The Christian Humanist Podcast

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Episode 98: Ode on a Grecian Urn Mar 12, 2013

Show notes

Michial Farmer converses with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about John Keats's poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn." After some conversation about the formal innovations of this and other Keats odes, the crew digs into the strong Platonic strains of the poem, its place in the larger phenomenon called "Romanticism," and the poem's particular ideology of art and life. Among the ohter realities we take on are elegiac poetry, ekphrasis, whether the urn ever existed, and the ashtray outside of the University of Georgia English department.

Episode 97: Kubla Khan Mar 05, 2013

Show notes

David Grubbs holds forth with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's particular philosophy of poetry comes across strongly in this conversation, as does the history of the poem and especially its larger-than-verse backstory. Among other things we take on the connections between drug abuse, madness, and art; the category "Romantic Poetry;" the ideology of the prophet-poet; and Orientalism as it manifests in "Kubla Khan."

Episode 96: Intimations of Immortality Feb 19, 2013

Show notes

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about William Wordsworth's poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality." From its place in the Romantic era to its influence on Latter-Day-Saints theology, our conversation takes on the poem's ideology of childhood and its accompanying passages about the pre-existence of the soul. Among other things we discuss are possible Platonic and Buddhist influences, how Romantic poetry departs from its predecessors and how it doesn't, and the end of childhood.

Episode 95: Platonic Aesthetics Feb 12, 2013

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Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about Plato's writings on poetry, painting, music, and other kinds of art. Stepping beyond the standard "Plato hates poets" treatment, the trio starts with a conversation about the state of literary, visual, and musical arts in Athens, then enters into a handful of dialogues in which Socrates and his interlocutors make a complex array of assertions about the places of music and poetry and such in the good life. Among the dialogues and other realities discussed are tragedy, comedy, Republic, Phaedrus, Charmides, Symposium, and allegory.

Episode 94: The Forest Feb 05, 2013

Show notes

David Grubbs moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the literature, theology, and other fascinating facets of forests. At the heart of the conversation is the shifting conceptions of the woods, from a place of dread to a place of wonder to a vulnerable place that needs human protection. Among the texts, writers, and other realities discussed are Gilgamesh, 2 Samuel, Dryads, Sir Orfeo, The Faerie Queene, Inferno, Macbeth, Henry David Thoreau, environmentalism, and (of course--Grubbs is back!) Tolkien.

Episode 93.3: Musicals Jan 29, 2013

Show notes

Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour converse about musicals on the stage and screen. From European roots to the essentially American stage musical and beyond into Disney movie musicals, the conversation explores the philosophies that inform musicals and the places that musical theater has gone with a catchy tune and a quick rhyme. Among the musicals and other realities discussed are Wagner, Gilbert and Sullivan, South Pacific, Oklahoma!, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Evita!, Rent, The Jungle Book, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.

Episode 93.2: Pragmatism Jan 22, 2013

Show notes

Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour converse about Pragmatism, a distinctly American philosophical tradition, and its roots in logic, capitalism, and pluralism. Along the way we discuss the three famous figures of early-twentieth-century pragmatism, the postmodern turn that neo-pragmatism takes in the late twentieth century, and the ways in which pragmatism and Christianity exist uneasily but undeniably together in American thought. Among the philosophers and other realities discussed are C.S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Richard Rorty, Stanley Fish, and David Bentley Hart.

Episode 93.1: Talking Back to Listeners Jan 15, 2013

Show notes

Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour respond to some listener feedback from the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013.

Episode 93: Christmas Specials Dec 18, 2012

Show notes

Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with David Grubbs, Nathan Gilmour, and special guest hosts Stephen Sandridge and Tim Rhodes (from the Night Cheese podcast) about the television Christmas special. Starting with adaptations of A Christmas Carol and moving through the weirdness of Rankin-Bass, the crossover crew digs into the ways that sentimentality gives way to irony in the course of television's brief Christmas history but never quite overcomes Charlie Brown. Among the television shows and other realities discussed are Mr. Magoo's Christmas, Rudoloph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Alf's Christmas special, and A Claymation Christmas.

Episode 92: Christian Literature Dec 11, 2012

Show notes

Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about the much-maligned Christian book industry. After a discussion of the Christian bookstore's place in the history of the novel, the trio goes on to take on the apocalyptic thriller and the Christian romance novel, two very popular subsets in the industry, and finishes with some utopian suggestions for the Christian fiction world. Among the books, ideas, and other realities discussed are Janette Oke, Frank Peretti, Tim LaHaye, English department bias, and differences between popular and literary fiction.

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