John and I stepped away from the leftovers and sat down for a post-Thanksgiving recording session this weekend. As the family “patriarch,” it was on me to offer some words before the meal, a task I found a little daunting. To whom are we giving thanks, anyway? Some of us give thanks to God, some to the people we love, and some simply express general feelings of gratitude for the good things in their lives. I certainly feel thankful for all I have, but I often wonder myself where those feelings are directed.
In this episode, John and I review our respective Thanksgiving weekends. I had a house full of family and a crowded kitchen, while John did a little party hopping. John recently finished reading David Greenberg’s new biography of John Lewis. We discuss his path from SNCC to the House of Representatives, and the radical turn black activism took after the mid-1960s. In John’s view, the Black Panthers accomplished nothing. Even the great James Baldwin succumbed to the era’s excesses. I took my own leftward turn, and I talk about James Q. Wilson’s prediction that I’d come back around (he was right). Finally, we talk about John’s New York Times piece about Yiddish.
One big group of people I’m thankful for is all of you readers, viewers, and listeners. Thank you for making The Glenn Show the success that is has been over these many years. Here’s to next year, and many more after.
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0:45 Thanksgiving with Glenn and John
6:50 Glenn the patriarch
10:35 John Lewis’s legacy
15:48 Ground News ad
17:49 From John Lewis to Stokely Carmichael to Jesse Jackson to BLM
25:21 To isolate or to integrate?
27:41 What black activism could have been
32:02 John: The Black Panthers accomplished nothing
40:04 ACTA ad
42:18 James Baldwin’s “nutty” late work
44:45 James Q. Wilson’s prescient attitude toward Glenn’s leftward shift
52:43 The “conservative” absence at the National Museum of African American History
55:11 John’s investigation of contemporary Yiddish speakers
Recorded December 1, 2024
Links and Readings
David Greenberg’s book, John Lewis: A Life
Barbara Fields and Karen Fields’s book, Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and Charles Hamilton’s book, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation
Trailer for Raoul Peck’s film, I Am Not Your Negro
James Baldwin’s book, The Evidence of Things Not Seen
Glenn’s book, Race, Incarceration, and American Values
John DiIulio Jr.’s review of Late Admissions in the Claremont Review of Books
John’s NYT column, “Yiddish is a Supposedly Dying Language That’s Thrillingly Alive”
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