Acton Line

Latest Episodes:

Mythic Realms Sep 20, 2023

Show notes

Dr. Bradley J. Birzer, Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and professor of history at Hillsdale College, discusses his new book, Mythic Realms: The Moral Imagination in Literature & Film with Dan Hugger. How does Mythic Realms extend the author’s prior work on Christian humanism? What is the role of the moral imagination in navigating popular culture? What do the pulps have to do with romanticism? How did the Inklings seek to promote Christian humanism through genre fiction? How can the moral imagination be employed to answer life’s biggest questions and deepen religious faith?

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Bradley Birzer | Hillsdale College

Bradley J. Birzer’s Substack

Mythic Realms, Bradley Birzer | Angelico Press

Beyond Tenebrae, Bradley Birzer | Angelico Press

Bradley J. Birzer, Author at The Imaginative Conservative

Cronyism vs. free markets in ‘Stranger Things’ | Religion & Liberty Online

Supernatural thriller Stranger Things shows the all-too-human evil of communism | Religion & Liberty Online

The Western Heritage to 1600 | Hillsdale College

The Rediscovery of Mystery by Russell Kirk | Imprimis (hillsdale.edu)

The Science Fiction Novel — Imagination and Social Criticism | Internet Archive

A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (Volume 1)

The Dark Virtues of Robert E. Howard | Modern Age

De Descriptione Temporum by C. S. Lewis | Internet Archive

Christian Humanism and the Imaginative Mysteries | Religion & Liberty Online

Freedom and Prosperity Around The World Sep 13, 2023

Show notes

Joseph Lemoine, deputy director of the Freedom and Prosperity Center at the Atlantic Council, joins Stephen Barrows, Acton’s COO, to discuss the Atlantic Council’s recently released 2023 Freedom and Prosperity Indexes.

The Freedom and Prosperity Center created these indexes to provide a snapshot of the current distribution of freedom and prosperity around the world; gain a sense of the evolution of both over the past 28 years at global, regional, and national levels; and facilitate an exploration of the relationship between freedom and prosperity. Lemoine and Barrows explore the Freedom and Prosperity Center’s expansive understanding of what constitutes a free and prosperous society.

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Prosperity that Lasts: The 2023 Freedom and Prosperity Indexes | Atlantic Council

Engaging Homelessness with Better Way Detroit Sep 06, 2023

Show notes

Better WAY Detroit engages, pays, feeds, and counsels homeless persons, and connects them to services for housing, medical and mental health care, and stable employment opportunities.

Through their efforts, participants inspire community spirit, pride of ownership, and confidence in the dignity of work. While serving as participants, we also mentor them so that they can best help them find permanent employment after their service.

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Better Way Detroit

Organizational Culture with Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan Aug 30, 2023

Show notes

Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at The Catholic University of America, shares his thoughts on “Organizational Culture” with Sarah Negri, Research Project Coordinator at the Acton Institute, at Acton University 2023. They discuss how culture affects us as humans without our being aware of it and how we in turn can affect culture through our free choices and actions. Conversation topics include the Competing Values Framework of evaluating a company’s culture; “culture drivers” including what Dr. Vaidyanathan calls scripts, models and habits; the role of virtue in forming company culture; the principle of subsidiarity as a guidepost for good organizational culture; and the importance of integration in harmonizing the various social environments encountered by the individual.

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“Organization Culture”, lecture at Acton University 2023

Competing Values Framework explanation

Mercenaries and Missionaries: Capitalism and Catholicism in the Global South by Brandon Vaidyanathan

NUMMI plant GM vs. Toyota culture example

Brunello Cucinelli fashion company story

Beauty at Work

National Study of Catholic Priests

Navigating the Rising Tide of Political Polarization Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Dylan Pahman interviews Dr. Rachel Ferguson about her lecture at Acton University on the problem of political polarization. From social media to cable news to tribalism to racial injustice to transgender activism, Dr. Ferguson gets at the deeper roots of the problem and offers a path of hope grounded in her Christian faith and philosophical expertise.

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Black Liberation Through the Marketplace | Amazon

The Law of Conservation of Welfare—And What Energy Source Can Transform It? Aug 16, 2023

Show notes

The law of conservation of mass dates from Antoine Lavoisier's 1789 discovery that mass is neither created nor destroyed in chemical reactions. Evidence of the past three decades leads Marvin Olasky to suggest a parallel Law of Conservation of Welfare regarding political reactions. In 1995-1996 the first GOP-majority House of Representatives in four decades changed AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) into TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) but left alone dozens of other programs. As work requirements and time limits reduced the number of AFDC/TANF recipients, programs such as SNAP, SSI, and SSDI expanded. The conservation of welfare is not good for many recipients who would be much better off with challenging, personal, and spiritual help, but changing the law requires a charge from outside current chemical configurations.

Cronyism, Corporate Welfare, and Inequality Aug 09, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Acton Line, Dylan Pahman, executive editor of the Journal of Markets and Morality, and a research fellow here at Acton, interviews Dr. Anne Rathbone Bradley about her lecture at Acton University on “Corporate Welfare and Inequality.”

In this conversation, this discuss why the prices of some goods, like education and healthcare, risen at astronomical rates while others, such as video games, remain fairly unchanged in price despite monumental improvements in quality and steady inflation over the decades. Also, what happens when companies use government privilege to secure special favors that push would-be competitors out of markets? What can be done about the unjust inequalities created by corporate welfare?

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Cronyism, Corporate Welfare and Inequality | Acton University 2023

Filthy Rich Politicians Aug 02, 2023

Show notes

If you asked people to describe our current cast of politicians in America right now, they might say that some, if not most, are slyly taking advantage of the system. They are hoping no one is savvy enough to notice.

Matt Lewis, senior columnist at The Daily Beast, believes that today’s politicians are an unsavory lot—a hybrid of plutocrats and hypocrites. And it’s worse (and more laughable) than you can imagine. In his new book, Filthy Rich Politicians: The Swamp Creatures, Latte Liberals, and Ruling-Class Elites Cashing in on America, Lewis introduces you to a crop of ivy league populists, insider traders, trust-fund babies, and swamp creatures as he exposes how truly ludicrous money in politics has gotten.

In Filthy Rich Politicians, Lewis embarks on an investigative deep dive into the ridiculous state of modern American democracy—a system where the rich get elected and the elected get rich. Lewis doesn’t just complain: he articulates how Americans can achieve accountability from their elected leaders through radically commonsense reforms. But many of these ruling-class elites have a vested financial interest in rejecting the reforms so desperately needed to rebuild Americans’ trust in the institutions that once made our nation great.

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Filthy Rich Politicians | Amazon

The New Catholic Integralism Jul 26, 2023

Show notes

Kevin Vallier, political philosopher and associate professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University, joins Dan Hugger to discuss Catholic Integralism and his forthcoming book All the Kingdoms of the World: On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism, which publishes with Oxford University Press in September.

What is Catholic Integralism and what is its relation to Catholic Social Teaching? What is its history and the story of its contemporary rise? How has it caused controversy in the broader Church and world? What is the American Integralist theory of social change?How concerned should ordinary people be about this movement? What fuels this sort of deep discontent with liberalism and modernity?

The conversation then turns what a constructive political-theological vision would look like and Kevin’s future plans.

Trust in a Polarized Age | Acton Line

Immortale Dei

DIGNITATIS HUMANAE

They Have Uncrowned Him | Amazon

The Josias

Adrian Vermeule | Harvard

Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Freedom: Revision, Reform, or Continuity? | Youtube

Selections from Three Works | Liberty Fund

Non Possumus | First Things

The Church's Once-Notorious Seizure of a Jewish Child Is Back. Why? | Mosaic

Against David French-ism | First Things

Integration from Within | American Affairs

Liberalism and the Invisible Hand | American Affairs

Patrick Deneen’s Otherworldly Regime | Religion & Liberty

Patrick Deneen and Our Otherworldly Postliberal “Future” | Acton Unwind

Replace the Elite | First Things

What Is To Be Done? | Wikipedia

All The Kingdoms of the World | Oxford University Press

All The Kingdoms of the World | kevinvallier.com

The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millenium | Amazon

Christian Workers and the Entrepreneurial Vocation Jul 19, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Father Roger J. Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, and Catholic Chaplain to Columbia University in New York City sits down with Sarah Negri, Research Project Coordinator at the Acton Institute, to discuss the social teaching of Pope John Paul II and especially his emphasis on the vocation of the Christian entrepreneur. Father Landry shares some history on John Paul II’s three most famous social encyclicals and elucidates their importance for the ordinary Christian worker. The discussion centers around the Christian vocation to work as a divine injunction, the subjective and objective elements of work, and how the Christian worker imitates both God as creator and Christ as the perfect human model of holy labor. It also touches on the challenges faced by the human worker, including the possibility of alienation, workaholisim, and the toil that accompanies hard labor, as well as solutions to these challenges.

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The Entrepreneurial Vocation (recorded lecture) – Acton University 2023

The Social Teaching of John Paul II (recorded lecture) – Acton University 2023

Laborem Exercens by Pope John Paul II

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis by Pope John Paul II

Centesimus Annus by Pope John Paul II

The Entrepreneurial Vocation by Fr. Robert Sirico