“That he not busy being born is busy dying”, Dylan noted in “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Alright,_Ma_(I%27m_Only_Bleeding)], his grim 1965 masterpiece about reinvention. Sixty years later, at a time when “everything is technology [https://www.notboring.co/p/everything-is-technology]”, these words have particular resonance in Silicon Valley. As That Was The Week [https://www.thatwastheweek.com/] publisher Keith Teare and I discuss in our weekly roundup of tech news, every Big Tech firm - from OpenAI and Airbnb to YouTube and Netflix — is in the perpetual business of radical reinvention. It’s what Keith identifies as “the truth” of our technological age. Surviving this mayhem, then, requires not just perpetual birth, but also a lot of conscious dying.

5 takeaways

* Keith Teare argues that "truth" can only meaningfully apply to facts and past events, not to opinions or future possibilities. He suggests that what becomes "true" is created after the fact through human actions and choices.

* Our discussion explores how technological change is accelerating, with Paki McCormick's article "Everything is Technology" framing technology broadly as "the process of human ingenuity transforming conditions and creating change" rather than just gadgets.

* We discuss AI's impact on education, with Keith sharing an example of a professor who allegedly resigned in real-time after discovering students had created a website with AI-generated lecture summaries and essay responses, highlighting the disruption to traditional academic models.

* Our conversation covers how established companies like Airbnb and Netflix are evolving their business models, with Netflix adding an ad-supported tier alongside its subscription service and Airbnb expanding from accommodations to curated experiences.

* We discuss economic differences between regions, referencing Yascha Mounk's article on the "great divergence" between the US and Europe in terms of GDP per capita, noting that the US has roughly three times the GDP per capita of Europe (approximately $85,000 versus $30,000).



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Episode 2537: How to Survive our Age of Technological Mayhem

Is spying an un-American activity? Not according to Jeffrey Rogg [https://x.com/thespythestate?lang=en], whose new book, The Spy and the State, [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-spy-and-the-state-9780197678732?cc=us&lang=en&] tells the story of American intelligence from the Revolutionary War to the present day. Rogg explores America's ambivalent relationship with espionage, arguing that spying is often viewed as "un-American" and yet necessary. he discusses key figures in American intelligence history such as OSS founder “Wild” Bill Donovan as well as shameful episodes like the botched Bay of Pigs invasion. Rogg highlights how these agencies reflect American society's strengths and weaknesses, and warns against over-politicizing intelligence. Throughout history, he emphasizes, Americans have gotten the intelligence community they've "bargained for." Which is certainly one way of thinking about SignalGate and the current state of American intelligence.

5 take-aways

* Americans have historically viewed spying as a "necessary evil" that contradicts core American values of transparency and forthrightness, creating an inherent tension in the intelligence community.

* Intelligence agencies often reflect the broader society - during crises, they tend to surveil minority groups, showing how America's fears manifest in intelligence operations.

* Major intelligence failures (like the Bay of Pigs) and domestic surveillance represent dark chapters that have eroded public trust in intelligence institutions.

* Political polarization of intelligence agencies is dangerous - when appointed leaders and career officials are at odds, it creates a toxic environment for effective intelligence work.

* The intelligence community struggles to keep pace with technological advances, creating challenges for modern operations (as seen in the Signal Crisis and COVID work-from-home limitations).

*

Jeffrey P. Rogg is Senior Research Fellow at the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida. He previously held academic positions at the Joint Special Operations University at US Special Operations Command, the Department of Intelligence and Security Studies at The Citadel, and the National Security Affairs Department at the US Naval War College. He has a BA from Swarthmore College, a JD from Villanova University, an MA in Security Studies from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and a PhD in history from The Ohio State University. He serves on the boards of the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence and the Society for Intelligence History. He lives in Tampa, Florida.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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Episode 2536: Is Spying an Un-American activity?

Walmart just announced [https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/15/business/walmart-prices-tariffs] it would be raising prices because of tariffs. So is that a good argument against Trump’s autarkic trade policies? Perhaps. But, as the Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Tim Minshall, [https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/15/business/walmart-prices-tariffs] points out, the global system of manufacturing is a complex thing. He argues that while countries shouldn't attempt complete manufacturing self-sufficiency, maintaining some domestic capability is crucial for innovation and resilience. Minshall, whose new book How Things Are Made [https://www.amazon.com/How-Things-Are-Made-Manufacturing/dp/0063434652], explores the hidden world of manufacturing, explains how the industrial manufacturing and knowledge economies are deeply interconnected, and how relocating production isn't simple due to complex supplier networks and specialized skills. He addresses challenges facing manufacturing powers like Germany and examines China's rising dominance. Minshall concludes that manufacturing must become both better (less environmentally harmful) and focused on creating better products, while consumers must recognize both their role and responsibility in this complex system.

Five takeaways

* Manufacturing is essential for national "sovereign capability" but countries don't need to make everything themselves - a balanced approach is better than complete self-sufficiency or total offshoring.

* Knowledge economies and manufacturing are interdependent - research and development require tight coupling with production, and letting manufacturing disappear overseas can damage innovation capabilities.

* Manufacturing supply chains are incredibly complex - components for products like iPhones travel "around six times around the world" and factories can't simply be relocated overnight as skills, suppliers and infrastructure take years to develop.

* Modern manufacturing faces two major problems: fragility (as demonstrated during COVID) and environmental damage from production and logistics.

* We need both "better manufacturing" (less harmful processes) and "manufacturing better things" (like clean energy systems), while recognizing our role as consumers in driving manufacturing choices.

Tim Minshall is the inaugural Dr John C. Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, the head of the Engineering Department’s Institute for Manufacturing and a fellow of Churchill College. His research, teaching and outreach are focused on the links between manufacturing and innovation. He lives in Cambridge with his scientist wife, Nicola.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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Episode 2535: Tim Minshall on How We Manufacture Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better

Something doesn’t smell right about generative AI. Earlier this week, we had a featuring a former Google researcher who described [https://keenon.substack.com/p/episode-2531-emily-bender-and-alex] large language models (LLMs) as a “con”. Then, of course, there’s OpenAI CEO Sam Altman who critics both inside and outside OpenAI, see as a little more than a persuasive conman. Scam or not, the biggest technical problem with LLMs, according to Peter Vos, [https://schedule.sxsw.com/2025/speakers/2204969] who invented the term Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), is that it lacks memory and thus are inherently incapable of incremental learning. Voss, the current CEO of Aigo.ai [https://aigo.ai/], argues that LLMs therefore represent a technological “dead end” for AI. The industry, Voss argues, has gone “fundamentally wrong” with generative AI. It’s a classic economic mania, he says. And, as with all bubbles in the past - like Dutch tulips, internet DotComs or Japanese real-estate - it will eventually burst with devastating consequences.

Peter Voss is a pioneer in AI who coined the term 'AGI' (Artificial General Intelligence) in 2001. As an engineer, scientist, inventor, and serial entrepreneur, he developed a comprehensive ERP package, growing his company from zero to a 400-person IPO in seven years. For the past 20 years, he has studied intelligence and AI, leading to the creation of the Aigo engine, a proto-AGI natural language intelligence that is revolutionizing call centers and advancing towards human-level intelligence.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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Episode 2534: Why Generative AI is a Technological Dead End

It’s probably not news that today’s Supreme Court runs on crazy conservative grudges and even crazier patrimonial fringe theories. But according to Leah Litman [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Litman], Crooked Media podcaster and author of Lawless, the Supreme Court in Trump’s America is most defined by what she memorably identifies as “bad vibes” (ie: feelings and anxieties). Litman argues these vibes reflect Republican anxieties about America's increasing cultural diversity and long term shift to a more progressive consensus. Litman characterizes the Roberts’ Supreme Court as implementing a "vindictive patriarchy" that seeks to return women to traditional roles. She criticizes Court decisions on voting rights, presidential immunity, and reproductive freedom as serving the minority interests of wealthy white men. The Court’s bad vibes, Litman says, extend to America's current constitutional crisis, particularly regarding Trump's executive overreach and the legal profession's pathetic response to this authoritarian power grab.

five key takeaways

* Litman argues that today's Supreme Court decisions are based on "vibes" (feelings and anxieties) rather than objective legal principles, leading her to characterize it as "lawless."

* She positions the Court as part of a longer Republican project to use judicial power to implement conservative social policies, particularly regarding women's roles and reproductive rights.

* Litman describes the current situation as a "vindictive patriarchy," where conservative men feel entitled to women's time and companionship, evidenced by backlash against women's independence.

* Litman, who teaches law at Michigan, expresses disappointment in how large law firms have capitulated to Trump's administration instead of engaging in collective resistance to protect the rule of law.

* Litman believes America is experiencing a constitutional crisis, with Congress failing to check executive power and the courts inconsistently resisting presidential overreach, particularly regarding deportations and executive actions.

Leah Litman is a professor of law at the University of Michigan and a former Supreme Court clerk. In addition to cohosting Strict Scrutiny, she writes frequently about the Court for media outlets including The Washington Post, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others, and has appeared as a commentator on NPR and MSNBC, in addition to other venues. She has received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg award for her “scholarly excellence” from the American Constitution Society and published in top law reviews. Follow her on X @LeahLitman and Instagram @ProfLeahLitman.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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Episode 2533: Leah Litman on the Bad Vibes of the Supreme Court

Rather than apple pie, addiction might be defining quality of 21st century American life. That, at least, is the view of Mattea Kramer [https://matteakramer.com/], author of Untended [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-untended-a-novel-mattea-kramer/4c7a5667b7d9949e?ean=9781647428877&next=t&], a contemporary novel about addiction in small town America. She argues that individualistic American capitalism has caused an plague of addiction - in everything from drugs and alcohol to technology and egoism. Kramer sees community as the only real antidote to this epidemic. She connects addiction to broader social issues like economic exploitation and discusses how small-town America has been ravaged by this epidemic and by what she calls “late-stage capitalism”. So how to address this epidemic of addiction in contemporary America? Kramer has no simple fix, but emphasizes the importance of recognizing the humanity in those struggling with addiction and suggests that moral agency and human connection offer hope amid these challenges.

Five Key Takeaways

* American individualism and capitalism create fertile ground for addiction by fostering isolation and disconnection, leading people to seek substances or behaviors that fill this void.

* Addiction extends beyond substances to include work, devices, shopping, and even the pursuit of feeling "special and successful," which Kramer identifies as her family's particular "quintessentially American" addiction.

* The opioid crisis has created intergenerational trauma as children are left "untended" when parents struggle with addiction, perpetuating cycles of harm.

* Stigma surrounding addiction makes recovery more difficult, especially for parents who face amplified shame that prevents them from seeking help.

* Kramer believes reconnecting with our shared humanity and exercising moral agency through compassion offer the best path forward amid societal challenges, rather than focusing solely on individual willpower.

Mattea Kramer is an American writer. She writes about drugs [https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/opioid-epidemic-purdue//], power and powerlessness [https://www.thenation.com/article/society/coronavirus-pandemic-overdose//], and the voice in your head [https://www.guernicamag.com/the-voice-in-your-head//]. She's been published in The Guardian, The Nation, Mother Jones, Guernica, and The Washington Post, and she has appeared on MSNBC and on radio stations across the country. Her first novel The Untended [https://matteakramer.com/#untended] has just been published.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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Episode 2532: Mattea Kramer on how Addiction has replaced Apple Pie as the most American of things

Is AI a big scam? In their co-authored new book, The AI Con [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-ai-con-emily-m-benderalex-hanna?variant=43065101189154], Emily Bender [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_M._Bender] and Alex Hanna [https://alex-hanna.com/] take aim at what they call big tech “hype”. They argue that large language models from OpenAI or Anthropic are merely what Bender dubs "stochastic parrots" that produce text without the human understanding nor the revolutionary technology that these companies claim. Both Bender, a professor of linguistics, and Hanna, a former AI researcher at Google, challenge the notion that AI will replace human workers, suggesting instead that these algorithms produce "mid" or "janky" content lacking human insight. They accuse tech companies of hyping fear of missing out (FOMO) to drive adoption. Instead of centralized AI controlled by corporations, they advocate for community-controlled technology that empowers users rather than exploiting them.

Five Takeaways (with a little help from Claude)

* Large language models are "stochastic parrots" that produce text based on probability distributions from training data without actual understanding or communicative intent.

* The AI "revolution" is primarily driven by marketing and hype rather than groundbreaking technological innovations, creating fear of missing out (FOMO) to drive adoption.

* AI companies are positioning their products as "general purpose technologies" like electricity, but LLMs lack the reliability and functionality to justify this comparison.

* Corporate AI is designed to replace human labor and centralize power, which the authors see as an inherently political project with concerning implications.

* Bender and Hanna advocate for community-controlled technology development where people have agency over the tools they use, citing examples like Teheku Media's language technology for Maori communities.

Dr. Emily M. Bender [https://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/] is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington where she is also the Faculty Director of the Computational Linguistics Master of Science program and affiliate faculty in the School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Information School. In 2023, she was included in the inaugural Time 100 list of the most influential people in AI. She is frequently consulted by policymakers, from municipal officials to the federal government to the United Nations, for insight into into how to understand so-called AI technologies.

Dr. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) [https://www.dair-institute.org/]. A sociologist by training, her work centers on the data used in new computational technologies, and the ways in which these data exacerbate racial, gender, and class inequality. She also works in the area of social movements, focusing on the dynamics of anti-racist campus protest in the US and Canada. She holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics and a BA in Sociology from Purdue University, and an MS and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Hanna is the co-author of The AI Con [https://thecon.ai/] (Harper, 2025), a book about AI and the hype around it. With Emily M. Bender, she also runs the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series, playfully and wickedly tearing apart AI hype for a live audience online on Twitch [https://twitch.tv/dair_institute] and her podcast [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417]. She has published widely in top-tier venues across the social sciences, including the journals Mobilization, American Behavior

Episode 2531: Emily Bender and Alex Hanna on the AI Con

The traditional notion of western civilization is premised on the legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. Other less Eurocentric historians, like the Silk Road author Peter Frankopan, point to the role of China in shaping classical Europe. But, in The Golden Road [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/golden-road-9781639734146/], the Scottish-Indian historian William Dalrymple [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dalrymple], challenges this "Silk Road" narrative, arguing India was Rome's primary trading partner and spread its culture peacefully throughout Asia. Dalrymple, who has lived in India for the last 40 years, explains how ancient Indian mathematical innovations like the concept of zero and our number system radically transformed the world. In a far ranging conversation, the astonishingly erudite Dalrymple also discusses his meteoric career as a non-academic historian and podcaster, India's resurgence as a global power, and offers his take on the current tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

Five Key Takeaways

* Ancient India was a civilization equal to Greece, Egypt, and China, contributing pivotal mathematical innovations including zero, the numerical system we use today, and advanced astronomical calculations like determining the Earth's circumference and heliocentric universe model—all developed long before the West.

* The popular "Silk Road" narrative is largely a modern myth created in the 1870s. In reality, Rome and India were major trading partners, not Rome and China, with extensive sea trade rather than overland routes.

* India's historical global influence was achieved peacefully through "soft power" – spreading Buddhism, Hinduism, science, mathematics, and culture across Asia through merchants and monks rather than military conquest.

* Despite being a British historian writing about a former British colony, Dalrymple has found remarkable success in India, becoming a bestselling author who has chosen to focus on writing accessible, well-researched histories rather than pursuing a traditional academic career.

* The current India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir represents a dangerous flashpoint between nuclear powers that could escalate without diplomatic intervention, reflecting ongoing tensions that date back to 1947.

William Dalrymple FRSL, FRGS, FRAS (born William Hamilton-Dalrymple on 20 March 1965) is a Scottish historian and writer, art historian and curator, as well as a prominent broadcaster and critic. His books have won numerous awards and prizes, including the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Hemingway, the Kapuściński and the Wolfson Prizes. He has been four times longlisted and once shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. He is also one of the co-founders and co-directors of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival.



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Episode 2530 William Dalrymple on how Ancient India transformed the world

“Who’s Cheating?” asks [https://www.thatwastheweek.com/p/whos-cheating] Keith Teare in his weekly summary of tech news. Keith is defending a Columbia University student who was punished for openly used AI in his classes. As Arthur C. Clark famously noted, advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and so its use is often viewed as cheating by the old regime. But, as Keith and I agree, the $80,000 annual fees that universities are now charging for an undergraduate education could also be seen as a particularly egregious form of cheating. Especially since that a similar education could mostly be achieved by a $20 monthly OpenAI account.

Five Takeaways

* AI usage in education is causing institutional resistance, with a Columbia student's expulsion highlighting the tension between traditional learning and new technology adoption.

* Universities face an existential crisis as AI makes knowledge more accessible, potentially undermining their expensive business model of gatekeeping talent.

* Google's search dominance is threatened as Apple explores AI alternatives and companies like Anthropic develop competitive search APIs.

* OpenAI is navigating a complex transition, maintaining non-profit governance while uncapping profit potential, signaling Altman's focus on commercial applications.

* The future of AI lies in the application layer, with OpenAI's hiring of Instacart's CEO for applications suggesting a strategy to own the entire AI stack from infrastructure to user interface.

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Episode 2529: Who is cheating whom in American universities?

Not everyone will like this argument. Jason Riley [https://opinion.wsj.com/wsj_author/jason-riley/], the Wall Street Journal columnist and author of The Affirmative Action Myth, [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jason-l-riley/the-affirmative-action-myth/9781668650486/?lens=basic-books] argues that affirmative action policies have been counterproductive for Black Americans. He contends that Black Americans were making faster economic and educational progress before affirmative action policies began in the late 1960s. Riley claims these policies primarily benefit upper-class Blacks while setting up many poorer students for failure by placing them in institutions where they struggle academically. He advocates for colorblind policies rather than racial preferences, arguing that historically Black colleges continue to effectively educate Black professionals, and that integration should not take precedence over educational outcomes.

Five key takeaways

* Riley argues that Black Americans were making faster economic and educational progress before affirmative action policies were implemented in the late 1960s, with gaps narrowing between Black and white Americans.

* He claims affirmative action primarily benefits upper-class Black Americans rather than addressing poverty, with the wealthiest 20% seeing gains while the poorest 20% fell behind.

* Riley contends that racial preferences in college admissions set up many Black students for failure by placing them in institutions where they're academically mismatched, leading to higher dropout rates.

* He emphasizes that historically Black colleges continue to produce disproportionate numbers of Black professionals, suggesting racial integration of classrooms shouldn't take precedence over educational outcomes.

* Riley advocates for colorblind policies rather than racial preferences, arguing that such an approach would better promote Black upward mobility and reduce racial divisiveness.

Jason Riley is an opinion columnist at The Wall Street Journal, where his column, Upward Mobility, has run since 2016. He is also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and provides television commentary for various news outlets. Mr. Riley, a 2018 Bradley Prize recipient, is the author of four books: “Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders” (2008); “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed” (2014); “False Black Power?” (2017); and “Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell” (2021). Mr. Riley joined the paper in 1994 as a copy reader on the national news desk in New York. He moved to the editorial page in 1995, was named a senior editorial page writer in 2000, and became a member of the Editorial Board in 2005. He joined the Manhattan Institute in 2015. Born in Buffalo, New York, Mr. Riley earned a bachelor's degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has also worked for USA Today and the Buffalo News.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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Episode 2528: Jason Riley on how racial preferences have done more harm than good for black Americans 

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