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Uncommon Sense

Uncommon Sense

By: Society of GK Chesterton
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The Podcast of the Society of GKC, where we talk about everything, and everything else, with a Chestertonian perspective. The podcast is hosted by Grettelyn Darkey and Albert Saenz. Want to give us feedback? Email uncommonsense@chesterton.orgSociety of G.K. Chesterton (297168) Spirituality
Episodes
  • How Chesterton Saw Big Business and Big Government Becoming Allies Before Anyone Else Did

    How Chesterton Saw Big Business and Big Government Becoming Allies Before Anyone Else Did
    Jun 30 2026
    G.K. Chesterton published The Outline of Sanity in 1926—a blueprint for a third way between capitalism and socialism, grounded in widespread property ownership, local accountability, and the rejection of mass dependence. A century later, the argument reads less like a footnote and more like a forecast. In this episode, hosts Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski—who wrote the introduction to the new ACS Books centennial edition—walk through Chesterton's economic vision section by section and make the case that his outline is still waiting to be built. In This Episode: Why G.K. Chesterton refused to let "capitalism" stand for what he meant and what the naming problem reveals about the false choice between two economic systemsHow G.K. Chesterton identified big business and big government as natural allies before anyone else did and why he saw their collusion coming as early as 1926What G.K. Chesterton actually proposed: the section-by-section case for small ownership, fair regulation, and buying local over buying cheapWhy G.K. Chesterton's warnings about advertising, standardization, and machinery anticipate the AI moment better than most things written in the last decadeThe tension G.K. Chesterton resolved that most economic thinkers never address: the difference between idealism, cynicism, and what he called sanity Chapters: 00:00: Introduction and Welcome 01:09: The ACS Centennial Edition and Why This Year 03:15: The Origins of Distributism and G.K.'s Weekly 08:58: What to Expect from The Outline of Sanity 11:08: Defining Capitalism—Why the Name Was Stolen 18:22: Big Business and Big Government in League 24:30: What Chesterton Actually Proposes: Regulation and Reform 28:40: Vote with Your Wallet: Boycotts, Advertising, and Snake Oil 39:58: The Land, the Machine, and Chesterton's Prophetic Vision 45:15: The Practicality of Idealism: Not Cynicism, Not Naïveté Resources Mentioned: The Outline of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton (ACS Books) FOLLOW US Instagram Facebook X SUPPORT Consider making a donation Visit our Shop Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios
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    49 mins
  • How One Line from G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man Sent an Artist Around the World

    How One Line from G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man Sent an Artist Around the World
    Jun 23 2026
    G.K. Chesterton wrote that there are two ways of getting home—stay there, or walk around the entire world until you arrive from the other direction. For graphic novelist Ben Hatke, that line from The Everlasting Man wasn't simply a meditation on returning with fresh eyes: it became a commission. In this episode, Joe Grabowski sits down with Hatke—author of the forthcoming graphic memoir Home/World—to trace how one Chestertonian passage sent him east for 55 days across twelve countries, and how Chesterton's deepest convictions about man, story, and homecoming turned out to be more true the farther from home he traveled. In This Episode: How a single passage from G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man—the two ways of getting home—became the animating vision behind a 55-day circumnavigation of the globeWhat Chesterton understood about encountering the world with fresh eyes: the generosity of strangers, the power of a story to cross any language barrier, and the world that waits beyond the screenHow Ben Hatke wove historical figures—Ibn Battuta, Nellie Bly, Saint Francis—into the narrative as "ghosts," and why the Chestertonian idea of the communion of saints gives this technique its deepest meaningG.K. Chesterton's imagery of the circle and the line—from The Everlasting Man to Orthodoxy to The Man Who Was Thursday—and what it reveals about why a first encounter with any place is irrepeatableWhy creating the book proved as life-changing as the journey itself and what Ben discovered about story, memory, and the difference between what is factual and what is true Chapters: 00:00: Welcome and Introduction 02:25: The Everlasting Man Quote Behind the Journey 06:01: Memory, Story, and How a Journey Becomes True 08:05: The Generosity of Strangers 13:37: Turkey and the Moment It Became an Adventure 22:33: Circumnavigating Post-COVID: The When and Why 31:02: "I Admire Your Life—It Looks Like Freedom" 35:03: Making the Book: Falling in Love with Storytelling Again 39:09: Historical Ghosts: Inviting the Past into the Journey 44:58: Circles and Lines: Chesterton's Vision of Coming Home Resources Mentioned: Home/World: A Circumnavigation of Our Shared Earth — Ben Hatke (forthcoming) Ben Hatke's website Ben Hatke on Patreon Ben Hatke on Instagram The Everlasting Man — G.K. Chesterton "Drawing Inspiration from Chesterton, with Ben Hatke" — previous Uncommon Sense appearance 2026 Chesterton Conference FOLLOW US: Instagram Facebook X SUPPORT: Donate Shop Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios
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    49 mins
  • What G.K. Chesterton Might Have Said about America's Consecration to the Sacred Heart

    What G.K. Chesterton Might Have Said about America's Consecration to the Sacred Heart
    Jun 16 2026
    G.K. Chesterton wrote in 1926 that "the heart of Christendom is a heart" and in this episode, Joe and Grettelyn discover that this single line unlocks his entire approach to apologetics. Recording just before the U.S. bishops' historic consecration of America to the Sacred Heart on the nation's 250th anniversary, they trace the providential thread connecting two Pope Leos, a 1926 essay from GK's Weekly, and Chesterton's lifelong practice of winning opponents through friendship and wonder. In This Episode: How a 1926 essay in GK's Weekly reveals the theological principle behind G.K. Chesterton's entire method of winning hearts and mindsWhat Chesterton's contrast of Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel teaches about "the softening of strength by chivalry and charity"—and what it means for how the Church evangelizes todayWhy G.K. Chesterton's observation that "madmen are logical" explains his insistence on appealing to beauty, wonder, and friendship rather than syllogismsHow G.K. Chesterton's famous friendships with his opponents—and the characters of The Ball on the Cross—embody the theology of the Sacred Heart before he ever named itWhat Pope Leo XIII's 1899 encyclical Annum Sacrum reveals about the providential timing of the USCCB's consecration and the arrival of a new Pope Leo Chapters: 00:00: Introduction—The Sacred Heart and America at 250 02:29: The Providential Coincidence of Two Pope Leos 04:00: Background on the Sacred Heart Devotion 11:50: Why Consecrate a Nation? 13:57: Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical—What He Foretold About America 19:55: Reparations and the Burning Desire of Christ 23:22: What G.K. Chesterton Said About the Sacred Heart in 1926 26:43: Chesterton's Method—Apologetics of the Heart 33:31: Madmen, Small Circles, and Leading With Love 45:20: The Witness Consecration Calls Us To Resources Mentioned: What I Saw in America—Special Semiquincentennial Edition USCCB Consecration Resources Annum Sacrum—Pope Leo XIII, 1899 Dilexi te—Pope Leo XIV 2026 Chesterton Conference—Ave Maria FOLLOW US: Instagram Facebook X SUPPORT: Donate Shop Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios
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    49 mins
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