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In this episode of The Glenn Show, Glenn hops on the Friday livestream just hours after landing at Logan Airport following a Stanford lecture on self-censorship at the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society. Still running on adrenaline from the event, he talks with editor Mark Sussman about the influence of Kenneth Arrow, why self-censorship should be analyzed as a value-neutral phenomenon, and how the audience responded. In the second half, Glenn is joined by writer and Theory of Enchantment founder Chloé Simone for a wide-ranging conversation about race, identity, spirituality, and politics—from the effects of recent DEI rollbacks to Israel, Palestine, and the future of racelessness.

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In this excerpt from last Friday's livestream, Glenn formally introduces a familiar face to the audience: Robert Patton-Spruill. A regular presence on and off camera, Rob shares the winding personal and professional journey that shaped him, from growing up in a politically connected extended family in Boston to working in film and finding his own voice as a writer and director. He reflects on the influence of his father, James Spruill, his experiences in the film industry, and encounters with figures like Public Enemy's Chuck D. The conversation ranges widely, linking Rob’s lived experience to broader ideas about social capital, community, and practical paths to progress.

Livestreams are available to full subscribers, both as they happen and later in video and podcast form. We’ll release shorter segments to the public later, but if you want the whole shebang, become a full subscriber today. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience supported. We need your help in order to keep delivering the show week after week, along with all the other content we post here. So to those of you who are already full supporters: thank you for all you do. And if you’re not yet a supporter, please consider becoming one.

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On this edition of my monthly Q&A session with John McWhorter, we invited a handful of subscribers to record their video or audio to be played during our livestream. I think it worked great—I loved hearing everyone’s voices and seeing their faces. We’re definitely going to keep this feature around. And if you want to hear and see your fellow TGS fans, and you’re not yet a subscriber, please consider becoming one.

We start off the Q&A with a question from John Bingham, who wants to know if a PhD in economics is still worth pursuing when AI works so well as a substitute teacher, even at that high level. Neil asks whether excessive attention to the Israel issue within academia is leaving the larger biases within the university unaddressed. Lennart asks Glenn to comment on an exposé about a behind-the-scenes political struggle at UATX. RAO asks what colleges are doing to promote civil discourse across identity lines. Adam Gorski asks John an insightful question about his categorization of wokeness as a religion. Joe Nalven asks who’s to blame for the ICE shootings in Minneapolis: protesters, law enforcement, or the media? Neal Gittleman asks whether John and I were being irresponsible in speculating about the motivations of the mass shooter at Brown University before the facts were in. And finally, Jason expresses his appreciation for the show and John’s role in it.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in and sent us recordings, and to all of my subscribers. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get weekly episodes of The Glenn Show earlier than their public release, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.

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This episode features a wide-ranging conversation on identity politics and global disorder. Glenn opened by discussing his recent UnHerd column on Elon Musk’s warnings about race war and calls for white solidarity, arguing that Musk exemplifies a troubling turn toward identity politics on the right and serves as a powerful “permission-granting” figure for fringe ideas. Robert Wright then joined to assess the unraveling rules-based international order, highlighting the hypocrisies exposed by Mark Carney and the broader implications of U.S. power. John Mearsheimer added a realist critique of Donald Trump’s disregard for international norms. The discussion also addressed Gaza, free speech, and the risks of conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, before closing on Trump’s actions in Greenland and Venezuela and signs of resurgent American imperialism.

These livestreams will now be available only to full subscribers, both as they happen and later in video and podcast form. We’ll release shorter segments to the public later, but if you want the whole shebang, become a full subscriber today. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience supported. We need your help in order to keep delivering the show week after week, along with all the other content we post here. So to those of you who are already full supporters: thank you for all you do. And if you’re not yet a supporter, please consider becoming one.

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com

Glenn and John examine the killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse shot by ICE agents despite video suggesting he had been restrained and disarmed. They debate whether ICE and CBP should be operating in city streets at all, the scope and priorities of immigration enforcement, and the tension between border security, limited resources, and proportional enforcement.

The discussion then turns to Davos, where Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney sharply criticized the current international order and implicitly challenged US economic coercion. Glenn and John disagree over how to interpret Trump’s posture—from reckless bluster to strategic calculation—and what consequences a more confrontational U.S. stance may provoke globally.

This episode features the first half of the livestream. The Q&A will be available to full subscribers on Sunday.