27 - Addison Wiggin on The Examined Life, I.O.U.S.A. (Redux) and Fist Fights at 40,000ft...

In this, Episode #27 of the BPR Podcast, I caught up with my old friend and founder of Agora Financial, Addison Wiggin. Over the course of an hour or so, Addison and I talked about the books that matter to him, why we should resist growing calls to “cancel” the western canon, how politics has changed over the course of the US empire, and why having fist fights at 40,000 feet is probably not a good idea. We also looked at exploding government debt in a “post-covid” world, reminisced about his “big budget” movie, I.O.U.S.A. and wondered what the classically trained Founding Fathers would think of the current state of the union. All that and more in my conversation with Addison Wiggin, below... (00:45) - Intro (04:20) - Interview (07:50) - Addison on his unique and formative experience at St. John’s College (14:35) - Eva Brann and the value of the examined life (18:05) - The road less travelled... takes Addison to Annapolis (19:05) - From Annapolis to Agora (21:05) - Claude Bernard’s scientific method and standing on the shoulders of giants (24:35) - Can the classics survive “cancel culture”? (28:00) - Literature and the “Lindy Effect” (29:30) - The mark of an educated mind and the definition of classical liberalism (32:45) - “Nobody is trying to be civically responsible, not in the age of social media. They’re just trying to win votes.” Addison Wiggin (33:15) - It’s not “right” vs “left” as much as it is “liberal” vs. “Illiberal” (38:40) - From the Founders Fathers limited government to the Post Pandemic supermonster - lessons in the growth and growth of the governmental apparatus (41:00) - I.O.U.S.A. remembering a “big budget” movie (45:00) - The case for optimism - is this the beginning of a New Era of Prosperity? (46:40) - The central flaw of modern western democracies (50:00) - “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” said every government, ever. (49:55) - Civil liberties in America - an outsider’s perspective (55:30) - Why a healthy democracy needs space for opposition (57:30) - Examining the facts on the ground - Addison heads to Greenland (1:03:00) - A useful corollary to Gresham’s Law from Saul Bellow (1:04:00) - That which one does not know, one ought not claim to know