{"podcast":{"title":"The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan","slug":"the-dishcast-with-andrew-sullivan-1371188","podcast_index_feed_id":1371188,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/61371.rss","website_url":"https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/61371/b8169094491d87e5c919fbbc549287ca.jpg","author":"Andrew Sullivan","episode_count":276,"summary":"\"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle,\" - George Orwell.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-25T06:17:14.708828+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dishcast-with-andrew-sullivan-1371188"},"episode":{"title":"Adrian Wooldridge On Liberalism's Genius","slug":"adrian-wooldridge-on-liberalism-s-genius","published_at":"2026-05-08T17:45:49+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dishcast-with-andrew-sullivan-1371188/adrian-wooldridge-on-liberalism-s-genius","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dishcast-with-andrew-sullivan-1371188","url":"https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/adrian-wooldridge-on-liberalisms","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/196447760/3c3818e743e39022013262c79545f56b.mp3","summary":"This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com Adrian is a journalist and an old friend. We arrived in America on the same plane in 1984 and spent the first few days together in the same hotel room. After more than 20 years writing for The Economist, he became the global business columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He’s the author of several books, including The Aristocracy of Talent, and the co-author of many more with John Micklethwait, including The Right Nation . Adrian’s new book is The Revolutionary Center : The Lost Genius of Liberalism . It’s a terrific tonic for a philosophy as vital as it is in eclipse. For two clips of the episode — on how Enlightenment ideas got corrupted, and Big Tech’s threat to liberalism — head to our YouTube page . Other topics: raised in rural Shropshire; his parents both teachers; his dissertation on the 11-plus (an exam that changed my life); when IQ tests were a liberal cause; Luther and the Reformation; the religious civil wars leading to the Enlightenment; Hobbes as a proto-liberal; the humanism of Erasmus; Montesquieu and the spirit of liberalism; John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism; Isaiah Berlin and pluralism; Graham Wallas and the Great Society; Lippmann; Leo Strauss; Thatcherism; consumerism vs. self-improvement; meritocracy threatened by the left; Foucault’s folly; the EU and managerial liberalism; Brooks’ bobos; affirmative action and DEI; why liberal democracy in Iraq didn’t work; Oakeshott; Schmitt and friend-enemy; Trump’s stark illiberalism and neo-royalism; King Charles; Putin ushering in a strongman era; Biden’s open borders; the migration crisis and Brexit; the buffoonish Boris; the struggling Starmer; high culture and other upsides to elitism; Abundance ; Deneen and post-libe…","meta_description":"This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com Adrian is a journalist and an old friend. We arrived in America…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2996,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-dishcast-with-andrew-sullivan-1371188/episodes/adrian-wooldridge-on-liberalism-s-genius/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dishcast-with-andrew-sullivan-1371188/adrian-wooldridge-on-liberalism-s-genius.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}