Andrew Xu

Host Andrew Xu sits down once again with David French, a columnist for The New York Times. They discuss gender polarization, the ways that men are falling behind in society, and roles that religious institutions have traditionally played in…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Melissa Kearney, the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. They discuss her recent book The Two-Parent Privilege, which examines the economic advantages that two-parent households…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Will Stancil, a research fellow on the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity. They discuss the state of the US economy, concerns surrounding Biden's age, and the incentives of mainstream journalism.
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Host Andrew Xu sits down once again with Jessica Grose, an opinion writer for The New York Times. They discuss the negative effects of pandemic-induced school closures, the increased prominence of grade inflation in schools, and other…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Yascha Mounk, the head of Persuasion and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. They discuss his new book The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, and the set of ideas, ideologies, and…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down once again with Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The New York Times. They discuss the decline in student exchange programs between China and the US, the way that Chinese citizens feel about potentially living…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with David French, a columnist for The New York Times. They discuss the potential dangers of a second Trump presidency, the internal politics of the pro-life movement in America, and how to frame rhetoric to…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Jessica Grose, an opinion writer for The New York Times. They discuss modern society's lower participation rates in religious institutions, how that relates to a group that social scientists refer to as…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Substack writer and housing policy analyst Darrell Owens, to discuss the causes of San Francisco's homelessness crisis, the non-partisan nature of NIMBYism, and the debate surrounding affirmative action.
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Tomiwa Owolade, the author of This is Not America: Why Black Lives in Britain Matter. They discuss the ways in which discourse surrounding race relations in the US is often inaccurately transposed onto that of…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Dylan Matthews, a senior correspondent for Vox and head writer for Future Perfect. They discuss Biden's resolution to the debt ceiling crisis, the intricacies of the US's tax system, and various aspects of the…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Sheila Liming, an associate professor of communications and creative media at Champlain College and the author of Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time. They discuss the inherent benefits that come…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with David Sax, a Canadian freelance journalist and the author of The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World. They discuss what it would take for humanity to opt into a more human future, and how that…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down once again with Greg Sargent, a columnist for The Washington Post. They discuss the US's midterm election results from last year, the legislative standstill on immigration, and the CHIPS and Science Act.
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Chloe Valdary, the head of Theory of Enchantment. They discuss the way that her program differs from other comparable initiatives, what it hopes to achieve, and how it uses pop culture to better encapsulate its…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Dr. Leah Boustan, an economics professor at Princeton University. They discuss the performance of immigrant families relative to their peers in the US, the way geographical factors play an extremely large role…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with science writer and editor Yasmin Tayag, to discuss hygiene theater and the helpfulness of various COVID-related safety precautions.
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Henry Olsen, a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. They discuss Doug Ford's recent re-election win in Ontario, the center of opinion in the Republican…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Moshe Lander, an economics professor at McGill University. They discuss Lander's journey as an economics professor, the misconceptions surrounding our current inflation crisis, and whether or not an economics…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Alyssa Rosenberg, a columnist for The Washington Post. They discuss the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra, the ephemerality of political performance, and Scarlet Witch's arc in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Greg Sargent, a columnist for The Washington Post. They discuss the state of the U.S. economy, the New Right, popularism, and the extent to which we can disentangle the cause and effect of either party's…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down once again with Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The New York Times. They discuss the draconian pandemic restrictions China has instilled in Shanghai and Beijing, as well as the propaganda campaign that's…
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Danylo Rybchynski is a Ukrainian citizen. He lives in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. For this episode, I’ve invited him onto the podcast to discuss how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has impacted him. This episode was recorded on March…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The New York Times. They discuss Hong Kong's legislative election last December, and how it plays into the larger degradation of Hong Kong's freedom and autonomy.…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Wenxin Fan, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. They discuss the disappearance of professional tennis player Peng Shuai, what it says about the Chinese government, and how various parties have responded to…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Marc Novicoff, who was the inaugural intern at Slow Boring. They discuss social welfare programs, how to lift people out of poverty, and the way rhetoric often distorts public perception of politicians and news…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down once again with Umair Irfan, a science reporter who covers the pandemic at Vox. They discuss the origins of the pandemic, the scientific consensus surrounding it, and the way mainstream news outlets have handled the…
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MIR Responds is our new series where MIR's podcasters will respond to writers about their articles. We may agree and we may disagree, but regardless, we’ll make sure to keep this series filled with civil debate and lively discussion. In our…
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The Delta variant is a new strain of the SARS-COV-2 virus that has come to infamy through its spread throughout the world at large. Along with vaccine hesitancy, it has been preventing a return to normalcy in places around the world.…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Matt Continetti, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and contributing editor at National Review. They discuss Barack Obama, populist conservatism and conspiracy theories in order to better…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Ramesh Ponnuru, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and senior editor for National Review, to discuss reform conservatism and the state of the U.S. Republican Party several months after the…
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Host Andrew Xu sits down with Michael O’Hanlon, the Director of Research in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, to discuss the high-level meeting between China and the U.S. on March 18, the context behind it, and what it…
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In the midst of political turmoil wracking our southern neighbours Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and subsequent appointment to the Supreme Court, NAFTA renegotiation, and consistent turbulence within the Mueller investigation—Montrealers…
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Over the past year, we at the McGill International Review have done our very best to give you insightful analysis about the world as it exists today, from repression and democracy in Hong Kong to the legacy of those "disappeared" by the…
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