Is American Decline Inevitable?

Shadi Hamid

,

Samuel Kimbriel

, and

Christine Emba

head to Aspen to record a live episode of the show. The crowd gets involved.

The broad topic of the conversation was decline. We don’t always know how to express it, but many of us feel it: There’s something wrong with America today. The mood is tense. More Americans say they won’t have children because of climate change and other future catastrophes. But are things really as bad as they seem? Is decline something we need to accept—or is there a case for a new optimism?

You won’t want to miss this one.

Required Reading:

• Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, by Svetlana Alexievich (Amazon).

• Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, by Christine Emba (Amazon).

• Friendship as Sacred Knowing: Overcoming Isolation, by Samuel Kimbriel (Amazon).

• “Five Ancient Secrets to Modern Happiness”, lecture by Tamar Gendler (YouTube).