Ascend - The Great Books Podcast

Latest Episodes:

How to Read Plato Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we are preparing to read Plato’s Republic (we start next week!). Before turning to that long and demanding text, we ask a simple question: how do you read Plato well?

Plato does not write treatises or lectures. He writes dialogues, and the setting, the characters, the irony, and even the moments of confusion (aporia!) are part of the teaching. The podcast takes up the questions that help a first-time reader get started on the right foot. Overall, however, we do not read Plato to “be smart” or brag we’ve read Plato. We read Plato to have a beautiful soul. We take him seriously as a teacher who can help us pursue the true, good, and beautiful.

Here is a list of the major questions that are discussed on the podcast today:

Why read Plato?
Why is the drama important?
Are the dialogues historical transcripts?
What is the Socratic method?
What is Socratic irony?
What is the art of dialectic?
What is aporia?
What is eros?
What is pleonexia?
What are the parts of the soul?

Again, we read Plato to better understand the good life and to have a good, healthy soul.

Be sure to check out the MASTER CALENDAR for our reading schedule for Plato’s Republic. Also, if you’re interested in a deeper dive into eros, see "Rediscovering Holy Eros” (one of the most popular articles on Ascend). Moreover, you can read more about pleonexia and its dangers at “The Greatest Threat to Your Freedom is You.” Last week, to prep for the Republic, we published “How to Read Plato’s Republic like C.S. Lewis.” Finally, regarding Socratic irony, read “How a Man Pretending to be Drunk Helps You Read Plato.”

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to reading Plato and its significance

01:00 Why reading Plato is essential for philosophy

02:20 Understanding Plato's teaching through dialogues

06:29 Preparing for the Republic: preliminaries and questions

09:07 Why read the Republic and its moral importance

13:23 How to approach reading Plato's dialogues

26:06 The Socratic method and dialectic explained

33:01 Understanding Socratic irony and its purpose

39:31 Recognizing patterns in Socratic teaching

47:11 Eros, love, and the soul in Plato

55:43 Upcoming plans for studying the Republic

Next week we start Plato’s Republic!

Everything you need to know is here: "How to Read Plato's Republic with Ascend."

Bartleby, the Scrivener by Melville Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we end Short Story September with “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” by Melville - a seemingly simple tale about men in a law office that becomes a puzzling, existential tale. Dcn. Garlick is joined by two excellent guests: Mr. Joey Bremer, a teacher at Holy Family Classical School and an iconographer studying at the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London, and “Montana” of Montana Classical College, an anonymous scholar who runs an X account that shares incredible insights on Melville’s Moby Dick.

Overall, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a perplexing, existential tale that tends to quietly unsettle you by revealing the realities of modern life.

CHECK OUT THE NEW ASCEND BOOK CLUB

This episode of Ascend takes up Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” a quiet, unsettling tale whose central figure answers nearly every request with the same spare formula: “I would prefer not to.” The conversation lingers on the contrast between that stubborn preference and the narrator’s own softness—an elderly lawyer who prizes the easiest way of life, cannot quite govern his office, and keeps mistaking indecision for charity. Names, nicknames, dull eyes, and the cramped windows that look onto other walls all become clues: who in this world still possesses a will, and who has already been reduced to a role?

Listeners are invited to sit with the story’s larger questions rather than resolve them. What does the monotonous labor of copying do to a man? How does a commercial, conventional life flatten thumos and leave even well-meaning people lukewarm? Why does Bartleby’s refusal feel at once more human and more deathly than the quirks of his co-workers? Drawing on the textures of Moby-Dick and the aporetic spirit of Plato, the discussion treats the tale as a puzzle that rewards patient attention—an invitation to notice what modernity may have done to the soul, and to return to the text itself with sharper eyes.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Melville and 'Bartleby'

00:12 Introduction to the episode and main themes

02:05 Biographical context of Melville's life

03:47 Overview of 'Bartleby the Scrivener'

06:54 Themes of monotony and human will

09:59 Character analysis: the narrator and Bartleby

14:57 Philosophical and literary connections

20:05 Implications for modern life and office culture

25:00 Concluding thoughts and interpretations

44:30 Dark passages and existential reflections in 'Bartleby'

45:25 Repetition of life and the prison of modernity

46:24 The loneliness of Bartleby and the narrator's solitude

46:56 Prison as a metaphor for societal dehumanization

48:02 Bartleby's awareness of death and existential insight

50:24 The role of the dead letters office and existential suffering

51:29 Melville's possible critique of modernity and capitalism

53:06 The dehumanizing nature of copying work and modern labor

55:07 Bartleby's refusal as act of will and control

57:47 Reason, preference, and the will in Bartleby's choices

01:00:20 The significance of small acts and existential meaning

01:02:19 Melville's relationship with Plato and classical philosophy

01:09:24 The philosophical underpinnings of Melville's critique

01:12:10 The aporetic nature of the story and open-ended interpretation

01:15:15 Comparison with other literary characters and philosophical figures

01:18:36 Fate, free will, and the acceptance of mortality

01:21:55 Melville, Plato, and the modern crisis of human nature

01:24:52 Final reflections on the story's philosophical depth and relevance

CHECK OUT THE NEW ASCEND BOOK CLUB

NEW BOOK CLUB and Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry” with H.E. Eduard Habsburg Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

We have BIG NEWS! We have launched the new Ascend Book Club!

Ascend: The Great Books Podcast has partnered with “The Ascent” here on Substack to transform it into the new Ascend Book Club to offer you the most comprehensive online book club focused on reading the great books and living a beautiful, virtuous life.

You’ll receive the same great content as before but with much more—which now includes:

Weekly podcast and videos on the great books
Weekly articles on the great books
In-depth, detailed pdf guides on the great books
A monthly LIVE Q&A for supporters

We are also publishing years of articles, guides, videos, and other resources to the new site and organizing them by work and author so they are easy to find—tons of resources on Homer, Hesiod, the Greek plays, Plato, Dante, and more. You could start reading many great books today with the Ascend library.

Check out our new website, the Ascend Book Club, and join us today!

Join our reading group and study the great books with us!

Our next big read is Plato’s Republic this October, check out How to Read Plato’s Republic with Ascend for everything you need to know.

Chivalry with H.E. Eduard Habsburg

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Deacon Harrison Garlick and His Excellency Eduard Habsburg, Archduke of Austria and former Hungarian ambassador to the Holy See, discuss Neil Gaiman’s short story “Chivalry.”

Before they turn to the text, Eduard speaks with warmth and candor about his family’s eight centuries of Catholic identity, the vocation of family in an atomized age, his decade in Rome, and an unexpected love of stories that runs from screenplays and Ghibli films to the understated magic of Gaiman.

What follows is a close, affectionate reading of a story in which the Holy Grail turns up in an Oxfam shop, Sir Galahad knocks on a widow’s door for tea, and the most English understatement imaginable meets Arthurian quest. Together they trace Mrs. Whitaker’s loneliness and ritual, the knight’s unironic goodness, Marie’s transformation, the slugs in the garden, the three gifts of youth and immortality, and the moment an old woman quietly refuses what does not belong to her life.

Eduard reads the tale as homage to Englishness and as a call to accept the adventure when it arrives, while Deacon Garlick asks whether that same ordinariness can also flatten what ought to remain extraordinary. It is a warm conversation on the charming short story, “Chivalry.”

Reading Schedule

We are currently finishing SHORT STORY SEPTEMBER! Next week, we will discuss “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Melville, the author of Moby Dick, with two excellent guests. Read it this week and join the conversation!

We’ll then have an introduction to Plato’s Republic on 9.29.26 and launch into Plato’s Republic on 10.6.26. Check out How to Read the Republic with Ascend for everything you need to know.

You can read the great books with the Ascend Book Club!

Join us.

Dcn. Harrison Garlick lives in rural Oklahoma with his wife and five children. He serves as a deacon at Holy Family Cathedral and as Chancellor & General Counsel for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa. Follow him on X at Dcn. Garlick or Ascend.

Red Shadows: A Savage Tale of Solomon Kane with Alberto Fernandez Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Dcn. Garlick is joined by the always wonderful Alberto Fernandez to discuss "Red Shadows," a salvage tale of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard.

Check out our website for our reading schedule, articles, written guides, and more.

Dcn. Garlick and Alberto discuss Robert E. Howard’s 1928 Solomon Kane tale “Red Shadows,” a pulp adventure chosen as a lively Short Story September “palette cleanser” after heavier classical reading. Howard (1906–1936), the Texas-born creator of Conan the Barbarian, produced hundreds of stories in a short life. Alberto first encountered him through the 1960s–70s Lancer paperbacks with Frank Frazetta covers. Kane, Howard’s only recurring explicitly Christian series character, is described as a grim Puritan-Cavalier mix with pagan and philosophical streaks—“God’s angry swordsman”—a remorseless wandering avenger who rights wrongs he encounters by chance.

The story opens in the French countryside when Kane finds a dying young Catholic woman assaulted by bandits led by Le Loup (“the Wolf”). The stranger’s death prompts Kane’s vow that “Men shall die for this,” launching a relentless pursuit that takes him from France across Europe to the West African jungle.

There the narrative juxtaposes Kane’s grim, driven sense of justice (he sees himself as a “vessel of wrath”) against Le Loup’s cynical evil, tribal politics, the witch-doctor N’Longa, voodoo, jungle drums, and “blood memory.” Unlike the mirthful, vitalistic Conan, Kane is cold and mysterious even to himself. The climax features a duel framed as cosmic justice versus injustice, followed by a second, primal coda in which a gorilla avenges his mate—showing that nature itself can enact justice and that Kane often needs allies to complete vengeance.

Alberto highlights Howard’s youthful ambition (he wrote the story at 21), his debt to adventure writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, and the way Africa becomes a recurring, almost inescapable landscape in later Kane tales. He recommends the Del Rey edition and especially the later novella “Wings in the Night” as Howard’s finest Kane story. Both hosts note the stories’ value as high-energy, well-crafted adventure that can later be shared with sons, and they close by pointing listeners toward the next Short Story September episode on Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry.”

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Robert E. Howard and Solomon Kane

02:13 Howard's Background and Literary Influence

04:37 The Character of Solomon Kane and His Morality

08:36 Howard's Philosophy and Moral Duality

11:02 Why Red Shadows Was Chosen for Discussion

14:48 Beginning of the Story: France and the Dying Girl

16:52 Stranger Motif and the Western Influence

19:10 Cain's Vengeance and Inner Drive

22:50 Primal Justice and the African Setting

26:53 Howard's Use of Africa and Its Significance

32:52 Howard's Publishing Journey and African Themes

36:07 The Role of Ilonga and African Characters

43:49 Eternal Forces: Justice and Injustice

45:58 The Ending: Gorilla and Primal Justice

50:49 Howard's Final Warning and Blood Memory

54:41 Recommended Follow-up Stories and Howard's Legacy

Keywords

Solomon Kane Red Shadows, Robert E. Howard Solomon Kane, Ascend Great Books Podcast, Deacon Harrison Garlick, Alberto Fernandez, Weird Tales 1928, pulp fiction, sword and sorcery, God’s angry swordsman, Conan the Barbarian comparison, Tower of the Elephant, Le Loup the Wolf, N’Longa witch doctor, G’loka the Gorilla Slayer, Short Story September, Del Rey Solomon Kane, Wings in the Night, Moon of Skulls, Hills of the Dead, Puritan avenger, vengeance for a stranger, West Africa jungle, blood memory, jungle drums, Howard pulp adventure, 16th century historical fantasy, Christian hero pulp fiction, Frank Frazetta, Centaur Press Solomon Kane, Lancer paperbacks, Argosy rejection, eighty dollars Weird Tales, grim Puritan Cavalier, vessel of wrath, justice versus injustice.

NEXT WEEK we discuss Neil Gaiman's "Chivalry" with His Excellency Eduard Habsburg, the Archduke of Austria.

Enduring Chill by Flannery O'Connor with Dr. Joseph Boyne Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Dcn. Garlick is joined by Dr. Joseph Boyne to discuss Flannery O'Connor's "Enduring Chill" as part of Short Story September.

Visit thegreatbookspodcast.com for our reading schedule, articles, and a whole host of written guides.

Asbury Fox, the failed New York writer who returns home to his mother’s dairy farm convinced he is dying a tragic, Kafka-esque death, meets a rural doctor, two farmhands who refuse to share his resentment, and a deaf, one-eyed priest from Purrgatory who simply walks him through the Baltimore Catechism. What begins as another Southern Gothic confrontation with pride becomes something rarer in O’Connor: a dark comedy in which the protagonist desires of a romantic death are met with an enduring chill.

Dr. Boyne and Dcn. Garlick draw out the story’s autobiographical shadows, its critique of performative liberalism and abstract love of humanity, and the way O’Connor uses both the Jesuit in New York and the homely Father Finn to insist that meaning—and grace—cannot be manufactured from the self. The conversation lingers on the water-stain dove that descends as ice rather than fire, the question of whether the tale is comic or merely purgatorial, and what it means for those of us who prize the Great Books that education, by itself, is never enough.

Listeners who have been scarred by “The Lame Shall Enter First” will find this one far easier to finish—and far more unsettling in its quiet demand that we keep living.

Chapters

00:05 — Podcast intro and the reading plan for Short Story September

01:01 — Introducing Enduring Chill and Dr. Joseph Boyne

03:21 — Why Dr. Boyne picked the story

05:00 — Flannery O’Connor and the Southern Gothic tradition

12:55 — The grotesque, violence, and grace in O’Connor

20:32 — Asbury returns home and the education theme

30:30 — Asbury’s desire for a meaningful death and the Jesuit in New York

41:42 — Dr. Block and Asbury’s confrontation with illness

50:00 — The dairy farm, the black workers, and failed communion

57:13 — Asking for a priest and the dream sequence

70:29 — Father Finn arrives and subverts Asbury’s expectations

80:31 — Randall and Morgan return

85:34 — Dr. Block diagnoses the illness correctly

87:40 — Final scene: the Holy Ghost in ice and the enduring chill

96:23 — Closing reflections on O’Connor and the story’s meaning

Keywords

Flannery O’Connor The Enduring Chill short story analysis, Ascend the Great Books Podcast Short Story September episode with Deacon Harrison Garlick and Dr. Joseph Boyne of Tulsa Community College, Southern Gothic literature, Catholic short stories, Christ-haunted South, Asbury Fox character study, Jesuit priest Ignatius Vogle, Father Finn from Purgatory, Baltimore Catechism, Holy Spirit as ice instead of fire, undulant fever raw milk irony, performative liberalism and racial condescension, education versus practical wisdom, grotesque as medium of grace, O’Connor comedy versus tragedy, Good Country People comparison, lupus and autobiographical elements, Great Books education critique, upcoming Plato Republic series, Robert E. Howard Red Shadows Solomon Kane, Neil Gaiman Chivalry with Archduke Eduard Habsburg, Herman Melville Bartleby the Scrivener.

Plato's Ion with Erik Rostad, Dr. Grabowski, and More Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

Dcn. Harrison Garlick hosts a full house to discuss the short, strange, forgotten dialogue of Plato's Ion, subtitled "On the Iliad."

10 Question Written Guide on Plato's Ion

Visit our website for more information!

Plato’s Ion opens with a victorious rhapsode who claims to speak more beautifully about Homer than any other human being. Socrates grants the premise that a true rhapsode must not merely recite but interpret the poet’s thought to his hearers—and then tests whether that excellence is a techne, a teachable art that should apply across all poets who treat the same subjects.

Ion fails the test. He is “asleep” except when Homer is mentioned. Socrates therefore offers another account: poets and rhapsodes work not by craft but by divine mania. The Muse is a lodestone, and poet, reciter, and audience form a chain of possession. Ion recognizes himself at once. On stage he is outside himself, and he can move twenty thousand hearers to tears and terror (with a subtle nod in the dialogue about the desire to make money...).

The dialogue then presses the distinction between speaking beautifully and speaking correctly. On charioteering, medicine, and the other arts present in Homer, the expert—not the rhapsode—speaks rightly. Unwilling to admit he has no art at all, Ion seizes the last remaining claim and declares himself the best general. The identification is absurd, and the conversation nearly collapses. Socrates leaves him a choice: to be called unjust, or divine. Ion takes the latter. Skill and inspiration remain unreconciled. What the short work has done is place poetry, possession, and the education of the city on the table—and prepare the larger judgment of the poets that the Republic will make.

Chapters

00:00 - Welcome to Ascend and overview of the episode's purpose

01:05 - Introducing Ion and the returning and first-time guests

02:29 - Erik Rostad explains Book of Titans and his lifelong reading project

06:28 - First reactions to Ion and its perplexing character

07:11 - Preliminary framing: subtitle, translation, and why the dialogue matters

10:10 - Ion's claim to be the finest speaker on Homer

11:44 - What techne means in this dialogue

20:00 - Does Ion really claim knowledge, or only beautiful performance?

23:50 - Ion's claim that no one else speaks more finely on Homer

28:37 - The question of poetry as a better educator than philosophy

31:03 - Ion admits he dozes off when other poets are discussed

38:45 - The magnet metaphor and the chain of divine influence

44:32 - Is divine inspiration irrational, or can it be a real source of truth?

55:31 - A third sense of possession: skill, demonization, and being subsumed into beauty

60:15 - Ion says he watches the crowd and adjusts for money and effect

62:49 - Does Ion have a real art, or is he just managing audience response?

70:29 - The charioteer, the physician, and whether Socrates is being fair

72:26 - Does philosophy itself become a narrow specialty in the same way?

76:03 - Why actors may be excellent performers but poor explainers of their craft

78:10 - Socrates as a guide toward self-recognition of Ion's actual techne

87:25 - Plato as storyteller and the philosopher's need for a better story

90:20 - Storytelling, parables, and the pedagogical power of narrative

92:37 - Plato's self-reflection on his own art and craft

94:36 - The unresolved tension between inspiration and skill

99:44 - Closing thanks

Keywords

Plato’s Ion, On the Iliad, Ion of Ephesus, rhapsode, Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, technē, techne, divine inspiration, mania, theia moira, magnet metaphor, lodestone, Muse, speaking beautifully, speaking correctly, kalos, orthos, Socratic dialogue, forgotten Platonic dialogues, aporetic dialogue, poetry versus philosophy, education of the city, Republic Book 10, poets as imitators, Allan Bloom, Thomas Pangle, Roots of Political Philosophy, Debra Nails, Dr. Frank Grabowski, Thomas Lackey, Jack Drury, Erik Rostad, Book of Titans, Ascend the Great Books Podcast, rhapsodic contest, Asclepieia, Epidaurus, generalship, polymathy, Plato as dramatist.

Hippias Minor (On the Lie) with Dr. Grabowski and Friends Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Dcn. Garlick, Dr. Larson, Dr. Grabowski, and Mr. Thomas Lackey discuss the short, strange, and forgotten dialogue of HIppias Minor or "On the Lie."

8 Questions on Hippias Minor Study Guide

Check Ascend out on X, YouTube, Facebook, and More!

Plato’s Hippias Minor is a short, strange dialogue with a traditional subtitle that cuts straight to the point: “On the Lie.” After the boastful sophist Hippias finishes a public speech ranking Achilles the best and Odysseus the most polytropos—the man of twists and turns—Socrates is drawn into a conversation that begins with Homer and ends in one of the deepest aporias of the early dialogues.

What starts as a dispute over who is the better man, the straightforward Achilles or the wily Odysseus, quickly becomes a rigorous examination of voluntary versus involuntary wrongdoing, the nature of knowledge and power, and the unsettling claim that the man who does injustice on purpose is better than the one who does it by accident.

Deacon and the guests work through the dialogue’s sharp arguments and its surprising relevance. The conversation exposes the limits of treating virtue as mere knowledge plus power, raises the question of whether a just person might ever speak falsely for a good end, and serves as a genuine appetizer for the noble lie in the Republic.

Come listen—and discover why even Socrates, at the end, cannot agree with himself.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Hippias Minor and its Context

04:55 Setting the Scene: Hippias' Speech and Socrates' Role

09:22 Hippias' Boasts and Socrates' Irony

17:55 The Homeric Heroes: Achilles and Odysseus

25:04 Knowledge, Power, and the Art of Lying

36:15 The Distinction Between Capacity and Action

44:53 The Nature of Truth and Falsehood in Socratic Dialogue

46:43 Conclusion: What Socrates Reveals About Knowledge and Lies

02:39 Socrates' questioning of Hippias and the nature of virtue

04:55 The analogy of athletic competitions and the concept of justice

07:57 Socrates' discussion on voluntary and involuntary actions

12:05 The role of knowledge and capacity in moral actions

15:34 Hippias' understanding of justice and its relation to power

19:50 The concept of noble lies and pedagogical deception

25:04 The absence of forms and gods in the dialogue

30:14 The deeper meaning of Socratic ignorance and self-awareness

34:54 The significance of the question: Is justice knowledge or power?

39:51 Conclusion: What we learn about virtue, knowledge, and truth

Keywords

Plato’s Hippias Minor, Lesser Hippias, On the Lie, Hippias of Elis, Achilles and Odysseus, polytropos, voluntary and involuntary wrongdoing, voluntary liar, Socratic dialogue, aporetic dialogue, forgotten Platonic dialogues, noble lie, Republic, virtue is knowledge, knowledge and power, sophist, polymath, Eudicus, Embassy scene Iliad, teleology, Forms, Socratic irony, beneficial falsehood, Dr. Frank Grabowski, Dr. Brett Larson, Thomas Lackey, Ascend the Great Books Podcast, political philosophy, Allan Bloom, Roots of Political Philosophy.

Next week we discuss Plato's Ion!

Plato's Lovers with Dr. Larson and Dr. Grabowski Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Dcn. Garlick, Dr. Larson, and Dr. Grabowski discuss Plato's Lovers--a strange, short, and somewhat forgotten dialogue seeking the definition of philosophy.

We are celebrating ONE YEAR of our sister-company, The Ascent, a top 100 Substack on Christian spirituality.

Check out our WRITTEN GUIDE to the Lovers.

Plato’s Lovers is a short, strange, and easily overlooked dialogue that asks one of the most important questions in the entire Platonic corpus: What is philosophy?

Set in a grammar school where two rival older lovers—one an athlete, the other a cultured “know-it-all”—compete for the attention of younger boys discussing astronomy, the conversation quickly becomes an erotic and educational contest. Socrates enters the scene and quietly reorders the loves on display, showing that philosophy is not the accumulation of many things, that self-knowledge must come before any claim to rule, and that the true lover of the young is the one who leads their souls toward wisdom.

In this episode of Ascend, Dcn. Garlick is joined by Dr. Grabowski and Dr. Larson to unpack the dialogue’s subtle images of the soul, its playful yet serious treatment of eros, and its surprising role as an appetizer for the Republic.

The accompanying written guide offers a clear outline, preliminary questions, and dense Q&A—perfect for first-time readers, small groups, or anyone who wants to follow the argument more carefully.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Plato's 'The Lovers'

02:07 The setting and context of the dialogue

06:19 Who is the dialogue for? Audience and purpose

11:12 The erotic dimension of philosophy and education

16:10 The strangeness of the dialogue's setting

22:02 What is philosophy? The first definitions

27:36 The analogy of athletic training and measured learning

37:25 Usefulness, goodness, and self-knowledge

41:11 The political implications and the role of the philosopher

50:11 The dramatic and rhetorical aspects of the dialogue

57:32 The aporetic ending and its significance

Keywords

Plato’s Lovers, Rival Lovers, Erastai, what is philosophy, polymathy, much learning, Socratic dialogue, aporetic dialogue, forgotten Platonic dialogues, eros, erotic education, true love of the soul, tripartite soul, music and gymnastics, mousikē, gymnastikē, self-knowledge, know thyself, Socrates as third lover, Dionysius grammar school, anonymity in Plato, via negativa, aporia, preparation for the Republic, Dr. Frank Grabowski, Dr. Brett Larson, Ascend the Great Books Podcast, Platonic education, philosophy and politics, soul craft before statecraft.

Plato's Hipparchus with Dr. Frank Grabowski Aug 04, 2026

Show notes

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Dcn. Garlick and Dr. Grabowski discuss a short, strange, and somewhat forgotten Platonic dialogue - The Hipparchus.

Check out our 15 Q&A Written Guide to the Hipparchus - great for small groups, homeschooling, autodidacts, and more!

What begins as a simple question—“What is the love of gain?”—quickly becomes a sharp and unsettling examination of the democratic soul. With no dramatic setting and a nameless interlocutor, the dialogue feels almost like overhearing Socrates in the marketplace, pressing an ordinary Athenian citizen on whether the desire for more is always shameful, or whether the soul might rightly love higher forms of gain: nobility, honor, and even wisdom itself.

What makes the conversation especially rewarding is how Socrates deliberately chooses a shocking example—the tyrant Hipparchus—and reimagines him as a lover of wisdom who sought to educate the city. In doing so, the dialogue quietly draws a parallel between the supposed tyrant and Socrates himself, both of whom attract the youth, challenge conventional order, and are ultimately rejected by a democratic culture that cannot tolerate excellence.

Along the way, listeners encounter an early sketch of the tripartite soul, a critique of the leveling effects of egalitarianism, and an aporetic ending that leaves the interlocutor “compelled rather than persuaded.” Brief, strange, and surprisingly profound, this episode is an excellent preparation for the Republic and a compelling invitation to reconsider what the soul truly seeks.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Plato's Hipparchus and its significance

01:54 Main themes: Love of gain, democracy, and wisdom

04:03 The character of Socrates and the setting of the dialogue

06:03 Hipparchus as a figure in political myth and history

07:58 Translation choices and interpretive approaches

10:00 The dialogue's structure and lack of dramatic setting

11:56 The definition of love of gain and greed

13:54 Socrates' critique of the love of worthless things

16:06 Hipparchus as a symbol of love of wisdom and fame

18:04 The political implications of Hipparchus' love of wisdom

20:00 The role of the democratic man and the love of gain

21:49 Socrates' pedagogical method and the nature of knowledge

23:52 The significance of the tyrant example and Hipparchus' myth

26:04 The character of the interlocutor and the setting of the dialogue

28:03 The introduction of Hipparchus and its layers of meaning

30:10 The political myth of Hipparchus and its revisionist history

32:00 Hipparchus' love of wisdom and the Herms

34:08 The allegory of knowledge and the tripartite soul

35:53 The love of gain as a love of wisdom and truth

38:08 The democratic man, shame, and the pursuit of philosophy

40:00 The role of philosophers in democratic society

42:01 The character of Socrates as a gadfly and teacher

43:48 The process of being compelled towards truth

45:54 Bloom's interpretation: Socrates as a political and epistemological figure

48:00 The significance of the short dialogues for understanding Socrates

50:12 The importance of humility and piety in reading Plato

51:57 Next week's discussion: Rival Lovers and the nature of wisdom

Key words: Plato Hipparchus, love of gain, philokerdia, Socratic dialogue, political philosophy, Alan Bloom, Thomas Pangle, Roots of Political Philosophy, democratic man, egalitarianism, leveling effect, tripartite soul, thumos, nous, appetitive soul, tyrant Hipparchus, Herms, Socrates as gadfly, aporetic dialogue, compulsion versus persuasion, preparation for Plato’s Republic, philosopher-king, Great Books podcast, Ascend the Great Books Podcast, Deacon Harrison Garlick, Frank Grabowski, classical education, ancient philosophy, Plato short dialogues, forgotten Platonic dialogues.

Rediscovering Holy Eros Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Deacon Garlick invites you into a rich, methodical exploration of eros: the primal desire to satiate in beauty and be happy.

What if the restlessness in your soul—the endless craving for more beauty, more fulfillment, more rest—is not a curse but a divine gift?

Reclaiming Holy Eros https://www.theascent.io/p/reclaiming-holy-eros

Women as Icons of God, Beauty-itself https://www.theascent.io/p/the-beauty-of-woman-as-an-icon-of

Porn as a Poor Expression of Eros https://www.theascent.io/p/the-poor-erotics-of-porn

Far from the pornographic or puritan distortions that dominate modern thinking, this ancient concept runs like a golden thread through Homer, Hesiod, Plato’s Symposium, the Old and New Testaments, the Church Fathers, Dante, and even Pope Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est. Deacon shows how eros is the very question of the human condition—an upward call that moves the soul from lesser beauties to greater ones until it finds rest in Beauty itself.

Drawing on his own spiritual labors, the host walks listeners through Plato’s ladder of love, the marital imagery of God’s covenant with Israel, the Song of Songs, Christ’s union with the Church, and the harmony between erotic ascent and the self-giving love of agape. Along the way he recovers a lost grammar of desire that is both natural and supernaturally elevated by grace—one that produces virtue, fecundity, and genuine theosis. The result is not abstract theory but a living path: a latticework upon which your own understanding of restlessness, happiness, and the call to become more Christlike can grow.

Whether you have wrestled with the restlessness of the heart, wondered how pagan wisdom and Christian revelation speak to one another, or simply want a deeper vision of love that orders the soul toward God, this conversation offers something rare: a beautiful, coherent tradition that answers the deepest questions of what it means to be human. Listen, and begin the ascent.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Eros and its significance in Christian spirituality

01:54 Eros in Homer, Hesiod, and the primordial cosmos

07:12 Plato's Symposium and the ladder of love

15:07 Eros in the Old Testament: Marriage and divine love

20:00 Eros in the New Testament: Christ and the Church

30:06 Eros and the ascent to divine beauty

40:11 Eros, virtue, and happiness in Christian thought

50:02 Eros and grace: the divine ascent and participation in God

01:00:10 The harmony of eros and agape in Christian life

01:10:08 Practical implications: loving God and neighbor through eros

01:20:01 Conclusion: recovering holy eros as the heart of human and divine love

Keywords

Holy Eros, Christian eros, Plato Symposium ladder of love, divine beauty, eros and agape, Deus Caritas Est Pope Benedict XVI, Song of Songs, marital imagery God and Israel, Christ bridegroom Church bride, Ephesians 5, St Augustine restless heart, Gregory of Nyssa, bridal mysticism, Bernard of Clairvaux, John of the Cross, Diotima, ascent to God, theosis, pagan and Christian erotics, Homer Hesiod Aristotle eros, natural and supernatural love, virtue and beauty, Ascend Great Books Podcast, Deacon Harrison Garlick, reclaiming holy eros, spiritual ascent, rest in God.

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