Dan Hugger is Librarian and Research Associate at the Acton Institute.

Posts by Dan Hugger

Christian Humanism and the Imaginative Mysteries

A young Kansas boy moves between oil derricks, wheat fields, and abandoned buildings. He stops for only one thing: the hose. Not any ordinary hose, but a most extraordinary hose. Its contents pour forth not in trickles, streams, or torrents but gush in words, images, and pages. Continue Reading...

The Disordered Loves of The Last of Us

The Last of Us is the latest prestige drama from HBO and has gained near universal critical acclaim, garnering the second-largest audience for the network since 2010, trailing only the Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon. Continue Reading...

Unlocking the Mystery of Your Wildest Problems

The most thought-provoking scene in John Boorman’s 1981 lavish epic fantasy film, Excalibur, is one of its most understated. It’s a conversation about love. King Arthur stares enchanted by the Lady Guinevere as she dances across the great hall. Continue Reading...

Joe Rogan is not a problem, but a mirror

The Joe Rogan Experience is one of the world’s most popular podcasts and, for the past two weeks, the world’s most controversial. Launched in 2009 by comedian and martial arts enthusiast Joe Rogan, the show was originally recorded in his home and is known for its meandering interviews, sometimes surpassing three hours in length, with comedians, athletes, businessmen, conspiracy theorists, journalists, musicians, fringe political figures, magicians, and doctors. Continue Reading...

Today is Lord Acton’s 188th birthday. His philosophy should guide our next two centuries

Today, January 10, 2022, is Lord Acton’s 188th birthday. This difficult era of a global pandemic, a crisis in institutions, and civil unrest seems a strange time to look back on the life and legacy of a Victorian historian of ideas—but, as Lord Acton himself remarked, “if the Past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and surest emancipation.” Continue Reading...

Books offer stability, renewal of American ideals

Long after we’ve all passed on, how will future generations remember us? One answer: books. Certainly there will be landmarks and buildings and other memorabilia that help our descendants understand our society as it exists today, along with the people who helped shape it. Continue Reading...