The Sower

Josh Bowman shares some information on the upcoming 2026 conference in Omaha, NE before turning to the Menard Family Center for Economic Inquiry at Creighton University. He’s joined by economic scholars Dr. Colin O’Reilly and Dr. Michael D. Thomas.

The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Panel and paper proposals are due Septe...

Josh Bowman chats with Winston Brady of Thales Press and Thales Academy, along with Josh Herring of Thales College in North Carolina. We discuss the definition, style, future, purpose, and beauty of classical education, along with its relationship to place and the Ciceronian Society generally.

Thales Academy: https://www.thalesacademy.org/
Thales Press: https://www.thalespress.org/
Thales ...

Josh Bowman talks with David Michael Phelps, president of Harmel Academy. (This 2025 episode combines 2 episodes previously published in 2023.)

Harmel Academy is a post-secondary Catholic trade school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pioneering an exciting new strategy for the formation and education of men. To learn more, go to https://www.harmelacademy.org/

Select books mentioned:

A. G. Sert...

Josh Bowman talks with Dr. Carl Richard, Professor of History at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. Dr. Richard has spent decades recovering the impact of the ancient Greeks and Romans on the American Founders and on American history generally. He has also turned to the influence of the Bible and Christianity on America’s founding, and now to the history of the Presidency.

We begin b...

Josh Bowman talks with legal scholar Jack Ferguson about his recent article exploring Cicero’s impact on the American Founders. We discuss natural law, republicanism, executive power, and more.

Jack’s article is “The Ciceronian Origins of American Law and Constitutionalism” from The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, which can be found here: https://journ...

This episode concludes a series interviewing our first ever cohort of conference fellows. Josh Bowman talks with Matthew Chambers, a Nisbet Fellow, who teaches humanities at ECPI University in Virginia Beach and who is also entering his dissertation phase as a PhD Candidate in Humanities at Faulkner University. We discuss the relationship between the teachings of the early church and tha...

James Patterson joins Dr. Glenn Moots for a conversation on Christian Nationalism. (This 2025 episode combines 2 episodes previously published in 2023.)

Glenn Moots is a prolific writer and teacher from Northwood University in Michigan. Learn more about Glenn Moots here: https://www.northwood.edu/directory/faculty/glenn-moots/ 

Glenn’s adapted talk from the National Conservative conferen...

Josh Bowman talks with Albert Norton, a practicing attorney and author of several books on the tension between religion and postmodernism. His most recent book is The Discovered Self, just released, concerning what he regards as a dangerous inward turn to the therapeutic worldview. 

Our main topic is his 2023 book The Mountain and the River: Genesis, Postmodernism, and the Machine. Our c...

This episode continues a series interviewing our first ever cohort of conference fellows. Here, Josh talks with Sean Sirks, a graduate student at Virginia Tech and one of this year’s Nisbet Fellows. We discuss the philosophy of mathematics, numbers, metaphysics, and Shakespeare’s King Lear. 

Visit our website to learn more about our conference fellowship program...

Josh Bowman talks with Jenna Robinson, president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. We specifically address the Martin Center’s advocacy for reforming teacher education through public policy at the state level, and especially as it pertains to reading. We also hit on the philosophy of education, indoctrination, pedagogy, and the notion of “place” in the development of te...

Josh Bowman continues a series interviewing our first ever cohort of Ciceronian Society Conference fellows, talking with Nisbet Fellow T. Michael Wise of Sunbury, Ohio. Michael is a retired licensed funeral director completing his Ph.D at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the Historical & Theological Studies Department under Dr. John D. Wilsey. His research in...

Chris Anadale interviews Rachel Ferguson about neighborhood stabilization, human scale, building social & racial trust, and causes for hope in the cities. Dr. Ferguson is director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia University of Chicago, an Affiliated Scholar at the Acton Institute, and a member of the Ciceronian Society advisory board.

Links to People, Books, an...