Why it matters that pluralism was the biggest innovation of the Renaissance

Episode Summary 

We live in an uncertain age, one in which wealthy and powerful forces are working tirelessly to overthrow democracy, turn back the clock on human progress and destroy the middle class. The sheer magnitude of the West’s crisis of democracy can be overwhelming, however, and that’s why in this episode, I wanted to take more than a few steps back to explore the Renaissance, a period of world history that is much discussed in popular media, but often in a way that overshadows the real people and their actual intentions. Where did the Renaissance come from and what exactly were the people who made it hoping to achieve with their efforts? And are there any lessons that we can take from that time period for today?

These are very big topics, needless to say, and I could think of no better person to discuss them with than Ada Palmer. She’s a historian who teaches at the University of Chicago, and she’s written a fantastic review of the entire time-period called “Inventing the Renaissance,” which also discusses the historiography of one of humanity’s most written-about eras.

Besides this and other history books, Ada writes science fiction as well, which we get into at the very end of our conversation in the context of what lessons modern people can take from the Renaissance.

The video of our conversation is available, the transcript is below. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full page.

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Audio Chapters

00:00 — Introduction

05:53 — Tupac’s continued global resonance

09:14 — The origins of hip-hop and its commercialization

11:35 — Tupac’s legacy of contradictions

18:41 — The Black Panthers’ influence on Tupac’s mother

23:50 — Masculinity and gender within hip-hop

29:06 — Gender and sexuality in the Black Panther Party

35:56 — Obama and Trump in rap

39:12 — Former Panthers still have hope for the future despite Trump

41:31 — Trump’s 2024 campaign reached out heavily to hip-hop artists

46:22 — ‘Coolness’ as a non-political voter persuasion method

50:22 — How Van Nguyen brought oral history into his book

58:19 — Eazy-E, another political West Coast emcee

01:01:55 — The meanings of ‘thug life’

Audio Transcript

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