unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

Christian B. Miller is the A.C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University and the author of several books. His latest title is The Honesty Crisis: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World. Greg and Christian discuss what Christian calls ‘The Honesty Crisis.’ He defines honesty as a virtue involving both stable honest behavior (not lying, cheating, stealing, misleading, promise breaking, fraud, hypocrisy, self-deception, or “BS-ing”) and proper motivation (rooted in altruistic concern or duty, not self-interest). He argues honesty tracks subjective belief, so false statements can be honest and true statements can be dishonest, and discusses bullshitting, authenticity, excessive frankness, white lies and their costs, and the puzzle of self-deception. Christian cites research suggesting most people default to truth-telling, but claims that multiple “honesty crises” are happening now where technology makes dishonesty easier to commit and harder to detect: AI cheating, deepfakes, internet infidelity, political misinformation, celebrity/influencer dishonesty, and plagiarism. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Peter Fleming is a professor of management at the University of Technology Sydney, and also the author of several books. His recent works are Dark Academia: How Universities Die, Sugar Daddy Capitalism: The Dark Side of the New Economy, and The Death of Homo Economicus: Work, Debt and the Myth of Endless Accumulation. Greg and Peter discuss doing critical theory inside business schools and how neoliberalism and managerialism have reshaped universities. They also discuss the professionalization of higher education toward “employability,” driven by scarce public funding and human capital theory, which monetized expectations and intensified pressure, insecurity, and unhappiness. Peter suggests even executives face external constituent pressures. He explains his critique of Homo economicus as an extreme Cold War governance template that failed and contributed to “deaths of despair,” and he emphasizes rebuilding institutions by focusing on the labor problem and workplace conditions. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

How is governance dysfunction linked to declining ‘middle-ring’ community ties? Marc J. Dunkelman is a fellow at Brown University and a fellow at the Searchlight Institute in Washington, D.C. Marc is also the author of two books, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back and The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community. Greg and Marc discuss how U.S. progressivism has long been split between a Jeffersonian impulse to decentralize power and curb “bigness” and a Hamiltonian impulse to centralize authority in expert institutions. Marc explains how figures like Robert Moses could push projects through, while today expanded rights, litigation, and procedural checks—driven by 1960s–70s distrust of authority (Vietnam, civil rights failures, environmental and consumer scandals, Watergate-era culture)—have reduced discretion so much that even widely supported projects stall. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*