Acton Line

If you asked people to describe our current cast of politicians in America right now, they might say that some, if not most, are slyly taking advantage of the system. They are hoping no one is savvy enough to notice. Matt Lewis, senior columnist at The Daily Beast, believes that today’s politicians are an unsavory lot—a hybrid of plutocrats and hypocrites. And it’s worse (and more laughable) than you can imagine. In his new book, Filthy Rich Politicians: The Swamp Creatures, Latte Liberals, and Ruling-Class Elites Cashing in on America, Lewis introduces you to a crop of ivy league populists, insider traders, trust-fund babies, and swamp creatures as he exposes how truly ludicrous money in politics has gotten.In Filthy Rich Politicians, Lewis embarks on an investigative deep dive into the ridiculous state of modern American democracy—a system where the rich get elected and the elected get rich. Lewis doesn’t just complain: he articulates how Americans can achieve accountability from their elected leaders through radically commonsense reforms. But many of these ruling-class elites have a vested financial interest in rejecting the reforms so desperately needed to rebuild Americans’ trust in the institutions that once made our nation great.Subscribe to our podcasts Filthy Rich Politicians | Amazon

Kevin Vallier, political philosopher and associate professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University, joins Dan Hugger to discuss Catholic Integralism and his forthcoming book All the Kingdoms of the World: On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism, which publishes with Oxford University Press in September.What is Catholic Integralism and what is its relation to Catholic Social Teaching? What is its history and the story of its contemporary rise? How has it caused controversy in the broader Church and world? What is the American Integralist theory of social change?How concerned should ordinary people be about this movement? What fuels this sort of deep discontent with liberalism and modernity?The conversation then turns what a constructive political-theological vision would look like and Kevin’s future plans.Trust in a Polarized Age | Acton LineImmortale DeiDIGNITATIS HUMANAEThey Have Uncrowned Him | AmazonThe JosiasAdrian Vermeule | HarvardVatican II's Declaration on Religious Freedom: Revision, Reform, or Continuity? | YoutubeSelections from Three Works | Liberty FundNon Possumus | First ThingsThe Church's Once-Notorious Seizure of a Jewish Child Is Back. Why? | MosaicAgainst David French-ism | First ThingsIntegration from Within | American AffairsLiberalism and the Invisible Hand | American AffairsPatrick Deneen’s Otherworldly Regime | Religion & LibertyPatrick Deneen and Our Otherworldly Postliberal “Future” | Acton UnwindReplace the Elite | First ThingsWhat Is To Be Done? | WikipediaAll The Kingdoms of the World | Oxford University PressAll The Kingdoms of the World | kevinvallier.comThe Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millenium | Amazon

In this episode, Father Roger J. Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, and Catholic Chaplain to Columbia University in New York City sits down with Sarah Negri, Research Project Coordinator at the Acton Institute, to discuss the social teaching of Pope John Paul II and especially his emphasis on the vocation of the Christian entrepreneur. Father Landry shares some history on John Paul II’s three most famous social encyclicals and elucidates their importance for the ordinary Christian worker. The discussion centers around the Christian vocation to work as a divine injunction, the subjective and objective elements of work, and how the Christian worker imitates both God as creator and Christ as the perfect human model of holy labor. It also touches on the challenges faced by the human worker, including the possibility of alienation, workaholisim, and the toil that accompanies hard labor, as well as solutions to these challenges.Subscribe to our podcasts The Entrepreneurial Vocation (recorded lecture) – Acton University 2023The Social Teaching of John Paul II (recorded lecture) – Acton University 2023Laborem Exercens by Pope John Paul IISollicitudo Rei Socialis by Pope John Paul IICentesimus Annus by Pope John Paul II The Entrepreneurial Vocation by Fr. Robert Sirico

This week, we’re bringing you one of the plenary lectures from this year’s Acton University, featuring Bishop Robert Barron speaking on “The Philosophical Roots of Wokeism.”"Wokeism” is arguably the most influential public philosophy in our country today. It has worked its way into the minds and hearts of our young people, into the world of entertainment, and into the boardrooms of powerful corporations. But what is it precisely, and where did it come from? I will argue in my presentation that “wokeism” is a popularization of critical theory, a farrago of ideas coming out of the French and German academies in the mid-twentieth century. Until we understand its origins in the thinking of Adorno, Horkheimer, Derrida, Marcuse, and Foucault, we will not know how critically to engage this dangerous philosophy.Subscribe to our podcasts Word on Fire Catholic Ministries

One of the campaign themes that launchd Bill Clinton into the White House in 1992 was, “it’s the economy, stupid.” While much of our politics is focused today on the culture war, the economy is the one issue that touches everyone. Much of the last few years have been spent concerned about the crushing effects of inflation. Previously on Acton Line, we’ve discussed the causes of the inflation we’ve experienced over the last few years with David Bahnsen — founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group. Today, David returns as we take a survey of the current state American and global economy, examine what’s happening now with inflation, discuss the housing and rental market, and then explore the economic effectiveness of conservative culture war boycotts.Subscribe to our podcastsBahnsen.comThere's No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths | Amazon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode starts with a clip from the trailer for 2009 comedy/drama “The Informant!,” directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, and Melanie Lynskey. It’s a wild based-on-a-true-story film about Mark Whitacre. In the early-1990s, Whitacre was the corporate vice president and President of the BioProducts Division of the agro-business giant Archer Daniels Midland. Whitacre would go on to become an informant in the FBI investigation into a conspiracy to price-fix lysine, an essential amino acid. At the same time he was informing on his employer to the FBI, Whitacre was embezzling $9 million from ADM in a kickbacks and money laundering scheme. It all came to an end a few years later when ADM settled federal charges for more than $100 million and paid hundreds of millions of dollars more to plaintiffs and customers to settle class-action lawsuits. In 1998, Whitacre pled guilty to tax evasion and fraud and was sentenced to nine years in prison.But what marked the end of this tumultuous period in Mark Whitacre’s life also marked the beginning of his journey to his Christian faith, redemption, and a series of second chances.Today, Eric Kohn talks with Mark Whitacre about his time as a corporate executive, his time as an FBI informant, his time in federal prison, and how all of this brought him to his Christian faith that he now integrates into his corporate work.Subscribe to our podcastsThe Informant! TrailerMarkWhitacre.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s 2007. Spider-Man 3 is the top grossing film at the box office. Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” is the biggest hit song. American Idol is the most watched TV show.It was also the last time that the United States was at replacement level fertility, which is 2.1 children born per woman. In the years following, through the ups and downs of the great recession, the 2016 election, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate has fallen to 1.66 children per woman. When you zoom out, you’ll see that American birth rates have been falling for decades. But this is far from the phenomenon isolated to the United States. The 2020 fertility rate in the U.K. was 1.6. In Germany it was 1.5. Finland hit 1.4. Denmark and Sweden were both at 1.7. In South Korea, it’s a shocking 0.81.In response to these long-run trends, some have advocated pro-natalist government policies to incentivize more reproduction, or to at least smooth the way for people who want to have more kids. But are the policies effective? Elizabeth Nolan Brown, senior editor at Reason magazine, says “no.” In the cover story for the June 2023 issue of Reason, Brown surveys the flagging international reproductive landscape and the government policies that have been enacted to address that problem. In the end, she advocates, at a minimum, not panicking.Today, Eric Kohn talks to Elizabeth Nolan Brown about the falling birthrates, failing pro-natalist policies, and how we should think about a world when fewer and fewer people are expecting.Subscribe to our podcastsStorks Don't Take Orders From the State | Reason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anyone of a certain age will remember the massive hit that was “We Are The World,” the Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Quincy Jones produced charity single by USA for Africa. The considerable profits from the that hit song went to the USA for Africa Foundation, which used them for the relief of famine and disease in Africa and specifically to 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia.Even though Africa is an enormous and diverse continent with 54 sovereign countries, many people in the United States, and the west more generally, were left with the impression of Africa as destitute and poverty-stricken.What they may not realize is the enormous amount of growth and development Africa has been seeing. To help us better understand this growth and development, particularly in the country of Nigeria, today Eric Kohn talks with Wiebe Boer and Danladi Verheijen.Wiebe Boer is the president of Calvin University, here in Grand Rapids, MI, and Danladi Verheijen is the co-founder and managing partner of Verod Capital Management, a leading West-African private equity investor. Eric talks to them about their experiences growing up in Nigeria, and what they are seeing with the booming growth that country is experiencing.Subscribe to our podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 4 marked the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in which the Chinese Communist Party put down a pro-democracy protest movement that had bubbled up in Tiananmen Square and throughout mainland China. For many, it served as a stark reminder the brutality of the country that, under the autocratic leadership of Mao Zedong killed between 40 and 80 million of its own people, could still be just as brutal.Tiananmen happened just three years before Benedict Rogers moved to China to begin teaching English. For Rogers, this marked the beginning of a professional career focused on issues in and around China and Hong Kong that saw him work as a journalist in Hong Kong for the first five years after the handover to traveling to China’s borders with Myanmar/Burma and North Korea to document the plight of refugees escaping from Beijing-backed satellite dictatorships and then campaigning for human rights in China, especially for Uyghurs, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners, human rights defenders, journalists and dissidents, and the people of Hong Kong.Rogers, who today runs the organization Hong Kong Watch, a watchdog organization which researches and monitors threats to Hong Kong’s basic freedoms, the rule of law and autonomy as promised under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle which is enshrined in the Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, is the author of the new book, “The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny.”In the book, Rogers takes the readers on a journey through some of the leaders and participants in the Human rights activities that China has suppressed since its inception in 1949. He goes on to dispute and lays to rest all of the specious claims by the tyrants in Beijing that all Chinese citizens are equal and are afforded human and civil rights. Currently, the regime is engaged in re-education, cultural assimilation, and multiple genocides, leading to better citizens for China and the world if one believes Chinese officials.Today, Eric Kohn talks with Benedict Rogers about his book, China’s history, its rise as a global power, its record on human rights, and what the future holds the Chinese Communist Party and the people under it’s thumb. Subscribe to our podcastsThe China Nexus | AmazonAre Artists Really Free to Express Themselves? | Acton Linefreejimmylai.comHong Kong Watchchinanexusbook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we dive into some of the profound changes occurring in American society. Back in the day, social scientist Robert Putnam observed a concerning trend—he called it "bowling alone"—where Americans were becoming increasingly disconnected from community bonds and support systems. Fast forward to the present, and we see not only a retreat from these vital sources of communal life but also a rise in loneliness, anxiety, depression, and overall mental and physical distress. Marriage and parenthood are also being delayed or foregone altogether. These developments have far-reaching implications for both American politics and civil life, as well as for the individual's well-being and fulfillment.Taking us back to the roots of democratic thought, we turn to Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America." Tocqueville recognized the unique nature of the democratic social state and the need for a "new political science" to navigate its strengths and weaknesses. He explored how the principles of democratic equality would transform our intellect, sentiments, and social norms, painting vivid images of democracy and the dangers of soft despotism that still resonate today.While Tocqueville's masterpiece provides a comprehensive view of American democracy, there are areas he did not directly address. One such topic is friendship—a central element in Tocqueville's own life. Although seemingly absent from his work, we can draw upon Tocqueville's theories, as well as insights from Aristotle and C.S. Lewis, to ask: How does democratic equality transform friendship, a fundamental association crucial to human flourishing? Today, Dan Churchwell, Director of Program & Education, talks with Sarah Gustafson, as they exploring how democratic equality opens up new possibilities for meaningful connections while also introducing habits and trends that can erode genuine companionship and push individuals into the "solitude of their own hearts."Sarah H. Gustafson is a PhD Candidate in Government (Political Theory) at Harvard University where she is completing her dissertation on the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville. She graduated from Davidson College, and earned a MA in the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary University of London, where she won the Quentin Skinner Prize for Excellence in the History of Political Thought. In her years at Harvard, she has had the opportunity to work closely with Professors Harvey Mansfield, Michael Sandel, Richard Tuck, and Eric Nelson, among others, and is a Fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute. In her free time, she has authored reviews for publications such as Law and Liberty and The University Bookman.Subscribe to our podcastsAristocrats in a Democratic Age | Law & Liberty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.