Spencer Klavan is a scholar, writer, and podcast host of Young Heretics, with a lifelong devotion to the great works and principles of the West. After studying Greek and Latin at Yale University as an undergrad, he spent five years at Oxford University completing his doctorate in ancient Greek literature. He now works as an editor at the Claremont Institute, a think tank for the recovery and preservation of America's founding ideals. He has written for many outlets including, the Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, City Journal, Newsweek, the Claremont Review of Books, the Federalist, the American Mind, and the Daily Wire. He lives near Nashville, Tennessee. Russell Kirk (1918-1994), historian of ideas, critic, essayist, editor and novelist, was the author of thirty-two books. Among them are The Conservative Mind, The Roots of American Order, America's British Culture, The Politic of Prudence, Eliot and His Age, Enemies of the Permanent Things, Edmund Burke, Redeeming the Time, John Randolph of Roanoke, and six works of fiction. His memoirs, The Sword of Imagination , were published posthumously.

He received twelve honorary doctorates from American universities and many awards, including the Presidential Citizens Medal. The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, founded in 1995 and based in Mecosta, Michigan, continues his work to defend "the permanent things" today.