Meeting of Minds Podcast

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.