Donald Trump seems to be making good on his implicit promise to “move fast and break stuff,” as the Silicon Valley mantra goes. Some things he’s breaking need to be broken, like our long deadlock on decisive action at the border. Elon Musk may not be the ideal candidate to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal bureaucracy, but he is moving fast. Making big, swift changes will inevitably make people nervous, and a certain amount of chaos is part of the Trump package. Is it worth it? John McWhorter, of course, thinks not. But I’m willing to wait and see. Despite what I view as some missteps and overreach, I’m willing to give him a chance to implement his policies. I’ll reserve judgment, at least for now.
John and I begin with a discussion of his latest column, on Percival Everett’s novel James and the myth that Black English originated as a secret language created by slaves. Fiction is only a semi-regular part of John’s reading, but, like me, he’s got high praise for Everett’s novel. We then move onto Trump and DOGE. It will surprise no one that John is not happy about Trump’s action on immigration, nor does he like that Trump seems to be using the federal corruption case against New York City mayor Eric Adams to exert pressure on the city. John doesn’t see what’s so bad about American immigration—it has it’s problems, but they’re not nearly as spectacular as those we see in Europe. But a law is a law, and I think if people are breaking it by coming here illegally, they need to be held to account. Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance upped the profile of one of the biggest stars in rap. Meanwhile, Ye (formerly Kanye West) has been praising Hitler, firing off antisemitic tweets, and selling t-shirts with swastikas on them. Which leads us to ask: what’s up with that?
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0:55 The myth of a secret black language
6:36 The terror of slavery in James
12:13 Essential fictions
15:45 Ground News ad
17:30 Liberal panic over Trump and DOGE
24:10 Is NYC mayor Eric Adams under Trump’s thumb?
26:54 Glenn: What’s wrong with telling illegal migrants to leave?
33:40 ACTA ad
35:54 The differing challenges of European and American immigration
44:08 The significance of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance
52:17 What’s wrong with Ye?
Recorded February 16, 2025
Links and Readings
John’s latest NYT column, “The Truth and the Fiction of Black English”
Percival Everett’s novel, James
Percival Everett’s novel, Erasure
Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye
Allan Gurganus’s novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Francis Burney’s novel, Evelina
R.F. Kuang’s novel, Babel, or, the Necessity of Violence
Gil-Scot Heron’s song, “Whitey on the Moon”
Tucker Carlson interviews Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show
John’s book, All about the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can’t Save Black America
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