Episodes
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In this episode, a deep dive with Matthew Continetti on his book The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism. We explore how American conservatism developed, from its birth in in the 1920s and opposition to FDR's New Deal through today's populist resurgence. Continetti explains why conservative populism keeps returning, how elites lost their grip on the right, and what the future might hold for American conservatism.
Matthew Continetti is the Director of Domestic Policy Studies and the Patrick and Charlene Neal Chair in American Prosperity at the American Enterprise Institute.
Buy: The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism - https://www.amazon.com/Right-Hundred-Year-War-American-Conservatism/dp/1541600517/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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In this episode, Tim Chapman discusses how traditional conservatives are engaging with the Trump administration. He's the president of Advancing American Freedom, an advocacy group set up by former Vice President Mike Pence.
What traditional conservatism is and what it's future is in the age of populism and TrumpismWhat Advancing American Freedom doesEngaging with the Trump administration: supporting China tariffs and a Tik Tok ban, tax cuts, deregulationWhy AAF opposes RFK, Jr.'s nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services over abortion.
We discuss:Advancing American Freedom: https://advancingamericanfreedom.com/
Follow Tim Chapman on Twitter/X: https://x.com/TimChapman
Get my analysis of Christianity, family, cities, politics, society and economics: https://www.aaronrenn.com/ -
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In this episode, sociologist Musa al-Gharbi discusses his book We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite.
How should we understand the "woke" phenomenon? Where did it come from? Why do elite whites claim to be marginalized, while showing little care for genuinely marginalized people around them like the service workers they rely on?
Article referred to in the podcast about China interfering to elect Bill Clinton president in the 1990s: https://musaalgharbi.com/2018/03/01/democrats-unlearned-lessons-2020/4/
GUEST LINKS:
📖 We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite: https://www.amazon.com/Have-Never-Been-Woke-Contradictions-ebook/dp/B0D6QDVW24/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
🌐 Website: https://musaalgharbi.substack.com/
🐦 Twitter/X: @Musa_alGharbi
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🌐 Website: https://www.aaronrenn.com/
🐦 Twitter/X: @aaron_renn -
Jon Askonas is a professor of politics at Catholic University. He wrote an interesting piece for Comment magazine on how Americans went from seeing technology as a source of progress to viewing it as leading us to an apocalypse. He joins us to discuss: How and why did this shift take place? Why are we so anxious? How should we live in this age of anxiety?
Read "Building a Future in the Face of the Apocalypse": https://comment.org/building-a-future-in-the-face-of-the-apocalypse/
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Academia is almost entirely dominated by the left. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, has thrived in it as a strong Catholic. But is it possible for conservatives and Christians to follow the same path today? What are the signs of optimism both for conservatives in academia, but also for a healthier climate for academia itself? George joins me to discuss these topics and what's he's personally been doing to push academia in a healthier direction.
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Ryan Williams is the president of the Claremont Institute. Claremont is the institutional base of West Coast Straussianism, and has long been known for its fellowship programs and quarterly journal The Claremont Review of Books. It has attracted controversy in the Trump era for its willingness to engage with dissident ideas. It published the mega-viral "The Flight 93 Election Essay" and also the first mainstream review of the book Bronze Age Mindset. Williams joins me to talk about Claremont and how they've navigated our new political world.
Claremont Institute: https://www.claremont.org/
The Flight 93 Election: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/the-flight-93-election/
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Despite major progress in civil rights, black economic uplift, and even electing a black President, the question of race continues to be an ongoing major issue in the United States. There are continuing significant racial disparities between races. A black underclass still remains in America. And political and cultural debates around race continue to be major flashpoints. This includes within the evangelical church, where debates over race have become very intense.
Joining me to discuss the ongoing question of race is Robert "Bob" Woodson, Sr. He is one of American's foremost civil rights leaders and experts on alleviating poverty. He's been an advisor to Presidents, a MacArthur Genius Grant Award winner, and recipient of numerous other awards. He's the founder of the Woodson Center and editor of the new book A Pathway to American Renewal.
What actually is the state of racial inclusion in America? Where has progress been made, and where does it still remain? How many of the problems around race today are actually class related? How should American evangelicals think about the question of race and how should they seek to engage on it? What are some of the most encouraging initiatives and leaders that he sees in the country today?
Buy A Pathway to American Renewal: https://www.amazon.com/Pathway-American-Renewal-White-Black-ebook/dp/B0D4HDLSN2/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
The Woodson Center: https://woodsoncenter.org/
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Justin Shubow is the president of the National Civic Art Society, a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. that promotes the classical and humanistic tradition in public art and architecture. He was also formerly the chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts. He joins me to talk about our public buildings and how to make them beautiful.
Note that this podcast includes a discussion of specific buildings. Pictures of these buildings are shown in the video version of the podcast, which you can watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6MwHNiEgcQ
National Civic Art Society: https://www.civicart.org/
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Bestselling author Rod Dreher has a knack for putting his finger on what people are going to be talking about next. He's done it again with his new book on re-enchantment, Living in Wonder. He joins us today to talk about embracing what historian Tom Holland calls the "weird stuff" in Christianity.
What does it mean for the world to be enchanted? Isn't enchantment just superstition? What does the trend towards psychedelics and the occult tell us about the public's longings? Are demons real?
Note: There are some quality issues on Dreher's audio feed.
Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Living-Wonder-Finding-Mystery-Meaning/dp/0310369126/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Os Guinness is an author and social critic. Yes, he is related to the Guinness brewing family. He has an incredible life story, being born in China to medical missionaries and living through the communist takeover there. He has a DPhil from Oxford and has been involved with many eminent organizations ranging from the Brookings Institution to the Trinity Forum.
He’s also the author of many books, including his latest Our Civilizational Moment: The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds, which he joined me to discuss today. What is a "civilizational moment"? Why did Christianity lose its purchase on the West? Why have some contenders to replace it fared better than others? What should Christians in the Wes be doing today?
But Our Civilizational Moment: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Civilizational-Moment-Waning-Worlds/dp/B0DL3LW558/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Delano Squires is a Research Fellow in Life, Religion and Family at the Heritage Foundation, and a contributor to the Blaze. He joins me today to talk about the enduring relevance of the call to manhood and family, and how to live that out in today's world.
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Stephen Eide is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute who studies homelessness and mental illness. He joins me to discuss his new article in National Affairs magazine about how to help the homeless and those who struggle at the very bottom of society.
Read Eide's article: https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/uplifting-the-man-farthest-down
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Austin Knuppe is an assistant professor of political science at Utah State University specializing in Foreign Policy, International Politics, Middle East Politics, and War. He's the author of a recent book on how Iraqis survived the Islamic State.
He joins me to discuss Christians in the Middle East. Once sizable Christian populations there have declined noticeably in the past 100 years. He argues that America's Global War on Terror, however, has accelerated the decline of Christian communities in Middle Eastern countries.
Austin Knuppe: There Are Always Consequences: https://americanreformer.org/2024/08/there-are-always-consequences/
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Journalist and AEI Senior Fellow Tim Carney joins me to discuss his new book Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be
Read Jason Jewell's review of the book: https://americanreformer.org/2024/09/the-war-on-ordinary-families/
Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Family-Unfriendly-Culture-Raising-Harder-ebook/dp/B0C592J1TF/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Nate Fischer, Founder and CEO of New Founding, joins us to talk about his firm's investment strategy, and particularly the macro forces that will be shaping the society and economy of tomorrow.
Read the New Founding Strategy: https://www.newfounding.com/post/strategy
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While divorce rates have fallen from their peak, they are still very high, with women initiating the vast majority of them. The divorce rate among American Christians is also too high. While divorce is difficult for non-religious men, Christian men face unique issues. Their churches are likely to blame them for the divorce, and they are likely to lose their friend network at church as well.
Men's devotional writer and podcaster Chris Bolinger joins me to discuss what Christian men need to know to survive divorce.
Buy Chris Bolinger's 400,000 copy selling men's devotional Daily Strength for Men: https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Strength-Men-365-Day-Devotional/dp/1424557534/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
My article on what to do when your wife divorces you: https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/newsletter-40-what-to-do-when-your
My article on how to help your friends whose wive's divorced them: https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/newsletter-41-how-to-help-our-friends
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James Davison Hunter is a renowned sociologist at the University of Virginia who introduced the term "culture war" to the US discourse. He's a leading expert on cultural change and cultural battles in America.
He joins me to discuss his new book Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis, which tells the deep cultural story underlying today's polarized politics.
This important book describes the deep structure of American culture as resting on what he calls the "hybrid Enlightenment," joining various strands of European Enlightenment thinking with largely Calvinist Christianity. The various contradictions in this hybrid Enlightenment, such as slavery, were worked out over time. But that hybrid Enlightenment also became unraveled over time, leaving Americans without the cultural underpinnings necessary to sustain solidarity. The result is nihilism and culture war.
Democracy and Solidarity is a compelling and important read to understand our present cultural moment.
Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Solidarity-Cultural-Americas-Political-ebook/dp/B0CW17D3N3/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Dr. Hunter is also the publisher of the Hedgehog Review magazine: https://hedgehogreview.com/
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Joshua Klein, editor of Mortise and Tenon magazine, joins me to talk about his love of traditional wood construction techniques, and the value of craftsmanship and manual work. In addition to the magazine, Klein is also an Associate Fellow in Mechanical Arts at Greystone Theological Institute.
Buy Mortise and Tenon Magazine: https://www.mortiseandtenonmag.com/
Greystone Theological Institute: https://www.greystoneinstitute.org/
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Jon Tyson, founding and senior pastor of Church of the City in New York, joins me to talk about the urban church in today's world. Tyson discusses:
How to deal with the constant population churn in the city?The differences between pre-Covid and post-Covid New YorkHow Covid wiped out 70% of what Tim Keller and others built over the previous 35 years in terms of New York City church plantsThe flow of church planters into New York drying upWhat's unique about Generation Z? Includes that they don't want to plant churches.Why New York is not as different from the rest of the country culturally as it used to be.The impact of the migrant influx on ManhattanThe future of the cultural engagement model of churchWhat he thinks of Trumpist culture war ChristianityHow he talks about flashpoint cultural issuesAdvice for church planters thinking about New York City.Visit Church of the City: https://www.church.nyc/
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Oren Cass is founder of American Compass, a reformist center-right think tank seeking to look beyond dogmatic adherence to libertarian economics. He joins me to talk about the future of the American worker.
American Compass: https://americancompass.org/
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