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Theory 2 Action Podcast

Theory 2 Action Podcast

Hosted by David Kaiser

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Episodes

638

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

We examine and explore the great books, to extract their nuggets of wisdom helping to save you time, and ultimately to take action to FLOURISH in life. Powered by The MOJO Academy.

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60 recent
August 12, 202626 min

LM#78--Crazy vs Common Sense

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageSeventy percent is not a fringe. If you have ever swallowed your words while someone called basic common sense “radical,” this Liberty Minute is for you. We start with a blunt claim: you are being sold a fake 50-50 story, and it is designed to make you doubt what you already know is true.We walk through why we created the free Crazy vs. Common Sense newsletter on Substack and what it is actually for: giving you receipts before the next awkward moment with a coworker, a cable anchor, or your kid’s teacher. Instead of hot takes, we read the political books and history books and boil them down with a clear verdict. Each issue runs through timeless lenses that outlast fads: the US Constitution, the Western tradition, and Catholic teaching as historically taught. You get what the author nails, where the argument falls short, and our plain-language “crazy or common sense” call.Along the way, we connect the project to Thomas Paine and the American habit of saying the obvious thing out loud in print when institutions normalize dysfunction. We also dig into polling that shows broad agreement across party lines, including questions where majorities label certain policies “completely crazy,” which raises a bigger question: who benefits when normal people stay quiet?If you want political analysis grounded in books, data, and moral clarity, subscribe, share this with a friend who feels worn down, and leave a review so more people can find it. What is one “Tuesday opinion” you have felt pressured to apologize for?Key Points from the Episode:The crazy versus common sense newsletter. And friends, it's completely free. So go sign up today.  https://crazyvscommonsense.substack.com/  the lie that “crazy” equals mainstream   why we started the newsletter after hearing the same conversations everywhere  everyday examples where people self-censor common sense  Scott Jennings’ framing and the Thomas Paine connection  how we review one political or history book each week   the three lenses we use: Constitution, Western tradition, Catholic teaching  five early issues on border security, election integrity, and institutional capture  the 70% polling data that shows you are not the fringe  why we include fair criticism of books to earn trust  a five-minute format plus optional book briefs for busy readers  Go to crazy versus commonsense.substack.com right now.  We are building and have built out a whole library of book briefs, just one pager's five-minute read over at the Mojo Book Academy on Substack, mojoacademy.substack.com.  Keep fighting the good fight!Resources for this episode:Sign up here  https://crazyvscommonsense.substack.com/Links?📩 5 min Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🤪 Every single week we publish a newsletter called Crazy versus Common Sense.  The crazy versus common sense newsletter. And friends, it's completely free. So go sign up today.  https://crazyvscommonsense.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

August 3, 202614 min

MM#487--Voters Decide Who Gets Counted Out

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageThey told Richard Nixon his career was over. Then they told him again. He proved them wrong twice and, for a moment, he looked unstoppable. I walk through Nixon’s political exile after 1960 and 1962, then his return to win the presidency in 1968 and dominate in 1972. The point isn’t nostalgia or hero worship. It’s a hard look at how comebacks really happen when political elites rush to declare a leader finished, but the “lunch bucket” voters still show up, still work, and still vote. Along the way, I draw a modern parallel to Donald Trump’s 2024 comeback after years of investigations, prosecutions, civil suits, and impeachment fights, and why many Americans see that era through the lens of “lawfare” and institutional trust. To understand the country that produced Nixon’s return, we go straight to a defining source: Theodore H. White’s Pulitzer-winning The Making of a President 1960. White helped invent modern campaign journalism, writing scenes that capture Kennedy’s discipline, Nixon’s exhaustion, and the first truly television-driven presidential race where looking presidential mattered as much as sounding presidential. We also lay out the pivotal election sequence of 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972, including how Barry Goldwater’s loss plants seeds that later power Nixon and Reagan. Finally, we face the hinge point: Watergate. I explain why White’s series couldn’t survive Nixon’s resignation, why he turns to Breach of Faith, and where we go next with a deeper Watergate dive through Geoff Shepard’s trilogy and the argument that scandals can become tools used against future presidents. Key Points from the Episode:  • Nixon’s two political “deaths” and the mechanics of a real comeback  • why the Trump 2024 return fuels comparisons about elites, voters and “lawfare”  • Theodore White’s The Making of a President 1960 and what it changed in political journalism  • the first TV-era presidential campaign and why “looking presidential” becomes decisive  • how 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1972 map the conservative movement’s rise from Goldwater to Nixon to Reagan  • “order” as a winning message for an exhausted country  • Watergate as the turning point that breaks White’s series and reshapes trust in institutions  • preview of the upcoming Geoff Shepard's Watergate trilogy coverage and the claim that scandal becomes a political weapon  Other goodnessAmerica's pivotal election series:  https://www.teammojoacademy.com/mm342-pivotal-tuesdays-series-the-election-of-1968-part-1/https://www.teammojoacademy.com/mm343-pivotal-tuesdays-series-the-election-of-1968-part-2/We are building and have built out a whole library of book briefs, just one pager's five-minute read over at the Mojo Book Academy on Substack, mojoacademy.substack.com.  Keep fighting the good fight!

July 23, 202623 min

LM#77--The Fight for the Soul of America is HERE

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageSomething snapped in American life and it didn’t start yesterday. We rewind to a question so many of us have asked at kitchen tables, over beers, and at our kids’ games: what happened to our country? Then we walk back through three books that, taken together, offer one diagnosis: America is in the middle of a cultural revolution, and the battleground is institutions, education, and the stories we tell about ourselves.We connect Kevin Slack’s “long march through the institutions” to the practical mechanisms of cultural power: schools, bureaucracy, regulatory agencies, and the quiet rewriting of norms that later becomes policy. We bring in Mark Levin’s argument about the Democratic Party’s historical arc and a modern authoritarian playbook that aims to cripple opposition without openly destroying it. And we use Chris Rufo’s work to link ideas to institutions, tracing how revolutionary academic theories become the default language of elite credentialing, even when similar experiments have failed elsewhere.From there, we lay out the broader timeline: 1972 as a hinge point, the fading of Cold War era center left patriotism, the rise of activist incentives, the jump in organizing power in the mid 2000s, Obama era acceleration, Bernie Sanders making democratic socialism culturally “respectable,” and the Democratic Socialists of America building durable local infrastructure. We end with the most important point: this outcome is not inevitable. If you care about civic education, American history, constitutional government, and raising kids who can tell truth from propaganda, this is a roadmap for how we got here and how to fight back without despair.Key Points from the Episode: • Slack’s “long march through the institutions” and how cultural change precedes political change  • Levin’s historical case for a modern appetite for control and the warning signs of soft authoritarian tactics  • Rufo’s link between academic theories and real institutional power, especially in schools of education  • 1972 as the hinge point and the slow incentives driven shift inside the Democratic coalition  • The pathway from Obama to Sanders to DSA as infrastructure, money, and local wins  • Why the outcome is not inevitable and how truth, history, and classical education push back  • The fight showing up at kitchen tables, schools, workplaces, and youth sports sidelines  We are building and have built out a whole library of book briefs, just one pager's five-minute read over at the Mojo Book Academy on Substack, mojoacademy.substack.com.  Keep fighting the good fight!Resources for this episode:Kevin Slack, professor of politics at Hillsdale College, and his book The War on the American Republic. Listen to Part 1 here.Mark Levin, and The Democrat Party Hates America. Listen to Part 2 here.Christopher Rufo, and America's Cultural Revolution. Listen to Part 3 here.Links?📩 5 min Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🤪 Every single week we publish a newsletter called Crazy versus Common Sense.  The crazy versus common sense newsletter. And friends, it's completely free. So go sign up today.  https://crazyvscommonsense.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

July 18, 202618 min

MM#486--When Is A Compromise With Power A Betrayal

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageA signature can look like safety, right up until the day it becomes worthless ink. We take you back to 1933 Germany to watch a deal get made with Adolf Hitler and then dismantled piece by piece, revealing why legal guarantees cannot protect anyone when an authoritarian regime treats law as theater.We set the context most people miss: German Catholics had lived through decades of hostility stretching back to Bismarck’s Kulturkampf, and the chaos of Weimar Germany made the desire for a binding national promise feel urgent. When Hitler needs the Center Party’s votes to lock in power, he offers a trade that sounds “practical” on paper: the Reichskonkordat will protect Catholic schools, parishes, and legal standing, and in return the Church steps out of politics. Then the reality hits. Youth groups disappear, priests are surveilled, and the regime’s attacks on human dignity keep escalating.From there, we draw a clear modern parallel to the Vatican’s agreement with the Chinese Communist government over bishop appointments, renewed through 2028, and Cardinal Joseph Zen’s public warnings about the underground Church being left behind. The question underneath both stories is the same: what actually protects the vulnerable when the people in power do not believe truth is real?We end with the turning point in 1937, when Pope Pius XI releases Mit Brennender Sorge, smuggled into Germany and read from pulpits under the Gestapo’s nose, calling Catholics to spiritual resistance and naming the poison even when politics refuses to. If you care about religious freedom, church-state relations, and the limits of diplomacy under authoritarianism, this one will stay with you. Key Points from the Episode:• German Catholics shaped by decades of harassment under Kulturkampf  • Weimar instability fueling a desire for national legal guarantees  • Hitler trading “protection” for the Church’s silence in politics  • The Reichskonkordat’s promises contrasted with immediate Nazi violations  • Why agreements fail when leaders reject truth and justice  • Parallels to the Vatican’s China agreement and Cardinal Joseph Zen’s warnings  • Mit Brennender Sorge as a shift from diplomacy to defiance  • The covert distribution effort and the risk taken by clergy and laity  • The persecution that followed, including imprisonment and deaths at Dachau  Be sure to check out our show page at TeamMojoAcademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources.  Links📩 Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

July 15, 202613 min

LM#76--Hong Kong's Thomas More - Jimmy Lai

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageA 78-year-old man sits in solitary confinement in Hong Kong with a 20-year sentence hanging over him. He could have left. He could have said the words that would have set him free. Jimmy Lai refused to lie, and that single act of conscience explains why authoritarian power reacts so fiercely to one person who won’t be bought or frightened into agreement. We trace Lai’s story from his rise as a self-made publisher and founder of Apple Daily to the convictions that made him a political prisoner, then widen the lens to a timeless pattern: rulers don’t only want silence, they want affirmation. To make the point vivid, we bring in Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons and the example of Sir Thomas More, whose quiet “no” threatened a king more than any army ever could. From there, we get personal. Tyranny’s business model depends on getting good people to say things they don’t believe, and most of the time the pressure arrives in small, ordinary moments. A boss, a crowd, or an algorithm nudges you toward the easy line instead of the true one, and repetition slowly erases your ability to resist. You’ll leave with one clear action step for the week, a sharper understanding of why free speech and freedom of the press matter, and a reason to take courage seriously before it costs more than you think. Key Points from the Episode:• the weight of “20 years” for a 78-year-old man and why it reads like a life sentence  • the Thomas More parallel from A Man for All Seasons and the danger of quiet refusal  • who Jimmy Lai is, why he founded Apple Daily, and why he stayed  • why regimes punish unbought people and make examples of them  • conscience as an antidote to tyranny and the everyday pressures to comply  • a simple action step for the next moment you feel pushed to say the comfortable lie  • a warning about treating communism as abstract and a call to sober attention at home  • prayer for Jimmy Lai and others imprisoned for refusing to bow  Want to go deeper?Watch the documentary on Jimmy Lai's story and the fall of Hong Kong: The Hong Konger — freejimmylai.comGo back and listen to where this story started — our 2022 episode: LM #21 — Two Iron Ladies: The Hong KongerAnd keep Jimmy Lai in your prayers tonight, along with every man and woman sitting in a cell right now simply for refusing to lie.Want to leave a review? Click here, and if we earned a five-star review from you — high five and knuckle bumps — we appreciate it greatly, thank you so much!Keep fighting the good fight.Links?📩 Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

July 7, 202616 min

LM#75--America 250, pt 4: the Closing Argument for America

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageAmerica just hit a milestone that should make all of us pause: 250 years of self-government. We’re not doing a victory lap or a doom spiral. We’re making a case. Do the principles that built the United States still hold up, and if they do, why does it feel like we’re struggling to live them?We walk through three “nuggets” that tie the whole America 250 series together, drawing on Brett Baier’s The Case for America along with the bigger story of American history. First, liberty isn’t a one-time event. It’s something every generation has to choose, protect, and pass down, not only on battlefields but in the way we disagree with each other. Lincoln’s call for charity toward all becomes a practical standard: dissent is part of freedom, but fracture is something else, and we have to learn the difference again.Next, we dig into the American economic miracle as a blueprint, not a fluke: freedom that rewards invention, backed by limited government, produces prosperity because ordinary people are empowered to build and try and fail and try again. Finally, we talk about providence and why acknowledging it should shape our posture with humility and gratitude, especially if we believe rights come from God rather than government.We close with the uncomfortable diagnosis: you can’t defend what you don’t understand, and civic literacy has eroded. If we want another 250 years, we need civics education and a renewed pursuit of virtue. Listen, share with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what should change first: how we teach civics or how we practice virtue?Key Points from the Episode:• liberty as a generational choice that must be defended  • dissent as evidence of freedom rather than national fracture  • the American economic miracle as a repeatable blueprint  • freedom, invention, and limited government as the core formula  • rights coming from God rather than the state  • providence as gratitude and humility rather than swagger  • civic literacy as a shared practice that has eroded  • virtue as the glue that makes self-government easier in daily life  Be sure to like and subscribe, and check out our substack where we go in depth on more of these topics.  Links📩 Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

July 5, 202610 min

LM#74--America 250, pt 3 - Divine Providence

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageWhere do your rights come from, and what happens to a country when it gets that answer wrong? We tackle the most radical political claim baked into the American founding: unalienable rights don’t come from the state, they come from God, and government exists to protect what you already have. That single idea flips the usual power equation and draws a hard line around conscience, belief, and the limits of political authority.We lean on Michael Medved’s book The American Miracle to explore why the founders talked about Providence and why Medved insists key moments in the Revolutionary era feel like more than coincidence. From fog and storms to the timing of alliances, we weigh “luck” against “Providence” and land on a surprising takeaway: taking American exceptionalism seriously should produce humility and gratitude, not swagger or xenophobia.Then we connect the dots to religious liberty and why it functions as the engine of every other freedom. We talk through the First Amendment tradition, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and the core principle that God created the mind free, so no ruler has rightful authority to coerce belief or punish dissent. We also look at how free conscience fuels reform movements, from abolition to civil rights, and why Tocqueville thought America’s blend of Christianity and liberty helped explain why the system worked.Key Points from the Episode:• the core question of rights and their source  • the founders’ radical claim that government protects rights rather than grants them  • Michael Medved’s The American Miracle and the case for Providence over luck  • why acknowledging providence points to humility and gratitude rather than arrogance  • religious liberty as the driver of abolition and civil rights reform  • Tocqueville on Christianity and liberty in the American mind  • the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom and the First Amendment limits on government coercion  • why state power over conscience corrupts faith and breeds hypocrisy  Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources.  if you like books 📚, this is your place Links📩 Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

June 30, 202612 min

LM#73--America 250, pt 2: The Blueprint Behind America’s Wealth

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageAmerica starts as a broke, debt-soaked upstart with a near-worthless currency and almost no industrial muscle, then turns into a nation that produces a massive share of what the world makes. That’s not a trivia fact to us. It’s a question worth wrestling with, because the answer points to what actually drives prosperity and what quietly kills it.We pull three “nuggets of wisdom” from John Steele Gordon’s An Empire of Wealth and lay out a simple, challenging blueprint behind the American economic miracle. First, economic freedom and property rights: when ordinary people can own land, build a business, and keep the fruit of their labor, effort and ambition compound. Second, innovation at scale: from patents to profit, we talk about why the US so often turns raw ideas into real industries, and why rewarding risk matters more than raw genius. Third, limited government and resilience: we argue the economy grows fastest in the spaces where government stays predictable and restrained, and we look at how Americans repeatedly rebuild after shocks that “experts” once claimed would end the story.If you care about entrepreneurship, incentives, economic history, the patent system, and what makes growth durable, you’ll leave with a clear framework and a prompt to test it against what you believe. Key Points from the Episode: • America’s unlikely starting point in 1776 and the scale of the modern economic gap• Freedom as an economic engine through property rights and keeping the fruit of labor• The pilgrims’ lesson on ownership incentives and productivity• Invention as a national pattern and the role of risk-taking rewards• Patents, profit, and scaling ideas into industrial empires• Limited government as a condition for predictable rules and creative growth• Resilience through repeated national crises and rebuilds• Why the blueprint is repeatable and why it feels fragileif you like books 📚, this is your place Links📩 Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

June 21, 202613 min

MM#485--The Umpire Who Joined The Game

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageHe told America judges are umpires, not lawmakers. Two decades later, Chief Justice John Roberts is still calling balls and strikes, but sometimes it sounds like he’s redrawing the strike zone.We dig into the irony and the real-world consequences of Roberts’ “institutionalist” approach, starting with one of the most debated Supreme Court decisions of our time: the Obamacare individual mandate in *NFIB v. Sebelius*. We walk through why conservatives thought the Commerce Clause argument was clean, why Roberts initially seemed to agree, and how the case turned on a single reframe: treating the penalty as a tax under Congress’ taxing power. That move didn’t just keep a law alive, it reshaped how many people trust the Court.Then we hold that up against Molly Hemingway’s portrait of Justice Samuel Alito, a justice known less for smoothing edges and more for saying what he thinks, even when it’s uncomfortable. From the Citizens United State of the Union moment to Alito’s willingness to let dissents stand on the record, we explore what “courage” looks like on a bench that is always being read through a partisan lens.Finally, we connect the same tension to a live controversy over birthright citizenship in Trump versus Barbara, the Fourteenth Amendment, and *Wong Kim Ark*. When Roberts fires back, “it might be a new world, but it’s certainly the same Constitution,” we ask what consistency really demands.Key Points from the Episode:• Roberts’ confirmation-hearing metaphor and the legitimacy problem  • How the Roberts Court moves law right while Roberts surprises conservatives  • The Obamacare individual mandate and the “penalty as a tax” reasoning  • Molly Hemingway’s portrait of Alito as the road not taken  • Alito’s “not true” reaction to Obama after Citizens United  • Trump versus Barbara and the Fourteenth Amendment debate over birthright citizenship  • What “same Constitution” means when the stakes are political  Links📩 Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

June 16, 202617 min

The Mojo Book Academy: Building a Flourishing Life--Let Us Begin

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageA name can hide your mission or it can tell the truth. We’re choosing truth, which is why Team Mojo Academy becomes the Mojo Book Academy. This is not a logo swap. It’s us saying out loud that books are not a hobby on the side, they’re the method of formation, the way tradition is carried, and the way a serious person can still learn from Aristotle, Aquinas, Burke, and Chesterton when modern schools, universities, and even parts of our culture fail to hand on what matters.We also share what’s coming next. Our America 250 YouTube series is rolling out in four parts, with companion Substack pieces that go deeper into the arguments and the reading behind them. After the celebrations fade, we launch our primary ongoing work: the Building a Flourishing Life newsletter, a substantive, book-driven letter organized around five pillars we believe make up the architecture of the excellent life: faith, the body, books, the soul, and sanctity.Along the way, we reclaim “mojo” from hustle culture and redefine it as integrated vitality, a life with disciplined strength, interior order, and a clear spiritual destination. Key Points from the Episode:• why the name changes from Team Mojo Academy to Mojo Book Academy• books as the method of transmitting tradition and forming the mind• “academy” as a community committed to thinking well together• America 250 YouTube series and companion Substack essays• Building a Flourishing Life newsletter as the primary ongoing offering• five pillars: faith, body, books, soul, sanctity• the formation gap facing modern men and why it is urgent• reclaiming “mojo” as integrated vitality ordered toward holinessIf you like this episode, be sure to share with someone else, uh, someone who needs to hear it. Leave a review if you can. If you haven't already, we appreciate it. It genuinely helps more people to find the show. if you like books 📚, this is your place If you want a great books community focused on Western civilization, the Catholic intellectual tradition, and practical steps toward a flourishing life, come with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs formation, and leave a review so more readers can find the work.   Also, please get over to Substack, that's our main central location now, where we are building out a catalog of writing and book reviews to help you build a full-fledged flourishing life.  Links📩 Book Briefs + Writings on Substack 👇Substack  https://mojoacademy.substack.com/🎙️ Theory 2 Action podcast 👇Website and other great resources   https://www.teammojoacademy.com/🎥 Youtube Channel 👇MOJO Academy on Youtube :  click here

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