Dr. Catherine Pakaluk on large families, the soulmate era, and how to be excellent.

Catherine Ruth Pakaluk is an American economist and social philosopher at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She completed her doctoral work in economics at Harvard University under Nobel laureate Oliver Hart. A mother of eight, she collaborates closely, personally, and professionally, with her husband, American philosopher Michael Pakaluk. They split their time between suburban Maryland and New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

This is Episode Eight of The Uncaptive Mind, hosted by UATX Editor-in-Chief Audrey Unverferth. It was recorded last year on September 9, 2025, at UATX.

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At just 28 years old, Abraham Lincoln delivered a startling warning about the future of American self-government. In this UATX lecture, Diana Schaub uncovers the deeper argument of Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address, and why its diagnosis of political passion, ambition, and democratic decline feels uncannily relevant today. What does it really take to preserve liberty? And are Americans still capable of it?

Diana Schaub is Professor Emerita of Political Science at Loyola University Maryland and a non-resident Senior Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She was the Garwood Teaching Fellow at Princeton University in 2011-12 and Visiting Professor of Political Theory in the Government Department at Harvard University in 2018, 2020, and 2022. She is the author of a book on Montesquieu, along with numerous articles in the fields of political philosophy and American political thought. She is a coeditor (with Amy and Leon Kass) of What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song. A member of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, she also sits on the publication committee of National Affairs. Her book on Lincoln’s rhetoric and statesmanship, His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation, appeared in 2021 from St. Martin’s Press.

Recorded: February 17, 2026 at UATX.

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Rod Dreher on Czeslaw Milosz, Gen Z men, and why you should live an embodied life.

Rod Dreher is an American journalist, author, and write of the Substack Rod Dreher's Diary. He is the author of six books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Benedict Option (2017) and Live Not by Lies (2020). An Orthodox Christian, Dreher writes about the intersection of religion, culture, and politics. His most recent book is Living in Wonder, and he is currently working on a new book exploring the parallels between 1920s Germany and 2020s America. He is also a contributor to the Free Press.

This is Episode Seven of The Uncaptive Mind, hosted by UATX Editor-in-Chief Audrey Unverferth. It was recorded last year on August 2, 2025, in Esztergom, Hungary, at Mathias Corvinus Collegium's annual conference, MCC Feszt.

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This is part six of a six-part series on Ecclesiastes, the Bible’s great philosopher.

How did a book this strange ever make it into the Bible? In this final lecture, Professor J.J. Kimche traces the remarkable afterlife of Ecclesiastes, from the rabbis who nearly buried it to the long line of illustrious readers who reshaped it in their own image: St. Jerome, Rashbam, Martin Luther, Moses Mendelssohn, and Albert Camus. Each one found a different Ecclesiastes staring back at them—a heretic or a saint, a skeptic or a sage. Kimche explains why Ecclesiastes belongs on every bookshelf.

J.J. Kimche is Assistant Professor Religion and Philosophy at the University of Austin (UATX). An Englishman by upbringing and an intellectual historian by training, Kimche's work explores the intersections of European philosophy, Jewish thought, and the evolving trajectory of religious ideas in the modern West.

Recorded: November 24, 2025 at UATX.

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This is part five of a six-part series on Ecclesiastes, the Bible’s great philosopher.

Death haunts all of Ecclesiastes, and here Professor J.J. Kimche reads the book’s haunting poem on old age and dying that he ranks among the greatest reflections on death ever written. Then comes the puzzle at the very end. After twelve chapters insisting that all is futile, the book suddenly closes with an unexpected ending.

J.J. Kimche is Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Austin (UATX). An Englishman by upbringing and an intellectual historian by training, Kimche's work explores the intersections of European philosophy, Jewish thought, and the evolving trajectory of religious ideas in the modern West.

Recorded: November 24, 2025 at UATX.

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This is part four of a six-part series on Ecclesiastes, the Bible’s great philosopher.

Who is the God of Ecclesiastes? He is everywhere in the book, yet no one prays to him and he answers no one—sovereign over everything, but silent and out of reach. In this lecture, Professor J.J. Kimche unpacks this strange theology, along with the equally strange view of human life that follows from it: that we toil without end, that wisdom can only take us so far, and that we face it all, in Ecclesiastes' telling, utterly alone.

J.J. Kimche is Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Austin (UATX). An Englishman by upbringing and an intellectual historian by training, Kimche's work explores the intersections of European philosophy, Jewish thought, and the evolving trajectory of religious ideas in the modern West.

Recorded: November 24, 2025 at UATX.

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This is part three of a six-part series on Ecclesiastes, the Bible’s great philosopher.

What kind of life does Ecclesiastes commend once illusion has been stripped away? In this lecture, Professor J.J. Kimche turns from diagnosis to prescription. Ecclesiastes' wisdom is not a doctrine but an art of living—a chastened wisdom, grounded in humility before the relentless march of time and the sovereignty of God. Along the way, Kimche traces its surprising kinship with other traditions, particularly the Stoic and Epicurean.

J.J. Kimche is Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Austin (UATX). An Englishman by upbringing and an intellectual historian by training, Kimche's work explores the intersections of European philosophy, Jewish thought, and the evolving trajectory of religious ideas in the modern West.

Recorded: November 24, 2025 at UATX.

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This is part two of a six-part series on Ecclesiastes, the Bible’s great philosopher.

Professor J.J. Kimche confronts the central problem that animates Ecclesiastes: the futility and absurdity of human striving in a transient and inscrutable world. It all turns on a single word, through which Ecclesiastes takes aim at wisdom, pleasure, wealth, and toil. What he concludes about them is far darker than most readers expect.

J.J. Kimche is Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Austin (UATX). An Englishman by upbringing and an intellectual historian by training, Kimche's work explores the intersections of European philosophy, Jewish thought, and the evolving trajectory of religious ideas in the modern West.

Recorded: November 24, 2025 at UATX.

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This is part one of a six-part series on Ecclesiastes, the Bible’s great philosopher.

Ecclesiastes may be the most enigmatic book in the Bible—something between philosophy and prophecy, skepticism and faith. Is it a sermon, a diary, a philosophical treatise, a theological rant, or somehow all of these at once?

J.J. Kimche is Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Austin (UATX). An Englishman by upbringing and an intellectual historian by training, Kimche's work explores the intersections of European philosophy, Jewish thought, and the evolving trajectory of religious ideas in the modern West.

Recorded: November 24, 2025 at UATX.

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Mark Oppenheimer on apartheid, censorship, and the weaponization of the law.

Mark Oppenheimer is a practicing advocate and member of the Johannesburg Bar. He has appeared in the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court in a series of cases that seek to determine the boundaries of freedom of expression. Mark has authored submissions to Parliament on the Hate Speech Bill and to the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on escalating racial tensions. He has also presented an oral submission to parliament on expropriation without compensation. Oppenheimer has been interviewed on eNCA, CNBC Africa and Cliff Central to discuss the bill of rights and the rule of law. Along with Gwen Ngwenya, he hosted the podcast Freedom Versus and he currently hosts the popular philosophy series Brain in a Vat. He is co-author of the Conversations about Philosophy Book Series.

This discussion was moderated by UATX University Dean Ben Crocker. It was recorded on November 4, 2025 at UATX.

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