Bradley Lectures Podcast

Things change, norms shift, and even the language we use alters with time.

But despite being commonplace, change isn't always easy. This month we'll listen to David Skinner -- editor of Humanities magazine and formerly of The Weekly Standard -- deliver a 2012 lecture on how a crisis among the literary classes was sparked by a change...in a dictionary.

Change also comes to the Bradley Lectures Podcast itself. We're a month off our normal schedule, in part because of changes we hope to bring to our episodes and guests in the near future. To stay up to date on these plans, follow us on twitter @BradleyLectures or subscribe to our newsletter here.

For decades, our appreciation for natural beauty has been tempered by an awareness of its impermanence. Our environment, its species, and the very climate in which we live all exist under conditions of duress.

In this month’s lecture, we will hear from Pulitzer prize winner E.O. Wilson, one of the most influential biologists of the last 70 years and pioneer of the field of sociobiology. His lecture, delivered in 2001, addresses the dangers facing our environment, strategies for slowing its decline, and the importance of preserving our natural capital.  

The European Union has lost a major member. Several EU countries are facing COVID crises. The German-backed European vaccine rollout has been widely derided as a disaster.

Trust in the European Union and German leadership are in question.

What will be the answer?

This month, we hear a 2014 lecture from Professor Brendan Simms of Cambridge University on the importance of German stability for Europe, what may happen if this stability is challenged, and the possibility of a Europe organized in a more American model.

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If you would like to keep in touch with the Bradley Lectures Podcast, or recommend topics from the archive you'd like to hear lectures on in the future, please follow us on twitter @BradleyLectures or email us at [email protected]. 

A new administration. A renewed American bombing campaign in Syria. An apparently reconsidered relationship with Saudi Arabia.

After four years of comparative international quietude, is the United States reasserting its position as a forceful manager of world affairs?

And if so, should it?

This month we will hear a 1997 lecture from journalist and foreign affairs scholar Fareed Zakaria on the limits of realpolitik, and the challenges of realism.

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If you would like to keep in touch with the Bradley Lectures Podcast, or recommend topics from the archive you'd like to hear lectures on in the future, please follow us on twitter @BradleyLectures or email us at [email protected].

From the 2016 election through the present pandemic, the world has seemed anything but predictable over the last four years. In a world of Congressional chaos and a seething stock market, we might not be blamed for asking:

"Can we really predict anything at all?"

This month, we will hear a 2015 lecture from Prof. Philip Tetlock, co-founder of the Good Judgment Project, on the potential of Super-Forecasters, and the possibility of sifting through the noise to find the signposts toward the future.

How does a great lie become believed? How can a small, passionate minority dictate reality for a whole nation? When does history become subordinate to fiction?

This month, we will hear Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum address these questions through the lens of the Soviet crushing of Eastern Europe from 1944 to 1956.

While her lecture was originally delivered in 2012, its story of an impassioned minority, a totalitarian ideology, and the thrall of "alternative facts" remains trenchant in these opening weeks of 2021. 

In November and December, many of us slip into a familiar rhythm of renewed focus on our friends, our families, and the things we have faith in. As this particular year draws to a close with several COVID-19 vaccines potentially on the way, it is good to remember that science, too, can be something worth believing in.

In this episode we will hear a lecture entitled "God and the Philosophers" from Dr. Robert Jastrow, first chairman of NASA's Lunar Exploration Committee, and founding director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

This lecture, delivered in November 1992, displays a conviction in the importance of dialogue between science and faith that remains vital today.

Elections come and go, but the more fundamental basis of state society--political order--endures.

Or does it?

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, please join the Bradley Lecture Podcast for a conversation with Dr. Fukuyama on his 2012 lecture, "The Origins of Political Order," and the question of whether that order is durable enough to survive whatever happens next.

Is capitalism working? How is it supposed to work? And what do we do if it fails?

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis these questions were more relevant than ever. Now, in the midst of economic turmoil and uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, they are questions once again on everyone's mind.

To help consider these old questions in a new context, Yuval Levin joins us to revisit his 2010 Bradley Lecture, "Recovering the Case for Capitalism."

The text of Levin's 2010 lecture can be found at AEI.org.

This speech was originally delivered in 2010.