The podcast of the Maurin Academy: discussions on Christian Anarchism, agrarianism, Catholic Worker and related thought and practice, and how to bring community and mutual aid into our lives in uncertain times.
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Dr. Larry Chapp of the popular blog Gaudium et Spes joins Spencer and Laurie for a discussion about ressourcement theology, the inspiration for the international Catholic journal Communio. Dr. Chapp cares for a Catholic Worker farm and, through his blog and numerous YouTube videos, brings his own version of Peter Maurin’s “agronomic university” to a larger audience. We share a lot in common with Dr. Chapp, both in philosophy as well as practice, as we also are attempting a Catholic Worker farm, as well as an agronomic university through the Maurin Academy.
Laurie and Spencer interview retired Lutheran Pastor Tom Mundahl. Mundahl has made action the center of his ministry, including leading a venture into Catholic Worker hospitality in a Campus student group. We discuss why it is difficult for pastors to move beyond the comfort zones of their parishioners to lead them into new ways of living and interacting with others. We discuss the obstacle of Christian nationalism as the latest inhibitor of Christian action.
Laurie and Spencer spend some time unpacking the significance of their latest interview with “the last Marxist,” Chris Cutrone. Cutrone is one of our favorite Marxist theorists, and talking to him is always thought provoking. Some of the highlights that make this interview different are his ideas on the state of higher education in the US, Cutrone’s views on Christianity and church, and his discussion of possible future scenarios including climate change social and economic disruptions.
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Spencer and Laurie interview “the last Marxist”, Christ Cutrone about his experience with Catholic Worker-style Christians, the limits of the left, and what is to be done.
Spencer and Laurie finish their discussion of Season 1 of Dustbowl Diatribes, including a detour into how different Christian theologies can land you in very different places on the environment and the care of other humans.
Spencer and Laurie recap the first half of Season 1 of Dustbowl Diatribes, with a focus on our intention and purpose in introducing themes like taking advantage of “the spoils of Egypt,” and concepts like metabolic rifts and the abstract domination of capital, as well as interviews that helped us understand why it’s so hard to break away from that domination.
Launching from the last Dustbowl Diatribes podcast in which we interviewed Nik Gaffron about his experiences resisting fracking in Pennsylvania, Spencer and I talk to Nik about why such resistance almost always fails. Why do liberal strategies to getting something good accomplished meet with ruin? We first need to learn the answer to that question, and really have it sink in, before we can hope to accomplish any real change.
Our guest is Nik Gaffron talks to us about his personal experience fighting fracking on public lands in Pennsylvania. We learn a lot about the fracking process as well as the politics and economics, especially how it impacts people who live near a fracking operation. Why do public officials so easily consent to these large-scale industrial operations in or close to residential areas? Why is it so hard to fight fracking in an effort to protect not only public lands but private property and its value? What are the hidden costs financially and to our health?
Spencer Hess and Laurie Johnson follow up with military historian and Maurin Academy partner Bryant Macfarlane to discuss 1. the most likely worst-case scenario regarding our environmental and political future, and 2. the most likely best-case scenario we hope will happen instead. Buckle your seatbelts.