The Brass Spittoon

The former editor in chief of Christianity Today stops by to talk about his love of Port William and the AI infused world to come. Highlights 1:00 Biloxi boy and Berry man 5:30 Unlikely CT choice? 11:00 Wendell at his most metaphysical 16:30 Crowning Kingsnorth (or not yet) 26:00 Carl Henry and the future of Evangelicalism 32:00 Praying away 35:00 Ezekiel and the fog machine 40:00 Kids seeking Orthodoxy and old folks? 44:15 A global and Martian focus 48:00 Keller on moving institutions 51:00 Berry patch pickings Resources Russell's bio and Berry's cover Marce Catlett at the FPR Bookshop Scott Moore and Berry at Georgetown College Rise and Fall podcast Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

The author, activist, and grandfather who once warned of The End of Nature has a brighter disposition these days. Highlights 1:15 Dirt roads and tricorne hats 3:15 Protesting with the life-changing Wendell Berry 6:45 Paneling over real problems 16:30 Evacuate the building! 19:15 Looking back, looking forward 23:30 Deregulation to the rescue? 31:00 Lone Star State of mind 34:30 Corny truths and consequences 40:00 Cultists and conservative Sunday school teachers 53:30 A new day for the sun Resources Bill's bio and buy the book (and the other book) Solar SunDay and nitro Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Van Morrison’s Brand New Day If Bill’s statement about 9 million deaths raised an eyebrow, here’s more on that. Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

The longtime editor-in-chief of World magazine discusses the Zenger Prize, his new gig at Christianity Today, the temptations of conservative politics (compassionate or otherwise), and his memoir Pivot Points. Highlights 1:00 Aspiring galactic editor and globe trotter 5:45 Street level reporting v. suite level pontification 15:15 BREAKING: Flatwater Free Press on the Zenger Prize long list 18:00 Welcome to the jungle . . . and Phoenix 25:00 Adventure is out there! 30:00 A young communist hears Jesus in Russian 34:00 Leaving World for purple pastures 41:00 Character counts, on the diamond and in the Oval 49:00 Covering Marvin’s seat at W’s table 59:45 Hitchhiking as a way of life Resources Marvin's bio and buy the book (and the other book) Announcing the Zenger Prize winners at FPR Read the winning articles Nominate the next winner Marvin’s work at Current (R.I.P) Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

After a life of physical and spiritual adventure, an innovative homesteading teacher and pastor turns green with gratitude. Highlights 1:00 California to Idaho (before everybody was doing it) 12:00 The plane, the plane! 19:00 Picture pages, picture pages 26:00 Raising the dead with his students (and Robert Redford) 37:00 Finding Jesus in the mountains 45:15 Turning green in the pulpit 57:00 Timber Butte homecoming 61:00 Looking for the real thing 66:00 Thanks and love Resources Tri's homestead website and buy the book Full Cowboy & Preacher film “Check your local listings.” (It’s 10 a.m. 12/28/24 in Idaho on PBS World) On PBS with Bill Moyers two decades ago “Liver-Eating” Johnson’s grave Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

The editor-in-chief of the FPR website discusses the recent conference in Grand Rapids and his latest book, Words for Conviviality. Highlights 1:00 Pacific Northwesterner in western PA 8:00 Prospects for localism and trad wives now 11:00 Bilbro’s obsessive bibliography 17:00 Printing press 2.0 and Postman problems 25:30 Frederick Douglass, cancer patient 30:00 Margaret Fuller, proto-podcaster 35:00 Melville’s pilgrimage and Jeff’s truck stop oats 40:00 A convivial reading Resources Jeff's bio and buy the book (and some more books) FPR’s excerpt (suitable for nailing on church doors) Exploring Ivan Illich on the podcast John reviews Jeff’s early works here and here Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

The AEI scholar and author of American Covenant joins John to talk about a document that he believes could unify we the people, again. Highlights 1:30 Second home 8:15 The national “we” 13:45 A dignified basis for unity 21:00 Changing culture by changing institutions 25:00 Make Congress boring again 29:00 What women want 32:00 Cheese pizza and Tip O’Neill 37:00 Think Tank U 41:00 A hunger for scallops and solidarity 47:00 Plausible deniability? 50:00 A hopeful Constitution Day Resources Yuval's bio and buy the book FPR’s review Yascha Mounk, Yuval, and the back of John’s head at AEI Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

Longtime ghostwriter Nancy French tells her own tale in the Ghosted: An American Life. French was raised in rural Tennessee and would later provide the words behind famous talking heads but found her own enchanting voice amid political and personal tumult. Highlights 1:15 Mud pies for Parisians 6:00 Hillbillies on the run 9:30 Romney/Palin ‘08 11:00 Prison break with the Kardashians 13:30 Pulling political punches 20:00 Google University School of Journalism 27:30 French Holy Ghost revival 31:30 Befriending a critic 38:00 Laker girl 39:30 Trusting God with cancer 42:00 Back on the case Resources Nancy’s website and buy the book John’s review Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

Timothy Carney, an AEI senior fellow and the author of Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be, talks about the village it takes to raise a child and the metaphorical (and sometimes literal) rise of “No Children Allowed” signs. Highlights 2:30 A lively home and coffee shop 4:00 Trumpy Christians? 7:15 Find a secular van fam, win a free book! 16:30 Was Hillary right? 22:15 Trickling down to Fishtown? 29:30 House plans, town plans 36:30 Work from home 43:45 Childless for the planet or better by the trillion 54:00 Ponzi scheme or Korean contagion 57:00 The sporting life Resources Tim’s bio and buy the book FPR at 15 Churchy Trump resistance column Nancy Pearcey’s “Common Good Men” Korean “Child Free”Zones Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

Ashley Colby, founder of the Rizoma Field School, digs up inspiring true stories of resistance and restoration (with references to donkeys, elephants, and our 49th state). Bill Kauffman, author and regular conference closer, weaves Wisconsin professors of the past and the robo-umps of tomorrow into a seamless and side-splitting localist garment. Rory Groves introduces the duo and ponders a porch free of PhDs. Highlights 1:30 Rory Groves, unlikely agrarian Ashley Colby: “Doomer Optimism: Life Adjacent to the Machine” 5:30 Adjacent, whether we like it or not 7:45 Donkey driving, mastodon ranching, hospitality boot camp 12:00 Alaskan laundries and cider-sipping city dwellers Bill Kauffman: “Off the Empire, On Wisconsin” 17:15 A thieving historian 22:00 Rural drama 26:00 Little things mean a lot 33:00 You’re out! 38:30 A midnight tale Resources Speaker bios and conference videos FPR Books and bookshop Conference co-sponsor Plough Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for our theme music

Brian Miller visits the porch to talk about his new book chronicling life on a Tennessee farm. Highlights 1:30 Bayou Bengal Volunteer farmer 5:45 A monastic text 11:15 Man of letters 14:00 Pesto chango 15:30 Remote control 18:00 Growing pains 23:00 Lamb on the lam 27:15 The rest of the story Resources Buy the book An excerpt at FPR Brian’s farm and blog Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer”

Adam Smith, a philosopher at the University of Dubuque, counterattacks the disenchanted War on Suffering. FPR President Mark Mitchell goes biblical to bring down a heightened politics of insanity. Brass Spittoon podcaster John Murdock looks at a key architect of religious politics and wonders what might happen if his blueprints were followed. Gerald Ford groupie and FPR perfect attendance award winner Jeff Polet opens by reflecting on political goats. Highlights Jeff Polet: Introduction 1:30 Statistical sirens 3:00 Humane oxymorons 5:15 Dirty politics 6:15 Animal farm 9:45 Oh yeah, the intros! Adam Smith: “The Politics of Reenchantment” 10:15 A reading from St. Aldo’s almanac 11:45 Frontlines in the War on Suffering 20:00 Enchanting politics with fairies and green fire 24:00 Institutionalizing flatness 31:00 Supernaturally small Mark Mitchell: “Politics in Babel” 33:00 Towers trump? 38:00 Name callers 42:00 Crashing symbols 46:00 Abraham skips the bricks 47:15 Hope in failure John Murdock: “Back to the Future of the Religious Right” 51:45 “The Poll” and holy holes 57:00 Franciscan biography 62:00 White and wrongs 66:00 The limits of integrity 69:00 Polyface politics and ravines made for walking Resources Speaker bios and conference videos FPR Books and bookshop Conference co-sponsor Plough Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for our theme music

Jeff Bilbro, FPR’s super-beaver EIC and Grove City College professor, looks to ancient mythology to assess modern technology and fiction of the future. Cassandra Nelson of the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture is stuck in the middle, a bit like AI itself. Author, teacher, and mother Tessa Carman looks for life in abundance in Minnesota and Maryland. Writer and Berry Center board member Kate Dalton Boyer introduces the speakers. Highlights 1:00 Kate kicks things off Jeff Bilbro: “Where Now Are Wayland’s Bones?” 3:30 Kingsnorth and Norse smith explained 12:30 Tempted by ease and justice 15:00 AI amigos for the autonomous 19:00 Computerized convocations 22:00 Wise touch Cassandra Nelson: “Median Humans and the Life That Really is Life” 26:00 Harboring a secret subtitle 29:15 A hallucinating average machine 34:30 M.A.D. results 41:00 Fancy tooters over computers 45:00 Against photocopies Tessa Carman: “The Joy of Tech Resistance” 46:30 FPR Match Game 48:00 Manifestos and better tools 51:00 You don’t have to! 55:00 Postman knocks, people dance 63:00 Better names and best practices Resources Speaker bios and conference videos Interview with Jeanne Schindler on Postman Pledge FPR Books and bookshop Conference co-sponsor Plough Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for our theme music

Eric Miller, biographer of Christopher Lasch and a professor at Geneva College, plus longtime porcher Jason Peters of Hillsdale College address the role of imagination in shaping our shared reality. Matt Stewart, an associate editor of the FPR website, introduces this duo that has impacted his life in important ways. Highlights 1:00 Matt Stewart, teacher’s pet/pest and herb connoisseur Eric Miller: “The Instructed Imagination” 6:00 Hannah Coulter v. Mark Heard 13:30 Collegiate conscience and imagination 16:00 Augustine’s commonweal 20:00 O’Connor’s name calling 23:00 Walker and Wendell looking for hope Jason Peters: “Imagination: Not Whimsical but Fatal” 27:45 Last year’s speech and this year’s joke 29:30 The propositions begin 35:00 Stoves and stand-up 38:00 Rainbows on the run 43:00 Unified Kauffman and computerized thinking 50:00 Fatalities and old farts Resources Speaker bios and conference videos FPR Books and bookshop Conference co-sponsor Plough Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for our theme music

Paul Kingsnorth delivered the keynote address at the 2023 FPR conference in Madison, Wisconsin. With help from a diverse band of fellow travelers including Jewish-Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen, Anglo-Catholic social critic Malcolm Muggeridge, and the prophetic French-Egyptian Sufi Rene Guenon, the unexpectedly Irish Orthodox Kingsnorth takes listeners on a tour of techno-mirages, holy wells, and green deserts in a search for culture-seeding saints. Highlights 2:00 Jeff introduces Paul 3:30 Paul introduces his thrift shop shirt 7:30 The disquiet of machine things 12:30 Surface debates and the depths beneath 19:00 Mumford and some on the suicide of the West 25:00 Anti-culture and real culture-making 29:00 Who is on the throne? (Or Paul as a sociological Bill Bright) 35:00 Transhumanist candor 38:00 Signs of light and darkness with Guenon and Spengler 47:00 A reluctant convert 50:00 Leaving the broken center for the margins 60:00 Short on saints Resources Paul’s Substack and an interview at FPR On "AI Demonic" at Touchstone “The Cross and the Machine” at First Things Conference videos Conference co-sponsor Plough Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

Paul Kingsnorth, the keynote speaker at the 2023 FPR conference in Madison, Wisconsin, begins things with a bonus talk on the power of prayer in a desecrated western world. Highlights 1:15 Mark Mitchell’s welcome 4:00 Paul flies in 5:30 A long list of labels 7:30 Roots and power 8:15 My neighbor Vinny (and his dying cousins) 12:30 Centering work 14:00 Citizen culture 19:00 Two trinities 23:00 Our like will not be here again 24:30 Candles to blow 37:30 The still point in the turning world 30:00 An Orthodox Texan’s sermon 32:45 Closing hymn Resources Paul’s Substack and an interview at FPR “The Cross and the Machine” Conference videos Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

Bill Kauffman, author of multiple books including Poetry Night at the Ballpark and long the closing speaker at FPR conferences, talks about the origins of Front Porch Republic and his unique life of letters. Host: John Murdock Guest: Bill Kauffman Highlights 1:30 Defending the homeland 2:30 The Closer 7:45 Muckdog memories 12:15 Perfectly sized 15:00 First Man and Senate staffer 18:00 Morning drinks and Mormon journeys 22:15 Life on the fringe 24:00 Not a murderer 26:15 Jimmie Foxx found dead 29:30 Paying the bills 31:30 A Barber in the House 34:30 Bucket listless 36:00 See you in Madison, but I digress Resources Bill’s work at FPR, TAC, and The Spectator Poetry Night at the Ballpark The Congressional Journal of Barber B. Conable Liberty Fund Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

The After Virtual conference podcast series closes with a focus on civics and cemeteries. Mark Mitchell, author of Plutocratic Socialism, talks on, well, plutocrats and socialism (plus the importance of property ownership to maintaining the republic). Rachel Ferguson, author of Black Liberation Through the Marketplace, highlights the historic role of roads in undermining minority communities and current efforts at neighborhood stabilization. Regular conference closer Bill Kauffman regales the crowd with tales from the crypts of Batavia. Speakers: Mark Mitchell, Rachel Ferguson, and Bill Kauffman Highlights 2:30 Mark Mitchell — Why Property Matters 3:15 FPR, born in apocalypse 9:00 Plutocrats and socialists, a love story 19:30 What would the Founders do? 22:15 Rachel Ferguson — What’s Wrong with the Roads? 23:30 Housing many things in the Black Church 26:30 Eugenics, red lines, and roads 30:00 Cars explained, Ike appalled 38:00 Neighborhood Stabilization (and its All-Stars) 46:30 “Paid to talk to me” v. the Jesus people 50:00 Bill Kauffman —The View from the Cemetery 51:00 Grave matters with Walt Whitman 54:00 Masons and monuments 58:30 Wings are overrated 1:00 Barry Goldwater and friends 1:04 Ontologically speaking 1:07 Baseball R.I.P. Resources Speaker bios Conference videos Save the (new!) date: 2023 Conference in Madison, Wisconsin (October 21, 2023) Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for his musical talents

The penultimate session from the FPR conference After Virtual: The Art of Recovering Lost Goods addresses health. Philosopher Adam Smith from the University of Dubuque and medical doctor Brian Volck, author of Attending Others: A Doctor’s Education in Bodies and Words, take on the medical/industrial complex (with assists from Alasdair MacIntyre and Wendell Berry). Speakers: Adam Smith and Brian Volck Highlights 2:15 Adam Smith—Medicine After Virtue 3:15 Medicine in the New Dark Ages 5:00 Out of practice 11:30 The medicalization of everything 16:00 Infected with emotivism 20:00 Curing the disease of freedom in 1851 26:00 De-medicalizing birth, death, and more 29:00 Brian Volck — Hospitality, Responsibility, and Presence: Practicing Medicine as if Bodies Actually Mattered 31:00 Bad metaphors and good definitions 33:00 The trouble with trolleys and telemedicine 41:00 Patients in the flesh 45:00 Paleo-Benedictine hospitality 48:15 Stewarding stethoscopes 51:30 Q & A Resources Speaker bios Conference videos Save the date: 2023 Conference in Madison, Wisconsin (October 7, 2023) Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for his musical talents

Chris Arnade, the keynote speaker at the After Virtual conference, has traded global finance for skid row photography. Chris discusses his journey from Wall Street board rooms to a booth at McDonald’s and the associated rejection of careerism and self-definition. Speaker: Chris Arnade—An Address in the Universe of Meaning Highlights 3:00 Prayer time around the world 6:45 The liberal emancipation project (of destruction) 10:30 Transcendent values first seen in a traffic jam 16:00 “Everything we believed was wrong” 27:00 Place and the giant sucking sound of NAFTA 30:00 Family ties 32:00 The “meaning” address and its replacement Resources Speaker bios Conference videos Save the date: 2023 Conference in Madison, Wisconsin (October 21, 2023) Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America The Substack home of a traveling man An NPR story on Chris Arnade Arnade’s work at The Guardian and The Atlantic Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for his musical talents

The second episode from the FPR conference After Virtual: The Art of Recovering Lost Goods looks at education. Jeff Polet discusses walking away from Hope. Angel Adams Parham talks about the elementary power of a rapping Homer. Jason Peters goes back to the future of the educational machine. Speakers: Jeff Polet, Angel Adams Parham, and Jason Peters Highlights 1:15 Jeff Polet—Why I Left the Academy 2:00 The news from Nineveh 5:30 Signs of declines 8:30 Searching for a pony 16:30 Jargon, gymnasts, adjudications, and generals 23:15 Gerald Ford comes calling 25:00 Angel Adams Parham—Education for Flourishing: K-16 and Beyond 26:30 Cultural canons and tug-of-war 28:15 Classics and community 32:30 Taking creative license with the gods 34:00 Disturbing images of beauty 40:00 Rapping Homer, Reading Frederick Douglas, and Rediscovering Sundiata 45:00 Resources for Learning 47:00 Jason Peters—The Sin Against the Body: For This They Wept Not 48:30 March madness and the managerial class 51:45 Phone sex prophecy 55:00 Would not a storm by any other name smell just the same 58:00 Even better than the real thing? 64:00 1909 all over again 70:00 Truth buoys up Resources Speaker bios Conference videos Save the date: 2023 Conference in Madison, Wisconsin (October 7, 2023) Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for his musical talents

For the first of our episodes from September’s FPR conference After Virtual: The Art of Recovering Lost Goods, we go to church. Carl Trueman, Gregory Hogg, and Charlie Cotherman share thoughts on technology and embodied worship in a time of pandemic. Speakers: Carl Trueman, Gregory Hogg, and Charlie Cotherman Highlights 1:15 Carl Trueman 3:00 Is it all Protestantism’s fault? 4:00 How to take over an empire 6:15 Reformations and technology 11:00 Overlooked revolutionary sausages 13:45 Our age of social acceleration 16:45 A challenge to holy time 19:00 A challenge to community 20:00 Gregory Hogg 20:15 Christians and plagues 23:00 Masks and noble lies 26:00 Vaccines and Canadians 28:00 Virtual worship? 30:00 Body and Church 31:30 Charlie Cotherman 32:00 Elisha’s physical engagement 35:00 Resurrection, proximity, and presence 39:00 Community and COVID tech 42:30 To the statistics 46:00 Invasive species and unholy shortcuts Resources Speaker bios Conference videos Save the date: 2023 Conference in Madison, Wisconsin (October 7, 2023) Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for his musical talents

Mark Mitchell, author of Plutocratic Socialism: The Future of Private Property and the Fate of the Middle Class and President of Front Porch Republic, joins the podcast. Mitchell and Murdock discuss the origins of FPR and the importance of widely-held productive private property in an era when the super rich and socialists have formed an odd partnership. Host: John Murdock Guest: Mark Mitchell Highlights 1:30 Mark Mitchell, happy at home chopping wood 5:00 FPR, the early days 9:00 How not to change the world 12:00 The messy remainder of reality 13:00 From Richard Weaver to “You’ll Own Nothing and You’ll be Happy” 19:30 Gnostic temptations v. the Incarnation 23:00 The odd couple: plutocracy and socialism 31:30 The not so odd couple: productive property and democratic citizenship 36:00 The myth of maximal emancipation 39:00 Tocqueville’s aristocratic fears 45:00 Prospects for property in a time of chronic crisis 52:45 Friendly pushback on COVID and climate (with a cameo by Roger Scruton) 60:00 If they are for it, we’re against it 64:00 Loving our neighbor to counter a nationalized focus Resources Buy the book Mitchell’s bio at FPR An excerpt from Plutocratic Socialism Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

Matthew Stewart, author of The Most Beautiful Place on Earth: Wallace Stegner in California, sits down (literally) with host John Murdock to discuss Stegner’s complicated relationship with the American West. A mobile youth left Stegner yearning for deeper roots. In the 1940s, he landed in the hills surrounding San Francisco Bay, an area soon set for expansive growth. Stegner’s interplay with the region and his own personal history led to the Pulitzer Prize winning Angle of Repose, a National Book Award for The Spectator Bird, and his masterful final work Crossing to Safety. Stewart, who received his Ph.D. in history from Syracuse, digs deeply into Stegner’s prose, places, and personal archives to document this quest for home. Host: John Murdock Guest: Matthew Stewart Highlights 2:00 Stewart, man of Geneva and Idaho 5:00 Wallace Stegner 101 7:00 “Geography of hope” and other famous phrases 7:45 A sharp dressed man in the eyes of his student, Wendell Berry 9:30 Ranking the novels 11:30 Mary Hallock Foote controversy 14:00 Life story of a Silicon Valley pioneer 16:45 Family’s outlaw life and death 18:30 California here he comes 19:45 Utopian suburban dreams 22:15 Searching for substance in a “formless non-community” 26:00 Anguished questions of the 1960s 30:15 Fan mail from frustrated parents 33:00 Stuck in Vermont 36:00 Edward Abbey sets the scene 38:00 Finding beauty in the places we know Resources Buy the book Stewart’s bio at FPR Stegner’s Wilderness Letter Mary Hallock Foote matter still controversial in 2022 A piece on Stegner and his students Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

Katharine Hayhoe is a professor at Texas Tech and the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. Her most recent book is Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Dr. Hayhoe, a Christian, swings by the Porch to discuss faith and science; effective communication on controversial topics; and the role of disinformation in our discussions about global warming. She also shares on her personal encounters with President Barak Obama and Speaker Newt Gingrich, plus gives her opinion on the East Anglia email disclosure and its impact on climate scientists. A shorter written version of the podcast is available on the Plough website. Host: John Murdock Guest: Katharine Hayhoe Highlights 1:30 A pine forest smells like home 2:45 The gendered physics of a scientific career 5:45 Friction from the fellow faithful 10:15 Working with Gingrich, Obama, and Trump 15:30 Pelosi and Gingrich were on the couch. So, what went wrong? 20:45 COVID, climate, and the Church of Facebook 24:30 Dr. Fauci, East Anglia emails, and arrogance 28:30 Tree rings, Skeptical Science, and the “trick” 33:30 Nit-picking on emails? 37:00 Al Gore enters the conversation 39:45 Rolling loaded weather dice 41:45 What communicates in a polarized time? 45:45 Dealing with the “dismissives” 49:00 Scriptural models for the overly skeptical 52:00 N.T. Wright and the end of the world as we know it? 55:00 Katharine’s vast media empire explained Resources Dr. Hayhoe’s website PBS Global Weirding series The latest book: Saving Us Skeptical Science Murdock on Skeptical Science and “hide the decline” Wendell Kimbrough helps us find our way home

Chuck Marohn, the founder of Strong Towns and author of Confessions of a Recovering Engineer, discusses streets, roads, “stroads,” and the perils of the American traffic system. A trained engineer himself, Marohn once imbibed the discipline’s dominant dogmas. Today, he advocates for cities and towns where slower moving cars can get us where we want to go faster. Host: John Murdock Guest: Charles “Chuck” Marohn Highlights 1:15 A boy from Brainerd 3:45 Strong Towns explained 6:30 What’s an engineer good for? 8:45 Breaking through with talking bears 13:15 A need for speed 16:45 So, what’s a “STROAD”? 17:45 The futon of transportation 20:30 Walking to die in the land of Dr. Seuss 27:00 Philando Castile and traffic trolling cops 36:30 I-49, $700M, and the saints of Shreveport 45:30 Lightning Round with Elon Musk, destroyed stop lights, and more 50:00 Wrapping it up, early in the morning Resources Strong Towns website Chuck’s late-night video that goes viral Steve Martin the barber is here to help Allendale Strong fights I-49

Michael J. Astrue has earned degrees from Yale and Harvard. He had a long and distinguished legal career and held several government positions as well as leadership posts in biotech companies. From 2007-2013, he served as the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. A.M. Juster has published something like ten books of original and translated poetry and has served as the poetry editor at First Things and now one of my favorite journals, Plough Quarterly. These two men might sound pretty different, but they are in fact the same person. Over the course of his conversation with Jeff Bilbro, they discuss his tangles with Anthony Fauci, whether poets or civil servants are the "unacknowledged legislators of the world," what makes good political verse, the role of humor in poetry, translating Petrarch, and more. Resources A.M. Juster's website His recommendation of a Richard Wilbur poem

Host: John Murdock Guest: Will Hoyt Will Hoyt, author of The Seven Ranges, discusses his journey along the Ohio River into the physical, historical and philosophical interior of the strip-mined region where he lives. In the book, Hoyt transforms the area’s colorful past into a lament over the loss of an “integrative center” last seen in feudal Europe. Well read and well spoken, this carpenter joins everything from surveying techniques to Jimmy the Greek into a compelling narrative of despair and hope. Highlights 2:15 Unhoused Hoyt, Unhoused Ohio 7:00 This book brought to you by Ingram Barge Company 10:00 Big Coal comes to town 14:30 Corporate Power and the 14th Amendment 21:30 Polarization and the destruction of the medieval inheritance 22:30 The Civil War, then and now, explained 27:00 False opposites 32:15 Power chosen over contemplation 33:00 Make America Medieval (Again?) 37:00 Lightning round begins! 37:30 Jimmy the Greek and the Little Las Vegas 39:30 “Play that Funky Music” (almost) 41:00 Camp meeting revival 42:45 Surveying changes the world 44:00 Wendell Berry gets the Incarnation right and wrong 49:00 Wallace Stegner and the American Inklings 50:30 What’s on the cover? Resources Buy the book Preview of The Seven Ranges from FPR Hoyt’s FPR articles “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads Ingram Barge Company “Play that Funky Music” by Wild Cherry And if you need help getting that last song out of your head, try this very topical one: “Paradise” by John Prine Also, our thanks as always to Wendell Kimbrough for the use of “The Ballad of Freida the Goose”

Guest Host: Jeff Bilbro Guest: Joe Loconte Front Porch Republic editor Jeff Bilbro sits down with Joe Loconte of The King’s College for a spirited discussion of the book-turned-film A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War. Bonded by war and steeled by friendship, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien produced works of fantasy that have guided us back to reality. Highlights 1:30 Loconte’s Italian immigrant family 4:00 Bleak poet learns to love goodness 7:45 Myth, not just for escapism anymore 9:30 Joe finds Frodo in his 40s 11:30 Lewis finds MacDonald on a train 13:45 Beowulf, Aeneas, and the hero who faces failure 19:00 Pagans love Christian realism 21:00 A letter to Owen Barfield 24:30 Band of Icelandic brothers 27:15 Behind the scenes 33:00 War, friendship, and imagination 36:00 Courage is key 37:15 Creative friendship, pursued deliberately Resources Buy the book See the trailer Get to know Joe Thanks as always to Wendell Kimbrough

Canadian radio broadcaster David Cayley pulls up a chair to discuss Ivan Illich, a renegade priest and professor who argued against schools, missionaries, and modern medicine. Cayley, author of Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey, walks listeners through Illich’s thought and its applications to current tests like the pandemic. Guest Host: Michael Sauter Highlights 0:30 Murdock asks, “Storied thinker or Tolstoy story?” 2:15 David Cayley, a man of Ideas 3:00 Sauter conversation with Cayley begins 4:00 Cayley on cassette 8:00 Corruption of the best is the worst, the West in a nutshell 10:15 Charles Taylor in the secular amen corner 11:45 Place, Limits, and Liberty (and Illich) 12:45 Freedom and the Wackosphere 13:45 What is enough? 15:45 “Three Dimensions of Public Choice” 18:00 Technologies you can’t put down 21:00 Free-relatedness and dependency on others 22:15 The risk of birth 24:30 Doorways to nowhere 27:00 Computerized people and COVID 29:30 Cayley’s death cult 31:00 Apocalypse and revelation 33:30 Beware an institutionalized Incarnation 35:30 Illich and friends around the table Resources Full interview and Sauter review Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey davidcayley.com Obituary in The Lancet The Death of Ivan Ilyitch Find Your Way Home

Prolific author and social critic Os Guinness discusses the current challenges for liberty and his hopes for the future. The Chinese-born, English-educated, Irish-rooted scholar who lives in America also shares insights from his time at L’Abri and talks some Arsenal football. Highlights 2:00 “Home” to Os Guinness 3:30 Beer in his blood 5:15 Under his own vine and fig 7:45 Hospitality lessons from Edith Schaeffer 10:45 The 1960s, Jefferson Airplane and the long march 12:30 The Call, place, and the Jesus Go-Fest 16:00 Soccer Super League 17:15 A quiet voice? 18:45 Civility and respect for words 19:30 Books over tweets 22:00 An intellectual knee on the neck of America 24:00 Freedoms, negative and positive 25:30 The pandemic and liberty 27:00 Respecting others in a free society 28:30 A Magna Carta from Mount Sinai 31:00 Civic education and the value of transmission 32:00 1776 v. 1789 34:00 Approaches to justice and Black Lives Matter 36:45 A post-rights world? 38:00 (Chief Justice) Burger for lunch 39:30 7 year-old revolutionary refugees of the world unite 42:00 Hope in the face of stark realism Resources osguinness.com The Magna Carta for Humanity L’Abri The Williamsburg Charter Find Your Way Home

Summary Filmmaker John de Graaf pulls up a chair to discuss his 1997 documentary Affluenza; a forthcoming project on Arizona politician and JFK/LBJ’s Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall; the politics of beauty; and a whether John Muir should be cancelled. Singer/songwriter Wendell Kimbrough closes out the show with “The Ballad of Freida the Goose” from his album “Find Your Way Home.” Highlights 0:50 An FPR podcast, really? 2:15 “Home” to John de Graaf 3:15 Vachel Lindsay and the “Gospel of Beauty” 4:45 Gracy Olmstead's Uprooted 6:00 From Berkeley to a frozen Midwestern VISTA to Seattle 7:30 It all started with the film of the year 8:45 Alan Chadwick, master gardener 9:15 “Affluenza” explained 12:30 20 million views, a best-seller, and in the dictionary 15:45 Beloved by BYU 16:45 Take Back Your Time 18:30 French to Fox News? 20:00 Pandemics and “the good life” 25:00 David Brower, Republican 28:00 Floyd Dominy, a dam man 30:45 Stewart Udall, liberal conservative 35:30 LBJ pressures Udall on Vietnam 38:45 Barry Goldwater, Democratic donor 42:00 Politics of Beauty 43:00 GDP as Holy Grail? 46:15 Cancel John Muir? 50:15 Udall as cultural Mormon 51:00 Will beauty save the world? 52:00 Wendell sings “The Ballad of Freida the Goose” Resources John Murdock at Front Porch Republic John de Graaf at Front Porch Republic Films of John de Graaf Vachel Lindsay Gracy Olmstead’s Uprooted (reviewed here and here) VISTA David Brower Stewart Udall Floyd Dominy “Find Your Way Home” album by Wendell Kimbrough

The FPR leadership has decided to make a foray into a new medium (for us). And given this transitional moment in American politics, this seems like a good time. We hosted an on-line discussion that, hopefully, provides an interesting and unique take on current events. For years now we have sought to articulate an alternative to the nationalist, globalist, uniformist vision that has so captivated the ruling classes. The Trump presidency is ending in chaos, and the Biden agenda is yet to be implemented. What are the prospects for localism? Does the post-Trump era open up possibilities for a renewal of local affections and attentions? What challenges are likely to arise in the coming months and years? What strategies should localists pursue? Four long-time Porchers joined us for this conversation: Patrick Deneen, Bill Kauffman, Katherine Dalton, and Jeff Polet.