In this fifth episode of Season Two of More Than Politics, host Julie Varner Walsh turns to the problems we face when it comes to today’s politics. She describes how she sees these problems as coming from our human tendency to idolize, to become unhealthily attached to things. And in particular, in this episode Julie discusses our tendency to idolize people – both groups and individuals. Julie believes that this idol has lead us into a culture war, and that we vastly underestimate the r...

In the first three episodes of this season, host Julie Varner Walsh has described some ideas that she sees as timeless – applicable to all humans, whenever and wherever they live. In this episode and those that follow, she begins to orient us to our moment, to our place – to the problems we face, the solutions we need, and the ideas that might help us move forward. She explores how she sees her ideas of the human physics and the spiritual physics playing out in our moment, and how we might us...

In this episode, host Julie Varner Walsh explores her idea of the “spiritual physics” – a concept through which she tries to make sense of the mess in the world – especially in politics, and in the way politics has come to affect our relationships with one another. She believes there is a truth to human relationship that is both deeper than and counter to our basic human inclinations, and that this truth applies to both small-scale human relationships (like family, friendship, and community) ...

In Season Two of More Than Politics, host Julie Varner Walsh aims to lay a groundwork for how we, as individuals, might consider the political issues and dynamics of our day. And she aims to go as wide and deep as she is able: into history, into faith, into how humans relate to one another, into complicated messes and simple truths. Here in this second episode of Season Two, she’ll begin with the most personal, essential elements of her view on the world: her faith, and how she understands re...

Welcome to Season Two of More Than Politics – to this new beginning. In the first episode of the season, host Julie Varner Walsh reintroduces herself, lays out what she hopes to accomplish in this season, and challenges listeners to consider how they might work to improve their communities, their country, and even politics itself. Follow Julie on Instagram and Substack, and subscribe both there and here to support the podcast. Theme music is by www.purple-planet.com

Friends, it has been a long time. It has been a long time since we've published an episode of More Than Politics. There is an explanation, and we have much catching up to do, but for now we wanted to break in with some thoughts as we try to digest last Friday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Here we go. Host: Julie Varner Walsh Follow Julie on Instagram and visit www.thesewallsblog.com/morethanpolitics to learn more about this podcast. Theme musi...

In this week’s episode (the second of a two-part conversation) Julie Walsh talks with David Hancharik, an electrical engineer who has worked in the telecommunications industry for over 36 years. David and Julie discuss the controversy regarding free speech and “Big Tech” – the technology companies that make our internet and social media usage possible. In the wake of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, social media companies suspended accounts (President Trump’s most notable amo...

In this week’s episode Julie Walsh talks with David Hancharik, an electrical engineer who has worked in the telecommunications industry for over 36 years. David and Julie discuss the controversy regarding free speech and “Big Tech” – the technology companies that make our internet and social media usage possible. In the wake of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, social media companies suspended accounts (President Trump’s most notable among them) and hosting companies took webs...

In this episode Julie Varner Walsh talks with historian Dede Miller for the second part in a series on Reconstruction. Reconstruction was the period immediately following the Civil War, in which the Confederate south was brought back into the fold and millions of formerly enslaved people began to make their way in a new America. While Reconstruction is perhaps less well-known to most Americans than slavery, Jim Crow, or the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, its impact has nevertheless con...

Julie Walsh and Dr. Michael Towle discuss this moment of transition from one presidential administration to the next: the end of the Trump administration, including the Capitol insurrection and the president’s second impeachment – and the beginning of the Biden administration, including where our parties, our politics, and our country might be heading next. Dr. Michael Towle is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Mount Saint Mary’s University, where he has taught since 1991...