This week's Dissidents Podcast is a crossover with the Reformation Radio Podcast. Mike Burke and Jason Littlefield break down concepts of "Liberalism" and "Conservatism" in hopes a critical mass will come together to conserve Liberalism. They also get into how there's a growing sense of "good vs. evil/light vs. dark" in the world today.  Finally, the importance of abandoning political attachments and assumptions of others is vital for human liberty to maintain.

This is Letters in Black & White, a short series of the Dissidents Podcast, introducing ideas from the forthcoming book, Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America. The following is the first in the series of podcast conversations with interesting people on the topic of race in America. Today's guest is Sahil Handa, a young graduate of Harvard College who has written stirring essays about the generation gap between the Old and the Young, Coleman Hughes, James Baldwin and the infamous book Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. Sahil brings the fresh perspective of an outsider to questions of the color line today. A writer, a philosopher, a Renaissance Man -- welcome to a non-conformist, Sahil Handa, who rejects the idea that a person's skin color ought to determine one's views. References: https://sahilhanda.com/ Rebel Rebel: https://www.discoursemagazine.com/culture-and-society/2022/02/11/rebel-rebel/ What the Old Don't Get About the Woke: https://www.persuasion.community/p/what-the-old-dont-get-about-the-woke What the Woke Don't Get About the Old: https://www.persuasion.community/p/what-the-woke-dont-get-about-the James Baldwin's Radicalism: https://www.persuasion.community/p/james-baldwins-radicalism In Defense of Coleman Hughes: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/coleman-hughes-slavery-reparations-defense/ Why I’m No Longer Talking to Anyone About Anything: https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-anyone-about-anything/

In this week’s Dissidents Podcast, cohosts Mike and Elizabeth talk about applications of the Overton Window, which is a model for describing the slow evolution of societal values and norms.  The Overton Window suggests that we are all more followers than we are leaders and that our social institutions are more important to shaping our politics than we typically credit them for.  The Overton Window has been used in political decision making and to define the range of ideas people can support without risking social rejection. References: https://www.mackinac.org/OvertonWindow Otteson, James R. (2019). Escaping the Social Pull: Nonconformists and Self-Censorship, Society, 56(3), 559–568.

In this week’s Dissidents podcast, cohosts Mike and Elizabeth talk about the lure of unfalsifiable arguments over testable scientific data, particularly when motives like maintaining positive self-worth or preserving group membership overtake accuracy motives.  The authors of the article we will discuss conducted 4 studies on religion and political ideological beliefs and speculate about whether unfalsifiability may lead people and societies to continually make truth defying decisions. https://ilvalues.org/ References: Friesen, J. P., Campbell, T. H., & Kay, A. C. (2015). The psychological advantage of unfalsifiability: The appeal of untestable religious and political ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(3), 515–529.

Welcome to the The Dissidents Podcast, where we talk about how we can strive for a world in which freedom and reason are at the forefront of all human society. In this week’s podcast, Winkfield Twyman, Jr. and Jennifer Richmond speak with author Matt Johnson on his new book How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-enlightenment. We discuss themes in his book including Hitchens' staunch adherence to liberalism, his defense of the freedom of speech, dismissal of identarianism, and the ways extremism have affected how we operate today and what we can do using Hitchens as a model to reverse damaging trends. Join us. https://ilvalues.org/ References: How Hitchens Can Save the Left: https://www.amazon.com/Hitchens-Save-Left-Rediscovering-Counter-Enlightenment/dp/B0BVXB21XN/

Welcome to the The Dissidents Podcast, where we talk about how we can strive for a world in which freedom and reason are at the forefront of all human society. In this week's podcast, in honor of National Librarian Day (April 16 in the United States) Mike Burke & Elizabeth Spievak talk with academic librarian Pamela Hayes-Bohanan about banned books, contemporary challenges in the field, and whether librarians are okay. Join us. https://ilvalues.org/ References: “The Librarians are not Okay.” The Atlantic: ⁠https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/book-bans-censorship-librarian-challenges/673398/⁠ The Chronicle of Higher Education  ⁠https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-librarians-are-not-ok?⁠ Anne Helen Peterson’s Substack  ⁠https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-librarians-are-not-okay⁠

Welcome to the first episode of The Dissidents Podcast, a continuation of the Counterweight Podcast, where we talk about how we can strive for a world in which freedom and reason are at the forefront of all human society. In this week's podcast Mike Burke & Elizabeth Spievak discuss academic mobbing and critical social justice. https://ilvalues.org/ Reference: Khoo, S. (2010). Academic mobbing: hidden health hazard at workplace. Malaysian Family Physician : The Official Journal of the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, 5(2), 61–67.

Welcome to the Counterweight podcast, where we talk about how we can strive for a world in which freedom and reason are at the forefront of all human society. In this week’s podcast, we have Eric Smith as a guest co-host. We speak with Ildi Tillmann, a writer, photographer, immigrant from Hungary, and a professor of Africana Studies at SUNY, Stony Brook. She shares with us both her challenges and triumphs in her journey through the unexpected politics of her chosen field.  Ildi Tillmann's articles:  https://freeblackthought.substack.com/p/knowledge-art-and-the-musical-world https://freeblackthought.substack.com/p/from-hungary-to-haiti-unique-histories   Ildi Tillmann's website:  https://www.ildikotillmann.com/   Read our new mission: https://counterweightsupport.com/counterweight-manifesto/   Join us on Patreon for the latest Counterweight news & content: https://www.patreon.com/Counterweight    Website: https://counterweightsupport.com    Follow:   https://twitter.com/Counter_Weight_     https://www.facebook.com/Counterweightsupport

Welcome to the Counterweight podcast, where we talk about how we can strive for a world in which freedom and reason are at the forefront of all human society. In this week’s podcast, our hosts Mike Burke and Elizabeth Spievak discuss activism as a heroic quest for symbolic immortality, terror management, the COVID-19 pandemic, and how and why critical social justice and woke activism absolutely exploded during that period.   Elad-Strenger, J. (2016). Activism as a heroic quest for symbolic immortality: An existential perspective on collective action. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 4(1), 44–65. https://doi-org.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/10.5964/jspp.v4i1.430 Pyszczynski, T., Lockett, M., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2021).  Terror management theory and the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 61(2), 173–189. https://doi-org.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/10.1177/0022167820959488 Read our new mission: https://counterweightsupport.com/counterweight-manifesto/  Join us on Patreon for the latest Counterweight news & content: https://www.patreon.com/Counterweight    Website: https://counterweightsupport.com    Follow:   https://twitter.com/Counter_Weight_  https://www.facebook.com/Counterweightsupport

Welcome to the Counterweight podcast, where we talk about how we can strive for a world in which freedom and reason are at the forefront of all human society. In this week’s podcast, our hosts Mike Burke and Elizabeth Spievak talk about “groupthink” and its application to cancel culture.   Groupthink article: Hart, P. T. (1991). Irving L Janis’ victims of groupthink. Political Psychology, 12(2), 247–278. Minimal group paradigm article: Otten, S. (2016). The minimal group paradigm and its maximal impact in research on social categorization. Current Opinion in Psychology, 11, 85–89.     Bar-Joseph, U. (2005) The Watchman Fell Asleep: The Surprise Of Yom Kippur And Its Sources. State University of New York Press, Albany. Amazon.co.jp: The Watchman Fell Asleep: The Surprise Of Yom Kippur And Its Sources (Suny Series in Israeli Studies) : Bar-Joseph, Uri: Foreign Language Books    Gentry, J.A. & Gordon, J.S. (2019). Strategic warning intelligence : history, challenges, and prospects. Georgetown University Press, Washington, DChttps://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0849PHHH3/ref=sr_1_1crid=4ASSA0XJGL10&keywords=strategic+warning+intelligence&qid=1668652091&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjg1IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&s=english-books&sprefix=strategic+warning+intelligenc%2Cenglish-books%2C162&sr=1-1  Read our new mission: https://counterweightsupport.com/counterweight-manifesto/  Join us on Patreon for the latest Counterweight news & content: https://www.patreon.com/Counterweight    Website: https://counterweightsupport.com    Follow:   https://twitter.com/Counter_Weight_  https://www.facebook.com/Counterweightsupport