Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ & the Capitalism of the Far Right with QUINN SLOBODIAN

Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ & the Capitalism of the Far Right with QUINN SLOBODIAN

Author: Creative Process Original Series August 21, 2025 Duration: 0:00

“The origin was really trying to make sense of that 2016-2017 moment and to ask whether the alt-right was, as we were being told, a return to the 1930s, a kind of awakening of the sleeping beast of white supremacy armed in the streets in the United States. There are many explanations, but I decided to take this kind of curious route in with the distorted readings and reinterpretations of the works of people like Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. As a scholar of comparative literature, I wanted to write a revision based on Crack-Up Capitalism.”

In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with Quinn Slobodian about his new book, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. He takes a deep dive into the genesis of a weird and powerful merging of two seemingly different groups the Far Right and neoliberals. Slobodian writes, “as repellent as their politics may be these radical thinkers are not barbarians the gates of neoliberalism but the bastard offspring of that line of thought itself.” They talk about how this meshing is driven by a primitive desire to ward off egalitarianism, difference, democracy, and government that services the common good. The wide-ranging talk ends with addressing DOGE, Trump's tariffs, and yes, the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Quinn Slobodian is a professor of international history at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. His books, which have been translated into ten languages, include Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy, and Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ and the Capitalism of the Far Right . A Guggenheim Fellow for 2025-6, he has been an associate fellow at Chatham House and held residential fellowships at Harvard University and Free University Berlin. Project Syndicate put him on a list of 30 Forward Thinkers and Prospect UK named him one of the World’s 25 Top Thinkers.
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At the heart of One Planet Podcast is a simple, urgent idea: the intertwined fate of humanity and the natural world is the defining narrative of our time. This series moves beyond headlines to explore the complex, often surprising connections between climate change, global politics, and tangible environmental solutions. In each episode, you’ll hear from the people on the front lines-policy makers from bodies like the European Commission, scientists from the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and activists from organizations including EARTHDAY.ORG and UNESCO. Their conversations dig into the real-world mechanics of a circular economy, the practical challenges of achieving net-zero emissions, and the quiet crisis of biodiversity loss affecting wildlife and ecosystems globally. The dialogue consistently returns to actionable hope, examining how regenerative agriculture can restore land, how renewable energy transitions are unfolding, and how individual carbon footprints fit into systemic change. Produced by Creative Process Original Series, this podcast is for anyone who seeks a deeper, more nuanced understanding of our ecological moment. It’s a space where the grand concepts of sustainability are broken down into human stories and strategic discussions, offering listeners not just analysis, but a sense of direction and possibility for the future we are all shaping together.
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