Glenn Loury
The Glenn Show
Noam Dworman – Friendship in a Time of War (Bonus Episode)
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Noam Dworman – Friendship in a Time of War (Bonus Episode)

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On this bonus episode of The Glenn Show, I’m joined by Noam Dworman, host of the Live from the Table podcast and owner of the Comedy Cellar, a legendary comedy club in New York City. Noam and I began corresponding years ago, and those email exchanges have developed into a real friendship. He’s an extremely thoughtful guy who, like many of my friends, disagrees with some of the things I’ve been saying about the Gaza War and Israel-Palestine. Noam decided he wanted to persuade me to think about the issue from a different perspective. To that end, a little while ago, Noam and his wife made the long drive from New York to Providence, accompanied by Coleman Hughes, Coleman’s fiancee, and a hefty bag of books about Israel. Over a long, sumptuous dinner, all of us, including my lovely wife LaJuan, talked about the issues, and much else.

Noam’s trip up to Providence was, in my view, not really a political gesture. It was a touching act of friendship. It made me think about the ways that cataclysms like the Gaza War can inject themselves into our most precious relationships, and sometimes end them. I’ve lost friends over political disputes before—it is a wrenching experience. I have no wish to repeat it. But neither can I stomach repressing my point of view for the sake of loyalty. Noam attempted to persuade me to think about my statements about Israel-Palestine, but he did so in order to reaffirm our friendship rather than to threaten it. How can we maintain our relationships with loved ones even when we differ on the most vital issues? Noam seemed like the ideal person with which to attempt to answer this question. As you’ll see, my friend has many wise things to say.

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0:00 Why Noam gave Glenn a bag of books about Israel

5:25 Why Glenn felt burned after The Bell Curve

8:49 Loyalty among friends during the Gaza War

13:15 The blowback from Brown’s ceasefire letter

17:18 Talking about Israel across the ideological spectrum

19:42 Glenn: Loyalty tests are unreasonable

23:16 Trying to understand the human costs of war

26:26 Glenn: There is no decent alternative to a two-state solution

33:32 “Apartheid,” “genocide,” and other potentially unhelpful terms

39:29 Noam: Thank God for President Biden

44:13 Why Noam is worried about American attitudes toward Israel

49:08 Will the Gaza War end up strengthening Hamas?

56:08 The tone-deafness of some supporters of Israel

Recorded January 31, 2023


Links and Readings

Noam’s podcast, Live from the Table

The Glenn Show Live at the Comedy Cellar

Glenn and John Live at the Comedy Cellar

Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein’s book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life

Glenn’s conversation with Charles Murray

The Brown University faculty’s ceasefire letter

Glenn’s conversation with Omer Bartov

Glenn’s conversation with Norman Finkelstein

Glenn’s conversation with John Mearsheimer

Glenn’s most recent conversation with Robert Wright

Benny Morris’s book, One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict

Aaron Maté’s appearance on Noam’s podcast


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Glenn Loury
The Glenn Show
Race, inequality, and economics in the US and throughout the world from Glenn Loury, Professor of Economics at Brown University and Paulson Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute