Acton Line

Latest Episodes:

The Cuban revolution Aug 25, 2021

Show notes

For the first time in more than 6 decades Cuban citizens are protesting in the streets against their communist government regime.

In this episode, Dan Hugger, Librarian and research associate here at the Acton Institute sits down with a Cuban priest Fr. Alberto Reyes to discuss the horrors of communism in Cuba, the revolution, and how Christians should respond to it.

As a quick note, in this interview, Fr. Reyes speaks in his native tongue, Spanish and we have translated his answers to English.

The Tragedy of Communism in Cuba | Acton Vault

Cuba Libre: Protestors call for an end to communism and oppression

The crumbling façade of Cuban communism

Subscribe to Acton Vault podcast

Subscribe to Acton Unwind podcast

About Fr. Reyes:

Alberto Reyes Pías was born in Camagüey, Cuba, on May 26, 1967. He grew up in Florida, Camaguey, where he studied until finishing high school. At the age of 18 he entered the University of Medical Science in Camagüey. At the end of his third year of medicine he decided to leave university and start his ecclesiastical studies. He studied humanities and philosophy at the seminaries San Basilio Magno, in Santiago de Cuba, and San Carlos and San Ambrosio, in Havana. For his theological studies he was sent to Rome, to the Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum.

After completing his studies, he was ordained a priest in his hometown of Florida on December 12, 1996. After a few months serving provisionally in the parishes of Guáimaro and El Cristo, the latter in the city of Camagüey, he was sent as pastor to the area of Esmeralda, where he remained for six years. He was then sent to the Pontifical University of Comillas, in Madrid, to do a degree in psychology. Upon returning, he was assigned to the parish of Guáimaro, where he remained for six years.

He decided to take a sabbatical in which he makes a pilgrimage on foot from Rome to Jerusalem. Upon returning he is sent as a volunteer to the parish of Maisí, in the easternmost tip of Cuba. Two years later he was appointed trainer of the San Agustín Seminary, in Camagüey, where he worked full-time for a year. Currently, he continues as a trainer of the Seminary of St. Augustine, as a spiritual father, and at the same time attends the parish of Esmeralda. He has published "Do my will. (History of a resistance)". A book that relates his vocational itinerary but is at the same time a reflection on how to find the meaning of one's life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Acton Unwind: Have the Taliban changed? Aug 23, 2021

Show notes

This week on Acton Unwind, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and special guest Mustafa Akyol discuss the latest developments in Afghanistan, as the United States works feverishly to get Americans out of the country. How many refugees should the United States accept? What will rule by the Taliban look like? Have they changed at all, as some people have suggested? Then, Eric and Sam discuss the FDA’s final approval of the COVID vaccines, the lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand and the resistance they have produced, and whether our elites and civic leaders are more incompetent than they were in the past, or whether the velocity and availability of information just makes it seem that way.

Subscribe to Acton Unwind on:

Reopening Muslim Minds with Mustafa Akyol - Acton Line

Welcoming the stranger: The dignity and promise of Afghan refugees - Joseph Sunde

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reopening Muslim Minds Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Nathan Mech, program outreach project manager here at the Acton Institute, sits down with Mustafa Akyol, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, to discuss his new book, Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance.

In his book, Akyol dives deep into Islamic theology, shares lessons from his own life story, and reveals how Muslims lost the universalism that made them a great civilization in their earlier centuries.

Values often associated with Western thought like freedom, reason, tolerance, and science were historically part of Islamic philosophy but in recent generations have been cast aside to reach political ends.

Mustafa Akyol | Bio

Islam and Freedom

Islam and Markets

Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance

Mustafa Akyol on the prospects for liberty in the Islamic world

Subscribe to Acton Vault podcast

Subscribe to Acton Unwind podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Acton Unwind: The Taliban retake Afghanistan Aug 16, 2021

Show notes

This week on Acton Unwind, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and Dan Hugger discuss the collapse of the Afghanistan government as the United States withdraws from the country nearly 20 years after September 11th and the beginning of combat operations there. We were told a collapse might happen in a year. Instead, it took days. What lessons should be learned from this? And how are we to trust our institutions when they’re constantly shown to be either wrong or lying to us? August 15 marked the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon taking the United States off the gold standard. How much of the economic turbulence in the decades since can be blamed on this decision? And, what role can cryptocurrencies play in the future of monetary policy?

Subscribe to Acton Unwind on:

“Why, as a Muslim, I Defend Liberty” by Mustafa Akyol

“Islam and Economics: A Primer on Markets, Morality, and Justice” by Ali Salman

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No, higher wages are not a ‘silver lining’ of inflation Aug 11, 2021

Show notes

As of May 2021, prices increased 5% over the course of one year – the sharpest increase in inflation since 2008. Inflation poses a palpable threat to the economic prosperity of America. Its prevalence is perpetuated by political institutions, corporations, and personal opinions. Big corporations and moguls will not necessarily suffer through significant change with a 5% increase in prices, the common citizen is more likely to be presented with financial hardships in their daily purchases.

Guest Peter Jacobsen, Assistant Professor of Economics at Ottawa University and the Gwartney Professor of Economic Education as well as a staff member at the Foundation for Economic Education, sits down with Director of Communications, Eric Kohn, to discuss the problems inflation proposes to America’s economic processes. In this episode, Peter Jacobsen also speaks further on his newest article, “No, Higher Wages are Not a ‘Silver Lining’ of Inflation,” and the false notions that the general public has on inflationary trends.

Understanding the escalation inflation undergoes due to COVID policies, the Federal Reserve’s reaction, and modern monetary theorists is timely and necessary in pinpointing solutions. The U.S. economy is in a difficult economic position, but by presently understanding the potential threat inflation poses, necessary steps can be taken to ensure a sound economic future.

No, Higher Wages Aren’t a 'Silver Lining' of Inflation | Peter Jacobsen

Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Acton Unwind: They're not gonna pay rent Aug 09, 2021

Show notes

We're thrilled to bring you a new podcast from the Acton Institute: Acton Unwind.

Acton Unwind is a weekly roundtable discussion of news and current events through the Acton Institute's lens on the world: promoting a free and virtuous society and connecting good intentions with sound economics. Each week I’ll be joined by Dr. Samuel Gregg and other Acton Institute experts for an exploration of news, politics, religion, and culture. This week, we discuss the extension of the CDC's unconstitutional eviction moratorium, the Biden administration's economically problematic proposal for free community college, and the New Right's infatuation with Viktor Orbán's Hungary.

Thanks for listening, and we hope you enjoy Acton Unwind.

‘Small-Time Landlords “Hanging on By Their Fingernails” as Eviction Moratorium Drags On’ - National Review

A Landlord Says Her Tenants Are Terrorizing Her. She Can’t Evict Them. - New York Times

Making community college free has hidden costs - Detroit News

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American men suffer a friendship recession Aug 04, 2021

Show notes

Genuine friendships are one of the core qualities of a great life.

Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero called a friend “a second self.” British author C.S. Lewis exalted friendship as adding “value to survival.” Whether in antiquity or modernity, friendship plays an integral part in the richness of the human experience for men and women alike. However, recent studies have shown that the amount of friendships the average man has are on the decline.

Daniel Cox, founder and director of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, sits down with Acton Line producer Gabriel Geagea to speak further on his latest article published in the National Review, “American men suffer a friendship recession,” an article focused on the diminishing rates of male friendships in the United States and its implications on America’s social sphere. If friendship is indeed an inherent good, what threats does its absence present to modern American society?

In addition to analyzing the root causes of this decrease in companionship and its effect on our nation’s social nature, Daniel and Gabriel discuss how emerging social norms can alter the ways in which society views friendships, and what society is to do to ensure good male friendships reappear as a strong thread in our American social fabric.

Do the American people view friendship as essential and giving value to our survival, or is it seen as an unnecessary commodity?

American Men Suffer Friendship Recession

Bio | Daniel Cox

The Survey Center on American Life

American Enterprise Institute

The joy of fatherhood: How sacrifice brings meaning to life

Wilfred McClay on friendship new and old – Acton Institute PowerBlog

How fatherhood leads to flourishing – Acton Institute PowerBlog

Bridging Income Inequality: The Subsidiarity Of Friendship – Acton Institute PowerBlog

Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The genius of Abraham Kuyper Jul 28, 2021

Show notes

In the early 1900’s, the Netherlands was under the rule of a dynamic prime minister, Abraham Kuyper. A multi-faceted figure, he implemented significant change in a vast array of sectors and contributed his work to Dutch society as a statesman, a journalist, a historian, a University founder, and a Calvinist theologian, among many other things.

But what can contemporary economic and political reasoning gain from the work of a man who was not a conventional economist?

In this episode, Dan Hugger, librarian and research associate here at the Acton Institute is joined by Peter Heslam, director of Transforming Business and a senior member of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge to discuss Kuyper’s teachings on Business & Economics. Heslam is also published widely on business, economics, religion, and is the author of Creating Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. Hugger and Heslam discuss the life of Abraham Kuyper, his genius, and the role he plays in societal understanding in our modern age.

Although not purely an entrepreneur or economist, Abraham Kuyper was able to comment on business and economics because he was engaged analytically in almost every sector of life, reflecting his belief that all spheres are interconnected under the sovereignty of God. For Kuyper, sound reasoning and action, no matter what sphere it pertains to, under the ordinance of God necessitates it as truth. Similarly, The Acton Institute is devoted to the mutuality and synthesis of economics and morals. When a worldview is good, true, and beautiful, the ultimate truth of every facet in human existence logically follows from one to another.

Bio | Peter Heslam, D.Phil.

Faith in Business

Acton Bookshop | On Business & Economics

Acton Bookshop | The Abraham Kuyper Collection

Acton Line | How should Christians engage the world? In conversation with Abraham Kuyper

Acton Line | Abraham Kuyper's "Common Grace"

Abraham Kuyper: ‘The school belongs to the parents’

Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The problem of industrial policy Jul 21, 2021

Show notes

Industrial policy is making a comeback in political discourse as a key issue to be tackled in maintaining America’s dominance internationally. Industry has always been a greater reflection of the trademarks of America; its efficiency, economic values, and its entrepreneurial spirit. However, in America’s current understanding of industrial policy, among other issues, it leans towards the government seizing the role of the market for itself; to control the economy in job opportunities and losses, unaccompanied by the natural flow of the market.

In this episode, Dr. Samuel Gregg, Acton Institute’s director of research is joined by Dr. Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, to discuss the industrial soul of American society, and if it is to be adopted as a major governmental policy, its ramifications on the American economy. Also discussed are ideas like the word itself: “industry,” and how it has become politically opportunistic in the hasty push for its accompanied legislation, it is utilized as an umbrella term to push many other policies through that pertain to public sectors outside of industry itself, like education, R & D, and training.

Innovation comes best from competition and creative freedom, not government intervention. The remaining question is: does a federal-centered industrial policy hinder American citizens and business’ ability to adjust to the ebb and flow of a natural economy?

Bio | Veronique De Rugy

Veronique de Rugy on The Made in America Podcast - Biden's Infrastructure Plan

Infrastructure Insanity, by Dr. Veronique de Rugy

Edmund Burke’s conservative case for free markets, by Dr. Samuel Gregg

Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PC culture on college campuses Jul 14, 2021

Show notes

Generation Z is a demographic group born between the late 1990’s and early 2010’s and they are beginning to trickle into workplaces. The push for open mindedness to become the norm in modern society means “Gen Zers” have already been confronted with ideas like fourth wave feminism, intersectionality, the transgender movement, and wokeism throughout their upbringing. Along with receptivity for progressive ideals, Gen Z now claims the largest percent of college attendance in history. In fact, 59 percent of 18 to 20 year olds were enrolled in colleges in 2017, compared to 53 percent of similar aged students in 2002 for the millennial generation.

In this episode, Acton Line Producer Gabriel Geagea sits down with Acton Institute’s college interns from our Emerging Leaders program, Grace Hemmeke and Kara Wheeler, to discuss what it is like to be a young woman on a college campus in 2021.

A University’s purpose is to train students in developing skills needed to perform a job and instill a desire for the pursuit of higher knowledge. Is this still the case in American Universities today? With educating a generation that is the most inclined to accept progressive ideals, what role, if any, do social beliefs play on a college campus?

Camille Paglia: The fearless feminist

The politically correct rule at Harvard Law

Speech codes limit campus freedom

Free Speech Still Not Free on College Campuses

Terrorists or freedom fighters: What's the difference?

Left-wing college administrators are a mirror of American political reality

Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.