Arts
**The Civitas Podcast**

The Civitas Podcast, co-hosted by Peter Leithart and James Wood, exists to explore Christian political theology, with a specific focus on contemporary debates about liberalism and post-liberalism, and to elaborate a distinctively “ecclesiocentric” Theopolitan version of post-liberalism.

Latest Episodes:

Episode 36: Surveying Modern Political Theology, with Peter Leithart and James Wood Oct 31, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood discuss James' recent course on Christian Nationalism and his recent conversation on the legacy of Tim Keller.
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Episode 35: The Collapse of Global Liberalism - A Conversation with Philip Pilkington Sep 30, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood have a conversation with Philip Pilkington, the author of The Collapse of Global Liberalism: And the Emergence of the Post Liberal World Order

Philip Pilkington is a macroeconomist and former investment professional. He is the author of The Reformation in Economics and the forthcoming The Collapse of Global Liberalism. His writing has appeared in numerous outlets including The Telegraph, The New York Post, American Affairs, Post-Liberal Order, Moneyweek, The Spectator and Unherd. He is the co-host of the Multipolarity podcast.

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Episode 34: Sacred Foundations - A Conversation with Anna Grzymala-Busse Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood have a conversation with Anna Grzymala-Busse, the author of Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State.

Anna Grzymala-Busse is the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor of International Studies in the Department of Political Science, the Director of the Europe Center, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute. Her research focuses on the historical development of the state and its transformation, political parties, religion and politics, and post-communist politics. Other areas of interest include populism, informal institutions, and causal mechanisms.
She is the author of three books: Redeeming the Communist Past: The Regeneration of Communist Successor Parties; Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State Development in Post-Communist Europe; Nations Under God: How Churches Use Moral Authority to Influence Politics and Sacred Foundations: the Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State. She is also a recipient of the Carnegie and Guggenheim Fellowships.

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Episode 33: The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It, with Alec Ryrie Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood have a conversation with Alec Ryrie, the author of The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It.

Alec Ryrie is professor of the history of Christianity at Durham University and a fellow of the British Academy. His previous books include Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt. He lives in rural County Durham.

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Episode 32: Get Married and Save Civilization, with Brad Wilcox Jun 24, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood have a conversation with Brad Wilcox, the author of Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization.

BRAD WILCOX is a professor of sociology and the director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the Future of Freedom Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He studies marital quality; marital stability; and the impact of strong and stable marriages upon men, women, and children. The author and editor of six books, Wilcox has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and National Review, as well as for scientific journals such as the American Sociological Review and the Journal of Marriage and Family. A Connecticut native, he now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife and family.

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Episode 31: Origins of the Modern State, with Peter Leithart and James Wood May 29, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood discuss a handful of the books being studied by the Civitas Group on the topic of the formation of states and Christian Nationalism.
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Episode 30: A Conversation with David P. Goldman Apr 29, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood have a conversation with David P Goldman.

David P. Goldman is a Washington Fellow at The Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life. His research focuses on China, American manufacturing, and trade policy.

Goldman is Deputy Editor of Asia Times, where he has written the "Spengler" column since 2001. He is also a Senior Fellow of the London Institute for Policy Research. He previously was a partner at Reorient Group (Hong Kong), and global head of fixed income research at Bank of America and Cantor Fitzgerald. He was also a Managing Director at Credit Suisse and Bear Stearns, a member of Institutional Investor's All-America Fixed Income Team, and was the Pulliam Fellow at Hillsdale College in 2017.

His books include You Will Be Assimilated: China's Plan to Sino-Form the World (2020), How Civilizations Die (2011), and It's Not the End of the World — It's Just the End of You (2011).

Goldman writes frequently for The Claremont Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, First Things, Newsweek, Law & Liberty and Tablet Magazine. He has published numerous scholarly articles on economics, finance, and intellectual history.

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Episode 29: A Conversation with Aaron Renn Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood have a conversation with Aaron Renn.

Aaron Renn is a writer and consultant in Indianapolis, and author of the book Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture. His writings appear in a number of leading global publications, including The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic and others. He is also a Senior Fellow at American Reformer, a former Senior Fellow in urban policy at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and a former Managing Director at Accenture.

Click HERE to follow Aaron Renn on Subtack.

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Episode 28: The Inversion of Family Law | A Conversation with Jeff Shafer Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

Peter Leithart and James Wood have a conversation with Jeff Shafer.

Jeff Shafer is Director of the Hale Institute. He graduated with honors from the Regent University School of Law in 1995. Early in his legal career, he operated a general practice firm in Cincinnati with a particular emphasis on criminal defense litigation. Thereafter, he practiced in a law partnership, focusing on elections law and civil constitutional cases. From 2005 to 2020, he served as Senior Counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom at its Washington, D.C., and Scottsdale, Arizona offices. Mr. Shafer has litigated public interest cases in federal and state trial and appellate courts throughout the United States, as well as developing academic and advocacy initiatives on matters of policy concern. Outside of the courtroom, he has addressed a wide array of audiences in academic and community venues, in the US and abroad, on matters of legal and cultural interest.

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Machine Antihumanism and the Inversion of Family Law

by: Jeff Shafer
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Episode 27: Technology and Why Conservatism Failed | A Conversation with Jon Askonas Feb 11, 2025

Show notes

James Wood and Peter Leithart have a conversation with Jon Askonas.

Jon Askonas is an assistant professor of Politics at the Catholic University of America, where he works on the connections between the republican tradition, technology, and national security. He is currently working on two books: A Muse of Fire: Why the U.S. Military Forgets What It Learns in War, on what happens to wartime innovations when the war is over and The Shot in the Dark: A History of the U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group, the first comprehensive overview of a unit that helped the Army adapt to the post 9/11 era of counterinsurgency and global power competition. His writing has appeared in Russian Analytical Digest, Triple Helix, The New Atlantis, Fare Forward, War on the Rocks, and the Texas National Security Review.

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