The Woke Burnout Is Real — and Politics Is Catching Up

09/07/23 • 40 min

4 Listeners

Classrooms have been a key battleground in the so-called woke wars for years now. But could the debate over how schools teach history, race, gender and sexuality be coming to an end?

This week on “Matter of Opinion,” the hosts look at signs that these wedge issues are no longer dividing us, ask whether we have reached “peak woke” and disagree on whether it’s even worth fighting about wokeness at all.

Mentioned in this episode:

“Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus,” by Rick Perlstein
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, by Nathan Hale
The Adventures of Tintin comic series, by Hergé
The Adventures of Asterix comic series, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
The American Bicentennial Series, by John Jakes
“The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” by Jon Meacham

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Classrooms have been a key battleground in the so-called woke wars for years now. But could the debate over how schools teach history, race, gender and sexuality be coming to an end?

Mentioned in this episode:

“Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus,” by Rick Perlstein
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, by Nathan Hale
The Adventures of Tintin comic series, by Hergé
The Adventures of Asterix comic series, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
The American Bicentennial Series, by John Jakes
“The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” by Jon Meacham

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This week on “Matter of Opinion,” the hosts discuss how the war is playing out at home and whether there’s actually more American enthusiasm for invading Mexico.

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Mentioned in this episode:

“An Unwinnable War,” by Samuel Charap in Foreign Affairs
“The Runaway General,” by Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone
“First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin,” by Vladimir Putin

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(A transcript of this episode can be found at the top of the episode page on the Times website.)

Mentioned in this episode: