Quillette Cetera

Richard Hanania is a political scientist and president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology. He spent about a decade as one of the most influential voices on the online right — first writing pseudonymously in the alt-right, later as one of the intellectual influences on the Silicon Valley tech right. Then he watched his own ideas take power, and changed his mind.

His new book is Kakistocracy: Why Populism Ends in Disaster. Kakistocracy is Greek for rule by the worst. The argument inside it is one very few people are willing to make right now: that Western elites are not overrated but underrated, and that our institutions work far better than we give them credit for.

Zoe and Richard get into Australia's populist surge, what actually makes someone an elite, the backlash against skilled immigration and the H-1B fight in the States, whether Sydney's housing crisis is really about immigration, and what frightens him most — which turns out to have a lot to do with fertility.

Also: is Zoe an elite? Are you? There's a test.

00:00 Who is Richard Hanania

02:27 The case that elites are underrated

04:50 What actually makes someone an elite

07:04 Do people care about the truth?

08:45 When federal bureaucrats became shitposters

09:38 Populism as rule by the id

11:33 Australia's populist surge

15:57 The awkward part: immigration

18:45 Australian vs American assimilation

21:46 Is Pauline Hanson a serious person?

23:33 Getting elites to take immigration seriously

26:06 Cofnas, Arday and academic gatekeeping

30:03 The H-1B backlash explained

32:58 Zero immigration and the fertility problem

34:05 Anti-Indian sentiment in Australia

35:40 Is Sydney's housing crisis about immigration?

38:30 The chapter Zoe couldn't finish

39:12 Are you an elite? Take the test

41:28 The Manosphere, and what a "chud" is

44:14 Nine-fifty in the morning in Sydney

46:32 The thinkers behind the book

48:15 AI, fertility, and what frightens him most

50:50 Why nobody's pairing up
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Author David Maywald joins Zoe Sankey to discuss the female wage premium among young Australians, the collapse of male rites of passage, and why boys are told from primary school that masculinity is a problem to be managed.

His essay for Quillette: https://quillette.com/2026/05/05/the-emerging-female-wage-premium/ The Relentless War on Masculinity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1764339703?tag=quillette-20

00:00 Young women are out-earning young men

04:48 Why boys never got the same lift

11:14 The post-war family was the anomaly

15:12 Childlessness and a stake in the next generation

22:03 The rites of passage boys no longer have

28:49 Why it's rites, plural

36:58 100 of the Best Books for Men

45:21 Where the bias against boys begins

48:20 Why only 17% of primary teachers are men

55:19 What young men actually think

1:00:01 Abbie Chatfield and the podcast that started this one

1:10:12 Male psychology: the next frontier
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Zoe Sankey sits down with Crémieux (the pen name of researcher Jordan Lasker), the formerly anonymous X writer-researcher whose data threads on genetics, demographics and metabolic drugs have drawn a following of more than 260,000 — including some very prominent readers.

It's a wide-ranging conversation. They cover collapsing fertility rates and the Victorian obscenity trial he argues helped set them falling; his case that dog breeds — pit bulls especially — behave the way they were bred to, and why he thinks people resist that; what he makes of the evidence on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and retatrutide, microplastics, and the wellness industry; El Salvador's transformation under Nayib Bukele; IQ testing, genetics and embryo selection; populism, personality and politics; free will; and being Jewish and atheist at once.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Intro — who Crémieux is and how he built his following
02:24 Fertility collapse and the Bradlaugh–Besant trial
05:00 Silphium, abortion and the long human history of family planning
06:00 Strong convictions, and why he wants to live forever
07:49 Brian Johnson, longevity and the wellness-hype problem
10:56 Microplastics: what the evidence actually shows
13:24 Zinc, Accutane and the biology of acne
18:08 Ivermectin, Demodex mites and skin
20:22 Pet rats, lab rats, and which animals we call "cute"
22:56 UFOs and the Trump-era document releases
25:11 Pit bulls: breeding, behaviour and public denial
30:06 Ira Glass, greyhounds and virtue-signal dog ownership
34:11 GLP-1 drugs: Ozempic, retatrutide and the medical turnaround
36:00 His own weight loss, muscle and travel-for-work
37:57 Próspera, El Salvador and Bukele's gang crackdown
42:49 Duterte, Hanania's Kakistocracy and populism
45:42 IQ, classical liberalism and organising society
47:12 China, dumping, open-source AI and pharmaceutical free-riding
50:36 Tariffs and the destination-based cash flow tax
51:49 Hope, ageing, and the generational wealth question
55:14 Truth-seeking, reform, and why people don't change their minds
56:46 Jewishness, identity and defining who counts as a Jew
59:11 Antisemitism, zero-sum thinking and its long tradition
1:01:05 The future of Israel and the Hilonim birth rate
1:04:04 IQ tests, Mensa and gaming the matrices
1:05:27 Embryo selection and raising smart kids
1:08:36 Nature, nurture and what mothers influence
1:09:20 Politics shaping personality — and the La Piere study
1:14:30 The Big Five, intelligence and conscientiousness
1:18:14 Free will: Pinker vs. Harris
1:20:38 The name "Crémieux" and Adolphe Crémieux
1:21:59 Wrap-up

—
📩 Subscribe to Quillette: https://quillette.com
🎧 Listen on Apple & Spotify
🐦 Follow Quillette: https://twitter.com/Quillette

—
Guest: Crémieux — https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil | Substack: https://cremieux.xyz

—
Referenced in this episode:
• Rob Brooks, "The Tragedy of the Unwanted Child" (Quillette) — https://quillette.com/2022/06/24/the-tragedy-of-the-unwanted-child-what-ancient-cultures-did-before-abortion/
• The Bradlaugh–Besant trial (1877) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradlaugh%E2%80%93Besant_trial
• Richard Hanania, Kakistocracy — https://link.amazon/B0g92Tesm
• Herasight (embryo screening) — https://www.herasight.com
• Orchid (embryo screening) — https://www.orchidhealth.com
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Rachel Moiselle is a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin and one of Ireland's most visible activists against antisemitism. In this episode of Quillette Cetera, she joins Zoe Sankey to discuss what it's like to defend a community of roughly 3,000 Jews in a country that largely denies it has an antisemitism problem at all.

Rachel talks candidly about the ignorance surrounding Jewish culture in Ireland, how left-wing ideology has shaped anti-Israel sentiment and political discourse, and why Irish national identity has become entangled with the Palestinian cause. She also shares a very different side of her work: her research into Irish Sign Language, deaf culture, and the role AI translation technology plays for a minority language community, and how that experience shaped her thinking on identity and belonging more broadly.

The conversation moves through her own path toward converting to Judaism, the friendships she's gained and lost since October 7th, the online abuse that followed her Sunday Independent article, and why she still believes speaking up is worth the cost.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and guest background
02:30 Antisemitism in Ireland: perceptions and realities
08:02 The Irish Jewish community: size, ignorance, and challenges
11:57 Denial of antisemitism and its consequences
13:57 The influence of left-wing ideology and anti-Israel sentiment
17:00 Irish national identity, flags, and cultural symbolism
20:57 Ireland's history, independence, and reunification debates
24:12 The role of the EU and language education in Ireland
30:09 Language revival, Irish Sign Language, and cultural identity
37:03 Deaf community, minority identity, and activism
41:08 Technology, sign language translation, and deaf culture
46:02 Jewish identity, conversion, and community engagement
1:03:51 Friendship, loss, and personal resilience
1:14:00 Social media, online abuse, and activism
1:24:05 Future outlook, hope, and community support

Guest:
Rachel Moiselle on X: https://twitter.com/RachelMoiselle

More from Quillette:
Read Quillette: https://quillette.com
Follow us on X: https://x.com/Quillette
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quillette

Subscribe to Quillette Cetera for more conversations on free speech, identity, and the ideas shaping public life.

#Antisemitism #Ireland #JewishCommunity #Quillette #IrishPolitics
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Rachel Moiselle is a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin and one of Ireland's most visible activists against antisemitism. In this episode of Quillette Cetera, she joins Zoe Sankey to discuss what it's like to defend a community of roughly 3,000 Jews in a country that largely denies it has an antisemitism problem at all.

Rachel talks candidly about the ignorance surrounding Jewish culture in Ireland, how left-wing ideology has shaped anti-Israel sentiment and political discourse, and why Irish national identity has become entangled with the Palestinian cause. She also shares a very different side of her work: her research into Irish Sign Language, deaf culture, and the role AI translation technology plays for a minority language community, and how that experience shaped her thinking on identity and belonging more broadly.

The conversation moves through her own path toward converting to Judaism, the friendships she's gained and lost since October 7th, the online abuse that followed her Sunday Independent article, and why she still believes speaking up is worth the cost.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and guest background
02:30 Antisemitism in Ireland: perceptions and realities
08:02 The Irish Jewish community: size, ignorance, and challenges
11:57 Denial of antisemitism and its consequences
13:57 The influence of left-wing ideology and anti-Israel sentiment
17:00 Irish national identity, flags, and cultural symbolism
20:57 Ireland's history, independence, and reunification debates
24:12 The role of the EU and language education in Ireland
30:09 Language revival, Irish Sign Language, and cultural identity
37:03 Deaf community, minority identity, and activism
41:08 Technology, sign language translation, and deaf culture
46:02 Jewish identity, conversion, and community engagement
1:03:51 Friendship, loss, and personal resilience
1:14:00 Social media, online abuse, and activism
1:24:05 Future outlook, hope, and community support

Guest:
Rachel Moiselle on X: https://twitter.com/RachelMoiselle

More from Quillette:
Read Quillette: https://quillette.com
Follow us on X: https://x.com/Quillette
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quillette

Subscribe to Quillette Cetera for more conversations on free speech, identity, and the ideas shaping public life.

#Antisemitism #Ireland #JewishCommunity #Quillette #IrishPolitics
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices