Skip links

Ave Maria in the Afternoon – December 23, 2024 – Hour 1

We’re reviewing the top segments of 2024. In this hour, Marcus talks with Greg Lukianoff about Cancel Culture and Stephen White about how Neil Postman would view today’s politics. We also share a commentary from Al about politics and virtue.

 

Classic Kresta Commentary: Should we consider a politician’s religion, or their virtue?

Back in February, during the Republican primaries, Al received a letter from a listener who said he was intrigued by some of Vivek Ramswamy’s positions and ideas, and that Ramswamy’s virtues aligned with his own even though he was not a Catholic or even a Christian – making the obvious contrast with President Biden. How should we consider a politician’s religion and virtue? We share Al’s response in this segment.

Listen to this Segment

 

Talking Politics in a World that is Amused to Death

In his classic work Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman shared his concerns about how the pervasiveness of television was changing society. What would he have to say about a world of TikTok, Twitter and Smartphones? Stephen White joins us.

Links for this Segment

No Politics is Local Now

Stephen P. White is executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America and a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Listen to this Segment

 

Sick of Cancel Culture? There is a Solution

Since the year 2000, Greg Lukianoff’s Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has tracked instances of free-speech violations on US college campuses. The numbers back up what many of us suspect: since 2014, there has been a massive uptick in campaigns to investigate or punish scholars for “unacceptable” views, resulting in almost 200 firings and hundreds of other sanctions. This is completely antithetical to what we once believed was the purpose of higher education – to expose one to opposing views and opinions – but thankfully there is a solution. Greg joins us.

Links for this Segment

Greg’s website 

 

Greg Lukianoff is the co-author of “The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All―But There Is a Solution” and “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.” He’s the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and one of the country’s most passionate defenders of free expression. Greg has written on free-speech issues in the nation’s top newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and was executive producer of the documentaries Can We Take a Joke? . Lukianoff earned his undergraduate degree from American University and his law degree from Stanford. He worked for the ACLU of Northern California, the Organization for Aid to Refugees, and the EnvironMentors Project before joining FIRE in 2001. Follow him on Twitter @glukianoff and learn more about his work at thefire.org

Listen to this Segment

 

Share with Friends: