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The Saving Elephants Blog

Featuring original content on classical conservatism, current affairs, and everything in-between, these weekly blog posts will illustrate how the wisdom of the past can be applied to the challenges of today. The blog is organized by the following categories: Conservative Values (taking a deep dive into specific conservative ideas), Competing Worldviews (comparing and contrasting conservatism with other worldviews), Trumpism (posts related to the Trump phenomenon), Elections (observations on upcoming and past elections), and Cornucopia (posts that don't fit in the previous categories).

Select a category from the menu, or read the most recent weekly post below:

196 – Crossing the Danube with Calum Nicholson

For good or ill, the post World War II era built by the Baby Boomers seems to be rapidly coming to an end. But what will replace it? What might be done to prevent global conflicts and bloodshed as the old order begins to break down? And what should younger conservatives seek to conserve in this era of chaotic change? Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is Director of Research at the Danube Institute , Calum Nicholson to share how the Anglosphere often misunderstands

12 minutes ago2 min read

Crossing the Danube with Calum Nicholson – Transcript

The following transcript comes from Saving Elephants podcast episode 196 – Crossing the Danube with Calum Nicholson . This transcript was auto-generated by Zencastr and while some effort has been taken to reduce glaring omissions and errors, mistakes will undoubtedly still exist. The original podcast audio should be relied upon for an accurate representation of the actual conversation. Podcast Introduction For good or ill, the post World War II era built by the Baby Boom

11 hours ago43 min read

195 – Geeking Out with Lauren Hall

In a world of exhaustive binary thinking sometimes complexity offers relief. Lauren Hall joins the show to offer her alternative living in 4D she calls “radical moderation”. In the latter half of the conversation Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis happily takes Lauren up on her offer to geek out on Edmund Burke. About Lauren Hall Excerpts from laurenkhall.com Lauren Hall is an author and professor helping people combat overwhelm in an age of extremes. Her writing rejects

Feb 32 min read

194 – Conversing Across the Pond with Daniel Pitt

Dr. Daniel Pitt and his imposing mustache joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to explore the similarities and differences between American and British conservatism, proto-Burkean “conservative” thinkers, Pitt’s personal relationship with Sir Roger Scruton, and the importance of unchosen obligations in a free society, all offered up in a wonderfully meandering conversation that nonetheless stays within the broader parameters of some conceivable structure analogous to the co

Jan 201 min read

193 – Dissenting the Dissident Right with Stephanie Slade

While Saving Elephants defends the classical conservative position, the loudest voices on the Right today coalesce around different policies, priorities, and goals. Those that form the dissident Right are comprised of multiple sub-groups with overlapping and, at times, incompatible views. So who is this disparate group of dissidents? What holds them together, and how do they differ from conservatives? Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is Stephanie Slade to explore

Jan 62 min read

Ben Sasse and the Path Not Taken

The week of Christmas merriment was tinged with sadness as we learned of Senator Ben Sasse’s advanced cancer diagnosis. In a lengthy social media post he foretold he was “gonna die”. And while—God willing—Sasse will be with us for a long time to come, his return to public life seems dubious at best. His tenure in the United States Senate reflected the voice of reason and integrity in a wavering time. Imperfect, to be sure, but perhaps perfectly emblematic of the sentime

Dec 27, 20255 min read

192 – Remnant Redux with Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg makes his triumphal return to Saving Elephants where host Josh Lewis peppers him with unyielding questions on what his fourth and forthcoming book will be about, the practicality of setting lottery winnings as a life-goal, what a post-Trump GOP might look like, whether it makes sense to even “save” the elephants, and whether we should welcome human enslavement to our future AI overlords. Remnant fans, have your bingo cards at the ready! About Jonah Goldberg

Dec 16, 20251 min read

191 – Canceling Caylan with Caylan Ford

In 2019 Caylan Ford resigned her political candidacy in Canada after controversy over allegations of her echoing white nationalist rhetoric. In spite of her resignation—and continual insistence she held no such views—the mobs of cancel culture demanded “justice”. She was blacklisted from employers, unable to continue work with organizations that seek to liberate people living under the yoke of totalitarianism, ostracized by friends and colleagues, attacked and trolled onlin

Dec 2, 20253 min read

190 – Biographizing Buckley with Sam Tanenhaus

There are four faces on the Saving Elephants’ Mount Rushmore of great conservatives: Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, Thomas Sowell, and William F. Buckley. While the first three have each had fully episodes dedicated to their life and works, William F. Buckley has yet to be explored at length. And with Buckley’s posthumous 100th birthday happening later this month, now is the perfect time to reflect on his long and remarkable life. Sam Tanehaus’ decades-in-the-making biograph

Nov 18, 20252 min read

189 – Rescuing the American Project with Nathan Brown and Robert Haglund

Those who identify as pro-immigration and pro-nationalist are often at odds with one another. But what if a healthy dose of nationalism is the very thing that could bolster our immigration? Nathan Brown and Robert Haglund argue in their new book Rescuing the American Project that “much of the dysfunction in contemporary American politics is a consequence of the failure by our elites to understand the crucial relationship between immigration and nationalism.” Nathan and R

Nov 4, 20251 min read

188 – The UnLeft with J.J. McCullough

Disillusioned with the rigidity of political tribalism, J.J. McCullough left his role as conservative journalist and commentator and became a content creator. His YouTube channel, J.J. McCullough offers his one million subscribers weekly deep dives about countries, cultures, and Canada. But while politics is not the focus of his channel, some of his content is still tinged with the overtures of his past life. J.J. joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to discuss how his

Oct 21, 20251 min read

Bonus Episode - My Conversation / Intervention with Justin Stapley

Justin Stapley and I have been on similar journeys these past many years seeking to better understand our worldviews and the ever-changing political moment and how best to restore sanity and integrity to our politics. But while I've been diligently producing podcast episodes for these past seven years, Justin has launched a dizzying array of projects. In his own words: There's an ongoing joke between myself and @svngelephants that every time I'm on his podcast, I've rebran

Oct 15, 20254 min read