New Persuasive Words

"The revival in religion will be a rhetorical problem - new persuasive words for defaced or degraded ones." - Thornton Wilder

About the show

New Persuasive Words started as two guys talking about life with what we thought (hoped?) was wit and insight, on our good days anyway. Then...a podcast.

New Persuasive Words on social media

Episodes

  • Episode 112: Peace, Love and Understanding

    March 18th, 2017  |  27 mins 35 secs

    We continue to talk about Tomas Halik, love, and what love looks like in what seems like tumultuous times.

  • Episode 111: Love and The Remoteness of God

    March 15th, 2017  |  32 mins 21 secs

    We continue talking about love, inspired by Tomas Halik.

  • Episode 110: Love & The Zacchaeus Option

    March 13th, 2017  |  27 mins 12 secs

    In this episode we give a response to Rod Dreher's "Benedict Option", inspired by Tomas Halik.

  • Episode 109: Crazy Little Thing Called Love

    March 11th, 2017  |  28 mins 53 secs

    We continue to reflect on the nature of love, inspired by the work of Tomas Halik.

  • Episode 108: To Know Is To Love

    March 9th, 2017  |  27 mins 2 secs

    In this episode we keep talking about love. And we recorded it on Scott's birthday.

  • Episode 107: All You Need Is Love?

    March 6th, 2017  |  32 mins 3 secs

    In this episode we talk about what may be the most important thing in human existence: love. Our conversation is inspired by Tomas Halik's newest book.

  • Episode 106: Science Versus Faith?

    February 21st, 2017  |  32 mins 44 secs

    In this episode we look at the relationship between science and faith.

  • Episode 105: The Age of Rudeness?

    February 19th, 2017  |  28 mins 54 secs

    In this episode we talk about the role of rudeness and manners in contemporary life, inspired by a piece in the NY Times magazine.

  • Episode 104: Trump Around

    February 16th, 2017  |  30 mins 45 secs

    We were going to talk about the history and philosophy of science. Then the press conferences happened!

  • Episode 103: A New Relativism?

    February 10th, 2017  |  30 mins 8 secs

    Traditionally relativism has been something that conservatives blamed on liberals. But in a new world of alternative facts is there a new relativism on the rise? We talk about this, and Bill's frustrations after doing a google search.

  • Episode 102: American Exceptionalism

    February 6th, 2017  |  32 mins 13 secs

    In this episode we discuss the concept of American Exceptionalism, in addition to rehashing Bill's recent chastisement by a Facebook Group administrator.

  • Episode 101: Natural Law

    February 4th, 2017  |  36 mins 56 secs

    The most recent Supreme Court Nominee is Neil Gorsuch. Mr. Gorsuch is a respected legal scholar and intellectual whose work has focused on, among other things, natural law. He wrote a monograph on the topic which served as his doctoral thesis at Oxford. We talk a little about natural law and its role in public life.

  • Episode 100: More On The Truth

    January 27th, 2017  |  35 mins 34 secs

    In this episode we continue thinking about the nature of truth in a world of alternative facts.

  • Episode 99: Truth and Bull@#!$

    January 23rd, 2017  |  30 mins 41 secs

    In this episode we continue to reflect on the nature of truth, specifically the relationship between truth, lies and bull@#!$. We reference the following pieces in the podcast: Harry Frankfurt’s On Bull@#!$ and On Truth. We also discuss C.J.

  • Episode 98: The Myth Of Objectivity?

    January 18th, 2017  |  35 mins 24 secs

    In this episode we talk about a recent NY Times exchange about objectivity in a post-fact world. You can find the piece here.

  • Episode 97: Conversation and Criticism

    January 10th, 2017  |  29 mins 36 secs

    We talk about conversation and criticism and the importance in our culture, inspired by Richard Rohr and A.O. Scott.