Conrad Franz and Dmitriy Kalyagin are co-hosts of the preeminent geopolitical podcast World War Now. The weekly show tackles current events by looking at their metaphysical implications and symbolism, and digs into political-religious realignment through a postmodern Orthodox lens and from the perspective of Saintly Christian prophecy and rising multipolarity. Franz is a member of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, while Kalyagin is a member of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. You can find all their links here and be sure to read Franz’s Twitter-thread-turned-essay which was the impetus for him and Kalyagin creating the now indispensable WWN podcast.
Download this episode, watch on YouTube or Odysee, or listen here.
Franz and Kalyagin talk multipolarity vs unipolar liberal international order, Christian inheritance as “civilizational,” culture vs systems, autocracy and Orthodox monarchy, secession, clown world contradictions, the Western Zionist narrative, attachment to empathy and exploitation, World War III’s main fronts, modern prophetic warnings, how to right the ship, and much more.
A few essays relevant to our conversation include my series “Puritans,” “Let’s see the forest for the trees,” and “Russia-Ukraine: Through a Dixian lens.” Be sure to check out all of WWN’s content, but of particular note is Conrad and Dmitriy’s recent interview with Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship co-founder and my spiritual father Fr. John Whiteford.
The feature image at top is the Thomas Cole painting “The Course of Empire: Destruction,” which WWN uses for branding their podcast. Like many traditionalist 19th-century artists, Cole’s imagination was shaped by the work of poet Lord Byron, so I’ll leave you with an excerpt from Byron’s apropos poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”:
“There is a moral of all human tales:
‘Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,
First Freedom, and then Glory; when that fails,
Wealth, Vice, Corruption, barbarism at last.
And History, with all her volumes vast,
Hath but one page.”
