In Far Middle episode 186, Nick begins by honoring tennis icon Arthur Ashe. Nick uses the episode’s December 11 premiere date to connect to December 12, 1968, when the Richmond native would become the first black men’s player to be ranked number one by the United States Lawn Tennis Association.

Nick recounts Ashe’s remarkable life story, from his beginnings in segregated Richmond to his tennis achievements, military service, and advocacy work. He highlights Ashe’s contributions beyond tennis, including his writing and efforts to educate others about AIDS. “Human beings don’t come much better than Arthur Ashe,” reflects Nick.

Transitioning from Ashe, Nick embarks on a series of connections, starting with “perhaps America’s ultimate master of words, H.L. Mencken.” Nick discusses Mencken’s “inter-episode connections” to past Far Middle episodes, and spotlights Mencken’s critique of representative government. This leads to a quote from libertarian Dr. Ron Paul on the ideal role of government. The discussion then shifts to investing, featuring advice from Peter Lynch on the importance of investing in what you know, and understanding market history and volatility.

From Lynch’s advice to invest in what you know, Nick offers a variation regarding the media: “Know where your news is coming from.” Nick reveals the concerning relationship between Jeff Bezos, the World Weather Attribution group, and the Washington Post. He questions potential conflicts of interest and the objectivity of climate change reporting.

The conversation moves to a Supreme Court case involving Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma death row inmate. Nick explains the potential implications of this case on the future of capital punishment in the United States, regardless of the court’s decision.

Nick applies the final strokes to the episode’s composition by offering an interesting historical connection to the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911, which paradoxically led to the painting becoming world-famous. The painting was returned to the Louvre on December 11, 1913, coinciding with the release date of the episode.

In Far Middle episode 185, Nick takes listeners on a journey through sports history, energy policy, and rock music songwriting.

Nick begins with the installment’s sports dedication to Dan Marino, who Nick describes as the greatest pure quarterback in the history of the NFL. “He grew up in the Oakland neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh, literally in the shadow of the Pitt campus where he would start his march to greatness,” says Nick.

He recounts Marino’s Pittsburgh roots, his college career at Pitt, and his surprising late selection in the first round of the epic 1983 NFL Draft, where the Miami Dolphins snatched him up. “There was no one like him before, and there’s been no one like him since.”

Nick transitions from, “that Western Pennsylvania and Appalachian legend on the gridiron, to a Western Pennsylvania and Appalachian massive opportunity in the making in the energy space.” He proceeds to summarize and reflect on his recent speech at the Drake Energy Security Forum. The conference was held in Titusville, Pennsylvania, amidst the backdrop of where the modern oil industry began its march to greatness.

Nick’s address, “When You Come to the Fork in the Road…Take It: Assessing Realities, Risks, and Rewards for Appalachia’s Energy Future,” is available in full here.

In revisiting his talk, Nick critiques current energy and climate policies. He argues that the mandated push to wind and solar power is misguided, citing their lack of energy density, ignored ecological damage, poor economics, and overlooked carbon footprints. Nick explains how current energy policies are more about controlling individuals than environmental protection. Those policies are also aiding foreign adversaries like Russia and China while also expanding government reach into personal decision making, from food to transportation choices.

Nick then pivots to discuss the promise of Appalachia’s rich energy resources, particularly the Marcellus and Utica natural gas reserves, and highlights innovations such as captured coal mine methane (CMM) and on-pad manufacturing of compressed and liquefied natural gas. These solutions are ready to serve growing energy demands in sectors such as hydrogen production, sustainable aviation fuel, and AI data centers.

“The opportunity for the Appalachian Basin and for places like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Eastern Ohio, Virginia and its western panhandle are very exciting,” says Nick. “And the markets are just starting to realize it. We are about to experience a transformation of Appalachia in the United States, and that is a massive opportunity.”

In closing, Nick connects the episode’s December 4 premiere date to the December 4, 1971, fire at the Casino de Montreux in 1971. During a Frank Zappa concert, a flare ignited the casino’s wooden ceiling, causing a blaze that would later inspire the lyrics of Deep Purple’s iconic song “Smoke on the Water.”

Nick describes how Zappa (who passed away in December 4, 1993, coincidentally also on the episode’s release date) calmly directed the audience to safety, avoiding a potential tragedy, and how Zappa’s concert inadvertently contributed to one of the most famous songs in rock history.

In Far Middle episode 184, Nick wishes all a Happy Thanksgiving before turning to the hardwood for the episode’s sports dedication to basketball legend Patrick Ewing.

Born in Jamaica, Ewing moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, at 12 years old and became a dominant high school player. Nick reflects on Ewing’s stellar college career at Georgetown under Coach John Thompson. As a Hoya, Ewing played in three historic NCAA finals in 1982, 1984, and 1985. Nick then describes how Ewing ended up going to the Knicks as the first overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft.

While Ewing is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist and 11-time NBA All-Star, he never won an NBA championship despite two Finals appearances. However, Nick notes he played during a tough time to win a title that included the Lakers’ “Showtime” era and the Bulls’ domination during the 1990s.

Nick then connects from Ewing’s time in Cambridge to Harvard University, the principal focus of the installment’s discussion.

Nick begins by reviewing Harvard’s recent policy change to refrain from taking official positions on controversial public policy issues. “That is quite the departure from what Harvard embraced prior, particularly with social justice and Israeli-Palestinian issues,” explains Nick.

The conversation shifts to Bill Ackman, a Harvard alum and prominent hedge fund manager. Ackman recently applied his activist investor approach to evaluate Harvard as if it were a business opportunity. Nick describes the approach as both unconventional and genius.

Ackman’s assessment, titled “Veritas?” (Latin for “truth”), assesses Harvard’s performance across four key areas: exposure to diverse viewpoints, free speech, academic rigor, and a safe learning environment.

Ackman’s analysis reveals concerning trends at Harvard, including a lack of ideological diversity among faculty, poor rankings in free speech protection, grade inflation, and issues with creating a safe learning environment for all students.

The episode also explores data on faculty growth and degree recipients across different departments at Harvard, highlighting potential resource allocation imbalances.

“Universities are underfunding STEM and sometimes diluting STEM to the benefit of subsidizing certain liberal arts and social science programs,” says Nick. “And that’s not what the economy needs in 2024 if we want to compete on a world stage.”

Nick closes by drawing parallels between Harvard’s influence in academia and the impact of Johnny Ray in the music industry. Ray, often considered the “father of rock and roll,” set the stage for the genre in the 1950s and influenced many subsequent artists, despite being relatively unknown to modern audiences.

In another engaging Far Middle installment, Nick takes “constant listeners” on a journey through American football history and political philosophy.

George “Papa Bear” Halas, a titan of professional football whose influence extended far beyond the gridiron, is honored with episode 183’s sports dedication.

Born in 1895, Halas lived a remarkable life that spanned nearly nine decades. He was not only a professional football player, coach, and executive but also the founder and owner of the Chicago Bears. Halas’s contributions to the sport were immense, including co-founding the NFL’s predecessor in 1920 and introducing numerous innovations such as daily team practices, film analysis of opponents, and radio game broadcasts. His legacy in football is unparalleled, with 63 years as an owner, 40 as a coach, 324 wins, and eight NFL titles.

But Halas was more than just a football legend. He briefly played for the New York Yankees, earned a civil engineering degree from Illinois, and served in the Navy during World War I, where he was named MVP of the 1919 Rose Bowl (that’s right, the 1919 Rose Bowl was played between the Mare Island Marines and the Great Lakes Navy).

Halas’ life story embodies the potential of America and serves as a fitting dedication for the episode, which then takes a turn to explore the complexities of American political philosophy. Nick explains the discussion is inspired by Matt Wolfson’s recent essay, “Two Forms of American Liberalism.”

Nick challenges the oversimplified binary view of conservative versus liberal, arguing for a more nuanced understanding of political ideologies. He distinguishes between progressivism, libertarianism, classic liberalism, conservatism, and leftism, emphasizing the significant differences between being liberal and being leftist.

Delving deeper, Nick examines Wolfson’s two categories of liberalism: classic and managerial. Classic liberalism advocates for representative government strengthened by associations close to people, free markets with limited government intervention, and non-interventionism in foreign policy. In contrast, managerial liberalism promotes centralized government and large institutions, relying on expert administrators, academia, and judges for policymaking.

Nick traces the evolution of these two forms of liberalism throughout American history, from the early debates between James Madison and Alexander Hamilton to the shifts that occurred during the New Deal and post-World War II era.

“Somewhere between the Great Depression and Lyndon Johnson’s policies, between say 1930 and 1970, managerial liberalism superseded classic liberalism, and managerial liberalism now dominates American politics and policy,” says Nick. The result has been an erosion of free speech, inconsistent respect for property rights, and expansion of bureaucratic control.

Nick emphasizes the need for classic liberalism to regain a stronger footing in America. And, in closing, connects order to political philosophies with Dmitri Mendeleev’s creation of the periodic table in chemistry, highlighting the importance of clarity and organization in understanding complex systems.

Far Middle Connections: The November 20^th premiere date of episode 183 coincides with the passing of Russian author Leo Tolstoy over a century ago, on November 20, 1910. Revisit the close of episode 181 for Nick’s reflection on Tolstoy’s short story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”

In Far Middle episode 182, Nick presents an unconventional analysis of the 2024 presidential election.

Before assessing the lessons from the 2024 election, Nick begins with a fitting sports dedication. That tribute goes to President Gerald Ford as Nick highlights not only Ford’s athletic career at the University of Michigan (helping lead the Wolverines to two national championships), but also Ford’s service in the Navy and the South Pacific during World War II.

“A single word sums up everything we’ve been subjected to, that we’ve observed, that we thought, and that we’ve experienced in the 2024 presidential race. And that single word that captures it all, from message to theme, exposed,” says Nick as he proceeds to decode the takeaways from this year’s presidential race.

Nick argues that the 2024 election exposed various truths, fictions, strengths, and weaknesses of the candidates and the political landscape. And ultimately the election was a choice between Trump and anti-Trump, or between viewing the country as on the right track versus the wrong track.

Assessing Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Nick details the nominees’ strengths and weaknesses and how they were exposed throughout the campaign.

In addition to the candidates, Nick comments on a “slew of false fictions” that were also exposed. Those include the notion that Trump’s support was limited to white Americans, the influence (or lack thereof) of Hollywood celebrities, the idea that early mail-in voting favors Democrats, and the reliability of mainstream media and pollsters.

“The election exposed that the party with the most diverse coalition this time around was the Republicans, not the Democrats, which is fascinating. And I think it’ll be fascinating to see how that evolves over time,” says Nick. The election revealed new voter demographics, suggesting that the electorate is now more divided along economic lines (paycheck-to-paycheck voters vs. affluent elite voters) rather than traditional racial or gender lines.

Nick closes by connecting back to one of the episode’s earlier mentioned celebrities, Robert De Niro, for a brief discussion of the classic film Raging Bull, as the episode’s November 13 release date coincides with Raging Bull’s 1980 premiere in New York City.