Kenneth G. Elzinga, the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia, delivered a plenary address as part of Acton University 2018. His topic for the evening was “C.S. Lewis and Freedom: Christianity's Most Famous Apologist Meets Adam Smith.” Subscribe to our podcasts About Kenneth G. Elzinga “To Think Christianly: A History of L'Abri, Regent College, and the Christian Study Center Movement” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 29, 2022•58 min•Ep. 81
Why does federal aid seem to have a reverse Midas touch? Drawing on examples from the nation's past and present—from the fur trade and railroads, to cars and chemicals, to aviation and Solyndra—"Uncle Sam Can't Count” is a sweeping work of economic history that explains why the federal government cannot and should not pick winners and losers in the private sector. In this episode, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2015 Acton Lecture Series, featuring American historia...
Jul 22, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 80
In this episode, we bring you an address given by the late Charles Colson, former Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon, at the Acton Institute’s Third Anniversary Dinner, on the topic of the decline of American values. Subscribe to our podcasts 'Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph' | Acton Institute What are transatlantic values? | Acton Institute Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis | Acton Institute Liberty and the Good Life | Acton Institute Host...
Jul 15, 2022•39 min•Ep. 79
Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president emeritus of the Acton Institute, gave this plenary address during Acton University 2017. He spoke on the importance of virtue in society and that the most influential institution in any society is the family. If we truly believe in human flourishing, then change starts at home and in our local communities. That is how we gradually transform the world. Subscribe to our podcasts "The Economics of the Parables" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informa...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 78
In this episode, we bring you a plenary address delivered by L. Gregory Jones, president of Belmont University, featured at Acton University, 2022. For too many people, the future isn’t what it used to be. In the midst of dealing with multiple pandemics, people have gotten stuck in old patterns and become increasingly fearful. How do we rediscover a hopeful future? Dr. Jones argues that we need to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, linked to virtuous character and purpose, that will refocus o...
Jun 30, 2022•54 min•Ep. 77
At the beginning of the 20th century, Dutch theologian, journalist, and statesman Abraham Kuyper toured the Mediterranean world and directly encountered Islam for the first time. His observations and insights from this trip were published as “On Islam,” a nuanced and substantive examination of the faith and culture of the Muslim world, as well as the effects of European colonialism, all anchored in an informed Christian point of view. In this episode, we bring you a panel discussion that was del...
Jun 24, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 76
Hans-Martien ten Napel of Leiden University delivered an address entitled "Constitutionalism, Democracy, and Religious Freedom: To Be Fully Human" at the Acton Institute "Reclaiming the West: Public Spirit and Public Virtue" conference in Washington, D.C., on December 6, 2017. Subscribe to our podcasts About Hans-Martien ten Napel Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 17, 2022•28 min•Ep. 75
In this episode, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2013 Acton Lecture Series, featuring Samuel Gregg, Acton’s director of research, speaking on his book Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future. In Becoming Europe, Gregg explains how European economic life has drifted in the direction of what Alexis de Tocqueville called “soft despotism” and ways in which similar trends are discernible in the United States. The good news ...
Jun 10, 2022•43 min•Ep. 74
What can we do to live happier lives? How can we help others find the secret to true, lasting happiness? What is the connection between free enterprise and happiness? Prolific author and social scientist Arthur C. Brooks discusses the confluence of work, happiness, and human flourishing. Subscribe to our podcasts About Arthur Brooks From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life | Arthur C. Brooks Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Soon...
Jun 03, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 73
In this episode of Acton Vault, Dr. Jordan Ballor, director of research at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, delivered a plenary lecture at Acton’s first annual academic colloquium entitled “Is Homo Economicus Sovereign in His Own Sphere? A Challenge from Neo-Calvinism for the Neoclassical Model.” Ballor is also the series editor of the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology. Subscribe to our podcasts Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology | Lexham Press Abo...
May 27, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 72
Rooted in the tradition of the Orthodox Church and its teaching on the relationship between God, humanity, and all creation, Fr. Michael Butler and Prof. Andrew Morriss offer a new contribution to Orthodox environmental theology. Too often policy recommendations from theologians and church authorities have taken the form of pontifications, obscuring many important economic and public policy realities. The authors establish a framework for responsible engagement with environmental issues undergir...
May 20, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 71
The Honorable Janice Rogers Brown, retired judge of the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, delivered an evening plenary address as part of Acton University 2018. Subscribe to our podcasts Apply now for Acton University 2022 Register for free — The Islamic Case for Liberty — Acton Institute Janus v. AFSCME: Political freedom for public employees — Acton Institute Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 13, 2022•59 min•Ep. 70
In this episode, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2022 Acton Lecture Series, featuring Matthew Tuininga, Ph.D., associate professor of Christian ethics and the history of Christianity at Calvin Theological Seminary, speaking on Abraham Kuyper's principles for Christian liberalism. Kuyper was a staunch critic of the secularist liberalism he identified as the legacy of the French Revolution, but in its place he advocated what might be described as Christian liberalism....
May 06, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 69
In this episode of Acton Vault, John O’Sullivan, president of the Danube Institute in Budapest, accepted the 2011 Faith and Freedom Award on behalf of Lady Margaret Thatcher during Acton’s 2011 Anniversary Dinner. Subscribe to our podcasts Apply now for Acton University 2022 About John O'Sullivan Danube Institute Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 29, 2022•36 min•Ep. 68
In this episode of Acton Vault, John D. Wilsey, associate professor of church history and philosophy at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, dissects Alexis de Tocqueville’s understanding of self-interest and how it helps preserve liberty within the bounds of democracy. Subscribe to our podcasts About John D. Wilsey The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Alexis de Tocqueville, socialism, and the American Way | Acton Institute Video: John Wilsey On How To Read de Tocqueville's 'Democracy...
Apr 22, 2022•27 min•Ep. 67
In this episode, we bring you an insightful conversation between Michael Matheson Miller, Acton Institute senior research fellow and producer of the documentary Poverty, Inc., and the late George Ayittey, Ghanaian economist, author, and president of the Free Africa Foundation. The Acton Institute’s Poverty Cure series includes supplementary conversations with renowned scholars, businesspeople, and nonprofit leaders. This is a conversation that took place in 2020. Ayittey died on January 28, 2022...
Apr 14, 2022•49 min•Ep. 66
In October 2018, Brazilian professor Lucas Freire delivered the 18th annual Calihan Lecture here at the Acton Institute. Freire was the 2018 recipient of the Novak Award, a $15,000 grant that rewards those early in their academic career who can demonstrate the relationship between religion, economic freedom, and the free and virtuous society. Recipients of the Novak Award make a formal presentation at an annual public forum known as the Calihan Lecture. Freire’s lecture was part of an internatio...
Apr 08, 2022•58 min•Ep. 65
In this episode, we bring you a keynote address that was delivered as part of the 2017 Education and Freedom Conference, featuring Jeff Sandefer, co-founder of Acton Academy, a new and innovative K–12 school that offers a nontraditional approach to education—an alternative to standardized testing and rote memorization. Sandefer opens his address by questioning the typical education model: “Common Core, standardized tests, control, regurgitation, [and] oversight—19th-century solutions in the 21st...
Apr 01, 2022•45 min•Ep. 64
What’s it like to be the son or daughter of a dictator? Not just any dictator, but a genocidal monster on the level of a Josef Stalin? What’s it like to bear a name synonymous with oppression, terror, and evil? Jay Nordlinger, a senior editor of National Review, set out to answer that question in his book “Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators.” He looks into the families of the worst of the worst: Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, and so on. Som...
Mar 25, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 63
In this episode of Action Vault, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2013 Acton Lecture Series, featuring John Blundell speaking on the topic of “Ladies for Liberty: Women Who Made a Difference in American History.” Blundell was director general and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs. He passed away on July 22, 2014, at the age of 61. Subscribe to our podcasts Acton Lecture Series About John Blundell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...
Mar 18, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 62
In this episode of Action Vault, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2014 Acton Lecture Series, featuring F.H. Buckley, Foundation Professor at George Mason University’s Scalia School of Law, speaking on the unchecked presidential power we’re witnessing today in our government. Buckley explains that what we assume was the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of a separation of powers was not what the Founders had in mind. What they expected was a country in which Congress woul...
Mar 11, 2022•50 min•Ep. 61
In this episode, we bring you an interview that was conducted as part of our 2022 Business Matters online conference, featuring Mark Murray, former president of Meijer (one of America’s largest private companies), former president of Grand Valley State University, and former budget director for the State of Michigan. Murray draws from his diverse leadership experience to speak on how each of us can achieve virtuous leadership. Acton’s director of communications, Eric Kohn, asks him about leaders...
Mar 04, 2022•43 min•Ep. 60
Do private property and religious liberty go hand in hand? Are they truly inseparable? The Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president emeritus and co-founder of the Acton Institute, defends private property as the solid ground of religious liberty in this contribution to the 2016 Acton Lecture Series. Subscribe to our podcasts Acton Lecture Series About Rev. Robert A. Sirico Acton research on private property Private property and public good The Church, property rights, and the environment In defense of p...
Feb 25, 2022•59 min•Ep. 59
With more than a million words of trenchant journalism under his byline and more citations in The Penguin Dictionary of Humorous Quotations than any writer then alive, P.J. O’Rourke had established himself as America’s premier political satirist. Both TIME and The Wall Street Journal labeled him “the funniest writer in America.” In this episode, O'Rourke delivers remarks on the current state of American governance at the Acton Institute's 23rd Anniversary Dinner on October 24, 2013. O’Rourke die...
Feb 18, 2022•41 min•Ep. 58
In this episode, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2014 Acton Lecture Series featuring Jay Richards, Ph.D., senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and New York Times bestselling author, speaking on why a belief in God is necessary for libertarianism to flourish. Subscribe to our podcasts Acton Lecture Series About Jay Richards Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 11, 2022•58 min•Ep. 57
Dr. Gerald McDermott addresses the important issue of the state of public virtue and what might be done to restore it in his address at Acton's "Reclaiming the West: Public Spirit and Public Virtue" event in Washington D.C. on December 6, 2017. Subscribe to our podcasts About Dr. Gerald McDermott Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 04, 2022•41 min•Ep. 56
In this episode, Sam Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute, delivered the opening plenary lecture of Acton University 2017. Gregg’s lecture focuses on the very real dangers faced by religious believers around the world (and especially in developing nations). He also touches on threats to religious freedom within western nations. These threats, ironically, often stem from modern ideological interpretations of “tolerance.” Subscribe to our podcasts About Samuel Gregg, D.Phil. (Oxon.) ...
Jan 28, 2022•31 min•Ep. 55
Organizations commonly face roadblocks when trying to address poverty or engage effectively with people directly affected by it. When it comes to poverty alleviation, organizations tend to think that what is needed is the perfect strategy, a new idea, or a great program. What’s most important, however, are the people involved, the relationships built, and the process we use to get to the solution. In this episode, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2022 Acton Lecture S...
Jan 21, 2022•54 min•Ep. 54
We often say what’s right and what’s wrong can be vague and not always easy to discern. The natural law tradition says that’s nonsense: Moral basics are known to every human being. If this is true, then we aren’t ignorant of the good, just self-deceived. So what happens when we tell ourselves that we don’t know what we really do know? In this episode, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2017 Acton Lecture Series, featuring Dr. J. Budziszewski speaking on natural law and...
Jan 14, 2022•54 min•Ep. 53
In this episode, we bring you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 1994 Acton Lecture Series featuring Sister Connie Driscoll speaking on the welfare myth. Sister Connie (1933–2005) was the co-founder of St. Martin de Porres House of Hope, now the Southside Center of Hope, in an impoverished neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. It’s a community for women and their children who are healing and recovering from substance abuse. Sister Connie believed in personal responsibility and...
Jan 07, 2022•39 min•Ep. 52
