Thursday, December 2, 2021

5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

A live streamed event. Advance registration required. 

The modern Western world is prosperous beyond the wildest imaginations of any past age, yet we are plagued with nagging discontentment and restlessness. Why? Find out as PTI Director Alan Levine discusses this problem with Benjamin and Jenna Storey, professors at Furman University and co-authors of the recent book Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment.

Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey both teach in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Furman University, where he is the Jane Gage Hipp Professor and she is an Assistant Professor. Together they run Furman's Tocqueville Program, an intellectual community dedicated to investigating the moral and philosophic questions at the heart of political life. Both have been recognized for outstanding teaching. Ben has been awarded the Alester G. and Janie Earle Furman award for Meritorious Teaching, and Jenna won the Silas N. Pearman award for her teaching in the Engaged Living Program. This year they are both Visiting Fellows in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies Division of the American Enterprise Institute. Ben has previously been a Visiting Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton, and Jenna has published in edited volumes as well as in Perspectives on Political Science, The Washington Post, The Irish Times, First Things, realclearbooks.com, The New Atlantis, VoeglinView, and The Boston Globe. Ben earned his B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Jenna earned hers from Boston University, and they have both earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Together they are the co-authors of Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment (Princeton University Press, 2021), on which our conversation will draw.