The Good Life

Have you ever taken a quiz to know where you fall on the political compass? Are you liberal, conservative, authoritarian, or libertarian? Thankfully there are more options than those. Today I talk about how we can know where we call on the spectrum and how that knowledge can better help me to love my neighbor.  P.S. In this episode I said that Noah Millman's article came out on the "League of Ordi...

Joshua Klein is a woodworker, furniture maker, author, church elder, and editor of Mortise and Tenon magazine. He has written a fascinating biography of  Jonathan Fisher, an eighteenth-century jack-of-all-trades pastor titled, Hands Employed Aright. He also works with the Greystone Theological Institute's mechanical arts program to mentor young men in intellectual, theological, and craftsmanship s...

Having just celebrated Valentine's Day, here are five good books of marriage that can help any married couple, no matter how long they've been married. 

The Christmas season is almost here and who better to talk about it than a man who hails from the capital of the white Christmas (Vermont) - Ryan Anderson. Ryan grew up in Vermont, moved to Washington state, and recently returned to the land of his fathers. I met him through Twitter (now "X") and have enjoyed his posts about moving home and delighting in the season. We talk about how many good thi...

What is "the West"? What is the role of Christians today in preserving our Western heritage? How does liberalism fit into the decline of Christendom? What is leading to the rise of Anti-Semitism among some on the right? I am joined today by John Ehrett to discuss these and other topics relating to our cultural history. John is a writer and attorney in Washington, D.C. who has written for multiple...

John Klar is a jack of all trades. A lawyer, farmer, pastor, and public servant, he took on government bureaucracy and won, restoring the right of Vermont farmers to butcher their animals on their own farms. His most recent book, Small Farm Republic, describes the collusion of corporate farming with big government and provides hopeful options for people who want to resist that control. In this epi...

How should Christians treat the world? Are we against it, for it, or something in between? In this episode, I discuss the two views and who from Scripture successfully achieves both. 

My guest today is Mr. John Waters, a journalist and Christian convert in Ireland. He has written several books, the most recent being Give Us Back the Bad Roads, which tells the story of how Ireland changed from being the most conservative country in Europe to one of the most liberal in a period of several decades. He wrote for a major newspaper until he was removed due to his stance against homos...

Most people approach the book of Ruth with simplicity, thinking they already know it. In my interview with Pastor Rich Lusk, we discuss the beauty, wisdom, and delight to be found in this little book. It is a folk tale, a love story, and a picture of the gospel spreading to the nations, all wrapped in four short chapters. His book, Ruth: Under His Wings , breaks through the normal things we think...

Today I had the privilege to speak with Dr. Hal Poe, a professor at Union University in Jackson, TN. Dr. Poe is a distant relation to Edgar Allan Poe, the poet and short story writer. Dr. Poe is the author of Evermore, a fascinating book about his older cousin. Today we discuss the wide-ranging talent of this often-misunderstood writer. There are so many interesting things about Poe that it's hard...

How did Evangelicalism become the cultural force that it is? How did it come to be associated with conservatism? What role does money play in the growth of religious consciousness in America? These are just some of the questions I discuss with today's guest, Jake Nelson. Jake has an M.A. from the University of Tennessee and has written on the rise of Evangelicalism in the early 1900s. If you're in...

How do we serve God and live in the world? What relationship should the church have with the state? My guest today, Joel Biermann, answers those questions and more in his book, Wholly Citizens. Joel is a professor at Concordia Seminary, where he teaches systematic theology. Our discussion features a two-kingdom approach, but nothing like the two-kingdom view many of us have heard. He emphasizes th...

Why do some Christians observe Lent? What is the point of fasting/asceticism? In this podcast, I talk briefly about the purpose of Ash Wednesday/Lent in the Church calendar and how it can help us become more like Christ. 

Today I am joined by Joy Clarkson. You may recognize her last name (she's the daughter of Sally Clarkson), but her writing stands on its own. She's written a wonderful book by the title of, Aggressively Happy.  In this episode, we discuss why she would call her book such a unique name, the necessary role of sadness in pursuing a happy life, and why living with the end of the world in mind is a goo...

What is a reactionary and why would anybody claim to be one? That's the question I discuss today with Michael Warren Davis, author of The Reactionary Mind: Why Conservative Isn't Enough. Michael has written for Crisis, The American Conservative, and many other magazines. He describes a reactionary not as one pining for a return to a pristine order, but who purposefully reorients one's life toward...

In this bonus episode, I read an article by David Frost, entitled, "Christmas Offers a Glimpse of a World That is Lost" from The Telegraph, a UK newspaper. He tells the story of a Christmas carol written in 1400 and later lost but was rediscovered in the mountains of Appalachia. There is a deeper meaning behind the story as well. Merry Christmas!

Rod Dreher joins me for a wide-ranging discussion of his previous book, The Benedict Option , and his most recent book, Live Not By Lies. We talk about what changed between his writing the two books, how Christians choose to sleepwalk through much of the cultural onslaught, and what we should do in preparation for what is coming.    Books:  The Benedict Option Live Not By Lies Blog The American Co...

In our recent paideia sermon series, we looked at many passages that give us wisdom when training our children. This article by John Stonestreet at the Colson Center speaks to that topic. He contrasts inoculation with indoctrination as two methods of preparing our children to be "in the world but not of it." In this episode, I cover the article's highlights and offer some brief commentary on why p...

These are just a few thoughts on the need to cultivate gratitude since it doesn't come naturally. I read a brief article by my friend Brandon Meeks on showing God's love to the least around us and talk about our responsibility to look beyond ourselves and see how we too can show God's grace to others.    Brandon Meeks' Substack Newslette r

My guest today is Dr. Scott Masson, a professor of literature at Tyndale University in Toronto. We talk about the origins and growth of cultural Marxism in North America, how ancient and medieval writers approached literature, and the importance of the liberal arts in fortifying our children against cultural corrosion. Dr. Masson is a gifted lecturer and publishes his lectures freely on Youtube. Y...

Today I welcome Chris Wiley back to the Good Life podcast. We met in person and discussed the book he is working on, tentatively titled, How To Defeat Communism in Your Spare Time. We discuss the origins of totalitarianism and how it morphed into the bizarre form it now takes in seemingly free countries. We conclude with what everyday people can do to escape the heavy chains of twenty-first-centur...

Today I interview Dr. Peter Hammond, the president of Frontline Fellowship. Frontline is a mission organization taking the gospel throughout Africa and Europe. Peter was born and raised in Rhodesia and later moved to South Africa where he has worked for the last forty years. He has amazing stories to tell, including his first mission trip when he traveled into Communist territory, how God orchestr...

For hundreds of years, Evangelical worship services have ended with an altar call - the pastor asks people to bow their heads and close their eyes while musicians play softly, and he pleads with them to make a decision for Christ. But that is a recent innovation in worship. For centuries churches ended worship with the communion meal, or a simple hymn and prayer/benediction. What changed? That's t...

When we read C. S. Lewis, we think of Mere Christianity or The Chronicles of Narnia. But how did he become the man who would write beautifully about so many disparate topics? Dr. Jason Baxter joins me today in a stimulating discussion on how C. S. Lewis was intellectually and spiritually formed. Dr. Baxter's book, The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis, is a short, well-crafted work that introduces us t...

We normally think of piety as only applying to our spiritual lives, i.e. reading our Bibles, prayer, etc. But for the ancients, piety was a matter of fulfilling responsibilities to others, a way of discharging debts owed to our authorities and those who have gone before us. In today's podcast, I talk about how Uriah the Hittite is portrayed as an excellent example of piety, even greater than King...