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Good Faith

What is Courage?

Good Faith

Good Faith

News, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

51.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2023

⏱️ 71 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this podcast, David and Curtis return from trips around the world to give us a philosophical insight on courage. From Churchill to Lord of The Rings, stories of virtue can influence our own actions when tests cross our paths. They talk about the power of narratives and how they can build moral courage and character. Both dig into their past to bring up personal models of strength that have influenced who they are today. They wrap up with a critical look at political institutions under this moral framework.

SHOW NOTES:

-There’s a Question My Confederate Ancestors Taught Me To Ask by David French. In this April 26, 2020 Dispatch article, David writes about the incredibly powerful pull of tribe over truth.

-After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory by Alasdair MacIntyre: Alasdair MacIntyre examines the historical and conceptual roots of the idea of virtue, diagnoses the reasons for its absence in personal and public life, and offers a tentative proposal for its recovery.

-The Literary Churchill: Author, Reader, Actor by Jonathan Rose: Rose examines Churchill’s careers as statesman and author, revealing the profound influence of literature and theater on Churchill’s personal, carefully composed grand story and on the decisions he made throughout his political life.

-Curtis’s account of Churchill's book "Savrola" is taken from Gideon Haigh’s 2014 Sydney Morning Herald article, “Winston Churchill's literary and theatrical influences” and his account of Nuremberg can be found at Nuremberg as the "City of Nazi Party Rallies."

-A Hidden Life: Written and directed by Terrence Malick, this film depicts the true story of an Austrian farmer facing execution for refusing to fight for the Nazis during World War II.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Good Faith podcast. I'm David French with Curtis Chang. And it's been a minute.

0:20.0

It has been a while. And a lot has happened. A lot has happened. You got on a plane and flew off to Germany and Europe.

0:28.0

And I got in a car and I drove across the United States of America with my son. And I highly recommend that the cross country drive. That it is my only regret about the cross country drive is I did it during the winter where we had much less daylight.

0:47.0

And you drove into a raging flood region. That's the idea. I did. I drove into like a bomb cyclone in the Bay Area, which is what's all of California has just been that's unbelievable.

1:01.0

Wait, but there, but David, there's something else that happened on the break.

1:05.0

You know, I leave the country for two and a half weeks and you go off and wander off to the pinnacle of international journalism. It's like I can't leave you alone for a second, David.

1:19.0

I know Curtis. I'm so sorry.

1:21.0

You got to talk about this. So congratulations, David, for your appointment to as a opinion writer, full time opinion writer for the New York Times columnist, I think is the official columnist.

1:34.0

Yes, yes. Yeah, exactly.

1:36.0

Yes. So thank you. I'm really kind of shocked and surprised by it. I think if listeners who are also dispatch members, as you should be, or listeners to other dispatch podcasts, as you should be, have probably heard enough about this, but it really is an honor.

1:57.0

I'm very grateful for it. And it also really defines bitter sweet because I love what I do at the dispatch. I love the dispatch what we're building at the dispatch. I love working my contributing writer world at the Atlantic, love working with those guys. So this is the furthest thing from a, well, I can't wait to get out of the dispatch.

2:20.0

This much more like, oh man, this is an offer I can't refuse in the good sense, not in the Godfather sense. And so, because there are those other kinds of offers.

2:32.0

Well, I want to say a little more about what this means for you, I think for the church in a moment, but just just to do a little housekeeping.

2:40.0

We've already gotten some Twitter connections that of people asking, hey, what's the future of the good faith podcast. And I just want to say, we've got an exciting future plan for the good faith podcast.

2:51.0

You just can't quite talk about it quite yet. Yes.

2:54.0

Give us a few weeks. We're working out some of the details and we're super excited about it. We're going to tell you we're going to reveal it, but you just need to give us a little time in.

3:04.0

We're going to be really excited and clad. And I think you will too as listeners, but I really do.

3:11.0

They want to underline this. You know, the life of a public figure of a journalist like you.

3:16.0

Is a slog. I've seen it firsthand. How hard you work. And let me just say, I don't know any journalist. It's not like I know a ton, but, but I don't know any journalist that works harder than you.

3:29.0

And writes as courageously as you do. It's going to be a topic we talk about today.

3:34.0

So this is so well deserved. And the life of a writer, you take so many slings and arrows from along the way.

3:43.0

A few, a few curves. A few that when an achievement like this happens, you need to take a lip victory lap. Like you need to really soak this in and bask in this because this does not not only does this not come along often.

...

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