Author: Stephen Heiner

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FF / Heiner

13 Feb, 2017

Podcasting: Season 1 commences

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Some weeks ago we started to get our first annual renewals from those who were among the first to come along with us on our subscription-based website. Last year was a chance to experiment with different shows, formats, hosts, etc.  We’ve decided to up our game this year by adding two more shows every month, and by releasing all of our 2016 content, what we are dubbing as “Season Zero,” out into Soundcloud/ITunes/Google Play for the public to consume without needing to log into our site.  We feel that all of that content will be sufficient to pique the interest...

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FF / Heiner

12 Aug, 2016

Planning vs. Reality

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As they say, man proposes, God disposes. Some time back I announced what our podcast schedule would be for the remainder of 2016, only for it to be disrupted by some family health issues that Dr. Fleming had to attend to (which are still ongoing), and then the arrival of many of you in Rockford for our Boethius Seminar. As a result, we are spending the rest of August uploading the remainder of our stock of Boethius Book Club audios to continue to provide content to those paying members who so faithfully support our work. We will return to our...

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FF / Heiner

1 Aug, 2016

The Alpine Heart

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Liechtenstein is the 6th smallest country in the world, larger than San Marino but smaller than the Marshall Islands, and is roughly twice the size of the island of Manhattan.  The Principality is ruled by a stable royal family that is so popular that when in 2002 a referendum was put to the people to increase the executive power of the prince, including giving him the right to dissolve Parliament, it passed by a 64% margin. Snuggled in between Austria and Switzerland, it enjoys a prosperous existence, profiting from a close cooperation with the Swiss, whose money they use via a currency union....

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FF / Heiner

27 Jun, 2016

Monday after Brexit: No one planned for this

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It is the beginning of another work week in London, and all seems quite normal in the shops and on the high streets (though you might see some pictures like this one), despite the fact that a historic vote happened just a few days before.  What has become clear as the dust has settled is that no one planned for this outcome.  Remain had no Plan B in place, and shockingly, Leave had no Plan A.  The only thing that is clear this Monday after is that it is a very long way to Tipperary. David Cameron A visibly emotional PM who...

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FF / Heiner

24 Jun, 2016

The Day the Improbable Happened

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In 2014 I was in Glasgow for the Scottish referendum. I had spent the day before the referendum out and about in Glasgow and the “Yes” for independence vote was out in force, and as such I got a very different impression about which way the vote might go based solely on what I saw “on the ground.” The same thing happened last night. As I observed Londoners yesterday 8 out of every 10 stickers I saw people wearing were “In,” and I told more than one friend before I went to bed that I thought the Remain camp had just...

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Feature / Heiner / On the House

21 Jun, 2016

Maintenant, ça suffit

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I’ve been out of Paris for a week now, and apart from a brief stop there on my way to London to watch the Brexit vote unfold, I will be out of my adopted home for another week still.  I continue to be bemused that such a generally kind and often generous populace is acting out in the most vicious and selfish of ways – and the current strikes are perhaps a visible sign of a silent sickness that has plagued France for some time. Now, I want to make it clear – I understand and respect that strikes are a way...

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FF / Heiner

6 May, 2016

40 Days Later: They still didn’t understand

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“Domine, si in tempore hoc restitues regnum Israel?” “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?” Acts I: vi “…apparuit illis Iesus: et exprobravit incredulitatem eorum, et duritiam cordis: quia iis qui viderant eum resurrexisse, non crediderunt.” “…and He appeared to them and He upbraided them for their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen Him after He was risen again.” St. Mark XVI: xiv They had spent years with Him.  Lived with Him.  Watched Him work miracles.  Watched Him raise people from the dead.  Watched Him die.  Watched...

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FF / Heiner

3 May, 2016

Programming schedule for 2016

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I just wanted to take a moment to thank our Gold and Charter members for their patience as Dr. Fleming and I caught up on our podcasts.  The promise of last year was one per week, four per month, but in February and March Dr. Fleming and I both had travel schedules that contrived to tinker with that plan.  I’m happy to say now at the end of April/beginning of May that we are mostly caught up, and will be regularly delivering at least one podcast per week. We will have two season breaks in 2016, which will include the...

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FF / Heiner

3 May, 2016

Why I don’t “support the troops”

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Some weeks back one of the speakers at a conference I was attending told me over a meal that his son was heading into the Marines via ROTC, and he wanted to know what I, as a former Marine and as someone who had attended Officer Candidates’ School, thought about his son’s military aspirations.  I did not have encouraging words for him. I had a conversation about this subject with one of my former students some months ago. I have taught hundreds of young men and women, but only a few students become friends and keep in touch with me...

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FF / Heiner

19 Apr, 2016

The Web, Our Brains, and You

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I recently had the chance to read The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.  The author of this 2010 book is Nicholas Carr, who originally penned a 2008 article for The Atlantic entitled, “Is Google making us stupid?” The title of that article can be off-putting to those who are, like myself, steeped in the hot bath of the digital universe.  Surely this is some Luddite ranting, one might think at first.  But on second glance … 200 pages of ranting? Unlikely. It might be because I conducted the vast majority of my schooling and created many of...