JWI Presents: Anchoring Truths Podcast

Prof. Lucas Morel, distinguished Lincoln scholar at Washington and Lee University, discusses the 1619 Project and its challenge to the American Founding with Garrett Snedeker, JWI Deputy Director, and Jovan Tripkovic, JWI Intern.

Ilya Shapiro joins Garrett Snedeker and Spencer Reeves to discuss his book, "Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court," which concerns the partisan battles over Supreme Court nominations that have become a focal point of judicial politics in the past few decades. He discusses the history of partisan Supreme Court nominations, the role of game theory, and some possible Supreme Court reforms that can finally end the partisan battles. 

Robert Reilly walks us through his book, America on Trial, which pushes back on recent theorists who have argued that the American founding brought with it the "Poison Pill" of modern liberalism. He goes through in detail, the traditions of thought that lead to the  American founding, arguing that it has its roots in Natural Law and the medieval constitutional tradition. 

Author Abigail Shrier on transgenderism and its growth among American female teens

After the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union, the categories of Left and Right continue to be used to describe political ideologies, despite their historic ambiguity and a shared utopian root. The idealistic belief that a perfect world is possible continues to dwell on existential hope for messianic salvation. This belief lay at the heart of the apocalyptic narratives of the Bible and reflects what the Greeks called hubris, a fatal and destructive form of conceit. This conceit reemerged in the Gnostic sects of early Christianity, then again in medieval millenarianism, Jacobinism, Marxism, Fascism, and secular liberal collectivism. Modern-day Salafi Islam is the latest manifestation in this nefarious tradition. In The Utopian Conceit and the War on Freedom, noted political philosopher Juliana Geran Pilon explores the roots of this malevolent ideology as the common ancestor of both anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism in the contemporary world, where political and religious freedom is increasingly under assault. In an age of rampant religious and philosophical skepticism and national and ethnic deracination, religious and quasi-religious ideologies bent on the vilification and destruction of entire communities are confronting and undermining a confused, guilt-ridden, materialistic, and often nihilistic Western society. In this bold and dynamic book, Pilon argues that a strong defense of freedom and pluralism, which forms the basis of constitutional democracy, is essential for the survival of civilization. Culturally sensitive and empirically tested outreach, predicated on an uncompromising defense against disinformation and terror, must be waged by all civilized nations, but especially the United States as its role evolves in a changing world.

Shoshana Weissmann is the senior manager of digital media and a fellow at the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank. She oversees RSI’s social media, email marketing, and website while also working and writing on a variety of policy and regulatory subjects. She also likes SpongeBob. Jon Schweppe is the Director of Policy and Government Affairs for American Principles Project (APP). In this role, he develops and advances the organization’s legislative priorities by working with allied groups and with federal and state lawmakers. Prior to joining APP in late 2014, he worked on a number of political campaigns, focusing mainly on communications and policy. Schweppe was named a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2020. He has been published at a number of outlets, including First Things, the New York Post, The Federalist, and the Daily Caller. He graduated from Augustana College in 2010 with majors in economics and finance. Shoshana and Jon lead us through a discussion of Section 230, the disagreements between different movements in the broader conservative movement and the implications for the internet in the future.

On Common Good Constitutionalism, Judicial Supremacy, and Nationwide Injunctions

An Interview with Peter Wallison

June 2019

"John Marshall: The Man Who Made the Supreme Court" with Richard Brookhiser