Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

Joining me on today's show is

Alexandra Hudson. She's a writer, a speaker, and the author of Civic Renaissance, which is a

newsletter dedicated to ennobling the public discourse with the wisdom of the past. She's an adjunct

professor at the University of Indiana's Lilly Family School

of Philanthropy for writing on history, culture, etiquette, and other topics, as appeared in the Wall

Street Journal, USA Today, Time, and other publications, including City Journal. Today, we're going

to discuss her recent book, The Soul of Civility,

Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves, which looks at how respecting others

is key to building civil society and fostering a more public, his civil public discourse,

I guess we would say. Lexi, thanks so much for joining us on the show today.

A pleasure to be with you, Brian.

Thanks for having me.

You know, many people might not know this, but your mother's an expert on politeness.

Judy the Manners lady wrote books.

She recorded CDs, visited schools to teach kids how to be respectful to others

and behave properly. You know, during your childhood, you've noted that you often resisted

the rules of etiquette, she imposed. But, you know, you later found them valuable as you got

older. While working in politics, though,

and you've been in the American Enterprise Institute and other places in your career,

served in government, you discover that politeness is not necessarily a perfect good or an unalloyed

good in dealing with other. Civility, you say, should be our

...