Charles Murray is a political scientist best known for his work on intelligence, socioeconomics, and the American welfare state. In books including 'Losing Ground' (1984), 'The Bell Curve' (1994), and 'Coming Apart' (2012), Murray has offered an interpretation of the world that foregrounds the role of genetic luck in social outcomes. A lot of people dislike this interpretation, to put it mildly. But I'm convinced by the evidence that genetic luck is important, and that we can't ignore this factor when trying to make sense of the world.

One profound problem that we face in the twenty-first century derives from the fact that unusually intelligent people – i.e. people who have lucked out in terms of both their genetics and their environments – are often very bad at understanding how others experience the world. Murray describes a process we've undergone since the end of the Second World War whereby a new cognitive elite has become increasingly isolated – socially and geographically – from the rest of society. This distance encourages feelings of contempt towards people further down the class system, who in turn feel anger at the ways in which they are misgoverned by an elite that feels no sense of noblesse oblige. The result has been bitter political polarisation – one of the many subjects that we discuss in today's episode.

Find ad-free and bonus episodes of the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast at louiseperry.substack.com.

Discussed in this episode:

• 'Taking Religion Seriously' by Charles Murray
• Helen Andrews on the 'Great Feminisation'
• 'The Son Also Rises' by Gregory Clark

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In this bonus episode, I spoke with Rob Henderson about Jacob Savage's viral article in Compact on discrimination against white men in creative industries.

Discussed in the episode:

• 'The lost generation' - Compact Magazine
• 'The vanishing white male writer' - Compact Magazine
• 'The vanishing' - Tablet Magazine
• 'The Daily' episode on media trust

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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We have seen an extraordinary change in attitudes towards gay and lesbian people over the last half century in the West. Within living memory, homosexuality was criminalised. Now, same-sex couples can get married and share custody of children. This is nothing short of a moral revolution.

Plenty of progressives think, not only that this change was inevitable, but also that further liberalisation is inevitable. My guests today are not so sure.

They note that, for the first time in a long time, younger people on average are less accepting of homosexuality than are slightly older people. Perhaps this is a result of immigration patterns. Perhaps it's a result of strategic errors made by activists. I'm joined by three people who all agree that something has gone wrong, although they disagree – subtly – on exactly how and why.

Ronan McCrea is professor of constitutional and European law at University College London and the author of 'The End of the Gay Rights Revolution: How Hubris and Overreach Threaten Gay Freedom.'

Matthew Vines the the Founder and Executive Director of The Reformation Project and the author of 'God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships.'

And Julie Bindel is a journalist, broadcaster, author, and the co-founder and co-director of The Lesbian Project.

All of these guests share a concern that the wins of the gay rights movement are very fragile. There is a very real possibility that we will look back on the early twenty-first century as an historical blip – a brief moment of victory that was squandered. We ask how that fate might be avoided.

Discussed in the show:

• 'The End of the Gay Rights Revolution: How Hubris and Overreach Threaten Gay Freedom'
• 'God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships'
• 'Lesbians: Where are we now?'
• The Lesbian Project podcast
• Stephen Ireland news story
• My interview with Darel E. Paul
• Operation Spanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.