Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values

Patrick Deneen's 2018 book, Why Liberalism Failed, was by the standards of most academic works of political philosophy, wildly successful. It struck a chord with some of the broader Right and gave a voice to a growing movement skeptical of the promises of classical liberalism and looking for an alternative. This burgeoning New Right, however, is anything but new....

What does it mean to love your country? Is that nationalism? And isn't nationalism—you know—bad? And how should our allegiance and love of country be weighed against our duties and affections to family and faith?

Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by John Wilsey to discuss ...

The immortal words of the Declaration of Independence—We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness—are etched upon the hearts of American patriots today and knit us together with patriots ...

Richard Weaver was a twentieth century American scholar and rhetorician whose writings were praised by the likes of Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley, Willmoore Kendall, and Frank Meyer. But nowadays Weaver is either derided as a racially charged Southern sympathizer or accused of preparing the way for the MAGA movement and authoritarianism. If he's discussed at ...

What if we can agree on the political solution, but we disagree on whose side is most likely to benefit?

Congress is broken. On this we can all agree. One of the more interesting reform ideas to emerge is the call to expand the number of Representatives in the United States House, thereby making it more likely Representatives could act...

In 1976 historian George H. Nash wrote The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, a celebrated historical accounting that established much of the narrative for how we think about the development of modern conservatism even today. But much has changed since the seventies. What can the history of conservatism tell us about this present moment, an...

Persuasion seems conspicuously absent from our politics. Not shouting, denouncing, or trying to convince the "other side" that they're wrong, evil, or both. But the good faithed attempt to reach the hearts, minds, and emotions of others and persuade them to our point of view. Why? Why is persuasion so hard? And is it even possible to persuade in an era of politic...

Sometimes the best way to understand one's culture is to compare it with something entirely different. In this episode Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis take a deep dive into China with Chinese dissident Lu of the YouTube channel All Things China with Lu. Lu demystifies what the Communist Chinese Party (CCP) wants, why they fear Taiwan, how they view the ethnic Ha...

This month marks eight years of Saving Elephants tirelessly calling the GOP back to its classical conservative roots instead of the cult-of-personality nationalist populism to which the party has succumbed. And over these past eight years...things have only gotten worse. Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis assembles an all-star panel to answer the question: is the G...

Friendship is one of the last words you might associate with politics these days. Yet John von Heyking believes recovering a proper, classical understanding of friendship is precisely what our civic order needs to function. Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis and John discuss the differences in how the ancients and medievals viewed friendship and how it's been under...

It's been nearly a month since Supreme Leader Khamenei and his gathered Legion of Doom were killed in the Trump administration's "special military operation" in Iran. So, are we at war with Iran now? If so, what's the objective? Isn't Congress supposed to declare a war before a president takes things this far? What are the necessary and practical limits on a pres...

Ever since Leo Strauss published his magnum opus Natural Right and History, which ends by heavily implying Edmund Burke opened the door for the evils of historicism in the modern world, a great fissure in conservative nerddom erupted between those who align with either titan. Were Strauss' criticism of Burke warranted? Did Burke disavow natural rights and pa...

While Saving Elephants is dedicated to offering the conservative intellectual tradition in mercifully modern vernacular, fellow podcaster Nic Dunn has been on a similar mission: making the work of policy institutions more digestible. Nic joins Josh for a conversation around the important role policy can play in defusing political tension, alleviating poverty, and...

For good or ill, the post World War II era built by the Baby Boomers seems to be rapidly coming to an end. But what will replace it? What might be done to prevent global conflicts and bloodshed as the old order begins to break down? And what should younger conservatives seek to conserve in this era of chaotic change? Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is Di...

In a world of exhaustive binary thinking sometimes complexity offers relief. Lauren Hall joins the show to offer her alternative living in 4D she calls "radical moderation". In the latter half of the conversation Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis happily takes Lauren up on her offer to geek out on Edmund Burke.

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