Acton Line

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Noah Gould, Alumni and Student Programs Manager at the Acton Institute, about the shape that religion and faith in God takes for those who journey from atheism and skepticism to the Christian faith. Why are high-profile skeptics taking a fresh look at the Christian faith? Are we experiencing more general revival? What can churches do to be open to a new generation of seekers? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here A Political Scientist Contemplates God | Noah Gould Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Why I Am Now a Christian What Happened to Historian Molly Worthen? | Molly Worthen Joe Rogan, Kid Rock, Bigfoot … and the Resurrection | Dan Hugger Perspective: What the data really says about religious revival and Gen Z | Ryan Burge Joe Rogan Experience #2252 — Wesley Huff Taking Charles Murray Seriously | Anthony Sacramone 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Dave Hebert, a senior research fellow at AIER and an affiliate scholar here at the Acton Institute, about the state of the American economy, economic policy, and how American politics on both the left and the right is increasingly economically illiterate. How is the U.S. economy doing? What is the relationship between the stock market and the economy as a whole? Can politicians really make things more affordable for ordinary people? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Trump Credits ‘Mister Tariff’ for the Country’s Strength. Economists Beg to Differ. What to Know About the Criminal Investigation of the Fed Chair China Announces Record Trade Surplus as Its Exports Flood World Markets Fixing Affordability Isn’t Easy. Here Are Four Suggestions. A Lack of Affordability Is a Supply Side Issue 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Isaac Willour, an analyst at Bowyer Research, America's leading pro-fiduciary proxy consulting firm, about all things ESG, an investing principle that prioritizes environmental issues, social issues, and corporate governance. What is ESG and how does it influence corporate governance and investment? What moral responsibilities do shareholders have in corporate governance? How do large state pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors fit into the world of ESG? What is the role of consumers and political polarization in driving corporate activism? Are right-wing and left-wing corporate activists two sides of the same coin? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Who Benefitted from DEI Initiatives? | Acton Line Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation | Business Roundtable Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia—CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: Annual Summary of Engagements with Corporations 2024–25 Bowyer Research David Bahnsen: My Speech at the Gilead Sciences Shareholder Meeting 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Dylan Pahman, research fellow at the Acton Institute and founder and president of the St. Nicholas Cabasilas Institute for Orthodoxy & Liberty, about his account of the history of economic thought found in his new book, The Kingdom of God and the Common Good: Orthodox Christian Social Thought (Ancient Faith, 2025). What is the Christian prehistory of economics? How do moral questions inform the work of the classical political economists? Why does modern economics distance itself from moral questions? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here The Kingdom of God and the Common Good: Orthodox Christian Social Thought | Dylan Pahman Dylan Pahman Is Starting the Conversation on Orthodox Christian Social Thought | Acton Line From Christian Political Economy to Christian Socialism | 2nd Annual Academic Colloquium The Mainstreaming of Marx: Measuring the Effect of the Russian Revolution on Karl Marx’s Influence | Phillip W. Magness and Michael Makovi History of Economic Analysis | Joseph A. Schumpeter 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.

This month on the Acton Rundown Dan & Mark chat about upcoming Acton events and new video content. Winter 2025 Religion & Liberty: Why Orwell Still Matters by John Rodden   Video content: Stephanie Slade Is Chronicling the New Right Peter Boettke Is Teaching the Humanistic Foundations of Austrian Economics Rev. Robert A. Sirico Responds to Jimmy Lai's Guilty Verdict #freejimmylai Stephen Barrows Explains the Jimmy Lai Verdict Acton Institute's 2025 Christmas Message Father Robert Sirico on What Christmas Is All About Kris Mauren Is Thinking About Think Tanks   Upcoming events: Entrepreneurship and the Economy in Uncertain Times Chicago Luncheon Acton University 2026 | Acton Institute

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Kris Mauren, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute, about all things Acton. What was the original, animating idea behind the founding of the Acton Institute? Why a think tank? What makes Grand Rapids so grand? What are the greatest challenges Acton faces in fulfilling its mission? What new initiatives should viewers be on the lookout for? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Acton Institute Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law (First Series) Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law (Second Series) Journal of Markets & Morality Makers of Modern Christian Social Thought The History of Freedom | Lord Actonnotes 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Father Robert Sirico, co-founder and president emeritus of the Acton Institute, about the true meaning of Christmas. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here A Charlie Brown Christmas | Charles M. Schulz A Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens Pied Beauty | Gerard Manley Hopkins 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Stephen Barrows, chief operations officer of the Acton Institute, about the recent conviction of entrepreneur and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, who was found guilty by a Hong Kong court on Monday in a landmark national security trial. Who is Jimmy Lai, and what is his long-standing relationship with Acton? What were the charges brought against him, and why are there reasons to doubt their fairness? How does Jimmy’s arrest, trial, and conviction show the erosion of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the rule of law in Hong Kong? What has been the reaction of the international community to the conviction? How can freedom-loving people show solidarity with Jimmy Lai? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Hong Kong Court Finds Jimmy Lai Guilty in National Security Trial Governments and groups condemn conviction of Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai Rev. Robert A. Sirico Responds to Jimmy Lai's Guilty Verdict #freejimmylai The Hong Konger (documentary) The Call of the Entrepreneur (documentary) 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Peter J. Boettke, Distinguished University Professor of Economics at George Mason University, as well as the director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, about the importance of the history of economic thought and the Austrian School of economics. Why read the classics in economics? What is the place of the Austrian School in economics today? How is the humanistic and scientific nature of the Austrian School related to political ideology and commitments? What is the prehistory of the Austrian School in the theologians and jurists of early modern Europe? How do figures in the Austrian tradition relate economics to religion? Why have GMU and Mercatus been so successful in fostering research and educating the next generation of scholars in the Austrian tradition? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Why Read the Classics in Economics? | Peter J. Boettke After Samuelson, Who Needs Adam Smith? | Kenneth E. Boulding Competition and Entrepreneurship | Israel M. Kirzner Human Action: A Treatise on Economics | Ludwig von Mises Mercatus Center F. A. Hayek Program Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law (First Series) Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law (Second Series) The Peaceableness Project 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Stephanie Slade, senior editor at Reason magazine and a fellow in liberal studies at the Acton Institute, about the “New Right.” Who comprises the New Right, and what is their approach to politics? Has the old conservative movement failed? How does the New Right’s rhetoric relate to their larger political project? Who were the forerunners of the New Right? What are the religious currents of the New Right? Why should conservatives appeal to ideas rather than passions? Is there a moral dimension to conflicts within the American conservative movement? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Against Game of Thrones Christianity | Stephanie Slade The New Right Isn't So New | Stephanie Slade Liberalism Isn't Rule by Elites | Stephanie Slade The Devil Went Down to Wall Street | Dan Hugger National Conservatism and the Great Controversy Reborn | Dan Hugger Frank S. Meyer's Fusionism Melded Classical Liberalism with Traditional Religion | Stephanie Slade 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.

This month on the Acton Rundown Dan & Mark chat about upcoming Acton events and new video content. Essays: Fall 2025 Religion & Liberty American Religion by the Numbers by Miles Smith A Pope for the 21st Century   Video content: Anne Bradley Interrogates Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s Abundance Yasir Qadhi on LEAVING Salafism and Rejecting Sectarianism Peter Lipsett Is Podcasting to Answer the Question, "What Is the Right?" How to Rebel John Wilsey Is Priming Conservatives for Religious Freedom Andrew Abela Is Popularizing the Virtues with “Superhabits” Upcoming events: Artificial Intelligence, Human Dignity, and the Free Society | Acton Institute Acton University 2026 | Acton Institute

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Andrew Abela, founding dean of the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America and affiliate faculty member at Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program, about his book Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life. How do we best popularize virtues? How does the positive psychology account of the virtues differ from St. Thomas Aquinas’s theological account? What are “superhabits,” and how do they differ from mere “habits”? How do constituent virtues relate to the four cardinal virtues? What resources has the Busch school developed to help students, faculty, and business leaders cultivate the virtues? How do you decide which virtues to cultivate?   Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life | Andrew Abela Superhabits Substack The Anatomy of Virtue | Andrew Abela Virtues, Jordan Peterson, and Thomas Aquinas | Andrew Abela Busch School Virtues Diagnostic GrowVirtue: The New Superhabits App Treatise on the Virtues | St. Thomas Aquinas The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change | Stephen R. Covey The Divine Center | Stephen R. Covey He Once Ran the Most Powerful Conservative Think Tank in D.C. Now He's a Self-Help Guru Writing Books with Oprah. | Ian Ward on Arthur Brooks 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with John Wilsey, professor of church history and chair of the Department of Church History and Historical Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, about his new book, Religious Freedom: A Conservative Primer. How have the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty existed harmoniously in the American tradition? What contrasts between French and American society did Alexis de Tocqueville observe in his own day? Has the American experiment failed? How does Peter Viereck’s conservative nostalgia for the permanent beneath the flux chart a course distinct from both progressive and reactionary utopian politics? Is religious traditionalism antithetical to dispositional conservativism? Why does the human imagination loom so large in conservative thought? What should secular dispositional conservatives make of religion? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Religious Freedom: A Conservative Primer | John Wilsey The Man vs. the Myth: Who Was John Foster Dulles? | Acton Line Democracy in America | Alexis de Tocqueville The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856) | Alexis de Tocqueville Conservatism: From John Adams to Churchill | Peter  Viereck Conservatism Revisited: The Revolt Against Ideology | Peter Viereck The Leopard | Giuseppe Di Lampedusa The Great Conversation: The Substance of a Liberal Education | Robert Maynard Hutchins 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Peter Lipsett, vice president at DonorsTrust, about the recently concluded 11-part series “What Is the Right?” for the Giving Ventures podcast. What is “the Right”? What are its largest and most influential factions? Does it share a common intellectual culture or merely political interests? How does the bottom-up nature of populism complicate the story we tell about intellectuals’ influence on political movements? What are the prospects for conservatives after the Trump administration? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here DonorsTrust Giving Ventures Podcast Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 85 — Freedom Conservatism Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 86 — The Libertarians Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 87 — The New Right Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 88 — The Traditionalist Conservatives Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 89 — The Fusionists Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 90 — Catholics on the Right Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 91 — Jewish Conservatism Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 92 — Christian Conservatism Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 93 — The Defectors Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 94 — The MAGA Right Giving Ventures Podcast: Episode 95 — Reflecting on the Right with Yuval Levin and Chris DeMuth My Simplistic Theory of Left and Right | Bryan Caplan National Economic Planning: What Is Left? | Don Lavoie 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Anne Bradley, vice president of academic affairs at The Fund for American Studies and professor of economics at The Institute of World Politics, about Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book Abundance, which she reviewed for Religion & Liberty Online. What is the concept of “abundance,” and who comprises the book’s audience? How do Klein and Thompson think through regulatory obstacles to material abundance? For Thompson and Klein, what drives innovation and growth? How much of the book’s rhetorical criticism of markets might be misdirection to potential critics from the left? Do Klein and Thompson really understand the economic way of thinking? Are there better programs for material abundance? How do you respond to conservatives who believe we had greater “abundance” in the past? Why are utopian visions of the future or the past dangerous? Do Klein and Thompson have a conception of civil society beyond the state? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here The Curious Task of ‘Abundance’ | Anne Bradley Abundance | Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson Eat Today, Feed Tomorrow (Yogurt Commercial) History | Thompson-Markward Hall Building the Future the Past Promised | The Daily Economy The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised | James Pethokoukis Bootleggers and Baptists in Retrospect | Bruce Yandle Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet | Marian L. Tupy, Gale L. Pooley The Devil Went Down to Wall Street | Dan Hugger Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community | Robert D. Putnam 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.

This month on the Acton Rundown, Dan & Dylan chat about upcoming Acton events and new video content. Essays and Books:The Kingdom of God and the Common Good: Orthodox Christian Social Thought God at Work: Loving God and Neighbor Through the Book of Exodus Super Habits: The Universal System for a Successful Life | Andrew Abela Can Nigeria’s Church Survive the Storm | Kelechi L. Nwannunu Are Americans Too Political? | Thomas Dias   Video Content: What We Gained from 8 Weeks in the Emerging Leader Program | Alums Share Their Story   Upcoming Events: Poverty, Inc. in Detroit Acton Institute Fifth Annual Academic Conference: Character, Commerce, and Human Flourishing Virtues, Not Values: Reclaiming the Human Core of Business | Acton Institute Rethinking Charity: Local Agency, Commercial Society, and the Human Person | Acton Institute Annual Calihan Lecture and Novak Award Presentation | Acton Institute Artificial Intelligence, Human Dignity, and the Free Society | Acton Institute Acton University 2026

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with John Pinheiro, director of research at the Acton Institute, about his feature essay in the latest issue of Religion & Liberty: “Thomas Jefferson ant the Virtue of Limited Government.” What is Jefferson’s status today relative to the other Founding Fathers? What was Jefferson’s agrarian republican vision for America? How did that vision clash with those of the other Founders? What is Jefferson’s fundamental anthropology, and what are its underlying assumptions? What does Jefferson make of the commercial society? Where does Jefferson root his case for limited government? What is his conception of subsidiarity? Why should we turn to Jefferson for inspiration to meet today’s challenges? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Thomas Jefferson and the Virtue of Limited Government | John C. Pinheiro The Roots of Jefferson's Union | John C. Pinheiro Lessons from Early America’s Tariff Wars | John C. Pinheiro 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Dylan Pahman, research fellow at the Acton Institute and founder and president of the St. Nicholas Cabasilas Institute for Orthodoxy & Liberty, about his new book, The Kingdom of God & the Common Good: Orthodox Christian Social Thought. What is the state of contemporary Orthodox Social Thought? What is the “social question,” and how have churches sought to answer it? Why turn to the Bible to answer modern social questions? How does the historical experience of Orthodox churches inform Orthodox Social Thought? Why should economics inform Orthodox Social Thought? What are some uniquely Orthodox Christian perspectives that have been brought to bear on social questions? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here The Kingdom of God & the Common Good: Orthodox Christian Social Thought | Dylan Pahman St. Nicholas Cabasilas Institute for Orthodoxy & Liberty Orthodox Communities in the Middle East | Acton Institute An Ascetic Way of Life in a World of Abundance | Dylan Pahman For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy | Alexander Schmemann Great Lent: Journey to Pascha | Alexander Schmemann 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Anthony Bradley, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Acton Institute and research professor of Interdisciplinary and Theological Studies at Kuyper College. They discuss Anthony’s new book, God at Work: Loving God and Neighbor Through the Book of Exodus. Why is Exodus such a great evangelistic conversation starter? What human emotions drive the narrative of Exodus? How do thinkers like Gerard Van Groningen, Reinhold Niebuhr, Karen Honey, and Abraham Kuyper help us understand the meaning of Exodus? What lessons for individuals, churches, and society are contained in Exodus? What is the role of women in the Exodus narrative? How does Exodus speak particularly to the anxiety of men and boys particularly? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here God at Work | Anthony B. Bradley From Creation to Consummation | Gerard Van Groningen The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation | Reinhold Niebuhr The Neurotic Personality of Our Time | Karen Horney Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World: Volume 1 | Abraham Kuyper Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World: Volume 2 | Abraham Kuyper Common Grace: God's Gifts for a Fallen World, Volume 3 | Abraham Kuyper 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.

In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with John Pinheiro, director of research at the Acton Institute, and Caleb Whitmer, project manager at the Center for Social Flourishing, about Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te. This exhortation to all Christians encourages us to see Christ in the poor among us. How does Pope Leo use scripture to show us Christ in the poor? Which of the church fathers argue that charity is a matter of justice? Why is it so important to have a wholistic definition of poverty? Can economic data be trusted? Why is meaningful work the best solution to poverty? Do Christians have a duty to accompany migrants? How can we embrace almsgiving today? Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te of the Holy Father Leo XIV on Love for the Poor (4 October 2025) Centesimus Annus (1 May 1991) Laborem Exercens (14 September 1981) Universal Basic Community Now! | Rachel Ferguson Pope Francis’ Plea for Migrants and Acton’s Core Principles | Stephen Barrows Center for Social Flourishing 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.