Jonathan Rauch and Pete Wehner both return to the TP&R pod. Only this time we get them together! For a little background, Jon and Pete have a number of fundamental differences (eg. Jon is an atheist and Pete is a devout Christian); yet, they also happen to be good friends. So the conversation was flowing before we even hit record. We were discussing Pete's recent essay in THE ATLANTIC "Morality Is for Trump What Colors Are to the Color-Blind." We discussed pervasive cognitive dissonance, specifically on the part of people of faith and their continued embrace of Donald Trump. We also talked about our own need to have epistemological humility. Then we explored a construct that Jon is fleshing out for an upcoming book. That is, the 4 existential questions of 1) Morality, 2) Mortality, 3) Malevolence, and 4) Miracles.
Pete Wehner is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum. His books include The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump, City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era, which he co-wrote with Michael Gerson, and Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism. He was formerly a speechwriter for George W. Bush and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Peter is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and his work also appears in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and National Affairs.
JONATHAN RAUCH, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is the author of eight books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and many other publications including The New Republic, The Economist, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and interestingly Religion News Service among many others. His latest book is The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, which we discussed last time Jon joined us on TP&R. One of his earlier works, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (published originally in 1993 and then expanded in 2013) defends free speech and robust criticism and remains a highly influential work. And of course, it must be mentioned that Jon is arguably most famous for not liking shrimp!
Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
www.democracygroup.org/shows/talkin-politics-religion
twitter.com/coreysnathan
www.theatlantic.com/author/peter-wehner/
jonathanrauch.typepad.com/
https://braverangels.org/
The Dark Knight clip - www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIYkhb2NjfE
The article on the "Need for Chaos" - royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2020.0147
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Yascha Mounk, author THE IDENTITY TRAP ”...on democracy and its current torments...”
Dr. Robert P. Jones: The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future
Mariana Alfaro: Reporter for The Washington Post’s breaking political news team on the changing landscape of journalism, how to do quality reporting... and the evil of mustard Skittles!
Mike Leon - Broadcast News: A look behind the scenes of how it’s made (and a better way forward)
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Will Hurd, A Pragmatic Republican Makes His Case. This is a BONUS EPISODE of Let’s Find Common Ground.
Will Saletan of THE BULWARK on The Corruption of Lindsey Graham: A Case Study in the Rise of Authoritarianism
Dr. Russell Moore, Editor in Chief of Christianity Today - Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America
Writer, Producer, Actor, Mentor LARRY WILMORE: black-ish, Black on the Air, ”Senior Black Correspondent” on The Daily Show and more
Todd Rose - Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions
Tim Keller and Michael Gerson, A Tribute with Pete Wehner and Jonathan Rauch
”WTF are you tawkin’ about?!?!” - Can 2 guys from Jersey disagree on politics and still respect each other?
Al Cardenas: Vice Chairman of No-Labels, Contributor on MEET THE PRESS, former Chairman of the American Conservative Union and the Florida Republican Party
Jennifer Rubin, Reported Opinion Writer for The Washington Post and Host of Jen Rubin’s Green Room
Bob Cusack, Editor in Chief at THE HILL
Best of: Denver Riggleman - Former U.S. Congressman, NY Times Bestselling Author of THE BREACH, Sr. Staffer to House Jan. 6th Committee, Co-owner Silverback Distillery
Best of: Steve Hayes, CEO and Editor of THE DISPATCH: Fact-based reporting and commentary on politics, policy and culture – informed by conservative principles
Lisa Sharon Harper: Decolonizing the church, repairing what race broke in the world, ”telling our stories”
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