Finneran's Wake

The Pop Historian is a general historian with an exciting, eclectic new channel on YouTube.  “The historian must serve two masters: the past and the present”.  In compliance with Fritz Stern, the late German-American professor of history at Columbia University by whom the above statement was issued, the Pop Historian has undergone to do just that. In a highly original, accessible, and entertaining...

Hector Roos is a candidate representing the Libertarian Party in Florida’s gubernatorial race.  For all intents and purposes, your choice of political party in America is binary: Republican or Democratic, or so you’re told. Doubtless, this preserves us from the pitfalls of a parliamentary system, but isn’t it frustrating to know that, in this freest of lands, your options are so narrowly constrain...

Carrie Gibson is an American-born, Cambridge-trained historian, journalist, and author.  America, a wild outpost for British Puritans, speculators, merchants, and malcontents began in the year 1776, no? And it wasn’t until the year 1863, on whose dawn Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation , that we all began thinking about slavery, right? While these are, no doubt, important dates to rememb...

Mil gracias to my brother and friend, Ernesto Crespo, for accompanying me on my first recorded and filmed interview/conversation (of which, in the coming weeks, I hope to have many more!) His remarkable story, to which hundreds of thousands of Americans can doubtless relate, will always be a source of inspiration to me. From him, you'll learn what it was like to grow up in Cuba in the 1980s under...

"With malice toward none; with charity for all". It was with magnanimity, solemnity, and humility that President Abraham Lincoln addressed a wearied nation divided in two. He was careful not to cover his political opponents (of whom he had many) in opprobrium. He sought, instead, a higher, nobler road toward unity and reconciliation. President Biden, in his speech on the "Soul of America" chose a...

Given all the dysfunction, ineptitude, profligacy, venality, shortsightedness, and unscrupulousness with which our political institutions are rife, we have to ask ourselves: is government necessary? Can we get along just as well without it? In this episode, the first in a series on the “Great Ideas”, we address the question in a dispassionate, philosophical way. This series is inspired by the work...

A book review of "Up From Liberalism" by famed Conservative thinker, William F. Buckley Jr. I spend a few minutes tracing my political inspirations: Aristotle, Cicero, Tocqueville, Jefferson, Hitchens and, yes, Buckley. Subscribe, leave a rating, and visit my sister podcast, Pneuma by Daniel Finneran and Finneran's Wake for Kids

Quite a week! Ayman Al Zawahiri, the Egyptian physician-terrorist by whom Osama Bin Laden was succeded, was killed by an American drone strike. He was living large at the time in the heart of Kabul. Nancy Pelosi, undeterred by warnings from both the White House and the CCP, visited Taiwan. In Kansas, a ballot initiative to move the issue of abortion from the judicial to the legislative branch fail...

While reading Thomas Jefferson's collected writings, I realized that, until the very end of his life, his mental acuity never suffered. The same brilliance with which he dazzled the Continental Congress in 1776 sustained itself (and perhaps grew even brighter) until the first quarter of the next century when, on the Fourth of July in 1826, he died. I contrast, in this recorded essay, Jefferson's e...

We've witnessed two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth--a trend to which most honest economists once affixed the word, "recession". But honesty, it seems, no longer has currency, so long as a certain Party is in charge. And the army achieves only 40% of its recruitment goal. Why did this happen, and what does it portend?

Jill Nagle, with whom I had the great pleasure to talk, is the founder of Evolutionary Workplace, a company based in California whose aim it is to “dismantle white supremacy” mythology. In her approach to “Anti-Racism”, she employs some fascinating techniques, about which you’ll want to learn much more. In this episode, Jill Nagle and I discuss definitions of fundamental words (Racism, Anti-Racism...

On this week’s Concise Recap, we cover the following: 1.) Unrest in Akron after the release of police footage (of Jayland Walker’s Death) 2.) A mass shooting carried out in Highland Park, and a mass shooting averted in Richmond 3.) Boris Johnson steps down, and Shinzo Abe is shot down. Subscribe and leave a five-star rating and review! Visit my newest projects, "Finneran's Wake - For Kids" and "Pn...

“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.” - John Adams Today, the 2nd of July 2022, we commemorate this festival of Liberty as Adams envision...

An extraordinary week! The three items you must know: 1. 53 Migrants Die in a Semi Truck in San Antonio Texas 2. The January 6th Committee Welcomes a New Witness 3. Religious Freedom Prevails (Again) in the Supreme Court Visit my new podcast, "Finneran's Wake, For Kid's" for wonderful family-friendly content and my wellness podcast, "Pneuma".

Wow...what a week! Here are its three most important news items of which you MUST be aware! 1. Uvalde shooting update (plus, the passage of Gun legislation) 2. The Supreme Court sluice gates open, three monumental decisions pour out 3. President Biden falls off his bicycle...as the economy falls off a cliff Subscribe to this growing channel! Show me some (much-needed) love by leaving a five-star r...

Part II to my fascinating interview with Olga. Here, Olga reflects on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, a humanitarian crisis about which, sadly, the western world is quickly forgetting. As an American born in Russia, her perspective is invaluable. You'll not want to miss what she has to say.

Upon her graduation from high school, when, with unalloyed excitement, most young men and women look hopefully toward the future, Olga’s home country of Russia—in whose greatness and infallibility she was, from a very young age, propagandized to believe—collapsed. All that she’d known, every doctrine whose truth she’d been conditioned to accept, disintegrated before her eyes. She immigrated to Ame...

The one writer under whose influence William Shakespeare squirmed: Christopher Marlowe. Born in the same year, Marlowe and Shakespeare were two of history's greatest geniuses. Of Shakespeare's genius, we need never be reminded. But that of Marlowe too often escapes our approbation. We will assess him, and praise him, in this book review. Enjoy! If there's a book of which you'd like me to produce a...

An honest book review of Andrew Klavan's latest work, "The Truth and Beauty", in which the quick-witted, bald-headed conservative satirist marries the Romantic poets and the sacred Gospels--a union worthy of your consideration. If there are any books of which you'd like me to do a review, hesitate not! Send me their titles. E-mail me at finneranswake@gmail.com, or (once it's finished), visit my we...

A concise recap of this week's news! The three most important news items of which you should be aware, with which you should be fluent, all brought to you in a half-hour's time: 1.) A California man threatens to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh 2.) January 6th goes prime time 3.) Gun Legislation moves through the House (To be stymied by the Senate) Subscribe to this channel and leave on it a 5-star ra...

Gone are those optimistic days of youth when the glasses through which we viewed the world were "rose"-tinged. Now, it seems, everything is colored red. The red of communist China, that is. Into every institution that color has bled: from finance, to tech, to politics, to sports, to entertainment, it suffuses them all. Schweizer's book examines, with a fearless eye, how deeply entangled our venal,...

This week's "Concise Recap" on Finneran's Wake! For those short on time, but on long on curiosity; for those to whom news and politics are an interest, but whose time is limited. The three most important news items of which you should be aware, with which you should be fluent, all brought to you in a half-hour's time: 1.) A shooting in Tulsa leaves four people dead, of whom two were orthopaedic ph...

A candid book review of Robin DiAngelo's best-selling work, "White Fragility". Disclaimer: I am a white person. Worse still--a white man! And I'm not infrequently fragile. And yet, despite that, I'll review this hugely influential book critically and fairly. You'll hear DiAngelo's most salient points, and how they might be examined. If there's a book of which you'd like me to compose a review, ema...

An honest book review of Ibram X. Kendi's 2019 best-seller, "How To Be An Anti-Racist". Dare I treat it critically? Yes. If there's a book of which you'd like me to write and record a review, email me at finneranswake@gmail.com, or send a message through social media.

Welcome to Part II of my first "Ticklish Topic": Abortion In this, part two of a two-part series, I'll list for you the two strongest arguments against abortion--arguments by which you might be repulsed, persuaded, enflamed, or unmoved. You'll have to e-mail me and let me your response... I should say, the goal isn't to win you, my dear listener, to one side or to the other of this debate, but to...