Front Porch Republic
An Ode to “Lulu”
Affectionately known by her grandchildren as “Lulu,” I knew Katherine Walbert Walker, of Oklahoma City, only as “Aunt Kathy.”
Finding the Founding
The Declaration begins with a riddle for today’s readers.
Writing Like There’s No Tomorrow
As writers, our job is to remind us of our truest selves.
Four Score and Seven Years: On the discovery of time
In the spring, I was jolted into change. Because that was when I embarked upon the discovery of time.
Pushkin’s Conflict: Between Lyceum and Internet
Pushkin offers us the sovereignty of the personality through work on oneself.
News, Notes, & Podcasts
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Stake My Place at the Singles Bar: Pick-Up Songs
This week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, we’re listening mostly to songs about men picking up, or trying to pick up, women—though there are two songs that reverse that…
NIMBYs, Ghosts, and Beauty
Brian Miller cuts hay in the same field he’s been mowing for twenty-six years.
Edgy and Dull: Songs About Obsession
For a while, the episode risked becoming an episode on unreliable narrators—but really we’re talking about obsession, a subject I suspect we all know something about. Send your song suggestions…
Groceries, Sin, and the Grail
Shawn Regan describes the manifold benefits the Great Salt Lake provides and the cross-partisan effort to replenish it.
More Articles
A Resurgence of Educational Localism? A Review of Skipping School
Unusually for books on homeschooling, Skipping School is written for both scholarly and general audiences.
In Defense of Our Country: On the Need to Resist AI and AI Data Centers
The holiness of the world: that is the heart of the matter. The doors of perception must be cleansed to see the holiness again.
Building Bulwarks against Dehumanization
It may be time for willing churches to begin devoting more resources to the active pursuit of remaining human.
The Humane Localism of Pope Leo XIV
Both global solidarity and local subsidiarity are needed if we are to address the emerging technology of so-called AI in sane and humane ways.
A Much-Needed Reaction to The Dark Enlightenment
This desire to reduce liberalism to economic liberalism is taken to its extreme in the dark enlightenment.
Subsidiarity: A New Intellectual Virtue?
Responsibilities—actions, decisions, discussions—should be exercised at the level closest to the individual and only move “upward” if necessary.
Magnifica Humanitas, Artificial Intelligence, and Amish Country
Well, what would the Amish do, I wondered?
Magnifica Humanitas and a Healthy Realism
Magnifica Humanitas encourages us to not give up on changing the world
A Brief Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching
At the heart of CST is the title of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical: magnificent humanity
AI Data Centers, Exponential Growth, and the “J Curve” from Hell
AI may be perceived as an “immaterial” technology, but it totally depends on data centers that have intense physical demands.
Localists Abroad: A Conversation with Joel Carillet
Sometimes I’ll sit still for, say, an hour, and imagine all the people around the world who have embraced me, shook my hand, kissed my cheek.
What Hero Can Defeat the Hydra with a Thousand Faces?
The hydra we face is not only hard to defeat; it’s hard to define.
From the Archive
The Recovery of American Beauty
Holland, MI The present age remains haunted by the specter of “atheism,” with significant consequences for our understanding of politics. I think we can distinguish between at least three different…
The Whole Hog
Alexandria, VA They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can sometimes tell how the book’s designers wanted the book to be judged at first glance.…
Working with Words
Our relationship was still in its early swoon when Nate came to pick me up from work one night. He was so obviously excited to see me that even my…
A Republic of Front Porches
ALEXANDRIA, VA. Names are important, and few can be more significant than what a new publication calls itself. Perhaps at first greeting the name will give pause, causing the new…