The Brass Spittoon

Dec 17 2024 29 ep. 54 mins 19
The Brass Spittoon Podcast artwork

Thank you for gathering at the Brass Spittoon, the podcast of Front Porch Republic. We chew on issues timeless and timely, with a focus on place, limits, and liberty. Find out more at frontporchrepublic.com.

  Society & Culture
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Tri Robinson Looks Back in Thanks

Dec 17 2024 71 mins  
After a life of physical and spiritual adventure, an innovative homesteading teacher and pastor turns green with gratitude. Highlights 1:00 California to Idaho (before everybody was doing it) 12:00 The plane, the plane! 19:00 Picture pages, picture pages 26:00 Raising the dead with his students (and Robert Redford) 37:00 Finding Jesus in the mountains 45:15 Turning green in the pul

Jeff Bilbro's Convivial Quest

Oct 21 2024 43 mins  
The editor-in-chief of the FPR website discusses the recent conference in Grand Rapids and his latest book, Words for Conviviality. Highlights 1:00 Pacific Northwesterner in western PA 8:00 Prospects for localism and trad wives now 11:00 Bilbro’s obsessive bibliography 17:00 Printing press 2.0 and Postman problems 25:30 Frederick Douglass, cancer patient 30:00 Margaret Fuller, p

Yuval Levin on Our Constitution

Sep 17 2024 53 mins  
The AEI scholar and author of American Covenant joins John to talk about a document that he believes could unify we the people, again. Highlights 1:30 Second home 8:15 The national “we” 13:45 A dignified basis for unity 21:00 Changing culture by changing institutions 25:00 Make Congress boring again 29:00 What women want 32:00 Cheese pizza and Tip O’Neill 37:00 Think Tank U

Ghost Stories with Nancy French

May 06 2024 44 mins  
Longtime ghostwriter Nancy French tells her own tale in the Ghosted: An American Life. French was raised in rural Tennessee and would later provide the words behind famous talking heads but found her own enchanting voice amid political and personal tumult. Highlights 1:15 Mud pies for Parisians 6:00 Hillbillies on the run 9:30 Romney/Palin ‘08 11:00 Prison break with the Kardash

Family Time with Timothy Carney

Mar 26 2024 61 mins  
Timothy Carney, an AEI senior fellow and the author of Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be, talks about the village it takes to raise a child and the metaphorical (and sometimes literal) rise of “No Children Allowed” signs. Highlights 2:30 A lively home and coffee shop 4:00 Trumpy Christians? 7:15 Find a secular van fam, win a fr

Living Outside the Machine

Jan 29 2024 44 mins  
Ashley Colby, founder of the Rizoma Field School, digs up inspiring true stories of resistance and restoration (with references to donkeys, elephants, and our 49th state). Bill Kauffman, author and regular conference closer, weaves Wisconsin professors of the past and the robo-umps of tomorrow into a seamless and side-splitting localist garment. Rory Groves introduces the duo and p

Brian Miller on Kayaking with Lambs

Jan 22 2024 30 mins  
Brian Miller visits the porch to talk about his new book chronicling life on a Tennessee farm. Highlights 1:30 Bayou Bengal Volunteer farmer 5:45 A monastic text 11:15 Man of letters 14:00 Pesto chango 15:30 Remote control 18:00 Growing pains 23:00 Lamb on the lam 27:15 The rest of the story Resources Buy the book An excerpt at FPR Brian’s farm and blog Paul Harvey’s “So God

Humane Politics

Jan 17 2024 73 mins  
Adam Smith, a philosopher at the University of Dubuque, counterattacks the disenchanted War on Suffering. FPR President Mark Mitchell goes biblical to bring down a heightened politics of insanity. Brass Spittoon podcaster John Murdock looks at a key architect of religious politics and wonders what might happen if his blueprints were followed. Gerald Ford groupie and FPR perfect att

Human Responses to Technology

Jan 07 2024 68 mins  
Jeff Bilbro, FPR’s super-beaver EIC and Grove City College professor, looks to ancient mythology to assess modern technology and fiction of the future. Cassandra Nelson of the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture is stuck in the middle, a bit like AI itself. Author, teacher, and mother Tessa Carman looks for life in abundance in Minnesota and Maryl

Imagining Life Beyond the Machine: Eric Miller and Jason Peters

Jan 06 2024 57 mins  
Eric Miller, biographer of Christopher Lasch and a professor at Geneva College, plus longtime porcher Jason Peters of Hillsdale College address the role of imagination in shaping our shared reality. Matt Stewart, an associate editor of the FPR website, introduces this duo that has impacted his life in important ways. Highlights 1:00 Matt Stewart, teacher’s pet/pest and herb con