10. Bill Deresiewicz on Eros, Incels, the Not Left, and the Death of the Artist

Bill Deresiewicz is a writer and cultural critic. He’s written popular essays such as “Solitude and Leadership,” and books including Excellent Sheep, a critique of elite education; the The Death of the Artist, which explores the precarious lives of creative workers; and The End of Solitude—a collection of Bill’s greatest essays. We discuss…

• Is Portland still the Portland of Portlandia?

• Is Boston the angriest town in the U.S.?

• Bill’s essay in Salmagundi about the “Not Left.”

• Is Bernie Sanders’s movement over or dormant? Are the woke responsible for knee-capping Sanders’s movement?

• Who’s more prudish—the left or the right?

• Bill’s essay, “Chuck Your Privilege.”

• Ken imagines a “Cambrian Explosion” on the left with hypothetical political species such as Neo-Guildists, “ProPats” (Progressive Patriarchs), and Neo-Hedonists (my enlightened sensuality movement). Perhaps I’ll do a whole post on these ideas someday…

• Is Ezra Klein’s Abundanomics Movement… sexy?

• Ezra Klein’s interview with Democratic rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (my patron saint for the Neo-Guildists)

• Is 2025 TV “mid?”

• Ken’s post about when did prestige TV peak?

• Bill’s essay about incels.

• Bill’s favorite Substack Writers:

  Blake Smith

  Sam Kahn’s Republic of Letters

  Justin Smith-Ruiu’s The Hinternet

  Eminent Americans Podcast

Bill’s website

Bill’s substack