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Aaron Renn: Heartland urbanism and leaving Left Behind behind

2026-02-20 · 05:38 UTC ·Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning ·4 min read

Brief

Aaron Renn’s appearance on Razib Khan’s Unsupervised Learning is presented as a wide-ranging interview rather than a tightly reported article, but the preview still outlines several substantive themes. The first segment draws on Renn’s 15-year consulting background, including time as an Accenture partner, to explain why large firms hire consultants: not simply to legitimize predetermined decisions, but to obtain outside judgment that can cut through internal organizational politics. Khan and Renn also briefly connect that work to AI’s possible impact on advisory services and the broader future of white-collar labor. The middle of the conversation shifts to Renn’s long-running interest in urban policy, especially the Midwest’s economic decline, possible renewal, and tradeoffs versus coastal metros. The final segment turns to religion and politics, where Renn argues American evangelicalism has moved from the high-water mark of the mid-1990s into a long defensive phase, with older Left Behind-era theology fading as newer forms of Christian nationalism gain ground.

Why it matters

Razib Khan’s 2026-02-20 podcast preview features urban analyst Aaron Renn on consulting, Midwestern urbanism, and shifts within American evangelicalism.

Key details

  • The episode is a 94-minute conversation with Aaron Renn, a former Manhattan Institute senior fellow, former City Journal contributing editor, and ex-Accenture partner who spent 15 years in management and technology consulting.
  • Renn argues management consultants add value by providing an external perspective insulated from internal corporate politics, rather than merely serving as scapegoats for decisions such as layoffs; the conversation also touches on how AI could change white-collar consulting work.
  • On urbanism, Renn frames the Midwest as a region with distinctive social and historical roots in the early American frontier, and contrasts its peace, affordability, and stability with weaker intellectual and cultural dynamism than coastal metros such as New York and Chicago.
  • Renn describes the Religious Right as having peaked in the mid-1990s and then spent roughly 30 years in retreat, alongside the decline of premillennial dispensationalism associated with the Left Behind franchise and the rise of newer currents including Christian nationalism and the influence of pastor Doug Wilson.
Cleaned source text

title: Aaron Renn: Heartland urbanism and leaving Left Behind behind

author: Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning

content_type: newsletter

publication: substack.com

published: 2026-02-20T05:38:47+00:00

source_url: gmail://19c798f31a81b9bc

word_count: 889

Listen now (94 mins) | Urban planning from a Midwestern vantage point

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Aaron Renn: Heartland urbanism and leaving Left Behind behind

Urban planning from a Midwestern vantage point

Razib Khan

Feb 20| | | ∙| | Preview

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On this episode of _Unsupervised Learning_ Razib talks to Aaron Renn. Renn is a writer, consultant, and urban analyst known for his work on the challenges facing American cities and religious institutions in the 21st century. He is a contributor to The American Reformer and the author of _Life in the Negative World_ , a book exploring the cultural shifts regarding Christianity in America. Renn previously served as a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for five years and as a contributing editor for _City Journal_ , having established his voice on urban policy through his widely cited blog, The Urbanophile. Prior to his career in public policy and journalism, he spent 15 years in management and technology consulting, including a tenure as a partner at Accenture.

Before getting into the meat of the discussion, Renn and Razib discuss management consulting and the value that a firm like Accenture provides a corporation. Razib wonders whether consultants are simply brought in to rubber-stamp what management has already concluded, but is aiming to pin the blame on an external actor (e.g., layoffs). Renn argues that this is not the case, and in fact, though he acknowledges that management consultants provide an outsider view unencumbered by internal politics that allows them to be taken more seriously. They also discuss the impact of AI on some services that management consultants provide, and the future of white-collar work.

Then Renn goes on an extended riff on the rise and fall, and possible new rise, of the Midwestern social and economic landscape. A native of southern Indiana, Renn has spent time in Chicago and New York before settling down in the affluent suburb of Carmel, Indiana. Razib and Renn discuss the decline of the Northeast and the industrial Heartland, and what makes the Midwest unique, with its origins as part of the original early American republican frontier. Renn discusses candidly the upsides and downsides of living in “flyover country,” from its peace and tranquility, to the reality that Midwestern metropolitan areas do not have the same intellectual and cultural dynamism as coastal cities.

Finally, Razib asks Renn, a Protestant Christian who identifies as evangelical, about the cultural and theological shifts occurring on what was once called the Religious Right. Renn argues that this movement’s peak was really in the mid-1990’s, and the whole thirty-year period since has seen retreat and retrenchment. He believes that Christians have lost control of the cultural narrative and have to accept a position as outsiders. Renn also addresses the decline of premillennial dispensationalism, most famously illustrated in the _Left Behind_ series of the 1990s and early 2000s, and the rise of Christian nationalism, and in particular, the role of Reformed pastor Doug Wilson in this shift.

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