Viggo Mortensen on Captain Fantastic and raising philosopher kings

Hunting and gathering instead of grocery shopping. 
Dancing in waterfalls instead of playing video games.
Celebrating Noam Chomsky Day instead of Christmas. 

The new Captain Fantastic film casts Viggo Mortensen as a renegade renaissance man raising six kids in the woods. Ben and his wife dream of raising self-sufficient philosopher kings.

But then Ben's partner dies, and he finds himself headed straight into the civilization he rejected to attend her funeral. It's the first time his children see what they don't have, and that extended family members have the chance to intervene in their lives.

Today Mortensen joins guest host Stephen Quinn to discuss the film's wider themes, and how it syncs up with his own views on politics and parenthood. 

Mortensen also reflects on the romance of rejecting the whole capitalist system, and how a back-to-basics story resonates differently at a time of real cultural upheaval in the U.S.. 

"It's embarrassing how low the quality of discourse is, and that's on the left and the right," says Mortensen, who says the current landscape is far too rife with knee-jerk ideological reactions. 

"People have a hard time explaining themselves." 

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