What We Can't Not Talk About

In this episode, Professor in Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and Senior Fellow of the Austin Institute Mark Regnerus discusses his latest research on the state of the Roman Catholic clergy in the United States. He found that, to the surprise of some, the priesthood in America is becoming increasingly conservative on matters of Church teaching in contrast to previous decades.

In this episode, Dr. Joseph Price, Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University and Senior Fellow of the Austin Institute, discusses matches in the marriage market, particularly for women with higher education. He points to the apparent scarcity of potential spouses for these women and describes how this may have come to be. Dr. Price shares his research on this subject and what it could mea...

The art of the Faith — i fiori della Fede— in places of the Faith -- nei luoghi della Fede — are visible prayers. They are to be meditated upon in the manner of a ‘lectio divina’, rather a ‘visio divina’, and not as mere “pictures at an exhibition”. In this talk, Professor Emeritus Norman Farmer will discuss beauty, faith, and the time they both require. Supplementary materials recommend for this...

Professor Byron Johnson joins us for a conversation on a core piece of the human experience that many of us hold dear but has been neglected in studies of criminology and other fields for decades: the influence of religion on human behavior. In this episode, he covers a brief history of our nation’s understanding of the purpose of prisons, the role of faith-based programs in prisons in making pris...

This fast-paced talk reviews a number of the puzzles, paradoxes and misconceptions about the family in America, including the myth of soulmate marriage, the myth of the good divorce, and the myth that our deepest divisions are political. In this episode, Dr. Catherine Pakaluk, Professor in the Busch School of Business and founder of the Social Research academic area at Catholic University of Ameri...

In the year 2019, Professor Catherine Pakaluk traveled to ten American regions and talked with women who were raising (or had raised) five or more children, to understand who they are and why they do what they do. In this episode, we talk about these stories. We talk about the normality of being mothers. We talk about the hardships of living as unencumbered selves. Once again, an episode that is w...

This special episode is the recording of a table talk that Dr. Kurt Schroder gave for the Austin Institute on September 21st, 2021. Tune in to listen how our board member, a Ph. D. in Physics and a brilliant inventor, helps us uncover our illusions about time and about its scientific measurement. Dr. Schroder will also stimulate personal answers to the question: "What would you do if the time you...

Marriage, in vitro fertilization, pornography, these are all very hot and very divisive topics. But if we do not address them with our children, someone else will do it for us. Dr. Ana Samuel, Academic Director of CanaVox, and mother of six, explains how the CanaVox network of reading group works, why and how it was founded and what is coming next. Started less than 10 years ago, CanaVox is now pr...

Have you ever wondered how an immortal life would look like? In this episode, we have privilege to discuss some fascinating aspects of this topic with Dr. Rachel Alexander. Based on Dr. Alexander's treatment of "Memory and Mortality in Homer’s Odyssey," soon to be published in the book "Political Theory on Death and Dying," we talked about living in the past, about the passing of time, and about t...

We are back with season 2 of our podcast and we are kickstarting it with a special lecture given by Joseph Price, Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University and Senior Fellow of the Austin Institute and moderated by Andrew Brown, J.D., Distinguished Senior Fellow of Child and Family Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In this episode, we explore the rights and responsibilities of...

Once again, we are happy to host a conversation on the issue of today: online pornography. With the help of Sean Clifford, CEO of Canopy.us, and happy father of four children, we tried to understand what each of us can do to make sure that our kids are not exposed, not even accidentally, to this new and dangerous drug. As our guest tells us, internet is a great resource and we all love our smartph...

What is the role that America can play in defending and promoting the right to life of all children, everywhere in the world? How does its international policy look like today and how did it look like during the former administration? In this episode we recorded a couple weeks back, we have the privilege of hosting a conversation with Valerie Huber, an architect of the Geneva Consensus Declaration...

As promised, Professor Christopher Kaczor is back on our show to talk about his latest release—published today: "Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life!" Co-authored with Associate Professor Matthew R. Petrusek, the book analyses Peterson’s biblical series on YouTube as well as his bestselling book "12 Rules for Life" and his latest "Beyond Order" from a Christian...

As promised, Dr. Melissa Moschella came back on our show! This time, we talked about true humility and about the ways in which exercising this virtue would improve all of our social interactions. In an age dominated by constant self-awareness and by an actual cult of the self, humility reminds us that we do not need to be "liked," but to be true to others. Even within marriage, humility is necessa...

**This episode contains mature content** If there is one thing we absolutely must talk about, that is pornography. We have to talk about it because it affects our children, our friends, our spouses. If you are young, and if you are using it, it will inevitably affect your sexual life (let alone the romantic one). If you are a parent, you need to listen to Dr. Jimmy Myers, Founder and CEO of the Ti...

In this episode, Austin Institute's Senior Fellow, UT Professor of Philosophy Robert Koons, offers a brilliant description of the reasons why modern science does not disprove the existence of God. Last spring, Professor Koons presented these arguments more extensively, in the context of a compact seminar that he led for Austin Institute's attendees. (Be sure to subscribe for the next compact semin...

In this episode, University of Texas Professor and Senior Fellow of the Austin Institute Mark Regnerus shows how the family resists all sorts of pandemics, including biological ones. During lockdown and mandatory quarantines, this fundamental unit of society has again proven to be a safe haven for all the subjects involved. Rather than living alone in their one-bedroom apartments, children happily...

Drawing from the research presented in her 2016 book, philosophy professor and Austin Institute senior fellow Dr. Melissa Moschella discusses the status, the nature, and the reasonableness of parental rights. In a world increasingly concerned with individual rights and forgetful of duties, the risk is to forget that children are first and foremost the fruits of spousal love. Link to her book: http...

In this episode, Professor Ligia Castaldi, Ave Maria School of Law, discusses her book "Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean" with another attorney, Dr. Marianna Orlandi. Tune in to listen to their conversation on abortion laws, bans, international courts and treaties, and on some common misunderstandings. Link to Professor Castaldi's book: https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268107659/abortion-in-...

This talk focuses on the question of "what" precisely divides people on the abortion issue. What are the real sources of the polarization and lack of dialogue? Is it revival ideas of freedom, of person, of equality, of religion, and the role of the state? In the words of Charles Camosy, “placing oneself on either side of the typical polarizations — pro-life vs. pro-choice, liberal vs. conservative...

In this episode, Michael Raia, president and founder of Studio io, tells us more about his work as liturgical design consultant and about his calling to restoring beauty in today's world. Sit down and enjoy your coffee while Mr. Raia and Dr. Orlandi talk about what beauty actually is, and why it is so important in and for our experience of God and of the sacred. https://www.studioiodesign.com http...

Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, was a recent speaker for an event co-sponsored by the Austin Institute and the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In this episode, he answers to some of our questions about immigration and family separations, and about the family friendly policies that Latinos (or Hispanics) would like to see, both in the United States...

In this week's episode, renowned Thomist and Philosophy Professor Christopher Kaczor spoke on some of the most complex and fundamental questions of philosophy, theology, and of our daily lives. With his usual clarity, Professor Kaczor answered questions on the existence of evil and on the reasons why, in itself, evil does not disprove the existence of God. Enjoy!

In this episode, our Executive Director, Dr. Kevin Stuart, identifies four main areas of division in today's American politics: geographical sorting, “liberalism”, 1619 vs. 1776, and God. He shares some ideas on how they all came to be and explains how we might all be inadvertently becoming more extreme in what we say and think. This was the content of our recent in-house seminar and we look forwa...

What is the nature and meaning of human sexual difference? Is it a stable reality given to us by nature and nature's God for fixed and discernable purposes that pertain to not only body and biology, but also soul and spirit? Is it an evolved (and evolving) trait best explained in terms of its capacity to prolong the survival of megalomaniacal genes? Or is it rather a kind of illusion whose appeara...