Episode 85 – Strong Towns with Charles Marohn
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Release Date: 06/15/2021
107 – Right to Work with Christopher Chesny
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
As more and more working-class Americans join the Republican party some voices on the Right are advocating the GOP become the worker’s party—a role that has traditionally been held by various movements and parties of the Left. Is there any merit to this idea? What is the history of labor relations and the Right and Left in the United States? How have labor unions and right to work laws evolved over the past century? Do national candidates like JD Vance or Ron DeSantis have what it takes to capitalize on the surge of working-class voters on the Right? Joining...
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106 – Reappraising Herbert Hoover with George Nash
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Historian George Nash returns to the show to discuss the life and legacy of Herbert Hoover. Few American presidents are as decried by voices on both the Left and Right as Herbert Hoover. His name has become synonymous with economic suffering and callous Federal response. But Dr. Nash contends that the popular narrative linking Hoover to the catastrophes of the Great Depression do a great injustice to the actual historical account and reduce one of America’s most remarkable men to that of a callous buffoon. Hoover, in Dr. Nash’s telling, was responsible for saving...
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105 – AllSides with Julie Mastrine
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Julie Mastrine of joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis in a freewheeling conversation about the media. Conservatives love to complain of the liberal media bias, but are their complaints founded or over exaggerated? Do “both sides” have a bias problem? How do they differ and how are they similar? Are there times when bias is acceptable and even welcome? Is bias the same as inaccuracy or dishonesty? How might you identify media bias and what can we do about it? About Julie Mastrine Julie Mastrine is a writer and online marketing professional who...
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104 – Armchair Burkeans with Bo Winegard
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Josh engages in a Cannonball Run conversation with Bo Winegard across a wide variety of subjects from how Bo found himself migrating from the political Left to the Right, whether Edmund Burke believed in natural rights, how one might approach Burke from both a religious and secular angle, the curious tendency of the academic Left to erect strawman versions of conservatism, the limitations of Thomas Sowell’s constrained vs. unconstrained visions paradigm, how the GOP might chart a course between throwback Reaganism and MAGA Trumpism, and whether religion is necessary to sustain ordered...
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103 – Creative Impostors with Andrea Klunder and David Blatt
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
In this re-podcast episode Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis joins his committed liberal friend David Blatt on Andrea Klunder’s show to discuss the differences between the Right and the Left, why we’re so polarized, and how civil dialogue might be restored. About Andrea Klunder Andrea Klunder is the Creative Director, Media Strategist and Podcast Producer behind . Andrea works with organizations, companies, and leaders who want to use audio content to tell stories, create movements, and change culture. She calls upon her myriad experiences as a singer, actor, director,...
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102 – More Talking Less Killing with Corey Nathan
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
The British theologian and philosopher G. K. Chesterton observed that “religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.” When we talk openly about political or religious matters, we risk endangering relationships. Yet politics and religion are immensely important topics that ought not to be ignored for the sake of avoiding awkward conversations. Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Corey Nathan as they discuss how we might talk politics and religion...
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101 – Voting Vexations
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
How secure and reliable are elections in the United States? The Left and Right are both replete with voices warning of the dire consequences of the “other side” getting their way. And nowhere is this more evident than with concerns about the legitimacy of elections. Whether it’s the Right’s concerns with voter fraud and election theft or the Left’s apprehensions about voter suppression and disenfranchisement, Americans are growing increasingly concerned that their votes don’t, or won’t, or eventually will not count. What’s more, the leaders of each...
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100 – The Genius of Thomas Sowell with Alan Wolan
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Saving Elephants officially hits 100 episodes! Host Josh Lewis is joined by Alan Wolan to discuss their mutual admiration for the writings and ideas of Thomas Sowell. Thomas Sowell, along with Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, and William F. Buckley, comprise the Mt. Rushmore of thinkers who best exemplify the conservatism espoused by Saving Elephants. Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, and researcher whose nine decades of life and forty-five books covering topics as far reaching as social policy on race, ethnic groups, education, and decision-making, to classical...
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Episode 99 – The Forgotten Legacy of Willmoore Kendall with Chris Owen
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Few individuals have had as deep an impact on modern conservative thought, yet remain in relative obscurity, as Willmoore Kendall. The conservative English professor Jeffrey Hart said of Kendall that he was "the most important political theorist to have emerged in the twenty-odd years since the end of World War II." Kendall’s writings are thought-provoking, challenging, contentious, scrupulous, and, often, innovative. His analysis and critiques took no prisoners on both the Right and Left, and his prickly personality shattered relationships with friends, family, and spouses...
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Episode 98 – The Deep Places with Ross Douthat
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat joins Josh Lewis to talk about his recent memoir . His book tells of his recent journey in battling chronic Lyme disease and his reflections on illness, discovery, and hope. Ross’ story begins prior to the illness in which he was attempting to build the life he’d always dreamed of. “At that moment in my life I only really believed in upside…I wrote my share of words on the problem of evil…usually making the case that much of American Christianity offers people the wrong answers, encouraging them to believe that actually bad...
info_outlineFor thousands of years the ways in which cities and towns developed has provided us with a of blueprint for what human habitats need to flourish. Yet today many of our cities and towns have forsaken these tried-and-true methods and instead imposed rational planning and an overreliance on pricey infrastructure projects to foster growth and further development. What are the potential downfalls of departing from these practices of the past?
Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns to traverse the world of urban planning and discuss the need for a return to the ancient models of development, the terrible costs of over-indebted infrastructure projects to younger Americans, whether or not Wal-Mart is a net boon or detriment to local communities, and how conservatism can help us form a more prosperous and enjoyable world.
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About Charles Marohn
Charles (or “Chuck” to friends and colleagues) Marohn is the founder and president of Strong Towns, a nonprofit that supports thousands of people across the United States and Canada who are advocating for a radically new way of thinking about the way we build our world. Marohn is a professional engineer and a land use planner with decades of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.
Marohn is the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley, 2019). He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. Planetizen named him one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time. He is a long-time commentator on KAXE Northern Community Radio. He currently co-hosts KAXE’s Dig Deep program, a monthly examination of public policy issues affecting Minnesotans.
Marohn grew up on a small farm in central Minnesota. The oldest of three sons of two elementary school teachers, he joined the Minnesota National Guard on his seventeenth birthday during his junior year of high school and served in the Guard for nine years. In addition to being passionate about building a stronger America, he loves playing music, is an obsessive reader, and religiously follows his favorite team, the Minnesota Twins. Chuck and his wife live with their two daughters in their hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota. You can find him on Twitter @clmarohn
Listener Mail
Josh responds to a listener’s question about conservatism’s challenges with appealing to minorities and whether our nation’s institutions are worth conserving given the history of American slavery and other past sins.