Wisdom of Crowds

1 week ago | wisdomofcrowds.live | Shadi Hamid |Damir Marusic |Oren Cass

It’s been an exceptionally crazy week, even by Trump-era standards. So we decided to experiment with the podcast this week by doing a live-stream recording. and discuss whether there is a method to Trump’s madness about tariffs and everything else — or whether we have to accept that we are ruled by a Mad King, who himself does not know what he will do from one moment to the next.

1 week ago | wisdomofcrowds.live | Shadi Hamid |Damir Marusic

We’re going live! In light of the tariff craziness and global market turmoil, and will get together to see if there is any way to make sense of things. It will be just like a podcast but live streamed, so you can submit questions in real time on the chat!We’ll be doing it today at 6 pm EST. Join us! We’ll be talking about how to make sense of our odd (and increasingly frightening) political moment. To watch on your computer, you’ll get an email when we go live.

2 weeks ago | wisdomofcrowds.live | Damir Marusic |Shadi Hamid |Ross Douthat

In 2012, New York Times columnist published Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, a book about how mainstream American religion was devolving into the prosperity gospel, superstitious cults and other forms of heterodox faith. Thirteen years later, the American religious landscape has changed, and Ross wrote a new book tackling a much more basic question: why you should be religious at all. He joins and to discuss that book, which is titled Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious.

3 weeks ago | wisdomofcrowds.live | Percy Bysshe Shelley |Samuel Kimbriel |Matthew Gasda |Ted Gioia

This week, we tried an experiment: a Substack live event! wrote a popular article about Romanticism, his contribution to an ongoing debate. had a few disagreements with Gasda’s piece. In the spirit of Wisdom of Crowds, we hosted our first-ever live-streamed Substack debate. It went pretty well! We hope to host more. By popular demand, here is a video recording of that debate.

4 weeks ago | wisdomofcrowds.live | Damir Marusic

“I like your fit, bro. What do you do?”I had just stepped out of a karaoke bar to grab some air. I was wearing an off-white safari blazer for my friend’s birthday, so I probably looked foppishly out of place in filthy drunken Adams Morgan a little after 1AM. Was the guy making a pass at me? I probably took a defensive step back. He was holding a joint, wearing all black, eyes slits, sunglasses on his forehead. Seemed taller than me. California vibe, I thought.