Acton Line

We're thrilled to bring you a new podcast from the Acton Institute: Acton Unwind.

Acton Unwind is a weekly roundtable discussion of news and current events through the Acton Institute's lens on the world: promoting a free and virtuous society and connecting good intentions with sound economics. Each week I’ll be joined by Dr. Samuel Gregg and other Acton Institute experts for an exploration of news, politics, religion, and culture. This week, we discuss the extension of the CDC's unconstitutional eviction moratorium, the Biden administration's economically problematic proposal for free community college, and the New Right's infatuation with Viktor Orbán's Hungary.

Thanks for listening, and we hope you enjoy Acton Unwind.

‘Small-Time Landlords “Hanging on By Their Fingernails” as Eviction Moratorium Drags On’ - National Review

A Landlord Says Her Tenants Are Terrorizing Her. She Can’t Evict Them. - New York Times

Making community college free has hidden costs - Detroit News

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Genuine friendships are one of the core qualities of a great life.

Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero called a friend “a second self.” British author C.S. Lewis exalted friendship as adding “value to survival.” Whether in antiquity or modernity, friendship plays an integral part in the richness of the human experience for men and women alike. However, recent studies have shown that the amount of friendships the average man has are on the decline.

Daniel Cox, founder and director of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, sits down with Acton Line producer Gabriel Geagea to speak further on his latest article published in the National Review, “American men suffer a friendship recession,” an article focused on the diminishing rates of male friendships in the United States and its implications on America’s social sphere. If friendship is indeed an inherent good, what threats does its absence present to modern American society?

In addition to analyzing the root causes of this decrease in companionship and its effect on our nation’s social nature, Daniel and Gabriel discuss how emerging social norms can alter the ways in which society views friendships, and what society is to do to ensure good male friendships reappear as a strong thread in our American social fabric.

Do the American people view friendship as essential and giving value to our survival, or is it seen as an unnecessary commodity?

American Men Suffer Friendship Recession

Bio | Daniel Cox

The Survey Center on American Life

American Enterprise Institute

The joy of fatherhood: How sacrifice brings meaning to life

Wilfred McClay on friendship new and old – Acton Institute PowerBlog

How fatherhood leads to flourishing – Acton Institute PowerBlog

Bridging Income Inequality: The Subsidiarity Of Friendship – Acton Institute PowerBlog 

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In the early 1900’s, the Netherlands was under the rule of a dynamic prime minister, Abraham Kuyper. A multi-faceted figure, he implemented significant change in a vast array of sectors and contributed his work to Dutch society as a statesman, a journalist, a historian, a University founder, and a Calvinist theologian, among many other things.

But what can contemporary economic and political reasoning gain from the work of a man who was not a conventional economist?

In this episode, Dan Hugger, librarian and research associate here at the Acton Institute is joined by Peter Heslam, director of Transforming Business and a senior member of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge to discuss Kuyper’s teachings on Business & Economics. Heslam is also published widely on business, economics, religion, and is the author of Creating Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. Hugger and Heslam discuss the life of Abraham Kuyper, his genius, and the role he plays in societal understanding in our modern age.

Although not purely an entrepreneur or economist, Abraham Kuyper was able to comment on business and economics because he was engaged analytically in almost every sector of life, reflecting his belief that all spheres are interconnected under the sovereignty of God. For Kuyper, sound reasoning and action, no matter what sphere it pertains to, under the ordinance of God necessitates it as truth. Similarly, The Acton Institute is devoted to the mutuality and synthesis of economics and morals. When a worldview is good, true, and beautiful, the ultimate truth of every facet in human existence logically follows from one to another.

Bio | Peter Heslam, D.Phil.

Faith in Business

Acton Bookshop | On Business & Economics 

Acton Bookshop | The Abraham Kuyper Collection 

Acton Line | How should Christians engage the world? In conversation with Abraham Kuyper  

Acton Line | Abraham Kuyper's "Common Grace" 

Abraham Kuyper: ‘The school belongs to the parents’ 

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Industrial policy is making a comeback in political discourse as a key issue to be tackled in maintaining America’s dominance internationally. Industry has always been a greater reflection of the trademarks of America; its efficiency, economic values, and its entrepreneurial spirit. However, in America’s current understanding of industrial policy, among other issues, it leans towards the government seizing the role of the market for itself; to control the economy in job opportunities and losses, unaccompanied by the natural flow of the market.

In this episode, Dr. Samuel Gregg, Acton Institute’s director of research is joined by Dr. Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, to discuss the industrial soul of American society, and if it is to be adopted as a major governmental policy, its ramifications on the American economy. Also discussed are ideas like the word itself: “industry,” and how it has become politically opportunistic in the hasty push for its accompanied legislation, it is utilized as an umbrella term to push many other policies through that pertain to public sectors outside of industry itself, like education, R & D, and training.

Innovation comes best from competition and creative freedom, not government intervention. The remaining question is: does a federal-centered industrial policy hinder American citizens and business’ ability to adjust to the ebb and flow of a natural economy?

Bio | Veronique De Rugy 

Infrastructure Insanity, by Dr. Veronique de Rugy 

Edmund Burke’s conservative case for free markets, by Dr. Samuel Gregg 

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Generation Z is a demographic group born between the late 1990’s and early 2010’s and they are beginning to trickle into workplaces. The push for open mindedness to become the norm in modern society means “Gen Zers” have already been confronted with ideas like fourth wave feminism, intersectionality, the transgender movement, and wokeism throughout their upbringing. Along with receptivity for progressive ideals, Gen Z now claims the largest percent of college attendance in history. In fact,  59 percent of 18 to 20 year olds were enrolled in colleges in 2017, compared to 53 percent of similar aged students in 2002 for the millennial generation.

In this episode, Acton Line Producer Gabriel Geagea sits down with Acton Institute’s college interns from our Emerging Leaders program, Grace Hemmeke and Kara Wheeler, to discuss what it is like to be a young woman on a college campus in 2021. 

A University’s purpose is to train students in developing skills needed to perform a job and instill a desire for the pursuit of higher knowledge. Is this still the case in American Universities today? With educating a generation that is the most inclined to accept progressive ideals, what role, if any, do social beliefs play on a college campus?

Camille Paglia: The fearless feminist

The politically correct rule at Harvard Law

Speech codes limit campus freedom 

Free Speech Still Not Free on College Campuses

Terrorists or freedom fighters: What's the difference? 

Left-wing college administrators are a mirror of American political reality 

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Suzanne Nossel, CEO of Pen America sits down with Eric Kohn, Acton’s director of communication to discuss her new book, Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. 

Nossel, a leading voice in support of free expression, delivers a vital, necessary guide to maintaining democratic debate that is open, freewheeling, but at the same time respectful of the rich diversity of backgrounds and opinions in a changing country. Centered on practical principles, Nossel’s primer equips listeners with the tools needed to speak one’s mind in today’s diverse, digitized, and highly divided society without resorting to curbs on free expression.

About Suzanne Nossel 

Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All 

Communist China forces shutdown of Apple Daily, stifling truth in pursuit of control 

‎Acton Line | Dylan Pahman on free speech and cancel culture

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In this episode, we're bringing you a panel discussion featuring Betsy Devos and Sal Khan that was delivered as part of Acton University Online 2021. The Panel was moderated by Jeff Sandefer, entrepreneur and founder of the Acton School of Business. 

An educated citizenry is fundamental to securing a free and flourishing society.  Innovation, technology, and entrepreneurial endeavors are transforming education in many ways.  This panel examines common myths about learning and the provision of education, highlights the great entrepreneurial efforts to improve its quality and accessibility, and explores what the future holds in providing an education that secures creative opportunity, growth, and fulfillment for everyone.

Bio | Sal Khan 

Bio | Betsy DeVos 

Bio | Jeff Sandefer 

America's Public Schools: Crisis and Cure - Chapter 1 

What’s driving the decline of religion in America? Secular education 

A silver lining in the Golden State's school shutdowns 

The Myth of a Value-Free Education 

The Entrepreneur as Servant 

The Biblical Case for Entrepreneurship 

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Liberal Arts Education is a classical academic discipline that focuses on educating the whole person and is rooted in a lifelong study of transcendent, interdisciplinary knowledge. In June 2021, Dr. Margarita Mooney, an associate Professor in the Department of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and Executive Director of the Scala Foundation, published her book “The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts” to promote liberal arts education for the improvement of education and human virtue.

In this episode, Dr. Mooney discusses the purpose of a classical education, its preservation of moral virtue and human goodness, and its place in schools and society. Some schools and universities have built their base curriculum from a foundation of the Liberal Arts, while other individual teachers and professors are swimming against the stream by promoting its ideals: the pursuit of holistic, transformative knowledge, in their classroom.

“The Love of Learning” tells the story of seven scholars who fell in love with learning, explores the roots that the Liberal Arts has in Western Tradition, and considers the beauty it offers our contemporary education. It also offers discussion questions between chapters to foster discussion in reading groups or for personal reflection.

The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts 

Liberal Arts Education in a Free Society 

About Margarita Mooney 

Scala Foundation 

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Along with more than half a million American deaths, lockdowns and federal mandates, the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it unprecedented government spending and economic disruption. In this episode, Acton Institute’s research fellows, Dan Hugger and Dylan Pahman evaluate the economic and moral implications of the COVID relief bill.

In March 2021, the Biden administration passed a 1.9 trillion dollar COVID stimulus package to provide monetary aid for the American people under the guise of a “COVID relief bill”. However, a little less than 9% of this bill directly targets public health relief. In a live economy, how does this amount of government spending shape the future of America?

Hugger and Pahman discuss the true purpose of a stimulus package, the Biden administration’s COVID relief bill itself and its effect on the future economy, how the American people should react morally, and if stimulus checks could have been rolled out in a more effective way.

Will the fiscal legacy of the massive COVID relief bill remain or can America get back on track?

Three core principles to evaluate the coronavirus stimulus 

Parenting after the pandemic: More freedom, less ‘safetyism’ 

States’ rights, federal behavior: Alabama and COVID-19 spending

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Cultural American ideologies, which were historically influenced by Christian beliefs, have continued to deteriorate throughout the years. Faith in politics, rather than having a theological perspective, continues to grow aggressively. While our country is greatly divided, American culture turns to ideological politics for a solution. Shadi Hamid, senior fellow at the center of middle east policy at the Brookings Institution calls it, “religion without religion” in an article titled, "America without God," published in the Atlantic.

America without God 

Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World 

Lyman Stone on the decline of religiosity in the United States 

What’s driving the decline of religion in America? Secular education 

Pastors less concerned as religious liberty declined: Poll 

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