A Conversation with Peggy Noonan

The Russell Moore Show

Christianity Today, Russell Moore

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 914 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“You have to read in order to develop your mind and develop your ability to think,” Peggy Noonan said. “It’s no good to say, ‘Oh, I can’t help that I was born in 1990 and everybody has a phone.’ Too bad. Put it down.” For decades, Noonan has been a Wall Street Journal columnist and author, known for her Pulitzer Prize–winning commentary on politics and culture. She and Moore reflect on Noonan’s career both in journalism and as a speech writer in the Reagan Administration. They talk about Noonan’s faith, her love for Christian history, and her long-standing relationship to Roman Catholicism. The two discuss sexual scandals in both church and government, the power of the written word, and the way artists see the world. They consider the concerning potential of artificial intelligence, the value of reading in a world overrun by technology, and the importance of critical thinking in our modern political culture. Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include: Peggy Noonan A Certain Idea of America: Selected Writings by Peggy Noonan Walker Percy The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O’Toole Pascal’s Pensées “How to Find Grace After Disgrace” Abbey of Gethsemani Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood The Shadow War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy “The godfather of AI: why I left Google” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is a paid message from the 2024 holiday gift guide for book lovers from CT Creative Studio at Christianity Today.
0:09.2	We believe in the miraculous magic of books.
0:12.3	This Christmas, we invite you to share the magic of reading with a book that's perfect for each person on your gift list.
0:19.0	Visit Christmas Gift Buying Guide.com to browse our books.
0:26.8	This is a paid message from Biola University, recognized as the number one Christian
0:31.8	University for Faith in Action. Learn more about this ranking and explore over 250 Christ-centered degree programs at biola.edu.
0:41.8	You have to read in order to develop your mind, develop your ability to think. And it's no good to say,
0:51.7	oh, I can't help that I was born in 1990 and everybody has a phone too bad.
0:58.1	Put it down.
1:16.0	Hello, this is Russell Moore, and you're listening to The Russell Moore Show brought to you by Christianity today.
1:27.2	Every week, we explore here conversations and questions from a Christian perspective to help you sort out how to live as a follower of Jesus in confusing times.
1:31.3	This week, we have a conversation to seek to do just that.
1:49.5	There are very few people that one can talk to whose words have made up most of one's life.
2:05.7	And today I'm talking to one of those people because there's so much of American national and political and civic language that over the last generation, so much of it was written by our guest, Peggy Noonan, who of course is a columnist and author. She writes for the Wall Street
2:11.9	Journal. She's a Pulitzer Prize winner for her commentary. She's written a lot of books, and she was special
2:19.7	assistant and speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, has also written for President George H.W. Bush,
2:26.5	and in 2010, she was given the award for media excellence by the living recipients of the
2:32.4	Congressional Medal of Honor, and she has a new book that has
2:36.9	just come out called A Certain Idea of America. That's a collection of essays about a broad
2:43.8	range of topics. I think we're going to talk about many things here today. It's about her more
2:49.5	recent writings talking about leaders that we have right now,
2:54.2	movements that have been going on over the past several years, and it's been called a masterclass
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Christianity Today, Russell Moore, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Christianity Today, Russell Moore and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.