Context with Brad Harris

Why did we stop believing in utopia? By the late 19th century, many Americans had come to believe that the future would be defined by peace, prosperity, and moral progress. But over the next century, optimism gave way to fear—war, nuclear weapons, and runaway technology began to reshape our vision of what was possible. In this episode of Context, we explore how our ideas about the future have evolved—from Edward Bellamy’s best-seller Looking Backward (1888), to H.G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come (1933), to The Terminator series (1984), and finally to Brian Christian’s The Alignment Problem (2020). Along the way, we trace the rise of techno-utopianism, the shock of dystopian realism, and the ethical dilemmas now posed by artificial intelligence. The history of the future has never mattered more. To support the show and access bonus episodes, join me on Patreon or subscribe through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Is it possible that war, for all its horror, once played a vital role in human flourishing—and that its disappearance has left a cultural and spiritual void? In this episode, we explore the provocative thesis that war has historically served not only as an engine of destruction, but as a forge for meaning and social cohesion. Drawing on J. Glenn Gray’s The Warriors, with insight from William James, Nietzsche, and Durkheim, we examine what modern society loses when it loses war—not just as a military phenomenon, but as a psychological and cultural one. What happens to masculinity when its most historically sanctioned outlet evaporates? What fills the vacuum when existential struggle is no longer a shared reality? And could space exploration become the next great crucible that gives our civilization meaning without violence? This is not an argument for militarism—but a call to confront what war once offered, and to ask what might replace it in a civilization that seeks to remain vital. To support the show and unlock *supporter-only episodes, join me on Patreon or subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

A century ago, Oswald Spengler warned that Western civilization was entering its final phase—not from war or catastrophe, but from cultural exhaustion. In The Decline of the West, he argued that every great society passes through organic stages of growth and decay—and the West, he claimed, had already entered winter. In this episode of Context, we revisit Spengler’s audacious and unsettling vision. We explore the patterns he identified—technocracy, Caesarism, the erosion of civic virtue—and ask whether Spengler’s predictions still hold up. Are we watching a great civilization fade… or transform? Topics include: • Spengler’s life, method, and seasonal model of civilization • Parallels between ancient Rome and the modern West • Technological achievement vs. cultural vitality • Why memory and myth matter for renewal • The possibility of rebirth—and what spring might require If you value this show, please take a moment to give it a five-star rating. To unlock *supporter-only episodes, join me on Patreon, or subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

We often think global power is all about armies and technology. But what if the most decisive battles are fought through stories? In this episode of Context, we explore the concept of narrative warfare—the battle over how nations interpret their past, define their identity, and imagine their future. From Manifest Destiny to the 1619 Project, from China’s “Century of Humiliation” to Russia’s myth of the “Third Rome,” we examine how national stories shape the world order—and what happens when a superpower like America stops believing in its own. Support the show and access supporter-only episodes: patreon.com/bradcoleharris

This is a short preview of a supporter-only bonus episode. In this episode, I explore the psychological and philosophical reasons we keep projecting something human into our machines. From ancient automata to Boston Dynamics, from Descartes to modern AI, we’ve been building mechanical reflections of ourselves for centuries. But why? What does it say about us that we want our machines to seem alive—even when we know they aren’t? 🎧 To hear the full episode, head to: https://patreon.com/bradcoleharris

We didn’t cure boredom—we erased it. And in doing so, we may have lost one of the most quietly powerful forces in human development. In this episode of Context, I explore boredom as a lost human experience—not a problem to eliminate, but a signal for reflection, imagination, and growth. From ancient philosophers to Enlightenment thinkers, boredom once played a vital role in the human condition. But today, it’s nearly extinct. Our lives are saturated with stimulation, leaving little space for silence, solitude, or introspection. What happens when we’re never bored—never still, never alone with our thoughts? We’ll look at the cultural disappearance of boredom and what that tells us about our distracted age. And we’ll consider why boredom might be worth reclaiming—not just for our creativity, but for our humanity. 🎧 Support the show and access bonus episodes at https://patreon.com/bradcoleharris

The SEC was created to protect investors—but is it now protecting incumbents instead? In this episode of Context, we explore the rise of unelected bureaucracies and their hostility to innovation, using crypto regulation as a lens into a larger democratic dysfunction. From the roots of the administrative state to today’s battle between blockchain pioneers and entrenched financial regulators, we explore how bureaucratic overreach can derail progress—and what it would take for America to rediscover its courage to build. Topics include: • SEC vs. Ripple Labs and Coinbase • Regulatory capture and the death of oversight • Blockchain, XRP, and the Internet of Value • American innovation and bureaucratic stagnation Support the show: patreon.com/bradcoleharris

In this episode, we examine Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, a chilling warning about how societies drift into tyranny—not through force, but through the seductive promise of central planning. Written in the shadow of fascism and communism, Hayek’s argument is more relevant than ever: when the state takes control of the economy, it inevitably takes control of our lives. What begins as progress can end in oppression. This is the road to serfdom.

If you like this stuff and you'd like to hear more, please support my work on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bradcoleharris

There’s a lot that’s dividing Americans right now - lots of divisive narratives that have captivated lots of people. One of those narratives features the apparent widening political divide between urban and rural culture. But, the truth is that the evolution of America’s urban and rural communities has always been symbiotic. One of the best historical case studies of that symbiosis highlights the city of Chicago and the rural American west, documented by William Cronon in his award-winning book, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, published in 1991. In this episode, we reconsider the relationship between urban and rural in light of that history. To help support Context and access bonus content, join me on Patreon. Learn more on my website.

"Notes on Nationalism" was an essay written by George Orwell in 1945, just as World War II was ending. It caused quite a stir at the time, but most people these days have never heard of it. Nonetheless, "Notes on Nationalism" remains one of the most powerful examples of Orwell's timeless insight into human nature; in this case, focused on our instinct to gang up on each other, our instinct for tribalism. Orwell never used the term "tribalism" himself -- he wrote this essay a generation before that term became widespread. However, I suspect his essay was a primary factor in raising awareness of the social pathology of tribalism, and his diagnosis of the problem precisely captures the liabilities of tribalism plaguing us today. To help support Context and access bonus episodes, join me on Patreon. Learn more at bradharris.com

Like many others, I’ve begun to worry about the fate of higher education in American society. Having spent most of my professional life in academia, my instinct is to regard the university system as sacred - as Wisdom’s Workshop, to borrow the historian James Axtell’s recent book title. Liberal democracy relies on a very well educated citizenry. And, modern civilization more generally relies on a significant number of us possessing hard-earned historical perspective on what is true and what is good, and hard-earned scientific perspective on the full reach of human potential. Any threat to the university system should worry us. Today, there appear to be multiple, and the most frustrating thing of it is... those threats seem to be mostly self-imposed. In this episode, I highlight those threats and explore the history behind the legacy of modern knowledge. To help support my work and access bonus episodes, visit patreon.com/bradcoleharris Learn more at bradharris.com

In this episode, I invited the philosopher and author Stephen Hicks on the podcast to chat about his book, Explaining Postmodernism.  Stephen has been a Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University in Illinois for nearly 20 years, and he's published widely on the history of philosophy, ethics, and politics.   The reason I invited Stephen on the show is because I think postmodernism planted the seeds of the illiberalism that's erupting throughout our society today, and Stephen Hicks literally wrote the book on that development.  In my opinion, his insight is critical because the battle of ideas postmodern thinking provokes could very well determine the fate of liberal democracy our lifetime. To learn more about Stephen Hicks, I encourage you to visit his website, stephenhicks.org, or follow him on Twitter. To help support Context and access bonus episodes, visit https://www.patreon.com/context Learn more at https://bradharris.com

What’s that line attributed to Mark Twain?... "History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes." As the authors Neil Howe and William Strauss wrote in their best-selling book The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny, published in 1997, “The reward of the historian is to locate patterns that recur over time and to discover the natural rhythms of social experience.” According to the pattern they predicted, we should currently be in the midst of a great historical crisis. Are we? If so, what happens next? To help support Context and access supporter-only episodes, head to patreon.com/context For more information visit bradharris.com

Plague, political upheaval, the looming prospect of another civil war... what century are we in? To retain historical perspective, and to find inspiration in how humanity has recovered from far greater upheavals in the past, we turn to Barbara Tuchman's classic work, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. What we find in the late Middle Ages is a vision of hell, along with overwhelming evidence that the best of humanity can endure the worst. To help support Context and access supporter-only episodes, head to patreon.com/context For more information visit bradharris.com