Episodes
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Rod and Kale discuss the seemingly chronic breakdown of infrastructure in a variety of fronts, from churches and schools, to literal infrastructure, namely, the derailment in Palestine, Ohio. Our leadership class is more concerned about addressing historical injustices than dealing with chemical spills and competency breakdowns. The house is on fire, and our leaders are fixated on window-dressings. Are these the new luxury beliefs? They then move on to talk about Peter Zeihan's The End of the World Is Just the Beginning. What happens economically and politically when a populace has lost faith in the future? If people in the culture no longer have the faith and commitment to sacrifice and even die for it, what happens to the future? discussed: -Synod in for the Church of England -train derailment in Palestine Ohio -Peter Zeihan -Genesis and "be fruitful and multiply" -McIntyre and Christian Smith -kids as a luxury good
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Rod and Kale discuss the retreat of Christianity and its replacement with Neo-paganism, which is really just old Paganism in a slightly different register. Too often people dabble in alternate spiritualisms, yet fail to account for the non-benign. Christianity's ascent was based on the power of miracles, more powerful than existing pagan magic. Modern Christianity has fallen in love with the idea. Ideas do not convert, but experiences do. The allure of psychedelics opens people up to a reality, but a reality that is unearned and thus dangerous. Topics and Links: Rod's post on Dark Enchantment: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/psychonauts-plinths-re-paganizing-pop-culture/ Robert Knapp's Dawn of Christianity: https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Christianity-People-Magic-Miracles/dp/0674976460 Edward Watt's Final Pagan Generation: https://www.amazon.com/Final-Pagan-Generation-Christianity-Transformation/dp/0520379225/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
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Missing episodes?
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Rod and Kale meet up to talk about two topics: Cardinal McIlroy's call for changes in the sexual teachings of the Catholic Church, and the horrific tragedy of a young woman killed after a night of drinking and debauchery. This is a two part show, but connected with our culture's continuing difficulty of making sense out of the sexual revolution. Topics and Links: -Cardinal McIlory's piece in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/01/24/mcelroy-synodality-inclusion-244587 -Rod's post on McIlroy: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/cardinal-screwtape/ -What does "communion" mean? -Rod on Andrew Sullivan's Dishcast: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/lesprit-descalier-dishcast-edition/ -"In This House We Believe" at walmart: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-elite-class-who-hates-life/ -Young Woman in Baton Rouge killed: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11675153/TikTok-bar-Madi-Brooks-seen-shows-students-swigging-straight-bottles.html -Louise Perry's Case Against the Sexual Revolution: https://amzn.to/4066Ln7 -What we do with our bodies matters -Sex and the City is 25 years old! -Binge drinking is connected to the meaning crisis -Freedom in Chastity
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Rod and Kale record a conversation about the prophetic vision of Lewis' That Hideous Strength as a way into the notion of the Experience Machine, and the allure of the blue-pill versus the red-pill. See the links below for all the titles they discuss. Connecting Lewis with Iain McGhilchrist, they jump off into a discussion about Left Hemispheric bias and the turn towards madness in modernity. The stakes are high; no higher than humanity and the forces that would blithely take us into the post-human. Topics (in order) with links (affiliated): - That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis: https://amzn.to/3kjKKRk - The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist: https://amzn.to/3XG0yMB - The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist: https://amzn.to/3kv0LEf - Hartmut Rosa on Resonance: https://amzn.to/3J1pBpE - Rod on the Experience Machine: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/robert-nozicks-experience-machine/ - Rod on Young Christian and Eager to Escape: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/young-christian-and-eager-to-escape/ - Churchill: "we build our buildings, and they in turn build us" - Homo Deus and the prophets of post-humanity - the idea of embodied reality in Crawford's Soulcraft book: https://amzn.to/3ZQupUw - The World Beyond Your Head: https://amzn.to/3XpImHm - The Disintegration Machine vs. the Experience Machine - Hierophany at Chartres - Paul Connerton's How Societies Remember: https://amzn.to/3ku3o9m - Is our "holy story" really profane?
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Kale and Rod kick off season 3 to discuss liminal thinkers and the breaking up of old frames to see through, and the emergence of new ones. Standing inside and outside affords new perspectives.They go on to discuss Rod's attendance at the funeral for Pope Benedict XVI, what he saw, and how to make sense out of this giant of the 20th century. Are we in the time of Antichrist? Jumping off from Seewald's magisterial biography of Ratzinger/Benedict, we talk about what he meant and what he means.topics and links (some of these are affiliate links, fyi):
-Mary Harrington (@moveincircles) and Louise Perry (@louise_m_perry) as rethinkers from alternate priors: Mary's Feminism Against Progress and Louise's The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.
-Joseph Ratzinger's New Paganism address
-Rod's 2002 NR Cover story on Catholicism and The Netherlands
-the myth of the "Panzer Pope" and the gentle, monk-scholar
-Rod's Benedict "Lessons from the funeral" and here
-Robert Knapp's The Dawn of Christianity
-Ratzinger and the rise of the time of AntiChrist
-Sochi The Secret of Benedict
-NT Wright's Revelations for Everyone
-Benedict as katechon
-Peter Seewald's Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the Biography of Benedict -
Rod and Kale sit down for a discussion looking forward to the coming year. The first half revolves around the war in Ukraine, the circus of Trumpland and his wobbling strength, the ongoing masque of the groomer clown shows and the "friend-enemy distinction" enchanting the Right.In part two, Rod and Kale tack to a discussion about the weak Christian response to the rising tide of neo-paganism. Is this the "final Christian generation?"They look to patterns, rather than outward signs, and see a hope in the coldest darkest days of the year.Links:
-Freddie Sayers and John Mearshiemer: "we're screwed!"
-NYT on Charlene Richard
-Kingsnorth's Basilisk
-Rod on St. Cecilia and Paganism -
Rod and Kale pick up their discussion from last week about the ancient substructure of Christendom, and how an understanding of the transformation from pagan to christion sexual morality altered the very concept of free will and the imago dei. Figuring out "what time it is" has become paramount. Topics: - Rod on "Sex and the Final Christian Generation" - Last week's episode on the ancient churches of Revelation - Kyle Harper's From Shame to Sin, a book about the transformation of sexual morality - a discussion on "how we got here" and then "from where did here originate" - Freud and Rieff - Something is wrong with the cultural scripts - Yoel Roth as a condensed symbol of our cultural decadence
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Rod is fresh off a trip to Turkey, visiting the Seven Churches of the Book of Revelation. Walking the places of the early church helps bring home the "realness" of these ancient lands. Topics: -Turkey and the Seven Churches -the early church as the challenge to the established order -touching real things in real places -Book of Revelations is written for us -Tish Harris Warren NYT piece on "getting along" -Edward Watts' Final Pagan Generation -there is no such thing as "post-religious"; myth is not optional -Idol worship and worshipping in the metaverse -technologies blind us -NT Wright's Revelation for Everyone -burden of being an image-bearer -Twitter is happening (minute 48), and Team Nothingburger is all over it -dark spirits of race resentment
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Rod and Kale engage in a conversation about the manifestations of the dark hearts of our culture. They discuss the repugnant ideas that result from a curated discussion about real things. The demons of white supremacy reemerge in the wake of the race essentialism ideology these past few years, along with other hauntings. What happens when you are not free to talk out loud? Can we step back from the darkness? Topics: -Thomas Achord affair and so-called confession -Broken cultures and a broken political discourse -Rocket Man bad -Ketman and Robin Keller and another zoom call from hell -Douglas Wilson and bold conversation vs the soft, fuzzy, bougie chatter -Malcolm X and the move to moderation and maturity -Balenciaga ad campaign to sexualize children -Radical evil is real and all around us -Santa Muerte and the pattern of breakdown -Louise Perry's masterpiece
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Rod and Kale meet up for their weekly check in to discuss the aftermath of the red-wave-that-wasn't. They focus their discussion on the sex and age delta and the strange case of abortion politics, post Roe. The truly post-Christian landscape emerges more clearly as the under 30 cohort show deep left preferences. Obama's "Life of Julia" campaign was a winning pitch. They tack from election talk to a discussion about cultural transmission, and the cut-off for the rising generations. People are more malleable the less they feel attached to an inheritance. Ultimately, stories and narrative are vital to any hope for a renaissance of enchantment. We must reconnect. Links: Most Dangerous Post Election Lie from Rod Life of Julia from Obama's re-election campaign Louise Perry's book on the Sexual Revolution Zimmerman's Family and Civilization
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Rod and Kale preview the midterm elections.
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Rod and Kale talk about the shifting conversations about culture, authority, costs, and ruin. Rod learns how to read through an enchanted lens, and also gives up caring about being called a fascist. Topics covered: Live Not By Lies on Paperback; Communism's invisible crimes; uncounted costs; Hollywood goes broke on woke; woke preaching comes for David; the loss of credible authority in public health; the Bulwark goes full affirm and unveils the truth; Chris Rufo and the Origins of Drag Queen Story Hour; Heather Heying's piece trying to wake up Mama Bears; what is real in the wake of Dylan Mulvaney; Matthieu Pageau's Cosmos; the sexual revolution and the abuse of the real; Rod's Sex after Christianity; meaning is intrinsic to matter, contra to modernity; aborting Jesus is a-okay; Macintryre' crucial turning point; "Rod Dreher, American Fascist"?
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Rod and Kale kick off their weekly show with a discussion about the darkness hovering just below the surface. FBI chaplains, covering abuse, the compelling nature of the trans narrative and cultural boredom. We move on to discuss Hanby's Metaphysical Catastrophe and the need for real authority. -conversations with an FBI Chaplain and the darkness under the surface -the evil you fight works on you; you are changed by what you fight -the compelling nature of the trans narrative -power of sexuality outside of norms -affluence and boredom, and the preconditions for cultural collapse -The Beautiful Ones -Hartmut Rosa's Resonance, and the limitations of the material -need to Struggle and the First Man and the Underground man -Need for norms and the creation of idiots -the limits of conservative legalism -Hanby's Metaphysical Catastrophe and the lack of Authority -McGilchrist's Left Hemisphere temptation -Shigilov's plan -Matthieu Pageau and the Language of Creation -Hopkin's Grandeur of God and Hiedegger's Standing Reserve -Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: the balance of power and meaning -We must contend with the fact that our world is not Christian -the law absent spirit is tyranny; the Grand Inquisitor -are we all just LARPing? -Avatar Politics and senate races -Megyn Kelly and Trump's position of primacy -Statesmanship -Synod on Synodality extension and a defacto Vatican III -"good guys" and "bad guys" -Peter and Paul's listening tours
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Rod and Kale return to discuss the latest in the ongoing ferment of cultural churn. Rod is settling into his new digs in Budapest and they discuss notions of exile and disrupted homecomings. Taking Dante as a jumping off point, they go on to discuss Rod's departure from Louisiana and the tragic dimensions of life. Topics covered: -Dante -Exile, -Dante, and another man's stairs -Learning how to suffer -Learning how to love correctly -Erik Kaufman's latest on Political Demography -Kids and Culture: necessary transmissions -Philip Reiff -Need for "Friction" -Looming energy crisis -Ian McGhilchrist -Louise Perry -Crimes of Noticing Rod's GOODBYE, LOUISIANA. I TRIED Rod's FORGETTING HOW TO BE A CIVILIZATION Kale on "NORMS" Kale's Substack THE UNDERNEATH
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Rod and Kale return after a hiatus to discuss: war continues in Ukraine, and a dark and cold winter awaits potential breakup of the European Union? do the elites truly believe that they "create their own reality"? institutions continue to lie and burn through cultural capital; what is left to trust? can the organs of cultural transmission be salvaged? English departments as one-time de facto theology departments Kale's trip to Oxford and the statements of faith St. Michel, or "The Wonder" learning to inhabit a space, and the appreciation of old things
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Rod and Kale meetup to discuss all things TGE after Rod's travel sagas land him back in England and then Budapest. Topics covered, in order: - Oxford and Cambridge adventures; no more atheists - WEIRD folks are the outliers who must contend with the robustness of belief - insufficiency of pure materialism - snuff with Cardinal Muller - English Christianity, Malcolm Guite and Martin Shaw's conversion to the "true myth" - liturgies and Christian dreaming - Thin Spaces and Thin Experiences - "re-wilding" of Christianity - necessity for metaphysics and the insufficiency of mere politics - policy disputes as a substitute for real talk about what we are for - importance of attention - lost America and the return of the 80's - dignity done: Tiara Mack and performative senatorial twerking - Rod on the Jordan Peterson podcast - divorce and the Dark Wood LINKS: Read and subscribe to Kale's new substack Read and subscribe to Rod's substack Mary Harrington on Satanism
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Kale sits down with Tara Ann Thieke to discuss The Machine, Spirits, Technology and the struggle to be human. In the first half of the show they talk about what it could mean to be in a "post-Christian" world and the limits of the liberal order, and in particular what the implications are for people raised in this order and the reality of the meaning crisis. In the second half they talk about spirits. Topics covered: Ellul and Illich Edith Stein paying attention to the face as an antidote to memes human person as Icon rather than thing or instrument curating your own social media game Spirits and compulsion Millennials have been lied to Benedict Option for those who have "timed out" the spirit of Ahriman Buffered and Porous models no neutrality in the spirit world
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The guys discuss the aftermath of yet another mass shooting, the rush to assign blame and score it, and the need to create a sense of control in the face of American nihilism. They move on to talk about the world given to us by our elites, and the loss of the wisdom of "how to live." In the second part they get into things more personal, in the context of the breakdown of authority, and Rod's own "domicide." Links: Jonathan Pageau on Sacrifice Joshua Mitchell's America's Awakening Auron MacIntyre TWEET Alison in New Orleans
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Rod and Kale are joined by filmmaker, podcaster, and best-selling children’s author Matt Walsh of DailyWire.com to discuss his new hit movie “What is a Woman?” The interview is the first half, followed by a debrief between Rod and Kale in the second.
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