In this episode I explore Teddy Roosevelt's relationship with Japan, as described in T. R. The Last Romantic by H. W. Brands. I pay particular attention to Roosevelt's failure to heed the concerns of California's immigration restrictionists.

In this episode I look at the Ted Kaczynski's Industrial Society and its Future, with a special focus on his critiques of leftism and his explanation of the power process, as well as his assertions about the possibility of social change and the self-perpetuating system.

In this episode I explore the Nature and Nationalism tradition of German political and ecological thought, as detailed by Jonathan Olsen in Nature and Nationalism. I look at its origins in Romanticism, and its expression in the volkisch, heimat, and wandervogel movements.

In this episode I dig deeper into the search for the natural social arrangement of man, with a look at The Rule of the Clan by Mark Weiner. I examine the structure of clannism and look especially at the rise of Anglo-Saxon England.

In this episode I examine Jean-Jacques Rousseau's early work, Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Mankind. I look at his examination of the natural man, and his accusations against property and the beginnings of strife.

In this episode I look at Richard McKirahan's study of the presocratics in Philosophy Before Socrates, with a focus on Empedocles, Homer and Pindar.

In this episode I look at the relentless hunger of technology, as described by Friedrich Junger in The Failure of Technology.

In this episode, I examine Karl Jaspers presentation of the masses, and the global apparatus and technique that sustains them, as presented in Man in the Modern Age.

In this episode, I examine the connection between naturalism and crunchy conservatism, as described by Rd Dreher in Crunchy Cons. I especially focus on food and our relationship to it, exploring a secular or pantheistic response to Dreher's Christian approach.

In this episode, I examine the connection between conservatism and nationalism as described in The Case for Nationalism by Rich Lowry, with a focus on the premises that nationalism is old, natural, and powerful.

In this episode I look at the long-running populist current in conservative thought, as detailed by Laura Ingrahan in Billionaire at the Barricades, later released as Busting the Barricades. I pay special attention to Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot, and our failing international trade policies.

In this episode I examine Jeff Flake's Conscience of a Conservative, with a critical examination of Flake's failure to anticipate or understand the rise of Trump. I discuss how, while I share Flake's desire for decency in politics, his principled political stance is ultimately too naive to effectively respond to the corrosive anti-American attacks of modern leftism.

In this episode I examine the classic text The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater, drawing attention to the focus of Goldwater and others of his era on federalism and the struggle against communism, with an evaluation of the ultimate result of 20th Century conservatism.

In this episode, I look at Lasch's collection of his last essays, The Revolt of the Elites. I examine his support for populism, criticism of liberal snobbery, and support the use of pragmatism to rebuke the academic left.

In this episode I examine the Mass Man of Ortega y Gasset's Revolt of the Masses, with a focus on the origins of the Mass Man in liberal abundance and the abolition of limitation.

In this episode I examine the friend/enemy distinction in Carl Schmitt's The Concept of the Political, including the liberal tendency to deny the political and aim toward a post-political world.

In this episode I examine Alexander Dugin's statements about the division between technical and social modernity and it's relation to the West, in the Rise of the Fourth Political Theory.

In this episode I look at the organic lifecycle of the culture and civilization as described by Spengler in the abridged version of his classic book The Decline of the West.

In this episode I look at the leftward direction of Pragmatism led by John Dewey, as outlined in his book Reconstruction in Philosophy, as well as his restatement of principles near the end of his life.

In this episode I review William James' Psychology (Briefer Course), the abridged version Principles of Psychology. I focus on the biological nature of habit and instinct.

In this episode I return to the topic of the philosophical pragmatism of William James, John Dewey and others with a review of Pragmatic Naturalism, an Introduction by S. Morris Eames, with a special focus on the affinity between pragmatism and evolutionary theory.

In this episode I look at the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, the goddess Ananke, the biases of scholars, mythology, and determinism in John Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy.

In this episode I examine Philip Wheelwright's Heraclitus, in particular the study of Heraclitus as a pluralist opposed to the monism of Parmenides.

In this episode I look at the beginning of the question of Being in Martin Heidegger's The Beginning of Western Philosophy. I spend the most time in the middle section of the book, which provides a condensed and comprehensible overview of Heidegger's project and his search for the origins of Western philosophy in the pre-Socratic Greek thinkers such as Anaximander.

In this episode I review and respond to Elements of Pantheism by Paul Harrison. I include my comments and questions regarding Reality, Matter, the Universe, Nature, and Justice.

In this episode I look at Nietzsche's early examination of the Pre-Socratic philosophers, with a focus on Anaximander, Heraclitus, and Parmenides. The concepts of being and becoming, and the differences among philosophers regarding these concepts, are addressed.

In this episode I examine Ancient Greek concepts such as aidos, sebas, eulabeia, nomos, and themis through Kerenyi's ground-breaking Religion of the Greeks and Romans. I also examine the ancient acceptance of death, in the context of our own modern hostility to human mortality.

In this episode I examine some of the qualities of polytheism, with a particular focus on Athena as presented by Walter Burkert in his classic treatise, Greek Religion.

In this episode I look at Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae, in particular her deep dive into Apollo and Dionysus as archetypal social drives.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode, I look at Nietzsche's first book, The Birth of Tragedy. I take care to examine his impressions of Apollo and Dionysus as potentially political archetypes of social, aesthetic, behavioral and ontological experiences.More at natureandthenation.com.

In this episode I look at the most fundamental components of the Basic Writings of Carl Jung including empiricism, the unconscious especially the collective unconscious, and the archetype.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at Carl Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul, where Jung details the relationship of the unconscious and the psyche to religion. I talk about the evolution of the collective unconscious and it's role as a carrier of intergenerational wisdom, and the plurality of forces that play upon the psyche, holding each other in balance and keeping any part of the psyche from dominating the others.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode, I look at Alain de Benoist's On Being a Pagan. De Benoist makes a comprehensive comparison between paganism and Christianity, and I focus in the value comparisons that echo Nietzsche, the criticisms of duality, and the effect of original sin and innocence at birth on the two ethical systems and senses of guilt.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at Larry Arnhart's Darwinian Conservatism, a great book that explores many of the same themes I've been spotlighting elsewhere, but all in one spot and finally putting the tail on the donkey and labeling the evolutionary premise behind Burke's and Hayek's ideas: Darwinian Conservatism. Arnhart talks about spontaneous order and the natural order, customary order, and rational order. I also point out Arnhart's take on the differences between men and women.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode, I explore James Burnham description of liberalism as an ideology founded on an unsound notion of the pliability of human nature. I also look at his notion of guilt as the driving emotion of liberal activity.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at What is Conservatism, Frank Meyer's collection of essays by mid-20th century conservative thinkers. The essays I focus on give a deeper analysis of the ways in which the state is dependent upon the particular traditions of a people, and the traditions of the people are dependent on a transcendent shared appraisal of reality. The authors I focus on include Russell Kirk, Garry Wills, and Stanley Parry.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I explore Viktor Frankl's moving exploration into the meaning of life, Man's Search for Meaning. I focus on virtuous behavior in the face of suffering, the importance of having tasks to fulfill, obligations, and the need for love.

In this episode I explore the 'master' and 'slave' morality proposed by Friedrich Nietzsche in The Genealogy of Morals, with a particular focus of how the master morality may relate to Aristotle and the ancient Greeks, and how it relates to modern conservatism and progressivism.More at www.natureandthenation.com

In this episode I explore Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. I look at eudaimonia and the mean between defect and excess in virtuous behavior. I also examine Aristotle's work on courage and pride, two natural virtues he describes.More at natureandthenation.com.

In this episode I continue the exploration of the evolutionary roots of morality with Jonathan Haidt's fantastic book, The Righteous Mind. In this book, Haidt delivers the killing blow to the rationalist delusion that I've been discussing since the early episodes. In addition, I examine the broad array of virtues encompassed by Haidt's moral foundations theory. This theory, and its political ramifications, continue to draw together evolutionary psychology, conservatism, and the golden mean proposed by Aristotle.more at natureandthenation.com

In this episode, we explore Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, in which he explains his research in the two modes of thought: System 1, the fast, intuitive, unconscious thought of associations and heuristics, and System 2, the slow, deliberate, calculative, resource-depleting conscious thought.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at Matt Ridley's The Origins of Virtue. In particular I look at the prisoner's dilemna and potential strategies to achieve cooperation and reciprocity among evolving selfish genes. I also examine the sexual division of labor in early humans, with males doing most of the hunting and women doing most of the gathering.More at natureandthenation.com

Richard Dawkins' best-selling book, The Selfish Gene, examines the fundamental nature of the replicating gene in a competitive environment, and all of the consequences thereof. I look specifically at the origins of life and DNA, and the evolutionarily stable strategy of behavior development in a game theory context.More at www.natureandthenation.com

In Suicide, Emile Durkheim explores the sociological factors that lead a society toward greater or lesser rates of suicide. I specifically explore his analysis of egoistic suicide, or suicide driven by the breakdown of integrated social institutions and the dominance of individualism in a culture. I also touch on anomie, the disappearance of social norms that, in a healthy society, provide the structure of culture that help provide people with a sense of social stability.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at Michael Anton's After the Flight 93 Election, a discussion of the danger, both to conservatism and the nation as a whole, posed by the post 1960s left. Anton's famous essay explains the need to elect Trump and to hold the left at bay at all costs, and the failure of conservatives to do so for decades. I also explore Anton' explanation for the the basis of republican government.More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I explore Bronze Age Mindset, the independently produced exhoration that calls for a renewed dedication to the pursuit of vitality, beauty, and excellence in our ugly modern bug world. I look at Bronze Age Pervert's recommendations for political and social action.More at www.natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at the functions of myth and ritual, and the challenge that is posed by science to the enduring viability of mythology. I also look at the premise of the Jungian archetype. This is all in Joseph Campbell's classic, Myths to Live By.More at www.neofusionist.com

In this episode I look at the concepts of wholeness and arate (excellence) as envisioned by the ancient Greeks, through H. D. F. Kitto's superb overview, The Greeks. I look at the polis and how it impacted the life and thought of the Greeks.More at neofusionist.com