Utopian Idiots

In Oxford with the Inklings

The churchyard where Jack Lewis lies at rest is overgrown, surrounded by trees, and strewn with ancient tilting tombstones marked with moss and lichen.

Oct 22 • 

Jonathon Van Maren

3

September 2025

Reading Gerald Durrell in the Amazon jungle

Despite my lifelong obsession with wildlife, I only discovered the great naturalist writer Gerald Durrell several years ago.

Sep 3 • 

Jonathon Van Maren

1

August 2025

The Lost World of Sterling North's Rascal

It was a hot, humid morning when we reached the Sterling North Home and Museum in Edgerton, Wisconsin.

Aug 26 • 

Jonathon Van Maren

2

March 2024

What IS classical education, anyway?

A three-part podcast conversation

Mar 27, 2024 • 

John Jalsevac

2

Breakfast at lunch

Fasting is not a fad

Mar 26, 2024 • 

Michael Austen

4

3

August 2023

On the road with Laura Ingalls Wilder

Apologies for the long delay in sending anything out here—the writers have been busy with PhDs, pro-life activism, and a wide range of other writing!

Aug 29, 2023 • 

Jonathon Van Maren

1

1

February 2023

Farewell to my father

Intermittent, shallow breaths, bed he lay upon.

Feb 9, 2023 • 

Michael Austen

3

8

January 2023

Aquinas vs. Musk

The limits of transhumanist fantasies

Jan 17, 2023 • 

John Jalsevac

1

December 2022

How (and why) to memorize anything

The true story of a journalist who achieved the 'impossible'

Dec 20, 2022 • 

John Jalsevac

2

2

Great novels and recovering a Christian "social imaginary"

Over the past several months, I have been working on an outline for a sequel to my 2016 book The Culture War, conducting interviews and burying myself…

Dec 8, 2022 • 

Jonathon Van Maren

1

November 2022

Following Anne of Green Gables

My wife is an obsessive fan of Anne of Green Gables, the melodramatic and mischievous redhead from the Maritimes who captured the hearts of millions.

Nov 7, 2022 • 

Jonathon Van Maren

9

2

We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It

A review of Tom Phelan's wonderful memoir

Nov 2, 2022 • 

Jonathon Van Maren

5

2