#507 - Demagogues and Democracies: A Dialogue with John Keane

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with John Keane about demagogues and despots. They talk about the rise of demagogues in the modern era, why democracies have been infiltrated with demagogues, despots, tools that demagogues use, demagogues in the future, and many more topics. John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and renowned globally for his creative thinking about politics, history, media and democracy. His books include The Shortest History of Democracy, The Life and Death of Democracy, and his latest book, Demagogues and Despots: democracies on the brink. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robin Waterfield and John Sellars on their new translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. They discuss translating Aristotle’s ethics for a modern audience, Aristotelian Greek vs. other forms of Greek, different works of ethics, Aristotle’s eudaimonia, the good life, Aristotle’s virtues, using reason for ethics, friendship, and many other topics. Robin Waterfield is a British classical scholar, translator, and editor, specializing in Ancient Greek philosophy. He has written and/or translated many works, including the recent English translation of Nicomachean Ethics.John Sellars is Reader in the History of Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, with further affiliations to King's College London and Wolfson College, Oxford. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Romain Brette about the brain and various theoretical concepts in neuroscience. They talk about the idea of the brain as a computer, memory and reality, functionalism, connectionism, and computational theory of mind, and the extended mind. They also discuss perception, representations, anticipation, Friston, free energy, and active interferences, emotions, the brain as a complex biological ecosystem, panpsychism, and many more topics. Romain Brette is a neuroscientist at the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Paris. He has worked on neuronal biophysics, neuroinformatics, auditory neuroscience, philosophy of neuroscience, and recently on the behavior and physiology of protists. He is the author of the latest book, The Brain, In Theory. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sarah Pearsall about the global perspectives of the American Revolution. They discuss American independence in a global context, freedom, Indigenous nations pushing for revolution, Canada not joining the colonies, Hessians, Six indigenous nations, Cuba, and many more topics. Sarah M. S. Pearsall is an award-winning historian with degrees from Yale, Harvard, and Cambridge, where she taught for nearly a decade. She is a professor and Chair of the Department of History at Johns Hopkins. She is a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar and Distinguished Fellow in the American Revolution at the British Library. She is the author of the latest book, Freedom Round the Globe: A world history of the American Revolution. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Daley about gerrymandering and political redistricting in the United States. They discuss political redistricting in the modern era, defining redistricting, how states redraw the political map, 2026 midterms, gerrymandering in 2028, 2030 census, fixing gerrymandering, and many more topics. David Daley is a Senior Fellow at FairVote. He is the author of the national best-seller “Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count,” which has been credited with sparking the modern drive to reform redistricting and end partisan gerrymandering, and the basis for the award-winning documentary “Slay The Dragon.” His second book, “Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy,” chronicles the victories and defeats in state efforts to reform elections and uphold voting rights. His third book, “Antidemocratic,” follows the weakening of the Voting Rights Act through Supreme Court decisions like Shelby County vs. Holder.A frequent lecturer and media source about gerrymandering, he is the former editor-in-chief of Salon.com, and the former CEO and publisher of the Connecticut News Project. David’s journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, and many other publications, and he has been a guest on CNN, MSNBC, NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and Comedy Central. He has taught political science and journalism as a visiting fellow at Wesleyan University, Boston College, and the University of Georgia. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Mark Solms on Freud and the curative power of psychoanalysis. They discuss how he edited the complete psychological works of Freud, translation differences, and Lacan on Freud. They talk about how Freud developed his theory, subjective experiences vs. consciousness, Freud’s topographical model, neuroscience rediscovering Freud, Friston’s free energy principle, Freud’s drives and Panksepp’s drives, sex, pleasure, and libido, psychoanalysis as curative, and many more topics. Mark Solms is a neuropsychologist and psychoanalyst. He holds the chair of neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and is also the research chair for the International Psychoanalytic Association and science director of the American Psychoanalytic Association. A world-leading pioneer in neuropsychoanalysis, he has spent decades bridging Freudian theory and cutting-edge neuroscience. He is the translator and editor of The Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. He is the author of numerous books including, The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the source of Consciousness and the most recent, The Only Cure: Freud and the Neuroscience of Mental Healing. You might also like: Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lixing Sun about the origins of sex in many species. They discuss the origins of sex, asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction, and “flip-flopping.” They discuss large and small gametes, varieties of biological sex, Dawkins and the selfish gene, sex chromosomes, changing sex, intersex, mate choice and mate competition, sexual identity, and many more topics. Lixing Sun is a distinguished research professor at Central Washington University and a 2024–2025 Radcliffe fellow at Harvard University. He is author of The Liars of Natureand the Nature of Liars, The Fairness Instinct, and On the Origin of Sex. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Samuel Moyn about gerontocracy in America. They discuss how we live in a gerontocracy, coalitions, older institutions, avoiding ageism, oligarchies, elites and democracy, long term view, abundance, and many more topics. Samuel Moyn is Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. He has his law degree from Harvard University and his PhD in modern European history from University of California, Berkeley. He is fellow at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Berggruen Institute, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His main interests are in international law, human rights, and 20th century European moral and political theory. He was recently named one of Propsect Magazine’s top thinkers in the world for 2024. He is the author of numerous books including, Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of our Times, and the most recent book, Gerontocracy in America: How the old are hoarding power and wealth and what to do about it. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Marc Dunkelman about progressives and policy ideas for growth. They discuss shared interests of collective and individual interests, progressives on big ideas, Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian progressive styles, pragmatic institutionalism, new ideas in the 21st century, elites, visionary leadership, and many more topics. Marc J. Dunkelman is a resident scholar at the Searchlight Institute and a fellow at Brown University’s Watson School for International and Public Affairs. During more than a decade working in politics, he worked for Democratic members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The author of The Vanishing Neighbor, Dunkelman’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Boston Globe, and Politico. He is the author of the latest book, Why Nothing Works: Who killed progress and how to bring it back. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Tamim Ansary about a global history of humans through time. They discuss the main theme of interconnectedness, language, symbols, and culture, origins and nomadic peoples, early trading, rise of city states, religion and belief systems, the Crusades, Mongol Empire, Ottoman Empire, colonialism, empires and nation states, and many more topics. Tamim Ansary is the author of many books, including Destiny Disrupted and The Invention of Yesterday. He has published essays and commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, and more. Born in Afghanistan in 1948, he moved to the US in 1964. He lives in San Francisco. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe