Conservative Conversations with ISI

In This Episode:

• Dan McCarthy returns to the podcast to discuss Willmoore Kendall’s The Conservative Affirmation
• what majoritarianism and “the social contract” in the American tradition really means for today’s politics
• how Kendall interpreted John Locke and its relation to the American Founding

Texts Mentioned:

• The Conservative Affirmation by Willmoore Kendall
• The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 by George Nash
• The Dilemmas of American Conservatism, edited by Kenneth Deutsch
• What is Political Philosophy? by Leo Strauss
• Heaven Can Indeed Fall  by Christopher Owen
• John Locke and the Doctrine of Majority Rule  by Willmoore Kendall
• Tucker Carlson interview clip
• The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition by Willmoore Kendall
• The Second Treatise of Government by John Locke
• Natural Right and History by Leo Strauss
• The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• The Government of Poland by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Modern Age

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In this episode: 

• Curt Mills joins the podcast to discuss the political dynamics surrounding the upcoming midterm elections
• how the establishment GOP is navigating the challenges and opportunities of the growing nationalist-populist movement within the party
• Why traditionally Blue states like Oregon, Rhode Island, and Maine could become Red states in the coming years

Texts Mentioned:

• What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer

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In this episode: 

• Joseph Stuart, professor of history at the University of Mary and a former ISI Weaver fellow, joins the podcast to discuss the work of 20th century historian of culture, Christopher Dawson
• why religion is at the heart of cultural identity, and how cultures that abandon their religion inevitably become captured by ideological “political religions”
• how to appreciate different cultures and have a rich, complex view of other civilizations without becoming a relativist

Texts Mentioned:

• Christopher Dawson: A Cultural Mind in the Age of the Great War by Joseph Stuart
• Gifford Lectures by Christopher Dawson
• Leisure, The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
• Primitive Culture by Edward Tylor
• The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
• Religion and Culture by Christopher Dawson
• The Dynamics of World History by Christopher Dawson
• The Crisis of Western Education by Christopher Dawson
• The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel Huntington
• “Christopher Dawson and Ayatollah Khatami and ‘The Dialogue of Civilizations’ A Christian-Muslim Conversation” by Stephen G. Carter
• The Mission movie
• “Conservatism” by Christopher Dawson (introduction by Joseph Stuart)
• Religion and the Modern State by Christopher Dawson
• Joseph Stuart Faculty Page

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 In this episode:

•  Joshua Hochschild, director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program at Mount St. Mary’s University, joins the podcast to talk about how his studies in medieval philosophy and metaphysics influenced his religious journey to the Catholic faith
• the ways that smartphones change human life and social organization, and how the information age is dramatically different from other technological revolutions
• previews the work of Wendell Berry and his views on systemic racism in light of the release of his newest book, The Need to Be Whole

Texts Mentioned:

• Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver
• “How is My iPhone Changing Me?: Neuroscience and Thomistic Psychology” by Joshua Hochschild
• “Technology and the Soul: The Spiritual Lessons of Digital Distraction” by Joshua Hochschild
• Phaedrus by Plato
• “I Used to be a Human Being” by Andrew Sullivan
• Leisure, The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
• The Social Dilemma documentary
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History of Prejudice by Wendell Berry
• The Hidden Wound by Wendell Berry
• “Race and Anti-Fragility” by Joshua Hochschild
• The City of God: Against the Pagans by Augustine of Hippo
• Standing by Words by Wendell Berry

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In this episode:

• Troy Senik joins the podcast to talk about President Grover Cleveland’s life and unlikely path to the presidency
• the principled character of Cleveland, and how his sense of honesty was at the center of this political priorities as a reform-minded politician during the Gilded Age
• the political and cultural context in which Cleveland rose to prominence, and how his second term shaped a political realignment that saw his classical liberal politics exit politics until the 1970s

Books Mentioned:

• A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbably Presidency of Grover Cleveland by Troy Senik
• Coolidge by Amity Shlaes

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In this episode: 

• Francesco Giubilei joins the podcast to discuss the current landscape of Italian politics and how it led to the election of Giorgia Meloni
• the relationship between Italy and the European Union, and the major problems with globalization that have produced a nationalist backlash
• How the Middle Ages shaped the local diversity of Italian cities and cultures, how the Catholic Church has played a defining role in the cultural and religious identity of Italy, and why the Roman Empire is the beginning of Italian conservatism

Texts Mentioned:

• The History of European Conservative Thought by Francesco Giubilei
• Interpretations of Fascism by Renzo de Felice
• “The Perfect Consumer” speech by Giorgia Meloni
• The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa
• The Crisis of Modernity by Augusto del Noce
• Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• “Why I Became a Conservative” by Sir Roger Scruton

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 In this episode:

• Antony Davies, professor of economics at Duquesne University, joins the podcast to discuss the current state of the American economy, including the record-level inflation hurting American consumers and its roots in the government response to COVID-19
• how government policies surrounding taxation and government spending contribute to the inflation crisis, and how to restructure the tax code in a way that is more clear, more fair, and better for long-term economic prosperity
• why the Biden student loan forgiveness program encourages all the wrong incentives in higher education, and how university endowments can be leveraged towards better educational and financial outcomes

Texts mentioned:

• “Words and Numbers” Podcast by Antony Davies and James Harrigan
• Cooperation and Coercion by Antony Davies and James Harrigan
• Milton Friedman and Phil Donahue interviews
• “Free to Choose” documentary by Milton Friedman

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In this episode:

• Eugene Meyer, son of Frank S. Meyer and President and CEO of the Federalist Society, joins to talk about the legacy of Fusionism, the philosophy pioneered by his father
• Frank Meyer's conversion from communism to championing politics centered around individual freedom
• the enduring debate over the timeless principles of freedom and virtue in American political history

Texts Mentioned:

• In Defense of Freedom by Frank S. Meyer
• "Common Good Originalism" by Josh Hammer
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

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In this episode:

• Richard Gamble, professor of history at Hillsdale College, joins the podcast to discuss the two strands of American civil religion
• Lincoln’s European political influences, and how Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address changed the way that America thinks about its purpose and how it reshapes our view of the American Founding
• Why the “old” conception of American Exceptionalism offers the best understanding of the American identity
• How Protestantism shaped the landscape of American higher education in the colonial period and the early Republic

Texts Mentioned:

• “Civil Religion in America” by Robert Bellah
• The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy: How America’s Civil Religion Betrayed the National Interest by Walter McDougall
• “Gettysburg Gospel” by Richard Gamble
• Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
• The National System of Political Economy by Friedrich List
• The Great Tradition edited by Richard Gamble
• A Fiery Gospel: The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the Road to Righteous War by Richard Gamble
• The War for Righteousness: Progressive Christianity, the Great War, and the Rise of the Messianic Nation by Richard Gamble

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 In this episode:

• Frederica Mathewes-Green joins the podcast to discuss the basics of Eastern Orthodox spiritual practices
• the life and work of Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, one of the most important Orthodox theologians in the West
• the major differences in approach, focus, and emphasis between Eastern and Western prayer, doctrine, and political theology

Texts Mentioned:

• The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware
• The Orthodox Way by Bishop Kallistos Ware
• The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Prayer That Tunes the Heart to Godby Frederica Mathewes-Green
• Fr. Arseny: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father by Vera and Peter Bouteneff
• The Didache
• Two Views of the Cross by Frederica Mathewes-Green

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