frontporchrepublic.com

Articles

Marvin Olasky on the Press, Presidents, and Pivots

1 week ago | frontporchrepublic.com | John Murdock

The longtime editor-in-chief of World magazine discusses the Zenger Prize, his new gig at Christianity Today, the temptations of conservative politics (compassionate or otherwise), and his memoir Pivot Points. Highlights1:00 Aspiring galactic editor and globe trotter5:45 Street level reporting v. suite level pontification15:15 BREAKING: Flatwater Free Press on the Zenger Prize long list 18:00 Welcome to the jungle . . .
Rooting for Front Porch Journalism

2 weeks ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Marvin Olasky

Zenger House has announced its twelve 2025 awards for ground-level reporting. The winning stories are all excellent, but none emerged primarily from the ground-level reporting of local journalists. I chair Zenger House and am one of the five judges of the prizes, now in their fourth year.
The Other Cancel Culture

3 weeks ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Dixie Dillon Lane

It was Thursday night, and I really didn’t want to go to book club. “I really don’t want to go to my book club,” I told my friend Nadya in a message. “I’m so tired. I think I should probably just stay in.”Three little dots told me Nadya was thinking, and I had a suspicion I wouldn’t like what she would write: “It matters that you said you would go. Saying you would go means something.”And so of course, I went.
Attending to Plants, People, and Place

1 month ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Alex Sosler

I’m not very good at paying attention. My wife would say you either are paying attention or you aren’t. “Not very good” isn’t a category for attention. At least I think that’s what she says. I’m usually not listening. “Paying” is an interesting word to describe attention. It’s a costly language—like love. It takes discipline and work, comes with costs and obligations. The French philosopher Simone Weil once wrote, “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.
It is Not Good to Read (Only) Alone

1 month ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Nadya Williams

Over the past few years, I have seen a number of debates and research studies critically evaluating the different mediums in which people consume books in the twenty-first century: Reading on paper versus reading on screens (e.g., iPad or Kindle) versus listening to audiobooks. In the case of reading on screens, at least, everyone agrees that this still constitutes reading—albeit there is plenty of science now to explain why this kind of reading is inferior to reading on paper.
Writing Exile and Reading Homeward

2 months ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Matt Miller

Branson, Missouri. I guess I always thought there would be a homecoming. Fifteen years ago, I moved from my home state of Nebraska to Missouri to go to graduate school. Fifteen years later, in Missouri I remain. I probably should not be as surprised by this development as I am. I came to Missouri to complete a master’s and then a PhD, and I was never so naive as to think that an academic career was a ticket back to my sparsely populated home state.
In Praise of the Inefficient

2 months ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Ethan Jones

A new year. New opportunities. As a professor, the turn of the year means new students, new schedules, and new lectures. With all these changes, not much is certain. But I’m confident in one thing for the spring semester: conversations about AI will rage. I have little interest, or expertise, in evaluating the latest developments. I do have concern, though. Maybe more than concern. Maybe something more like a pebble in the heel of my shoe.
Thomas M. Ward On Boethius & Stoicism

2 months ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Alan Cornett

Professor Thomas M. Ward teaches at Baylor University. He is a philosopher who focuses on Medieval thought, especially the work of John Duns Scotus. He is the author most recently of After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher from Word on Fire. We discuss that book, Boethius, Stoicism, living in C.S. Lewis’s home in Oxford, and who is Johhn Duns Scotus anway? Thomas M.
Virgil and the Christian Imagination

2 months ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Paul Krause

“Love conquers all things; let us yield to love.” It would be perfectly reasonable to misattribute this quote to a famous early church father or a book from the Bible. Instead, it is from the great Roman poet Virgil. Anyone familiar with Dante’s Divine Comedy will remember that Virgil is a prominent character, serving as Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory.
The AI Invasion: For Humans, It's Becoming Harder to Write

2 months ago | frontporchrepublic.com | Nadya Williams

As I opened this file to begin writing, the following message greeted me: “Select an icon or press Alt + i to draft with Copilot.” Meanwhile, Gemini is on standby in my email program, offering to help me write missives or suggesting optimal answers to emails (“Sounds great!” “Of course!” “Let me get back to you!”).