109 – The Right with Matthew Continetti
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Release Date: 06/21/2022
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
What is the single most important virtue for a leader to possess? What quality can make the run-of-the-mill politician into a statesman? Is it integrity, communication skills, resilience, courage, empathy, or wisdom? All of these things are important, of course, and if any are sufficiently lacking we wouldn’t call that a good leader. But what would you say is the chief virtue? Conservative thinkers from Burke to Kirk to Kristol to Strauss and even many of the ancient and medieval thinkers from Aristotle to Plato to St. Thomas Aquainis identified a single virtue...
info_outline 150 – We Don't Need No Indoctrination with Luke SheahanSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
What is the purpose of higher education? Is it primarily to prepare us for the jobs of the future? Is it to ensure the leaders of tomorrow hold the right opinions on important issues? Is it to provide a safe haven for the pursuit of Truth? Thinkers on the Right have held differing—sometimes incompatible—views on the purpose of higher education. Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is returning guest Luke Sheahan to explore these arguments and how conservatives might respond to the rise of radicalism and wokism on college campuses. About Luke...
info_outline 149 – The Legacy of Roger Scruton with Fisher DerderianSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Having published more than forty books on an astoundingly wide range of topics and holding noteworthy positions at the British Academy and the Royal Society of Literature, the University of Oxford, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the University of Buckingham, Sir Roger Scruton was the quintessential British gentleman and scholar. He was also one of the greatest conservative intellectuals of the last century and the beginning of this century who died in 2020. Fisher Derderian joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis for a woefully incomplete exploration at the legacy of...
info_outline 148 – Conservatism in Practice with Gov Mitch DanielsSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
The Saving Elephants podcast has welcomed a wide array of incredible guests who are on forefront of the conservative political movement. But most of the guests discuss conservatism from the perspective of a theory or set of principles or idea. Few have had the opportunity to enact political conservatism as a practice. And few ex-politicians have been as successful as former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in advancing conservatism as a practice. While Daniels is reticent to label his approach “conservative” or identify as part of red team vs. blue team, his practices...
info_outline 147 – Where the Religious Right Went Wrong with JB ShreveSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
One of the strangest political developments over the past several decades has been the devolution of the Religious Right and large swaths of politically active Evangelicals as they morphed from character counts moralists of the 1990s to MAGA Trumplicans. Regardless of the merits of where the Religious Right stands today, one could be forgiven for being perplexed at how they arrived here at all. Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is JB Shreve, creator of podcast and blog, to demystify the Religious Right’s conversion to the Church of Trump. Both JB and Josh were...
info_outline 146 – The Myth of Nationalism with Samuel GoldmanSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
What does is mean to be an American? And why do we Americans obsess so much over the question of what it means to be an American? This nagging question has plagued our nation since its birth and various national “myths” have been advanced to offer some form of national identity and cohesion. At times one myth has proven stronger than the others, only to be overshadowed as historical events call its sufficiency and truth into question. So where does that leave us today in an era of collective, existential crisis? Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to...
info_outline 145 – Smoking Yule Logs and Donning Gay ApparelSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
In 2021, Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis joined three other veteran podcasters on a new podcast endeavor: Are We Right? Cal Davenport, Brooke Medina, and Calvin Moore, and Josh debated a wide range of topics from politics to religion to culture and invited the audience to weigh in on whether or not they’re right. While the show was tragically short-lived, a number of excellent episodes were produced and this is a re-podcast of their Christmas episode to commemorate the holiday season: In the spirit of the season, Are We Right presents an epic Christmas-themed episode unmatched in...
info_outline 144 – Conservative Historian Redux with AD TippetSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Earlier this year Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis was on AD Tippet’s podcast, . This episode is a re-podcast of that conversation that covered a wide variety of conservative topics from both the past and today. About AD Tippet AD Tippet (the podcast formerly known as Belisarius Aves) is the founder and publisher of the Conservative Historian and . “History is too important to be left to the left,” writes AD. “The Conservative Historian provides content and opinions on conservative thinking through the prism of history.” You can follow Bel on Twitter @BelAves...
info_outline 143 – The Conservative Mind at 70 with Michael LuccheseSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
In 1953 a little-known political theorist Russell Kirk repurposed his doctoral dissertation as a book for publication. His book, The Conservative Mind, would quickly become a bestseller, give the nascent conservative movement its name and intellectual moorings, be reviewed and debated in respectable publications across the country, and launch its author to international fame. Seventy years later, the book is still going strong. Now on its seventh edition and reprinted in multiple languages, The Conservative Mind is among the indispensable tomes for understanding the...
info_outline 142 – Jiving with Jaffa with Seth RootSaving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
While Leo Strauss was famous for influencing men and women who became intellectual heavyweights in the conservative movement—names like Allan Bloom, Irving Kristol, Harvey Mansfield, Thomas Pangle barely scratch the surface—few stand as tall as Harry Jaffa. A cantankerous and quarrelsome debater to some and a beloved architect of restoring conservatism to a more American-focused and principled-based approach to others, Jaffa lived a remarkably long and productive life. His writings persuaded William F. Buckley, Jr. away from a more sympathetically Southern conservatism and,...
info_outlineEsteemed AEI scholar Matthew Continetti returns to the podcast for a woefully brief overview of his latest book, The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism
From the book’s description:
When most people think of the history of modern conservatism, they think of Ronald Reagan. Yet this narrow view leaves many to question: How did Donald Trump win the presidency? And what is the future of the Republican Party?
In The Right, Matthew Continetti gives a sweeping account of movement conservatism’s evolution, from the Progressive Era through the present. He tells the story of how conservatism began as networks of intellectuals, developing and institutionalizing a vision that grew over time, until they began to buckle under new pressures, resembling national populist movements. Drawing out the tensions between the desire for mainstream acceptance and the pull of extremism, Continetti argues that the more one studies conservatism’s past, the more one becomes convinced of its future.
Deeply researched and brilliantly told, The Right is essential reading for anyone looking to understand American conservatism.
About Matthew Continetti
Matthew Continetti holds a BA in history from Columbia University and is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where his work is focused on American political thought and history, with a particular focus on the development of the Republican Party and the American conservative movement in the 20th century. A prominent journalist, analyst, author, and intellectual historian of the right, Mr. Continetti was the founding editor and the editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon. Previously, he was opinion editor at The Weekly Standard.
Mr. Continetti is also a contributing editor at National Review and a columnist for Commentary Magazine. He has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. He also appears frequently on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” with Bret Baier and MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily” with Chuck Todd.
Mr. Continetti is the author of two additional books: “The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star” (Sentinel, 2009) and “The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine” (Doubleday, 2006).
You can find Matthew Continetti on Twitter @continetti.
Introducing the Are We Right? Podcast
If you like Saving Elephants you’ll love the new podcast Are We Right? featuring Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis along with three other co-hosts: Cal Davenport, Brooke Medina, and Calvin Moore. Cal, Josh Brooke, and Calvin debate a wide range of topics from politics to religion to culture and invite the audience to weigh in on whether or not they’re right. You can find the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen, find us on Twitter @ TheAWRPodcast, and email us at [email protected].