This installment of The Far Middle marks a close to episodes previewing and covering The Leech chapter releases. In this episode, Nick revisits and expands upon what motivated him to write The Leech and summarizes many of the book’s key takeaways.

In this week’s The Far Middle episode, Nick dedicates this installment to The Leech’s epilogue. Nick discusses what he says might be the greatest “coaching tree in the history of mankind”—that tree being Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Nick then delves into the concept of the “noble lie,” which isn’t a true lie but has truth within it, and how the noble lie relates to themes and issues discussed in The Leech.

Dr. Jeffrey Sachs is the focus of this week’s The Far Middle. While Nick notes his “begrudging admiration” for Sachs’ academic and professional achievements, he explains Dr. Sachs has become “almost the gold standard” when looking how to work the system to procure resources, dollars, interest and exposure.

Nick, a decades-long fan of U2, discusses the group’s front man, Bono, in this week’s episode of The Far Middle. “Although Bono is a great example of a successful server…doing everything right…there is one arena where he’s doing something quite wrong…what Bono is saying and preaching is very different at times from he’s actually doing, there’s an element of inconsistency, and hypocrisy perhaps, at work that does need to be called out,” says Nick. “If you’re doing something that is very different than what you’re preaching or advocating for, then that has the potential to make you a useful instrument of the Leech.”

Pope Francis is the focus of the 10th episode of The Far Middle. Nick asserts that the Catholic Church has fundamentally evolved under Pope Francis’ leadership. Nick explains that his excitement and pride of being a Catholic when Pope Francis was elected in 2013 has since done a complete 180. “Today, I’ve got a much darker view of Pope Francis because we’ve had over seven years of a record…the actions that you see are quite troubling,” says Nick. “Pope Francis has not been leading and paying attention to the stuff that matters and to the stuff that is subject-matter relevant to the Pope; he’s instead shifted his attention and dragged the Church into arenas and areas and subjects where no expertise exists and that do not have to do with faith, morals, or ethics tied to the Catholic faith.”