# Episode 117: Jonathan Rauch

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-117-jonathan-rauch
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-117-jonathan-rauch.md
Podcast: [The Theory of Anything](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886)
Published: 2025-09-30T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-strands/episodes/Episode-117-Jonathan-Rauch-e38pfp2
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/14b6fc10/podcast/play/108887266/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-8-27%2Fb1f7d9d0-d799-c8f1-7447-4661fd7d04b1.mp3
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episodes/episode-117-jonathan-rauch
Duration seconds: 6751

## Resource

This week we had the absolute honor of interviewing Jonathan Rauch. Rauch is an extremely influential public intellectual (journalist and author) who is also a Popperian. His 1993 book, Kindly Inquisitors , makes the epistemic case for free speech. It is a stone cold classic that will be with us for a long time. In his 2021 sequel, The Constitution of Knowledge , he considers how society collectively produces knowledge and the dangers of misinformation. He has also written a book that provided the “intellectual framework” for the case for same sex marriage. ( link ) And though he says he's a Jewish atheist, his latest book, Cross Purposes , is a critical, yet reverential, book on Christianity making the case that our society needs more and not less Christianity. Follow Jonathan Rauch on X . ⁠Support us on Patreon

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## Transcript

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