{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Trinity Forum Conversations","title":"The Decadent Society with Ross Douthat","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2821,"description":"Decadence isn’t a word most of us use on a daily basis, and yet author and columnist Ross Douthat believes that it perfectly captures the state of a largely stagnant and sclerotic American culture.\nIn his book, The Decadent Society, Douthat explores both the meaning of decadence and the trajectory that led us there. But in addition to diagnosing our state of cultural stagnation, he points with great hope toward societal renewal:\n\n“I think the escape from decadence is probably a dynamic thing where technology, politics, and religion are all sort of operating together, but it's hard to imagine it happening without a really strong religious element within it.” - Ross Douthat\n\nThis conversation is being released for the first time as part of our podcast series on the Challenges of Modernity, and we hope you’ll both enjoy it and that it provokes you to consider those paths toward societal renewal that give Douthat hope.\n\nThis podcast is an edited version of a conversation recorded in 2020. Learn more about Ross Douthat.\n\nAuthors and books mentioned in the conversation:\nThe Decadent Society: How we Became Victims of our Own Success, by Ross Douthat\nFrom Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, by Jacques Barzun\nHatchet, by Gary Paulsen\nSteven Pinker\nBrave New World, by Alduous Huxley\nRobert Gordon\nKarl Marx\nRod Dreher\nRob Bell\nJames Pike\nPope Francis\nPeter Thiel\nMartin Luther\nIgnatius of Loyola\nWatership Down by Richard Adams\nThe Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald\n\nRelated Trinity Forum Readings:\nA Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass\nCity of God by St. Augustine of Hippo\nChildren of Light and Children of Darkness by Reinhold Niebuhr\nLetter from a Birmingham Jail by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.\nBrave New World, by Alduous Huxley\n\nRelated Conversations:\nRebuilding our Common Life with Yuval Levin\nThe Challenge of Christian Nationalism with Mark Noll and Vincent Bacote\nThe Decadent Society with Ross Douthat\nScience, Faith, Trust...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/LC6b2lFM_r_3xEJCzvD8r7UblHhgtgss5nBJ4X1mqD4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE3OTk3LzE2MTM1/MzUwNjEtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}