What comes after the endless critiques of postmodernism?

Williams College professor Dr. Jason Ananda Josephson Storm joins host PJ Wehry to rethink the trajectory of the human sciences and chart a course for the future of academic theory.

Dr. Storm, the Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Religion and Chair of Science and Technology Studies, unpacks his book, Metamodernism: The Future of Theory. Together they discuss how scholars can move past deconstruction and begin building again.

In this conversation they explore:

🔷 Why starting with critique is necessary but terminating in critique fails to move conversations forward.
🔷 How academic disciplines systematically dismantled their own core categories like art, religion, and society.
🔷 The frustrating cycle of scholarly "turns" that repeat past mistakes without interdisciplinary awareness.
🔷 Reclaiming the liberal arts as a practical guide for living a life worth having lived.
🔷 The shift from academic destruction to compassionate philosophy after the birth of his daughter.
🔷 Critical virtue ethics and the importance of struggling together to build a better world despite pervasive suffering.

This is a conversation for anyone exhausted by constant skepticism who wants to find constructive ways to engage with society and scholarship.

Make sure to check out Dr. Storm's book: Metamodernism: The Future of Theory 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/022678665X

Check out our website at chasingleviathan.com

Who thinks that they can subdue Leviathan? Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified. Nothing on earth is its equal. It is without fear. It looks down on all who are haughty; it is king over all who are proud.

These words inspired PJ Wehry to create Chasing Leviathan. Chasing Leviathan was born out of two ideals: that truth is worth pursuing but will never be subjugated, and the discipline of listening is one of the most important habits anyone can develop.

Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
5:00 Beyond Postmodernism
10:00 Humanities, Jobs, and Lives Worth Having Lived
15:00 Teaching “The Meaning of Life” and Guiding Students Toward Flourishing
20:00 Epistemic Communities, Self-Deception, and Critical Virtue Ethics
30:23 How Categories Like “Art,” “Religion,” and “Society” Fall Apart
38:38 What Metamodernism Tries to Build
44:11 Academic Incentives, Jargon, and Trying to Do No-Bullshit Philosophy
53:05 The Impact of Fatherhood
1:02:07 Critical Virtue Ethics

What do Hegel and Heidegger have to do with the struggles faced by liberalism today?

Duke political philosopher Dr. Michael Allen Gillespie joins host PJ Wehry to rethink the philosophical foundations of modern history and the crisis we're living through now.

Dr. Gillespie, Professor of Political Science at Duke University, revisits his landmark book, Hegel, Heidegger, and the Ground of History, to examine what these two towering figures reveal about the trajectory of Western civilization.

In this conversation they explore:

• Why Fukuyama's "end of history" never arrived and what replaced it
• Hegel's master-slave dialectic and what it tells us about how consciousness drives history
• Heidegger's warning: the "forgetfulness of Being" as the root of modern nihilism
• What it means to ask for the ground of history and why that question remains urgent
• The tension between human freedom and natural causation at the heart of modernity
• Heidegger's destruction of Western metaphysics and what he was trying to clear space for
• Why Heidegger may have misread Plato, and what we lose because of it

This is a conversation for anyone who suspects something has gone deeply wrong in the modern world and wants to understand why.

Make sure to check out Dr. Gillespie's book: Hegel, Heidegger, and the Ground of History 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226293777/

Check out our website at chasingleviathan.com

Who thinks that they can subdue Leviathan? Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified. Nothing on earth is its equal. It is without fear. It looks down on all who are haughty; it is king over all who are proud.

These words inspired PJ Wehry to create Chasing Leviathan. Chasing Leviathan was born out of two ideals: that truth is worth pursuing but will never be subjugated, and the discipline of listening is one of the most important habits anyone can develop.

Can beauty actually reveal God? Oxford theologian Dr. Mark McInroy joins host PJ Wehry to explore Hans Urs von Balthasar's radical claim that beauty is not decoration, but the very structure of divine revelation.

Dr. McInroy, Associate Professor of Contemporary and Systematic Theology at the University of Oxford, unpacks his book Balthasar on the Spiritual Senses: Perceiving Splendor, a guide to one of the most important (and most difficult) Catholic thinkers of the 20th century.

In this conversation they discuss:

• What Balthasar means by "spiritual senses"
• How beauty functions as a transcendental property of being itself
• Why God's self-disclosure in Christ is fundamentally sensory, not merely rational
• The concept of "splendor"
• Why beauty, truth, and goodness are inseparable
• How perceiving divine beauty is available to all Christians, not just mystics

If you've ever felt that a great work of art, a piece of music, or a moment in nature pointed toward something beyond itself, Balthasar has a theology for that experience.

Make sure to check out Dr. McInroy's book: Balthasar on the Spiritual Senses: Perceiving Splendor 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199689008

Check out our website at chasingleviathan.com

Who thinks that they can subdue Leviathan? Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified. Nothing on earth is its equal. It is without fear. It looks down on all who are haughty; it is king over all who are proud.

These words inspired PJ Wehry to create Chasing Leviathan. Chasing Leviathan was born out of two ideals: that truth is worth pursuing but will never be subjugated, and the discipline of listening is one of the most important habits anyone can develop.