The Optimistic Curmudgeon

10/12/2024

New episode is out! This one features Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk speaking about her book, Hannah's Children. Don't miss this one!

Dr. Catherine Pakaluk tells the story behind her book Hannah's Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth. The birth rate decline is not a result o...

29/10/2024

How is dark money influencing the federal government? Have teachers' unions broken American public education? What is the administrative state? All these questions and more in this week's episode with Tyler O'Neil of the Daily Signal! Tyler discusses his forthcoming book, The Woketopus! Find out all about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2y6zqTLiWg&t=2s

Thanks to America's Christian Credit Union for sponsoring this week's episode!

Tyler O'Neil discusses his forthcoming book The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government. Covid policy, education, budget funding,...

22/10/2024

So excited to share this week's conversation on the podcast! I sat down with Emily Jashinsky of UnHerd for a great conversation about p**n, transhumanism, big tech, and the loneliness epidemic. Why exactly do these pieces all fit together? Why aren't we paying more attention to the addictive properties of p**nography? What are the moral limits of capitalism? Can a person morally consent to abuse? These questions and more make for a great conversation! LITC - the audio came out great, but Youtube has a bit of a lag. Both links are in the comments!

16/10/2024

Great conversation with Sean Hadley on Ten Books that Form the Moral Imagination for this week's episode of The Optimistic Curmudgeon! Homer, Vergil, Dante, Spenser, Milton, Sophocles, Malory, Lewis - check out our discussion of core poetic images from each author. LITC.

And with an opening discourse on Russell Kirk's three kinds of imagination. Perfect for .

The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal

09/10/2024

This week's new The Optimistic Curmudgeon episode is an interview with Uriesou Brito! I learned a lot about CREC, about the difficulties of doing ministry in the negative world, and a new exegesis of Ephesians 6! It was a great episode! Tagging Brenda Purington and Sean Hadley. LITC.

30/09/2024

The wait is over! You've been missing it; you couldn't stand not having it in your life. At long last, The Optimistic Curmudgeon is back for Season 7! New episodes begin today, and will release weekly for the next ten weeks.

Today's conversation: Michael Young kicks us off with a conversation about Roger Scruton, Aesthetics, Beauty, and the longings of the human soul. I've got a new podcast intern, and a new approach to thumbnails and editing! Check the video out - LITC.

17/09/2024

Tyler O'Neil discusses his forthcoming book tracing dark money influences on the federal government. Who exactly is in charge of the federal government? How deep does the Deep State go? Tyler brings the investigative receipts.

15/08/2024

The 2024 Olympics were a fascinating snapshot of globalist culture. They opened with the blasphemous tableau, offering "Blue Bacchus" as the feast for the nations. They closed with two men duking it out for the Women's Boxing gold medal. What's going on in our moment? Cultural apologist Annie Brownell Crawford joined me for a beautiful discussion of the symbolic meaning of the 2024 opening ceremony, with specific focus on the meaning of the drag queen Last Supper tableau. For all my friends who want to focus on that scene coming from a different painting, we get into that as well. This was a long conversation, but really fun. LITC.

30/07/2024

I've been thinking a lot about the Paris blasphemous Last Supper tableau over the last couple of days. It seems significant, and I reached out to Annie Brownell Crawford to see if she wanted to podcast together to discuss this cultural moment. Join us today at 1pm EST for the conversation - LITC.

02/07/2024

Very excited to record today with Dr. Mike Young! I took Dr. Young's aesthetics class at Faulkner,and today's we'll be podcasting together about Sir Roger Scruton's book, Beauty: A Very Short Introduction! If you're able to, join us live at 3pm today! LITC.

28/06/2024

If you missed last night's debate between Biden and Trump, and/or missed the Optimistic Curmudgeon Debate Afterparty, have no fear! I recorded the conversation I had with Jason Jewell, Winston Brady, Nick Higgins, Keith Foskey, and Allen Mendenhall. It was a late night, but we had a great conversation about golf, Biden's failure to speak coherently, and more! LITC.

27/06/2024

The presidential debate with vs is tonight, at 9pm EST. And that means Optimistic Curmudgeons will be livestreaming commentary, analysis, and evaluation. You already know what and will say - come listen to what Jason Jewell, Winston Brady, Allen Mendenhall, Keith Foskey, and Nick Higgins make of the debate! Odds are good they will spot the gaffes AND point us to wise ways to evaluate politics. LITC.

18/06/2024

Eric Wearne is one of a few people studying the new changes in education from an academic research perspective. Some months back, I met Eric at the CiRCE Institute FORMA conference, and he told me about his book, "New Pathways for Teacher Certification." I found the idea fascinating - we've got so many new models of schooling developing today in the most school-choice friendly environment in decades. And yet, the model for training teachers and school administrators remains uniform. Eric's claim is strait-forward: If we have new kinds of schools. ( , , etc), then it's worth considering the people who are developing new models of training teachers. I want to shout out my friend Matthew Bianco, who heads up just such a program in the CiRCE Apprenticeship. If you're involved in developing teachers, check this interview out. LITC!

05/06/2024

Ten years ago, Winston Brady told me about the novel he wanted to write. As time went on, I watched Winston develop as a teacher, a Dean, and the founder of Thales Press. But what about the novel? Then, in 2023, he published it with Fidelis Publishing, LLC. I heard him speak on it; I read it, and thought there would be a great conversation with him about it. I was right - we sat down together to discuss his book, and that was one of my favorite recording sessions in Season 6 of The Optimistic Curmudgeon. Not only is the book itself well worth reading; I think it illustrates the rich possibilities inherent in classical education. Spending years reading great books, discussing virtues, vices, and the western tradition with students, functions as a rich preperation for new writing. Winston's novel bears the fruit of his years of teaching, reading, and writing in his work at Thales Academy. This is one of the longest episodes I've published, but the conversation is rich. LITC.

20/05/2024

I had heard of John D. Wilsey from many friends before our paths crossed at last year's Ciceronian Society meeting. Claire Aguda and Jason Jewell both think the world of him. Then I met Dr. Wilsey - gracious, generous, witty, sarcastic, and somehow giving off a John Wayne vide. We had several great conversations, and then I learned he was working on a book examining the relationships between religious liberty and conservatism. If anyone has followed my show, you may have noted that Christian Nationalism and Conservatism have become running themes, in part because Clifford Humphrey pulled me into the world. Wilsey responds to a lot of the arguments I've from Christian Nationalists, and does so with recourse to intellectual conservatism. Wilsey has been deeply shaped by the thought of Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver, Irving Babbitt, and other giants of conservatism. In this interview, we had a great time discussing the role religious liberty plays in American life. Don't miss this one! LITC.

Tagging The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, Center for Great Books & Human Flourishing, The Heritage Foundation, Acton Institute, Liberty Fund, Intercollegiate Studies Institute

14/05/2024

Leadership matters, and it matters that leaders develop and . Dr. Joe Rigney of New Saint Andrews College and I discuss his new book, Leadership and Emotional Sabotage, in the latest episode of The Optimistic Curmudgeon. Dr. Rigney provides great perspective and analysis. if you serve in a formal leadership capacity, whether in a church, a school, a business, on a team, etc, don't miss this one. Link in the comments.

13/05/2024

Joe Rigney discusses his new book, Leadership and Emotional Sabotage: Resisting the Anxiety That Will Wreck Your Family, Destroy Your Church, and Ruin the World, and the need for men in particular to rediscover their authority. Rigney argues that rightly used authority is a blessing to those under i...

07/05/2024

Andrew Zwerneman discusses the nature of history, how it should be taught, and its role in a classical education. History is a primary method of shaping the moral imagination, and Zwerneman describes the pivotal role of the classical educator in forming students to cultivate historical consciousness...