nebulouspodcasts.com
This week we are joined by Kelsey Piper to discuss effective altruism, its popularity, and if it succeeds or fails as an institution.
Recommendations: Reasons and Persons by Daron Parfit In Shifra’s Arms The Precipice by Toby Ord
This week we are joined by Dan Morenoff to discuss how shareholders can use corporate and civil rights law to fight back against woke capital.
Recommendations: The Conservative Case for Critical Theory in Compact Magazine by Lisa Nelson Reservation Dogs on Hulu Rings of Power on Amazon
This week we are joined by Patrick Brown to discuss the role family policy and its future within American society.
Recommendations: Derek Parfit’s Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids by Bryan Caplan Family Out Of Favor by Michael Novak
This week we are joined by Stephen Grugett to discuss prediction markets and their future applications.
Recommendations: Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides Expert Political Judgment by Philip E. Tetlock Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough Astral Codex Ten Substack Forecasting Substack https://manifold.markets
This week we are joined by Geoff Shullenburger to discuss the persistence of covid regulations and the sociology behind them.
Recommendations: The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis The Americans Television Series Outsider Theory Podcast Historiansplaining Podcast
This week we are joined by Shep Melnick to discuss Title IX’s origin and how it’s interpretation has transformed over time.
Recommendations: Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters by Deborah Stone On Thinking Institutionally (On Politics) by Hugh Heclo Sexual Assault on Campus: Defending Due Process by Tamara Rice Lave Terri Schiavo case
This week we are joined by Leor Sapir to discuss how civil rights regulations affect how schools and other institutions are required to treat gender and sex.
Recommendations: F*ck, That’s Delicious Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ The Transformation of Title IX: Regulating Gender Equality in Education
This week we are joined by Ruy Teixeira to discuss the Democrats' structural inability to abandon wokeness.
Recommendations: The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry Beyond the Melting Pot by Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan The Democrats’ Woes With Hispanic Voters by Ruy Teixeira Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities: A Study of Fifty Democracies, 1948–2020
This week we are joined by Tyler Cowen to discuss the trials and tribulations of the search for talent Recommendations: Byron York’s What Bennie Thompson did on Jan. 6 2005 Tyler Cowen’s An Economist Gets Lunch Borgen Series
This week we are joined by Mary Harrington to discuss the differences between British and American political cultures.
Recommendations: Silence of the Animals by John Gray Liberated Enough: Feminism, Liberalism, and Conservatism by Mary Harrington Feminism Against Progress by Mary Harrington Fall Out: A year of Political Mayhem by Tim Shipman
This week we are joined by Razib Kahn to discuss the pros and cons of genome sequencing, and how it will reshape the way we live. Recommendations: Pandoro Neal Stephenson’s Anathem David Reich’s Who We Are and How We Got Here Razib Kahn’s Substack
This week we are joined by David Bernstein to discuss the US’s racial classification system and where it goes wrong.
Recommendations: David Bernstein’s Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America David Bernstein’s The Modern American Law of Race Hugh Davis Graham’s Collision Course John Skretny’s The Ironies of Affirmative Action: Politics, Culture, and Justice in America
This week we talk to Michael Briggs about the UK prison system and how it was overtaken by gender ideology.
Recommendation: Ricky Gervais's newest special Transgender Confusions by Leo Sapir Professing Feminism by Daphne Patai & Noretta Koertge Michael's work: Queer Theory and the Transition from Sex to Gender in English Prisons How Feminism Paved the Way for Transgenderism Michael's website (edited)
This week we are joined by Nils Gilman to discuss elite accountability and state capacity.
Recommendations: Francis Fukuyama's Liberalism and Its Discontents Robert Caro's Power Breaker: Robert Moses & The Fall of New York The Technological Fix & Wicked Problems
This week we are joined by Eric Kaufmann to discuss how younger generations' identifications are evolving and how we are measuring these changes.
Recommendations: Dave Chappelle: The Closer Maggie Gallagher's Enemies of Eros Francis Fukuyama's Liberalism and Its Discontents
This week we are joined by Jason Willick, Washington Post Columnist, to discuss the public perception of the Supreme Court and whether or not it has a legitimacy crisis.
Recommendations: Kieth Whittington's Political foundations of Judicial Supremacy Evan Mandery's Wild Ride: Death and Ressurection Capital Punishment in America Steven Tele's The Rise of the Conservative Movement
This week we are joined by Stephen Eide to discuss the history of homelessness in the U.S. and how it has been shaped by our government.
Recommendations: Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest David Healey's Anti-Depressant Era Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed
This week we are joined by Heather Mac Donald to discuss how wokeness has infiltrated the arts and how the future for classics may be doomed.
Recommendations: Avenue Q Chopin Nocturnes City Journal Wolfgang Mozart
This week we are joined by Peter Arcidiacono to discuss the Harvard admissions case and the future of affirmative action.
Recommendations: Title VII Disparate Impact Liability Makes Almost Everything Presumptively Illegal by Gail Heriot Raw (2016 film) Incentives and the Supply of Effective Charter Schools by John Singleton Why The Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid by Jonathan Haidt
This week we are joined by David Skarbek on how prison communities are organized and governed as well as their impact on social reform.
Recommendations: Puzzle of Prison Order by David Skarbek Anarchy, State, and Utopia Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business Halfway Home
This week we are joined by Philippe Lemoine to discuss the failures and fake science of COVID epidemiology.
Recommendations:
Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince
Anatomy of a Pandemic by Robert Whitaker
CSPI by Philippe Lemoine
The Effect by Nick Huntington-Klein
Causal Inference: The Mixtape by Scott Cunningham
This week we are joined by Sonny Bunch to discuss the current cinema (and streaming) landscape and the future of the box office.
Host Recommendations: John Wick The Decadent Society Everything Everywhere All at Once
This week we are joined by Wesley Yang to discuss the rise of Wokeness and how it has spread amongst people in power.
Host Recommendations: Paris is Burning Ironies of Affirmative Action Wesley's Substack
This week we are joined by Rob Henderson to discuss marriage, mating, sex, and the rise of dating apps.
Recommendations: Rob's recommendation. Aaron's recommendation Charle's recommendation
This week we are joined by Gail Heriot to discuss the 1991 Civil Rights Act and how it contributed to wokeness. Host Recommendations
Jacob Siegel's profile on Curtis Yarvin
FX 's Impeachment: American Crime Story
This week we are joined by Ross Douthat to discuss his new book on chronic illness and the limits of official medicine. His book is available here.
Recommendations from the host: Essay recommended by Charles
For the first episode on Institutionalized, Charles and Aaron sit down with Max Eden of AEI to discuss the state of Education and how the forces surrounding the institution continue to change the student experience.
Charles Fain Lehman & Aaron Sibarium are two friends and reporters who spend a lot of time wondering: are our institutions failing? This podcast is their effort to have these discussions in public, with some of the smartest people they know. Using their experience as DC-based journalists, they discuss how our problems come down to how our institutions—our colleges, our businesses, our government, our media—function, or don’t.