Acton Line

Over the past several years, American institutions have faced challenges that have placed an enormous amount of stress and strain on them. Some of those challenges have been emergent phenomenon, while other challenges have been intentionally inflicted by political actors. In addition to the institutions themselves faltering for their own internal reasons, and in some senses being fed by that faltering, the American people have lost confidence in the legitimacy of government, business, media, and more. The downstream effects of this institutional crisis and loss of confidence have been higher than usual embraces of conspiracy theories and other forms of unreality. The January 6th riot at the United States Capitol was a striking and vivid example of the consequences of these problems.In this episode, Yuval Levin, director of social, cultural, and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the editor of National Affairs, explains these institutional crises, the failures of political leadership in this populist age, the growing embrace of forms of unreality, and what can be done about it.Yuval Levin - American Enterprise InstituteNational AffairsFailures of Leadership in a Populist Age - Yuval Levin (National Review)Trump's rebellion against reality - Yuval Levin (The Dispatch)The four cultural crises revealed by the D.C. riots - Rev. Ben Johnson (Acton Institute)Yuval Levin on why trust in institutions is declining - Acton LineYuval Levin on the search for solidarity in the age of Trump - Acton Lecture SeriesSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we’re bringing you another conversation from our recent Poverty Cure Summit.The Poverty Cure Summit provided an opportunity for participants to listen to scholars, human service providers, and practitioners address the most critical issues we face today which can either exacerbate or alleviate poverty. These speakers discussed the legal, economic, social, and technological issues pertaining to both domestic and global poverty. Rooted in foundational principles of anthropology, politics, natural law, and economics, participants had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of poverty and identify practical means to reduce it and promote human flourishing.In this conversation, moderator Scot Bertram talks with Anne Rathbone Bradley, the George and Sally Mayer Fellow for Economic Education and the academic director at The Fund for American Studies, and Iain Murray, vice president for strategy and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of the recent book, “The Socialist Temptation.” They discuss the reasons why socialism is not an effective method for reducing poverty and helping the poor regain their dignity. Highlighting the inconsistencies in thought that prevent it from ever working in practice, the panel addresses why socialism seems to be an attractive option to some young Americans and how economic freedom can point the way toward a more prosperous country for all.Anne Rathbone Bradley - The Fund for American StudiesIain Murray - Competitive Enterprise InstituteScot Bertram - Hillsdale CollegeThe Socialist Temptation - Iain MurrayAnne Rathbone Bradley on eliminating poverty through economic freedom - Acton LineAnne Rathbone Bradley on why Christians must support economic freedom - Acton Lecture SeriesThe socialist temptation with Iain Murray - Acton LinePoverty Cure SummitSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode is a rebroadcast that originally aired in March of 2019, but holds incredible relevance to conversations we’re still having today.This conversation with Tim Carney, editor at the Washington Examiner and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, explores the subject matter of his 2019 book, “Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse." To the extent that the "American Dream" is fading away in parts of the country, the problem isn't pure economics. Nor is it a case of stubborn old white men falling behind because they refuse embrace progress. Carney argues that the root cause of our problems – crumbling families, despair, and political dysfunction – is the erosion of community and local, civil institutions, most especially church. The result of a secularizing country is a plague of alienation for the working class, as people struggle to build families and improve their lives without the support structure they need.Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse - Tim CarneyVideo: Tim Carney On The Threat To Liberty From Big BusinessMore churches, more flourishing: The secret to success in middle America - Joseph SundeLyman Stone on the decline of religiosity in the United States - Acton LineSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s been a challenging year.A global pandemic, violent unrest in the streets of major American cities, and a divisive presidential election have all challenged us in different ways, testing the strength of civil society and institutions at both the local and national levelThroughout the year, Acton’s president and co-founder, Rev. Robert Sirico, has offered commentary on these events as they unfolded.Now, at the end of the year, Rev. Sirico reflects on the year as it comes to a close, to see how we handled the unique trials we encountered in our public life in 2020, and how the principles articulated by the Acton Institute guided us through these trying times and will continue to provide a mechanism for gaining understanding and perspective on our world in 2021.Rev. Robert Sirico's COVID-19 commentariesRev. Robert Sirico on the Grand Rapids riots Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Social capital – the capacity of people to cooperate towards common aims – is an indispensable element of a free and prosperous society yet many studies demonstrate that it has been steadily eroded in recent decades.Social pathologies such as the breakdown of the family, addiction, and deaths of despair are strongly correlated with weakening social ties and norms. The decline in social capital has had devastating real world consequences.In this episode, Acton’s Dan Hugger talks with Maryann and Barry Keating, authors of the new book Rebuilding Social Capital, about the idea of social capital, its erosion, how economics and Catholic Social Teaching help to clarify the concept, and what their new research suggests is the path forward to rebuilding social capital.Rebuilding Social Capital at Acton Book Shop - Maryann & Barry KeatingExcerpt from Rebuilding Social Capital - Maryann & Barry KeatingCentesimus annus Gaudium et Spes Mater et Magistra‘Values of Americans: A Study of Ethics and Character, Harris Interactive Report Produces by Boy Scouts of America Youth and Family Research Center’‘4-H Experiences Contributing to Leadership and Personal Development of 4-H Alumni’‘From Mutual Aid to Welfare State: How Fraternal Societies Fought Poverty and Taught Character’ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re bringing you another conversation from our recent Poverty Cure Summit.The Poverty Cure Summit provided an opportunity for participants to listen to scholars, human service providers, and practitioners address the most critical issues we face today which can either exacerbate or alleviate poverty. These speakers discussed the legal, economic, social, and technological issues pertaining to both domestic and global poverty. Rooted in foundational principles of anthropology, politics, natural law, and economics, participants had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of poverty and identify practical means to reduce it and promote human flourishing.In this conversation, moderator Al Kresta talks with Baroness Philippa Stroud, CEO of the Legatum Institute, and Anne Rathbone Bradley, the George and Sally Mayer Fellow for Economic Education and the academic director at The Fund for American Studies, about poverty and the COVID-19 pandemic. For decades, the number of individuals living in extreme poverty across the globe has fallen. Yet last month, the World Bank reported that COVID-19 could add approximately 100 million people to the ranks of those in extreme poverty by the end of 2020. The panelists examine how the pandemic has impacted poverty reduction efforts and how the marketplace has responded to the pandemic.Baroness Philippa Stroud - Legatum InstituteAnne Bradley - The Fund for American StudiesPoverty Cure Summit - Access now on-demand for only $19How to rebuild the economy after COVID-19 - Richard TurnbullA free-market agenda for rebuilding from the coronavirus - Henrik RasmussenSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On December 2nd, 2020, the economist Walter E. Williams passed away at the age of 84.Williams worked his way out of grinding poverty in the Philadelphia housing projects to chair George Mason University’s economics department. Over his career he authored 10 books and more than 150 other publications, and become one of the most recognized commentators on our American public life of the last four decades. Williams spread his message of racial equality, the dignity of work, and the morality of capitalism through his syndicated newspaper column, PBS documentaries, and frequent radio and TV appearances.In this episode, we feature a conversation with Dr. Williams from 2014 for the Acton Institute’s podcast, then called Radio Free Acton. Host Paul Edwards discusses with Williams the significance of Frederic Bastiat’s classic publication The Law, and the insights into modern America that come from reading that classic defense of limited government, authentic justice and human freedom. At that time, Williams had just penned a new introduction to The Law, which he said “created order in my thinking about liberty and just human conduct.”Walter Williams, RIP - Rev. Ben JohnsonTen quotes from economist Walter E. Williams - Sarah StanleyOn liberty's moral superiority (Walter Williams interview in Religion & Liberty)Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Common Grace is both a theological doctrine within the reformed tradition and the title of a truly monumental book discussing the doctrine by the theologian and statesmen Abraham Kuyper. It is grace from God that is common to all of mankind distinct from both the special grace by which God redeems, sanctifies, and glorifies his people as well as the gift of creation itself.Kuyper puts it this way, “Common grace issues from God, and from God come all the means that we humans must apply to oppose sin and its consequences in curse and misery.”But it is God himself who leads us to find the means and instructs us how to use them. And it is precisely the latter that is forgotten. The human inventor of the electric light and electric motor is extolled, but God, who led Edison to discover it, is passed over.Today, Acton’s Dan Hugger talks with Jordan Ballor, senior research fellow and director of publishing at the Acton Institute and General Editor of the twelve volume Abraham Kuyper: Collected Works in Public Theology, about Kuyper’s exploration of the doctrine in his monumental work Common Grace. The third and final volume of this work, jointly published by Lexham Press and the Acton Institute, has recently been published in English translation.Jordan J. Ballor, PhD at Acton InstituteCommon Grace: God's Gifts for a Fallen World, Volume 3The Abraham Kuyper CollectionSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this week’s episode, we’re bringing you a conversation that was a part of Acton’s recent Poverty Cure Summit.The Poverty Cure Summit provided an opportunity for participants to listen to scholars, human service providers, and practitioners address the most critical issues we face today which can either exacerbate or alleviate poverty. These speakers discussed the legal, economic, social, and technological issues pertaining to both domestic and global poverty. Rooted in foundational principles of anthropology, politics, natural law, and economics, participants had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of poverty and identify practical means to reduce it and promote human flourishing.In this conversation, Acton’s Michael Matheson Miller spoke with Ismael Hernandez (executive director of The Freedom & Virtue Institute) and Peter Greer (president & CEO of HOPE International) to examine the challenge of poverty in the US and internationally, and the most effective ways to think about poverty in light of the transcendent dignity of the human person. Poverty Cure SummitIsmael Hernandez - The Freedom & Virtue InstitutePeter Greer - HOPE InternationalSubscribe to Acton Institute Events podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1958, in the wake of the Soviet Union launching Sputnik 1 – the world’s first artificial satellite – into space, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, was born. And the space race was underway.In the following decades, the world would see the first man in space, the first spacewalk, and astronauts landing on the surface of the moon. Across eight different programs, the United States would fly 239 space missions, with 135 of those representing the space shuttle program.On August 31, 2011, the United States’ shuttle program was officially ended, and the United States government was out of the business of space exploration and travel.Today, private companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin are leading the way into the final frontier. Elon Musk has announced his plan is to have 1 million people living in a colony on Mars by the year 2050. As a new space race to settle on Mars and, perhaps, beyond takes flight, significant ethical questions remain unclear and unanswered. Today, we talk with Joel Sercel, an entrepreneur and space technologist, who argues that we need to start building international consensus on questions surrounding bioethics, property rights, laws governing space travel and space settlements, and stewardship of God’s creation outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.Subscribe to Acton Institute Events podcastTransAstra CorpWould Kuyper go to Mars? - Dylan PahmanThe frontier spirit of ‘The Martian’ - Dylan PahmanThe stewardship of space - Jordan BallorThe new space capitalists - Jordan BallorThe cultural mandate and the final frontier - Dylan Pahman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.