Location, location, location.  Choosing where to live can be one of life's most important concerns, but it's also a decision we often give little sophisticated attention.  Chosing a hometown affects your and your children's ability to fulfil your vocation, and be as virtuous as possible.  It can also affect your potential earning power.  We share about our experience in suburban wastelands, ask whether a good person should live in an urban environment, and why some who grew up in the city are nervous in the country.

How can we effectively be good neighbors to human beings around the world?  Dan shares the top events that connected America to the world in history.  We interview Andrew Syed about various ways to care about others, including the nonprofit, NGO, and for-profit world.  

Should a virtuous person waste time on sports?  We chat with classical scholar (that means ancient Greece and Rome), Dr. C.J. Armsrong about the history and ethics of sports.  We share the top five banned sports and the top ten most culturally significant American sports moments. This is a show for people who are fanatics as well as those who hate professional sports.  It's about its prominent role in our world and it might be the most fun we've had to date thinking through this stuff.  

Dan and Jeff banter about technology and how we might have to fight killer robots.  We discuss the ways in which American society benefits from technology but also the need for true human associations.

After the first episode, we needed to have a bit more fun.  Here we discuss the nature of humor, share our list of topic comedies and comedians, and talk about the ways in which laughter is a sign of wisdom and transcendence.  We don't recommend you watch or listen to all the pop culture artifacts we discuss--especially with your mom--but we use these as a catalyst for understanding why it is important to take our engagement seriously, without failing to laugh at ourselves. We argue that humor is important for religious and political contexts.

We discuss the complexity of evil, especially by investigating its portrayal in film The show sets up the context for the podcast in general, and so it emphasizes the darker aspects of our culture.  Don't fret though, future episodes will cover toopics like humor and interviews with artists. Go to virtueinthewasteland.com for show notes or further information.  Please subscribe and give us a rating to help us get underway.