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Cultural Debris is a podcast hosted by Alan Cornett who interviews guests and explores culture in the tradition of Russell Kirk, Wendell Berry, the Inklings, the Agrarians, and the Distributists.
Episodes
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
My guest is former Ambassador Alberto Miguel Fernandez. Alberto served as US Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, and also served in various diplomatic roles around the world including in Afghanistan, Syria, and Sudan. He currently serves as vice president of the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Alberto shares his early introduction to Russell Kirk’s writings, his family’s history with his native Cuba, his career as a US diplomat, and thoughts about disappearing cultures around the world with his recent article in The Lamp magazine as a jumping off point.
This interview was recorded just prior to the rapid collapse of Afghanistan this past week, but Alberto discusses his time in Kabul and the role of the US there. Plus, stick around for some book recommendations at the end.
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Alberto Miguel Fernandez on Twitter
'Torn From Love' at The Lamp Magazine (note: behind a paywall)
'Neither a Suicide Noose Nor a Sword of Vengeance'
'Adventurer, Patriot, Spanish Man of Letters: The Moroccan Notes of Gimenez Caballero'
Monday Jul 19, 2021
Monday Jul 19, 2021
My guest is Father Michael Ward of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford and also of Houston Baptist University. Fr Ward has an enviable trifecta in his academic pedigree—degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, and St. Andrews. Fr. Ward is perhaps best known for his book Planet Narnia, which explains the correlation of each Narnia book to a planet in medieval cosmology. His recently released book from Word on Fire Academic, After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man is the primary subject of our discussion, but we also talk about James Bond.
NEW Cultural Debris Patreon - Support the podcast!
After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man
Rachael Sinclair Website | Twitter
Bad Books of the Bible Podcast | Substack
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Jeffrey Bilbro is editor of the The Front Porch Republic. Jeff is a fellow devotee of Wendell Berry, and has written a new book from IVP called Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry Into the News. We discuss setting priorities in a Twitter world with a bit of talk about higher education thrown in. We even have nice things to say about Henry David Thoreau.
NEW* Cultural Debris Patreon - Support the podcast!
Jeffrey Bilbro website | Twitter | Front Porch Republic
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Jared Zimmerer is director of the Word on Fire Institute. Jared is a fellow disciple of Russell Kirk, and currently is pursuing doctoral research on things Kirkian. It should not surprise you that Dr. Kirk is exactly what we talk about, particularly the idea of personalism related to Dr. Kirk’s writings, and the influence of St. John Henry Newman on his thought. In the course of that, we also delve into Dr. Kirk’s conversion to Catholicism and discuss his view of the need for beauty.
*NEW* Cultural Debris Patreon - Support the podcast!
Jared Zimmerer Word on Fire | Twitter | Instagram
Wednesday Apr 28, 2021
Wednesday Apr 28, 2021
My guest is Erik Bootsma a classical architect who specializes in ecclesiastical architecture. Erik was trained at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, which focuses on traditional forms of architecture. He and I discuss the role and modern degradation of architecture, Russell Kirk on modern architecture, the church wreckovations of the 1960s, and the attempts to return to traditional understandings of sacred space. Plus, we take a look at Prince Charles’s book A Vision of Britain and the Prince’s model city of Poundbury. It’s a packed discussion, and I think you’ll enjoy it.
*NEW* Cultural Debris Patreon - Support the podcast!
Erik Bootsma Website | Twitter
"An Architect Reconsiders 'The Architecture of Servitude and Boredom'"
"To Resurrect Notre Dame Is a Work of Faith"
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
My guest is Canadian menswear writer and broadcaster Pedro Mendes who operates the website The Hogtown Rake. I have followed Pedro for years on Instagram and also very much enjoyed his podcast series ‘Unbuttoned With Bruce Boyer.’ Pedro has an appreciation for classic men’s clothing that I share, and in this episode we discuss his new book Ten Garments Every Man Should Own: A Practical Guide to Building a Permanent Wardrobe. Is there a place for classic clothing in a locked down Zoom world? Please join us and find out.
*NEW* Cultural Debris Patreon - Support the podcast!
Pedro Mendes Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Ten Garments Every Man Should Own
Monday Mar 29, 2021
Monday Mar 29, 2021
My guest this episode is Grace Olmstead. Grace has done excellent work for several years on issues of localism, just the sort of thing we like to talk about on Cultural Debris. Like your humble host, she is a devotee of Wendell Berry’s works, and her new book Uprooted is a chronicle of approaching her own native place and her own life with the principles of localism, sustainability, and the obligations of membership.
*NEW* Cultural Debris Patreon - Support the podcast!
Grace Olmstead Twitter | Instagram
Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind
'Wendell Berry's Right Kind of Farming,' by Grace Olmstead (NYT)
Hill Women, by Cassie Chambers
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Monday Mar 01, 2021
Monday Mar 01, 2021
Holly Ordway is Cardinal Francis George Fellow of Faith and Culture of the Word on Fire Institute. Her new book, the first from the new Word on Fire Academic imprint, is Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages. It’s an important work, that genuinely breaks new ground in Tolkien studies. Holly was kind enough to chat about the book and about J.R.R. Tolkien, certainly a favorite of mine, and I suspect, yours, too.
*NEW* Cultural Debris Patreon - Support the podcast!
Holly Ordway website | Twitter
Tolkien's Modern Reading at Word On Fire (with videos)
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Monday Feb 15, 2021
My guest this episode is Elisabeth Deane, a talented artist living and working in London with her husband Jethro Buck, also an artist.
On a trip to India, Elisabeth was exposed to traditional Indian miniature painting, which led her to her life’s work. She pursued studies at the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London. She talks about life as an artist and also her time and training at the Prince’s School, which was established by the Prince of Wales to reinvigorate traditional arts and crafts techniques through both conceptual and practical instruction. Elisabeth has taken her training in traditional techniques and applied them in imaginative and contemporary ways.
Elisabeth Deane website | Instagram | Grosvenor Gallery
Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts
Sanju Soni Instagram | Facebook
Ajay and Vinita Sharma website | Royal Society
Samantha Buckley website | Instagram | Prince's School
Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh website | Instagram
Vaishali Prazmari website | Instagram | Prince's School
Olivia Fraser website | Grosvenor Gallery | Instagram
Jethro Buck website | Instagram | Crane Kalman Gallery
John Singer Sargent (Princeton University Press)
Wednesday Jan 20, 2021
Wednesday Jan 20, 2021
J. Mark Bertrand is the author of the Roland March mystery trilogy and the purveyor of the aforementioned Bible Design Blog. But Mark has seemingly been lying low the past few years, and in this podcast you’ll find out why.
We explore what Mark has been up to, whether we’ll see any more books from his pen, and the inspiration he found at a coroner’s convention. The discussion drifts into what is Christian fiction and what is "good" Christian fiction. Plus, we talk Bibles including the impact of Bible Design Blog and the revolution of Bible publishing over the past 15 years. We touch on the Bibliotheca reader’s Bible and the new Word on Fire Gospels, and discuss if the latter might help pave the way for a renaissance in Catholic Bible publishing like we’ve seen in evangelical Bible publishing.
And if you’re interested in sticking around, Mark and I talk some about fun things, well, fun to us, like briefcases and book shopping. We both share our most serendipitous bookstore finds, and revel in the joy of disordered bookshops.
Roland March Mystery Book Series
Hearing the Music Podcast with J. Mark Bertrand
'A Visit to R.L. Allan', by Alan Cornett
Books mentioned:
The Eight Doors of the Kingdom, and Searching For and Maintaining Peace, by Fr Jacques Philippe
Japanese Paper-Making, by Kiyofusa Narita
The Lost Book of the Grail, by Charlie Lovett
First Garden, by C.Z. Guest
R.L. Allan ESV