Short 494
Nationalism, Scruton, and Households
“Back for Good: The Fine Art of Repairing Broken Things.” Katie Treggiden profiles British artists and producers who are working to make mending beautiful in a culture that valorizes the…
Anxiety, Loneliness, and Superweeds
“The Edgerton Essays.” The American Compass and the Ethics and Public Policy Center have been collaborating on the Edgerton Essays. Editor Patrick Brown describes the project: “First, find working-class Americans,…
Around the World With Alberto Miguel Fernandez
My guest is former Ambassador Alberto Miguel Fernandez. Alberto served as US Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, and also served in various diplomatic roles around the world including in Afghanistan, Syria,…
FPR Conference Registration Now Open
The 2021 FPR conference theme is “After Virtual: The Art of Recovering Lost Goods.” We’ll gather on October 16 at Middle Tennessee State University. The keynote speaker will be Andrew…
Washing Dishes, Sustainable Infrastructure, and Rooted Elites
“America’s Hidden Crisis of Power and Place.” In a long and important essay, David Fontana delves into “one of the most disconcerting, least-discussed aspects of our national political life: America…
Friendship, Drought, and Grief
"Berry Center Journal.” The summer issue of the Berry Center Journal includes several fine pieces. For instance, Jason Peters has an essay on security and locality, and Kate Dalton interviews…
Michael Ward On C.S. Lewis and The Abolition of Man
My guest is Father Michael Ward of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford and also of Houston Baptist University. Fr Ward has an enviable trifecta in his academic pedigree—degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, and…
Grovestead Gathering
Porchers might be interested in this two-day gathering that Rory and Becca Groves are hosting at their Minnesota farm. If you were intrigued by Rory's book Durable Trades and want…
David Cayley on Illich and Institutions
Canadian radio broadcaster David Cayley pulls up a chair to discuss Ivan Illich, a renegade priest and professor who argued against schools, missionaries, and modern medicine. Cayley, author of Ivan…
Everything for Everyone book discussion–the final evening!
Long-time friend of Front Porch Republic, Solidarity Hall's Elias Crim, is opening up the final session of their weekly small-group Zoom discussion of the Nathan Schneider's history of the cooperative…
Education, Virtue, and Virtue Signalling
Doug Sikkema fills in for Jeffrey Bilbro on this week's Water Dipper.
Reading the Times With Jeffrey Bilbro
Jeffrey Bilbro is editor of the The Front Porch Republic. Jeff is a fellow devotee of Wendell Berry, and has written a new book from IVP called Reading the Times:…
Walking, Belonging, and Counting
This will be my last Water Dipper for a couple of months; I’ll be quite busy with moving and all the accompanying obligations. Doug Sikkema is planning to keep this…
Creatures, Outsourcing Food, and Local News
“Is Self-Help Advice Doomed to Be Conservative?” Rebecca Onion interviews Pete Davis about his new book, and Pete articulates the goods that come with being rooted. “Plough Quarterly No. 28:…
Jared Zimmerer on Russell Kirk’s Personalism
Jared Zimmerer is director of the Word on Fire Institute. Jared is a fellow disciple of Russell Kirk, and currently is pursuing doctoral research on things Kirkian. It should not…
Dante, Influencers, and Replanting
“The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill.” Megan Molteni tells a fascinating and disturbing story about the complicated ways in which medical research makes its way into public health…
FPR Reader Survey
As we’ve been working on projects and making plans, FPR editors and board members decided it would help us if we knew a bit more about you. Who are our…
Love, Tyranny, and Names
“In Defense of Jane Austen.” Dwight Lindley III responds to a recent controversy over Austen and suggests that we follow her own example in resisting reductive accounts of other people.…
Truth, Dedication, and Wonder
“The Cross and the Machine.” Paul Kingsnorth narrates his unlikely conversion to Christianity in a very Porcher key: I realized that a crisis of limits is a crisis of culture,…
Mother Trees, Vaccines, and Charles Péguy
“Finding the Mother Tree: An Interview with Suzanne Simard.” In this interview with Emergence Magazine, Simard talks about her work on fungal networks and forest cooperation, and she also describes her…
Os Guinness on Liberty and Hope
Prolific author and social critic Os Guinness discusses the current challenges for liberty and his hopes for the future. The Chinese-born, English-educated, Irish-rooted scholar who lives in America also shares…
Associational Life, Liberal Arts Farmers, and Forgiveness
“Bread and Circuses: The Replacement of American Community Life.” Lyman Stone has a lengthy new report on recent shifts in American associational life: “The future of associational life in America…
Erik Bootsma On Traditional Architecture
My guest is Erik Bootsma a classical architect who specializes in ecclesiastical architecture. Erik was trained at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, which focuses on traditional forms…
Summer Distributism Discussion
This summer Laurie M. Johnson, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Primary Texts Certificate at Kansas State University, will be leading an online seminar discussing distributist texts and…