The Good Life

Have you ever taken a quiz to know where you fall on the political compass? Are you liberal, conservative, authoritarian, or libertarian? Thankfully there are more options than those. Today I talk about how we can know where we call on the spectrum and how that knowledge can better help me to love my neighbor. 

P.S. In this episode I said that Noah Millman's article came out on the "League of Ordinary Gentlemen" blog. That is incor...

Joshua Klein is a woodworker, furniture maker, author, church elder, and editor of Mortise and Tenon magazine. He has written a fascinating biography of  Jonathan Fisher, an eighteenth-century jack-of-all-trades pastor titled, Hands Employed Aright. He also works with the Greystone Theological Institute's mechanical arts program to mentor young men in intellectual, theological, and craftsmanship skills. 

We discuss what drew him to...

The Christmas season is almost here and who better to talk about it than a man who hails from the capital of the white Christmas (Vermont) - Ryan Anderson. Ryan grew up in Vermont, moved to Washington state, and recently returned to the land of his fathers. I met him through Twitter (now "X") and have enjoyed his posts about moving home and delighting in the season. We talk about how many good things there are to celebrate in fall/...

What is "the West"? What is the role of Christians today in preserving our Western heritage? How does liberalism fit into the decline of Christendom? What is leading to the rise of Anti-Semitism among some on the right? I am joined today by John Ehrett to discuss these and other topics relating to our cultural history. John is a writer and attorney in Washington, D.C. who has written for multiple publications. Some of his best arti...

John Klar is a jack of all trades. A lawyer, farmer, pastor, and public servant, he took on government bureaucracy and won, restoring the right of Vermont farmers to butcher their animals on their own farms. His most recent book, Small Farm Republic, describes the collusion of corporate farming with big government and provides hopeful options for people who want to resist that control. In this episode we talk about the Green (more ...

My guest today is Mr. John Waters, a journalist and Christian convert in Ireland. He has written several books, the most recent being Give Us Back the Bad Roads, which tells the story of how Ireland changed from being the most conservative country in Europe to one of the most liberal in a period of several decades. He wrote for a major newspaper until he was removed due to his stance against homosexual marriage and abortion. We tal...

Most people approach the book of Ruth with simplicity, thinking they already know it. In my interview with Pastor Rich Lusk, we discuss the beauty, wisdom, and delight to be found in this little book. It is a folk tale, a love story, and a picture of the gospel spreading to the nations, all wrapped in four short chapters. His book, Ruth: Under His Wings, breaks through the normal things we think we know about Ruth and gets to the m...

Today I had the privilege to speak with Dr. Hal Poe, a professor at Union University in Jackson, TN. Dr. Poe is a distant relation to Edgar Allan Poe, the poet and short story writer. Dr. Poe is the author of Evermore, a fascinating book about his older cousin. Today we discuss the wide-ranging talent of this often-misunderstood writer. There are so many interesting things about Poe that it's hard to know where to begin. For instan...

How did Evangelicalism become the cultural force that it is? How did it come to be associated with conservatism? What role does money play in the growth of religious consciousness in America? These are just some of the questions I discuss with today's guest, Jake Nelson. Jake has an M.A. from the University of Tennessee and has written on the rise of Evangelicalism in the early 1900s. If you're interested in the relationship betwee...

How do we serve God and live in the world? What relationship should the church have with the state? My guest today, Joel Biermann, answers those questions and more in his book, Wholly Citizens. Joel is a professor at Concordia Seminary, where he teaches systematic theology. Our discussion features a two-kingdom approach, but nothing like the two-kingdom view many of us have heard. He emphasizes the Reformation view of Martin Luther...

Today I am joined by Joy Clarkson. You may recognize her last name (she's the daughter of Sally Clarkson), but her writing stands on its own. She's written a wonderful book by the title of, Aggressively Happy.  In this episode, we discuss why she would call her book such a unique name, the necessary role of sadness in pursuing a happy life, and why living with the end of the world in mind is a good thing. Joy recently graduated fro...

What is a reactionary and why would anybody claim to be one? That's the question I discuss today with Michael Warren Davis, author of The Reactionary Mind: Why Conservative Isn't Enough. Michael has written for Crisis, The American Conservative, and many other magazines. He describes a reactionary not as one pining for a return to a pristine order, but who purposefully reorients one's life toward what is eternal. We discuss the Mid...

In our recent paideia sermon series, we looked at many passages that give us wisdom when training our children. This article by John Stonestreet at the Colson Center speaks to that topic. He contrasts inoculation with indoctrination as two methods of preparing our children to be "in the world but not of it." In this episode, I cover the article's highlights and offer some brief commentary on why parents should guide their kids thro...