EPISODE · Sep 30, 2025 · 1H 52M
Episode 117: Jonathan Rauch
from The Theory of Anything · host Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen
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
What this episode covers
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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Episode 117: Jonathan Rauch
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