A career in music reveals more than technique. It reveals how institutions quietly define legitimacy, how cultural norms harden into policy, and how mastery shifts from spectacle to restraint.

In this episode, I revisit my conversation with Chris Gekker which was recorded in 2021 on the heels of the Covid matter to explore improvisation, prestige, discipline, and the wisdom of knowing when to step back.

From jazz at elite conservatories to the quiet art of playing softly, this reflection examines how excellence is formed—and how it matures over time.

#MusicAndMeaning#JazzHistory#ArtisticExcellence#Improvisation#CulturalInstitutions#TrumpetLife#ThatIsWhatIMeantToSay

Why do people cling to beliefs even after they’ve been proven wrong? In this episode, we explore what happens in the mind when deeply held beliefs are challenged, why facts alone often fail to persuade, and how emotional investment shapes what we accept as true.

Drawing on decades of psychological research, this conversation unpacks why corrections sometimes backfire, why empathy matters more than argument, and how curiosity can open doors that confrontation slams shut.

If you’ve ever wondered why misinformation spreads so easily, or why difficult conversations go nowhere, this episode offers clarity—and a more hopeful way forward.

Key Themes

* Why the brain treats belief challenges like physical threats

* How emotional reactions precede logical reasoning

* Why more evidence can sometimes make beliefs stronger

* The difference between explaining a belief and defending it

* Why timing matters when correcting misinformation

* How and why detailed corrections can unintentionally backfire

* The “truth sandwich” method and why it works

* Age, emotion, and susceptibility to misinformation

* Motivational interviewing as an alternative to confrontation

* Why empathy changes minds more effectively than argument

* Winning relationships versus winning debates

#BeliefChange#Misinformation#CriticalThinking#Psychology#TruthAndMeaning#CognitiveBias#EmpathyMatters#That’sWhatIMeantToSay#fakenews

Why do intelligent, well-informed people so often talk past one another? Why do we cling to our beliefs, even when presented with overwhelming evidence that on the surface disproves them?

In this episode, we explore a phenomenon known as “Confirmation Bias.” This is the tendency to favor information, even blatantly false, that supports what we already believe to be true. Drawing on research from Harvard University, MIT, and Stanford University, the conversation examines why false information spreads faster than truth, why being proven wrong can literally feel painful, and why facts alone rarely change minds.

Rather than focusing on a single event, although it would be easy to do so, this episode looks at how we receive information itself, and why we might do well to question our own certainty in an increasingly polarized world.

The American Founders are often remembered as champions of reason, restraint, and religious liberty. But beneath that story lies a less examined assumption: a deep certainty about which forms of belief were acceptable—and which were dangerous.

In this episode, we revisit some of the important documents of that era, namely Federalist Nos. 10 and 51 and explore how fear of factions, combined with cultural and religious certainty, may have planted seeds of the very instability the Founders hoped to prevent.

Rather than treating certainty as a virtue, this conversation asks whether it can quietly become a liability, not just politically, but spiritually and culturally as well.

Resources & References

* The Federalist Papers– Federalist No. 10 (James Madison on factions)– Federalist No. 51 (Checks, balances, and human nature)

* Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic

* Philip Hamburger, Separation of Church and State

* John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths

#FederalistPapers #AmericanFounding #ReligiousLiberty #PoliticalPhilosophy #ChurchAndState #Certainty #JamesMadison #ThatsWhatIMeantToSay

Most Americans assume the founders intended a rigid wall between church and state. In fact, many Christians even consider it a great blessing.

Yet the historical record tells a more complicated and far more interesting story.

In this episode, we examine how the Establishment Clause was originally understood, why the founders opposed state churches while wholesale embracing religion in public life, and how modern interpretations, notably from 20th Century Supreme Court decisions, diverged sharply from those assumptions.

#ChurchAndState#FirstAmendment#EstablishmentClause#AmericanFounding#ReligiousFreedom#SupremeCourt#Constitution#PoliticalHistory#CivicVirtue#ThatsWhatIMeantToSay

In this episode, we explore how the theology of the New England Puritans shaped a distinctive political imagination—one that continues to echo through American culture, governance, and foreign policy. Drawing on historian Perry Miller’s concept of an “errand into the wilderness,” the conversation reframes the Puritans not as caricatured zealots, but as idealists who believed they were participating in a divine experiment with world-historical consequences. We examine how covenant theology produced a system of collective responsibility, why dissent was treated as an existential threat, and how the Puritan mission failed in practice but survived in secularized form as American exceptionalism.

In This Episode

* Why the Puritans saw themselves as more than religious refugees

* What Perry Miller meant by an “errand into the wilderness”

* The idea of America as a “city upon a hill” and the burden of being watched

* Covenant theology and the logic of collective moral responsibility

* How providence shaped Puritan interpretations of success, failure, and disaster

* Why dissent was viewed as dangerous rather than merely disagreeable

* The banishment of Roger Williams and the limits of Puritan governance

* How the Puritan project failed—and how its moral logic endured

* The transformation of religious mission into secular American exceptionalism

* Echoes of Puritan moral certainty in modern politics, foreign policy, and corporate culture

* The enduring tension between individual freedom and collective responsibility

Quotable Moments

* “They weren’t just fleeing persecution. They believed they were on a cosmic assignment.”

* “Dissent wasn’t disagreement—it was endangering the entire community.”

* “The Puritan errand failed as a system, but not as an idea.”

* “When political identity fuses with absolute moral certainty, the results are rarely sustainable.”

Why This Matters

Understanding the Puritans helps explain why Americans so often frame political conflict in moral terms, why national failure feels existential, and why appeals to destiny and responsibility recur across centuries. This episode suggests that the unresolved tensions of the Puritan experiment—between freedom and order, humility and certainty—are still very much with us.

Suggested Reading

* Perry Miller, Errand into the Wilderness

* Mark David Hall, Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land

* Daniel Dreisbach and Mark David Hall, The Sacred Rights of Conscience

* Francis Jennings, “Puritan Expansion and Indian Resistance”

Closing Reflection

If the Puritans were idealists whose convictions ultimately made their system unsustainable, what does that suggest about our own confidence in moral clarity today?

Well… that’s what I meant to say.

In this archived interview, recorded in 2016, James Newcomb speaks with Bernard Adelstein, former principal trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra, for a wide-ranging conversation on musicianship, discipline, and life inside one of the world’s most exacting orchestras.

Mr. Adelstein reflects on his early start as a teenage professional during World War II, the harsh realities of auditions and daily life in American orchestras during the 1950’s and 60’s, and what it was like to perform under legendary conductors such as Fritz Reiner and George Szell.

Along the way, he offers candid insights on leadership, precision, humility, and why music critics so often miss the point of that which they’re critiquing entirely.

Topics Discussed

* Entering the Pittsburgh Symphony at age sixteen

* Learning musicianship during World War II

* Performing under Fritz Reiner and George Szell

* Life inside the Cleveland Orchestra during its golden era

* Touring, recording, and winning major awards

* The realities and absurdities of orchestral auditions

* Why critics matter less than musicians think

* Playing The Rite of Spring then and now

Keywords: Bernard Adelstein, Cleveland Orchestra, principal trumpet, orchestral trumpet, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, classical music history, professional musicianship, orchestral life

Hashtags:#ThatsWhatIMeantToSay#BernardAdelstein#ClevelandOrchestra#PrincipalTrumpet#ClassicalMusic#OrchestralLife#MusicHistory#Trumpet

This episode presents a dialogue exploring how religious rhetoric functioned as a form of political power in colonial New England. The conversation examines how Puritan clergy used biblical typology to justify political authority, shape collective identity, and frame historical events as divine confirmation. It also highlights dissenting voices such as Robert Cushman and Roger Williams, whose challenges to this system laid early foundations for religious liberty and the separation of church and state. The discussion traces how these colonial debates continue to echo in modern American political rhetoric.

Topics Covered

* Biblical typology and Puritan political authority

* Religion as a legitimizing force in colonial governance

* Robert Cushman’s critique of prophetic nationalism

* Roger Williams and the origins of church–state separation

* John Cotton and clerical authority

* The persistence of “chosen nation” rhetoric in modern America

* The enduring power of language to define collective identity

Resources

Madsen, D. L. (1992). The sword or the scroll: The power of rhetoric in colonial New England. American Studies, 33(1), 45–61.

Referenced Figures

* John Winthrop

* Roger Williams

* Robert Cushman

* John Cotton

* Ronald Reagan

Rhetoric, Puritanism, Colonial New England, Roger Williams, Church and State, American Exceptionalism, Political Language, Power and Identity

#RhetoricAndPower#ColonialAmerica#ChurchAndState#PoliticalLanguage#AmericanOrigins