John Adams and Virtue: Making America

Activists suggest that all “colonized” land should be returned to the previous owners. Is it really that simple? Michael Knowles has thoughts. 

Is climate change an existential crisis? Judith Curry, former Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has spent her career studying this question. Her answer might surprise you.Take the pledge to stop climate misinformation an ...  Show more

We’ve heard it before: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But what did the nation’s Founders mean when they identified “the pursuit of happiness” as an unalienable right? And what role does moral philosophy play in understanding the virtues that accompany the pursuit of ...  Show more

The first Vice-President of the United States and second President, John Adams struggled to measure up to the mythic George Washington. Not that he wasn’t qualified- as a successful lawyer who helped pen the Declaration of Independence and served as an early ambassador for the fl ...  Show more

Freedom: Laurie Taylor explores an unruly & disputed concept. Annelien de Dijn, Professor of Modern Political History at Utrecht University, asks how it came to be identified with limited government. Does our view of freedom owe more to the enemies of democracy than the liberty l ...  Show more

In episode two of our new series David and Lea explore some ancient ideas of freedom and ask what they mean today. What can Socrates teach us about the nature of free inquiry and the pitfalls of democratic freedom? Is Stoicism a guide to emancipation from desire or an exercise in ...  Show more