About Robin Phillips
Hi Everyone! This is where I get to tell you a bit about myself, the man behind the blog.
I live in the Pacific Northwest. I love reading novels, playing the piano, going on long hikes, listening to classical music, experimenting with essential oils, watching and discussing movies, playing board games, and discussing the Great Ideas with friends.
My professional life is comparatively less interesting, though it takes longer to describe. I have a Master’s in History from King’s College London, and a Masters’ in Library Science from the University of Oklahoma with an emphasis on information literacy . I lived in England for ten years, where I did my undergraduate studies and worked as a journalist for a political action group. Since moving back to the United States, the home of my birth, I have done a variety of jobs, including being a high school history teacher, working as a freelance writer and researcher for a variety of clients, and working at a cigar shop. Through my work as a freelance writer I ended up being a consultant in the behavioral health industry, where I spent five years helping would-be psychologists pass their licensing exams. My interest in behavioral health eventually culminated in my book How to Experience the Good Life…even when everything is going wrong (Ancient Faith, 2020).
I have been invited to be a guest speaker on radio and television, and have given presentations at academic and popular conferences throughout the world, including conferences sponsored by the University of Winchester, the American Society of Church History, the Society for the Study of Theology, and the Orthodox Christian Association of Medicine, Psychology and Religion. My radio broadcasts, articles, and live television appearances have been featured in over 60 media outlets, including Ancient Faith Radio, Fox News, ABC News, Sky News, KOTA News, North Dakota Magazine, Channel 12 News, NBC News, US and Canada Report, WTVM News, the North American Report, KSLA News, the Daily Broadcaster, the South Dakota Chronicle, the East Coast Sentinel, The Western Tribune and the Massachusetts Chronicle. I occasionally take temporary academic positions, and these have included leading tutorials on 19th century history at King’s College London, teaching k-12 teachers throughout America how to integrate mindfulness protocols into their classrooms, and developing curriculum for the Master’s programs of Argosy University, Antioch University, Benedictine University, Valparaiso University, Central Michigan University, and Seattle Pacific University. My most rewarding work has been in the field of classical education (for links to some of my publications on classical education, click here).
Currently I work as the blog and media managing editor for Salvo Magazine and Touchstone Magazine, and occasionally work as a ghost-writer for celebrities (and no, that doesn’t mean I get to write scary stories). I am the author of Saints and Scoundrels (Canon Press, 2011), a book that profiled nineteen heroes and villains from King Herod to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I am a contributor to Pain, Suffering and Resilience: Orthodox Christian Perspectives (Sebastian Press, 2018), and Finding the Golden Key: Essays Towards a Recovery of the Sacramental Imagination, currently under publication with Eighth Day Press and expected in 2023. My book, Rediscovering the Goodness of Creation: A Manual for Recovering Gnostics, is currently under publication from Ancient Faith (to learn more about this project, see my post, “New Book Coming This Spring!”
I am a member of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, the George MacDonald Society, the Society of Classical Learning, and the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton.