Meeting of Minds Podcast

Ambassador Sam Brownback, co-author of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and former United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, has been fighting for people who have been persecuted for their faith for his entire career. However, he didn't expect that he himself would become a victim of religious persecution by his own bank. He tells Meeting of Minds how a religious liberty group he founded had its account cancelled by Chase and how he launched Chased Away (https://thencrf.org/chasedaway) to put an end to denial of service based on anti-religious bias.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ESG "Socially Responsible Investing" industry is on the defense. Having pushed the ideological edge too far forward, they are reaching a point of resistance, particularly from red state treasurers and attorneys general. As these gatekeepers resist the politicization of finance, they are now being accused by the people who really are politicizing finance. For example, Treasurer Allison Ball of energy-producing Kentucky is blowing the whistle on anti-energy activism by Wall Street firms and pushing back on behalf of her constituents. She believes that "You cannot serve two masters." Her single goal is to pursue financial returns for her constituents and not to blend that with an externally imposed social justice agenda. She joins Jerry for this latest edition of Meeting of Minds.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peter Thiel, arguably the most successful tech investor of modern times, also reads widely and thinks deeply about philosophy and theology. In a fascinating follow-up to his previous interview about his mentor, Rene Girard, Thiel discusses how modern ideologies such as fascism and communism "up the dose" from murder to genocide as Christianity weakened the power of human sacrifice. He also discusses how progressive ideologies are "stronger moves" than fascistic or reactionary ones because they weaponize Christianity's concern for victims. Thiel talks about how the state, with its origins in paganism, restrains violence by using violence and how Christians might navigate that dilemma by engaging politically but not becoming excessively entangled by it. Finally, Thiel points out how those who promise to protect us from Apocalypse can actually accelerate its coming. Timestamps: 01:08 Girard, Scapegoating04:00 Mimetic copies: Hitler and Stalin, Nazism and Communism, Fascism05:30 Wokeism, Christianity, and Academia10:40 Wokeism in cities, response to real estate costs. Structural Wokeism14:27 Winning and losing postures towards wokeism17:10 Wokeism is Christianity without the forgiveness18:30 Acknowledging sin even when it enables critics21:55 Holocaust as the ultimate test of forgiveness, destroying the concept of forgiveness25:52 Ignorance and forgiveness27:55 Gospels as deconstruction of philosophy32:05 Getting tangled in politics. Government and violence33:55 Can leaders behave like Christians?35:37 The katechon and accelerationism. Preterism and futurism.39:10 The Antichrist as a false katechon41:14 The Precautionary Principle: technological Armageddon45:15 Enabling Fascism to fight Communism46:12 Reagan coalition49:30 Christianity and mimetic entanglement, political atheism54:30 How much can people change?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In my upcoming interview with Peter Thiel, we will really hit the ground running, so you might benefit from re-listening to the one from last year to get you up to speed and ready for Peter's next set of insights, which are coming shortly. No discussion we've ever had has received as many requests by listeners for a follow-up. .... Peter Thiel, the highly successful tech entrepreneur and author, discusses his mentor Rene Girard; the Bible, how we read it, and how it reads us; Jesus’ death and resurrection; atheism and the limitless escalation of violence towards apocalypse. Timestamps: 0:43 The Bible reads us2:02 Cain and Abel vs. Romulus and Remus6:05 Cross vs Resurrection7:26 The Gospels are different from Death of Socrates9:04 The Bible is discontinuous from pagan classics11:30 "The idea that victims exist comes from Judeo-Christianity and nowhere else." 14:54 Was Nietzsche somehow extremely close to the truth of Christianity?17:18 Pagan Pharmakoi, the ancient sacrificial medicine19:48 Fascism and Communism23:00 Girard on the Woes against the Pharisees26:02 The cycle that leads to apocalypse31:11 Steven Pinker and the story of progress32:19 Is an apocalypse, such as a nuclear war, inevitable?35:10 Being too sanguine about apocalypse makes it more likely42:08 Is there an off-ramp? What would it look like? If we don't know, shouldn't we at least try to figure it out?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No one has been more involved in fighting for the sanctity of life and marriage in corporate board rooms than Tom Strobhar. In his day job he works as a financial advisor http://www.strobharfinancial.org/, but since 1989 he has given of his own time, using his financial expertise and authority as a shareholder in major American companies to fight for the moral teachings of his Catholic faith. He has directly influenced scores of companies to drop funding to Planned Parenthood, including AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway and Chevron. He's filed well over a hundred resolutions on matters such as abortion, same sex marriage, pornography and discrimination in the name of diversity. As long ago as 2008, he was already recognized as a veteran "David" in corporate proxies https://wng.org/articles/david-versus-goliaths-1617305176. Tom joins Meeting of Minds to discuss how ordinary investors can actually do this, and why we should use the authority we have to witness to the truth in the darkness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ideological capture of large American financial institutions is running into a barrier. State level offices such as Treasurer, Auditor General, and Comptroller are asserting their authority as financial watchdogs protecting the interests of their citizens. One of the leaders in this resurgence of federalism is Marlo Oaks, Treasurer of Utah (www.marlooaks.com) who wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal (S&P Hits U.S. States With Politicized Credit Scores - WSJ) about his efforts to protect his state from politically motivated scoring from rating agencies such as S&P. That battle over ideologically captured financial management has shifted to the states and to the shareholders themselves. Treasurer Oaks joins Jerry on this episode of Meeting of Minds to talk about how he got pulled into this battle and how we are going to win it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Meeting of Minds, Tom Carter of the American Conservative Values Fund www.investconservative.com talks about his company’s fifth survey of conservatives’ attitude towards various companies, including unfavourability towards large well-known publicly traded corporations. He talks about the shifts in attitudes towards Facebook, Disney and Tesla, as well as problems with the ESG movement. In addition, he talks about practical conservative alternatives to companies such as Blackrock, which have become tainted brands for conservatives.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rob West is CEO of Kingdom Advisors (www.kingdomadvisors.org) which is the world’s largest professional association for Christians in the financial industry. Rob also hosts the most widely-syndicated radio program for ordinary Christians (www.moneywise.org). On this episode of Meeting of Minds Podcast, Rob talks about the big topics he sees Christians, from the poor and middle class to the wealthy, needing to grapple with and what he’s learning by being in touch on a daily basis with Christian of all economic classes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At various times and places the major cultural battle lines have fallen in different spots. During WWII and the Cold War the conflict was centered in the military. At other times, our conflicts centered in politics or in the fight against biased media. Currently the zone of conflict has moved to the marketplace. The ideological capture of the boardrooms of many large publicly traded companies represents a threat, but also an opportunity for Christian entrepreneurs to speak up and promote the good of their employees. During a time of rapidly increasing volatility and confusion, the “load-bearing structure” class, the people whose decisions affect hundreds of people whom they know and care for, have the credibility to speak the truth with authority. Shannon Royce of The Christian Employers Alliance (Christian Employers Alliance) joins Jerry on Meeting of Minds Podcast to talk about this leadership group which is no longer willing to be silent about the crisis of our age.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andrew Olivastro, V.P. of Outreach for the Heritage Foundation, talks about how DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance), and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) are ruining corporate America. Heritage believes people should not be made to feel bad when they buy or use products or invest in companies that deride their beliefs and take controversial stances against their values. ESG made the mistake of getting investors out of fossil fuels when energy is the foundation of civilization, and exposed investors to significant risk. Olivastro makes the case that the left agenda in corporate boardrooms has gotten overextended and is collapsing in the face of public backlash.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The State Financial Officers Foundation (https://sfof.com/) is the public voice of state-level constitutional officers whose job is to safeguard the people’s money and who are committed to small government, free-markets and to fighting the politicization of the financial sector. This includes treasurers and auditors general, which each have oversight roles when it comes to whom a state does business with and how money, such as the pension assets of employees, is invested. It has fallen to this group to stand up to activists who are pushing to de-bank energy and other politically disfavored industries, and to stand up to pressure from giant financial institutions such as Blackrock who are imposing ideological requirements on companies and on states. Derek Kreifels, the founder and CEO, talks about how a new generation of officials is pushing back and winning this battle.\ Timestamps: N/ASee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Great Seal of the United States was commissioned by Congress in order to represent in visual form the foundational principles of the American Republic. In this presentation which I gave in the historic Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh for a group of CEOs hosted by the Young President’s Organization, we unpack the meaning of the various images which can be found on the back on any U.S. Dollar Bill.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pastor and scholar Jeff Meyers discusses his new commentary on the book of James, Wisdom for Dissidents. Meyers explains how modern commentators have failed to take the actual words of James seriously. When James mentions war, battles, and murder, he's not talking about arguments over the color of the new carpeting. James guided Christians through a time of political strife, assassination, civil violence and insurrection; in other words, a time much like our own. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro1:14 – James and Ecclesiastes8:25 – Rebellion against Rome13:12 – Israel and Egypt19:53 – James helps Christians grow up26:00 – What is James preparing Christians for?31:05 – How Christians should respond to political violence42:00 – Why you should read this commentarySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Alliance Defending Freedom  (Alliance Defending Freedom - Protecting Religious Freedom (adflegal.org)), the top religious freedom litigator in America, is now taking on anti-religious prejudice in public corporations. Having surveyed 50 major companies, ADF found the average score is a miserable 12 out of 100. ADF's head of corporate engagement Jeremy Tedesco talks about ADF's new index  (Viewpoint Diversity Score), which outlines precisely how companies can become beacons of tolerance and true diversity (not just the skin-deep kind) and precisely where and how companies are falling short now. ADF take an engage approach, not the popular but ineffectual disengage approach of boycotts and sin-screens. Identitarian ideologues have had the field to themselves for far too long, and ADF's new Viewpoint Diversity Score is exactly the right tool to use to challenge that monopoly. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro1:13 – Amazon discriminates against Alliance Defending Freedom4:38 – Corporations are starting to face political consequences9:17 – Engagement, not divestment14:41 – Diversity includes diversity of beliefSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Justin Danhof of Strive Asset Management joins Jerry to talk about the new company's plans to replace the recent woke agenda in corporate life with an agenda of excellence. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro1:18 – Being a voice where the right is the quietest4:10 – ESG is a luxury good – Reigning in Netflix7:10 – Solving the activist problem11:03 – Depoliticizing corporate America14:40 – “Do you want Coca-Cola to be the moral arbiter?”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Preventative Cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston rejoins Jerry to talk about what the latest scientific research shows about hunger and how to fight it. Ignoring the differences between different varieties of hunger means ignoring physiology and neurology and excess dependence on "willpower", leading to failure. Dr. Agatston explains the three different types of hunger, how to recognize each and how to overcome each in an effective way. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro1:33 – Bears with hypoglycemia7:45 – Grazing and carb craving14:11 – Chemistry, not discipline20:26 – Artificial sweeteners24:49 – Keto flu30:09 – Juvenile diabetes and insulin resistance36:42 – Fasting and controlling appetite42:56 – Addictive hungerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Peter Jacobsen teaches economics at the Gwartney Center at Ottawa University, where he also heads up the MBA program. He is one of the hosts of the Faith and Economics podcast. On this episode, Dr. Jacobsen speaks in depth about the errors of population growth hysteria; how it was imposed on poor nations by rich nations; why it’s bad economics; and why it is still causing harm in places like China. Jacobsen also talks about the reality of inflation and why some were unable to see it coming, and whether cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin can be an antidote to debasement of currency. Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro5:26 – How the one child policy is destroying China13:24 – Malthus wouldn’t be a Malthusian today18:30 – Population control and war25:50 – Immigration and overpopulation27:56 – Inflation33:33 – Crypto offers currency competition38:08 – Bitcoin and deflation40:42 – Malthus didn’t account for entrepreneurship  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Arthur Agatston is the world's leading preventative cardiologist. Creator of the Agatston Score, which measures heart attack risk by analyzing calcification of arteries. He is also the author of the bestselling South Beach Diet books. Here he discusses what he has observed looking at thousands of scanned images and patients over four decades, particularly about the relationship between career-building and heart disease among high-achievement entrepreneurs and executives. He also deals with how that heightened risk can be reversed and what the most up-to-date science shows about what really causes heart attacks. He outlines how to spot risk early and vastly decrease the risk of heart attacks occurring later. Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro1:20 – Stress and weight gain9:17 – Entrepreneurs vs. groupthink15:10 – The scientific consensus is behind the times22:30 – Visceral fat hiding obesity28:35 – Observation instead of clinical trial35:21 – New development in calcium scans42:11 – The problem with opening obstructions49:51 – Why the calcium scan is essential52:31 – The aerobic mythSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robert Plummer of Daily Dose of Greek joins Meeting of Minds to talk about how ordinary Christians (not just pastors or academics) can learn New Testament Greek for free with a small daily commitment of time; common mistakes of people who know just enough Greek to be dangerous; how to use Greek properly; and the new availability of similar resources for Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro3:44 – Learning Greek is doable8:58 – Text criticism, are translations accurate?14:35 – Going back to early manuscripts20:54 – Beyond basic Greek23:00 – The pitfalls some preachers fall into30:47 – How the original language helps you understand scripture35:19 – Learning other biblical languagesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Meeting of Minds with Jerry Bowyer, I talk with Christian scholar Gary DeMar, founder of American Vision (Home - The American Vision), which is publishing the presuppositional apologetics trilogy from Dr. David Bahnsen. Gary talks about the presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics, which avoids skirting around the edges and penetrates to the fundamental questions, exposing the myth of neutrality and showing that secularism has its own fundamental articles of faith and that they are an inadequate basis for any thinking at all. Not only can secularism not end the argument; it can't even get started. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro1:14 – Printing the work of Greg Bahnsen5:11 – The Great Debate between Bahnsen and Gordon Stein8:38 – What presuppositionalists argue14:03 – Presuppositions behind the abortion debate18:10 – Getting to the heart of the issueSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Bahnsen is one of America’s most successful financial advisors and also one of our most prominent economic thought leaders. The combination of deep intellectual knowledge and practical skin-in-the-game experience as a portfolio manager places him in an unusual category of thinkers, those who think about big ideas but also live with the consequences of their ideas. In this episode of Meeting of Minds we see Bahnsen at his best, going deep into the Bible and applying those deep insights to economics. Bahnsen’s newest book ( https://www.nofreeluncheconomics.com/) is accessible to neophytes, but still contains insights which those who are already well advanced in the knowledge of markets will welcome. Timestamps:  0:00 – Intro1:18 – Genesis 1 versus the labor theory of value7:20 – Origins of Marxist and Keynesian economics13:39 – Christianity and economic freedom17:56 – Marx’s biggest mistake21:53 – Utopian education27:10 – Creational theology32:48 – Sound money and creditSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Acclaimed stage actor Max McLean talks about how the pandemic shut down his theater business, and how that adversity caused him to pivot and turn his popular stage play about C.S. Lewis into a film, a film which is seeing record success. McLean has read so much Lewis, and played him on stage so many hundreds of times, and internalized his ideas to such an extent, that in some sense, talking to him is like talking to C.S. Lewis himself. To join the conversation listen in to our all-too-brief conversation and make sure to see the film yourself. To find a location near you, go to www.cslewismovie.com. Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro1:07 – Pivoting to film under lockdown6:56 – Distribution in theaters9:56 – Being faithful to Lewis’s work16:13 – On prayer and authenticity20:52 – “Lewis is a bottomless well”27:19 – Tolkien and Lewis’s conversion33:18 – Lewis is ahead of us, not behind36:04 – Discussion guide and Lewis’s journey41:10 – Other movies in the futureSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In honor of Banned Books week, Tom Spence, president of the conservative publishing house Regnery, talks about his own experience getting banned by one of the sponsors of Banned Books week, and the fact that none of the books on the list were actually banned and none of the books that were banned are actually on the list. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro5:12 – Seething over Abigail Shrier11:29 – Censorship unites us – Target censors Abigail Schreier15:52 – Pros and Cons of Amazon for conservative books21:17 – Elizabeth Warren and big tech27:50 – Regnery giving refuge to honest liberals33:00 – No neutrality in modern politicsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Professor Deirdre McCloskey is one of the most interesting thinkers in economics today. In this interview, conducted at FreedomFest 2021 in Rapid City South Dakota, near Deadwood, we push past a number of frontiers and traverse an open range of topics. That’s McCloskey in a nutshell – ignore the artificial fences between academic specializations and let the conversation go where it goes. In this case it goes through such territories as: the astonishing rise in standards of living since the rise of capitalism; why capitalism shouldn’t be called capitalism; what it should be called; why Bourgeois values have enriched us (and in more ways than economically); what the difference is between virtues and values; what Christianity had to do (and didn’t have to do) with the rise of modern human betterment; why theoretical economics has been wrong to obsess over “Maximum Utility” (a sociopathic form of economic modeling); the cult of statistical significance and its addiction to the p-value, and an upcoming book on Christianity and economics. Enjoy! Timestamps:0:00 – Intro9:40 – Why “virtues” rather than “values”?14:09 – The meaning of Jesus being born in Bethlehem18:54 – Eurocentric economics, why some minorities are successful27:07 – Free speech and the rich young ruler32:11 – A party of Liberty, politics for adults40:16 – How art can affect politics43:35 – Bettering Humanomics47:48 – The new atheists50:16 – God in Mammon59:17 – The Bible on slaverySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rick Graber is the CEO of the Bradley Foundation and Chairman of the Philanthropy Roundtable. He discusses a fascinating article he recently penned for RealClearMarkets and the Daily Signal (Woke Foundations, Beneficiaries of Capitalism, Undermine Free Market (dailysignal.com)) about how large financial institutions, both for-profit and non-profit, are turning their backs on the system which made their wealth possible in the first place. Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro1:17 – Catching up with corporate engagement4:11 – Early days of board room activism10:55 – Why foundations go leftist13:55 – Philanthropy roundtable versus the feeder system18:05 – New Yorker hit piece on the Bradley Foundation22:02 – How to earn the Bradley Prize25:11 – Alternatives to government programs, school choice28:21 – Freedom in eastern Europe32:38 – Importance of donor privacySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

George Gilder was Reagan’s favorite living source of quotes about the economy. He was also the most prescient visionary about the microchip, then the internet, and (now) blockchain. He explains why the global COVID shutdown in the name of “science” was unscientific, why artificial Intelligence will not replace the human mind, why blockchain is a truth system which will replace the Google model of the world, and why you should be attending the www.cosm.technology conference to understand what’s coming next.  Recorded at the FreedomFest 2021 conference in Rapid City South Dakota. http://2021.freedomfest.com/ Timestamps:0:00 – Intro3:43 – The channel and the signal, replacing oil7:13 – Socialized energy risks shortage9:34 – The “system of the world”, Life After Google12:50 – The forgotten “Asian flu”, Coronavirus and Galilee22:18 – The new system of the world and learning curves28:28 – Bitcoin and Monetarism, Milton Friedman in China32:19 – Crypto Currencies and gold38:58 – Tyranny and blockchain47:22 – Mapping the human brain52:08 – Faith precedes knowledgeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

N.T. Wright may well be the most influential New Testament scholar of our generation, and is certainly the most influential evangelical in that category. He sat down with Jerry to discuss his fresh-off-the-press commentary on Galatians (https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/2560/galatians.aspx). Wright restores Paul’s writing to its original historical and political context, showing that Galatians addresses a time very much like our own, in which Christians were tempted to distort their theology and practice out of fear of persecution, and also a time when clashes over ethnic identity threatened to destroy both Church and society. Galatians, the epistle, points to the true solution. Galatians, the commentary, will help you understand how. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro1:06 – Wright’s new commentary on Galatians5:31 – How Galatians can answer racial conflict9:04 – Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free13:53 – The role of the old law16:43 – Are all distinctions done away with?20:51 – Galatians and Abolitionism25:20 – The autobiography of Paul, and the Jewish exemption33:37 – The Messiah and his people39:06 – How the Messiah bears the curse of Torah49:30 – A little leaven leavens the whole lump.51:57 – Applying Galatians to ethnic conflict56:00 – A third raceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rob Arnott is founder and Chairman of Research Affiliates, which is the advisor on more than 150 Billion (with a B) dollars’ worth of investment assets. He talks about politics (and the surrender of both parties to fiscal and monetary irresponsibility,) economics (especially monetary economics and inflation, the issue of our time) and investment (including where he is putting his own money.) To hear one of the most sophisticated pioneers in quantitative investment analysis speak candidly and intelligently for 55 minutes as he shares his latest thinking, listen here. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro2:00 – The base case of our economic future6:17 – The future of the Republican party12:16 – Investing for collapse, how politics affects markets16:52 – The significance of qualifying for the S&P24:25 – Trading value and growth26:46 – Reports of Value’s death have been greatly exaggerated30:05 – Emerging markets vs. US stock36:51 – Zero returns on US investment39:56 – How risky are emerging markets?43:10 – Why big tech panders to the left48:12 – Preparing for economic crisis in the US52:32 - Environmental, Social, and Governance investingSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Skousen, the creator of the Gross Output measurement, explains how it measures the whole economy, not just the slice measured by GDP, and why the economy is driven by business, not consumption. Also, why GO is a better predictor than GDP. He also talks about FreedomFest, the most successful conference for intellectually curious people who are interested in expanding freedom. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro1:59 – Where does FreedomFest come from?5:20 – The Anthem Film Festival8:15 – Why FreedomFest goes to Las Vegas and South Dakota11:23 – Bringing intellectual speakers to FreedomFest15:15 – FreedomFest Debates18:49 – Signing up for FreedomFest19:31 – A festival for attendees, not donors.20:23 – The Structure of Production22:00 – The Economics of Profit and Loss24:03 – Say’s law29:00 – What Seattle’s success says about Say’s law.33:35 – Consumer spending and gross output.45:17 – Gross Output versus GDP48:09 – Inaccuracies of consumer confidence51:38 -  Predicting GOSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Civic Sermon Delivered at Historic Trinity Cathedral The Great Seal of the United States was commissioned by Congress in order to represent in visual form the foundational principles of the American Republic. In this presentation which I gave in the historic Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh for a group of CEOs hosted by the Young President’s Organization, we unpack the meaning of the various images which can be found on the back on any U.S. Dollar Bill.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, Chairman of the Board of its parent company, and former presidential candidate, joined Jerry to talk about the rising risk of inflation. Steve is the only person to win US Steel’s Crystal Owl award for economic forecasting. He untethers his inner owl for us this week on the question of inflation. Neither a perma-hawk nor a perma-dove, and certainly no Chicken Little, Steve is currently concerned about the inflation outlook and the value of the dollar. Listen to his commentaries here: The Steve Forbes Podcast, “What’s Ahead” Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro1:30 – The Fed doesn’t understand inflation5:26 – What to learn from oil prices7:40 – Inflation affects more than economics10:16 – Inflation in Nazi Germany13:50 – Small amounts of inflation can still do big damage18:27 – Falling trust in the dollar abroad21:11 – The pandemic and WWII27:46 – Anti-Corporate Republicans and big tech37:10 – Inflation as nationalization43:28 – Self-governance versus big governmentSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Several years ago, I interviewed my friend Steve Forbes about his book Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It. In that interview he anticipated many of the problems that we see cropping up right now, so we’re pulling this interview out of the vault and publishing it for you here. We will also follow up shortly with a brand new interview with Steve to bring this discussion up to date and let him share what he’s seeing right now. Timestamps:0:00 – Intro1:09 – Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It4:15 – America after the 2008 Recession7:30 – Can the US switch back to a gold standard?13:22 – Asian currency crises were avoidable with better knowledge20:44 – Different kinds of gold standard and the problem with the ones that didn’t work well26:19 – Will we need a currency crisis to create the will to fix money?28:15 – Nixon and Burns, why they ended gold standard, but didn’t need to31:58 – WWI and the gold standard36:09 – Gold price changes mean the dollar, not gold, instability40:53 – Why the British gold standard didn’t work Churchill was overruled.44:48 – How going off gold promoted income inequality.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nobel Prize winning economist and creator of experimental economics Vernon Smith joins this episode of Meeting of Minds with Jerry Bowyer. He talks about the necessity of faith, not just in religious matters but in science as well, and how the latest data in economics is reaffirming the insights of moral philosophy taught by Adam Smith over 200 years ago. Smith also talks about housing bubbles and how they happened.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can it be a normal thing for Christians to read the New Testament in the original Greek? Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Professor Rob Plummer’s Beginning with New Testament Greek book and short Daily Dose of Greek videos are proving that it can. He’s heard from thousands of Christians, from construction workers to retired engineers…and even some pastors…who tell him that they’re now reading the Bible in Greek. To hear from Professor Plummer about how you can do this too, please listen, and share. Timestamps: 0:00 Introductions0:43 Daily Dose of Greek/Hebrew is for the average Christian, not just seminary students4:40 Learning Koine Greek can bring you closer to the apostles' original writing; what languages were used around Jesus and what did he actually speak?13:07 3 minutes a day is enough to learn Greek or Hebrew; the tools you need to learn effectively, many of which are totally free18:32 Get a study buddy; the modern miracle of educated laypeople around the world25:04 What happened when the message of the bible stopped being mediated through institutions28:52 Why Greek should be like underwear; the importance of graciousness and respecting English translations; the snowball effect of mistranslating a single phrase37:21 You can be reading Greek in 1 year; the different approaches to learning Greek;42:47 The pitfalls of over-reading some words; why contextual awareness is important45:16 The treasures unlocked by reading the Gospels in Greek; reading in Koine Greek is a way to read passages again for the first time53:40 Going Deeper with New Testament Greek is great for complete beginners, but it also contains state-of-the-art linguistic analysis57:06 How ancient authors structured their writing without spacing or punctuation; the power of reading the original papyri;1:04:09 How to start your journey into Koine Greek; you don't have to be a genius or have a lot of education to learn;1:06:36 Final thoughtsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I recently had a discussion with English author and critic Os Guinness over the new addition to his first major work, The Dust of Death, as well as his new book, The Magna Carta of Humanity. As a decades-long reader of Os Guinness, I knew I had to discuss his work, both new and old, through the lens of our current political and cultural crises. With his new addition of The Dust of Death, Guinness discovers the origins of America’s ruling class in the turbulent countercultural radicalism of the 1960s. Between the revolutionary ideas, riots, and political purges, the parallels are undeniable, and Guinness’ timeless book could not be any more pertinent. The solution to this political chaos, he concludes, is a Christian “third way” materializing in true leadership – “We need a Lincoln.” But we don’t have a Lincoln. How can “our side” return to the biblical roots of America’s founding and rediscover the intellectual heritage of the Reformation? That’s exactly what Os Guinness’ new book, The Magna Carta of Humanity, offers, applying the revolutionary faith found in the book of Exodus to our own history. From Sinai, through the American founding, to our modern political trials, Guinness outlines the Christian alternative to the progressive mob. Timestamps: 00:45 - Introducing the Magna Carta of Humanity.01:05 - The Dust of Death and the "third way."02:37 - How the 60s created on oligarchy.08:42 - We need a Lincoln.10:26 - We need Reformation. Why don't Christians have influence?12:35 - On the work of Rene Girard15:58 - The Madness of Crowds17:30 - Putting the Protestant intellectual heritage to use.20:00 - Cultural Marxism affecting Christianity.25:33 - The "populist instinctive revolt" against the elite.28:16 - Is there a danger from the right as well as the left?32:14 - Cultural climate change.33:24 - Who can lead us?35:25 - Conservatism of blood and soil versus the conservatism of ideas.38:42 - Patriotism versus Nationalism.41:20 - "Generationalism."42:58 - Returning to Hebraic roots.47:10 - "A little less plato, and a little more moses." Helenic philosophy in Christianity.49:00 - Covenental societies - How the Covenent sparked the Constitution.51:09 - Christianity and social justice. Why we can't give up on Evangelicalism.56:10 - Christianity is both conservative and progressive.58:33 - It's no longer morning in America - Christians need to wake up.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peter Thiel, the highly successful tech entrepreneur and author, discusses his mentor Rene Girard; the Bible, how we read it, and how it reads us; Jesus’ death and resurrection; atheism; and the limitless escalation of violence towards apocalypse. Timestamps: 0:43 The Bible reads us 2:02 Cain and Abel vs. Romulus and Remus6:05 Cross vs Resurrection7:26 The Gospels are different from Death of Socrates9:04 The Bible is discontinuous from pagan classics11:30 "The idea that victims exist comes from Judeo-Christianity and nowhere else."14:54 Was Nietzsche somehow extremely close to the truth of Christianity?17:18 Pagan Pharmakoi, the ancient sacrificial medicine19:48 Fascism and Communism23:00 Girard on the Woes against the Pharisees26:02 The cycle that leads to apocalypse31:11 Steven Pinker and the story of progress32:19 Is an apocalypse, such as a nuclear war, inevitable?35:10 Being too sanguine about apocalypse makes it more likely42:08 Is there an off-ramp? What would it look like? If we don't know, shouldn't we at least try to figure it out?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.