Livestream at 4:30 PM ET Today: Machiavelli on Women, Virtue, and Fighting on "Get Lit"

Brad and Matt's last livecast on "Discourses of Livy" has lessons for both Democrats and Republicans

It doesn’t mean what you might think, but “How a State is Ruined Because of Women” is one of the chapters in Book III of “Discourses on Livy,” Niccolo Machiavelli’s masterpiece on governance and stability. Brad Pearce and I will start wrapping up the great book today at 4:30 pm ET, at the links below:

Or on X @mtaibbi or @waywardrabbler.

There’s an abundance of interesting material and brilliant writing in this last section from Machiavelli’s sweeping book, including a sagacious chapter titled “That the Faults of Peoples Begin With Their Princes” and counterintuitive passages like “the most useful thing in a free society is a way to keep the citizens poor.” Mostly there’s wisdom and warning in Book III, which looks at the ways even great societies fall, which they must, as “it is impossible to organize an everlasting Republic.” Please tune in if you can, and if you haven’t done so, pick up a copy of our next book, the hilarious and horrifying Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.