In this episode I speak with Flagg Taylor about the life and writing of Vaclav Benda, and his idea of the parallel polis, decentralization, and creating space in society for culture, the family, charity, education, and human flourishing. Though he was writing under communist regimes, Benda’s writings are very relevant today in light democratic pressures to conformity, de-platforming, and especially as a new ontology of the person is being written into law — and dignity is used as weapon against religious and cultural liberty. Benda’s idea of the parallel polis was not a siege mentality, nor so much a reform existing structures that had ossified or were corrupted, but a call to build new, innovative, and better structures and social institutions that would activate people’s participation in civil, cultural, and commercial life, and give people a sense of purpose and agency. Examples today include decentralized technologies or classical education - which is not running away, but creating better alternatives to mediocre state run schools. We discuss Benda’s ideas in the context of Czech communism and also in contemporary America, especially the overlap with Alexis de Tocqueville’s warnings about individualism, centralization, and soft-despotism. We examine his engagement with various thinkers including Roger Scruton and J.R.R. Tolkien, and talk about contemporary movements towards decentralization including The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan and its relation to the idea of a parallel polis. We discuss the need for social and commercial alternatives built on a rich understanding of the human person and the family including healthcare, mutual aid societies, banking, payment, insurance and more. Benda’s idea of the parallel polis demonstrates that the solution to totalitarianism and centralization is not more centralization or another totalitarianism, but de-centralization and humanization. We discuss a number of Benda essays including: The Parallel Polis, The Meaning Context Legacy of the Parallel Polis, The Family and Totalitarianism, A Critique of the Idea of a Christian State, and his personal reflections that illustrate the constant social pressure of living under communist totalitarianism. Themes and Topics include Albert Hirshman: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty Peter Berger on Plausibility Structures Vaclav Havel: Power of the Powerless Greengrocers of the World Unite! Aristotle’s Moral and Intellectual Virtues Vaclav Havel Living in Truth Benda focus on resisting the lies of totalitarianism by inhabiting a social spaces and plausibility structures that make living in truth possible. MMM Lecture How to Build a Moral Imagination — new and better ways of live are actually plausible Provide space for dissidents and their children who were excluded by the official social spaces Balaji - The Network State - Network Union - Network Archipelago — cloud first, then land Catholic Variation: Land - Cloud -Land New Ontology of the Person Totalitarian redefinition of biology and sociological reality Dignity as a weapon against religious liberty Testing the Limits in Communism vs Testing the Limits in Modern Democracy De-platforming Cancel Culture Underground Seminars led by Roger Scruton Roger Scruton and Jan Hus Foundation Ortega y Gassett: The Spoiled Child of History Second Culture Charter 77 Essay at Foreign Policy Magazine   VONS Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted Religious practice in Slovakia vs Czech Republic vs. Poland Church Persecution by Communists in the 40s - 70s Communist infiltration of Church and official Church collaboration with Communists 70s and 80s. Critique of the Christian idea of a state How politicalization of religion can lead to unbelief Benda compared to contemporary Catholic integralists / post liberal thinkers Pappin, Ahmari, Pecknold on Cultural Christianity and Politics MMM commentary to this essay: Political Catholicism, Liberalism and the Myth of Neutrality Secularism is not neutral J.R.R Tolkien —Benda on the Lord of the Rings as as an analysis of totalitarianism The Scouring of the Shire — See Jay Richards and Jonathan Witt The Hobbit Party link in Resources The family is always a thorn to totalitarian states Marriage and family as essential The Family as the source of 3 fundamental gifts that a person can receive Fruitful fellowship of love Freedom Dignity and unique role of the individual Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) and George Orwell on tenderness as a resistance to totalitarianism Family as a space for freedom, failures, learning How rebellion against parents is modern fashion that the totalitarian or centralizing state desires Authority and Hierarchy Hannah Arendt on Authority and Education (see link in resources) Biography Dr. F. Flagg Taylor IV is an Associate Professor of government at Skidmore College serves on the Academic Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in political science from Fordham University and a B.A. from Kenyon College. Taylor’s specialty is in the history of political thought and American government, especially the question of executive power. He is the co-author of The Contested Removal Power, 1789-2010, author of numerous articles, and editor of The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism and The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977-1989. Resources Flagg Taylor Website Vaclav Benda Biography   The Enduring Interest Podcast on Apple Flagg Taylor Podcast at Podbean MMM talk at Catholic Crypto Conference: Building a Parallel Polis: Social and Technological Decentralization Peter Fiala Flagg Taylor podcast interview on Hannah Arendt Key Quotes From “The Meaning Context Legacy of the Parallel Polis” There is, however, a fundamental difference between the natural resistance of life to totalitarianism and the deliberate expansion of the space in which the parallel polis can exist.  The former is a cluster of flowers that has grown into place accidentally sheltered from the killing winds of totalitarianism and easily destroyed when those winds change direction. The latter is a trench whose elimination depends strictly on a calculated move by the state power to destroy it.  Given the time and means available only a certain number of trenches can be eliminated. If, at the same time, the parallel polis is able to produce more such trenches than it loses ,a situation arises that is morally dangerous for the regime; it is a blow at the very heart of its power — that is, the possibility of intervening anywhere without limitation.  The mission of the parallel polis is to constantly conquer new territory to make its parallelness constantly more substantial and more present. Benda p. 233 From “The Family and Totalitarianism” I consider marriage and the family to be so essential that I am unwilling to accept the regular clichés about liberation from these obligations. So, in the Christian version as we know it, which for centuries dominated the western world, the family was, as well as many other good things, a visible embodiment of the three most fundamental gifts or dignity is that a person could receive… Benda lists three gifts: “Fruitful fellowship of love in which we are bound together with our neighbor without pardon by virtue simply of our closeness; not on the basis of merit rights and entitlements, but by virtue of mutual need and its affectionate reciprocation” “Freedom and the ability to make permanent, eternal decisions … and acts of fidelity…that stand in radical defiance of our finitude” “Dignity and the unique role of the individual Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode I speak with Jonathan Bi about the ideas of Rene Girard, social pressure, authentic and false desires, victims and scapegoats, persecution, and Girardian theories on imitation and violence. We also discuss how Girard’s work sheds light on woke capitalism, right and left totalitarianism, Max Scheler, Hannah Arendt, Alexis de Tocqueville, and more. We discuss many themes including: Christianity and Girard’s theory and the secularization and falsification of Christian values such as how humanitarianism and pacificism replace charity and peace and justice and more. Evangelical Counsels and The Rule of St. Benedict as a response to metaphysical desire Different views of the problem of evil: Hegel, Rousseau, Ratzinger, Solzhenitsyn, Girard Human Perfectibility and Utopianism Hope and Progress Benedict XVI Spe Salvi On the goodness of being in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and St. Augustine. There is no technical solution to the problems of evil, suffering, of death Embedded complexity, the dignity of labor, linear time, and how we live in a Christian civilization Girard’s explanation of how scapegoating others for their behavior reveals that we too would be guilty — and why it is folly to think with confidence that we would not go along with the crowd if we lived under the Nazis or a slaveholding society We begin a discussion on the atonement, Girard’s views and how to think about sacrifice — that we’ll have to finish in more detail We also have a discussion about Christianity and Buddhism and religious belief. I hope you enjoy. Biography Jonathan Bi is an entrepreneur working on a startup in FinTech and a philosopher focusing on Buddhist philosophy, Continental philosophy, and specifically the work of Rene Girard. Among his many projects he and David Perell have created a seven session video course on the ideas of Rene Girard. Originally from China, Jonathan also grew up in Canada, and studied computer science at Columbia.   https://johnathanbi.com/   Resources Jonathan Bi and David Perell Lectures on Girard On the Atonement — we just got into this briefly, but didn’t have enough time or preparation to address it sufficiently. I am going to have another episode on the atonement, and also on Girard and the atonement, but here are two links to Catholic resources view of the atonement  New Advent Catholic Catechism     Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode I speak with Rachel Ferguson about her book Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America, co-authored with Marcus Witcher. The book address issues of social justice, exclusion, opportunity, race and discrimination, classical liberalism, and the economic history of African Americans since the civil war. Themes we discuss include Racism and exclusion from justice, property, and rule of law Classical Liberalism Property Rights Freedom of Contract Education History of Injustices post Civil War Convict Leasing Lynching Jim Crow Progressivism Eugenics Sterilization Minimum Wage and its racist and eugenic underpinnings Urban Renewal Highways, transportation and the breakdown of African American and ethnic communities Eminent Domain African American towns and civil society 1619 Project and its errors Family and the Sexual Revolution Contraception Entrepreneurship Civil Society Alexis de Tocqueville Applied economics Criminal Justice reform Black Churches as a central part of community Decentralization, Associational Life, and Welfare before the Welfare State We discuss a number of writers including Fredrick Douglass Zora Neale Hurston Booker T. Washington Malcom X Friedrich Hayek Anthony Bradley Biography Rachel Ferguson, Ph.D. is an economic philosopher and Director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia University, Chicago. She has published in Discourse, The Journal of Markets and Morality, and the Library of Economics and Liberty. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from St. Louis University. She is actively involved in community building and empowering marginalized entrepreneurs through LOVEtheLOU and Gateway to Flourishing   https://www.rachelfergusononline.com/   Resources We mention a lot of books during the podcast. See below for links. Other things discussed include: Rachel Ferguson Essay: Let’s do Philanthropy that Actually Works Robert Woodson and the Woodson Center   Podcast with Anthony Bradley on Over-criminalization MMM on Eugenics is Back Benefits Cliffs Russell Hittinger on Technology and Contraception Podcast with Mary Eberstadt on the Sexual Revolution Poverty, Inc. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

peak with Bill Rivers about this novel, Last Summer Boys. The novel is about a rural Pennsylvania family and the adventures of three boys and a cousin and set in the tumultuous summer of 1968 with the Vietnam war, the assignations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.   “Summer 1968. When thirteen-year-old Jack Elliot overhears the barbershop men grousing, he devises a secret plan to keep his oldest brother, Pete, from the draft. If famous boys don’t go to war, he’ll make his brother their small town’s biggest celebrity. Jack gets unexpected help when his book-smart cousin Frankie arrives in their rural Pennsylvania town for the summer. Together, they convince Jack’s brothers to lead an expedition to find a fighter jet that crashed many winters ago―the perfect adventure to make Pete a hero.” We discuss a number of themes including  Family Justice Honor Civil Society Principle of Subsidiarity Anger Tensions between economic progress and family and social stability Tensions between rural and urban communities Writing and story development  Moral imagination  1968 Cultural and Sexual Revolutions Alexis de Tocqueville Robert Nisbet Louis L’amour  Property Crony capitalism, eminent domain and more  Resources Bill Rivers on Instagram Bill Rivers on Twitter Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal Related Podcasts Mary Eberstadt: Who are You? Conversation on the sexual revolution, family and her book Primal Screams Carlo Lancelotti on Augusto Del Noce —Shift from Christian Bourgeois to Pure Bourgeois Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode I speak with two psychologists, Paul McLaughlin PsyD and Mark R. McMinn PhD, about their book A Time for Wisdom. The provide a unique perspective by examining wisdom from a psychological viewpoint. They divide it into 4 categories, both to explain and provide a guide to develop wisdom in our lives. Knowledge Factual Knowledge,Know-How, self-knowledge and what they call “Enriched Knowledge,” the core of wisdom. Detachment Not only from material things, but from ideas and ideology. Detachment enables mental freedom, strengthens our capacity grieve, and is the bridge between knowledge and tranquility Tranquility Not apathy, but shifting our inner equilibrium, and helps us regulate our emotions Tranquility helps us to cultivate awe, gratitude, peace, and what C.S. Lewis calls “reasonable emotions.” Transcendence Ability to go beyond ourselves and avoid the temptation to individualism We discuss a number of themes including: Is wisdom a state or a trait? Can it be developed? Is it domain dependent? The tension between solidity and fluidity, between rigid thinking and relativism. How do we keep our minds open and not fall into what Benedict XVI has called the “dictatorship of relativism.” The positive and negative parts of Jordan Peterson’s idea about exploring our dark side compared to mystical Catholic writers Psychedelics as ersatz religion You are not every thought you have Anxiety Obsessive Compulsive thoughts Forgiveness and the goodness of being Positive psychology Narcisism Mike Tyson’s theory that “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” How to think about increases anxiety and depression My critique of the Individualism / Collectivism dichotomy Tocqueville’s analysis of individualism and centralization Can you measure wisdom? Does wisdom increase over time? Aristotle’s concept of phronesis Gnosticism and Materialism as an obstacles to wisdom Teleology — ends and purposes. Aristotle — the human person has an end and purpose to give you self direction Transcendentals — goodness, truth, beauty How suffering and sitting with people who suffer helps us grow in wisdom The tension between holding onto your deeply held beliefs and yet remaining open to new ideas Confirmation Bias vs. Epistemic Humility Related Podcasts James Madden Podcast, Embodied and Embedded Persons James Poulos: Digital Politics and Spiritual War Carlo Lancellotti: Augusto Del Noce and the shift to pure bourgeois Jaron Lanier on Technology and Behavior Modification Luke Burgis on Mimetic Desire, Rene Girard, and commercial society Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode of The Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Deion Kathawa about his essays at Public Discourse Technology and Dignity. We discuss a number of topics including digital technology social media biotech genetic engineering CRISPR post and trans-humanism transgenderism technology and power how tech effects the rich and the poor and middle class Kathawa argues that the new digital and biotechnology threaten our human in explicit and implicit ways from distraction to liquidation to degradation and that we need not only better law, but authentic religious practice, liturgy, and human friendship to resist these threats. We discuss the religious and philosophical sources of transhumanism from materialism to gnosticism, and human perfectibility and various thinkers including C.S. Lewis and Robert P. George. We also discuss the difference between transhumanist / transgender philosophy which sees the body as either malleable that needs perfection or the body and sexuality as something to escape from in contrast to the Christian view of the being and the body as good and part of who we are as embodied, embedded persons.   Biography Deion Kathawa is a law clerk at the Michigan Supreme court he has a law degree from the University Of Notre Dame and an undergraduate degree from the university of Michigan.  He writes for numerous outlets including The American Mind, Public Discourse, and his Substack Sed Kontra Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode I speak with Jeffrey Bloom and Rabbi Jeremy Kagan about the book Spinoza, Strauss, and Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith published by Kodesh Press . The book is a collection of essays edited by Jeffrey Bloom, Alec Goldstein, and Gil Student. Jeffrey Bloom grew up secular, Jewish family and the idea of actually practicing Orthodox Judaism was outside of the realm of possibility.  He studied at University of Chicago where he took a class with Professor Leon Kass on Genesis. (see book link below) This was the first time that he took religion seriously.  He notes that as a child of divorce— he wanted stronger family life, and he was attracted to Orthodox Judaism, but still  questioned whether it was reasonable. This led him to read Strauss critique of Spinoza’s critique of religious belief.  The Enlightenment philosopher, Baruch Spinoza argued that religious belief was irrational. But in his book, Spinoza’s Critique of Religion, Leo Strauss argued that while the enlightenment with Spinoza and his heirs claimed to refuted orthodox belief, they in fact did not.  Strauss claimed that as long as orthodoxy is willing to make the concession that they can’t “know” and only “believe” the tenets of Judaism, then it is plausible and no weaker a position that rationalism because that is precisely what Spinoza is doing—when pressed, Enlightenment rationalism, like religion, rests on acts of “faith” in tenets that it cannot prove.  Strauss’ argument opened up questions about reason, belief, truth, access to reality and more, and what it did for Bloom was make orthodox Judaism rationally and intellectually plausible. As Rabbi Jeremy Kagan puts it, “carved out a space for the Torah” and religion belief and practice. Yet Bloom had another question—Strauss opened the door to religious belief, but what did Orthodox Jews think about the arguments of both Spinoza critique of religion, and Strauss’ critique of Spinoza? Bloom gathered a group of Orthodox believers, Rabbis, computer scientists, philosophers, to address the question: Is the argument of Strauss any good?  Are there better replies to the critique of religion than Strauss provides?  This book is relevant for many reasons— There is a sense that the Enlightenment and science and empiricism has proved that orthodox religion, Judaism and Christianity, is intellectually unserious and untenable, and many people hold this to be the case. Secular thinkers and atheists often critiques religion for its faith but they don’t realize they that rely on a host of non-empirical assumptions that uphold their beliefs.  For example, why is reason is better than non - reason and how can one prove it in empirical means?   We discuss several essays including those by Jeffrey Bloom, Rabbi Kagan, Rabbi Shalom Carmy who argues that Strauss’ arguments are not compelling, and Moshe Koppel’s essay, “Why Revelation and not Orbiting Teapots” which makes the distinction between orthodox belief and superstition and more.  This is a complex discussion that addresses some of the big underlying questions about faith and science, reason and belief, different forms of knowledge, the value of religious observance, and some of the main themes of the Moral Imagination Podcast. I hope you enjoy. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode, I speak with Jeremy Tate, the founder of the Classic Learning Test about school testing, curriculum, and the classical versus industrial models of education. Jeremy argues that the current testing regime of the SAT and ACT have a tremendous influence on the curriculum taught in public and private schools. They promote a utilitarian vision of learning and drive students away from the classical Western tradition and serious reflection on what makes a good life. In response, Jeremy and his team developed the Classic Learning Test not only to be a better, more rigorous test, but to positively influence the curriculum toward more serious reading, and introduce students to the classic texts of the Western Tradition and those which shaped the founding of the United States, By ignoring these texts, the current testing and curricula regimes exclude students from engagement with the tradition. One of Tate’s colleagues noted that she could go from Kindergarten through a Ph.D. without reading Homer, Plato, or Shakespeare. This unfamiliarity with the tradition makes people unaware of history and complexity, unable to make distinctions, and thus more susceptible to propaganda and manipulation. It excludes the poor from opportunity and indoctrinates the elites into utilitarian and progressive ideas that they think are simply facts. As C.S. Lewis described, “10 years hence” we can find ourselves on the side of the philosophical controversy that we didn’t even know was up for debate. We discuss a number of themes including The revival of classical education Whether you should go to college or not? Education and virtue Human Formation C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man Eustace Scrubb and the Chronicles of Narnia Elite students focus on test scores rather than on learning Scientists with no sense of history or complexity The problems with critical thinking  The false dichotomy of Facts vs. Opinions How moral and value judgments are reduced to opinions and more.   Biography Jeremy Tate is the founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test. Jeremy is also the host of the Anchored Podcast, CLT's top 2% global podcast that features discussions at the intersection of education and culture. Prior to founding CLT, Jeremy served as Director of College Counseling at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from Louisiana State University and a Masters in Religious Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary. Jeremy and his wife Erin reside in Annapolis, Maryland with their six children. You can find Jeremy on Twitter @JeremyTate41. Resources Classic Learning Test For more on C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man - See my interview with Michael Ward   For more on classical education see my interview with Heidi White and the importance of reading good books, my interview with Elizabeth Corey Jeremy Tate: Not Another Test, The Right Test Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode, I speak with Michael Ward about his book, After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man.  I think The Abolition of Man is of the most important books in the twentieth century. It addresses important issues that are relevant today — from what it means to be human, reason, passion, and the emotions, to how to think about technology, power, and beauty. It’s a short book but can be a bit difficult to understand at times, and Michael Ward does a great service by going through the book line by line and explaining and providing context to make the book easier to follow.  We discuss key themes of The Abolition of Man:  whether beauty and morality are objective or purely subjective education power and authority honor nobility sacrifice for others,  dystopian fiction technology and technocracy  contraception and how man’s power over nature ends up being man’s power over other men  We also discuss the relationship between the Abolition of Man, Eustace Scrubb, and Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and the space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.   Word on Fire Special Offer: After Humanity + Abolition of Man   Biography  Michael Ward is an English literary critic and theologian. He works at the University of Oxford where he is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He is the author of the award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford University Press) and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis (Cambridge University Press). Though based at Oxford in his native England, Dr Ward is also employed as Professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University, Texas, teaching one course per semester as part of the online MA program in Christian Apologetics. On the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis’s death (22 November 2013), Professor Ward unveiled a permanent national memorial to him in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.  He is the co-editor of a volume of commemorative essays marking the anniversary, entitled C.S. Lewis at Poets’ Corner. Michael Ward presented the BBC television documentary, The Narnia Code, directed and produced by BAFTA-winning filmmaker, Norman Stone.  He authored an accompanying book entitled The Narnia Code: C.S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens. Michael was resident Warden of The Kilns, Lewis’s Oxford home, from 1996 to 1999.  He studied English at Oxford, Theology at Cambridge, and has a Ph.D. in Divinity from St Andrews.  He was Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford (2012-2021).  He has been awarded honorary doctorates in Humane Letters (Hillsdale College, Michigan, 2015) and Sacred Theology (Thorneloe University, Ontario, 2021). Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/ward for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In the episode I speak with Mary Eberstadt about her latest book Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. She argues that the revolutionary changes to family structure across the western world: fatherlessness, divorce, abortion, single parent homes, the shrinking of the family –have caused deep hurt in people and that many of the social problems we face today are manifestations of a “primal scream” for belonging.  Eberstadt explains that the breakdown of the family has resulted in a widespread subtraction: we have a much smaller protective infrastructure around us than our ancestors did. While many people connect family decline to individual things like loneliness or educational achievement, it also has large macro impacts. She argues that primary cause of political rage, identity politics, gender confusion, and more is rooted in the breakdownof the family and people’s struggle to answer the question “Who am I?”   Primal Screams is a very important book that combines an empirical examination with a real empathy for people who suffer from the impact of the sexual revolution and the break down of the family. We discuss a number of issues including:   Loneliness in the elderly and the young The rise in psychiatric problems among Generation Z and Millennials What we can learn from animal behavior and family structure How the sexual revolution harms women and children and only benefits predatory men. Transgenderism The #MeToo Movement The role of abuse and sexual dysphoria The lack of siblings and the problem of social learning The Myth of the Lone Wolf The Trend of Incels The Great Resignation How Feminism creates problems for both girls and boys Masculinity and Decline of Males Declines in Fertility Contraception Critiques and replies to her argument by Mark Lilla, Peter Thiel, and Rod Dreher Biography Mary Eberstadt holds the Panula Chair at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute. Her latest book is Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics, with commentaries by Rod Dreher, Mark Lilla, and Peter Thiel.  Her other books include It's Dangerous to Believe; How the West Really Lost God; and Adam and Eve after the Pill. Mrs. Eberstadt’s writing has appeared in many magazines and journals. [Her 2010 novel The Loser Letters, about a young woman in rehab struggling with atheism, was adapted for stage and premiered at Catholic University in fall 2017. Seton Hall University awarded her an honorary doctorate in humane letters in 2014. During the Reagan administration, she was a speechwriter to Secretary of State George Shultz and a special assistant to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick at the United Nations. Updates about her work can be found on her website, maryeberstadt.com   Resources Mary Eberstadt Website: maryeberstadt.com Podcast interview with Carrie Gress on Feminism Podcast Interview with Noelle Mering on Awake Not Woke My lecture on Robert Nisbet and the decline and quest for community Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe