The Aaron Renn Show

America’s development pattern looks like growth, but often doesn’t pay for itself. Urban planner and civil engineer Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns explains the growth Ponzi scheme, why places like Buffalo and Jackson, Mississippi have more infrastructure than wealth, and why he favors thickening neighborhoods over endless outward expansion. Also: how his view differs from the abundance movement, the...

Civility is not politeness, compromise, or “finding common ground.” In a polarized country—where fights over immigration, gender, public meetings, and online pile-ons feel existential—Aaron Renn talks with Carmel, Indiana city councilor and civic leader Jeff Worrell about what it actually takes to disagree hard without destroying the relationship. Worrell, founder of Project Civility, argues that...

Aaron Renn talks with technology and media writer James Poulos about Human Forever   — and why the real digital disaster is not a future AI apocalypse, but a transformation that has already happened. Poulos argues that the print-and-television age ran on imagination (“if you can dream it, you can do it”). Computational technology flipped that. Machine memory now dominates: infinite archives, perma...

Is local leadership declining, even in America’s fastest-growing cities? Aaron Renn sits down with Mark Barbash, a longtime economic development professional in Columbus, Ohio, to examine the quiet crisis of civic and corporate leadership.  They discuss how generational change, corporate consolidation, shifting philanthropy, and a K-shaped economy are weakening the institutions that once held citi...

In this week's episode, I'm sharing an appearance I made on Faithful Discourse with Chris Henry, the senior pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis. For more about this church and our conversation, you can see the write up I did on my web site: https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/the-reckoning-is-here

Economist Arpit Gupta joins Aaron to break down the future of American cities after remote work, office real estate collapse, and the rise of AI. From the “Urban Doom Loop” — where falling commercial property values crush city tax revenue and trigger a vicious spiral — to surging suburban housing prices, office-to-residential conversions, and the transformative potential of autonomous vehicles, th...

In this powerful conversation, Delano Squires, Director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing at The Heritage Foundation and author of The Vanishing Black Family , breaks down the dramatic collapse of the Black family — from stable two-parent homes in the 1940s-1950s to today’s 70% out-of-wedlock birth rate. Delano explains how slavery deformed but did not destroy the Black f...

How did “disinformation” become the all-purpose explanation for American politics? In this eye-opening conversation, journalist Jacob Siegel reveals how a century-old progressive vision of expert rule evolved into today’s censorship-industrial complex — from Woodrow Wilson’s propaganda machine to the Hunter Biden laptop suppression and beyond. Siegel, author of the new book The Information State ,...

Is AI the next great labor shock — and are we about to repeat the mistakes of NAFTA? Aaron Renn talks with Brent Orrell, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, about what AI is already doing to the workforce, why this time the disruption is hitting knowledge workers first, and why human formation may be the most valuable asset in an AI-infused world. Brent Orrell studies the future of...

Aaron Renn sits down with Seth Barron, Associate Editorial Page Editor at the New York Post and author of Weaponized: The Left's Capture and Destruction of America's Sacred Institutions . They discuss how cherished American myths have been twisted to weaponize key institutions — policing, borders, public safety, housing, education, and civic life itself. From “defund the police” and anar...

In this wide-ranging conversation, Georgetown Professor Joshua Mitchell explains why America remains a deeply Hebraic, covenantal nation — and why the current culture war is best understood as a distorted continuation of the Reformation. From the Plato-Aristotle divide to Luther’s turn to history, from Tocqueville’s warnings to the spiritual economy of stain and redemption, Mitchell offers a profo...

Why do people think conservatives are boring? Sociologist and cultural thinker Margarita Mooney Clayton joins me to challenge the stereotype that artists must be transgressive and that conservatives lack creativity. Drawing on the philosophy of Jacques Maritain, we explore the true vocation of the artist: cooperating with divine inspiration to create beautiful works that point toward the good, the...

Emma Waters is a Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation's Center for Technology and the Human Person, wife, mother of two, and author of the new book Lead Like Jael: 7 Timeless Principles for Today's Women of Faith (Regnery Publishing, March 2026). In this episode of The Aaron Renn Show, Emma joins Aaron to discuss biblical womanhood in a post-pandemic world. Drawing from the story of...

In this episode, Aaron Renn interviews T.C. Schmidt, associate professor at Fairfield University and author of the groundbreaking Oxford University Press book Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ . Schmidt, with a PhD from Yale, uses new linguistic analysis, computer databases, and ancient Greek studies to argue that the Testimonium Flavianum—Josephus's famous passage ab...

AI isn't just answering questions anymore—it's doing real work that used to take humans hours, days, or even weeks. In this wide-ranging conversation, returning guest Dean Ball, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, breaks down the massive leaps in AI since mid-2024: smarter models with true reasoning, web-searching research agents, and revolutionary coding agents that...

In this episode, historian Dr. Albert Thompson joins Aaron Renn for a deep, honest discussion on race in America—from its English colonial roots through slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, civil rights victories, and today's challenges. They explore how history shapes identity, why progress has been real yet uneven, the impact of WWII on black human capital, post-1960s cultural shifts, talent m...

In this insightful conversation, host Aaron M. Renn sits with Jeff Giesea, Stanford grad, entrepreneur, and founder of the Boyd Institute —a policy lab focused on bold solutions for America's future, tackling gerontocracy, overregulation, AI, and social fragmentation. They dive deep into the structural challenges facing the country: the Boomer Paradox (how older generations are both holding s...

In this eye-opening conversation, Aaron sits down with economic historian Chris Bream, author of Beyond Steel: Pittsburgh and the Economics of Transformation to unpack one of the most dramatic industrial collapses in American history — and what it reveals about the future of cities, regions, and the country. Pittsburgh went from being the steel capital of the world to losing hundreds of thousands...

In this eye-opening conversation, Ohio businessman Justin Powell joins Aaron Renn to discuss his viral article “ Dying to Give ” — why waiting until death to pass on wealth is often the wrong move, and how thoughtful, early giving can build stronger families, businesses, and communities. Justin shares powerful real-life stories: a multi-generation gravel pit owner who’s deliberately preserving two...

In this episode I sit down with Tanner Greer, one of America's most insightful public intellectuals. We dive deep into his recent American Affairs article, " The Making of a Techno-Nationalist Elite " — a sharp review of Palantir CEO Alex Karp's book "The Technological Republic." Greer contrasts today's Silicon Valley tech elite with the Gilded Age industrialists...

In this return appearance on the podcast, demographer Lyman Stone joins Aaron Renn to discuss the latest global fertility and marriage trends as of 2026. While U.S. birth rates and marriage rates have shown relative stability at low levels, the picture elsewhere is far bleaker—sharp declines in East Asia and Eastern Europe, with South Korea hitting historic lows. They explore the long-term consequ...

Aaron Renn welcomes back Daniel Hess, one of the sharpest analysts of global fertility trends, for a deep dive into why birth rates are collapsing—and why the divide is increasingly political. They discuss: - The growing fertility gap between red states (near replacement) and blue states (deeply sub-replacement) - How marriage is becoming even more important for births in the era of perfect birth...

In this episode, Aaron welcomes men’s style influencer O.W. Root for a deep dive into the dramatic decline of men's dress over the past 30 years. From the universal suit-wearing era of the 1990s to today's pajama pants in public, they explore how tech culture, Silicon Valley, and the shift to digital life contributed to the rise of "slob culture." Root shares why classic menswe...

In this episode, Aaron welcomes real estate developer Bobby Fijan to discuss one of the most overlooked crises in American urban life: the dramatic decline of children in major cities. Once filled with kids playing in the streets, neighborhoods in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and beyond are now increasingly childless. Bobby and Aaron explore the causes—from Richard Florida’s influential “crea...

A special Christmastime podcast reflecting on some of the guests I've hosted this year, along with a special fundraising appeal during my limited time only discount window. Through December 12, you can support the podcast and get great benefits by becoming a Member at a special rate of 30-40% off. You'll not only help me work, but also get paid subscriber access to Substack, an exclusive...