Front Porch Republic
AI is Not Like a Calculator, and Other Conversations Worth Having
We are forgetting about other ways AI may be affecting people close to us, even ourselves.
Blisters on the Camino de Santiago
I recently learned the most effective cure ever for blisters: iodine. I had no idea; and I bet your mother, like mine, told you to bandage a blister and never,…
What Was Scattered Was Not Destroyed
Churches aren’t offering peace. They’re optimizing for engagement. And what gets built in the end is impressive. But like all “Babels,” it can’t bear the weight of the human soul.
When the Stranger Becomes the Scourge: Lessons for Localists from Wuthering Heights
In a fragmented age increasingly seduced by the cult of the self, "Wuthering Heights" challenges us to reclaim the difficult virtues that make real community possible.
The Front Porch Republic Curse?
You are probably familiar with the concept of the “Sports Illustrated cover jinx.”
News, Notes, & Podcasts
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Ivan Illich, Byung-Chul Han, and Cloning
Bianca Bosker dives into the weird and disturbing world of making creatures.
Seamus Heaney, Oakland Ballers, and Frugality
"In fact, MacIntyre’s work is extreme, but we live in extreme times."
MacIntyre, Classical Music, and Diapers
“Remembering Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025).” Christopher Kaczor remembers the life and legacy of his teacher: “I have never met, nor do I ever expect to meet, a philosopher as fascinating as…
Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025)
I don’t see how any English-speaking student of politics or philosophy from the past half-century could have avoided being shaped by After Virtue, his short and explosive argument against the…
More Articles
Excess and Lack
Both bear the cost of things they have lost...
Choosing Wildness
Even if I cannot patch every leak, I still may carry some water. After all, a leaking bucket is not necessarily an empty bucket. I guess I will have to refill it as often as I can.
Books and Blessings: The Matthew Strother Center for the Examined Life
We do not need more thought leaders, but more thoughtful human beings.
The Ignored Faces of Homelessness: A Review of There Is No Place for Us
When people are trying this hard and still end up sleeping with their children on the floor of a storage room, something has gone seriously wrong with our society.
The Land Ethic for AI
We have long drawn a dividing line between technology and humans, imbuing one with ethical responsibility and treating the other as merely contingent— therefore, technologies are “neutral” and it’s simply how they are used that matter.
The Abolition of the Human
AI is a technology that eliminates process. It offers the grail without the quest.
Birmingham in June
Colby said the two men settled their dispute like men, but they looked more like buffoons than men to me.
An Agrarian Prayer
If you have ever prayed the Lord’s prayer, then you have prayed for the soil and its earthworms—even if you didn’t intend to.
Happy are Those who Know the Causes of Things: Recovering Aristotle’s Four Causes
Science can only provide partial truths because it does not consider form or end.
Bringing Up Emil
Kids are good in a theological sense, always. Sometimes, however, their behavior is not what adults would call good.
Thoreau and the Eco-Puritans of Concord
While Thoreau was by no means a Puritan, I think that similarities regarding the human occupation and the goodness of creation are evident in both.
What Do Clare Morell and Chuck Magill Have in Common?
Chuck dreams of overcoming his allergy so he can reenter normal society. We reject the status quo because we want something better for our kids.
From the Archive
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…