Late Admissions

Confessions of a Black Conservative

By: Glenn Loury

Narrated by: Glenn Loury

A shockingly frank memoir from a prize-winning economist, reflecting on his remarkable personal odyssey and his changing positions on identity, race, and belief.

Economist Glenn C. Loury is one of the most prominent public intellectuals of our time: he's often radically opposed to the political mainstream, and delights in upending what's expected of a Black public figure. But more so than the arguments themselves—on affirmative action, institutional racism, Trumpism—his public life has been characterized by fearlessness and a willingness to recalibrate strongly held and forcefully argued beliefs.

Loury grew up on the south side of Chicago, earned a PhD in MIT's economics program, and became the first Black tenured professor of economics at Harvard at the age of thirty-three. He has been, at turns, a young father, a drug addict, an adulterer, a psychiatric patient, a born-again Christian, a lapsed born-again Christian, a Black Reaganite who has swung from the right to the left and back again. In Late Admissions, Loury examines what it means to chart a sense of self over the course of a tempestuous, but well-considered, life.

©2024 Glenn Loury (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

feel like I know him

I have been watching blogging heads with him and Mcquarter for years. when I saw his book was out AND he was narrerating....I was so excited. I finished it in two days, compelling is an understatement. his repetitive use of the tool, there's the cover story and there's the real story is freaking genius. Then there are some weird antitheticals that I can't believe were left unedited. The fact that at least once every 1000 words is one that I've never heard of and that sometimes more than once, he mispronounces embarrassingly common words, abyss is one, is so strange to me. Still a hard recommended for anyone who grew up poor and worked your way up through academia.

Oh, Glenn…

This isn’t exactly what the doctor had ordered.

Hopefully it is made into a movie.

This is a life that would be hard to invent

Certainly an interesting book. I couldn’t put it down. I couldn’t believe Glen put all this in print, and yet admitted much of his life still wasn’t in it. So I have maximum respect for this guy. If you made it up, no one would believe it.
One reflection about himself that he didn’t quite see is that his frequent “switching sides” between conservatives and libs gave him that same hit of approval he sought, which we all seek, whenever the other side was glad to welcome him back. Ditto religion.
Another thing I think glen might have benefited from is james clear’s atomic habits, where he talks about change as happening at 3 levels: first, desire. Without that, nada obviously. 2nd — operational level, which is AA, a diet, a run club, etc. At this level you are still tempted by cigarettes, say, or you don’t wanna go on a run, but you do because you’re in a program. You’re doing what it takes operationally. 3rd is identity. I.e., “I’m not a smoker so I don’t even have to exercise the decision muscle to deny myself a smoke.” If Glen had been aware of this framework he might have been able to share if he made it all the way but we are all left suspecting he’s still at level 2, operational level — which may be good enough!

A great character study on the importance of presenting desirable behavior to children

Glenn has an incredible mind, but clearly is plagued by a need to imitate the awful moral lessons he was taught as a child (as we all are) and his historical need for praise leaves him vulnerable to veering off in whichever direction his audience points him. As such it’s hard to know at any time what the “real story” is on his beliefs. However, his generational talent of a mind means that whoever has Glenn’s attention is going to get a world class debater and attack dog ferociously working on their behalf.

A Self-Assessment

I think that Prof. Loury was pretty brutally honest about his professional and personal lives, and they were definitely two separate experiences. It was fascinating to hear how he rationalized his behavior, but he seems unable to understand WHY he pursued the dual paths he vividly describes. An interesting memoir for where it does and doesn’t go.

Fascinating story of an impactful life

This book is not to be missed. It captures the personal drama of a major economist and social critic, a child of Chicago’s South Side, who contended throughout his life with “the enemy within.” But beyond the personal scandals and triumphs it chronicles a public life of consequence, including several innovations in theoretical economics that continue to resonate, including his groundbreaking work concerning social capital, a term he coined. Prof. Loury writes beautifully and unusually frankly. His performance of the text is engaging and personalizes the listening experience, although I would quibble with a few of his pronunciations of words. I really enjoyed this audio book and recommend it unreservedly, although some listeners may be uncomfortable with frank discussion of drug use and extramarital affairs.

A book on how not to "choke"

Glenn Loury is a guy I've been following for a little bit on his podcast. This book shines a lot of light I never fully recognized on his life. On the podcast I got bits and pieces of this but I never saw the full picture. This book is a great tool for me to learn about what "choking" looks like in life, and how to overcome it to some extent. It's refreshing to see that someone as accomplished and respected as Glenn Loury has faltered so much in his life, and it makes me feel less self-concious about my own failures in life. I feel like this book came about at a really opportune time for me, when I feel like I am close to choking in my own life.

Amazing Content… By a Great Man… That Should Be Re-Recorded

Huge Loury fan. Adore him. Enjoyed the book, but the narration (by Loury himself) is surprisingly stilted and halting, especially given 1) Glenn’s reading his own work and 2) he is one of the best speakers I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to on the Glenn Show and various other media appearances. I’d strongly recommend Glenn do his own work justice here and re-record the entire thing. I say this with love and appreciation for a great man whose story deserves a much wider audience.

Engaging listen. Full of lurid details

I enjoyed listening to this book and though I had heard interviews and Glenn talk about the level of confession in this book, I was still shocked at the numerous repeat offenses.

Besides the narration, which was choppy but passable, my biggest complaint is that the book seems to lack any real reflection on why we should believe he has actually changed and isn't or hasn't cheated on his current wife. It's not really a story of redemption because he cycles through redemption and his old ways so much it's impossible to know who he really is today.

In spite of all that, it's hard not to like him and I do think I understand more why he doesn't seem to defend his positions much of the time while letting his counterparts rant mostly uncontested about things with which he disaggrees.

A difficult listen but worth your time

Glenn Loury is a man who is difficult not to like at least based on his personality in interviews and on his podcast. That’s what makes listening to his story that much more painful, especially when you think he’s done making terrible choices, he manages to pull another one out of his hat. Some may read this and write the man off as just a horrible person trying to appear not so bad by airing, his dirty laundry on his own terms, But truth is, we all have betrayed others and have secrets, the difference being that Glenn Loury shines the light on all of his ugliness and most of us never will, at least not in a public forum. I think about the mini figures in politics especially that we all know are rotten to the core, but we will never know all of their deeds, especially from their mouths. Glenn Loury gives us that even if it’s more than we bargained for. All to say, I believe he’s the perfect embodiment of a prodigal son, though perhaps not quite all the way home yet. If he can make it back, so can any of us.