The Sower
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The Sower episodes

  • Introducing the Logres Institute - The Sower Episode 87 (audio)

    A content focused certificate program for classical school teachers & other adults.

    Josh Bowman and Josh Herring discuss the Ciceronian Society’s most ambitious project to date: The Logres Institute for Classical Liberal Studies, which will be directed by Dr. Herring.

    The Logres Institute aims to provide the education you wish you had received. Designed with the busy professional in mind, our certification programs deliver the content knowledge needed to teach in the classical classroom. Efficient, affordable, and tailor-made for the classical classroom, each certification program instills the basic structure upon which you can continue to build your comprehension of the classical liberal arts.

    Logres Institute for Classical Liberal Studies
    https://www.logresinstitute.org/

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    0:00 Introduction the The Sower Episode 87
    3:48 Overview of the Logres Institute
    9:11 Importance of Learning in Community
    16:55 What a Typical Logres Institute Course Looks Like
    25:25 Price of a Logres Institute Course
    31:43 What Does "Logres" Mean?
    35:58 Christian Character of the Logres Institute
    46:27 Logres Institute Courses
    53:45 Our Vision for the Logres Institute

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    The 2026 Fall Symposium: “Scholars and Educators in a Brave New World”, Oct 22-24 in Holland, MI

    Proposals due June 1, 2026: https://ciceroniansociety.org/fall-symposium/fa26cfp/

    2027 Spring Conference in Virginia Beach, VA, March 11-13

    Proposals due Sept 1, 2026: https://ciceroniansociety.org/conference-spring/call-for-conference-papers/

    To learn more about the Ciceronian Society, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    Check out our other weekly podcast, Cicero On Duties: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7f66VCvfaF3PYETBIJG4AGMpanUNE3

    58 min
  • John Dickinson, Penman of the Founding (2026 Conference) - The Sower Episode 86 (audio)

    We honor Jane Calvert for her book Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson.

    Plenary panel from the 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, March 12, 2026. Featuring speakers Joshua Bowman, Michael Maibach, James Patterson, and Jane Calvert.

    Book: https://www.amazon.com/Penman-Founding-Biography-John-Dickinson/dp/0197541690

    Joshua Bowman, Introduction
    Michael Maibach, About Prof. Storing
    James Patterson, Prize Award
    Jane Calvert & James Patterson, Conversation
    Question & Answer

    0:00 Episode 86 Introduction
    2:18 Welcome to Omaha! (Bowman)
    14:17 About Professor Herbert Storing (Maibach)
    20:03 The 2026 Herbert J. Storing Prize Award (Patterson)
    23:47 Interview with Jane Calvert about John Dickinson
    1:09:39 Audience Questions about John Dickinson

    To learn more about the Ciceronian Society, our events, this podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    Check out our other podcast, Cicero On Duties, publishing weekly throughout 2026: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7f66VCvfaF3PYETBIJG4AGMpanUNE3

    1 hr 20 min
  • Local Flourishing & Formation with Christian Halls International - The Sower Episode 85 (audio)

    Working to make it normative to stay in your local place for higher education.

    Josh Bowman interviews Dr. Nick Ellis, Founder and CEO of Christian Halls International (CHI), which is “reimagining collegiate education through local learning communities that form virtuous people who contribute to flourishing places.”

    We revisit the unique model (unique at least in America) of CHI and how this quickly-growing network of educators and tutors is transforming the way we think about education and flourishing in our local communities.

    To learn more about this exciting example of educational entrepreneurship, visit https://christianhalls.org/

    Dr. Nicholas Ellis of Christian Halls International at TPUSA Faith's The Believers Summit - https://youtu.be/e2gHWgX3-jw?si=yFLIvHN_JWjvmY9v

    0:00 What Christian Halls Is
    10:22 Subsidiarity and Sphere Sovereignty
    18:41 What Local Flourishing Means
    34:29 Humanities Education in Local Context
    40:50 Remedial Education & the Two Guilds
    48:49 Distinctive Multigenerational Formation
    58:34 How to Get Involved with Christian Halls International

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    The 2026 Fall Symposium: “Scholars and Educators in a Brave New World”, Oct 22-24 in Holland, MI

    Proposals due June 1, 2026: https://ciceroniansociety.org/fall-symposium/fa26cfp/

    2027 Spring Conference in Virginia Beach, VA, March 11-13

    Proposals due Sept 1, 2026: https://ciceroniansociety.org/conference-spring/call-for-conference-papers/

    To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    1 hr 6 min
  • CS Lewis on the Gender Question, with Josh Herring - The Sower Episode 84 (audio)

    Josh Bowman interviews Dr. Josh Herring on his new book, Sons of Adam, Daughters of Eve: C.S. Lewis's Images of Gender. We discuss Lewis’s fiction and non-fiction, and how the great Christian apologist, scholar, and author gives us ways to think through masculinity and femininity. 

    Josh Herring is the Curriculum Program Manager for the Rafiki Foundation and Director of the Logres Institute for Classical Liberal Studies.

    To purchase the book, visit our friends at the Davenant Institute: https://davenantinstitute.org/sons-of-adam-daughters-of-eve

    Logres Institute for Classical Liberal Studies: https://www.logresinstitute.org/

    Rafiki Foundation: https://rafikifoundation.org/

    0:00 Upcoming Ciceronian Society Events & Projects
    3:02 Why Write About the Radioactive Topic of CS Lewis on Gender?
    6:20 What Does it Mean to Grow Up into a Man or Woman?
    10:46 Overcoming Opposition from the Lewis Estate
    15:45 Why Listen to CS Lewis on Femininity?
    22:33 Why Gender Theory is So Dangerous
    30:45 CS Lewis's Essay "Priestesses in the Church"
    36:15 CS Lewis's Use of Spencer & Faerie Queen
    46:26 CS Lewis's Use of Milton & Paradise Lost
    49:32 Positive & Negative Masculinity & Femininity
    1:01:45 Other Images of Masculine & Feminine in Literature
    1:09:59 4 Books (for Christians) on Images of Gender in Literature

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    The 2026 Fall Symposium: “Scholars and Educators in a Brave New World”, Oct 22-24 in Holland, MI

    Proposals due June 1, 2026: https://ciceroniansociety.org/fall-symposium/fa26cfp/

    2027 Spring Conference in Virginia Beach, VA, March 11-13

    Proposals due Sept 1, 2026: https://ciceroniansociety.org/conference-spring/call-for-conference-papers/

    To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    1 hr 18 min
  • Humanomics (2026 Conference) - The Sower Episode 83 (audio)

    How do we humanize economics? Are formal & final causes necessary for economics?

    Plenary panel from the 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, March 12, 2026. Featuring presentations by Michael Thomas, Steven Miller, Paul Mueller, and Diana Thomas. Panel sponsored by the Menard Family Center for Economic Inquiry at Creighton University, https://www.creighton.edu/menard-center-for-economic-inquiry

    Michael Thomas, Introduction
    Steven Miller, Catholic Social Teaching and Comparative Economic Systems: On Free Enterprise and the Common Good
    Paul Mueller, Philosophical Versus Technical Economies
    Diana Thomas, Dignity Relies on Providence
    Michael Thomas, Closing Remarks, Humanomics: Is it a Complement or Substitute?

    0:00 Episode Intro
    1:16 Michael Thomas, Panel Intro
    6:47 Steven Miller
    23:36 Paul Mueller
    39:23 Diana Thomas
    53:39 Michael Thomas, Closing Remarks
    1:03:58 Q & A

    To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    Check out our other podcast, Cicero On Duties, publishing weekly throughout 2026: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7f66VCvfaF3PYETBIJG4AGMpanUNE3

    1 hr 28 min
  • Life in Pittsboro NC, with Madeleine Austin & Matthew Young - The Sower Episode 82

    Chris Anadale interviews Madeleine Austin and Matthew Young about the value of place and their home of Pittsboro, North Carolina.

    Madeleine Austin lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina. She is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. When Madeleine is not playing her banjo, she works as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserves. She also received the Ciceronian Society's 2025 Batchelder Award for the Study of Place, for which she was interviewed on Episode 60 of The Sower.

    Matthew Young lives on a small farm in Chatham County, North Carolina, with his wife Camille and their four children. He is an assistant professor of political theory at Elon University, where he teaches courses spanning the history of political thought and constitutional law. His writing focuses on the difficulties of toleration and civil discourse. His book manuscript draws on seventeenth century sources to show that toleration is dependent on hope. He holds degrees in political science from Berea College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

    Christopher Anadale is podcast editor for the Ciceronian Society and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. His runs a philosophy YouTube channel.

    Mentioned in this Episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsboro,_North_Carolina

    To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    Check out our other podcast, Cicero On Duties, publishing weekly throughout 2026: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7f66VCvfaF3PYETBIJG4AGMpanUNE3 

    48 min
  • Marco Andreacchio on Shakespeare and Dante - The Sower Episode 81

    Chris Anadale interviews scholar Marco Andreacchio about Shakespeare as a philosophical poet.

    Marco Antonio Andreacchio was awarded a doctorate from the University of IIlinois for his interpretation of Sino-Japanese philosophical classics in dialogue with Western counterparts and a doctorate from Cambridge University for his work on Dante’s Platonic interpretation of religious authority. He has taught at various higher education institutions and published systematically on problems of a political-philosophical nature.  His monographs include Medieval Teachers of Freedom and two recent works on Shakespeare—The Passion of Reason (focusing on Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream), and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in Dante's Spirit. He is currently completing studies of various other Shakespearean plays rediscovered as Platonic Dialogues articulated in light of the rise of a modern world.

    Christopher Anadale is podcast editor for the Ciceronian Society and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. His philosophy YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/christopheranadale 

    Romeo and Juliet Book: https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Juliet-Anglo-Italian-Renaissance-Studies/dp/104124617X

    To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    Check out our other podcast, Cicero On Duties, publishing weekly throughout 2026: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7f66VCvfaF3PYETBIJG4AGMpanUNE3

    52 min
  • C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy (2026 Conference) - The Sower Episode 80 (audio)

    Responses to modernism in the three Ransom novels (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength).

    Plenary panel from the 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, March 12, 2026. Featuring presentations by Joshua Bowman, Joshua Herring, Sean Hadley, Madeleine Austin, and Scott Postma.

    0:00 Episode Intro
    1:40 Bowman
    9:25 Herring
    29:28 Hadley
    43:45 Austin
    59:30 Postma
    1:22:20 Q & A

    To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    Check out our other podcast, Cicero On Duties, publishing weekly throughout 2026: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7f66VCvfaF3PYETBIJG4AGMpanUNE3

    1 hr 45 min
  • Coming Soon: Fall 2026 Symposium in Holland, Michigan - The Sower Episode 79 (audio)

    Josh Bowman shares information about the Ciceronian Society's inaugural Fall Symposium, October 11-13, 2026 in Holland, Michigan. He also looks back at our Omaha Conference (March 2026) and forward to our March 2027 Conference in Virginia Beach.

    Josh Bowman is Executive Director of the Ciceronian Society.

    Chris Anadale is podcast editor for the Ciceronian Society, and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

    Mentioned in this Episode: Josh on the coming apostolic age, https://youtu.be/_9CDayRazTU

    To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    Check out our other podcast, Cicero On Duties, publishing weekly throughout 2026: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7f66VCvfaF3PYETBIJG4AGMpanUNE3

    48 min
  • Thomas Carlyle, Forgotten Conservative (Part 2) - The Sower Episode 78 (audio)

    Life and works of the Scottish man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881).

    Ethan Alexander-Davey teaches political science at Campbell University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ciceronian Society. He is co-editor, with Richard Avramenko, of Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times and Aristocratic Voices: Forgotten Arguments about Virtue, Authority and Inequality both published by Lexington/Bloomsbury.

    Scott Irving read modern history at Oxford University. He is author of "Vico and the Aristocratic Origin of Political Order” published in the edited volume Aristocratic Voices.

    Texts discussed in this podcast:

    The Norman and Charlotte Strouse Edition of the Writings of Thomas Carlyle https://www.ucpress.edu/series/the-norman-and-charlotte-strouse-edition-of-the-writings-of-thomas-carlyle

    Essays on Politics and Society https://www.ucpress.edu/books/essays-on-politics-and-society/hardcover

    Other works by Carlyle Carlyle’s Latter-Day Pamphlets, which awaits a modern critical edition: https://dn721807.ca.archive.org/0/items/latterdaypamphle00carlrich/latterdaypamphle00carlrich.pdf

    Other books referenced

    Charles Frederick Harrold, Carlyle and German Thought https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.01171/page/285/mode/2up

    Cicero, De re publica, De legibus https://archive.org/details/cicero-in-28-volumes.-vol.-16-loeb-213/mode/2up

    Gertrude Himmelfarb, The De-moralization of Society https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/80256/the-de-moralization-of-society-by-gertrude-himmelfarb/

    To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

    Check out our other podcast, Cicero On Duties, publishing weekly throughout 2026: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B7f66VCvfaF3PYETBIJG4AGMpanUNE3

    1 hr 13 min

About The Sower

From the publisher's feed

The Sower is a Podcast of the Ciceronian Society.