About this episode

Winston Marshall interviews Reihan Salam about the rise of a new generation of woke politics and the factors driving young people towards radical ideologies.

In this episode of The Winston Marshall Show, I sit down with Reihan Salam for a conversation about the rise of the “second generation woke,” the collapse of institutional trust, and why so many young people are turning towards radical politics on both the left and the right.Salam argues that a generation shaped by the 2008 financial crisis, failing institutions, housing insecurity, and cultural alienation has become deeply cynical about the West and increasingly drawn to grievance-based ideologies. We explore why movements around figures like Zohran Mamdani and Hassan Piker are resonating with younger voters, how identity politics evolved into a more professional and organised form of neo-socialism, and why elite institutions have become increasingly hostile to the very inheritance that built them.The conversation examines housing crises, public sector dysfunction, dependency culture, and the collapse of community and family structures. Salam makes the case that modern politics has replaced responsibility and continuity with victimhood, resentment, and what he calls “smash and grab politics” — a short-term mentality that exists on both the authoritarian left and right.We also…

People in this episode

Host: Winston Marshall

Guest: Reihan Salam

Topics covered

• woke culture
• political ideologies
• institutional trust
• housing crisis
• identity politics
• masculinity
• cultural alienation

Keywords

• woke
• radical politics
• financial crisis
• dependency culture
• community collapse
• victimhood
• anti-Western education

Mentioned in this episode

Places: America, Britain

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