The Spirit of Philadelphia with Chris Gibson | Bonus Episode

In this bonus episode, host Roger Berkowitz interviews Chris Gibson, former U.S. Army colonel, Purple Heart recipient, ex–three-term congressman, former Williams College professor and Siena College president, and author of The Spirit of Philadelphia: A Call to Recover the Founding Principles. Gibson explains the “spirit of Philadelphia” as the coalescing energy of collaboration and compromise that emerged at the Constitutional Convention after Sherman’s bicameral compromise, enabling agreement on the executive and an independent judiciary, and he notes Madison was initially slow to embrace it. They discuss Gibson’s “original American social ethos” and his argument for “common sense realism,” rooted in Scottish Enlightenment thinkers like Reid and Hutcheson, as a hybrid of Lockean rights and communitarian obligations. Gibson says the book aims to restore trust, reawaken civic spirit, address a crisis of meaning amid division and alienation, and promote leaders of service while proposing reforms to rebalance executive and congressional power.

Gibson will be speaking at The Arendt Forum (October 15–17, 2026), the Hannah Arendt Center's 20th anniversary fall gathering on Solidarity: What Are We Fighting For?

ABOUT:

Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt.

New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).

THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER:

The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/

More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/

THE HOST:

Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.

EDITED BY:

Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.