Episode 25 - Developing Your Worldview with Bryan Baise
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Release Date: 02/19/2019
Bonus Episode – America's Future with Ericka Andersen
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
In this re-podcast from America’s Future Facebook live interview, Ericka Andersen interviews Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis about his motivations for launching Saving Elephants. Also discussed are the worsening partisanship and tribalism in recent years and possible solutions to a healthier political dialogue. About Ericka Andersen Ericka Andersen is a freelance writer and digital media marketing professional. Her writings cover addiction, church planting, mental health, politics, policy, culture, fitness, and more for a variety of publications in including the Wall...
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Episode 95 – Reassessing the GOP with Justin Stapley
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
For the Trump-skeptical conservative, the past five years have been dizzyingly disconcerting. We’ve often felt politically homeless and even out of step from the power centers on both the Left and Right. What’s a principled conservative to do? What is the long-term goal of the movement? What future might we practically hope for and what goals are overly optimistic and detached from reality? Returning guest Justin Stapley joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to contemplate the merits of Trump-skeptical conservatives sticking with the GOP and whether the...
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Episode 94 – What's the Matter with Socialism?
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis offers a conservative critique of socialism. It’s hardly news that socialism is gaining in popularity among younger Americans. Yet it’s more difficult to ascertain what Millennials have in mind when they express support for socialism or socialist candidates. Do they mean Marxism or the numerous varieties of Communist authoritarian regimes tried over the past century, European-style “socialism”, democratic socialism, having the state seize the means of production and abolish private property, bolstering labor unions, or some complex...
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Episode 93 – Repainting the Fusionist Fence with James Davenport
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Founded in 1953, the (ISI) has remained on the forefront of the conservative intellectual movement with a particular focus on ensuring college students are equipped with the tools they need to explore the conservative worldview. During the tumultuous begins of the modern conservative movement in the United States, ISI embraced many of the views and adherents of both the libertarian and traditionalist wings of the movements. Today, ISI is yet again navigating the divisions on the Right as they seek to maintain a platform where these embattled factions can meet together and debate...
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Episode 92 – The Spice of Life
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
As the old adage goes, variety is the spice of life. And the conservative heartily agrees. Variety, not uniformity, is what gives life its vitality and each life the potential for self-actualization and the opportunity for each of us to develop in our own unique way. But is variety compatible with equality? What do we mean by equality, and how might equality be established? What is the relationship between equality, progress, and justice? In this solo episode, Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis explores what conservatism has to say about variety and equality...
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Episode 91 – Invisible Men with Ian Rowe and Nique Fajors
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Ian Rowe and Nique Fajors—two black Harvard Business School graduates—who hope to change the narrative and highlight the positive achievements of black men in the United States. What is wrong with the common narrative surrounding black men? How much has changed over recent decades and are those changes adequately reflected in the narrative? Ian and Nique host , a podcast and video platform interviewing successful black men. In the aftermath of Rodney King’s assault by police officers in the 90s and his attackers’...
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Episode 90 – Redlining and Reparations with Charles Marohn
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
America’s history of bigotry and racism have left wounds that fester to this day. How might the country make amends to those racial minorities who were harmed? To what extent are white Americans responsible for addressing wrongs perpetrated by their ancestors? To what extent can the effects of these past sins be measured and known? These are not easy questions, nor is there much consensus on where we go from here. But there is one area where both conservatives and liberals may be able to find common ground: addressing historic wrongs committed by the practice...
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Bonus Episode – En Route with Dennis Sanders
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis joins Dennis Sanders on his podcast to discuss the past, present, and future of the GOP and conservative movements, what younger generations of Americans have to offer the country, and where the #NeverTrump movement went wrong. About Dennis Sanders Dennis Sanders is a blogger, podcaster, pastor, and media and technology professional. He hosts , a podcast about the journey focusing on religion, politics and culture and the things we discover on the way. Dennis was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and currently lives in Minneapolis. ...
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Episode 89 – Uprooted with Gracy Olmstead
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Often the highest praise we can offer a bright, promising student is “you’ll go far”. Americans have long associated success with striking out on one’s own and heading for greener pastures. But is this transient attitude conducive to the long-term health of local communities? What happens to the places we leave behind and what impact does that have on us? Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Gracy Olmstead, author of . Their conversation delves into how Americans have historically thought of leaving or sticking with the communities of their...
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Episode 88 – Opioid Pains with Peter Pischke
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
The opioid overdose crisis is back in the news with recent revelations that the already shocking death toll has increased dramatically since the pandemic. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death with opioids accounting for most of the deaths. This crisis has certainly received a lot of attention from lawmakers, healthcare professionals, and the media. However, Saving Elephants returning guest Peter Pischke argues that much of the debate over what to do about the growing crisis is overly focused on patients with medical needs who rarely abuse their...
info_outlineHow developed is your worldview? How deep does it go? Have you taken the time to rigorously study and challenge your belief system or have you—like most of us—struggled to find the time as so many other important things in life have kept you busy?
The pathway most of us take as we develop and mature is to adopt the belief system of our upbringing—typically whatever our parents believe. Then, sometime around high school and on into college, in an effort to “find ourselves” we begin to question whether what we’ve always believed is actually so. For some of us that might look like a smooth transition that lands us fairly close to where we started while, for others, we bounce from one “crisis of faith” moment to the next until we end up at a place that’s barely recognizable from where we began.
Either way, the entire process can be draining, time consuming, and fruitless. Understandably, many of us lose interest at some point and happily settle into a worldview cobbled together from our past and present circumstances. But an underdeveloped worldview leaves us susceptible to a host of dangerous ideologies and faiths, not to mention it makes it all the more likely we’d experience another “crisis of faith” sometime down the road when we have even less energy or inclination to navigate it. And far too many have reached the point of not allowing anything they believe to be challenged.
Joining Josh in this episode is Bryan Baise, professor of philosophy and apologetics at Boyce College. Bryan is the program director of philosophy, politics, and economics and the program director of the Christian worldview and apologetics. As will become evident from the conversation—Bryan is someone who took the development of his worldview very seriously and made gargantuan efforts to do so. Bryan walks us through the process of what his own journey looked like and shares the beauty and depth of the conservative worldview he’s developed. He offers encouragement to seek out the things that matter for us all and provides a list of resources to help us get there.