Conservative Conversations with ISI

In this episode: a Modern Age panel on the release of Patrick Deneen’s newest book, Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future, featuring Patrick Deneen, Senator JD Vance, Kevin Roberts, and Christine Emba how the classical tradition of mixing “the many” and “the few” in a regime gave way to the modern liberal project of unending progress, to the detriment of the common good what regime change wou...

In this episode: McKay Stangler, ISI’s Director of Foundation Relations, joins the podcast to discuss Richard Weaver, one of the luminary figures of the early conservative movement a crash course in the themes of the southern agrarian tradition: practice, place, and solidarity how to recover a sense of the shared use of language, and the social solidarity that accompanies it Texts Mentioned: Ideas...

 In this episode: Alexander Salter, professor of economics at Texas Tech University, joins the podcast to discuss his new book, The Political Economy of Distributism how capitalism does or does not support the common good of society, and how the re-emergence of discourse about the common good in politics can be bolstered by returning to the distributist writers what Wilhelm Röpke contributed to bo...

In this episode: Archduke Eduard Habsburg joins the podcast to discuss his new book, “The Habsburg Way, ” about his family, their values, and character how marriage and family were both central to the Habsburg’s personal and political success and longevity why nationalism and imperialism are not necessarily opposing political philosophies, and how there can be an integration of nations within “sup...

In this episode: Hadley Arkes, founder and director of the James Wilson Institute, joins the podcast to discuss his newest book, Mere Natural Law  how the Dobbs ruling dodged the essential moral questions at the heart of abortion, and why conservative jurisprudence has failed to do so how principles of natural law are so suffused into America’s law and the American regime that they are inseparable...

In this episode: Enrique Pallares joins the podcast to discuss conservatism and liberalism in the Spanish tradition, and how it is influenced by and departs from other European political traditions a deep dive into the life and thought of Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish thinker who opposed ideology and stressed the centrality of the person how ideology subjugates the human person and closes us off to...

 In this episode: Brad Birzer, professor of history at Hillsdale College, joins the podcast to discuss his new book, Mythic Realms: The Moral Imagination in Literature and Film a crash course in all the must-see movies and TV series that teach about justice, charity, and finding one’s place in the moral order how the frontier, captured in Western film and movies, represents the possibilities that...

In this episode: The Hon. Paul J. Ray, former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), joins the podcast to give a primer on the administrative state and how it works how the administrative state cuts against the American tradition of self-government and each citizen’s ability to exercise practical reason how the federal system of American government serves as an applicatio...

In this episode: Julius Krein, founder and editor of American Affairs journal, joins the podcast to talk about problems in America’s advanced post-industrial economy, and how we can address issues like family policy, debt, innovation, taxation, and labor markets how Americans should really think about capitalism as “private wealth accumulation,” and break out of the “textbook economics” bookish vi...

In This Episode: Joseph T. Salerno, Academic Vice President of the Mises Institute, joins the podcast to talk about Murray Rothbard’s political and economic thought why a demagogue is necessary for the masses to re-establish control over their government in the age of social democracy a primer on the economic theory of the Austrian economists, as well as their underlying anthropology and praxeolog...

In this episode: Johnny interviews Henry Mack, Senior Chancellor of Higher Education at the Florida Department of Education, live from ISI’s inaugural American Politics and Governance Summit, an academic conference for faculty and graduate students how Florida has been a leader in conservative education reform in promoting the Great Books and “educating for democratic citizenship” Texts Mentioned:...

In This Episode: Timothy Goeglein joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Toward a More Perfect Union, about the failures of civics and history education in America, and what we can do to teach students about the Great American Story how Howard Zinn, the 1619 Project and other progressives purposely sought to erase American history and miseducate millions of American students through a neo-M...

In This Episode: Kevin Gutzman, professor of History at Western Connecticut State University, joins the podcast to discuss the presidencies of Democratic-Republican presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe how the states and sectionalism played an important role in the Early Republic, and why Jefferson and his successors emphasized the importance of state’s rights and decentral...

In this episode:  Dan McCarthy gives a lecture on the various elements of the conservative movement to ISI’s staff at our campus in Wilmington, DE a historical account of the American revolution and its implications for American conservatism why conservatives need to see through “both eyes” of history and ideas Texts Mentioned: Second Treatise of Government by John Locke Natural Right and History...

In This Episode: Adam Hoffman, a writer for the Princeton Tory, joins the podcast to discuss his recent piece in the New York Times about how the leftist political culture on college campuses has sparked a reactionary shift for conservative students how college administrations are not only actively pushing a progressive social agenda, but also seeking to exclude conservative counter-opinions in th...

In This Episode: William Ruger joins the podcast to discuss the war between Russia and Ukraine, how it came to be, and how America should respond why conservatives should take a “grand strategy” approach to foreign policy, global affairs, and the national interest how George Washington’s “Farewell Address” strikes the right balance for American foreign policy, and where we have departed from it to...

In This Episode: Mark Tooley, President of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, joins the podcast to discuss “The New Whiggery,” the IRD’s new fellowship on the principles of classical liberalism and the American Founding what a Christian realism approach to foreign policy looks like how classical liberalism differs from conservatism, and why some right-leaning thinkers like Hayek wanted to e...

In This Episode: Chris Buskirk joins the podcast to talk about his new book, America and the Art of the Possible , about restoring “national vitality” and re-sparking the risk-taking, adventurous spirit that built America how financialization operates in the modern American economy and creates mismatched incentives that undermine widespread American prosperity why conservatism should focus less on...

In This Episode: Thomas West joins the podcast to discuss the political theory of the American Founding and its reliance on natural law and natural rights why students of the American Founding must read more public laws and state laws and constitutions to fully understand the Founding era how the Founders fit liberty and equality together in a truly coherent way  Texts Mentioned: The Political The...

 In This Episode: Gladden Pappin joins the podcast to discuss the conditions in modern Western political culture that have given rise to post-liberalism on the Right how Hungary draws on often-neglected parts of the Western political tradition as inspiration for their political order why the conservative movement needs to focus on family policy as a political lodestar in the post- Roe era Texts Me...

In This Episode: Fr. Ben Kiely joins the podcast to discuss his ministry of helping persecuted Christians in the Middle East with Nasarean.org   why social conservatism is an essential facet of any conservative worldview how nationalist politics is compatible with Catholicism and Catholicism’s approach to politics Texts Mentioned: https://nasarean.org/ Fr. Kiely’s speech at NatCon 3 Become a part...

In This Episode: Paul Kengor joins the podcast to discuss the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and his contributions to philosophy and the Church in the Western world Texts Mentioned: Dupes by Paul Kengor The Pope and the President by Paul Kengor The Divine Plan by Paul Kengor and Robert Orlando ISI Debate on Transgenderism and Womanhood - SIGN UP TODAY! Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI Catec...

In This Episode: Jon Askonas joins the podcast to discuss how a technological age makes conservative and traditional values obsolete, and how to overcome this problem why Karl Marx has to teach conservatives about analyzing and understanding “historical materialism,“ the fundamental material elements of society what really drove the disintegration of a shared conception of reality, and how to navi...

In This Episode: Aaron Renn joins the podcast to discuss American Reformer ’s goal of reinvigorating evangelical intellectual thought within conservatism the history and traditions of Evangelicalism in American social and political life, and how evangelicalism needs to respond to hostility to Christianity how class, social status, and wokeness shape the disconnect between Protestant elites and the...

In This Episode: Sarah Gustafson joins the podcast to discuss the theme of her course at Harvard University, “Anxiety and Restlessness in Democratic Times” how America’s “mental health crisis” is driven by the quality of American souls and affected by the American regime the legacy of Harvey Mansfield as a scholar, public political philosopher, and intellectual giant at Harvard Texts Mentioned: De...