195 – Geeking Out with Lauren Hall

In a world of exhaustive binary thinking sometimes complexity offers relief.  Lauren Hall joins the show to offer her alternative living in 4D she calls "radical moderation".  In the latter half of the conversation Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis happily takes Lauren up on her offer to geek out on Edmund Burke.   About Lauren Hall Excerpts from laurenkhall.com   Lauren Hall is an author and professor helping people combat overwhelm in an age of extremes. Her writing rejects binary and black-and-white thinking to help people lead more balanced lives, build stronger relationships, and restore individual and civic well-being.   Hall is a 2024 Pluralism Fellow with the Mercatus Center's Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Prohuman Foundation. Her Substack and speaking spread the message of radical moderation to new audiences via public writing, speaking, and podcast interviews.   Hall has presented her work on radical moderation at conferences including the Heterodox Academy Conference, the State Policy Network Conference, the Mercatus Center's Pluralism Summit, and various political science and related conferences and has a range of talks and podcast interviews available on radical moderation and other topics.   In her "real" job, she is a Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and author of the books Family and the Politics of Moderation (Baylor U. Press, 2014) and The Medicalization of Birth and Death (Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2019).   Hall has a PhD in Political Science from Northern Illinois University (2007) and a BA in Philosophy from Binghamton University (2002).   Introducing Conservative Cagematches One of the most invigorating and interesting aspects of conservative history is how often luminaries on the Right disagreed and fought one another.  From Strauss' take down on Burke to Frank Meyer defending his fusionist views from the likes of Brent Bozell and Murray Rothbard to Harry Jaffa fighting just about everyone, the Right has gained vitality and endurance through the process of disagreeing well (and sometimes not so well).   In that same spirit, Saving Elephants will soon launch a new venture: Conservative Cagematches.  These livestream events will feature experts and acolytes from differing schools of thought on the Right to engage in their differences.  We're working now to put together the first panel for an Edmund Burke vs. Leo Strauss debate and can't wait to share the august line-up we have so far.  More to come soon!