Humane Pursuits Podcast

Summary: In this bonus episode, Garrett Brown continues his conversation with historian Al Zambone, turning to film portrayals of the American Revolution. Zambone explains why the era has proven resistant to compelling cinematic treatment, critiques films such as The Patriot and Drums Along the Mohawk, and reflects on adaptations like Johnny Tremain and the musical 1776. The discussion closes with a more favorable assessment of HBO’s John Adams, highlighting what it gets right about the period — particularly legal culture — while acknowledging the limits of film as a medium for conveying historical ideas. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humanepursuits.substack.com

Summary: More than two centuries after the American Revolution, historians continue to return to the same events with new questions, methods, and insights. In this episode, historian Al Zambone helps us trace how some of the most important works on the Revolution have approached the subject — from early participant accounts to modern studies shaped by political ideas, social experience, and the wider Atlantic world. What do these different layers of interpretation reveal about the Revolution itself? How have historians expanded the story without discarding what came before? And how do these works deepen our understanding of the American past — and of the variety and ambition of the American experiment? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humanepursuits.substack.com

Summary: Two hundred and fifty years after its publication, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations remains both celebrated and misunderstood. In this episode, scholars Sandra Peart and Erik Matson help us see beyond the caricatures to discover Smith’s moral vision — one that challenges both colonial empires and modern assumptions about markets, virtue, and human equality. Why do both the Left and the Right claim him? What did he really say about slavery, monopolies, and the “sacred thirst for gold”? And what does his “oceanic” masterwork still have to teach us about navigating technological change and economic upheaval?Thanks for reading Humane Pursuits! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humanepursuits.substack.com

Summary: In this episode, I interview Daniel Dreisbach about the Hebraic ideas that helped shape American political thought. We discuss his contribution to Jewish Roots of American Liberty and the powerful influence of the Hebrew Bible on the founders — from covenant and political anthropology to the Exodus story that inspired generations of Americans, from the Revolution to the civil rights movement. Dreisbach explains why Deuteronomy was one of the most cited political texts of the founding era, how biblical narratives informed early understandings of liberty, justice, and human nature, and why recovering this literacy matters today. We also reflect on the challenges facing history education, the state of academic publishing, and the pressures of teaching in the age of AI. The result is a wide-ranging, accessible conversation about the ideas that defined the founding — and what they still offer a fractured society.For more information, visit https://humanepursuits.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humanepursuits.substack.com

Summary: In this episode, I interview Daniel Dreisbach to explore one of the most contested ideas in American political life: the separation of church and state. We trace its deep roots — from biblical sources and colonial debates to Locke, Madison, and the revolution in thinking that made religious liberty a natural right rather than a privilege of toleration. Dreisbach brings to life the theological and political diversity of the colonies, the disestablishment movement, and the surprising ways federalism shaped the First Amendment. He also tells the remarkable story behind Jefferson’s famous “wall of separation” metaphor — complete with a 1,700-pound wheel of cheese — and explains how that private letter later came to dominate Supreme Court jurisprudence. This conversation offers a rich, clarifying tour through ideas that still frame American life today.For more information, visit https://humanepursuits.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humanepursuits.substack.com

Summary: What did Thomas Jefferson really mean by “the pursuit of happiness”? In this conversation, Adam Potkay reveals how 18th-century understandings of happiness differed profoundly from our modern self-help versions. Drawing on classical sources from Plato to Cicero, Jefferson and his contemporaries saw happiness not merely as subjective satisfaction but rather as an objective evaluation of a life well-lived — one centered on virtue, good conscience, and communal bonds. Potkay traces three competing threads in Jefferson’s thought: classical eudaimonism emphasizing tranquility and virtue, Lockean subjective pursuit and acquisition, and sentimental moral philosophy stressing sympathetic community. The Declaration’s original draft reveals Jefferson’s balancing of head and heart, reason and sentiment — dichotomies that defined Enlightenment thinking about human flourishing. Potkay also distinguishes happiness from joy, exploring why “public happiness” became the Enlightenment’s defining contribution to political thought. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humanepursuits.substack.com

Summary: In this inaugural episode of Humane Pursuits, Tony Banout, the founding executive director of the University of Chicago’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, explores the history and meaning of academic freedom in American higher education. The conversation traces the Chicago tradition from William Rainey Harper’s foundational 1899 principles through the landmark 1967 Kalven Report on institutional neutrality. Banout explains how academic freedom emerged as a professional norm distinct from constitutional protections, designed to safeguard the university's core mission of pursuing knowledge and truth. He also discusses common misunderstandings about these principles, explains why speech norms appropriately differ across campus spaces—from open quads to structured classrooms—and clarifies how protest fits within this framework. Drawing on historical documents collected in The Chicago Canon on Free Inquiry and Expression, the discussion examines what makes a living tradition and how universities can best serve their mission of discovering and disseminating knowledge.For more information, visit https://humanepursuits.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humanepursuits.substack.com