University of Austin (UATX)

Can You be a Saint in the Age of AI? | Jonathan Pageau at the Austin Union

20K views · 3d ago · 1:31:59

Jonathan Pageau lays out what it means to live in accord with our God-given humanity in an age of rapidly advancing AI. Drawing upon essential biblical truths and the latest discussions of transhumanism, Pageau highlights the danger of making an idol out of artificial super-intelligence.

Topics: UATX student Yale Abernathy introduces the Austin Union · Introducing Jonathan Pageau · The original meaning of "transhuman" · Plato and the problem of the prosthetic · Will AI make us dumber? · Worshipping the works of our hands

Going Viral for Free Speech: Fighting Censorship Legislation in Australia | Michael Shellenberger

14K views · 4d ago · 18:56

Guest: Michael Shellenberger

When UATX professor Michael Shellenberger traveled to Australia to warn against censorship legislation, he never expected his opposition to go viral on social media and then be broadcasted by mainstream media. After a frustrating meeting with proponents of the legislation, an impromptu iPhone video turned into a media cycle that, he argues, laid bare the legislation’s real threat to free speech.

Topics: Michael Shellenberger on censorship in Australia · Australia's 2024 misinformation bill · The "Digital Duty of Care" bill · Harm reduction and effective altruism · Sam Bankman-Fried and the ends justifying the means · Speaking at CPAC Australia

📚 Book mentioned: San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities

How Do We Know Any of This? | Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome, Part 1

7.8K views · 5d ago · 36:41

How do we actually know what happened in Rome? Prof. Isabella Reinhardt opens the course with a problem most history classes skip past: every account of Rome reaches us through someone with a particular point of view, copied by hand for centuries by scribes who were often bored, careless, or didn't read Latin.

Topics: Welcome and Introduction · Why bother with Rome? · What Rome teaches us about ourselves · Storytelling, early Christianity, and law · Did the Romans actually invent anything? · From mythical founding to the death of Severus Alexander

Will AI Take Your Job? What History Says | Former Senator Phil Gramm

1.2K views · 1w ago · 1:08:56

Guest: Former Senator Phil Gramm

Former Senator Phil Gramm takes on the idea that government intervention saves capitalism and improves standards of living at critical points in American history. Drawing on historical evidence from the Industrial Revolution to the 2008 financial crisis, his latest book argues that this school of thinking — influential across large segments of the political class — cannot withstand serious scrutiny.

Topics: Why a broad education matters in the age of AI · The most important graph in the world · What the Industrial Revolution really did for living standards · Dickens, Scrooge, and the dark picture of Victorian literature · Two pictures of the same history · What the Industrial Revolution teaches us about AI

Should a Free Society Tolerate the Intolerant? Shabbos Kestenbaum in Conversation

24K views · 2w ago · 43:20

Should a free society tolerate the intolerant? Can American Jews stay Jewish in a country that never forces them to choose? Why hasn't Holocaust education reduced antisemitism? Commentator Shabbos Kestenbaum joins UATX student William Posey of the Austin Union at UATX for a wide-ranging conversation.

Topics: "I don't defend Israel, I celebrate it" · Immutable characteristics and the "woke right" · Combating bad ideas with better ideas · The Harvard lawsuit and the paradox of tolerance · Should antisemitic speech have limits? · Education vs. prosecution

What Really Causes Recessions? | Tyler Goodspeed

10K views · 3w ago · 1:15:37

Guest: Tyler Goodspeed

Do economic booms carry the seeds of their own collapse? It's one of the most persistent ideas in economics, and Tyler Goodspeed thinks it's wrong. Drawing on 132 recessions across more than three centuries of American and British history, Goodspeed argues that we keep telling ourselves the wrong story about why economies crash — and that recessions are typically caused not by the excesses of the boom that came before, but by adverse shocks we fail to anticipate or absorb.

Topics: UATX President Carlos Carvalho introduces Tyler Goodspeed · The highest oil price ever · Why we call it the housing bubble · 132 recessions, from 1700 to today · Do expansions die of their own excesses? · Peter Pan, not Dorian Gray

📚 Book mentioned: Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What to Do About It

Why Tariffs Are the Wrong Answer on China | AEI's Robert Doar

1.1K views · 3w ago · 1:18:03

Guests: AEI's Robert Doar, President Carvalho

Robert Doar on why tariffs are the wrong answer on China, and what the poverty debate still gets wrong. Robert Doar became AEI’s 12th president in July 2019, leading one of the nation’s oldest and most respected public policy think tanks. Since becoming president of AEI, Doar has recruited dozens of leading scholars and fellows across multiple issue areas and launched a new research division focused on Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies.

Topics: UATX President Carlos Carvalho introduces AEI President Robert Doar · From New York welfare commissioner to think tank president · How universities lost trust · How AEI works: independent scholars, shared principles · Trump administration policies · What free traders missed about China