Place. Limits. Liberty.
Join us for FPR’s 2025 Conference on “Work and Leisure”

The Brass Spittoon Podcast 30

Marvin Olasky on the Press, Presidents, and Pivots

The longtime editor-in-chief of World magazine discusses the Zenger Prize, his new gig at Christianity Today, the temptations of conservative politics (compassionate or otherwise), and his memoir Pivot Points.   …

Tri Robinson Looks Back in Thanks  

After a life of physical and spiritual adventure, an innovative homesteading teacher and pastor turns green with gratitude.
John Murdock
December 17, 2024

Jeff Bilbro’s Convivial Quest

The editor-in-chief of the FPR website discusses the recent conference in Grand Rapids and his latest book, Words for Conviviality.  Highlights Resources Jeff's bio and buy the book (and some…

Yuval Levin on Our Constitution

The AEI scholar and author of American Covenant joins John to talk about a document that he believes could unify we the people, again.  Highlights 1:30       Second home 8:15       The…
John Murdock
September 17, 2024

Ghost Stories with Nancy French

Longtime ghostwriter Nancy French tells her own tale in Ghosted: An American Life.  French was raised in rural Tennessee and would later provide the words behind famous talking heads but found…

Family Time with Timothy Carney

Timothy Carney, an AEI senior fellow and the author of Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be, talks about the village it…

Living Outside the Machine

Ashley Colby, founder of the Rizoma Field School, digs up inspiring true stories of resistance and restoration (with references to donkeys, elephants, and our 49th state).   Bill Kauffman, author and…

Brian Miller on Kayaking with Lambs

Brian Miller visits the porch to talk about his new book chronicling life on a Tennessee farm. Highlights 1:30       Bayou Bengal Volunteer farmer 5:45       A monastic text 11:15    Man…

Humane Politics

Adam Smith, a philosopher at the University of Dubuque, counterattacks the disenchanted War on Suffering.  FPR President Mark Mitchell goes biblical to bring down a heightened politics of insanity.  Brass…

Human Responses to Technology

Jeff Bilbro, FPR’s super-beaver EIC and Grove City College professor, looks to ancient mythology to assess modern technology and fiction of the future.  Cassandra Nelson of the University of Virginia’s…

Imagining Life Beyond the Machine: Eric Miller and Jason Peters

Eric Miller, biographer of Christopher Lasch and a professor at Geneva College, plus longtime porcher Jason Peters of Hillsdale College address the role of imagination in shaping our shared reality. …

Paul Kingsnorth and “The Blizzard of the World”

Paul Kingsnorth delivered the keynote address at the 2023 FPR conference in Madison, Wisconsin.  With help from a diverse band of fellow travelers including Jewish-Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen, Anglo-Catholic social…
John Murdock
November 14, 2023

Paul Kingsnorth’s Opening Prayer

Paul Kingsnorth, the keynote speaker at the 2023 FPR conference in Madison, Wisconsin, begins things with a bonus talk on the power of prayer in a desecrated western world.    Highlights …
John Murdock
November 13, 2023

Bill Kauffman in Conversation

Bill Kauffman, author of multiple books including Poetry Night at the Ballpark and long the closing speaker at FPR conferences, talks about the origins of Front Porch Republic and his…
John Murdock
September 24, 2023

After Virtual: Civic Life

The After Virtual conference podcast series closes with a focus on civics and cemeteries.  Mark Mitchell, author of Plutocratic Socialism, talks on, well, plutocrats and socialism (plus the importance of…

After Virtual: Health

The penultimate session from the FPR conference After Virtual:  The Art of Recovering Lost Goods addresses health.  Philosopher Adam Smith from the University of Dubuque and medical doctor Brian Volck,…

After Virtual: Chris Arnade

Chris Arnade, the keynote speaker at the After Virtual conference, has traded global finance for skid row photography.  Chris discusses his journey from Wall Street board rooms to a booth…
John Murdock
December 20, 2022

After Virtual: Education

The second episode from the FPR conference After Virtual:  The Art of Recovering Lost Goods looks at education.  Jeff Polet discusses walking away from Hope.  Angel Adams Parham talks about…
John Murdock
November 29, 2022

After Virtual: The Church

For the first of our episodes from September’s FPR conference After Virtual:  The Art of Recovering Lost Goods, we go to church.  Carl Trueman, Gregory Hogg, and Charlie Cotherman share…
John Murdock
November 14, 2022

Mark Mitchell on Plutocratic Socialism 

Mark Mitchell, author of Plutocratic Socialism:  The Future of Private Property and the Fate of the Middle Class and President of Front Porch Republic, joins the podcast.  Mitchell and Murdock…

Matt Stewart on Wallace Stegner

Matthew Stewart, author of The Most Beautiful Place on Earth:  Wallace Stegner in California, sits down (literally) with host John Murdock to discuss Stegner’s complicated relationship with the American West. …

Katharine Hayhoe Talks Climate Change

Katharine Hayhoe is a professor at Texas Tech and the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. Her most recent book is Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing…

Chuck Marohn on the Human Errors of Traffic Engineering

Chuck Marohn, the founder of Strong Towns and author of Confessions of a Recovering Engineer, discusses streets, roads, “stroads,” and the perils of the American traffic system. A trained engineer himself,…

Poetry and Politics with A.M. Juster

Michael J. Astrue has earned degrees from Yale and Harvard. He had a long and distinguished legal career and held several government positions as well as leadership posts in biotech…
John Murdock
November 23, 2021