# How Society Works

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-discourses-187975/how-society-works
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-discourses-187975/how-society-works.md
Podcast: [New Discourses](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-discourses-187975)
Published: 2026-05-11T13:45:57+00:00
Episode link: https://soundcloud.com/newdiscourses/how-society-works
Audio file: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2317184867-newdiscourses-how-society-works.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-discourses-187975/episodes/how-society-works
Duration seconds: 1582

## Resource

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 158 How does society work? That seems like an important question for people who live in societies and are thus tasked, whether they like it or not, with keeping the thing going. The answer is pretty surprising, actually, and it all boils down to how we incentivize people to work in ways that benefit other people even when they don't know or care about those other people. Drawing off Friedrich Hayek's arguments about the "extended society," in this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay endeavors to explain what actually makes societies work and why centrally planned and totalitarian systems do a poor job of running them. You won't want to miss this one. Latest from New Discourses Press! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Society

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