The Permanent Problem Podcast

Feb 18 2025 7 ep. 63 mins 19

The Permanent Problem Podcast artwork

the quest to "live wisely and agreeably and well"

brinklindsey.substack.com

Society & Culture Government

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Musa al-Gharbi on Symbolic Capitalists and "Awokenings"

Feb 18 2025 62 mins

The rightward shift in public opinion that carried Donald Trump back into the White House is being widely interpreted as a backlash against the "Great Awokening" of the past decade — a surge in radical progressive activism around social justice issues that featured a number of extreme and unpopular positions ("defund the police," "abolish ICE," support for Hamas after the October

Eli Dourado on Abundance and Collapse

Jul 15 2024 61 mins

A new movement is taking shape around the idea of restoring "abundance." Uniting thinkers from across the political spectrum — including "supply-side progressives," "conservative futurists," and "state capacity libertarians" — the movement aims to jump-start technological and economic progress by removing artificial constraints on supply and improving the quality of government.

Tim Carney on America's "Family Unfriendly" Culture

May 06 2024 59 mins

Birth rates are plummeting around the globe, as half the world's population now lives in countries with sub-replacement fertility rates. Total population is already falling in Japan, Italy, and China, and global population decline looks likely to begin within a few decades. Yet as American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Tim Carney points out in his new book Family Unfriendly, t

Richard Reeves on the Troubles of Boys and Men

Apr 09 2024 60 mins

Over the past half-century, societies around the world have made great strides in elevating the status of women and expanding their educational and employment opportunities. Much work remains to be done, but now an unexpected complication confronts us on the path toward greater gender equality: at the same time that girls and women have been advancing and making progress, men and b

Virginia Postrel on the Future and Its Changing Enemies

Mar 06 2024 62 mins

What determines our visions of the future, and how those visions change over time? How is politics shaped by conflicting visions of the future? What did the old mid-century vision of a Jetsons-style future get wrong — and what did it get right that we are now struggling to rediscover? What are the roots of technological pessimism, and how can we encourage the growth of a culture

James Pethokoukis on Up Wing vs. Down Wing

Feb 05 2024 65 mins

"We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters." Peter Thiel's famous complaint hearkens back to the middle of the 20th century, when high economic growth seemed unstoppable and the future was filled with visions of moon bases, nuclear energy too cheap to meter, and yes flying cars. But in the 1970s, economic growth slowed down and the future suddenly darkened, now menaced b

Interview with Tyler Cowen

Jan 03 2024 69 mins

Is the "great stagnation" in innovation and economic growth really over? What new technologies on the horizon are most likely to reviving broader dynamism? Does the global spread of low fertility mean that our escape from stagnation is only temporary?On this initial episode of the Permanent Problem podcast, economist and polymath Tyler Cowen joins host Brink Lindsey for a wide-rang