Theory 2 Action Podcast

David Kaiser
  • 4.2 (5)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Biweekly

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.

  1. 8h ago

    LM#81--Sept 11th--25 years later: A Western Civilization Defense

    FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message A Harvard professor made a prediction in the 1990s that sounded almost rude at the time: the Cold War didn’t end history, it just cleared the stage. Twenty five years after 9/11, we take that prediction seriously and ask what Samuel P. Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations gets right about identity, religion, and culture as forces that shape politics and war. We walk through Huntington’s core ideas in plain language: what a “civilization” is, how each of us carries layered identities, and why those identities don’t disappear when markets grow or borders shift. Then we test the theory against reality. 9/11 wasn’t random violence, and it wasn’t simply a story about poverty or policy mistakes. It was a declaration from a revolutionary strain of Islamist politics, and Huntington’s historical runway helps explain how decades of grievance, power, and memory set the conditions. We also draw a bright line that matters: al Qaeda does not speak for Islam, and many of the victims of jihadism have been Muslims themselves. From there, we turn the lens back on us. We talk about America’s mixed post 9/11 record, the limits of exporting democracy, and the evolving threats that replaced any illusion of a “peace dividend,” from cyber conflict to authoritarian rivals to mass migration used as pressure. Finally, we ask the hardest question: if culture is this durable, why is Western civilization worth defending? We make the affirmative case for rule of law, freedom of conscience, constitutional government, inherent human dignity, and ordered liberty, and we lay out what defense looks like in daily life: education, speech, borders, and strong local institutions. Key Points from the Episode: • marking 9/11 with grief, names, and historical memory  • defining “civilization” as the deepest cultural layer  • explaining layered identity and how it can change  • tracing Huntington’s core claim from ideology to culture  • correcting the “civilizations as monoliths” mistake  • using the framework to understand jihadism without equating it with Islam  • judging America’s post-9/11 record as mixed: strong defense, weak nation-building  • naming modern threats after Bin Laden: Iran, migration as a weapon, cyber conflict, China, Russia, Western self-doubt  • making the affirmative case for Western civilization: dignity, rule of law, freedom of conscience, ordered liberty  • outlining what defending the West looks like: free speech, real education, humane borders, strong local institutions  Links? Huntington's 1993 Foreign Policy article  📩 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/

    LM#81--Sept 11th--25 years later: A Western Civilization Defense

  2. Sep 1

    LM#80--Youtube Channel Banned

    FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message Somebody flipped a switch and more than a hundred hours of work disappeared. That’s not a metaphor. Our Mojo Academy YouTube channel gets terminated with a single email citing “impersonation,” no warning, no specific video, and no clear explanation and it forces a blunt question: if a platform can erase your work instantly, what do you actually own? We walk through what the ban feels like, why the appeal process matters, and why this is bigger than one channel. When the rules are invisible and the decision-maker is unaccountable, “platform” starts to look a lot like “landlord.” So we talk practical resilience for creators and builders: backups, diversified distribution, and why Substack and a podcast feed can protect your relationship with your audience when algorithms and policies change. Then we zoom out to politics with Matthew Goodwin’s Suicide of a Nation, the concept of “suicidal empathy,” and the claim that Britain’s institutions have drifted from the people they exist to serve. We connect that UK warning to American concerns about borders, trust, and parties that stop listening to their voters, drawing parallels to books like Douglas Murray’s work and Todd Bensman’s Overrun. We close by explaining what the Mojo Academy Book Brief is, why we built it, and what’s coming next with longer Academy Reviews and narrated audio. If you care about free speech, deplatforming risk, immigration debates, and staying grounded in real arguments instead of hot takes, hit play, subscribe, and share this with a friend. After you listen, leave a review and tell us: where are you building what you can’t afford to lose? Key Points from the Episode: • YouTube channel removal with no warning and no named violation  • Why deplatforming feels like erasure of work  • The “platform vs landlord” lesson and owning distribution  • “Suicide of a Nation” and the idea of suicidal empathy  • UK immigration, identity, and institutions drifting from the public  • Parallels to US politics, borders, and parties losing voters  • What the Mojo Academy Book Brief includes and how to use it  • Why Substack becomes the hub and what Academy Review adds  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/

    LM#80--Youtube Channel Banned

  3. Aug 26

    MM#488--The Five Year Anniversary of Abbey Gate And The Cost Of Hesitation

    FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message A single moment at Abbey Gate still captures a whole era of American foreign policy: a Marine identifies a threat, asks for permission to act, and is told no until the danger disappears into the crowd. Hours later, the Kabul evacuation turns into a massacre that kills 13 American service members and scores of Afghan civilians. Five years on, we slow down and tell the story with the weight it deserves, because remembrance means more than silence. It means asking what decisions were made, who owned them, and why accountability never showed up afterward. From there, we zoom out and connect three books that frame the problem in plain terms. We use Michael Mandelbaum’s “The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy” to explain how the United States became a hyperpower and still stumbled through repeated setbacks. We pull in Serhii Plokhy’s writing on the Russo-Ukrainian War to underline a pattern: ambiguity is an invitation, and hesitation is never neutral. When the free world hedges, predators don’t wait politely. We tie those ideas back to Kabul, where America had the tools to secure the evacuation but lacked the competent, decisive leadership to use them. Then we face the present. Afghanistan under the Taliban is a closed emirate, and the crisis for women and girls is among the worst on the planet. We also dig into Iran and the administration’s next move: “Economic D-Day,” a strategy built around aggressive secondary sanctions and maritime pressure designed to squeeze Iran’s cash without launching another shooting war. The big question is enforcement, especially when most Iranian oil reportedly flows to China and the world watches whether Washington has the stomach to follow through. Key Points from the Episode: • Recounting the Abbey Gate timeline and the denied requests to engage a suspected bomber  • Arguing that these deaths are not inevitable but tied to incompetent, unaccountable decisions  • Explaining the “hyperpower without success” idea and why strength fails without will  • Linking Afghanistan, Georgia, and Ukraine through the lesson that ambiguity invites aggression  • Asking what Afghanistan looks like under Taliban rule and what happened to women and girls  • Debating why the US stayed after 2011 and what “finishing the job” would have required  • Assessing Iran pressure after regional strikes and the way allies hedge when costs rise  • Breaking down “Economic D-Day,” secondary sanctions, maritime blockade concepts, and the China enforcement problem  If this episode helped you to see the story more clearly, I'd be grateful if you left a review. Click the link if we've earned five stars from you. Other goodness LM#37---American Foreign Policy,  part 3 Check us out over at substack!   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!

  4. Aug 22

    CC#47--When The Shepherd Stays Silent

    FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message A 94-year-old cardinal walking into a Hong Kong courtroom might be the clearest sermon you’ll hear all week. Cardinal Joseph Zen sits beside Jimmy Lai’s wife as Lai, a 78-year-old Catholic and pro-democracy publisher, is sentenced to 20 years under Hong Kong’s national security law. Then a reporter asks Pope Leo XIV about Lai, and the answer is chilling in its restraint: “I cannot comment on that.” We sit with the contrast, because it raises a hard question about what Catholic leadership looks like when a believer becomes a political prisoner. We connect that moment to the 2018 Vatican-China agreement on bishop appointments, a secretive Vatican-China deal that, in practice, appears to give Beijing leverage while Rome keeps a veto it never uses. We talk about what secrecy prevents: accountability, clarity for ordinary Catholics, and public advocacy for the underground Catholic Church in China as crosses come down, cameras go up, and clergy face detention or “re-education.” When the Vatican’s ability to speak depends on keeping a partner happy, the people who pay first are often the ones already under pressure. We also look backward to look forward. Rome has tried “quiet treaties” with hostile regimes before, and history shows how quickly total-control governments break promises. We compare today’s approach to earlier Vatican diplomacy, the failures of Ostpolitik, and the model of naming evil plainly, even when it comes at a cost. If you care about religious freedom, Catholic persecution, and the moral limits of diplomacy, this conversation is for you.  Key Points from the Episode: • Jimmy Lai’s 20-year sentence and Cardinal Joseph Zen’s public witness   • Pope Leo XIV’s response and what papal silence signals   • The 2018 Vatican-China agreement and why its secrecy matters   • Beijing’s leverage over bishops and Rome’s unused veto   • The underground Catholic Church in China under surveillance and coercion   • Historical parallel with the 1933 treaty and Pope Pius XI’s 1937 warning   • Ostpolitik versus public truth-telling and John Paul II’s example   • Named bishops detained or disappeared and the question of accountability   We have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great ways to work.   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/

  5. Aug 18

    LM#79--What If Liberation Was Never Inevitable

    FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message Ninety hours of World War II history sounds like a stunt until you realize what it does to your perspective. I just finished Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy on Audible, spread across six years, and I can’t stop thinking about what it means to “walk” from North Africa to Sicily, up the Italian campaign, and into the final push across Western Europe. This isn’t a cheerleading tour of victory. It’s a clear-eyed account of how the United States Army starts green, makes painful mistakes, and learns the hard way what modern war demands.  We talk about why this matters now, with the 80th anniversary of VE Day approaching and firsthand memories fading fast. Atkinson wrote these books so we would never be allowed to forget, and his reporting background shows up on every page: friendly fire, vanity at the top, racism in a segregated army, and the chaos of Kasserine Pass sit right alongside courage and endurance. The big takeaway is uncomfortable and necessary: liberation was never inevitable. It was paid for, one battle and one life at a time.  We also connect Atkinson’s ground-level storytelling to Victor Davis Hanson’s The Second World Wars, which asks the colder question: why did the Allies actually win? Hanson gives us the production, fuel, airframes, and industrial capacity that made victory probable. Atkinson gives us the men who had to climb out of the landing craft and make that probability real. Along the way, we share two passages that land like a weight, including Audie Murphy’s stark line about there being “no exhilaration at being alive.”  If you want a taste before committing to the full trilogy, we point you to the free Mojo Academy book briefs.  Key Points from the Episode: • the six-year path through An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light   • why the 80th anniversary of VE Day makes remembering urgent   • Atkinson’s credibility as a Washington Post writer and two-time Pulitzer winner   • the US Army’s early mistakes in North Africa and what Kasserine Pass reveals   • how Sicily and Italy show adaptation without a triumphalist tone   • the idea that greatness is failing, adjusting, and finishing the job   • why liberation was paid for one soldier at a time   • the contrast with Victor Davis Hanson on industrial capacity and free men   • Audie Murphy’s “no exhilaration” as sacrifice without swagger   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/

  6. Aug 12

    LM#78--Crazy vs Common Sense

    FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message Seventy 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

  7. Aug 3

    MM#487--Voters Decide Who Gets Counted Out

    FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message They 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 goodness America'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!

  8. Jul 23

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

    FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message Something 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

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

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.

Information

  • Creator
    David Kaiser
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    643
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 © 2020 | Eudaimonia Enterprises, LLC
  • Show Website
    Theory 2 Action Podcast