The Optimistic Curmudgeon

Life on the Silent Planet - with Rhys Laverty (8x2)

Rhys Laverty, Senior at Ad Fontes, Senior Managing Editor at Davenant Press, and Director of Communications at the Davenant Institute, describes his work on Life on the Silent Planet: Essays on Christian Living from C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. Rhys explains the need for a volume of literary essays on Lewis's Ransom Trilogy, his experience beginning to read Lewis seriously, and then explains three approaches to pleasure highlighted in Perelandra. The Ransom Trilogy, Rhys argues, has direct bearing on helping Christians follow Christ more closely.

Mentions in episode:

Life on the Silent Planet Amazon purchase link: https://shorturl.at/QM68d

Davenant Institute: https://davenantinstitute.org/

Follow Rhys on X here - https://x.com/RDLaverty 

Sponsor Links

America's Christian Credit Union - https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/ 

The Re-Enchanting Inklings, with Dr. Josh Herring (8x1)

Josh Herring introduces Season 8 of The Optimistic Curmudgeon as a themed season around the idea of re-enchantment as modeled by the Inklings. He argues that the most important move Conservatives can make in this moment, when the Right is ascendant, is to rediscover how to tell excellent stories. C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield remind us that through stories we rediscover the complexity of reality.

Sponsor Links America's Christian Credit Union - https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/ 

The Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation - with James Orr (7x10 - season finale!)

Dr. James Orr discusses his friendship with Sir Roger Scruton, his work with the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation, philosophy, and theology. It's a marvelous conversation that covers a breadth of topics. Enjoy! Topics of conversation include:

- Islam and the West

- The Face of God

- Fighting Communists by teaching philosophy in Hungary

- Scrutopia

- CS Lewis, friendship, and The Four Loves

- Architecture and "Building Better, Building Beautiful"

- Wine, terroir, and place

- The origin story of the Roger Scruton Legacy

- The relationship between Sir Roger and practical politics

- Performing Sir Roger's opera!

- Scruton's ecology

- JD Vance's VP debate

- The impact of overturning CHEVRON on the EPA

- Jordan Peterson winning the Scruton Prize

- Is Jordan Peterson a conservative? Is he a Christian? Thoughts on He Who Wrestles with God?

- How do function and essence relate in the perception of beauty? - Protestants and beautiful churches

- Why have the Scruton lecture become the Oakeshott lectures?

- Just how many books did Sir Roger write?

Find James Orr on X at  @jtworr .

Check out the work of the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation here: https://www.scruton.org/

Thank you to America's Christian Credit Union for sponsoring this episode! Be sure to check out their website here: https://americaschristiancu.com/every/

 

God and Science - with Spencer Klavan (7x9)

Spencer Klavan of  @YoungHereticsShow  discusses his newest book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World. Does science actually support the idea of a godless universe? What happens to the universe when an intelligent mind is present? Why is a classicist writing a book about science? We get into all these questions, and a fun digression on theology, hermeneutics, and #evolution. Great conversation!

Link to buy the book: https://shorturl.at/d7bNF

 

Choosing to Have Children and Defying the Birth Dearth - with Catherine Pakaluk (7x8)

Dr. Catherine Pakaluk tells the story behind her book Hannah's Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth. The birth rate decline is not a result of policy changes, and cannot be fixed by policy. Dr. Pakaluk conducted a qualitative studying to discover why women choose to have large families. She describes her findings, and tells some of the stories from her research. There is a clear cost of having children, and the turning point for mothers came in seeing each child as a gift and being open to the gift of another child. This was a great conversation!

This episode is sponsored by the Acton Institute and their podcast, Acton Line. Acton Line is a weekly interview podcast from the Acton Institute featuring a wide variety of guests whose work and expertise help to move us toward a free and virtuous society. From theology and philosophy to economics and law, church and state to business and culture. Acton Line brings the Acton Institute’s unique synthesis of piety and technique to every sphere of life. For engaging and illuminating conversations that connect good intentions with sound economics subscribe to Acton Line on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify or anywhere else you listen to fine podcasts.

Links: Hannah's Children: https://shorturl.at/RfSKH

The Acton Institute: https://www.acton.org/

Acton Line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ufxTLt-Fs&list=PL2YhagjmWvB8HoOCzJ-tY-Y1CVqdC8wgn

 

America's Nuclear Future - with Emmet Penney (7x7)

Emmet Penney discusses America's failing electrical power grid, the possibilities of a nationwide network of nuclear power plants, and the way those power plants would restore dignity to the American workforce. Penney has opinions on which nuclear model should be template - listen to find out! We also briefly discuss his journey out of the Democratic Party, and hopes for what a Trump administration can do. We recorded this well before the 2024 election.

#nuclear #energy #politics #crisis #Electricity #TrumpAdministration

This episode is sponsored by America's Christian Credit Union - check them out here: https://americaschristiancu.com/every/

Emmet's Substack: https://nuclearbarbarians.substack.com/

Follow Emmet on X here: https://x.com/nukebarbarian

 

Educational Entrepreneurship - With Bob Luddy (7x6)

Bob Luddy, founder of Captiveaire, St. Thomas More Academy, Franklin Academy, Thales Academy, and Thales College, defines and discusses the "educational entrepreneur." He explains the role eduction plays in changing culture, the significance of finding the right people for leadership roles, and the value of persistence in building an organization. At the close of the episode, Bob explains why he wanted to found a college. Making entrepreneurs is in one sense impossible, but the conditions for entrepreneurship involve immersion in liberal education and vast experience in business. That's what Bob wants Thales College to be.

#entrepreneur #reader #liberalarts #Business #college #highereducation #wisdom #virtue

Links:

https://www.thalescollege.org/

https://captiveaire.com/

Bob's autobiography, An Entrepreneurial Life - https://tinyurl.com/ywmyx3zz

Bob's latest book, The Thales Way - https://tinyurl.com/mtnvbfhd

 

Money and the Deep State - Tyler O'Neil (7x5)

Tyler O'Neil discusses his forthcoming book The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government. Covid policy, education, budget funding, the LGBTQ+ agenda, and teachers' unions that have broken American education - Tyler explains the many ways the deep state has corrupted the constitutional governance of America. Tracing the money forms quite the map, and is the key to seeing influence. #administrativeState #conservatism #DeepState #Education #LGBTQ+ #draintheswamp #Project2025

Pre-Order here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFVK74TZ/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk

This episode is sponsored by America's Christian Credit Union - check them out here: https://americaschristiancu.com/every/

 

 

 

Transhumanism, P**n, Loneliness, and Big Tech - With Emily Jashinsky (7x4)

Emily Jashinsky of Unherd discusses the unique challenges pornography and big tech pose to our culture; she suggests that the loneliness epidemic is directly connected to these problems. Transhumanism as a rejection of the natural goodness of the body fits directly into our cultural malaise. Join Emily and Josh for a great conversation about the problems facing the 21st century and the hope that remains!

Emily hosts Undercurrents, which can be found here: https://unherd.com/undercurrents/

 

 

Forming the Moral Imagination - feat. Sean Hadley (7x3)

Dr. Sean Hadley discusses the effects the key texts of literature have on the moral imagination: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, Dante's Divine Comedy, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Milton's Paradise Lose, Sophocles' Oedipus Cycle, The Song of Roland (Anon). Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Lewis's Till We Have Faces. Enjoy this discussion of the formative power great books have on the imagination!

Sean's Substack - A Southern Knickerbocker - https://hadleyonfire.substack.com/

This episode is based on the following two Substack articles:

https://hadleyonfire.substack.com/p/10-books-for-the-classical-imagination

https://hadleyonfire.substack.com/p/10-books-for-the-classical-imagination-b4c

We are grateful for the sponsorship for this episode provided by the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. Check out their website here: https://www.jamesgmartin.center/

The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal educates citizens and decision-makers to improve higher education. The Martin Center is dedicated to promoting knowledge over credentials, restoring genuine liberal learning, and ensuring that public investment in higher education provides value to students, taxpayers, and society.

A recent report from the Martin Center explores Great Books programs across the country. This report is designed for students who desire a deep and broad understanding of the Great Works of Western civilization. It will direct them to almost 50 colleges and universities that offer a substantive education in “the best which has been thought and said.” These programs invite students to become participants in a centuries-long conversation that begins with Plato, Aristotle, and Homer and extends to Dante, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen.

The report can be downloaded from the Martin Center’s website at go.jamesgmartin.center/GREATBOOKS

or here: https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/04/preserving-the-canon-great-books-programs-at-americas-colleges-and-universities/