I really enjoyed this discussion, and would love to hear a podcast episode where you think through your agreements and disagreements out loud together. By most metrics, I myself am a leftist or liberal: I am a writer who works in philanthropy and was shaped by "elite" academic spaces during the rise of the DEI / social justice regimes. More and more, however (and I sense I am not alone in this), I am drawn to those external structures like religion, family and community that impose boundaries on my individual freedom and require that I take responsibility for some collective and higher good.

Why? I have simply found in adulthood that the default modern liberal pathways of orienting my life around my own pleasures -- and even my own pursuit of higher meaning -- were staircases to nowhere, and that the deeper sense of freedom and fulfillment I was after comes not through removing constraints, but by choosing the right ones.

The ultimate emptiness of life under late stage liberal capitalism explains, I think, why so many young men were captivated by pseudo-philosophers like Jordan Peterson (is he still popular? no idea...) who say, "no, actually, there are some hard, unchangeable truths about the world, and the good life starts by imposing some boundaries and discipline upon yourself." What is at stake is not just your happiness, but your soul (if you believe in such a thing.)

I am finally reading Patrick Deneen's book "Why Liberalism Failed," and I would love to hear you take on some of his claims about liberalism and human nature. I.e. "as an ideology, it pretends to neutrality, claiming no preference and denying any intention of shaping the souls under its rule." How do you think each of your views and experience have been shaped by liberalism? And to what extent do you consciously push against it?

And to Kristina, you use the term "existential" a few times, but I'm not sure what you mean. I adore Camus and often quote him, "one must imagine Sisyphus happy"...do you see yourself as a descendant of some particular strand of existentialism? If so, do you find that it affords you some kind of useful map for the terrain you're navigating now at midlife with so much change around you?