IVAN ILLICH - AN INTELLECTUAL JOURNEY
INTERVIEWS + REVIEWS
An interview with Kristof Van Houtte of the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking for the Institute’s podcast “Critical Voices.” This interview, posted on April 30, 2020, was done before the book was published and mainly concerns my essay, “Questions About the Pandemic from the Point-of-View of Ivan Illich,” which is in the blog section of the site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yujsud_lRlw
An interview for the Accad & Koka report, a critical podcast about medicine by physicians Michel Accad and Anish Koka, posted Oct. 16, 2020. As above, this interview mainly concerns my essay bringing Illich to bear on the COVID pandemic;
https://accadandkoka.com/episodes/episode150/
An interview with L.M. Sacasas for his site The Convivial Society. Entitled “Remembering Ivan Illich: A Conversation with David Cayley” and posted on Feb. 7, 2021, this interview was one in a series that Sacasas has been doing with people who knew Illich:
https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/remembering-illich-a-conversation-154
A review essay by Mike Sauter, and an interview with him for the website Front Porch Republic:
https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2021/04/a-testament-to-friendship/?amp
A presentation by 17, Institute of Critical Studies in Mexican City, organized by Gerardo Muñoz of Lehigh University, and also featuriong Ángel Octavio Álvarez Solís, in the Institute’s book seriess, “Conversations in the Open.”
Text (in Spanish): https://diecisiete.org/nuncios/ancilla-amicitiae-amistad-y-testimonio-de-ivan-illich/
Here’s a link to a presentation called “Medical Nemesis Revisited” that I gave to a conference called “Rise Up and Walk: Catholicism and Health Care Across the Globe” on April 17th, 2021. The conference was originally scheduled for 2020, postponed and then rescheduled this year as an on-line event:
· Past Events page of our website, http://go.depaul.edu/CWCITvideos
An interview about Ivan Illich An Intellectual Journey with Kristof Vanhoutte of the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking for the institute’s “Bookaholics” podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOspiCnINGo&ab_channel=ParisInstituteforCriticalThinkingParisInstituteforCriticalThinking
An interview with Brooklyn podcaster Frieda Vizel for her series “Radically Human”:
https://friedavizel.com/2021/08/04/29-of-podcast/
A cogent essay by Jackie Brown and Philippe Mesly, written out of a deep and thorough understanding of Illich’s work. It draws on Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. The essay takes up scarcity, the vernacular and what Illich called “the right to useful unemployment”":
https://reallifemag.com/syllabus-for-the-internet-labors-of-love/
An interview with William Cavanaugh for the podcast of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology (CWCIT) in the Department of Catholic Studies at Chicago’s DePaul University where Cavanaugh is a professor of theology. Cavanaugh’s writing has had a big influence on me, and I was flattered to be interviewed by him. He also served as an external reader for the Penn State Press on Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey, and his enthusiasm for the book was one of the things that convinced the press to publish it. A list of his books and links to many of his essays can be found here: https://las.depaul.edu/academics/catholic-studies/faculty/Pages/william-cavanaugh.aspx. I interviewed him for the third episode of my Ideas series “After Atheism” which is here: https://www.davidcayley.com/podcasts/category/After+Atheism.
https://soundcloud.com/worldcatholicism/an-interview-with-david-cayley
An interview with Tom Amarque and Andrew Sweeny for their Parallax podcast, posted on Oct. 14, 2021 and entitled “David Cayley: On the Radical Ideas of Ivan Illich.” Andrew is my cousin, though that hasn’t much to do with the conversation, which was based on his thorough and sympathetic knowledge of Illich and not our family bond:
https://parallax-media.eu/andrew-sweeny/david-cayley-on-the-radical-ideas-of-ivan-illich
An interview with Aimee Walleston done for Youtube channel of the website The Stoa - a reference to the Stoic philosophy which is its inspiration. Its steward. in his words, is Peter Limberg, and it was he who. initiated the interview. It was posted on Oct. 25th, 2021 under the title “Part Moon, Part Travelling Salesman: The Enduring Relevance of Ivan Illich”:
In the fall of 2021, my old friend Wayne Northey organized a reading group to discuss Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. Wayne was one of the pioneers of restorative justice in Canada, and our friendship goes back to the 1990’s when a series of programs I did with Norwegian criminologist Nils Christie led me much deeper into the politics of crime and punishment than I had ever expected to go. In our once-a-month discussions we led each other through the book three chapters at a time. My off-the-cuff introductory remarks sometimes ramble, in my opinion, and the dynamic is relaxed and conversational, but here for those who might be interested are recordings of the six sessions. Thanks to Marcus Rempel, the Zoom host for the whole affair, who made the recording available:
John McKnight is another old friend, whom I have kept in touch with ever since I presented a synopsis of his thought on Ideas, under the title Community and Its Counterfeits, back in 1994. Some years ago he collaborated with Peter Block on a book called The Abundant Community, a title that sums up John’s preoccupation with attending to the things we do have, rather than those we don’t. The book led to a regular podcast in which John and Peter interview people who share this vision of community. Recently they talked to me about Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey, and the results are here:
David Cayley: Ivan Illich, Freedom & Friendship - Common Good Podcast | Listen Notes
David Bollier is the author of a number of books on the commons, or, as he sometimes says, commoning, in contemporary perspective, and he is an active member of the movement to restore the commons as a style of economic life. We first met in Oakland, California in 2013, where he related his work to a group of Illich friends who had gathered under the auspices of California governor Jerry Brown to celebrate the publication of Beyond Economics and Ecology, a collection of Illich’s writings on those themes, assembled and edited by Sajay Samuel. Recently David invited me to talk with him about Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey on his podcast, Frontiers of Commoning:
https://david-bollier.simplecast.com/episodes/david-cayley-on-ivan-illich-and-western-modernity
Joe Mancini is and old friend, and one of the founders, with his wife Stephanie, of The Working Centre in Kitchener, Ontario, an initiative that began in the 1980’s in response to the de-industrialization of the Kitchener-Waterloo region and today is a thriving complex of businesses and services offering food, shelter, conviviality and counsel, as well as various reclaimed, recycled and repurposed goods, to many in that part or the world. (Joe and Stephanie have told the story of The Working Centre in their book Transition to Common Work: Building Community at the Working Centre.) Joe has always credited Ivan Illich - encountered first through my book Ivan Illich in Conversation - as one of their inspirations. Here is his review of Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey, published in their newsletter, The Good Work News:
https://www.theworkingcentre.org/sites/default/files/content_files/GWN-Dec2021-web.pdf
Here’s a review of Intellectual Journey by theologian Wolfgang Palaver of the University of Innsbruck which appeared in the Bulletin (#70) of The Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R) . Wolfgang was a student and then an associate of René Girard’s. He has written extensively on Girard’s work and been a leader in COV&R. He is also interested in Illich and invited me to Innsbruck to talk about The Rivers North of the Future shortly after it was published which began a friendship between us.
https://violenceandreligion.com/bulletin-70-december-2021/#Book4
I’m delighted to be able to add this long, thorough, discerning, and, happily, laudatory review, published in the journal First Things:
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/02/the-genius-of-ivan-illich
After Brian C. Anderson’s review of Intellectual Journey was posted, and published by First Things, as noted in the previous item, First Things editor R.R. Reno released this interview with Anderson on the magazine’s podcast:
https://www.firstthings.com/media/brian-c-anderson-on-ivan-illich
A recent appearance on the Accad Koka report, a podcast by cardiologists Michel Accad and Anish Koka. focused on contemporary medicine but sometimes ranging further afield. Accad has become a friend and interlocutor, and an earlier appearance on this show is posted above. This conversation begins with a discussion of the essay “Concerning Life” which can be found in the blog section of the site:
https://accadandkoka.com/episodes/episode199/
Here’s a friendly new review of Intellectual Journey by Robert Inchausti. Inchausti is the author of Subversive Orthodoxy, a survey of radical Christian thought in the modern era which included a section on Illich. The review appeared in Angelus, the “multi-media news platform” of the archdiocese of Los Angelus:
https://angelusnews.com/arts-culture/is-the-digital-age-validating-catholic-thinker-ivan-illichs-once-radical-ideas/
A wonderful review from Geoff Shullenberg published in the journal American Affairs (Sept., 2022, Vol. VI #2). I liked it so much that I immediately subscribed to the journal of which I had not previously heard - attracted by it promise to go beyond “obsolescent ideologies.” Along with Mike Sauter’s review for Front Porch Republic - above - this is certainly the most discerning engagement with the book that I have seen so far:
The Corruption of the Best: On Ivan Illich - American Affairs Journal
This is an interview/conversation, recorded in two parts in June 2022, with Mike Sauter and Michael Martin for their Regeneration Podcast. Mike Sauter interviewed me earlier about my COVID writings - see the blog on this site - as well as about Intellectual Journey and wrote a very good review of the book for a site called Front Porch Republic - see above. Michael Martin I had not previously met, though I had read a book of his called Transfiguration, but I was immediately at ease with him. Our conversations ranged across many of my, and their interests and were not just restricted to Illich. The first two links below will give you the audio version available at Regeneration Podcast. The second two will give the video as well:
https://michaelsauter139.podbean.com/e/david-cayley-part-1-william-blake-ivan-illich-rene-girard-and-simone-weil/
https://michaelsauter139.podbean.com/e/david-cayley-part-2-romanticism-illich-and-future-of-the-church/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zba-8IaBPE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBdhmT75VWg
Another review of Intellectual Journey - also, happily, appreciative - by my old friend and Ideas associate Michael Higgins, who’s about to retire as principal of St Mark’s College and President or Corpus Christi College at the University of British Columbia. His review appeared in the May, 2022 issue of the Literary Review of Canada:
https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2022/05/finding-illich/
Here’s a conversation recorded at the beginning of 2022, but just posted, with Henry Zhu, a software engineer with a particular interest in Open Source Software, and in Ivan Illlich…
https://hopeinsource.com/history.
An interview recorded on March 25thd with Julian Waldner, who’s currently studying at the Central Mennonite University in Winnipeg, for his podcast, Freedom and Repair. To introduce him, here’s a reflection he recently published recently in Plough magazine on his recent baptism, and on the history of and character of the Anabaptist movement in which he grew up as a Hutterite: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/anabaptists/baptism-means-leaving-home-to-find-it. And here’s our conversation:
This is a return visit to the Regeneration podcast, hosted by Mike Sauter and Michael Martin. I initially got to know Mike Sauter through an interview he did with me about Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey, and a very perceptive review of the book which he did for Front Porch Republic. This led to my first appearance on the Regeneration podcast - both are linked above - to talk about Illich. When Mike asked me to come on again to talk about “Simone Weil and the Future of Religion,” I readily agreed, having thoroughly enjoyed myself the first time, but specified that it should be a conversation as much as an interview, since both of them have also recently written on the subject we were to discuss, Michael Martin in his Substack, Mike Sauter on Front Porch Republic. Here we are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_KOWjSepDQ
A friendly, and discerning, new review of Intellectual Journey by Oscar Krüger of the University of Lund in Sweden. It will appear in a forthcoming number of the journal Environmental Values:
https://whpress.co.uk/EV/reviews/300_Kruger.pdf
Alex Kaschuta produces, from Romania, a podcast called Subversive. She recently asked me to join her for what turned out to be a very enjoyable conversation about Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey and, to an extent, about me. Here it is:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Alex+Kaschuta+David+Cayley#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c1187f9e,vid:3xktvTEtoxE
This interview is all in the family, as it was initiated by my cousin (once removed) Andrew Sweeny - one of the principals of a lively and intellectually adventurous website called Parallax. Through that site, beginning on Sept. 10, 2023, American educator Bonnie Roy will be offering a course called The Convivial Life: Conversation with Ivan Illich and Friends. To help announce the course, Andrew arranged a conversation between me and Bonnie Roy, which he mainly introduced and moderated, but to which he also contributed now and then. Here’s a link to that conversation on the Parallax site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLY8hZfateE
Here’s an interview with Tom Lynn, a new interlocutor from Cincinnati who calls himself, for podcast purposes, Thinking Thomas, and gives good evidence in favour of that name in his interview with me. It’s a long conversation that splits its focus between Illich and the recent pandemic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5oNXzbAnKY&authuser=0