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In this episode I speak with Professor Vigen Gurioan about the revised and expanded edition of his book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Imagination. We discuss the power of stories, how they help can us develop self-knowledge, and how fairy tales and classic stories are essential for education and moral formation for children — and for adults. Fairy tales and classic stories can impress upon us profound philosophical and often theological insights about life and death, the good and beautiful, the value of courage and nobility, and importance of self-sacrifice for love. Stories, themes, and thinkers we we discuss include Hans Christian Anderson The Little Mermaid Beauty and the Beast Grimm’s Fairy Tales George McDonald Pinocchio, honor, honesty, and the responsibility of children to their parents The Ugly Duckling, courage, and the desire for beauty The Wind and the Willows, Charlotte’s Web, and friendship of equality and friendship of mentors Good Wishes and Bad Wishes Joseph Pieper and Dietrich von Hildebrand on joy as a the superabundant fruit of love and self-gift Charles Dickens C.S. Lewis Edmund Burke Aristotle on Friendship and more

In this episode I speak with heart surgeon, Dr. Philip Ovadia MD, about metabolic health, diet, science, cholesterol, insulin resistance, the US government food pyramid, Ancel Keys and the cholesterol - saturated fat -heart disease hypothesis. We discuss medical education, health insurance, scientism, and some of the obstacles doctors and scientists face with “group think.” Dr Ovadia tells his story of how lost 100 pounds changed everything he learned about fat and food. He explains that while half of the patients who have heart attacks or heart surgery have normal levels of cholesterol, over 90% have insulin resistance. He argues that metabolic health is not only important for heart health, but for mental health, and plays a key role in preventing cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We discuss a number of themes including Gary Taubes: The Case Sugar and Why We Get Fat Problems of Crony Capitalism and Subsidies How the Government Food Pyramid makes you fat Metabolic Health and Covid The Campbell Effect and how bad science has dominated medicine Weston Price Insulin Resistance Diabetes Saturated Fat Pharmacuetical Industry and Medication Seed Oils Health Insurance and the need for new models The connection between metabolic health and mental health This episode and podcast is for informational purposes and does not provide medical advice. Biography Dr. Philip Ovadia MD is a board certified cardiac surgeon and founder of Ovadia Heart Health. He grew up in New York and graduated from the accelerated Pre-Med/Med progra at the Pennsylvannia State University and Jefferson Medical College. This was followed by residency in General Surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry at New Jersey and a fellowship in Cardio-thoracic Surgery at Tufts-New England Medical School. Learn more about Dr. Ovadia at www.ovadiahearthealth.com Resources See books below Campbell’s Law Dave Feldman on Cholesterol Podcast with Jay Richards on Fasting and the Ketogenic Diet Podcast with Diana Rodgers on Food, Meat and Health Podcast with James Madden on Embodied, Embedded Persons Podcast with Joel Salatin on Food and Farming

In this episode I speak with Titus Techera about Dune, Bladerunner, science fiction, dystopian film, technocratic view of humanity, and the formative power of science fiction on the imagination. We discuss contemporary technological society, social breakdown, loneliness, men and women and decline in marriage, technology and trans-humanism/ transgenderism, and the predictive power of dystopian film. We talk about what it means to be human and the relationship between digital technology and humanity. Titus argues that much of sport, military, modern manliness and excellence has been reduced to science and creatures of technology. He argues that one of the “catalysts for science fiction stories is disappointment with the world. The dead hand of the past is too powerful. People are always a problem; tradition gets in the way of radical innovation. Science fiction is aware of the problem of our decadence, but technical daring can solve it.” And yet in the science fiction societies like Bladerunner there is a wealthy technical class amidst brutality, societal decline where everyone has lost their humanity. He writes As with all science fiction set in the near future, Blade Runner is an attempt to make us look at ourselves as though we were strangers to ourselves, allowing for the possibility that serious changes can come suddenly and overcome our beliefs or preferences. Could we end up like Deckard, Harrison Ford’s character, a bounty hunter, or “blade runner?” We need not embrace this kind of despair, but only need understand its appeal. The social landscape of Blade Runner seems plausible enough. The film presents American cities overrun by crime and poverty while technological corporations become immensely wealthy… A suitably dramatic expression of something we see around us quite often; indeed, perhaps exaggeration is necessary, since we have an excusable, but unfortunate tendency to ignore the misery of American cities. Themes we discuss include Science and scientism, Atheism and religion, Nihilism and utopianism, Social engineering of people, Medicine Covid pandemic and vaccine mandates Tension between scientific progress in digital technology and scientific and technological stagnation in other areas. Jordan Peterson Contemporary interest in stoicism Utiltarianism and hedonism Sports and Science Spiderman   Biography Titus Techera is the executive director of the American Cinema Foundation, host of the ACF podcasts, a film critic for Law & Liberty and the Acton Institute, contributor to Modern Age, columnist for Return and European Conservative, and editor-in-chief of PostModern Conservative. Techera studied liberal arts at Bard College Berlin and political science at the University of Bucharest and the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. Resources Titus Techera essay: The Tale of Two Dunes Titus Techera essay on Bladerunner Follow Titus on Twitter Listen to the ACF Film Podcast Titus Techera Substack   Titus Techera on Novak Djokovic, Excellence, and Covid Rules Caveats: These science fiction books and films because they deal with dystopian futures and social decadence have material that is not suitable for children.

Pope Benedict XVI / Joseph Ratzinger passed away on December 31 at the age of 95 years old. His writing and teaching have been a major influence on my thinking. So in honor of his memory and gratitude for his example, this episode is a talk I gave on Pope Benedict XVI on Five Crises of Culture and the Intellectual sources of Secularism and the New Evangelization. I go through five intellectual themes/crises that Benedict identifies in the West “where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization." Truth and the Dictatorship of Relativism Reason Progress Freedom Beauty I examine how he describes and explains the challenges of our age; how he addresses each of them on their own terms, and the proposes a Gospel response. One element of the crisis of faith is grounded in intellectual sources. We think, and too often live, like secularists and adopt often without thinking a secular framework. But secularism is not neutral. As Benedict argues, “We must develop and adult faith.” An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth. We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.” In this talk I provide a lot of quotes and references. You can find show notes, links, and outline of the talk at www.themoralimagination.com Resources See the outline / handout of the talk below. Also see Amazon links to books I refer to in the talk below. I also provide Amazon link to the encyclicals, but you can get all the encyclicals for free at vatican.va There a lot of books listed and if you are unsure where to start I would suggest you begin with the following: Books: Jesus of Nazareth Vol 1, Milestones, and Last Testament Collection of more complex essays: Values in a Time of Upheaval Encyclicals Spe Salvi and Deus Caritas Est Short Readings: Here are some links Homily before the Conclave — “Dictatorship of Relativsm” Regensberg Address — on the crisis of reason in the west Cardinal Ratzinger on Europe’s Crisis of Culture at Subiaco   Benedict XVI Paris Lecture Meeting with Representatives from the World of Culture   Additional Links mentioned in talk Roger Scruton: Beauty and Desecration   Roger Scruton: Kitsch and the Modern Predicament  I Grateful to Authenticum and Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish for the invitation to speak and for recording and providing me with the audio of this lecture. You can learn more about the Authenticum Lecture Series  OUTLINE/HANDOUT Benedict XVI—Five Crises of Culture and the Intellectual sources of Secularism and the New Evangelization Michael Matheson Miller The New Evangelization Re-Propose the Gospel "to those regions awaiting the first evangelization AND to those regions where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization." Benedict XVI    Theme:  Think Like Christians Focus on Intellectual roots of secularization and the crisis of faith and the work of Benedict XVI We must not approach the social and political order in a purely secular manner.  Benedict is I think a model for new evangelization because he takes the situation of our current time on its own terms and then addresses it in light of reason and the Gospel. Paul VI: Evangelii Nuntiandi  "The conditions of the society in which we live oblige all of us therefore to revise methods, to seek by every means to study how we can bring the Christian message to modern man. For it is only in the Christian message that modern man can find the answer to his questions and the energy for his commitment of human solidarity."   John Paul II: Redemptoris Missio   “I wish to invite the Church to renew her missionary commitment.”  “…it is the primary service which the Church can render to every individual and to all humanity in the modern world, a world which has experienced marvelous achievements but which seems to have lost its sense of ultimate realities and of existence itself. "Christ the Redeemer," I wrote in my first encyclical, "fully reveals man to himself.... The person who wishes to understand himself thoroughly...must...draw near to Christ.... [The] Redemption that took place through the cross has definitively restored to man his dignity and given back meaning to his life in the world."   Benedict XVI “Throughout the centuries, the Church has never ceased to proclaim the salvific mystery of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but today that same message needs renewed vigor to convince contemporary man, who is often distracted and insensitive… “For this reason, the new evangelization must try to find ways of making the proclamation of salvation more effective; a proclamation without which personal existence remains contradictory and deprived of what is essential. Even for those who remain tied to their Christian roots, but who live the difficult relationship with modernity, it is important to realize that being Christian is not a type of clothing to wear in private or on special occasions, but is something living and all-encompassing, able to contain all that is good in modern life.”  BXVI to Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization   “We…have this mission: to encounter our contemporaries so as to make His love known to them. Not so much by teaching, never by judging, but by being travelling companions. Like the deacon Philip, who – the Acts of the Apostles tell us – stood up, set out, ran towards the Ethiopian people and, as a friend, sat down beside them, entering into dialogue with the man who had a great desire for God in the midst of many doubts”  —Pope Francis: International Meeting  for Academic Centers and  Schools of New Evangelization   Five Crises of Culture and Key Themes in the Thought of Bendict XVI    1.     Truth and the Dictatorship of Relativism “How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true. “Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.”   Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice After fall of Soviet Union relativism did not die but combined with desire for gratification to form a potent mix.  (CF to Augusto Del Noce on the shift from Christian Bourgeois to Pure Bourgeois) Is Relativism Coherent? Denial of Truth is self-refuting Truth exists and is knowable But this does not mean we know it Relativism can be nothing other than a dictatorship Relativism leads to ideology St. Thomas Aquinas: Truth is conforming the mind to reality Josef Pieper: Seeing the World as it is and acting accordingly Gospel Response - In the homily where he speaks the Dictatorship of Relativism Benedict does not stop at intellectual refutation.  He responds with the person of Jesus.  He says: “We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceipt from truth. We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.”             Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice 2. Reason Regensburg Address Crisis of Reason—which is a crisis of politics which is a crisis of humanity We have limited reason to the empirical This is incoherent on its own terms because one cannot verify this claim empirically Must expand reason beyond the empirical otherwise it is not rational The problem goes beyond incoherence.  It leads to what C.S. Lewis has called “the abolition of man.”  Empiricist rationality takes all the fundamental human experiences – love, beauty, goodness, hope, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and justice and relegates them outside the realm of reason. Love and justice then are no longer rational but pure emotion or chemical reactions.   But this is false. In contrast we have what Lewis calls “reasonable emotions,” what Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II) calls “spiritual emotions” and what Dietrich von Hildebrand calls “intelligible spiritual affectivity.” Love is not simply raw emotion or chemical reaction. It includes that because we are embodied persons, but it also is reasonable. This is why the tradition defines love as an “act of the will” that “seeks the good of the other.”   “Critical Thinking” Exercise    (Thanks to Professor Mark Roberts for this insight) __JS Bach was born in 1685 __JS Bach w

In this episode I speak with Flagg Taylor about the life and writing of Vaclav Benda, and his idea of the parallel polis, decentralization, and creating space in society for culture, the family, charity, education, and human flourishing. Though he was writing under communist regimes, Benda’s writings are very relevant today in light democratic pressures to conformity, de-platforming, and especially as a new ontology of the person is being written into law — and dignity is used as weapon against religious and cultural liberty. Benda’s idea of the parallel polis was not a siege mentality, nor so much a reform existing structures that had ossified or were corrupted, but a call to build new, innovative, and better structures and social institutions that would activate people’s participation in civil, cultural, and commercial life, and give people a sense of purpose and agency. Examples today include decentralized technologies or classical education - which is not running away, but creating better alternatives to mediocre state run schools. We discuss Benda’s ideas in the context of Czech communism and also in contemporary America, especially the overlap with Alexis de Tocqueville’s warnings about individualism, centralization, and soft-despotism. We examine his engagement with various thinkers including Roger Scruton and J.R.R. Tolkien, and talk about contemporary movements towards decentralization including The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan and its relation to the idea of a parallel polis. We discuss the need for social and commercial alternatives built on a rich understanding of the human person and the family including healthcare, mutual aid societies, banking, payment, insurance and more. Benda’s idea of the parallel polis demonstrates that the solution to totalitarianism and centralization is not more centralization or another totalitarianism, but de-centralization and humanization. We discuss a number of Benda essays including: The Parallel Polis, The Meaning Context Legacy of the Parallel Polis, The Family and Totalitarianism, A Critique of the Idea of a Christian State, and his personal reflections that illustrate the constant social pressure of living under communist totalitarianism. Themes and Topics include Albert Hirshman: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty Peter Berger on Plausibility Structures Vaclav Havel: Power of the Powerless Greengrocers of the World Unite! Aristotle’s Moral and Intellectual Virtues Vaclav Havel Living in Truth Benda focus on resisting the lies of totalitarianism by inhabiting a social spaces and plausibility structures that make living in truth possible. MMM Lecture How to Build a Moral Imagination — new and better ways of live are actually plausible Provide space for dissidents and their children who were excluded by the official social spaces Balaji - The Network State - Network Union - Network Archipelago — cloud first, then land Catholic Variation: Land - Cloud -Land New Ontology of the Person Totalitarian redefinition of biology and sociological reality Dignity as a weapon against religious liberty Testing the Limits in Communism vs Testing the Limits in Modern Democracy De-platforming Cancel Culture Underground Seminars led by Roger Scruton Roger Scruton and Jan Hus Foundation Ortega y Gassett: The Spoiled Child of History Second Culture Charter 77 Essay at Foreign Policy Magazine   VONS Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted Religious practice in Slovakia vs Czech Republic vs. Poland Church Persecution by Communists in the 40s - 70s Communist infiltration of Church and official Church collaboration with Communists 70s and 80s. Critique of the Christian idea of a state How politicalization of religion can lead to unbelief Benda compared to contemporary Catholic integralists / post liberal thinkers Pappin, Ahmari, Pecknold on Cultural Christianity and Politics MMM commentary to this essay: Political Catholicism, Liberalism and the Myth of Neutrality Secularism is not neutral J.R.R Tolkien —Benda on the Lord of the Rings as as an analysis of totalitarianism The Scouring of the Shire — See Jay Richards and Jonathan Witt The Hobbit Party link in Resources The family is always a thorn to totalitarian states Marriage and family as essential The Family as the source of 3 fundamental gifts that a person can receive Fruitful fellowship of love Freedom Dignity and unique role of the individual Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) and George Orwell on tenderness as a resistance to totalitarianism Family as a space for freedom, failures, learning How rebellion against parents is modern fashion that the totalitarian or centralizing state desires Authority and Hierarchy Hannah Arendt on Authority and Education (see link in resources) Biography Dr. F. Flagg Taylor IV is an Associate Professor of government at Skidmore College serves on the Academic Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in political science from Fordham University and a B.A. from Kenyon College. Taylor’s specialty is in the history of political thought and American government, especially the question of executive power. He is the co-author of The Contested Removal Power, 1789-2010, author of numerous articles, and editor of The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism and The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977-1989. Resources Flagg Taylor Website Vaclav Benda Biography   The Enduring Interest Podcast on Apple Flagg Taylor Podcast at Podbean MMM talk at Catholic Crypto Conference: Building a Parallel Polis: Social and Technological Decentralization Peter Fiala Flagg Taylor podcast interview on Hannah Arendt Key Quotes From “The Meaning Context Legacy of the Parallel Polis” There is, however, a fundamental difference between the natural resistance of life to totalitarianism and the deliberate expansion of the space in which the parallel polis can exist.  The former is a cluster of flowers that has grown into place accidentally sheltered from the killing winds of totalitarianism and easily destroyed when those winds change direction. The latter is a trench whose elimination depends strictly on a calculated move by the state power to destroy it.  Given the time and means available only a certain number of trenches can be eliminated. If, at the same time, the parallel polis is able to produce more such trenches than it loses ,a situation arises that is morally dangerous for the regime; it is a blow at the very heart of its power — that is, the possibility of intervening anywhere without limitation.  The mission of the parallel polis is to constantly conquer new territory to make its parallelness constantly more substantial and more present. Benda p. 233 From “The Family and Totalitarianism” I consider marriage and the family to be so essential that I am unwilling to accept the regular clichés about liberation from these obligations. So, in the Christian version as we know it, which for centuries dominated the western world, the family was, as well as many other good things, a visible embodiment of the three most fundamental gifts or dignity is that a person could receive… Benda lists three gifts: “Fruitful fellowship of love in which we are bound together with our neighbor without pardon by virtue simply of our closeness; not on the basis of merit rights and entitlements, but by virtue of mutual need and its affectionate reciprocation” “Freedom and the ability to make permanent, eternal decisions … and acts of fidelity…that stand in radical defiance of our finitude” “Dignity and the unique role of the individual

In this episode I speak with Jonathan Bi about the ideas of Rene Girard, social pressure, authentic and false desires, victims and scapegoats, persecution, and Girardian theories on imitation and violence. We also discuss how Girard’s work sheds light on woke capitalism, right and left totalitarianism, Max Scheler, Hannah Arendt, Alexis de Tocqueville, and more. We discuss many themes including: Christianity and Girard’s theory and the secularization and falsification of Christian values such as how humanitarianism and pacificism replace charity and peace and justice and more. Evangelical Counsels and The Rule of St. Benedict as a response to metaphysical desire Different views of the problem of evil: Hegel, Rousseau, Ratzinger, Solzhenitsyn, Girard Human Perfectibility and Utopianism Hope and Progress Benedict XVI Spe Salvi On the goodness of being in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and St. Augustine. There is no technical solution to the problems of evil, suffering, of death Embedded complexity, the dignity of labor, linear time, and how we live in a Christian civilization Girard’s explanation of how scapegoating others for their behavior reveals that we too would be guilty — and why it is folly to think with confidence that we would not go along with the crowd if we lived under the Nazis or a slaveholding society We begin a discussion on the atonement, Girard’s views and how to think about sacrifice — that we’ll have to finish in more detail We also have a discussion about Christianity and Buddhism and religious belief. I hope you enjoy. Biography Jonathan Bi is an entrepreneur working on a startup in FinTech and a philosopher focusing on Buddhist philosophy, Continental philosophy, and specifically the work of Rene Girard. Among his many projects he and David Perell have created a seven session video course on the ideas of Rene Girard. Originally from China, Jonathan also grew up in Canada, and studied computer science at Columbia.   https://johnathanbi.com/   Resources Jonathan Bi and David Perell Lectures on Girard On the Atonement — we just got into this briefly, but didn’t have enough time or preparation to address it sufficiently. I am going to have another episode on the atonement, and also on Girard and the atonement, but here are two links to Catholic resources view of the atonement  New Advent Catholic Catechism    

In this episode I speak with Rachel Ferguson about her book Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America, co-authored with Marcus Witcher. The book address issues of social justice, exclusion, opportunity, race and discrimination, classical liberalism, and the economic history of African Americans since the civil war. Themes we discuss include Racism and exclusion from justice, property, and rule of law Classical Liberalism Property Rights Freedom of Contract Education History of Injustices post Civil War Convict Leasing Lynching Jim Crow Progressivism Eugenics Sterilization Minimum Wage and its racist and eugenic underpinnings Urban Renewal Highways, transportation and the breakdown of African American and ethnic communities Eminent Domain African American towns and civil society 1619 Project and its errors Family and the Sexual Revolution Contraception Entrepreneurship Civil Society Alexis de Tocqueville Applied economics Criminal Justice reform Black Churches as a central part of community Decentralization, Associational Life, and Welfare before the Welfare State We discuss a number of writers including Fredrick Douglass Zora Neale Hurston Booker T. Washington Malcom X Friedrich Hayek Anthony Bradley Biography Rachel Ferguson, Ph.D. is an economic philosopher and Director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia University, Chicago. She has published in Discourse, The Journal of Markets and Morality, and the Library of Economics and Liberty. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from St. Louis University. She is actively involved in community building and empowering marginalized entrepreneurs through LOVEtheLOU and Gateway to Flourishing   https://www.rachelfergusononline.com/   Resources We mention a lot of books during the podcast. See below for links. Other things discussed include: Rachel Ferguson Essay: Let’s do Philanthropy that Actually Works Robert Woodson and the Woodson Center   Podcast with Anthony Bradley on Over-criminalization MMM on Eugenics is Back Benefits Cliffs Russell Hittinger on Technology and Contraception Podcast with Mary Eberstadt on the Sexual Revolution Poverty, Inc.

peak with Bill Rivers about this novel, Last Summer Boys. The novel is about a rural Pennsylvania family and the adventures of three boys and a cousin and set in the tumultuous summer of 1968 with the Vietnam war, the assignations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.   “Summer 1968. When thirteen-year-old Jack Elliot overhears the barbershop men grousing, he devises a secret plan to keep his oldest brother, Pete, from the draft. If famous boys don’t go to war, he’ll make his brother their small town’s biggest celebrity. Jack gets unexpected help when his book-smart cousin Frankie arrives in their rural Pennsylvania town for the summer. Together, they convince Jack’s brothers to lead an expedition to find a fighter jet that crashed many winters ago―the perfect adventure to make Pete a hero.” We discuss a number of themes including  Family Justice Honor Civil Society Principle of Subsidiarity Anger Tensions between economic progress and family and social stability Tensions between rural and urban communities Writing and story development  Moral imagination  1968 Cultural and Sexual Revolutions Alexis de Tocqueville Robert Nisbet Louis L’amour  Property Crony capitalism, eminent domain and more  Resources Bill Rivers on Instagram Bill Rivers on Twitter Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal Related Podcasts Mary Eberstadt: Who are You? Conversation on the sexual revolution, family and her book Primal Screams Carlo Lancelotti on Augusto Del Noce —Shift from Christian Bourgeois to Pure Bourgeois

In this episode I speak with two psychologists, Paul McLaughlin PsyD and Mark R. McMinn PhD, about their book A Time for Wisdom. The provide a unique perspective by examining wisdom from a psychological viewpoint. They divide it into 4 categories, both to explain and provide a guide to develop wisdom in our lives. Knowledge Factual Knowledge,Know-How, self-knowledge and what they call “Enriched Knowledge,” the core of wisdom. Detachment Not only from material things, but from ideas and ideology. Detachment enables mental freedom, strengthens our capacity grieve, and is the bridge between knowledge and tranquility Tranquility Not apathy, but shifting our inner equilibrium, and helps us regulate our emotions Tranquility helps us to cultivate awe, gratitude, peace, and what C.S. Lewis calls “reasonable emotions.” Transcendence Ability to go beyond ourselves and avoid the temptation to individualism We discuss a number of themes including: Is wisdom a state or a trait? Can it be developed? Is it domain dependent? The tension between solidity and fluidity, between rigid thinking and relativism. How do we keep our minds open and not fall into what Benedict XVI has called the “dictatorship of relativism.” The positive and negative parts of Jordan Peterson’s idea about exploring our dark side compared to mystical Catholic writers Psychedelics as ersatz religion You are not every thought you have Anxiety Obsessive Compulsive thoughts Forgiveness and the goodness of being Positive psychology Narcisism Mike Tyson’s theory that “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” How to think about increases anxiety and depression My critique of the Individualism / Collectivism dichotomy Tocqueville’s analysis of individualism and centralization Can you measure wisdom? Does wisdom increase over time? Aristotle’s concept of phronesis Gnosticism and Materialism as an obstacles to wisdom Teleology — ends and purposes. Aristotle — the human person has an end and purpose to give you self direction Transcendentals — goodness, truth, beauty How suffering and sitting with people who suffer helps us grow in wisdom The tension between holding onto your deeply held beliefs and yet remaining open to new ideas Confirmation Bias vs. Epistemic Humility Related Podcasts James Madden Podcast, Embodied and Embedded Persons James Poulos: Digital Politics and Spiritual War Carlo Lancellotti: Augusto Del Noce and the shift to pure bourgeois Jaron Lanier on Technology and Behavior Modification Luke Burgis on Mimetic Desire, Rene Girard, and commercial society

In this episode of The Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Deion Kathawa about his essays at Public Discourse Technology and Dignity. We discuss a number of topics including digital technology social media biotech genetic engineering CRISPR post and trans-humanism transgenderism technology and power how tech effects the rich and the poor and middle class Kathawa argues that the new digital and biotechnology threaten our human in explicit and implicit ways from distraction to liquidation to degradation and that we need not only better law, but authentic religious practice, liturgy, and human friendship to resist these threats. We discuss the religious and philosophical sources of transhumanism from materialism to gnosticism, and human perfectibility and various thinkers including C.S. Lewis and Robert P. George. We also discuss the difference between transhumanist / transgender philosophy which sees the body as either malleable that needs perfection or the body and sexuality as something to escape from in contrast to the Christian view of the being and the body as good and part of who we are as embodied, embedded persons.   Biography Deion Kathawa is a law clerk at the Michigan Supreme court he has a law degree from the University Of Notre Dame and an undergraduate degree from the university of Michigan.  He writes for numerous outlets including The American Mind, Public Discourse, and his Substack Sed Kontra

In this episode I speak with Jeffrey Bloom and Rabbi Jeremy Kagan about the book Spinoza, Strauss, and Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith published by Kodesh Press . The book is a collection of essays edited by Jeffrey Bloom, Alec Goldstein, and Gil Student. Jeffrey Bloom grew up secular, Jewish family and the idea of actually practicing Orthodox Judaism was outside of the realm of possibility.  He studied at University of Chicago where he took a class with Professor Leon Kass on Genesis. (see book link below) This was the first time that he took religion seriously.  He notes that as a child of divorce— he wanted stronger family life, and he was attracted to Orthodox Judaism, but still  questioned whether it was reasonable. This led him to read Strauss critique of Spinoza’s critique of religious belief.  The Enlightenment philosopher, Baruch Spinoza argued that religious belief was irrational. But in his book, Spinoza’s Critique of Religion, Leo Strauss argued that while the enlightenment with Spinoza and his heirs claimed to refuted orthodox belief, they in fact did not.  Strauss claimed that as long as orthodoxy is willing to make the concession that they can’t “know” and only “believe” the tenets of Judaism, then it is plausible and no weaker a position that rationalism because that is precisely what Spinoza is doing—when pressed, Enlightenment rationalism, like religion, rests on acts of “faith” in tenets that it cannot prove.  Strauss’ argument opened up questions about reason, belief, truth, access to reality and more, and what it did for Bloom was make orthodox Judaism rationally and intellectually plausible. As Rabbi Jeremy Kagan puts it, “carved out a space for the Torah” and religion belief and practice. Yet Bloom had another question—Strauss opened the door to religious belief, but what did Orthodox Jews think about the arguments of both Spinoza critique of religion, and Strauss’ critique of Spinoza? Bloom gathered a group of Orthodox believers, Rabbis, computer scientists, philosophers, to address the question: Is the argument of Strauss any good?  Are there better replies to the critique of religion than Strauss provides?  This book is relevant for many reasons— There is a sense that the Enlightenment and science and empiricism has proved that orthodox religion, Judaism and Christianity, is intellectually unserious and untenable, and many people hold this to be the case. Secular thinkers and atheists often critiques religion for its faith but they don’t realize they that rely on a host of non-empirical assumptions that uphold their beliefs.  For example, why is reason is better than non - reason and how can one prove it in empirical means?   We discuss several essays including those by Jeffrey Bloom, Rabbi Kagan, Rabbi Shalom Carmy who argues that Strauss’ arguments are not compelling, and Moshe Koppel’s essay, “Why Revelation and not Orbiting Teapots” which makes the distinction between orthodox belief and superstition and more.  This is a complex discussion that addresses some of the big underlying questions about faith and science, reason and belief, different forms of knowledge, the value of religious observance, and some of the main themes of the Moral Imagination Podcast. I hope you enjoy.

In this episode, I speak with Jeremy Tate, the founder of the Classic Learning Test about school testing, curriculum, and the classical versus industrial models of education. Jeremy argues that the current testing regime of the SAT and ACT have a tremendous influence on the curriculum taught in public and private schools. They promote a utilitarian vision of learning and drive students away from the classical Western tradition and serious reflection on what makes a good life. In response, Jeremy and his team developed the Classic Learning Test not only to be a better, more rigorous test, but to positively influence the curriculum toward more serious reading, and introduce students to the classic texts of the Western Tradition and those which shaped the founding of the United States, By ignoring these texts, the current testing and curricula regimes exclude students from engagement with the tradition. One of Tate’s colleagues noted that she could go from Kindergarten through a Ph.D. without reading Homer, Plato, or Shakespeare. This unfamiliarity with the tradition makes people unaware of history and complexity, unable to make distinctions, and thus more susceptible to propaganda and manipulation. It excludes the poor from opportunity and indoctrinates the elites into utilitarian and progressive ideas that they think are simply facts. As C.S. Lewis described, “10 years hence” we can find ourselves on the side of the philosophical controversy that we didn’t even know was up for debate. We discuss a number of themes including The revival of classical education Whether you should go to college or not? Education and virtue Human Formation C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man Eustace Scrubb and the Chronicles of Narnia Elite students focus on test scores rather than on learning Scientists with no sense of history or complexity The problems with critical thinking  The false dichotomy of Facts vs. Opinions How moral and value judgments are reduced to opinions and more.   Biography Jeremy Tate is the founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test. Jeremy is also the host of the Anchored Podcast, CLT's top 2% global podcast that features discussions at the intersection of education and culture. Prior to founding CLT, Jeremy served as Director of College Counseling at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from Louisiana State University and a Masters in Religious Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary. Jeremy and his wife Erin reside in Annapolis, Maryland with their six children. You can find Jeremy on Twitter @JeremyTate41. Resources Classic Learning Test For more on C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man - See my interview with Michael Ward   For more on classical education see my interview with Heidi White and the importance of reading good books, my interview with Elizabeth Corey Jeremy Tate: Not Another Test, The Right Test

In this episode, I speak with Michael Ward about his book, After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man.  I think The Abolition of Man is of the most important books in the twentieth century. It addresses important issues that are relevant today — from what it means to be human, reason, passion, and the emotions, to how to think about technology, power, and beauty. It’s a short book but can be a bit difficult to understand at times, and Michael Ward does a great service by going through the book line by line and explaining and providing context to make the book easier to follow.  We discuss key themes of The Abolition of Man:  whether beauty and morality are objective or purely subjective education power and authority honor nobility sacrifice for others,  dystopian fiction technology and technocracy  contraception and how man’s power over nature ends up being man’s power over other men  We also discuss the relationship between the Abolition of Man, Eustace Scrubb, and Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and the space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.   Word on Fire Special Offer: After Humanity + Abolition of Man   Biography  Michael Ward is an English literary critic and theologian. He works at the University of Oxford where he is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He is the author of the award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford University Press) and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis (Cambridge University Press). Though based at Oxford in his native England, Dr Ward is also employed as Professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University, Texas, teaching one course per semester as part of the online MA program in Christian Apologetics. On the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis’s death (22 November 2013), Professor Ward unveiled a permanent national memorial to him in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.  He is the co-editor of a volume of commemorative essays marking the anniversary, entitled C.S. Lewis at Poets’ Corner. Michael Ward presented the BBC television documentary, The Narnia Code, directed and produced by BAFTA-winning filmmaker, Norman Stone.  He authored an accompanying book entitled The Narnia Code: C.S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens. Michael was resident Warden of The Kilns, Lewis’s Oxford home, from 1996 to 1999.  He studied English at Oxford, Theology at Cambridge, and has a Ph.D. in Divinity from St Andrews.  He was Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford (2012-2021).  He has been awarded honorary doctorates in Humane Letters (Hillsdale College, Michigan, 2015) and Sacred Theology (Thorneloe University, Ontario, 2021). Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/ward for show notes and resources.

In the episode I speak with Mary Eberstadt about her latest book Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. She argues that the revolutionary changes to family structure across the western world: fatherlessness, divorce, abortion, single parent homes, the shrinking of the family –have caused deep hurt in people and that many of the social problems we face today are manifestations of a “primal scream” for belonging.  Eberstadt explains that the breakdown of the family has resulted in a widespread subtraction: we have a much smaller protective infrastructure around us than our ancestors did. While many people connect family decline to individual things like loneliness or educational achievement, it also has large macro impacts. She argues that primary cause of political rage, identity politics, gender confusion, and more is rooted in the breakdownof the family and people’s struggle to answer the question “Who am I?”   Primal Screams is a very important book that combines an empirical examination with a real empathy for people who suffer from the impact of the sexual revolution and the break down of the family. We discuss a number of issues including:   Loneliness in the elderly and the young The rise in psychiatric problems among Generation Z and Millennials What we can learn from animal behavior and family structure How the sexual revolution harms women and children and only benefits predatory men. Transgenderism The #MeToo Movement The role of abuse and sexual dysphoria The lack of siblings and the problem of social learning The Myth of the Lone Wolf The Trend of Incels The Great Resignation How Feminism creates problems for both girls and boys Masculinity and Decline of Males Declines in Fertility Contraception Critiques and replies to her argument by Mark Lilla, Peter Thiel, and Rod Dreher Biography Mary Eberstadt holds the Panula Chair at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute. Her latest book is Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics, with commentaries by Rod Dreher, Mark Lilla, and Peter Thiel.  Her other books include It's Dangerous to Believe; How the West Really Lost God; and Adam and Eve after the Pill. Mrs. Eberstadt’s writing has appeared in many magazines and journals. [Her 2010 novel The Loser Letters, about a young woman in rehab struggling with atheism, was adapted for stage and premiered at Catholic University in fall 2017. Seton Hall University awarded her an honorary doctorate in humane letters in 2014. During the Reagan administration, she was a speechwriter to Secretary of State George Shultz and a special assistant to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick at the United Nations. Updates about her work can be found on her website, maryeberstadt.com   Resources Mary Eberstadt Website: maryeberstadt.com Podcast interview with Carrie Gress on Feminism Podcast Interview with Noelle Mering on Awake Not Woke My lecture on Robert Nisbet and the decline and quest for community

What is Justice?  What do we owe to each other? The theme of justice is core issue of all human societies and pervades myth and philosophy.  Plato’s Republic and Gorgias are reflections on justice and the right ordering of the soul and society. So is Aristotle’s Politics.  The Hebrew Bible, the Tao Te Ching, the Analects of Confucius, the writings of Buddhism, and the Stoics all contain reflections on justice.  C.S. Lewis notes in his appendix to the Abolition of Man that in every land and every culture there is a “Tao,” a way of being in the world that affirms what is good and condemns what is bad.  Despite the universal hungering for justice, injustice seems to be the way of man.  Against Plato stands Thrasymachus and Callicles, the tyrant and the sophist who want to reduce justice to power.   In this episode I speak with Marcel Gaurnizo about the nature of justice. We discuss the definition of justice — giving each what is due.  We discuss how justice is not simply a social or political condition but a human virtue that requires a consistent act of the will. Marcel explains how the shift from metaphysical view of justice to political justice opens the door to the dictatorship and tyranny of the majority or injustice through procedural methods. We discuss the Plato’s story of the ring of Gyges which makes the wearer invisible just like Bilbo and Frodo in the Lord of the Rings — and thus free from any punishment. Would we have strength to do the right thing even if we would never get in trouble for doing what is wrong? As Marcel notes, the ring of Gyges is all around us.  There are many things that are legal—that we will not be punished for — but which are evil and unjust. Marcel also walks us through different species of justice — commutative (exchange) and distributive.  He explains how many of the errors we make about legal, economic, and social justice —both on the right and the left — often come from a misunderstanding of the difference between commutative and distributive justice, e.g. we apply commutative justice to the family. Marcel argues that one of the problems we have today on the right and left is that we are not formed in correct thinking about justice is that In this conversation there are some detailed discussions, but in a time where there the word “justice” is used so frequently and where there is so much confusion, I think it is very worthwhile. Some of the themes and thinkers we discuss include:  Justice as a virtue Economic justice of exchange Social Justice Family vs. Market Gary Becker and the error of applying commutative justice to the family John Rawls and the shift to political and procedural justice Socialist view of justice Marxism Philosophical Materialism Aristotle’s Politics  Plato’s Republic  St. Thomas Aquinas Treatise on Justice  Friedrich Nietzsche Monasteries Catholic Social Teaching John Rawls and the transformation of justice into political justice. Relativism Post-Modernism Human Nature — what kind of thing we are Individualism, the market, and the state Poverty and Distribution Biography Marcel Gaurnizo is a philosopher and theologian. He spent many years in Europe and has founded a number of institutions including an academy in Austria to teach philosophy, ethics, and politics, and was president of Aid to the Church in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Resources Whittaker Chambers: Big Sister is Watching You The Second Coming, Poem by William Butler Yeats

In the episode, I speak with Professor Margarita Mooney about her time in Nicaragua and how these experiences shaped her scholarly work and teaching at the intersection of sociology and philosophy.   Margarita tells a story of her time in Nicaragua and how a weekend trip to a political rally in a small community where she almost was kidnapped challenged her assumptions about elite education in the United States.  Margarita explains how her engagement with poor women farmers and micro-entrepreneurs helped her realize the power of small acts of love and solidarity to help alleviate the problems of violence from the bottom up – and how these things are neither taught nor accounted for at elite universities where a technocratic approach reigns.  Margarita discusses how sociology does not address the problem of evil but rather sees it as a social or structural problem, but this does not align with ethnographic studies and the real work of talking to people about their experiences of war and violence.   Margarita talks about her founding of the Scala Foundation to address questions of meaning, beauty, and wisdom because she was worried that many Ivy League and other universities are creating a culture of resentment and anger for people who are genuinely concerned about justice but don’t have a framework to understand justice, subsidiarity, solidarity, truth, and law outside of power and politics.   As she explains in her essay “Why Choose Mystery over Ideology”   “The void left by the denigration of beauty and a classical liberal arts education is directing more and more people to “woke” social justice activism or alt-right movements because those movements offer them meaning, purpose, and hope, as well as community and a sense of belonging. Others burn out psychologically or resort to social isolation because trust and intimacy are hard to experience. Yet others resort to drugs, pornography, or another temporary pleasure to fill the void. Still, others pursue ambitious and demanding careers without reflecting on how they should live or why they exist to begin with. The result is skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Educational institutions have not succeeded in addressing these problems, leading many people to seek alternatives to feed their minds and souls.” Any conversation with Margarita Mooney is interesting and wide-ranging and we discuss a number of broad themes and thinkers including: Subsidiarity and Solidarity Fascination with Violence Rene Girard Jacques Maritain Participation as a remedy to alienation The Nicaraguan Civil War -- Contras and Sandinista Haiti St. Thomas Aquinas on just war, violence, and pacifism Solidarity as a means to inclusion Solidarity Structures, institutions, property rights, law, exchange, are required to serve families Family as a place of moral formation The proper role of government     The Bruderhof Communities and Plough Magazine Edmund Burke’s ideas about society as a “partnership” among the living, dead, and yet to be born Commutative Justice — exchange John Paul II on participation The documentary, Poverty, Inc. Rwandan Genocide and Rwandan reconciliation Integration of the Virtues Moral Formation Sin and Redemption Law and Justice Beauty Ideology and the closed systems that close of access to the transcendent Hopelessness Critique of utilitarianism that reduces the value to the economic value The dangers of cultural imperialism Virtues –Cardinal Virtues, Daughters of Virtues and Vices     Augusto Del Noce Luigi Giussani on Education Karl Stern –poetic knowledge in The Flight from Woman Biography Margarita Mooney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. She teaches courses on the philosophy of social science, Christianity and the liberal arts tradition, aesthetics, research methods for congregational leaders, and sociology of religion. Margarita founded Scala Foundation in 2016 and continues to serve as Scala’s Executive Director. Scala’s mission is to infuse meaning and purpose into American education by restoring a classical liberal arts education. At Scala’s conferences, reading groups, seminars, webinars, student trips, intellectual retreats, and intensive summer program, Scala equips students, writers, artists, intellectuals and teachers with the ideas and networks needed to revitalize culture. Margarita’s most recent book with Cluny Media, The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts (2021), grew out of her decades of experience as a teacher and scholar. Her book Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press, 2009) demonstrated how religious communities support the successful adaptation of Haitian immigrants in the U.S., Canada and France, and she’s the co-author (with Camille Z. Charles, Mary S. Fischer, and Douglas S. Massey) of Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities (Princeton University Press, 2009). Margarita received her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and her M.A and Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University. She has also been on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yale University, Princeton University, and Pepperdine University. https://www.bruderhof.com/ https://www.povertyinc.org/ https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/carlo-lancell    

In this episode, I speak with James Poulos about his book, Human, Forever: The Digital Politics of Spiritual War. We discuss a wide variety of themes including technology, human memory, what it means to be an embodied person. James argues that instead of worrying about an impending crisis, we need to realize that it has already happened — Digital entities have taken over. We need to recognize this, figure out what has happened, and orient our senses and sensibilities around what technology does, how it changes us, and how we can work with and use technology to affirm our humanity.  Part of this includes using technology better which is one of the reasons he argues for the importance of Bitcoin. Poulos argues that we are at Generation Zero— the first generation of the digital age. This brings with it a heightened responsibility for fatherhood, memory, ancestry, knowing who we are and where we come from. Understanding our humanity, our embodiment, the value of suffering, and that human memory is distinct and essential to our human identity can help us become resistant and not succumb to digital devices, but put technology at the service of our humanity.   We discuss a number of themes and thinkers including Tele-visual technology and the culture of the imagination and the shift to the digital medium and machine memory    Social Credit system in China— and the rising social credit system in the West  Human faculty of memory  The return of analogy as a mode of thinking through human problems  Political Theology in China, Russia, Europe, and the US  Continuing Gnostic movements in the West The Medium is the Message Human Consciousness   Mind and Brain  Post-Humanism - Trans-humanism - Transgenderism   Digital Cyborgs Human Identity Artificial Intelligence Embodiment and the Christian Dogma of Resurrection of the Body  Marshall MacLuhan  Romano Guardini  Marianna Mazucatto Karl Stern Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/snead for show notes and resources.

In this episode, I speak with Professor Carter Snead about his book, What it Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics. We discuss how the dominant view of the human person forgets the body and ignores our social nature, and how this plays out in law which further shapes our moral lives and cultural attitudes. Snead argues that contemporary law in bioethics around issues like abortion, euthanasia, and IVF is actually applied philosophy of the person that favors the strong over the vulnerable and dependent. We discuss how the dominant anthropology today — what Alasdair MacIntyre called expressive individualism — represents only a part of what we are as human beings. It fails to address our embedded-ness in families and society and our mutual indebtedness and dependence on others. We talk about how a richer philosophy of the person that is more aligned with the reality of our lived experience is needed to make better law. We also discuss Alasdair MacIntyre's work on the the person and friendship and the ideas of un-calculated giving and receiving. We also discuss some of the virtues and habits that are needed to build a society where this richer view of the person can be lived. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/snead for show notes and resources.

In this episode, I speak with Professor Jessica Hooten Wilson about her writing and research on literature and totalitarianism. We discuss how both violence and entertainment and distraction are used a tools of state control. We discuss Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, some of the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Julia Alvarez's novel, In the Time of Butterflies, about life under the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. We also discuss Victor Frankl, Josef Pieper, Michael O'Brien, Tocqueville's idea of "soft despotism", and Neil Postman's argument in In Amusing Ourselves to Death about Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984. Wilson notes that these novelists take evil seriously, but are also careful not simply villainize the opposition so as to increase our understanding and self-awareness, and help prevent us from falling into the trap of another ideology. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/jessica-hooten-wilson-phd for show notes and resources.

What is education for? In the episode, I speak with Heidi White about classical education and human flourishing. We discuss why classical education is important to pass down a cultural memory and why reading good literature and classic texts matters on multiple levels. We discuss the difference between a modern, contemporary education and a classical vision of education, the relationship between classical education and religious education, and how STEM and classical education can relate together. We talk about literature, poetry, science, and the idea of poetic knowledge. We also discuss some of the critiques, challenges, and weaknesses of classical education, and how classical education can provide an exit from the contemporary, utilitarian, ideological, and propagandist model that is dominant today. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/heidi-white for show notes and resources.