Ben Klutsey of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University engages in thought-provoking conversations with experts in the field of civil discourse. Klutsey facilitates discussions that explore ideas and practices essential for maintaining a free and open society, providing listeners with valuable insights and perspectives on this crucial topic.
Jeffrey Rosen on Virtue and the Pursuit of Happiness
In this episode of the Pluralist Points podcast, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Jeffrey Rosen, the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, about the Founders’ understanding of the pursuit of happiness and how it relates to virtue. They discuss the notion of bounded liberty, the importance of deep reading, literature that contains ancient wisdom and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbjM-IriCzU).
Recorded March 5th, 2025
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28 Feb 2025
Kurt Weyland on Populism vs. Pluralism
In this episode of the Pluralist Points podcast, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Kurt Weyland, the Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, about the rise of populism. They discuss what factors contribute to populism, how worried we should be about its rise, why populism leads to authoritarianism, and much more.
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Recorded February 11th, 2025
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31 Jan 2025
Kurt Gray on Moving Beyond Moral Outrage
In this episode of the Pluralist Points podcast, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Kurt Gray, a psychology and neuroscience professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, about our moral understanding and how we react to perceived threats. They discuss why a “protection” narrative is better than a “destruction” one, the pros and cons of moral outrage, why stories matter more than facts in political disagreements, and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veClCkr-2ns).
Recorded January 9, 2025
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20 Dec 2024
Shira Hoffer on Curious Disagreement
Ben Klutsey speaks with Shira Hoffer about the value of curious disagreement in fostering effective conflict resolution and empowering individuals to navigate complex issues with nuance and understanding.
22 Nov 2024
Daryl Davis on How to Fight Hatred
Daryl Davis shares his powerful approach to confronting racism through dialogue, revealing how his personal encounters with hatred have transformed his understanding of its roots and consequences.
25 Oct 2024
Corey Brettschneider on Citizen Checks on Presidential Power
In this episode of the Pluralist Points podcast, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Corey Brettschneider, a professor of political science at Brown University, about his new book, “The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought To Defend It.” They discuss the early presidential models of Washington and Adams, what categorizes a “recovery” president after a period of crisis, Frederick Douglass as a founder of American democracy, how we haven’t yet recovered from Nixon and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded August 28th, 2024
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27 Sept 2024
Musa al-Gharbi on Symbolic Capital and Social Justice
In this episode of the Pluralist Points podcast, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Musa al-Gharbi, an assistant professor of journalism, communication and sociology at Stony Brook University, about his forthcoming book, “We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite.” They discuss the evolution of terms like “woke” and “politically correct,” how social justice beliefs can be both sincere and self-interested, why elites don’t always realize they’re elite and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded September 12th, 2024
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6 Sept 2024
Ilana Redstone on Escaping the Certainty Trap
In this episode of the Pluralist Points podcast, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Ilana Redstone, a professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, about her new book, “The Certainty Trap: Why We Need To Question Ourselves More—and How We Can Judge Others Less.” They discuss why we ascribe ill intent to others, shortcomings of the term “critical thinking,” the role of education in escaping the certainty trap and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded August 23rd, 2024
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2 Aug 2024
Joshua Cherniss on Cultivating an Ethos of Tempered Liberalism
In this re-release of an installment of a series on liberalism, Benjamin Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, talks with Joshua Cherniss, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University, about challenges to liberalism in the mid-20th century, the current liberal predicament, the thinkers who exemplify a spirit of tempered liberalism, the balancing act of activism vs. detachment and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Originally published January 27th, 2023
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26 Jul 2024
Yuval Levin on Acting Together While Thinking Differently
In this episode of the Pluralist Points podcast, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Yuval Levin, editor-in-chief of National Affairs magazine and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, about the Constitution as a unity document, the relationship between liberalism and republicanism, the benefits of congressional inefficiency, the problems with primaries and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded July 10th, 2024
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19 Jul 2024
Amanda Ripley on High Conflict to Good Conflict
In this re-release of an installment of a series on liberalism, Benjamin Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, talks with Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist and author, about the benefits of not watching the news, the conflict industrial complex, whether divisions in the U.S. are getting worse, the importance of positive interactions and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Originally published February 24th, 2023
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5 Jul 2024
Alan Charles Kors on the Need for Mutual Forbearance
In this re-release of the first installment of an interview series on liberalism, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Alan Charles Kors about the history of liberalism, the proper purpose of education, and the core liberal value of mutual forbearance. Kors is the Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in European intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has published several books and many articles on early-modern French intellectual history and was editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Originally published August 4th, 2020
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28 Jun 2024
Josiah Ober on Democracy as a Civic Bargain
In this episode of the Pluralist Points podcast, Ben Klutsey, the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Josiah Ober, a professor of political science and classics at Stanford University, about democracy as a bargain among citizens, the necessity of civic education, the challenges of scaling democracy as populations become larger and more diverse, and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCARe3GGrqA).
Recorded June 6th, 2024
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26 Jun 2024
Welcome to Pluralist Points
America has always had factions; they are a feature—not a flaw—of representative democracy. However, when civil discourse breaks down, these factions can become so entrenched that we face the dangers of toxic polarization. This is where learning and adopting pluralism becomes crucial.
Welcome to Pluralist Points, where we unpack the challenges and opportunities of liberalism and pluralism in the 21st century.
In a world increasingly divided by tribalism and polarization, Pluralist Points aims to foster understanding, civil exchange, and the open-minded exploration of ideas.
Each episode features an in-depth conversation that challenges assumptions, illuminates new perspectives, and seeks common ground.
Join the host of Pluralist Points, Ben Klutsey, as we navigate the intellectual landscape of liberalism and pluralism, and discover how these principles can help us build a more inclusive, tolerant, and vibrant society.
You can follow the show on your favorite podcast app or watch full videos on YouTube. Let's embark on this journey together, one conversation at a time.
We hope this podcast will inspire you to go out and have conversations like these yourself.
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