How race and identity became sacred taboos

Following an early Spring hiatus, we're pleased to bring the Departures podcast back with a very special guest, the Canadian author and Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute Eric Kaufmann. Eric joins Robert Amsterdam  to discuss his interesting new book "Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution." Kaufmann argues that the anti-racism taboo established in the mid-1960s became the "Big Bang of our moral universe," giving immense power to those who wield it. The conversation explores how progressive moral foundations focused solely on equality and care have created policy failures, how expanding definitions of racism have failed to protect minorities but instead serve to silence debate, and why self-censorship today exceeds that of the McCarthy era. Kaufmann's work examines the implications of these cultural shifts on institutions, free speech, and political discourse while offering thoughts on potential solutions, including recent American political developments.