Episodes

  • Ep. 58 William Easterly Ph.D. - Poverty, Technocracy, and the Tyranny of Experts

    Ep. 58 William Easterly Ph.D. - Poverty, Technocracy, and the Tyranny of Experts
    Apr 25 2024
    Photo Credit: Tyler Follon - Wingman VisualsIn this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast, I speak with Professor William Easterly of New York University about his work in development economics, and the problems of technocracy and social engineering of the poor. Easterly worked at the World Bank from 1985-2001 and began to be troubled by a number of things, including how aid is given without much concern about how it is distributed and managed thus subsidizing bad governance and harming the poor. We discuss Peter Bauer’s critique of how foreign aid politicizes development and delayed the development of business in Africa, and Bauer’s paradox of aid: * The countries that need aid — aid will not be effective* The countries where aid will be effective — do not need aid But the key problem with the dominant model of development is not simply a lack of efficiency, but the failure to respect the rights and agency of poor people. Easterly explains that development projects often result in people being deprived of their property, political rights, and participation and consent in the very projects that are supposed to help them. He discussed the tendency to to trivialize problems in the developing world, and the lack of feedback and market tests in development policy. We discuss how the developing world can often become a a lab for experiments for technocrats and social engineers. We also talk about Hayek’s Knowledge Problem, a response to Marianna Mazucatto idea of moonshots, and what I call “embedded'“ economics. We discuss a number of issues including * “The Debate that Never Happened” - Gunnar Myrdal vs. Friedrich Hayek on development economics* Social Engineering * Technocracy and the Hubris of the Technocrat * Spontaneous Order* Edmund Burke and Friedrich Hayek * Soviet 5-year central planning as model for economic development * Limited Horizons of Humanitarianism— a secular, hollowed out version of Christian love the focuses on material at the expense of personal agency. * Lack of Accountability * Material vs. Non-material Needs * Materialist visions of the human person * People have a right to consent to their own progress * Harry Potter novels vs. Mosquito Nets * Marianna Mazucatto’s ideas of Moonshots * vs. accidental discovery* vs opportunity costs * vs failed social engineering projects * and the complexity of economics and markets embedded in deep historical, cultural, norms, institutions, and religious foundations. * How to think about foreign aid and public goods like healthcare, infrastructure, education* Aid for emergencies vs. aid as answer to chronic poverty* Institutions of Justice including clear title to land, access to justice in the courts, ability to participate in the formal economy, and free exchange. * The impact of globalization on manufacturing in the US* Trade-offs and economic volatility * The moral rules that are needed for progress to beneficial * Consent, Self-Determination, Moral Equality * Attempts to develop Native Americans, US intervention in Philippines etc. * Material progress is never enough to justify interventionBiography William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University and Co-director of the NYU Development Research Institute, which won the 2009 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge in Development Cooperation Award. He is the author of three books: The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (March 2014), The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006), which won the FA Hayek Award from the Manhattan Institute, and The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (2001).He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed academic articles, and has written columns and reviews for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Review of Books, and Washington Post. He has served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Development Economics and as Director of the blog Aid Watch. He is a Research Associate of NBER, and senior fellow at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). Foreign Policy Magazine named him among the Top 100 Global Public Intellectuals in 2008 and 2009, and Thomson Reuters listed him as one of Highly Cited Researchers of 2014. He is also the 11th most famous native of Bowling Green, Ohio.ResourcesEssay: Friedrich Hayek: “The Use of Knowledge in Society”Related: Podcast with Obianuju Ekeocha on Ideological Colonialism and Resisting the Cultural Annexation of Africa Uganda Farmer Story in New York TimesPoverty, Inc. Film Recommended ReadingTyranny of Experts William Easterly The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little GoodBuy on Amazon, William Easterly The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics, Easterly, William R.Target Africa: ...
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    1 hr and 34 mins
  • Ep.57 The Decline of Christianity, the Rise of the “Nones” and Philosophies of the Person that Shape Unbelief

    Ep.57 The Decline of Christianity, the Rise of the “Nones” and Philosophies of the Person that Shape Unbelief
    Feb 26 2024
    This episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast is a talk I gave at AmPhil’s Center for Civil Society conference in November, 2023 on the “Rise of the Nones.” According to Pew Research, those who declare no religious affiliation - None - are now the largest religious category in the United States. In this talk I address several overarching reasons for the decline of Christianity and address how five dominant visions of the human person including person as a cog or scourge, transhumanism & transgenderism, plastic anthropology, and the person as a commodity — also play a key role not only in despair and anxiety, but contribute both to the decline of Christian belief and the rise of secularism and pantheism/new paganism. This talk is a thematic overview and distillation of two longer lectures I give on five false anthropologies and 10 reasons for unbelief and the decline of Christianity. Some of the topics I address include Breakdown of the Family - specifically decrease in fatherhood participation, and its impact on religious practice Sexual Revolution - disorients the person and relationships between men and women Feminism & Smashing the Patriarchy — “Flight from Woman” Egalitarianism and Pantheism - Tocqueville’s prediction of the rise of pantheism in democratic societies Technology + Technological Society: Practical: use of technology and propaganda Theoretical: Empiricist rationality is incoherent and severs relationship between affectivity and reasonScientism: vision of a technical solution to evil, sin, suffering Humanitarianism and what I call “Almost Christianity” Failures of the Church: scandal, corruption, assimilation, and failure to teach and catechize Loss of non-linguistic catechesisWhen people are leaving Christianity today, do they know what they are leaving? Confusion about the nature and destiny of the human person and what it means to be an embodied person Plastic Anthropology —malleable based on feelings Transhumanism / Transgenderism - combination of biology and technologyPerson as CogPerson as ScourgePerson as Commodity — Everything becomes an object of trade. Del Noce’s concept of Pure Bourgeois Conclude with several suggestions to address the loss of faith and confusions over anthropology Re-affirm that Being is good and intelligible - Our bodies are goodEach person is a subject and not simply an objectDefend Reason and FreedomWe are embodied and Embedded Persons— our bodies are not accidental Thinkers I address include Augusto Del Noce, Joseph Ratzinger, C.S. Lewis, Henri DeLubac, Carrie Gress, Karl Stern, Christopher Palmer, Jaron Lanier, Max Scheler, Joseph Pieper, John Paul II See www.themoralimagination.com for book links and related podcasts. AmPhil Center For Civil Society - Nonprofit Educational Leader Leading educational provider for nonprofit fundraising learning the Center for Civil Society is the go to for major gifts, campaigns, strategy, and... Time to read 8 minutes Dec 22nd, 2022 AmPhil Rise Of The Nones Nonprofit Conference Nov 7-8 Scottsdale. AZ Leading scholars, philanthropists, and nonprofit leaders will discuss the rise in secularism, decline in church attendance, and other related trends, and... (352 kB) https://amphil.com/event/c4cs-riseofnones/ Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project Religious ‘Nones’ in America: Who They Are and What They Believe 28% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, describing themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion. Written by Gregory A. Smith, Patricia Tevington, Justin Nortey, Michael Rotolo, Asta Kallo and Becka A. Alper Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at themoralimagination.substack.com/subscribe
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    43 mins
  • Ep.56 Ambassador Eduard Habsburg: Building a Family Legacy — The Habsburg Way: 7 Tools for Turbulent Times

    Ep.56 Ambassador Eduard Habsburg: Building a Family Legacy — The Habsburg Way: 7 Tools for Turbulent Times
    Feb 14 2024
    In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta, Ambassador Eduard Habsburg, about his book The Habsburg Way: Seven Rules for Turbulent Times. We discuss a number of themes including some history of the Habsburg Dynasty, the life and death of Blessed Charles of Austria, the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, including the remarkable tradition of the funeral for Habsburg emperors. We also discuss themes of marriage, children, religion, technology, liturgy, and especially the importance of family and tradition to provide rootedness in a time of individualism and “liquid modernity.” Other themes and topics include:
    • Different Visions of Subsidiarity — Catholic Social Teaching vs. European Union
    • Decentralization and localism vs. Devolution of power from a central state
    • Technocratic Politics
    • Alexis de Tocqueville on Individualism and Centralization
    • Robert Nisbet on the Quest for Community
    • Joseph Ratzinger — What it means to be a Christian
    • Liturgy as non-linguistic catechesis
    • The Human Person as Embodied and Embedded
    • and more
    Biography
    Ambassador Eduard Habsburg is the Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta. He is the author of The Habsburg Way. 7 Rules for Turbulent Times from Sophia Press and Dubbie: The Double-Headed Eagle. Full Quiver Publishing, 2020. You can connect and follow him on Twitter at @EduardHabsburg X (formerly Twitter) Eduard Habsburg (@EduardHabsburg) on X Ambassador of Hungary to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta.

    Book: THE HABSBURG WAY
    https://t.co/vMufBgoJGE

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Ep.55 Seth Kapan on Fragile Neighborhoods — Relationships and Place-Based Solutions to Social and Material Poverty

    Ep.55 Seth Kapan on Fragile Neighborhoods — Relationships and Place-Based Solutions to Social and Material Poverty
    Feb 1 2024
    In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Seth Kaplan about his book Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society One Zip Code at a Time. Seth has spent his career working in fragile states around the world — countries that are unstable and prone to violence, war, and political problems. About 10 years ago Seth was increasingly asked if the US was becoming fragile. As he turned his attention to studying the United States, he concluded was that while the US is not fragile as a country, there are many areas and neighborhoods throughout the country that are very fragile — where poverty rates are high, there is crime, and instability, and social capital, family stability, and economic and educational opportunities are low. Seth explains that depending on the neighborhood where you live in the United States it can mean a shorter lifespan of over 20 years. Kaplan speaks about two faces of poverty, material and social, and how they are both a problem of broken relationships. He argues: “I think the real question you have to ask about the United States we have many things going very well in our country but something has gotten worse in the last couple of generations: the politics, the trust, the social breakdown, the deaths of despair, the health crisis the depression, and the rise of suicides. The big question that we have to ask ourselves is what has changed in our relationships that lead us to have so many social and political problems?” Themes and Topics we discuss include: Family StabilitySocial CapitalBonding vs. Bridging Social Capital Relationships and CommunityThe role of religion and religious practice in communities Associationalism vs. Individualism vs. Collectivism Biography Seth D. Kaplan is a leading expert on fragile states. He is a Professorial Lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Adviser for the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), and consultant to multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, and OECD as well as developing country governments and NGOs. Resources Chris Arnade Podcast on his book Dignity Communio — Communio is a nonprofit that trains and equips churches to evangelize through the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages, and the family. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at themoralimagination.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Ep.54 Cajetan Cuddy O.P on The Psychology of St. Thomas Aquinas

    Ep.54 Cajetan Cuddy O.P on The Psychology of St. Thomas Aquinas
    Aug 10 2023
    In this episode I speak with Fr. Cajetan Cuddy O.P. about Thomistic Psychology: A Philosophic Analysis of the Nature of Man, by Fr. Robert Edward Brennan, O.P., edited and with an introduction by Fr. Cuddy. Aristotle wrote that “to attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world.” We often read psychology because we want to understand ourselves and our behavior- and the behavior of others. While we don’t normally think of St. Thomas Aquinas as a psychologist, as a serious philosopher, theologian, and student of the human person, St. Thomas gives us deep insight into human psychology — the study of the psyche or soul — our intellect, memory, will, emotions, and our embodied, embedded existence. Fr. Brennan’s book on Thomistic Psychology provides a good accessible introduction to Aquinas’ reflections on psychology. As. Fr. Cuddy notes, some of the science in Thomistic Psychology is a bit out of date, but the key principles and ideas are still applicable and provide an important contribution, especially in a time when so many struggle with anxiety, depression, sadness and other mental health challenges. These have many causes to be sure, but the impact of modern theories of materialism, spiritualism and other reductionist visions of the person makes people even more confused about who they are and how to live well. One of the ideas central to the work of St. Thomas and Fr. Brennan is the idea of truth — conforming the mind to reality — and how taking truth seriously combined with a solid, non-reductionist philosophy of the person can have practical, positive impact on our mental and psychological health. Thomistic Psychology presents an integrated vision of the person that helps us the better to understand ourselves and others, and provides clear models and practical advice on addressing our problems, how to fight bad habits and build good ones, how to address our emotions, disappointments, and successes, and a roadmap on how to live well. St. Thomas’ philosophy and pyschology are also very important because he takes our embodiement seriously. We are not souls in a body or driving around in our body like we drive around in a car. Nor are we simply material beings determined by our neurobiology or genetics. Rather we are embodied persons our physical, moral, spiritual, emotional, and psychological life are intertwined. What we do and happens to us physically impacts our emotional and mental life and vice versa. St. Thomas’ suggested remedy for sadness is a perfect of example of his taking our physical and spiritual nature seriously. We discuss a broad range of topics including: What is a person Divine Persons, Angelic Persons, Embodied persons What it means for human to have a nature. What is a soul? What is a body? Why the body matters Free will The proper use of the powers of man The remedy for saddnes St. Thomas on the Senses — sight, touch, hearing etc. Memory Imagination St. Thomas idea of self-creation Human formation The person as passive and active agent The role of happiness Evil as a privation Why we need to be careful about the music we listen to, the movies we watch, what we think about Spiritual and/or Religious The beginning of love according to John Paul II Faith, Hope, Charity How the Christian life is not to become an angel — but a human being fully integrated. Liturgy Fasting Pray with our Bodies Find show notes and links to books we discuss at www.themoralimagination.com Biography: Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., is a priest of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. He serves as the general editor of the Thomist Tradition Series, and he is co-author of Thomas and the Thomists: The Achievement of St. Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters. Fr. Cuddy has a B.A. from Franciscan University, a M.Div./S.T.B., The Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, a S.T.L., The Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and his doctorate, a S.T.D. from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He writes and lectures extensively on the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist Tradition. Some of his selected publications can be found here. Fr. Cuddy also lectures for the Thomistic Institute. For an excellent introduction to the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas I recommend the Thomistic Institutenstitute.org/ and their series Aquinas 101 The late Fr. Robert Edward Brennan, O.P. was a Dominican Friar, professor, and the author of numerous books and articles including Thomistic Psychology and The History of Psychology: A Thomistic Reading, both published recently by Cluny Media. Cluny Media Thomist Tradition Series Cluny Media thomisticinstitute.org Thomistic Institute The Thomistic Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in ...
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    1 hr and 24 mins
  • Vigen Guroian - Fairy Tales, Classical Learning, and The Moral Imagination

    Vigen Guroian - Fairy Tales, Classical Learning, and The Moral Imagination
    Apr 5 2023

    In this episode I speak with Professor Vigen Gurioan about the revised and expanded edition of his book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Imagination. We discuss the power of stories, how they help can us develop self-knowledge, and how fairy tales and classic stories are essential for education and moral formation for children — and for adults. Fairy tales and classic stories can impress upon us profound philosophical and often theological insights about life and death, the good and beautiful, the value of courage and nobility, and importance of self-sacrifice for love. Stories, themes, and thinkers we we discuss include

    • Hans Christian Anderson

    • The Little Mermaid

    • Beauty and the Beast

    • Grimm’s Fairy Tales

    • George McDonald

    • Pinocchio, honor, honesty, and the responsibility of children to their parents

    • The Ugly Duckling, courage, and the desire for beauty

    • The Wind and the Willows, Charlotte’s Web, and friendship of equality and friendship of mentors

    • Good Wishes and Bad Wishes

    • Joseph Pieper and Dietrich von Hildebrand on joy as a the superabundant fruit of love and self-gift

    • Charles Dickens

    • C.S. Lewis

    • Edmund Burke

    • Aristotle on Friendship and more



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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Ep. 52 Philip Ovadia MD Metabolic Health, Diet, Cholesterol, Heart Disease, and Modern Medicine

    Ep. 52 Philip Ovadia MD Metabolic Health, Diet, Cholesterol, Heart Disease, and Modern Medicine
    Feb 16 2023

    In this episode I speak with heart surgeon, Dr. Philip Ovadia MD, about metabolic health, diet, science, cholesterol, insulin resistance, the US government food pyramid, Ancel Keys and the cholesterol - saturated fat -heart disease hypothesis. We discuss medical education, health insurance, scientism, and some of the obstacles doctors and scientists face with “group think.” Dr Ovadia tells his story of how lost 100 pounds changed everything he learned about fat and food. He explains that while half of the patients who have heart attacks or heart surgery have normal levels of cholesterol, over 90% have insulin resistance. He argues that metabolic health is not only important for heart health, but for mental health, and plays a key role in preventing cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We discuss a number of themes including

    • Gary Taubes: The Case Sugar and Why We Get Fat

    • Problems of Crony Capitalism and Subsidies

    • How the Government Food Pyramid makes you fat

    • Metabolic Health and Covid

    • The Campbell Effect and how bad science has dominated medicine

    • Weston Price

    • Insulin Resistance

    • Diabetes

    • Saturated Fat

    • Pharmacuetical Industry and Medication

    • Seed Oils

    • Health Insurance and the need for new models

    • The connection between metabolic health and mental health

    This episode and podcast is for informational purposes and does not provide medical advice.

    Biography

    Dr. Philip Ovadia MD is a board certified cardiac surgeon and founder of Ovadia Heart Health. He grew up in New York and graduated from the accelerated Pre-Med/Med progra at the Pennsylvannia State University and Jefferson Medical College. This was followed by residency in General Surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry at New Jersey and a fellowship in Cardio-thoracic Surgery at Tufts-New England Medical School. Learn more about Dr. Ovadia at www.ovadiahearthealth.com

    Resources

    See books below

    Campbell’s Law

    Dave Feldman on Cholesterol

    Podcast with Jay Richards on Fasting and the Ketogenic Diet

    Podcast with Diana Rodgers on Food, Meat and Health

    Podcast with James Madden on Embodied, Embedded Persons

    Podcast with Joel Salatin on Food and Farming



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    1 hr and 37 mins
  • Ep. 51 Titus Techera Dune and Bladerunner Science Fiction, Dystopia and Humanity in American Life

    Ep. 51 Titus Techera Dune and Bladerunner Science Fiction, Dystopia and Humanity in American Life
    Feb 1 2023

    In this episode I speak with Titus Techera about Dune, Bladerunner, science fiction, dystopian film, technocratic view of humanity, and the formative power of science fiction on the imagination. We discuss contemporary technological society, social breakdown, loneliness, men and women and decline in marriage, technology and trans-humanism/ transgenderism, and the predictive power of dystopian film. We talk about what it means to be human and the relationship between digital technology and humanity. Titus argues that much of sport, military, modern manliness and excellence has been reduced to science and creatures of technology.

    He argues that one of the “catalysts for science fiction stories is disappointment with the world. The dead hand of the past is too powerful. People are always a problem; tradition gets in the way of radical innovation. Science fiction is aware of the problem of our decadence, but technical daring can solve it.” And yet in the science fiction societies like Bladerunner there is a wealthy technical class amidst brutality, societal decline where everyone has lost their humanity.

    He writes

    As with all science fiction set in the near future, Blade Runner is an attempt to make us look at ourselves as though we were strangers to ourselves, allowing for the possibility that serious changes can come suddenly and overcome our beliefs or preferences. Could we end up like Deckard, Harrison Ford’s character, a bounty hunter, or “blade runner?”

    We need not embrace this kind of despair, but only need understand its appeal. The social landscape of Blade Runner seems plausible enough. The film presents American cities overrun by crime and poverty while technological corporations become immensely wealthy… A suitably dramatic expression of something we see around us quite often; indeed, perhaps exaggeration is necessary, since we have an excusable, but unfortunate tendency to ignore the misery of American cities.

    Themes we discuss include

    • Science and scientism,

    • Atheism and religion,

    • Nihilism and utopianism,

    • Social engineering of people,

    • Medicine

    • Covid pandemic and vaccine mandates

    • Tension between scientific progress in digital technology and scientific and technological stagnation in other areas.

    • Jordan Peterson

    • Contemporary interest in stoicism

    • Utiltarianism and hedonism

    • Sports and Science

    • Spiderman

    Biography

    Titus Techera is the executive director of the American Cinema Foundation, host of the ACF podcasts, a film critic for Law & Liberty and the Acton Institute, contributor to Modern Age, columnist for Return and European Conservative, and editor-in-chief of PostModern Conservative. Techera studied liberal arts at Bard College Berlin and political science at the University of Bucharest and the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    Resources

    Titus Techera essay: The Tale of Two Dunes

    Titus Techera essay on Bladerunner

    Follow Titus on Twitter

    Listen to the ACF Film Podcast

    Titus Techera Substack

    Titus Techera on Novak Djokovic, Excellence, and Covid Rules

    Caveats: These science fiction books and films because they deal with dystopian futures and social decadence have material that is not suitable for children.



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    2 hrs and 2 mins