This week, Dan Hugger, Michael Matheson Miller, and Stephen Barrows examine the collapse of the crypto currency exchange FTX and the sentencing of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes. How should we think about fraud in business? What is the role of corporate governance in securing the common good? How should investors and prospective clients best do their due diligence on companies they use and invest in? How do disreputable corporate leaders utilize regulatory and ideological capture to deceive? Is crypto currency itself a scam? What is the role of conscience in business and what does justice and repentance look like for disgraced business leaders?

What the Midterm Elections Say About American Civic Health

This week, Eric Kohn and Dan Hugger discuss Elon Musk’s finalized takeover of Twitter. Can he make it better? Is it possible to make Twitter better? Perhaps more important to Musk, can he make it profitable? And will Musk’s acquisition change the nature of the platform in how it serves as a public salon for the media elite? Then the guys discuss the presidential election in Brazil. What does the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro mean for Brazil and for the rise of populist leaders worldwide?

This week, Dan Hugger, Dylan Pahman, and John Pinheiro discuss the undoing of the Truss government in the United Kingdom. What caused the unraveling? Does “neoliberalism” have a future? What does the current political crisis in the United Kingdom tell us about the future of American conservatism and the right more generally? How should this inform our thinking about the conflict between classical liberals and the “New Right”?

This week, Eric Kohn, Dan Hugger, and Dylan Pahman discuss the protests in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested for improperly covering her head. Why isn’t there more media coverage of these protests after five weeks? Is the Iranian regime actually in danger? And what, if anything, should countries like the United States being doing to encourage these human rights protesters? Then the guys examine a new study from the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology on the striking lack of intellectual diversity on elite college campuses. Should we be surprised that places like Harvard, Yale, and Smith College are so unrepresentative? Should we even expect them to be?

This week, Dan Hugger is joined by Sarah Negri and John Pinheiro to discuss the national debate around Columbus Day and the ongoing escalation of the war in Ukraine. What should we as American’s in general, and Christian’s in particular mark of Columbus’s Legacy? What is Indigenous Peoples’ Day and need its celebration be in conflict with Columbus Day? What is the relationship between Columbus Day and the Italian American Community? What do the latest escalations by the Russian Federation kinetic, political, and rhetorical mean for the future of Ukraine? Is peace possible? Should we take the threat of nuclear escalation seriously? How should the international community respond?

This week, Eric Kohn is joined by Dan Hugger and Dan Churchwell to discuss the theme of the Fall 2022 issue of Acton’s magazine, Religion & Liberty: What is the metaverse? What is its relationship to science fiction literature? And what is the impact of technology on society and culture, and how we should think through the consequences, intended and unintended, of technology and the metaverse on our lives?

Dan Hugger’s Fall 2022 R&L cover story is entitled, “The Metaverse Does Not Exist.”

This week, Eric Kohn and Dan Hugger are joined by two special guests—Stephanie Slade, senior editor at Reason magazine and Fellow in Liberal Studies at the Acton Institute, and Jack Butler, submissions editor at National Review—both of whom attended the National Conservatism 3 conference, to discuss all things pertaining to the conference and the National Conservatism movement.

This week, Eric Kohn, Dan Hugger, and Dylan Pahman are joined by special guest Rabbi Jonathan Greenberg to discuss the recent New York Times article on New York City’s Orthodox yeshivas. Is the Times piece fair? What interest does the state have in the kind of education the children in Hasidic enclaves in New York City are receiving? And is America becoming increasingly inhospitable to Jews? Then the guys discuss the move by some state governors to send migrants who arrive at the southern border to so-called sanctuary cities. Is this a defensible policy, with the supposed ends justifying using fellow humans as the means of making a political point?

This week, Eric Kohn, Dan Hugger, and Dylan Pahman discuss the legacies of two world leaders who have recently passed: Queen Elizabeth II of England and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. How should these two very different figures be remembered, and what will be their enduring legacies? How should we think about the legacy of the British Empire, which was dissolved under Queen Elizabeth’s reign with the end of British rule in Hong Kong? And how much credit should Gorbachev get for the dissolution of the Soviet Union under his watch when this was never his intention? And finally, the guys discuss the ongoing National Conservatism 3 conference and the status of that movement.

This week, Eric Kohn, John Pinheiro, and Dylan Pahman discuss every angle of the executive order from President Joe Biden granting up to $20,000 of student-loan-debt forgiveness to qualifying individuals. Is there a solid legal case for doing this? Can one argue persuasively that transferring debts from those who incurred them to those who did not—namely, the American taxpayers—is in any way just? Does it make sense to take this action without addressing the deeper problems in the student loan and higher education system, which debt-relief advocates themselves portray as predatory? How do we address the cultural problems that exist in the system—namely, the increased expectation that everyone should go to college?

This week, Eric Kohn, Dan Hugger, and Dylan Pahman reflect on what has transpired in Afghanistan in the year since the withdrawal of American forces from the country. Could the inevitable withdrawal have been better planned to prevent the debacle that ensued? What is the current state of the country’s economy, and of the rights of women and children? Could things be worse? Then the guys turn their attention to a possible earthquake in the American public school system, as major cities see declining enrollments while states like Arizona make large expansions to school-choice programs. What happens when these unstoppable forces meet the immovable object of teachers unions?

This week, Eric Kohn, Dan Hugger, and Dylan Pahman explore some of the big picture questions raised in the wake of the FBI’s executing a search warrant for Trump’s Florida digs, Mar-a-Lago. How should we balance practical political concerns with questions of the rule of law? Would more transparency help? Or would breaking the Department of Justice’s protocol, as former FBI director Jim Comey did about the Hillary Clinton private-server investigation, cause more harm than good? And are we capable of viewing a former president as just another American citizen once he’s left office? Then the guys reflect on the reaction to the violent attack on novelist Salman Rushdie last week. While news outlets claim we’re still searching for a motive for the attack, Iran affirmed the fatwa and bounty on Rushdie’s life, so what’s the mystery? And finally, a piece in The Atlantic accuses rad-trad Catholics of “weaponizing” the rosary. While the original incendiary title has since been edited, wouldn’t it save a lot of embarrassment to have at least one person of faith around to avoid making basic mistakes?

David L. Bahnsen joins Eric Kohn, Dan Hugger, and Dylan Pahman on the show this week to discuss all things economics. Just what is a recession? How do we know? What should we do if we’re actually in one? What is the future of inflation? If inflation comes down, is it a good sign or would it be indicative of different problems in the economy? Are we at risk of investing too much in the power of government and politicians to both break and fix the economy? And are oil companies making record profits?

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This week, Eric Kohn, Dan Hugger, and Dylan Pahman ponder the nexus of age, experience, and leadership. Is it possible to be too old to have a job with as many high-pressure responsibilities as come with being president of the United States? If so, what is the wisest way to implement an age limitation? Should we just leave it up to voters to decide based on the individual candidates available? Then the guys discuss whether changing our language has the ability to change what it is we’re talking about. Does insisting people use words like “Latinx” have any meaningful impact on concepts of gender? Or does it just annoy a lot of people? Finally, Dylan details the argument made in his and Texas Tech University economics professor Alexander Salter’s recent Wall Street Journal essay on lessons from the Bible on money and inflation.