Tocqueville Talks

Why does patriotism seem so powerful in America—and what happens when it begins to disappear? As Americans celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary, Alexis de Tocqueville's reflections on patriotism may be more relevant than ever. Nearly two hundred years ago, Tocqueville traveled across the United States searching for answers about democracy, citizenship, and self-government. What he disc...

For generations, politics in Europe and America was dominated by large, stable political parties. Today, those old political alignments are breaking down. Why are voters abandoning established parties? Why are populist movements gaining strength across the West? And what does this transformation mean for the future of democracy? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Furman University political sci...

What can a neighborhood swim league teach us about democracy? More than you might think. When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 1831, he was astonished by what he called associations —ordinary citizens voluntarily joining together to solve common problems. He believed these organizations were not merely helpful to democracy; they were essential to preserving freedom itself. In this episode...

For eighty years, Europe and the United States built a common political, economic, and military order. Today, many Europeans wonder whether that world is ending. In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Brent Nelson interviews NPR Paris correspondent Eleanor Beardsley, a Furman alumna and one of America's most experienced reporters on Europe and the Middle East. Drawing on decades of reporting fr...

Why does everything feel increasingly unreal? The people most trapped in abstraction are often the people consuming the most information. Tocqueville saw this danger almost 200 years ago. In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Beth L'Arrivée and Rob L'Arrivée explore one of Alexis de Tocqueville's most penetrating insights: democratic societies encourage citizens to think in general ide...

What does it mean to be European in the twenty-first century? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Brent Nelsen joins three Tocqueville Fellows—Madison (“Maddie”) Maddie, Zach LaComb, and Lane Lytle—from Strasbourg, France, during Furman University's May Experience course, United Europe: Past and Present . After two weeks traveling through Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and France, the group r...

What questions defined this year’s biggest conversations at the Tocqueville Center? In this special year-end reflection episode of Tocqueville Talks, Brent Nelsen, Beth L’Arrivée, and longtime Furman University professor Jim Guth look back on the speakers, debates, and ideas that shaped the Tocqueville Center’s lecture series over the past academic year. The discussion ranges across some of the mo...

What does it take to build a community of students who still read books, ask difficult questions, and engage seriously with ideas? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Brent Nelsen sits down with Lucy Southwell, the behind-the-scenes force who helps make the Tocqueville Center’s programs possible. As Manager of Student Programs and Events in Furman University's Politics and International Affa...

What happens when a year of serious conversation forces you to rethink what you believe? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Brent Nelsen sits down with Tocqueville Fellows Makena Wyngaard and Lane Lytle for an end-of-year reflection on the ideas, debates, and questions that shaped their intellectual journey. Drawing on a full year of lectures, discussions, and retreats, the conversation explore...

What happens when students encounter Friedrich Nietzsche for the first time—and take his ideas seriously? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Brent Nelsen shares a series of conversations recorded during the Tocqueville Fellows retreat, capturing students’ real-time reactions to Nietzsche’s thought. These discussions offer a rare glimpse into intellectual formation as it happens: students wrestl...

What does it mean to have a right—and who decides its limits? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks , Brent Nelsen and Beth L’Arrivée sit down with Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Tocqueville Chair in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, for a wide-ranging conversation on religious liberty, natural rights, and the American constitutional tradition. Drawing on the principles of the First Amendm...

What if the purpose of education isn’t knowledge—but the formation of character? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Brent Nelsen and Beth L’Arrivée share a conversation recorded at the Tocqueville Fellows retreat, where students and faculty confront one of the most difficult questions in political philosophy: what does it mean to pursue greatness in a democratic age? Drawing on Democracy in Ame...

What if globalization didn’t just reshape markets—but quietly reshaped the structure of American life? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Brent Nelsen and Beth L’Arrivée sit down with Mark DiPlacido of American Compass to explore a fundamentally different perspective on trade, tariffs, and economic policy. DiPlacido argues that the core issue isn’t simply globalization—it’s imbalance. The Unite...

What if the policies designed to “protect” American workers are quietly doing the opposite? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks , Brent Nelsen and Beth L’Arrivée sit down with Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute—a trade lawyer turned policy expert—to unpack what actually happens when governments intervene in global markets. Lincicome doesn’t deal in theory. He’s seen how trade policy is made in...

What happens when the global system still looks stable—but the forces beneath it are shifting? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks , Brent Nelson speaks with Josef Braml, European Director of the Trilateral Commission, about the changing architecture of global order in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 financial crisis. Braml argues that what we are witnessing is not simply a geopolitical rivalry, b...

What is the role of the nation state in protecting human rights, securing peace, and shaping global order—and where do morality and religion fit into that mission? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks , Brent Nelson is joined by three Furman University Tocqueville Fellows—Nathan Johnson (junior, Politics and History, Atlanta, GA), Michaela Valentine (senior, Politics and International Affairs and...

What does a life in diplomacy actually look like from the inside? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks , Director Brent Nelson speaks with Larry Richter , a recently retired Senior Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State , whose 33-year career took him to 10 countries on four continents, from Armenia to Zimbabwe , and included senior assignments in London, Tokyo, and Afghanistan...

How does a free society maintain a powerful military without allowing it to dominate politics? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks , Director Brent Nelson and co-host Beth L’Arrivée speak with Peter Feaver (Duke University) , one of the leading scholars of civil–military relations and former Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on the U.S. National Security Council . Feaver’s work centers...

When moral conviction meets the realities of global politics, easy answers disappear. In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Director Brent Nelsen and co-host Elizabeth L’Arrivée sit down with Mark Amstutz, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Wheaton College and author of International Ethics , Evangelicals and American Foreign Policy , and his recent book Building World Order: How the Chris...

What happens when students actually sit down and talk — across disagreement? In this episode of Tocqueville Talks , Director Brent Nelson hosts Tocqueville Fellows Nathan, Maddie, and Sim for a candid conversation about civic dialogue, leadership, and what they’ve learned about democracy by practicing it. Why do students crave real conversation in an age of outrage? What happens when disagreement...

After an ice storm prevented Yuval Levin from visiting Furman University, the Tocqueville Fellows carried the conversation forward. In this special student panel episode of Tocqueville Talks , Director Brent Nelsen and co-host Elizabeth L’Arrivée are joined by Tocqueville Fellows Zach Lacombe and William Jepsen to discuss Levin’s book American Covenant and its central question: How can people act...

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, political economist Matthias Matthijs joins Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivée to examine Europe’s strategic vulnerability following the return of Donald Trump to the White House. The conversation introduces the idea of the “Trump trap”: Europe’s geopolitical weakness forces short-term concessions on trade, defense, and regulation that undermine democratic legitimacy and...

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, political scientist Gary Marks joins Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivée for a deep exploration of the European Union as a living political experiment. Beginning with Jean Monnet and the post–World War II origins of European integration, the conversation examines why supranational governance emerged—and why it continues to evolve under intense internal and external pressu...

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks , political scientist Liesbet Hooghe joins Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivée to examine how modern politics is increasingly organized around cultural authority rather than economic ideology. The conversation explores why citizens feel ruled even when institutions claim to be decentralized—and how legitimacy changes when decision-making moves farther from daily life.

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Dr. Ben Sasse joins Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivée for Part II of our series on The Crisis in American Higher Education. They discuss institutional fragility, mission drift, the collapse of meaningful learning, and what Tocqueville can teach us about the formation of citizens.