The Politics of Permanent Outrage

This week, guest host Eric Boehm is joined by Lauren Hall, a political science professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the author of The Radical Moderate's Guide to Life, a Substack newsletter that encourages readers to reject binary thinking and keep politics from consuming every part of their lives.

Hall's work focuses on the roots of tribalism and political polarization, examining where they come from, why they are so powerful, and how they distort both public debate and personal relationships. She has grown increasingly concerned about the populist impulses shaping American politics on both the right and the left, and about how political elites frame elections as a choice between the lesser of two evils.

In the interview, Boehm and Hall discuss what it means to be a "radical moderate," why she believes that outlook offers a way out of America's broken political compass, and the diverse intellectual influences that have shaped her political philosophy. They also talk about what Hall did not anticipate in the second Donald Trump White House, and how moderates can navigate a political culture that rewards outrage, loyalty tests, and constant engagement.

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Producer: Paul Alexander

Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser

Illustration: Eddie Marshall