AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present with Fareed Zakaria

FAREED ZAKARIA, best-selling author & host of CNN’s flagship international affairs show “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, discusses his latest book, “AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present” with STEVEN PINKER, Professor of Psychology at Harvard and author of twelve books.

Fareed Zakaria is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a bestselling author.

Fareed Zakaria GPS is a weekly international and domestic affairs program that airs around the world on CNN. Since its debut in 2008, it has featured interviews with Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Condoleezza Rice, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Greta Thunberg, and the Dalai Lama, among others.

Zakaria has regularly hosted primetime specials for CNN. They include documentaries on U.S. history and foreign leaders, as well as profiles of extraordinary creators such as Billy Joel and Francis Ford Coppola.He has been nominated for several Emmys for his television work and has won one. His weekly show has won the prestigious Peabody Award.

Fareed’s Global Briefing, a daily digital newsletter, is one of the most widely read of CNN's newsletters. His column for The Washington Post remains one of the longest-running for that newspaper. Zakaria is the author of four highly-regarded New York Times bestselling books: Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World (2020), on how the pandemic reshaped society; The Post-American World (1st ed. 2008, 2nd ed. 2011), a discussion of the rise of non-Western powers; The Future of Freedom (2003), a study of “illiberal democracy” in various countries; and In Defense of a Liberal Education (2015), a commentary on the importance of a well-rounded education. Three of these were international bestsellers, translated into more than 20 languages.

Zakaria was named a “Top 10 Global Thinker of the Last 10 Years” by Foreign Policy magazine in 2019, and Esquire called him “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.” He has received a National Magazine Award, the Arthur Ross Media Award from the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the Deadline Club Award. In 2010, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, one of its highest civilian honors, and in 2022, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded him the Order of Merit.Prior to his tenure at CNN, Zakaria was editor of Newsweek International, managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a columnist for Time, an analyst for ABC News, and the host of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS.Zakaria earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a doctorate in political science from Harvard University, and has received numerous honorary degrees.

Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Pinker is one of the world's leading authorities on language and the mind, and the the author of seven books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, The Blank Slate, and The Stuff of Thought.

0:00:00 - Introduction
0:00:53 - Welcome Remarks
0:03:28 - Discussion
0:53:59 - Closing Remarks

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[thinktwice-meie]

I love Fareed Zakaria. I am a historian but have to admit, the times we are living in are so confusing. Whatever Zakaria puts his mind to. he puts things into context. Thank you so much.

[ManuGeorge]

Fareed has that brilliant balance between the Left and the Right. Virtue is certainly in the Middle.

[newyorkskier]

Steven Pinker was not interviewing, but just wanted to do all the talking and show his knowledge of the field. Fareed as great as usual

[roberttelarket]

Very very very interesting new info about the Dutch!

[shameemqureshi]

Excellent. Great insight coupled with optimism.

[johnanderson]

Reading book now. So far very insightful. Fascinating how he approaches revolutionary history. His writing style is very accessible & he has deep insight that is helpful in understanding the current revolutionary moment.

[nathanngumi]

Great conversation, can't wait to read the book!

[askbob]

paradigm shift constant continuous and unstoppable

[walterwong]

Slavery has never been abolished. It has evolved into a much more complex form of slavery, which is fundamentally the same in machanic. It's how to make use of others to do your works by paying them next to nothing to keep them alive so that you can continue to use them.

[marilucearaujo-cox]

I can't wait to get back home, and buy your book.

[MikeForster-flom]

Steven - your "curve" comes from TR Malthus's "The Principle of Population", 1798. The book was re-read by Darwin while he struggled to explain evolution: "Survival of the Fitttest" was the contribution Malthus made.
Malthus was also the first political economist to propose what what nowadays atttibute to Keynes, pump prime a depressed economy.
Keynes sole addition to Malthusian economic policy was the "marginal efficiency of capital". In the early 19th century, there was land and labour. Capital as an economic factor did not "exist" back then.

[charusoman]

I feel interviwer should not be varbose. I am interested in listening to Fareed Zakeria and not interviewer.

[stripper]

This is where the interviewer speaks way way too much we want to hear what Mr. Zachariah says not what the interviewer is trying to expose and his grandstanding

[MrSarmad]

Fact check: US and EU economy are still about the same size in 2024. EU $26.64 trillion PPP, US $29 trillion PPP. This is after brexit.

[paytonmcdermott]

Fareed deeply misunderstands china and the Soviet union but pretty good other than that

Optimistic but not the most imaginative thinkers. Just because there has been a 200 year trend of ever increasing liberalism doesn't mean the trend can continue infinitely and noticing a trend doesn't mean you've said anything interesting. Steven Pinker probably said the wisest thing here when he said that striving for utopia can lead to hell. I think that's the real danger to blind adherence to ideology even one as beautiful as a perfect liberal society.

[MrAliyassin]

I wonder why they didn't mention about Israel and Palestine conflict as Ukraine and Russia conflict.

[askbob]

we are all immigrants please don't forget that

[tarnopol]

Appropriate that one superficial thinker was interviewed by another. Too bad Sam Harris and Malcolm Gladwell weren’t also there.

[mrschnider]

Listening to him talk about climate change is fascinating. You would think people with such strong views would do 15 minutes of research to see that its not real. The amount of co2 in the atmosphere is .04%, under .02% plants can no longer grow. Water vapor has 100x of times the thermal mass of co2 and it makes up a much larger part of the atmosphere, In deserts it can be 80 degrees during the day and drop to 30 at night. In places where there is water and cloud cover on humid nights it stays very warm. also when there is cloud cover its very warm at night.

A trace amount of co2 does not have any effect on climate. the portion that man is responsible for which is impossible to measure. we know its less than .01% because plants were able to grow before we started burning coal (meaing without human action it was above .02% the minumum for plants to perform photosythesis). When there was .4% co2 (10x what we have currently) plants and animal life thrived. co2 is the gas of life, it is NOT a pollutant and we desperately need more co2 as our plants use it up very quickly.

By burning fossil fuels you are restoring a natural balence back into the ecosystem. CO2 does not determine climate, co2 does not effect climate in any measurable way a all it does is make the earth much more green. the tilt of the earth, fluid dynamics, and the Coriolis effect determine climate. the large oceans and mixing of cold and hot water keep our earths climate incredible stable the amount of energy needed to change it is far far beyond our capability the energy inputs would be absolutely massive. its incredible how 15 minutes of thinking about climate change anyone can realize its false, it amazes me how these people never hear anyone debate anything, they have never heard two people debate something, you can sit down with any liberal and automatically know what their views are on anything, They only have ever heard a single side and are completely ignorant.