Welcome Conversations With Glenn Loury
We live in a politically polarized time. The opinions that people hold are held tightly and across the political spectrum, those opinions seem more diametrically opposed than ever before. When lines in the sand are drawn, each individual must robustly embrace whichever side they choose to fall on. In such an environment to change one’s mind and to do so publicly could be considered an act of bravery that often brings with it consequences for one’s reputation and even personal relationships.
The consequences of changing one’s mind are not a new phenomenon. Few, perhaps, know that as well as Glenn Loury, professor of economics at Brown University, award-winning author and host of The Glenn Show.
Hailing from the South Side of Chicago, Loury has seen his own political opinions morph massively over the years. As a black conservative, he found friendship among African American intellectuals and academics in the early days of his career.
Loury's attacks on affirmative action programs and insistence that the black community must take responsibility for their social problems, rather than lay them at the feet of white racism, posited him as a sellout to the left, and a poster child for post-race politics to the right.
For Loury, who had once been offered the No. 2 spot in the U.S. education department under President Ronald Reagan, a series of hardships led to his political transition. Following an assault charge that was later dropped, Loury was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine and marijuana. Having fallen into the same bad habits he had once said were the reason for the cycle of poverty in black communities, in his own words he felt it would be “unbelievably shallow, spiritually and politically problematic” to continue to decry his fellow African Americans as the source of their problems.
While no one in the present would describe Loury as a traditional liberal, his break from the conservative line has put him in a position with more in common with the Civil Rights activists that he once took delight in the provocation of than his former allies in the Reagan-era Republican Party.
The Glenn Show encapsulates his new outlook on the world, unwilling to accept either the dismissal of racial concerns by the right or the intellectual rigidity of the left.
Loury invites guests from the worlds of academia, journalism and public affairs to share insights on economic, political and social issues. His style of presentation is exceptionally hot-seated.
The show flows back and forth between him and his guests. They are neither there for an interview, nor are they there to speak about or promote themselves. Instead, they have been invited to hold a discussion. In a hot-seated discussion board, in which Loury never shies away from expressing his view on any given matter. At times his style can become heated, almost aggressive, but the tone of the show never veers away from a spirited debate.
The issues of affirmative action and social issues in the black community frequently appear on the show. As can be seen in the April 21 episode this year, although Loury has now somewhat come around to the benefits of affirmative action, he has not lost his desire or ability to criticize its implementation.
Joined by Robert L. Woodson, founder and president of the Woodson Center, Loury explores the exploitation of affirmative action by middle-class African Americans at the expense of their lower-income counterparts. Like Loury, Woodson has clashed with the Civil Rights movement, and the two men agree on the point that “Black people ought not to be taught to hate our country.”
Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a broad conversation topic on the show, reflecting its incalculable impact on society. At the time of writing, there have been 13 episodes of The Glenn Show posted on Bloggingheads.tv ––– The novel coronavirus has been discussed at length in 11 of those shows. A wide variety of experts offer their two cents on the pandemic, including Professor of Economics Rajiv Sethi, American classicist and political scientist Danielle Allen, and Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology Josiah Rich.
COVID-19 has opened up many ideas and discussions within all areas of society and The Glenn Show is no different. Even as Loury and his guests debate the public and political reaction to the virus, they explore more extensive societal possibilities.
On the March 23 episode, Sethi proposes a Universal Basic Income to combat the economic impacts of the pandemic, a proposition that Loury expresses somber concerns about.
On the April 6 episode, Allen advocates applying “just war theory” to the coronavirus outbreak, marshaling society’s resources and molding the economy to protect citizens from an existential threat. The discussion continues to see how such an approach can be reconciled with the free market economics America has built itself on.
Rich, in addition to his role as professor of medicine and epidemiology, is also director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at the Miriam Hospital. The abolition of prisons and especially private prisons, in an idea gaining traction on the left of American society. Despite having met many incarcerated people “who don’t need to be there,” Rich assures Loury on the April 30 episode that he is not a prison abolitionist while they discuss the topic.
So what can the public learn from The Glenn Show?
For those of a conservative persuasion, they will find much rhetoric and more profound political points that resonate with their worldview. Loury may not be the same hardline conservative he was when Reagan was in the Oval Office, but he is still to the right of the political spectrum. Listening to his discussions with his guests, however, will bring the viewer somewhat on the same journey he went on to a realization that neither the right’s “colorblindness” or the left’s identity politics hold all the answers.
For those of a liberal or left-wing outlook, the show's guests are more likely to express familiar views than the host. But Loury is no longer in the business of bombastic contrarian takes on the topic of the day, unlike some conservative commentators. His opinions are well reasoned and expressed artfully. Without the aggressive posturing stereotypically associated with right-
wing commentary, Loury allows the more liberal viewer to digest his views without the knee- jerk reaction to argue with what he is saying immediately. Whether or not he can bring his opponents around to his way of thinking, they will finish watching with a deeper understanding of the arguments they wish to debate against.
The Glenn Show stands out in a sea of political blogs, vlogs and podcasts, because individuals from every corner of the political spectrum will find points they agree with and disagree with in almost equal measure. However, the discussion between Loury and his guests, no matter how partisan their arguments are about specific causes, never seems to devolve into a combative rhetorical sparring match. In a time as politically polarized as ours, the conversational tone of these intellectual debates is a welcome change.