The official podcast of Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.
Episodes
Tuesday Mar 28, 2023
Tuesday Mar 28, 2023
Americans have always had mixed emotions about schooling: in popular literature and television, teachers are often depicted as tyrannical authorities, even as in classroom settings they often try to style themselves as "friends." Dr. Rita Koganzon, professor of political science at the University of Houston, discusses the history of the idea of authority in education, dwelling on Enlightenment thinkers like Locke, Rousseau, and Bodin. Along the way, she covers contemporary issues like homeschooling and parents' rights, and how attitudes towards those concepts have changed from the Early Modern period to the present.
More on Dr. Koganzon, https://uh.edu/class/political-science/faculty-and-staff/professors/koganzon/
Her book, "Liberal States, Authoritarian Families: Childhood and Education in Early Modern Thought," https://global.oup.com/academic/product/liberal-states-authoritarian-families-9780197568804?cc=us&lang=en&
Her recent article "There Is No Such Thing as a Banned Book: Censorship, Authority, and the School Book Controversies of the 1970s," https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/723442
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
"The narrative that old books are worthless is designed to keep you from discovering that they are not." Spencer Klavan, author of "How to Save the West: Ancient Wisdom for Five Modern Crises" discusses the West: why it's so important to preserve it, how its greatest ideas can still help us today, and the limits of science in addressing modern problems.
Spencer Klavan received his PhD in Classics from Oxford and is Associate Editor of the Claremont Review of Books and Features Editor at the American Mind.
His book, How to Save the West: Ancient Wisdom for Five Modern Crises, https://www.regnery.com/9781684513451/how-to-save-the-west/
Dr. Klavan's podcast, Young Heretics, https://youngheretics.com/
"Hey hey ho ho Western Civ has got to go," https://intellectualtakeout.org/2019/06/hey-hey-ho-ho-western-civ-has-got-to-go/
Spencer on C.S. Lewis's science fiction novel "That Hideous Strength," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdutZEHonLc
More on Plato's Timaeus, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-timaeus/#:~:text=In%20the%20Timaeus%20Plato%20presents,%2C%20purposive%2C%20and%20beneficent%20agency.
More on Lucretius, a prominent Epicurean philosopher: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lucretius/
More on Stoicism, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/
C.S. Lewis's The Discarded Image, https://portalconservador.com/livros/C-S-Lewis-The-Discarded-Image.pdf
Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45536/ode-intimations-of-immortality-from-recollections-of-early-childhood
Tuesday Feb 28, 2023
Tuesday Feb 28, 2023
Annika sits down with Robert Doar, president of the American Enterprise Institute, one of Washington D.C.'s most prominent think-tanks, to discuss the state of the American Right: what are the driving political issues of our time? What is the importance of freedom and liberty within the right? Drawing on Robert's background in poverty studies, they discuss what the Right has done right and wrong in addressing poverty, as well as Robert's time at our very own Princeton.
More on Robert Doar, https://www.aei.org/profile/robert-doar/
The department founded by Mr. Doar, "Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies," https://www.aei.org/policy-areas/sccs/
Robert's own podcast, "AEI Banter," https://www.aei.org/tag/aei-banter/
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
Is beauty objective, or merely a personal experience? Do we need beauty in our daily lives, or is it just icing on the cake? Is the sole purpose of art self-expression? Sociologist Margarita Mooney Clayton *05 of Princeton Theological Seminary discusses the history and philosophy of beauty, and its relationships with truth and the sacred.
More on Margarita, https://margaritamooneyclayton.com/bio/
Her nonprofit, the Scala Foundation, https://scalafoundation.org/
Her book, "The Wounds of Beauty," https://scalafoundation.org/woundsofbeautybook/
Her upcoming conference, "Art, the Sacred, and the Common Good," https://conference.scalafoundation.org/?_ga=2.143542197.1868599713.1674055972-127281008.1631133300
Her op-ed, "Why Choose Mystery Over Ideology?" https://comment.org/why-choose-mystery-over-ideology/
Her webinar with Aidan Hart, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJHvX9Prp4c
Scala's YouTube channel, which has plenty of additional content on beauty and the liberal arts, https://www.youtube.com/@ScalaFoundation
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
Amidst fraught debates about what gender is, and how it fits into feminism, Annika sits down with Dr. Abigail Favale, an English professor specializing in gender studies and feminist literary criticism turned Catholic convert. Dr. Favale is now a professor and writer at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, and the author of "The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory."
More about Dr. Favale: https://abigailfavale.wixsite.com/home
Her book, "The Genesis of Gender," https://ignatius.com/the-genesis-of-gender-ggp/
Her latest essay, "From Post-Christian Feminism to Catholicism," https://thecatholicwoman.co/essays-for-the-new-feminism/letter-abigail-favale-from-post-christian-feminism-to-catholicism
Tuesday Jan 17, 2023
Tuesday Jan 17, 2023
What kind of person is our education system designed to create? Best-selling author and award-winning essayist William Deresiewicz discusses the failures of our higher education system, how it mis-conditions our elite, and fails to value the humanities, as well as his latest collection of essays, "The End of Solitude."
Sign up for our event with Bill via Zoom in 1 week! https://jmp.princeton.edu/events/college-kids-are-not-ok-and-what-do-about-it-conversation-william-deresiewicz-end-solitude
More on Bill Deresiewicz: https://billderesiewicz.com/
His book, "The End of Solitude": https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250858641/the-end-of-solitude
His book, "Excellent Sheep": https://billderesiewicz.com/books/excellent-sheep/
His recent piece on secularism: https://salmagundi.skidmore.edu/articles/360-disenchantment-and-dogma
Jean Anyon's article on how our education system enforces social class: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1179509
Nicholas Kristof's educational advice in the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/opinion/sunday/student-success-advice.html
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
With the Supreme Court poised to potentially outlaw race-conscious admissions, Affirmative Action may soon be on the chopping block.
What will be the legacy of this half-century-old policy? Jason Riley, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and columnist at the Wall Street Journal, discusses affirmative action's impact both on the black community and the broader American education system.
More about Jason: https://www.manhattan-institute.org/expert/jason-l-riley
His book, "The Black Boom": httphttps://www.manhattan-institute.org/riley-black-boom
His book, "Please Stop Helping Us": https://www.amazon.com/Please-Stop-Helping-Us-Liberals/dp/1594038414
Statistical evidence of the impact of racial preferences in college admissions, mentioned in the discussion: https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2022/01/harvard-unc-affirmative-action-case-race-admissions-peter-arcidiacano-david-card-expert-witness-duke-university
His piece, "Racial Preferences Harm Their Beneficiaries, Too," WSJ
His piece, "The College Board's Racial Pandering," WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-college-boards-racial-pandering-education-k-12-schooling-ap-courses-exams-testing-high-schools-math-reading-propaganda-11664309793
Tuesday Dec 20, 2022
Tuesday Dec 20, 2022
With Christmas approaching, in this episode we reflect on Christian persecution in the Middle East, the historic cradle of Christianity and the birthplace of Jesus, and the very different challenges Christians face in the East versus the West.
Annika sits down with Father Benedict Kiely, a Catholic priest who has devoted his ministry to serving Christian communities in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
More on Father Kiely: https://www.nasarean.org/father_ben.php
Nasarean, his non-profit to help Christians in the Middle East: https://www.nasarean.org/mission.php
The Chinese Communist Party's re-translation of John:8: https://harpers.org/archive/2020/12/the-new-testament/
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
At the Battle of Saratoga, the tide of the Revolutionary War turned in favor of unlikely victors: the American patriots.
What were the major strategy elements at play in the Saratoga Campaign, and why did it prove so crucial? Where did England misstep, and what did the Americans get right? To find out, we chat with Kevin Weddle *03, Professor of Military Theory and Strategy at the Army War College.
A graduate of West Point and veteran of operations Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom, Dr. Weddle received his PhD here at Princeton, and was the 2019 William L. Garwood visiting professor with the Madison Program. He is the author of "The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution," winner of the 2021 Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize.
His book: https://bit.ly/3XUzpqp
The Lehrman Prize: https://bit.ly/3iB9Nyx
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
Over six million prime-age men are neither working nor looking for work; America's low unemployment rate hides the fact that many men have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Our workforce participation rate is on par with that seen during the Great Depression.
Why does this problem affect men so acutely? Why is it so specific to America? What are these missing men doing with their time? How do we differentiate between leisure and idleness? Demographer and economist Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute discusses these trends and what they mean for America's future.
Nicholas Eberstadt's biography and website: https://www.aei.org/profile/nicholas-eberstadt/
His recent book, Men Without Work: https://templetonpress.org/books/men-without-work-2/
His recent op-ed, "A Nation of Quitters": https://spectatorworld.com/topic/a-nation-of-quitters/
Monday Nov 07, 2022
Monday Nov 07, 2022
What is the American Right, where does it come from, and how has it changed over time? Journalist and author Matthew Continetti discusses his recent book: The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism.
Continetti is Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and was formerly the founding editor and the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon. Previously, he was opinion editor at the Weekly Standard. He is also a contributing editor at National Review and a columnist for Commentary magazine
Continetti's recent book: https://www.the-right-book.com/
The shifting demographics of wealthiest Americans, discussed during this episode: https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/democrats-tax-hike-bet-relies-on-their-new-500-000-plus-voters?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=taxdesk&utm_campaign=5B08EF5E-A165-11EB-8C78-8C0750017A06
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
With contentious midterm elections coming up fast, Annika sits down with one of the best-known commentators and participants in the American political economy over the past four decades: Larry Kudlow.
Director Kudlow has had a long and storied career; in addition to great success both on Wall Street and as a political commentator, he served in the Ronald Reagan administration in 1981, and as the Director of the National Economic Council under President Trump. He currently hosts the popular Larry Kudlow Show.
In this episode, Larry reflects on his experiences working in the Reagan versus the Trump administrations, the similarities between Reagan and JFK, the challenges China poses to free market economics, and his time studying here at Princeton.
The Larry Kudlow Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/larry-kudlow-show/id1553621771
His book, JFK and the Reagan Revolution: https://www.amazon.com/JFK-Reagan-Revolution-American-Prosperity/dp/1595231145
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
What kinds of tools do we need to make big decisions, and why aren't our universities training us to make them? Are universities doing students a disservice by occupying them with myriads of boxes to tick? Are students right to prefer money to meaning?
Madison Program alumni Ben and Jenna Storey discuss the philosophy of making choices and of restlessness, and critique the way universities treat those topics.
Ben and Jenna are senior fellows at the American Enterprise Institute in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department, where they focus on political philosophy, classical schools, and higher education. Previously, they directed the Toqueville Program at Furman University in South Carolina. They are the authors of Why We Are Restless.
Their website: https://www.jbstorey.com/about-2
Their book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691211121/why-we-are-restless
Their recent New York Times op-ed on choice: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/opinion/college-students-happiness-liberal-arts.html
Prof. Barba-Kay's tribute to Leon Kass mentioned during the episode: https://mediacentral.princeton.edu/media/The+Humanists+VocationA+Leon+Kass+as+Thinker+and+Teacher/1_bxkd7xqv
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
With the Biden Administration's student loan relief coming down the pike, Annika sits down with Dr. Beth Akers, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in higher education finance. Beth discusses the issue of student debt, and what the Biden relief plan will and will not achieve.
You can find more information about Dr. Akers and her recent writing and appearances here.
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
How did Britain become a global superpower? Historian and classicist Ian Morris thinks geography has a lot to do with it. Prof. Morris discusses his latest book, Geography is Destiny: Britain and the World: A 10,000 Year History, which traces the long history of Britain's complex relationship with the European continent. He draws surprising parallels between characters ranging from the Roman Britons and Nigel Farage, to the Papacy and the European Union.
Prof. Ian Morris is the Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics and Professor in History at Stanford University, as well as the author of the critically acclaimed Why the West Rules—for Now. His latest book, Geography is Destiny, may be purchased here.
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Israeli political philosopher Yoram Hazony ('86) discusses the Enlightenment, the American Founding, his latest book: Conservatism: A Rediscovery, and Conservatism's past and future.
Dr. Hazony is the President of the Herzl Institute, based in Jerusalem, and the chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, a public affairs institute based in Washington D.C., which recently hosted the popular National Conservatism Conference in Miami, FL.
You can purchase his book Conservatism: A Rediscovery here.
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
We all know that things are a little more expensive when we head to the grocery store. But what does inflation actually mean? How did we get to where we are, and what happens next? What does history have to say about our current economic situation?
Annika sits down with Tyler Goodspeed of the Hoover Institution. Dr. Goodspeed served in the White House as Acting Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2020-2021, and was formerly on the Faculty of Economics at the University of Oxford, where he specialized in financial history.
Tuesday Aug 16, 2022
Tuesday Aug 16, 2022
The overturning of Roe v. Wade has led to a flurry of commentary and wondering, "Where next?" But, it also begs deeper questions: what is the history of abortion and sex-positivity within the feminist movement, and how did Roe affect our views on sex? Feminist legal scholar Dr. Erika Bachiochi is the founder and director of the Wollstonecraft Project at the Abigail Adams Institute and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Here, she discusses these questions as well as her recent book on Mary Wollstonecraft, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision.
Her book may be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Rights-Women-Reclaiming-Catholic-Secular/dp/0268200815
Articles referenced during the show:
"Pursuing the Unification of Work and Home," American Compass. https://americancompass.org/essays/pursuing-the-reuinification-of-home-and-work/
"Why the Dobbs Decision Won't Imperil Pregnancy-Related Medical Care," SCOTUSblog. https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/07/why-the-dobbs-decision-wont-imperil-pregnancy-related-medical-care/
Tuesday Aug 02, 2022
Tuesday Aug 02, 2022
Modern social and political discussions all seem to revolve around the concept of identity. Dr. Carl Trueman, theologian and former William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life here at the Madison Program, discusses how thinkers like Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche created a world in which sexuality is politicized, and in which we all instinctively know what it means to "identify as."
Dr. Trueman is the author two recent books, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, and a shorter, study-version on the same topic, Strange New World.
Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
Who is the new host of Madison's Notes? Season 1 host Nino Scalia interviews the host of Season 2, Annika Nordquist. They chat about her interests, background, and the thinkers who have influenced her most.
During the episode, Annika notes the following books as particularly influential on her thought:
- C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
- Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy
- G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
- Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae
- Rene Girard, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
- Hannah Arendt, Between Past and Future
- Christopher Lasch, Revolt of the Elites