Not Dead Yet

The guys are joined by the scientist who led the Human Genome Project and, more recently, the Director of the National Institutes of Health. Epistemological humility is key to public policy and science, the laboratory is a cathedral, the future of medicine looks wildly different thanks to unique gene based treatments, and there's COVID blame to go around. Come for the faith and science, stick around for the pandemic conversation, don't miss the journalist correcting the historian on Martin Luther.

Can you live the good life without taking risks? Emma Camp of the Wall Street Journal joins the guys to talk about Gen Z, risk aversion, getting married young, and the importance of a good cocktail party — and the obligation to extend hospitality more more broadly. When did everything get wrapped in therapy speak? How has lifestyle creep blown expectations out of proportion? How do you build the habit of being social? Could a few good house parties save America?

The former head of the CIA joins the guys and things get wonky. The (mostly) unredacted conversation covers everything: Russia, China, college basketball, AI, spy novels, and what it takes to become an intelligence officer. What does the former top spy remember most about his time as a hostage at the Farm’s Special Operations Training Course?

Chris is doing journalism, so Ben talks football. Another father-son football episode with Ed and Carmen Policy. Can you build a common culture for front office white-collar workers and on-field warriors? How has a salary cap made the NFL more competitive, and can baseball learn anything from it? Did high school failure help create the 49ers dynasty? Gambling’s a big problem, but after the Supreme Court’s ruling, what’s the path forward? Why is Youngstown, OH the epicenter of football? Ben Sasse's WSJ piece on how playing football builds character: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/america-needs-its-boys-to-play-football-5b9673de?st=Qmuz3H&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

First return guest, Katherine Boyle, joins the guys to pick up where they left off. How can technology strengthen families? Why do boys need risks? How can women combine work and motherhood? Don’t we all need some suffering? Come for the deep questions, stick around for the autonomous boats, rebuilt shipyards, and American builders.

Technology, idolatry, time, and habits. Andy Crouch joins the gang to talk about technology, work without rest, and rest. How radical is an hour a day, a day a week, and a week a year? How does rest make us better at work? Is anybody a digital native? Golf, magic, acorn (not cogs) metaphors. It’s a wild ride.

World renowned for his beauty and his above-average thoughtfulness, Yuval Levin joins the guys. Why does he describe his work as gratitude for America? Why can’t you script a career path? Why do we overcomplicate questions of virtue? Is it true that Ben once sheared a sheep with Yuval in western Nebraska? All this and so much more.

Ok, they’ll bite. What’s a university? Ben and Chris are joined by legendary university president E. Gordon Gee. Public trust is in collapse, the core curriculum looks like a Cheesecake Factory menu, the math doesn’t add up, and college football looks a heckuva lot like professional football. The guys cover it all. Boy do Stirewalt and Gee love West Virginia.

The guys do some deep work. Prolific author and computer scientist Cal Newport joins the podcast. The gang talks about why email is a slog, what sparks human creativity, why the good life needs thoughtful deliberation, why Slack is a bummer, why the apocalyptic AI warnings are out of control, why productivity is different than busyness, and what we can do about it.

You write; they talk. Bicycle gangs are good, schools are overrated, chronological snobbery is bad, vocations are always plural, and Chris waxes poetic about his favorite hot dog.

The guys get fancy when Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia, joins the pod. (Again with the historians.) The guys talk about Churchill and the Special Relationship between the United States and Great Britain. What was Churchill’s political philosophy? What did the wilderness years teach him? What’s the deal with the “Black Dog” anyway? And who would win in a cage match: Teddy Roosevelt or Winston Churchill?

Everyone knows the Warrior Poets get the headlines, but do Warrior Historians deserve the recognition? Do free societies produce better soldiers? How do leaders know when to be disagreeable? H.R. McMaster joins the guys to talk about the history of tanks, the dynamics of leadership and teamwork, and his reading list of American heroes. James Webb — Fields of Fire  James R. McDonough — Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat  Charles B. McDonald — Company Commander: The Classic Infantry Memoir of World War II Leo Tolstoy — The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories  Michael Shaara —The Killer Angels  Anton Myrer — Once An Eagle  John Keegan — The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme  Lewis Sorley — Thunderbolt: General Creighton Abrams and the Army of His Time  Carlo D'Este — Patton: Genius for War, A – The Definitive Portrait of the Complex and Misunderstood American Warrior

Everything’s great and nobody’s happy? Megan joins the guys to talk about affluenza.  Each generation has to figure it out — so take some risks, make some bad decisions, and embrace scar tissue.

History, storytelling, and America, baby! Ken Burns joins the guys to talk about the work he’s done to translate the American experience to a wide audience. What makes a good documentary? What’s the deal with professional historians? Is “The Ashokan Farewell” a true playlist banger?

Ok, they’ll bite. What is poetry? Poet and critic Dana Gioia joins the guys to talk about poetry. How do poems reward the reader? What can verse tell us about memory? What’s the deal with poets?

As America celebrates 250 years, the guys talk with Jeff Rosen about the pursuit of happiness. Did Ben Franklin and John Adams really see it the same way? Does self-government depend on reading and virtue? How was Milton an influence on the Founders? Also… poetry?

Ben and Chris talk with one of the most interesting people in Silicon Valley who isn’t actually in Silicon Valley. Ben’s got morphine fog. Katherine’s got parenting sleep deprivation. Perfect conditions to talk about intergenerational family life, American dynamism, and the case for optimism.

Dave talks with the guys about the problem of replacing faith with the cheap imitations of disordered goods, the need for thick community, the emptiness of striving, and the need for grace. Come for the critique of moral therapeutic deism — stick around for David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech and Emo Philips’ stand-up.

Happy Fathers Day! While Chris is pulled away for journalism stuff, Ben talks about more important things with America’s football family. Jack and John Harbaugh talk about building character, raising families, and living with gratitude. “Who's got it better than us? Nobody!” Listeners: Always run out your pop flies, or Jack Harbaugh will make you — and probably your brother — walk home.

Indiana is better than West Virginia, nobody disagrees — except Chris. Ben, Chris, and the former Governor — and reality TV star? — Mitch Daniels talk about higher education, the need to deliver competency for taxpayers, and the looming debt crisis.

Ben can’t do pull-ups anymore, so it’s a great time to talk to Admiral William McRaven. The guys talk about the fine line between swagger and arrogance, the importance of clear communication, and the way McRaven built his teams of Navy Seals. Lots of conversation about failure as a teacher and McRaven’s top-5 must-read book recommendations. Show Notes: Admiral McRaven's book recommendations: — Marcus Aurelius: Meditations — Anton Myrer: Once an Eagle — Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front — Will Durant — Ella Wheeler Wilcox — Rudyard Kipling — Stephen M. R. Covey: The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything — Ian MacHorton: The Hundred Days of Lt. MacHorton 

This Q&A episode has everything. Habits, dispositional conservatism, family bookshelves, Bo Jackson, Viking longboats, Apollo space ships, theology, and more. In an effort to avoid premature elaboration, the gang does a lightning round of false binaries.

Ben and Chris talk with tech analyst Ben Thompson about the future. Is AI heaven, or hell, or both? Does the future belong to China or the United States? What’s the deal with Silicon Valley and does American ingenuity require a little insanity?

Singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer Clint Black joins underachievers Ben and Chris. The gang talks about country music, writing, parenting, career choices, and gratitude. How much does art depend on lived-experience and pain, or can performers serve their audiences without working through their own trials?

Astronaut and Nebraskan Clayton Anderson joins the guys to talk about all things space. The human desire to explore, the vocation of spacewalking hundreds of miles above the earth, the rigors of NASA’s selection process, and the challenges of getting to Mars. Ben and Clayton agree Nebraska is better than West Virginia — it’s science.

Renaissance man Walter Russell Mead joins the guys to talk about history and global affairs. This episode has everything: Hamiltonians, Jeffersonians, Jacksonians, Wilsonians, Israel, Iran, tech companies, and the kitchen sink.

Ben and Chris talk a bit about their first jobs and how child labor laws are ruining the country. Then things get super nerdy when Nicholas Eberstadt joins the guys to talk about demographic decline, labor force participation, why men need work.

Drew and Ellie join the guys to talk about family, art, and soul. Ben has no rhythm, but the musicians talk about art as ache, embodied prayer, and yearning for home. Also, make your kids listen to the Beatles.

Jonah joins the boys for their first in-person podcast. Friendship, morphine (higher than average morphine-brain for Ben), note cards, institutions, and journalism. Ben and Chris talk about the why behind the podcast. Wonks have fun too.

The guys talk about hard work and hustle, the choices parents make, the ups, downs, and idols of success, and real vs Ned Flanders Christianity. The dude from Avengers, Jurassic Park, and Super Mario Bros. talks about how he wants his kids to understand what it means to be a man.

Justice Barrett joins Ben and Chris. Ben shares his status as the founding member of the ACB for SCOTUS club. The three talk about how she writes her opinions, how parenting slows down the train, the importance of civics, and what horse-race political journalism gets wrong about the Supreme Court.

Is the Dirty Jobs guy secretly America’s most popular philosopher? Mike Rowe joins the guys. This episode has everything: vomit, Stoics, turkey insemination, philosopher welders, wonder, and the problems with institutionalized childhood.

Caitlin runs circles around the guys. They talk about deadlines (for writing and living), living with cancer, raising families, how truth has the last word, and a little bit about California.

Who doesn’t love two Harvard dweebs talking about jokes rather than telling them? The guys talk with Conan O’Brien about dopamine, families, why politicians aren’t funny, his new movie with Rose Byrne, and why Ben wants him to do a history podcast.

The guys promised Conan, but when the USA defeats Canada in hockey — 46 years to the day after the 1980 Miracle on Ice — you gotta talk to Al Michaels. Ben, Chris, and Al talk about that incredible victory over the Soviet Union, the importance of sports, and a little bit about vocation. USA, USA, USA!

They’re on the clock! In the kickoff episode, Ben and Chris talk about terminal cancer, procrastination, morphine, and parenting — all to explain why they’re launching a podcast now about redeeming the time.