At first I thought, “Oh my God, I can’t listen to all these podcasts.” I’m not a podcast person I wasn’t listening to podcasts. She’ll mention in passing various other podcasts. I so enjoyed the conversation with her that I started listening to her. Meghan asked me to be on her podcast for my last book, which was about the arts economy.
And, you know, I lucked into this heterodox space just serendipitously. I was hearing this coming out of NPR and other outlets that I had thought of as not only my home in America but basically reliable sources of news about reality. But not this cultural turn, which seemed to me not only to place the wrong emphasis on what progressive politics should be, but also to be based on, in many cases, suppression and distortion of reality. You know, more like what it was in 2016 with the Bernie Sanders campaign. I should say that I still consider myself on the progressive left, just not as it’s become. WD: Like you, I think it sounds, and like a lot of people - including Meghan, she’s talked about this for herself - I had become increasingly disenchanted with where the progressive left had gone. Tell me about discovering this new ecosystem of independent media, and changing your mind on the progressive left. And your discovery of heterodox podcasts, like Meghan Daum’s, who we both know. It’s about the decline of NPR, which you once thought of as your home in America. ” It certainly helped me feel less alone - as you talk about in the essay. But first, I want to talk about a recent essay that you wrote for UnHerd, “ Escaping American tribalism. TH: I’m excited to talk about The End of Solitude, which is a collection of essays that I felt nourishes the soul.
#Portland unherd for free#
You can listen to the interview for free here. This edited transcript is for paid subscribers. These essays are an offering to those who wish to be one too.” In it, Deresiewicz writes: “To be an individual, the years have taught me, takes a constant effort. It’s called The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society, and it is a collection of standout pieces from the past few decades. William Deresiewicz is an essayist and cultural critic and the author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. I knew I had to talk to him when I read his recent essay in UnHerd, “ Escaping American tribalism ,” about his defection from the progressive left.
In the years since leaving academia, he’s amassed an impressive body of work, much of it challenging the status quo.
In 2008 at the age of 44, my guest on today’s program left Yale University, where he taught English, and became a full-time writer.
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