Perhaps the creepiest tool of repression is China's social credit system. The system would essentially establish a “credit” rating for individuals and firms. Be a good citizen and you get financial discounts, better loan terms, and exemption from deposit requirements. Fail to meet the state’s criteria and your child can forget getting into a good university. If the government judges you to be socially bankrupt, you can’t buy a train ticket, rent a hotel room, or even use a credit card. Companies could be treated similarly, with disparate treatment in terms of taxation, credit, and more. A decade ago, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez sent officials to China to learn about its national ID program. In succeeding years, nothing much happened. However, three years ago, the 1984 nightmare reemerged. With food scarce, medicine nonexistent, and inflation beyond measure, the Nicolás Maduro regime is spending $70 million to create a national database and mobile payment system.

On this week's episode, we pay tribute to Gertrude Himmelfarb who passed away last Monday, December 30th, at the age of 97. Gertrude Himmelfarb was a historian and leading intellectual voice in conservatism. Throughout her career, she wrote many books about Victorian history, morality and contemporary culture. The New York Post named her one of America’s greatest minds, and the National Review called her the "paragon of intellectual accomplishment." What did her work contribute to the conservative movement and how does her view of history inform our current times? Yuval Levin, Resident Scholar and Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at AEI, joins us on this episode to talk about her work and legacy.