Contra Mundum

We revisit Calvin Coolidge’s immigration essay and apply it to the modern crisis. From cultural cohesion to policy failure, this episode explores why his framework still holds and what it means for America now.

A conversation with C.Jay Engel and Glenn Arbery on the Southern critics, what they opposed, what they defended, and how their arguments challenge the modern American order.

This episode looks at how the rise of the United States helped unravel the Westphalian system built after the Peace of Westphalia. While the system began to weaken after World War I and World War II, it was the U.S. that reshaped it.

Wide-ranging conversation with C.Jay Engel and Lee Cogdon unpacking the life and legacy of George Kennan the architect of Soviet containment. We explore Kennan’s role in shaping early Cold War strategy, the intellectual foundations of containment, and how his ideas were interpreted (and often misapplied) by U.S. policymakers.

In this episode, CJay sits down with historian Sean McMeekin to discuss Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union, and the true dynamics behind World War II.

In this episode, C.Jay sits down with Allan Carlson to discuss his intellectual journey, his concept of the “Natural Family,” and the decline of the traditional family in modern America. We explore the rise of neoconservatism, the distortions of radical individualism, the economic and cultural forces that have weakened family life, and whether the West has any real path toward renewal. Support the...

In this special AMA episode, CJ and Andrew answer questions from their listeners and Gary. Support the show: https://www.contramundumpod.com/

In this episode, C.Jay sits down with Josiah Lippincott to discuss his college dissertation, where he makes the case that Franklin D. Roosevelt was among the worst presidents in American history. Support the show: https://www.contramundumpod.com/ Follow Josiah Lippincott on Twitter: https://x.com/jlippincott_?s=21

In this episode, C.Jay and Andrew examine how America’s history of slavery is frequently described as a uniquely western phenomenon and used as an excuse to destroy our way of life. Support the show: https://www.contramundumpod.com/

C.Jay Engel and Will Tanner sit down to discuss the history of Rhodesia and the competing narratives that still surround Rhodesia today. Support the show: https://www.contramundumpod.com/ You can find Will on X @Will_Tanner_1

In this episode, we dive into Sam Francis’s essay “Equality” and unpack his critique of modern egalitarianism. Support the show: https://www.contramundumpod.com/

In this episode of the new Contra Mundum: Discussions With C. Jay Engel series, C. Jay talks with David Edgington, author of the new book, White Knights and Reviling Wives. Get White Knights and Reviling Wives : https://www.newchristendompress.com/store/p/white-knights-and-reviling-wives Visit David Edgington online, and get information about his books and counseling, at his website: https://compa...

In this first episode of the new Contra Mundum: Conversations With C. Jay Engel series, C. Jay talks with Timon Cline, author of two new books on political theory and practice to be released this year, and of the essay, “The Protestant Solution: Party, Sect, and Machiavelli’s Transpolitical Problem” in American Reformer. Read Timon Cline’s essay: https://americanreformer.org/2026/01/the-protestant...

Today on Contra Mundum: headlines on the Epstein files—is it all a nothing burger? What does it mean? And we discuss the final chapter of Peter Leithart’s Against Christianity. He’s made the case at length about what he is against, but what should we be for?

Minnesota has relented and begun cooperating with ICE, sending the State Patrol and local police to disperse agitators and protect their operations. Tom Homan has been sent in to conduct negotiations with Walz, Frey, and other leaders to honor immigration detainers. Trump unequivocally won this exchange. Leftist freaks are in shambles. Ilhan Omar is doing Jussie Smollett stuff. Protestors are stor...

Trump's DOJ has begun to make arrests in the leftwing disruption of the worship of Cities Church in Minnesota. Why did it take so long? Will Don Lemon be arrested? Will anyone get convicted? This plus further discussion of Against Ethics.

The Battle of Minneapolis rages in the week after an incident where a leftwing agitator lost her life while obstructing federal law enforcement operations. Will the administration have the resolve to see this out? Will the left be broken by this? Plus, we continue our journey through Leithart's Against Christianity.

Contra Mundum

The massive daycare and autism fraud in Minnesota has captured national attention. Will there be any significant arrests? Will there be mass denaturalizations and deportations? That and much, much more.

Today we do a quick livestream before Christmas. We'll take questions from the chat. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Has the totalizing culture of affirmative action and DEI systematically shut white men out of employment and educational opportunities? That is the case that has been made by Jacob Savage's personal testimonial in Compact Magazine. We discuss this, plus Jeremy Carl's excellent review of the article. Plus, also we discuss the new Camp of the Saints audiobook with its narrator, Chad Newsom. Links: h...

Just this past week the State Department released the 2025 National Security Strategy paper, usually a very boring document only policy wonks pay attention to. This one is far from that. In it, they articulated a radically shifting foreign policy priority, one that focuses entirely on the American sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere, and NOT Europe, the Mid-East, or anywhere else. What d...

In 1992, Samuel T. Francis wrote in Chronicles Magazine: "The mission of the new nationalism must be not merely the winning of formal political power through elections and roll-call votes but also the acquisition of substantive social power and the displacement of the incumbent managerial elite of the regime by its own elite drawn from and representing the Middle-American social stratum." Was he r...

Kevin DeYoung is the pre-eminent voice in mainstream, conservative Protestantism. And unlike nearly every other critic of Christian Nationalism, he appears to be entirely genuine and honest. In other words, he is someone to take seriously. This week, he wrote an article entitled "Six Questions for Christian Nationalists." Today, we cover this article and answer these questions of his. Get your cop...