Shows / Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Two Political Science PhD Students, Comparativist Megan Cox and Americanist Clayton Becker take you through the ways that previous generations have made the world worse by dismantling the legacy of things like the New Deal and the Great Society. From car dependency to political polarization to our over-reliance on dating apps to helicopter parenting, come along to learn about the many different ways that we should Reject Modernity and Embrace Tradition.
Episodes
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 53: Reject Mission Creep, Embrace Service First Policies
A cousin to, or perhaps a descendent of "Everything Bagel" policies, is that many organizations are having their primary missions undermined by what are, at…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Summer Hiatus Announcement: Reject Unplanned Hiatuses, Embrace the Academic Job Market (with Graham Straus)
Megan and Clayton are taking a bit of a break while they apply for jobs. But, because they are so nice and don't want to just vanish, they've brought a special…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 52: Reject Race Neutral Remedies, Embrace Race Conscious Fixes
The United States as a whole broadly likes to claim that is is focuses on equality and "not seeing race" is often held up as a virtue. However, this notion of…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 51: Reject Echo Chambers, Embrace Evidence
In an episode that really gets at the ongoing themes of this show, Megan and Clayton talk about how echo chambers, conspiratorial thinking, and shibboleths…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 50: Reject the Closed League, Embrace the Beautiful Game
With the World Cup only days away, and with our last couple of episodes being, well, heavy as hell, we thought we would take the opportunity to inject a little…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 49: Reject Trump's Forever Dodge, Embrace Foreign Policy
The Trump Administration has been maddeningly, insanely inconsistent on the causes, justification, purpose, just about everything to do with their war in Iran…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 48: Reject Rejecting the Voting Rights Act, Embrace Reconstruction 2.0: The Reckoning
The Supreme Court's decision in the Callais case is, to put it mildly, a bunch of hot garbage. Megan and Clayton struggle to stay calm as they take you through…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 47: Reject Medical Misinformation, Embrace Modern Science
There is a rising tide of misinformation specifically related to women's health that parallels the anti-vaccine movement with startling fidelity. Megan and…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 46: Reject "The Department of", Embrace Justice
Pam Bondi is turning the Department of Justice into an instrument of Trump's will rather than a legitimate law enforcement organization. Her actions are doing…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 45: Reject X, Embrace Twitter (with Jake Christie)
Elon has ruined Twitter. Just about every element of the user experience has gotten worse since he took over, and he fundamentally seems to misunderstand the…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 44: Reject Random State Violence, Embrace Accountability
Over the past year of the Trump administration, ICE agents have been running around the country acting with utter impunity. Without the threat of being help…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 43: Reject Isolation, Embrace Celebration
Just about every culture in the Northern Hemisphere has a festival of lights around this time of year, from Diwali to Christmas to Hanukkah to the Lantern…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 42: Reject Tax Cuts, Embrace Civic Commitment
That top tax rates and general tax burdens have decreased has been much reported on, but an equally important, if less well known, trend is that American…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 41: Reject the 50-year Mortgage, Embrace Building Housing
Trump's recent "proposal", if we can call it that, for a 50-year mortgage, is one of the worst ideas his administration has ever had that wasn't actively…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 40: Reject the Shadow Docket, Embrace Decisions
Recently, the Supreme Court has been making much greater use of the emergency, or "shadow", docket to make rulings which have real substantive impacts - even…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 39: Reject Mere Cancellation, Embrace Cultural Change
A few episodes ago, Megan and Clayton talked themselves into the position that the MeToo movement hadn't actually been very successful in achieving many of its…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 38: Reject "Born and Raised", Embrace Transplants
Everybody seems to hate it when new people move to the city. Transplants are held responsible for everything from traffic to displacement. But this image of…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 37: Reject Dating Apps, Embrace Meeting Through Friends
Dating has become an "online first" activity these days, with the plurality of relationships beginning on the internet. This has some pretty substantial…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 36: Reject Inclusionary Zoning, Embrace Social Housing
Producing affordable housing is important, but our most commonly used methods for getting this housing built may be actively counterproductive. In what is…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 35: Reject Social Media, Embrace Real Life
We live a substantial portion of our public lives on social media in a way that is actually deeply unhealthy for many of us and causes us to make decisions…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 34: Reject ICE, Embrace Civil Immigration Law
It's not exactly a secret that ICE are completely out of control right now. They are acting with impunity while violating people's rights all over the country…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 33: Reject Ableism, Embrace Universal Accessibility and Design
Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act 35 years ago, we've made limited progress on disability access and even regressed in certain ways when…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 32: Reject Millennial Gray, Embrace Color
There's been much to-do about the graying of the world. But how much of it is real, how much are millennials responsible, and is it actually a problem? Listen…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 31: Reject the Manosphere, Embrace Being Normal
Recent years have seen the rise of "manosphere" content as opportunistic grifters monetize men's inability to get a date and tell them that it's all women's…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 30: Reject Digital Learning, Embrace the Classroom
Much as digital learning technologies can provide better access to education for some people, they are not, and we cannot let them be a replacement for…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 29: Reject Nationalization, Embrace Local News
The last two decades have seen a dramatic decline in local newspapers and local news more generally. This has had consequences on everything ranging from…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 28: Reject Ignorance, Embrace General Knowledge
Levels of general knowledge are genuinely on the decline, and the distrust of experts and even reveling in one's own lack of knowledge seem to be on the rise…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 27: Reject Hallmark, Embrace Mother's Day (with Clayton's literal Mom)
The origins of Mother's Day are, dare we say, actually pretty woke. But almost immediately after becoming an official holiday, it became commercialized and…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 26: Reject Hustle Culture, Embrace Downtime
In the wake of the Great Recession, it often feels like the only acceptable orientation towards work and life is to hustle. The goal is to work long hours, be…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 25: Reject Loneliness, Embrace Hanging Out
We've all heard about the loneliness epidemic, and it can feel like there's not much we can do about it. But, even wholly apart from policy, there are things…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 24: Reject Dobbs, Embrace Abortion Rights
What is there to say about the Dobbs decision honestly? A calamitous choice by the Supreme Court that will have unknowable and incalculable negative…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 23: Reject Term Limits, Embrace Electoral Accountability
Term limits are incredibly popular, but just about all of the empirical evidence demonstrates that they don't work to achieve their goals, and instead result…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 22: Reject Impunity, Embrace Consequences
Over the last couple decades, and especially in the Trump era, it seems like people no longer face appropriate consequences for their behavior. A certain…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 21: Reject SUVs, Embrace Family Sedans
Simply put, cars have gotten too damn big. The size of cars these days is bad for people, for the environment, for infrastructure, for just about everything…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 20: Reject Sprawl, Embrace Urbanism (with Nia Johnson)
YIMBYs for Harris co-founder and co-host of the upcoming "Radio Abundance" Podcast, Nia Johnson joins us to talk about how we got to this point, where we have…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 19: Reject Means Testing, Embrace Universal Programs
In the last half century, governments across the anglosphere, but especially in the United States, have become obsessed with means testing. But ultimately…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 18: Reject Process, Embrace Results
One of the biggest reasons why it feels like government can't get anything done these days is because we have developed a complete an utter addiction to…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 17: Reject Small Government, Embrace Government Capacity
The last 40 years have seen an almost non-stop campaign from the right wing to make government smaller and privatize its functions. Put simply, this does not…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 16: Reject The School Pickup Line, Embrace The School Bus
Over the last few decades, how students get to school has changed, and in 2024, for the first time ever, the majority of students arrived to school in a…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 15: Reject Election Conspiracies, Embrace Working the Polls (with Maddie Covino)
In recent years, a commitment to safe, secure elections has given way to conspiracy theories, understaffed polls, and fights over who should get to vote in the…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 14: Reject Sequels, Embrace Original Storytelling (with Cormac Schambach)
It seems like just about every movie in the theaters and all the shows on TV are remakes, sequels, adaptations, or reboots, and it's sucking the life out of…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 13: Reject Deportation, Embrace The Great American Melting Pot
The Trump administration's hardline stance on immigration mirrors a sea change in public opinion on the subject in the last four years. People are more…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 12: Reject Climate Anxiety, Embrace Environmental Stewardship (with Samantha Morales Johnson Yang)
In the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires, it is easy to feel powerless in the face of climate change. But this mentality is dangerous and…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 11: Reject Shareholder Supremacy, Embrace Public Benefit Corporations
Much of the "enshittification" of modern life can be traced to the theory of shareholder supremacy (also called shareholder primacy), which has contributed to…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 10: Reject Charter Schools, Embrace Public Education (with Alexander Elg)
The last 30 years have seen an explosion of privately run, publicly funded charter schools. Proponents of charters argue that they are a better route than…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 9: Reject Educational Elitism, Embrace The State School
Americans increasingly focus their educational attention on a small cadre of elite institutions, to the detriment of university education as a whole, and with…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 8: Reject Book Bans, Embrace Parental Involvement in Education
The pandemic unleashed a tidal wave of attempts to ban books in American school libraries. However, rather than reflecting too much parental involvement in…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 7: Reject Car Dependency, Embrace Multimodal Transportation
Car dependency is bad for us in just about every way. From the danger they pose to the pollution they cause, being dependent on cars is bad for everyone. But…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 6: Reject Constitutional Stasis, Embrace Constitutional Change
We used to amend the US Constitution somewhat frequently. But over the last half century, we've largely stopped doing so. As a result, the US Constitution is…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 5: Reject Issue Polling, Embrace Persuasive Politics
Progressives, and the Democratic Party more generally, are often vexed by the fact that many voters will report preferring progressive policy in issue polling…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 4: Reject Helicopter Parenting, Embrace Adolescent Independence
The last couple of decades have seen a nationwide trend towards a more overbearing style of parenting, but this "Helicopter Parenting" has a whole host of…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Pre-Election Special: Reject Voter Suppression, Embrace Voting Rights
There has never been a time in American history where everyone could easily vote and there was no voter suppression. However, between 1965 and 2014, we had a…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Halloween Bonus Episode: Reject Trunk or Treat, Embrace Trick or Treat
Trunk or Treat is a complete and utter abomination that is ruining Halloween for everyone. On top of that, it is emblematic of the social isolation and…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 3: Reject Economic Anxiety, Embrace Economic Choice
Despite much of the objective economic data showing that people are largely better off today than they were in the past - at least in terms of income - many…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 2: Reject Judicial Overreach, Embrace Subject Matter Expertise
The Supreme Court's Decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is the latest case in a long line of judicial power grabs, and perhaps one of the most…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Episode 1: Reject Purity Tests, Embrace Big Tent Politics
Purity tests in a two party political system just don't work very well. Listen along as Megan and Clayton take you through some of the research and real world…
- Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Trailer: Welcome to Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition
Political Science PhD students and just all around nerds Clayton Becker and Megan Cox take you back to the good old days....just not in the way that you might…