Episodios

  • 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 m
  • On The New Things | AI & History with Dr. John Pinheiro

    On The New Things | AI & History with Dr. John Pinheiro
    May 22 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. Historian Dr. John Pinheiro, director of research at the Acton Institute, sets today's anxieties about AI against the original Rerum Novarum and the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution. Why do people work? What was actually new about the "new things"? And what can Pope Leo XIII's prudential application of principle teach Pope Leo XIV about meeting an information revolution without falling into either Luddism or naïve optimism? 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 m
  • On The New Things | AI & Economics with Dr. Stephen Barrows

    On The New Things | AI & Economics with Dr. Stephen Barrows
    May 21 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. PhD economist and Acton COO Stephen Barrows joins Dan Hugger to examine AI as the latest chapter in the long story of technological change, and perhaps the most consequential one yet. From disemployment fears and the future of coding to price discrimination, healthcare breakthroughs, energy costs, and the geopolitics of frontier models, this conversation traces both the disruptions AI is causing and the genuine human goods it's already delivering. 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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    51 m
  • Anne Bradley Unpacks What Makes Things ‘Affordable’

    Anne Bradley Unpacks What Makes Things ‘Affordable’
    May 20 2026
    Dan Hugger speaks with Anne Bradley, George and Sally Mayer Fellow for Economic Education and vice president of academic affairs at The Fund for American Studies, about the new affordability politics. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here The Curious Task of ‘Abundance’ | Anne Bradley Abundance | Klein and Thompson What We Got Right — and Wrong — in ‘Abundance’ | The Ezra Klein Show Mamdani Administration Launches New Program to Deliver Affordable Housing on City-Owned Land Faster | Office of the Mayor 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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    52 m
  • Thomas Howes Explains Why Postliberalism Failed

    Thomas Howes Explains Why Postliberalism Failed
    May 13 2026
    In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Thomas Howes, editor-in-chief of The Vital Center and lecturer at Princeton University, about his and James Patterson’s forthcoming 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 h y 18 m
  • Caleb Whitmer on Fraud and the Flood of Cataclysmic Money in Minneapolis

    Caleb Whitmer on Fraud and the Flood of Cataclysmic Money in Minneapolis
    May 6 2026
    In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Caleb Whitmer, project manager at the Center for Social Flourishing at the Acton Institute. They discuss Caleb’s essay on the long-developing welfare-fraud scandal in Minnesota, titled “After the Flood in Minnesota,” published at Law & Liberty. The nature and scope of the fraud is unpacked along with some of the underlying approaches to policy and community dynamics that made it so lucrative. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here After the Flood in Minnesota | Caleb Whitmer Putting Clan over Country Will Ruin America | Ayaan Hirsi Ali The Death and Life of Great American Cities | Jane Jacobs 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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    51 m
  • Acton Rundown | May 2026

    Acton Rundown | May 2026
    May 4 2026
    This month on the Acton Rundown, Dan and Dylan chat about upcoming Acton events and new video content. The Christian Roots of American Liberty | Pahman and Pinheiro Essays: Persuasion and Propaganda: How Poetry Helps Navigate Politics | J.C. Scharl “Only a Digger”: The Misunderstood Story of the First Christian Socialist | Dylan Pahman Did Anti-Federalists Pass the Religious Test? | John Pinheiro Video content: Molly Worthen Refines the Definition of “Charisma” Jason Sorens Builds a Case for Reforming American Housing Policy Jeffrey Polet on the Philosophy of Gen. Stanley McChrystal Dylan Pahman and John Pinheiro Are Documenting the Christian Roots of American Liberty Dylan Pahman and John C. Pinheiro on Christian Roots of American Liberty | The IRD Upcoming events: Chicago Thinker’s American Identity Summit & Gala 2026: America at 250May 15–16, 2026 Acton University 2026 | Acton InstituteJune 22–26, 2026 Acton Experience Brasil August 7–8, Belo Horizonte Acton’s 36th Annual DinnerNovember 10, 2026
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    10 m
  • Dylan Pahman and John Pinheiro Are Documenting the Christian Roots of American Liberty

    Dylan Pahman and John Pinheiro Are Documenting the Christian Roots of American Liberty
    Apr 29 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 their new book, The Christian Roots of American Liberty: A Reader. The book is a response to new movements on the right and old prejudices on the left that dismiss the American founding as hopelessly secular. The book builds the case for enduring principles of natural rights, the rule of law, religious liberty, private property, limited government, and representation and consent by bringing together sources in the Christian tradition—ancient, medieval, and modern—that informed America’s founding. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here ⁠The Christian Roots of American Liberty: A Reader⁠ 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 h y 1 m