Lost Prophets

Ivan Illich, a radical public intellectual, critiques modern institutions with deep insights into education, healthcare, and capitalism. Joined by biographer David Cayley, they explore Illich's concept of 'conviviality' and the commodification of care that diminishes personal relationships. They discuss the legacy of Illich's 'learning webs' and how his ideas shape contemporary movements around community and solidarity. Their conversation delves into the transformative power of friendship, humor, and the need for genuine connection in an increasingly divided society.

Peter Maurin (1877-1949) was Dorothy Day’s great teacher and collaborator in establishing the Catholic Worker movement. He saw Catholic social teachings as the still-unexploded “dynamite of the Church.” If Dorothy Day is better known today than her close colleague, Peter Maurin, it is not for lack of praise from Dorothy herself. She never ceased to emphasize Peter’s influence and his role, noting that there would not have been a Catholic Worker movement but for Peter. “Peter gave me more than instruction”, she liked to repeat. “He gave me a way of life.”That way of life, a radical path of voluntary poverty and service to the poor, grew out of Peter’s early life, having been born into a large French family which farmed the same land in the Languedoc region for centuries. His peripatetic life experiences doing all kinds of day labor to support himself as an independent intellectual and Catholic street preacher served to keep him close to the poor. “He believed in poverty,” Dorothy once noted, “and loved it and felt it as a liberating force.”Despite his Chaplinesque, shabby appearance, Maurin’s mental universe was immensely rich, stocked with a mix of Catholic theology, history, and literature which he happily shared with any and all he encountered. He opposed both communism and industrial capitalism, favoring his own notion of a “green revolution” in a three-point program of roundtable discussions, houses of hospitality, and farming communes that blended religion, politics, and ecology — or, as he put it, “cult, culture, and cultivation.” These ideas became the program of the Catholic Worker movement during Peter’s lifetime.Our guest for this episode is Kelly Johnson, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton and author of The Fear of Beggars: Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics (2007).Some takeaways from our conversation:* Peter as a paragon of a radical, Franciscan Christianity in which piety and social justice are fused in a gentle personalism.* Peter’s life as the outsider, the pilgrim, the mendicant beggar at times. By 1934, he had given up everything—home, status, financial security and his personal life to become “a fool for Christ” (cf. I Corinthians 1:10).* Peter’s “troubadour method” of reciting his Easy Essays on street corners to crowds. Once asked what university he had graduated from, he answered, “Union Square.”* Peter taught Dorothy his philosophies of distributism and anarchy, as well as his opposition to usury—a shared goal of a society in which “it would be easier for people to be good.”* Peter’s opposition to the New Deal and to the wage-only focus of unions, as neither solution goes to the roots. Only the land movement, he felt, was a cure for unemployment.* Peter’s vision of “cells of good living” over trying to seize power at the top.* Peter’s love of language and word-play: “The aim of the Catholic Worker is to make an impression on the Depression through expression.”* Peter’s contrast between machine civilization and handicraft civilization (agriculture and crafts). His idea that scholars must become farmers and farmers must become scholars, part of his vision of restoring a truly Catholic culture—reclaiming the dignity of manual labor.* In the 1940s, Peter defended the Jewish people from slanders and appealed for the U.S. to accept more refugees.* Peter was one of the first Catholics to seriously entertain dialogue with Marxists.* Peter and the Catholic Worker movement influenced Michael Harrington, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, and E.F. Schumacher, among many others.Timestamps* Introduction to Peter Maurin and the Catholic Worker Movement, brief overview of Peter's background and significance. [00:00:00]* Peter's early life in France, his upbringing and family background. [00:05:29]* Peter’s travels and experiences in North America, journey through Canada and the United States, various jobs and encounters. [00:08:00]* Peter’s "Easy Essays." Discussion of his unique writing style and method of communicating ideas. [00:13:00]* Peter’s personalist philosophy, and an exploration of his views on the centrality of the human person and its relation to community. [00:20:02]* The Green Revolution and Peter’s agrarian vision, a precursor of our notions of sustainability. [00:25:30]* Peter's critique of industrial capitalism and alternative economic ideas. Discussion of distributism, cooperatives, and his vision for a new social order. [00:35:00]* Peter’s approach to popular education through the practice of "roundtable discussions" about social issues and solutions, as well as Peter’s ideas about integrating manual labor, intellectual pursuits, and social action. [00:45:00]* Interview with Kelly Johnson (University of Dayton), and her first encounter with Peter Maurin. [00:58:42]* Peter’s practice of voluntary poverty — his way of embodying his own ideas, not merely talking about them. Plus, an introduction to “viator economics.” [01:10:00]* The historic partnership between Peter and Dorothy Day. Analysis of their complementary roles in founding the Catholic Worker Movement. [01:20:08]* Peter's way of empowering those with whom he spoke—a sign of a great teacher. His notable blind spot: the impact of slavery. This missed moment for lay Catholic theology—not informing the life of the Church? Hope as a thing you do, not a thing you feel. [01:30:00]* Concluding thoughts and reflections from the hosts — and a mention of possible topics for some future episodes. [01:43:29]Recommended:* The Forgotten Radical Peter Maurin: Easy Essays from the Catholic Worker, edited by Lincoln Rice (2020)* Peter Maurin: Apostle to the World, Dorothy Day with Francis J. Sicius (2004)* The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist, Dorothy Day (1952, 2009)* Peter Maurin: Prophet in the Twentieth Century, Marc H. Ellis (2010)* The Fear of Beggars: Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics, Kelly Johnson (2007).Many thanks to the great band NOBLE DUST, who provides the music for Lost Prophets. Their latest album A Picture for a Frame is here.This is the third episode of LOST PROPHETS, a podcast about the mid-century voices of solidarity we need to hear again. To listen on your podcast player, our Spotify link is here, Apple Podcasts link is here, and RSS link is here. Get full access to The Lost Prophets Podcast at www.lostprophets.org/subscribe

The life and career of Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) is a remarkable case of the inspired “amateur” who changes an entire field of study (urban planning) merely by looking more closely at things than the experts had done. While not religious, she had a profound faith in the essential goodness and creativity of ordinary people — and consequently in our collective ability to co-create the places in which we live.In her later years, Jane Jacobs once recounted her reaction upon coming to New York in the early 1940s: “It was inexhaustible. Just to walk around the streets and wonder at it. So many streets different. So many neighborhoods different. So much going on.” In this language, we hear not only her love of cities but the beginnings of her intuition that we grasp truth through love. Thinking of the city planners of her day, many of whom seemed dubious about cities, she argued that it’s a big mistake to try to reform something you hate because that emotion will contaminate your prescription. One version of Jane Jacobs (in the eyes of her opponents) is the “uncredentialed housewife” whose organizing talents in 1962 defeated New York City’s mega-planner Robert Moses and his Lower Manhattan Expressway, thereby rescuing for later generations the neighborhoods of SoHo (one of the greatest inventories of 19th century buildings in the world) and Little Italy. Another version of Jane is the “city naturalist,” a keen observer of processes hiding in plain sight: the organic order of streets, the mail shunting by beneath her feet in pneumatic tubes, the diamond trade, the flower market. A true urbanophile, she saw self-organizing networks everywhere.A third Jane is the ecologist of cities and the champion of economic diversity, perhaps the most powerful benefit cities can offer. What Rachel Carson did for the natural environment or Ralph Nader for the commercial environment, Jane Jacobs did for the built environment. She became the articulate voice and defender of a movement which now seems merely common sense: a bottom-up approach to urbanism which values streets over buildings, people over automobiles, and the unpredictable over the centrally planned.For our conversation about Jane Jacobs, we spoke with her longtime friend and ally in urbanist advocacy Roberta Brandes Gratz, author of The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, among other titles.Takeaways from our conversation:“Cities are created by everybody.” Jane saw them as places where ordinary people had the chance to do something new and interesting. They offer scope for all kinds of people. Jane’s new theory about how cities function and her insight into the kind of problem a city is—i.e., one of organized complexity, requiring us to deal simultaneously with numerous interrelated factors in an organic whole.Against those who saw only disorder, Jane could see an intricate and unique order, which she liked to describe using ecological metaphors.Jane’s landmark book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, gave a boost to localism of all sorts, including the local food movement.The concept of import replacement: Jane thought it her most important contribution. Not a product of planning but of bottom-up processes of discovery within a city.Jane was part of the wave of resistance to centralized authority in the 1960s—Betty Friedan, Rachel Carson, Noam Chomsky, the civil rights movement.Big plans live intellectually off little plans. Without the latter, planners often make big mistakes which cannot easily be corrected.Jane’s idea that we’re living in a time of “dying priesthoods” of all kinds. “We need unlimited independent thinkers with unlimited skepticism and curiosity.”Jane’s enormous impact on reverting cities from car-dominated places back to walkable (and bikeable) places. Episode Sections:Introduction to Jane Jacobs [00:00:00]Her early life and upbringing [00:02:47]Her deep curiosity and early interests [00:07:29]Early career as a journalist [00:13:35]Development of her urban theories [00:19:00]Her activism against urban renewal projects [00:39:32]Discussion of Jane's major books:The Death and Life of Great American Cities [00:30:00]The Economy of Cities [00:52:01]Cities and the Wealth of Nations [00:57:56]Systems of Survival [01:05:00]Interview with Roberta Gratz [01:09:56]Discussion of Jane's final book Dark Age Ahead [02:03:00]Concluding thoughts on her legacy [02:11:56]Recommended:Eyes on the Street, Robert Kanigal (2017)Citizen Jane: Battle for the City Documentary (2016)City Limits Documentary (1971)Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs (1961, 1992)The Economy of Cities, Jane Jacobs (1970)Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jane Jacobs (1985)Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs (2007)The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, Roberta Brandes Gratz Get full access to The Lost Prophets Podcast at www.lostprophets.org/subscribe

Rabbi Shai Held, an author and expert on Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, shares insights into Heschel's profound spirituality and activism. They discuss Heschel's radical amazement and belief that God is omnipresent. The conversation navigates Heschel’s role in the Civil Rights movement and his collaboration with Martin Luther King Jr. Held highlights Heschel’s critiques of consumerism, his views on the Sabbath's sacredness, and the importance of human dignity, illustrating how Heschel’s teachings remain relevant in today’s world.

In the coming weeks, join Elias Crim and Pete Davis as they journey into the land of the Lost Prophets, the mid-century figures who asked deep question and had big visions about what happened, where to go, and how to get there.Here in the mid-2020s, we are lost in the woods.  We do not trust the established systems, and the established systems are revealing themselves daily to not be, as presently designed, worthy of our trust.Most of us don't feel like we are members of the places in which we reside, nor co-creators of the structures in which we inhabit — and as a result, loneliness, cynicism, and unease abounds.  Powerful words like neighbor and citizen and solidarity, democracy, community, and ecology, participation — prophecy! — have been lost by years of abandonment and misuse. And none of the silver bullets of the past decades — the latest politicians, the latest technologies, the latest cultural trends — have delivered on their promise to get us out of this mess.  Where to now?One way of thinking about what’s been going is that we are living in an age of what could be called declining hegemony.From the late 1980s to early 2010s, most of the questions that were raised about public life had conventional wisdom answers. There were always alternatives, critics, and dreamers, but the conventional wisdom dominated — if you had a question, the system had an answer, and most of us believed it.But eventually, that conventional wisdom started unraveling. Two decades of cultural malaise, disastrous wars, financialization, monopolization, Trump, an environmental crisis, technodystopias, and more have resulted in the conventional wisdom answers being much less believable today. That’s what declining hegemony feels like — unanswered questions, the most important being: Where to now?But here’s something we noticed: So many of the questions that we’re asking today were also asked by people who lived before the rise of the current, now-declining hegemony. In the mid-20th century, there was an explosion of reflection about big questions: How do we make sure our tools serves us instead of the other way around? How do we build community in the modern world? How should we relate to nature and to one another? How do we design our cities? Our systems? Our government? Where to now?Jane Jacobs, Dorothy Day, Hannah Arendt, Paul Goodman, Martin Luther King, Wendell Berry, Ella Baker, Ivan Illich, Simone Weil, Abraham Joshua Heschel, James Baldwin, Marshall McCluhan, E.F. Schumacher… it was an era of deep questions and big visions. It was an era of prophecy. If we want to figure out where to go from here, we may need to hear their voices again. And that’s exactly what we’re doing with Lost Prophets. Each episode, we will feature a Lost Prophet of solidarity — discuss their life, their work, and what they can teach us about today. Additionally, we’ll bring on a guest that’s a much bigger expert on their work to go deeper. And hopefully in this excavation, we’ll find some light that can shine a path forward today.Come digging with us, Listener! Get full access to The Lost Prophets Podcast at www.lostprophets.org/subscribe