Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values

Christian or not, it's undeniable that Western civilization, and the United States in particular, has deep historical roots in Judeo-Christian teachings.   Scripture has shaped much of our culture, thought, values, and politics.   But while plenty of Biblical passages appear to have political implications, there's little consensus among the general population—to say nothing of the religiously devo...

"I never discuss anything else except politics and religion," English writer, philosopher, and Christian apologist G. K. Chesterton once quipped.   "There is nothing else to discuss."   For some sensible, genteel Americans, politics and religion are precisely what you don't discuss in public and—perhaps even—in private company.   Others discuss both with ease yet may have trouble thinking through...

Modern views on how future technology is likely to change our lives range from bloviatingly aspirational visions of utopia to musings on whether the latest advancement in AI will destroy humankind in our lifetime or merely enslave us all in Matrix-style battery capillaries.   Yet debates on whether technology is a neutral tool for our benefit or a near-unstoppable force leading us to a particular...

In the aftermath of the Civil War and prior to the first World War lies an often overlooked era in American history known as the Gilded Age.   This was an extraordinarily "messy" period where it's often difficult to identify the heroes to extol or villains to condemn.   But it is also a period that has unusually similar parallels to our own times from rapid technological advancements, growing part...

In this brave new digital world, opportunities for hate speech seem ubiquitous and increasingly dangerous.   How should a conservative balance their values of limited-government and protection of the vulnerable in social media?   How do we answer the charges of "silence is violence", or that speech and equal violence from a legal, cultural, and moral framework?   Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis i...

Among the very-online, relatively young, and mostly male cohorts of the Right is a movement growing in popularity and intensity that valorizes the very excesses the Left criticizes as toxic masculinity.   This movement, promulgated by the likes of Bronze Age Pervert and Mencius Moldbug and defended or even praised by a surprising array of mainstream conservative outlets, has captured the attention...

In 1948 Whittaker Chambers shocked the nation when, while testifying before Congress, he gave the names of individuals he claimed were working within the United States government as Communist spies for the Soviet Union.   Among those named was Alger Hiss, Chamber's close friend and former Communist comrade.   The ensuing trial quickly divided the nation into competing narratives.   Who was lying a...

Perhaps no other individual (or person, for the benefit of the Kirkian insider) was more responsible for resuscitating intellectual conservatism back to life in the mid Twentieth century than Russell Kirk.   Today, Kirk's efforts to recover and conserve the "Permanent Things" lives on at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal .   Co-founder and Vice Chair of the Russell Kirk Center, Jeff Nel...

Our digital world is saturated in "facts" but there's little agreement on what constitutes "truth".   If we can no longer agree on what sources of information can be reliable, is civil debate even possible?   To what degree is the problem exacerbated by social media?   To what degree is this simply a problem of human nature?   Bonnie Kristian joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to discuss the k...

What do Russell Kirk and Martin Luther King Jr. have in common?   Though they're traditionally depicted as coming from opposing political orientations, National Ambassador for Braver Angels John Wood Jr. believes a deeper understanding of their religious convictions and societal aspirations reveals an important commonality between these two men.   And this commonality points us to the restoration...

The conservative tradition embodies centuries of accumulated wisdom from some of the brightest and most inspiring thinkers you'll find.   Yet for the young conservative eager to learn more about this tradition, choosing which books to read can be a daunting task.   Most online lists of top conservative books contain familiar titles of classic tomes that inspire and challenge readers to this day.  ...