Last week I returned to The Glenn Show, but this week I’m back. And who better to talk to for the first episode after my hiatus than John McWhorter? This is a big week for me for other reasons. As a paying subscriber, you’re receiving this on Monday, May 13, which means my memoir, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative, is out tomorrow. If you pre-ordered it, it should be arriving on your doorstep very soon. If you haven’t, 24 hours from now you should be able to walk into your local bookstore and pick up a hard copy. And if they don’t have one, ask them to order up a stack! The reviews are rolling in—we’ve linked to a handful in the Links and Readings section below.
It’s the end of the semester, and John and I talk about the stacks of papers we have to grade, the end-of-term fog that makes concentrating on anything but teaching impossible, and, of course, the campus protests. John has been taking heat for writing about his decision not to “play” John Cage’s “4’33””—a “silent” composition—for his students while the protests were audible outside. We discuss America’s stake in the Gaza War, the death toll and humanitarian crisis, and whether students should be forced to listen to protests, even if they’re deeply offended by them. We wrap up with book talk, a run-down of my surgery and recovery, and my reviews of the various hospital cuisines I’ve sampled in the last month or so.
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0:00 The end of a tumultuous semester
4:39 The willful misreadings of John’s criticisms of the student protests
9:26 There are wars all over the world. Why so much fervor around Israel-Palestine?
16:40 Ground News ad
18:41 Has Israel gone too far in Gaza?
22:32 Should students be forced to listen to protests that might offend them?
35:11 Glenn’s book is out this week!
41:11 An update on Glenn’s recovery and hospital cuisine
Recorded May 11, 2024
Links and Readings
John’s NYT piece, “I’m a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice”
John’s NYT piece, “The Columbia Protests Made the Same Mistake the Civil Rights Movement Did”
John’s NYT piece, “Why Was This Treasure of Musical Theater All but Lost to the Ages?”
Coleman Hughes and Robert Wright debate Israel-Palestine
Pamela Paul’s NYT piece on Glenn, “He Knows It’s Important to Admit Mistakes. He’s Made Many.”
WSJ’s review of Late Admissions
Tunku Varadarajan’s 2020 WSJ profile of Glenn
WaPo’s review of Late Admissions
John McWhorter – Campus Protests at Semester's End