Episodes

  • Thomas Dias Compares Dorothy Day’s and Zohran Mamdani’s Approaches to Fighting Poverty

    Thomas Dias Compares Dorothy Day’s and Zohran Mamdani’s Approaches to Fighting Poverty
    Jul 1 2026
    In this episode, Dan speaks with Thomas Dias, Foundation Relations Officer at the Acton Institute, about his essay “Zohran Mamdani Is Not Radical Enough,” which was published at Public Discourse back in March of this year. In the essay, Thomas contrasts Dorothy Day’s and Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s approaches to fighting poverty in New York City. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Zohran Mamdani Is Not Radical Enough If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org. The tip at the opening of this podcast is informational and educational in nature. It is not offering professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. For specific advice about the effect of any planning concept on your tax or financial situation or with your estate, please consult a qualified professional advisor.
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    39 mins
  • James Patterson Explains Why Postliberalism Failed

    James Patterson Explains Why Postliberalism Failed
    Jun 24 2026
    In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with James M. Patterson, associate professor of public affairs in the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee’s Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs and president of the Ciceronian Society, about his and Thomas Howes’s new book, Why Postliberalism Failed. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Why Postliberalism Failed | Patterson & Howes Why Postliberalism Failed Podcast If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org. The tip at the opening of this podcast is informational and educational in nature. It is not offering professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. For specific advice about the effect of any planning concept on your tax or financial situation or with your estate, please consult a qualified professional advisor.
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Dylan Pahman and John Pinheiro Are Exploring the Christian Roots of American Liberty

    Dylan Pahman and John Pinheiro Are Exploring the Christian Roots of American Liberty
    Jun 17 2026
    In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with John Pinheiro, director of research at the Acton Institute, and Dylan Pahman, research fellow at the Acton Institute and founder and president of the St. Nicholas Cabasilas Institute, about the reception thus far of their new book, The Christian Roots of American Liberty: A Reader. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here The Christian Roots of American Liberty: A Reader Christianity and the Founders’ Liberalism| Alexander William Salter The Millennia-Long History of American Liberty | Daniel N. Gullotta Wealth and Commerce in Eastern Christian Thought | Wilson Whitener & Alexander W. Salter | The Kingdom of God and the Common Good: Orthodox Christian Social Thought | Dylan Pahman The Economics of the Parables | Robert Sirico If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org. The tip at the opening of this podcast is informational and educational in nature. It is not offering professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. For specific advice about the effect of any planning concept on your tax or financial situation or with your estate, please consult a qualified professional advisor.
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    58 mins
  • Ismael Hernandez Is Rethinking Charity

    Ismael Hernandez Is Rethinking Charity
    Jun 10 2026
    In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Ismael Hernandez, founder and president of the Freedom & Virtue Institute, about his book Not Tragically Colored: Freedom, Personhood, and the Renewal of Black America and Rethinking Charity: Restoring Dignity to Poverty Relief. The book explores what people get wrong about charity and the truths about the human person we need to understand before we start rethinking charity. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Freedom and Virtue Institute Effective Compassion Training Self-Reliance Clubs Rethinking Charity: Restoring Dignity to Poverty Relief | Ismael Hernandez If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org. The tip at the opening of this podcast is informational and educational in nature. It is not offering professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. For specific advice about the effect of any planning concept on your tax or financial situation or with your estate, please consult a qualified professional advisor.
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    44 mins
  • Dave Hebert Explains the Economic Consequences of the Iran War

    Dave Hebert Explains the Economic Consequences of the Iran War
    Jun 3 2026
    In this episode, Dan speaks with Dave Hebert, Director of Economics & Economic Freedom and Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research and an affiliate scholar here at the Acton Institute, about the economic impact of the ongoing conflict in Iran—from gas prices to consumer spending. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here ⁠Economics Reality Check | Dave Hebert, Substack⁠ If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org. The tip at the opening of this podcast is informational and educational in nature. It is not offering professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. For specific advice about the effect of any planning concept on your tax or financial situation or with your estate, please consult a qualified professional advisor.
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    48 mins
  • Acton Rundown | June 2026

    Acton Rundown | June 2026
    Jun 1 2026
    This month on the Acton Rundown, Dan and Mark chat about upcoming Acton events and new video content. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Why Postliberalism Failed | Patterson & Howes Essays: Can We Moderate a Politicized Church Without Politics? | Stephen O. Presley, Religion & Liberty Magazine Freedom and Responsibility: Seven Takeaways from Magnifica Humanitas | John C. Pinheiro The Economics of Magnifica Humanitas | Stephen Barrows Humanity, Magnificent, at a Crossroads | Francis X. Maier Magnifica Humanitas: Between Babel and Jerusalem in the Age of AI | Michael Severance Video Content: On The New Things | AI & Economics with Dr. Stephen Barrows On the New Things | Were the Luddites Right About AI? with Dr. John Pinheiro On the New Things | AI & Humanity with Michael Matheson Miller Caleb Whitmer on Fraud and the Flood of Cataclysmic Money in Minneapolis Thomas Howes Explains Why Postliberalism Failed Anne Bradley Unpacks What Makes Things ‘Affordable’ Pope Leo XIV Defends Humanity in the Age of AI: Magnifica Humanitas Roundtable Upcoming Events: Acton University 2026 | Acton Institute June 22–25, 2026 Evenings at Acton University 2026 If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org. The tip at the opening of this podcast is informational and educational in nature. It is not offering professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. For specific advice about the effect of any planning concept on your tax or financial situation or with your estate, please consult a qualified professional advisor.
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    13 mins
  • Pope Leo XIV Defends Humanity in the Age of AI: Magnifica Humanitas Roundtable

    Pope Leo XIV Defends Humanity in the Age of AI: Magnifica Humanitas Roundtable
    May 27 2026
    In this episode, Dan speaks with Dylan Pahman, research fellow at the Acton Institute and founder and president of the St. Nicholas Cabasilas Institute, and Caleb Whitmer, project manager at Acton’s Center for Social Flourishing, about Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS Freedom and Responsibility: Seven Takeaways from Magnifica Humanitas If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org. The tip at the opening of this podcast is informational and educational in nature. It is not offering professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. For specific advice about the effect of any planning concept on your tax or financial situation or with your estate, please consult a qualified professional advisor. AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • On The New Things | AI & Humanity with Michael Matheson Miller

    On The New Things | AI & Humanity with Michael Matheson Miller
    May 23 2026
    Pope Leo XIV has signaled that artificial intelligence will be a defining concern of his pontificate, with an encyclical expected to address it directly. In this three-part series, the Acton Institute's Dan Hugger sits down with scholars across economics, history, and anthropology to ask what Catholic social teaching has to say about the AI revolution, as well as what an encyclical on AI will need to grapple with. Michael Matheson Miller, head of Acton's Center for Social Flourishing, presses the deepest question of the series. Is artificial intelligence actually intelligence? And what does the existence of these machines reveal about us? This is a wide-ranging conversation on consciousness, embodiment, the alignment problem we've already been living through for a decade, the philosophical assumptions baked into Silicon Valley code, and why no technology can substitute for the gospel. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org.
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    53 mins