On today’s episode, Acton director of marketing and communications Eric Kohn speaks with Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), about his new book, The Canceling of the American Mind. Cancel culture appears to be pervasive, and this book is the first to examine the effect it has had—and is having—on the United States. How are both left and right using the power to “cancel” someone? Is cancel culture a relatively new phenomenon or has it always been with us in some form? And more importantly, what can we do to reclaim a free-speech culture?

The Canceling of the American Mind | Simon & Schuster

On today’s episode of Acton Line, we bring you a conversation about poverty recently held on our sister podcast, Acton Unwind. Acton’s Eric Kohn and Dan Hugger are joined by their colleague Michael Matheson Miller, who discusses his essay “The Poverty Pyramid Scheme,” and AIER’s Samuel Gregg on his book review “Mistaken About Poverty.” Both pieces appear in a special poverty-themed edition of RELIGION & LIBERTY magazine (Fall 2023) that contends that there isn’t one solution to poverty, but many.

Subscribe to RELIGION & LIBERTY

The Prosperity Pyramid Scheme | Michael Matheson Miller

Mistaken About Poverty | Samuel Gregg

Poverty, Inc.

Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization | Samuel Gregg

Afghanistan I fought for lacks foundation for freedom | Stephen Barrows

Your strengths, relationships, and self-awareness are all essential in determining how your business will operate—and whether it will succeed or fail. But how can you optimize each of these elements? How can you set realistic goals? How can your business overcome a plateau and continue to grow? SpringGR aims to answer these questions by connecting entrepreneurs with the intellectual, social, and financial capital needed to thrive.

In 2007, Thales Academy was born with a simple vision: provide an excellent and affordable education through the use of Direct Instruction and a Classical Curriculum that embodies traditional American values. In The Thales Way, Robert L. Luddy, the founder of Thales Academy and several other schools, explains the rationale for the school's educational approach and elaborates on his mission to better educate students.

In this episode, Acton director of marketing and communications Eric Kohn speaks with Robert about the importance of a rigorous academic environment, virtuous leadership, lifelong learning, and truth seeking.

Thales Academy

The Thales Way | Robert L. Luddy

You’ve probably heard the phrase “America isn’t a democracy—it’s a republic.” This is typically trotted out to make a salient point about the type of government we have in fact, but is it a distinction the Founding Fathers would have recognized and made themselves? Yes and no, says Jay Cost, the Gerald R. Ford nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the new book “Democracy or Republic: The People and the Constitution.” How is the system crafted by the Founders holding up in the 21st century? Is a government of the people still one for the people?

Democracy or Republic? The People and the Constitution | AEI Press

Jay Cost | AEI

In this episode, we present the most recent installment of the Acton Lecture Series, with Dr. Mary L. Hirschfeld. Economists investigate the workings of markets and tend to set ethical questions aside. Theologians often dismiss economics, losing insights into the influence of market incentives on individual behavior. Dr. Hirschfeld bridges this gap by showing how a humane economy can lead to the good life as outlined in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.

In this episode, Acton director of programs and education Dan Churchwell speaks with Leah Kral, an expert facilitator and author who helps nonprofits doing the hard work of building civil society to innovate and be more effective. Good intentions alone don’t translate to impact, so why are nonprofits like the Mayo Clinic so successful when others fail? How can innovation, creativity, originality, and risk-taking be wedded to those good intentions?

Innovation for Social Change: How Wildly Successful Nonprofits Inspire and Deliver Results | Wiley, 2022

To learn more, visit LeahKral.com.

Learn more about Acton UniversityOn today’s episode, we present a discussion from Acton University 2023 between director of marketing and communications Eric Kohn and North Korean defector and human rights activist Yeonmi Park. At age 13, Park and her family made a daring escape from North Korea in search of a life free of tyranny. In her viral talks, viewed online nearly 250 million times, Park urges audiences to recognize—and resist—the oppression that exists in North Korea and around the world.

In this episode, Acton’s director of marketing and communications, Eric Kohn, talks with Jonathan Greenberg, the Jack Miller Family Foundation’s director of freedom initiatives and the former Midwest director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee about the long history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the significance of the October 7 massacre, especially what it will mean for Israel and the region going forward. While the Gaza-Israeli dispute has been going on since at least 2006, the broader Israeli-Palestinian battle dates back decades, the contours of which are often poorly misunderstood as some subset of geopolitics or primarily about human rights or the specifics of a two-state solution. To fully grasp what’s going on, you have to understand that the conflict didn’t start in 1973 or even 1948. In fact, in some ways, it goes back millennia. 

Why do some people hate the jews? | Acton Line