Marc Barnes believes that AI chatbots are evil, and that having a faux conversation with AI chatbots is wrong. Joseph Hobbs, Senior Solution Architect at Databricks, disagrees. In this podcast, they discuss the nature of conversation, how AI imitates conversation, and the Catholic response to AI Chatbots. Our double issue of New Polity magazine on Artificial Intelligence is now available for purchase! Including essays by Matthew Crawford, Slavoj Žižek, D. C. Schindler, and many more. Buy now at https://newpolity.com/single-issues/6-23We depend on your generous support. Please consider donating at https://www.newpolity.com/donate
In this podcast, Alex Denley and Marc Barnes discuss the upcoming New Polity magazine on AI, the Church's social teaching on technocracy and the technocratic paradigm, and the Christian response to Artificial Intelligence. Pre-order our double issue of New Polity magazine on Artificial Intelligence!https://newpolity.com/single-issues/6-23A double issue of New Polity Magazine on Artificial Intelligence.Andrew Willard Jones on the Humane and the Technocratic. Matthew Crawford on Losing Ourselves in AI. Paul Kingsnorth on Our Unsettling. Slavoj Žižek on the Death of the Internet. Michael Hanby on the Abolition of Intelligence.Mâinile Strigoilor on the AI Bubble.D. C. Schindler on the Essential Duplicity of AI. Alex Denley on the Technocratic Paradigm.Paul Denley on AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol.Michael Boland on Descartes’ Automaton daughter.Ronald Klingler on our AI future. With poetry by James Donald Forbes McCann.And, a short story by Joseph Patrick.
Technology has given an untrained humanity unprecedented power over itself. Peter Berkman, following Marshall McLuhan and Romano Guardini, argues that the "digital world" has rapidly replaced other modes of human interaction, and AI presents a rapid acceleration of that movement. In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Peter Berkman discuss this development and the Christian response.
Subscribe to New Polity Magazine by Oct 13th to receive Issue 6.2/3 on Artificial Intelligence!
Peter is a member of the band Anamanaguchi. Check out their new album "Anyway":
Check out Peter’s essay "Will There Be an AI Apocalypse?"
America was a place of untold wealth in the post-war period. But today, many small towns are faltering and facing financial collapse. In this podcast, Strong Towns founder and president Charles Marohn sits down with Marc Barnes and Jacob Hyman to discuss how this collapse came about, and how to rebuild the small town.
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We are happy to announce the next issue of New Polity Magazine, dedicated specifically to Artificial Intelligence! Featuring essays by Matthew Crawford, Slavoj Žižek, D. C. Schindler, Michael Hanby, Andrew Willard Jones, and many more. Subscribe by October 1st to receive this issue! https://newpolity.com/magazine.
Alex Denley and Marc Barnes discuss the Christian response to AI, how to safeguard human freedom, and AI as a new industrial revolution.
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In this podcast, Alex Denley and Professor Rocco Buttiglione discuss the problem of globalization, mass migration, and populism. Post-war globalization brought a great increase in international trade, cooperation, technical and educational development, and cultural sharing. However, with open trade came the loss of manufacturing and industry in the West, and the emptying of the working class. Along with mass migration, the people grew to resent their global elite. Professor Buttiglione discusses the Church's response to globalization, and the need for a new elite who care for the people.
Rocco Buttiglione's book "Modernity's Alternative: How History is Formed in the Depths of the People" is now available!
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Check out our Catholic Social Teaching Masterclass hosted here in Steubenville, Ohio: https://newpolity.com/masterclass
Liberalism is on the defensive. Political discussion is shifting from “what’s wrong with liberalism” to “what’s true about politics”—to the question of what exactly must displace liberalism. In The Politics of the Real, D. C. Schindler takes us to the definitive metaphysical roots of liberal politics: the modern reversal of the priority of act over potency; the modern privileging of empty possibility over flourishing perfection. In this podcast, Michael Boland and D. C. Schindler discuss liberalism, and how we can build a politics of the real.
Politics of the Real is now available in Paperback! Get a copy on sale now.
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The development and use of AI chatbots has grown massively. With hundreds of millions of users, OpenAI, XAI, Claude AI, and others have become a normal part of many people's day. Some Christians have an uneasy attitude toward the use of AI Chatbots, while others are supportive and have developed their own. In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Alex Denley discuss the moral question: whether Christians should use AI chatbots, and the ramifications that it has on human nature. Read Marc's essay "AI Chatbots are Evil" here: https://newpolity.com/blog/ai-chatbotsWe depend on your generous support. Please consider donating at https://www.newpolity.com/donateSubscribe to New Polity Magazine! https://newpolity.com/magazineCheck out our books: https://newpolity.com/pressWe are hosting a Catholic Social Teaching Masterclass! Learn more at https://newpolity.com/masterclass
Professor Rocco Buttiglione and Dr. Andrew Willard Jones discuss the rise of nationalism and populism both in Europe and America. What is the proper Catholic understanding of the peoples and nations? How should we navigate a global economic order within modern nation-states? They discuss how the Church has responded to this situation, and how the theology of the peoples can provide an answer.
Rocco Buttiglione's book "Modernity's Alternative: How History is Formed in the Depths of the People" is now available!
D. C. Schindler argues that the loss of authority is the greatest of all human crises. When Nietzsche speaks of the death of God, which will lead to calamities, Schindler sees the great loss of authority. Liberalism's dismantling of any authority in favor of the sovereign individual has lead to the collapse of social order and the pursuit of a genuinely common good. In this podcast with Andrew Willard Jones, D. C. Schindler discusses authority and how it can be recovered. Please consider donating to support our work, and bring more podcast guests! https://newpolity.com/donateSubscribe to New Polity Magazine! https://newpolity.com/magazineCheck out our books! https://newpolity.com/pressRead more: https://newpolity.com/essaysCheck out our Catholic Social Teaching Masterclass hosted here in Steubenville, Ohio: https://newpolity.com/masterclass
We live in a disillusioned political age, one where old liberal arguments no longer have hold. Conservatism has moved into a right-wing politics which no longer sees the value of Christianity. Lost in an ostensibly equal mass, individuals have experienced a loss of identity. New developments in technology, and especially AI, present an existential threat to human agency. In our time (2025) and place (America), we need the social doctrine of the Church.
New Polity is hosting a Masterclass on Catholic Social Teaching next summer (2026)! Learn more and register.
Andrew Willard Jones and Alex Denley are writing a book on Catholic Social Teaching to be published by Word on Fire Academic. We need your support to bring this project to completion. Please consider donating.
In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Reuben Slife discuss the latest New Polity magazine, Issue 6.1, and specifically the translation of Alberto Methol Ferré's striking essay "The Church, People Among the Peoples." Is the Church a visible people, or a people among the peoples? How does the Church overcome oppositions, universal-particular?New Polity Magazine Issue 6.1 is available for order: https://newpolity.com/single-issues/6-1Rocco Buttiglione's new book Modernity's Alternative is now available from New Polity Press. https://newpolity.com/books-in-invent...Subscribe to New Polity Magazine! https://newpolity.com/magazineHelp us make more by donating. Thank you. https://newpolity.com/donate
In this podcast, Reuben Slife interviews Rocco Buttiglione about his life and work. Buttiglione was promised by Luigi Guissani, the founder of Communion and Liberation, that a Christian life will never be boring; taking this wager, he discusses his studies with Augusto Del Noce, his early encounters in Poland with Karol Wojtyła, his appointment to the European Union and time as Italian Minister of European Affairs, and the beginning of his friendship with Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina.
Rocco Buttiglione's new book "Modernity's Alternative" is now available from New Polity Press
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In honor of the new Pope Leo XIV, and in celebration of the 134th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Alex Denley and Andrew Willard Jones discuss the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII and the birth of modern Catholic Social Teaching. Our conference is two weeks away! Spots are still open: https://newpolity.com/events/2025You have money burning a hole in your pocket, and a mind yearning for knowledge. We have books. https://newpolity.com/pressSubscribe to the greatest magazine on Earth: https://newpolity.com/magazineJoin the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/bNJ2uE7as6
In honor of the passing of the Pope, Marc Barnes and Reuben Slife discuss the life of Francis and the theology which he embodied: the theology of peoples. They also discuss Rocco Buttiglione's new book Modernity's Alternative and how Latin America formed the Pope's pastoral life and mission.
Modernity's Alternative is now available for order.
Registration is still open for the New Polity Conference!
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At the 2024 New Polity conference, Matthew B. Crawford gave the keynote address in which he contrasted the view of man inherent in technocratic rationalism with that of a Christian view. Drawing from the work of Joseph Ratzinger and Michael Oakeshott, Crawford draws a distinction between an orientation toward receiving life as gift and cramped rationalism that views man as an object to be synthetically remade. The current push for technocratic control over every sphere of life collapses the vertical order of reality and aims to eliminate contingency, risk, and play. In contrast, one who affirms the inherent goodness of being is able to experience a real vitality of life in a meaningful world. Next conference is only a month and a half away. Make the trek out to God's own Steubenville! https://newpolity.com/events/2025
Pre-order for Modernity's Alternative is now available!
In this podcast, Reuben Slife and Marc Barnes discuss a new book from New Polity press: Modernity's Alternative by Rocco Buttiglione.
In the 20th century, a movement of priests and laypeople sought to find a way past the clash of ideologies that wracked Latin America. They found a solution in Latin America itself, which was born out of the conflict between Europeans and natives when, with the appearance of the Virgin Mary at Guadalupe, the grace of God forged one, new people out of strangers and enemies.This movement—called “theology of peoples”—focuses on the reality known as “a people.” Every human person belongs to a people. And every people has a “world”: the way it makes sense out of life, work, love, and the uncertain future.
What is the difference between a people and a nation? In this podcast, Marc Barnes and Alex Denley discuss Ernest Renan's influential lecture "What is a nation?". Renan argues that a nation is not formed by common descent, language, religion, or geography. Rather, a nation is a spiritual principle that requires sacrifice, and a forgetting of the past. Marc and Alex discuss Renan's definition of a nation and how it formed the development of nation states in the modern period. Registration is still open for New Polity Conference 2025! Ernest Renan's lecture can be found hereSubscribe to New Polity Magazine! Check out Marc's essay "National Forgetting"
In this special episode of Political Saints, Marc Barnes and Nicolas McAfee discuss the heroic political life of St. Thomas More. Thomas More was the Lord High Chancellor of England from 1529 until 1531. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and was executed. Pope Pius XI canonized Thomas More as a martyr in 1935.
Dr. Nicolas McAfee is the Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the Center for Thomas More Studies. He is the author of Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare: A Way out of the Wreck (Lexington, forthcoming).You can find more on Thomas More Studies here: https://thomasmorestudies.org/New Polity Conference 2025 is only a few months away! Register at https://newpolity.com/eventsSubscribe to the greatest magazine on earth: https://newpolity.com/magazineCheck out our books at https://newpolity.com/press
For the last five years, the Political Right has been debating over a program for regime change in America: should populism be used to construct a new elite class? Should a new administration retire all government employees? Can the bureaucratic state be maintained but filled with new conservative staff? In this podcast, Alex Denley and Dr. Andrew Willard Jones discuss subsidiarity as the solution to this debate, and how it provides a program for genuine regime change. Dr. Andrew Jones' new book The Church Against the State is available for purchase!Subscribe for all our best essays Join the conversation on our Discord