Front Porch Republic
The Times Can’t Tell Us What We Should Do
How do people maintain the illusion that “the times” are on their side?
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…
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.
News, Notes, & Podcasts
Newsletter Editor:
Jeffrey BilbroEnter your email to receive a weekly newsletter highlighting what’s new at FPR.
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…
Life, Death, and Branding Day
“The Good Life, According to Gen Z.” Maya Sulkin talks with several Gen Zers who, in good Porcher fashion, left the big-city corporate rat race to move back home: “In…
Land, Cheating, and Work
“How Major League Baseball Lost its Soul.” Bill Kauffman may be biased, but at least he’s honest: “I highly recommend Homestand, Will Bardenwerper’s new book contrasting the community-enhancing qualities of…
More Articles
Root For The Home Team
A team is from somewhere. Owners sell, players leave, but the place and the fans make up the fabric of the team.
An Economist’s Take on the Age of AI: A Review of Robert Skidelsky’s Mindless
Skidelsky’s expertise is on full display as he tells the story of the impact of machines on the human condition.
Despair Is Part of Life, but Not All of Life
Her heartfelt lament may sound like despair, and in a way it is, save for a crucial difference.
What We Forgot About Death (And Life)
Without the Incarnation, the philosopher’s death remains incomplete.
Compound Interest in an Attention Economy
There is something life-giving about rooting oneself in a single community—about investing ourselves in a mutual fund, so to speak.
The Quiet Divide
The rift isn’t just about politics. It’s about pace, and place, and respect.
Brethren of the Same Principle: A Few Words Toward a Better Politics
They, for the first time, saw each other’s faces. They shook hands. They gave each other cigarettes, beer, champagne. Exchanged buttons from their coats. One German gave an English soldier a haircut. They ate ham and dark bread. Biscuits, plum…
Holden Caulfield and the Ducks of Central Park
Holden Caulfield, the 16-year-old “hero” of The Catcher in the Rye, goes to the park mentally or physically on seven separate occasions in the course of the relatively short novel.
The Grammar of Enchantment
Despite the surplus of enchantment discourse these days, the excellent parts of the book are indeed excellent.
Chemical-Drenched Corn is Not MAHA-Friendly
Mine is not a left-wing voice of animal rights idealism or return-to-the-land idyllicism. This is just plain old real science.
Nature in Oklahoma
In Oklahoma, the nature many of us live so close to is a different thing from the concept of “nature” we have internalized.
What is a Good Life?
A happy life is not something out there in the future. It’s not something you make, even.
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…