Young Heretics

After the End Mar 05, 2025

When we first met Aeneas, he wished he could have died at Troy. Today, we find out why. By all accounts, the honorable thing to do would have been to go down with the burning citadel of his fathers. But this ain't your daddy's Iliad, and one thing we're learning is that honor and glory don't fetch quite the price they used to. If there's anyone who understands that it's Neoptolemus, AKA Pyrrhus, AKA Achilles' hellspawn, AKA the living wages of Greek decadence. It's not a pretty sight. Plus: what should we make of the Septuagint?

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Snakes on the Plain Feb 26, 2025

Hey look, it's some Greeks! Bearing gifts! What could possibly go wrong?

Today the Trojans will find out the answer to that very question, which will take us (at last!) into the story of that freaking horse. In Virgil's masterful hands it becomes a parable of Greek rhetorical trickery, Odyssean danger, and above all Roman anxiety over just how we should feel about the Greeks. On the one hand, without them, there would be no Aeneid. On the other hand, they're...kinda sus. Plus: why you should read the Aeneid instead of letting Grok do it for you.

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That's the Power of Love Feb 20, 2025

Don't take money...don't take fame...just takes a primordial deity whose powers of creation and destruction supervised the origins of the world, who is now divebombing straight at Dido's heart. What could go wrong? This extremely twisted Valentine's Day special will bring us to the end of The Aeneid, Book 1, which ends in blood-pumping fashion with a moment of extreme sexual tension. In the midst of which, Aeneas will be asked to relive the time his home got obliterated by a ruthless army of bloodthirsty Greeks. Fun! (No actually, it's fun.) Plus: the Drake and Kendrick of the ancient world.

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TarSHEESH Feb 14, 2025

Wail, O Tyre and...where now? Just where WAS Jonah going when he got re-routed via fish? The possibilities aren't limitless, exactly, but there sure are a lot of them including...just, like, the ocean itself? Nah, probalby not, but it's a fun thought and there are lots of others. It's one of those little Biblical mysteries that holds out all sorts of tantalizing possibilities. I can't tell you which one is definitely right, but I sure have a favorite. You asked, I answer: where is Tarshish?

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They Say All's Fair Feb 11, 2025

It's Aeneas and Dido: A Tale of Love and War. As we get into the first major episodes of Aeneas' journey, we embark upon an intricate composition of wheels within wheels--stories of carnage and battle interlocked with stories of desire, affection, and lust. From an explanation of ring composition via Harry Potter, to a Virgilian image that has changed poetry ever since, to a bonus segment on chiasmus and the clapper (you know, that thing you can use to turn your lights on and off) it's a jam-packed addition to our Aeneas series.

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Beatrice Groves on Ring Composition in Harry Potter:

https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/guest-post-stone-goblet-hallows-literary-links-and-riddles-in-philosophers-stone-goblet-of-fire-and-deathly-hallows-dr-groves-part-ii/

More than a Woman: Dido and Aeneas's Epic Love Affair Feb 04, 2025

Who's that dime walking down the temple corridor? Is it Juno? Venus? Diana? Cleopatra? No, it's Dido, queen of Carthage and warrior princess of Tyre. In this episode, Virgil introduces one of literature's all-time greatest heroines, high on her throne but doomed to fall. She's demure...or is she? She's mother...or not? Whatever she is, she's always a woman to me. And to Aeneas, who at this point can't do much more than stare at her like a dope.

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C.S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid Jan 28, 2025

When I tell you my finger smashed the "order now" button--apparently there's a fragmentary translation of the Aeneid by C.S. Lewis that he was working on all throughout his life. It's a rhyming version in 12-syllable Alexandrine lines, and you KNOW I had to do a review of it. Here are my thoughts, as well as a little more on Lewis's theory of epic and his lifelong relationship with Rome's greatest narrative poem.

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Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out a new review of the book at Law and Liberty: https://t.co/lHSo8yotG8

I'm In Danger: Ralph Wiggum versus the Phoenicians Jan 24, 2025

Of all the gin joints on all the shores of the Mediterranean, Aeneas had to wash up onto this one. He doesn't know it yet, but this is Carthage: the home of what will become Rome's greatest rival and the ultimate obstacle in her rise to greatness. The genius of Virgil is how he tells us all that while also showing us what things looked like from Aeneas' vantage point--before the clash of civilizations was made manifest, and when the immediate point at issue was where to get something to eat. Here's the key to understanding Virgil's opening moves.

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The End of Everything, by Victor Davis Hanson: https://a.co/d/iCDan7I

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out a new review of the book at Law and Liberty: https://t.co/lHSo8yotG8

The Three Little Words no One Can Resist Jan 21, 2025

If you've ever wanted to make the ladies or the fellas swoon with just three little words, now is your chance. I'm talking, of course, about the words "arma virumque cano." So few syllables, yet they say so much. In fact, they connect Virgil's epic to Rome and Greece, past and future, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the human and the divine realms, all at once. And each one is a kind of transformation of what went before it. Digging in deeper can help show the power of language and translation. It's time for another episode of words, words, words.

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A helpful list of translations: https://foundinantiquity.com/2023/12/05/do-we-have-too-many-english-translations-of-the-aeneid/#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20there%20is%20not,English%20translations%20of%20the%20Aeneid.

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Aeneas: the Frodo of Epic Poetry Jan 17, 2025

Aeneas really, really does not want to be in this poem. As in, he would rather be dead. That's how the Aeneid starts out: when we're introduced to our hero he's a very unwilling participant in a grand plan for world history, and he doesn't feel remotely up to the task. Virgil might have felt the same way, crushed under the political and artistic pressure of telling a founding story for Rome's new era. Which makes this a perfect time to read the poem, as a troubled America gets ready to celebrate 250 years since its own founding.

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A helpful list of translations: https://foundinantiquity.com/2023/12/05/do-we-have-too-many-english-translations-of-the-aeneid/#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20there%20is%20not,English%20translations%20of%20the%20Aeneid.

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Mailbag: Check out Omeros, by Derek Walcott

The All-Time Best Aeneid Translation Jan 15, 2025

How many English editions of the Aeneid can we possibly need? Which one is the best one, and why? Is the C.S. Lewis version real, or just a myth? Today, as we prepare to launch into our series on Virgil's great epic, I share a reading from a few different translations, a discussion of some of the issues at play, and a verdict on the GOAT when it comes to the Aeneid in English.

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A helpful list of translations: https://foundinantiquity.com/2023/12/05/do-we-have-too-many-english-translations-of-the-aeneid/#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20there%20is%20not,English%20translations%20of%20the%20Aeneid.

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

I maked this: "The Crisis of Purpose in the West": https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/report/resurrection-or-surrender-the-crisis-purpose-the-west

Get in Loser, We're Reading Epic Poems Jan 09, 2025

It's a new year, and it's time for a new epic. You asked, we delivered: here comes Virgil's Aeneid! BUT FIRST: while we were gone over the Christmas vacation, Twitter descended into an intoxicating madness of epic adaptation, debate, and counter-programming. I'll recap the major points and give my take on: Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, whether you should have heard of Homer before, and what you should think of Emily Wilson's new translations. Then we'll launch into our new series for the year, on the little Roman epic with big hopes to rival Greece.

Use code HERETICS to get 10% off Field of Greens: fieldofgreens.com

Read my review of Emily Wilson's Odyssey and Iliad translations: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/homer-without-heroes/

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

I maked this: "The Crisis of Purpose in the West": https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/report/resurrection-or-surrender-the-crisis-purpose-the-west

Epic Fail: My Review of the Return Dec 18, 2024

I wanted to like this movie. Really, I did. I tried to like it. But modern realism is just totally unsuited to the Homeric epics and like, also...maybe to telling a coherent story at all? Ralph Feinnes and Juliette Binoche are both terrific actors, but The Return failed for me at every level and here's why. Plus: read more at The New Jerusalem.

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Join in the Rejoice Evermore Advent Calendar: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/p/coming-soon-light-of-the-world-the

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

The Inklings Awards for Literary Excellence Dec 10, 2024

And the Inkling Award goes to...

This year, for the first of what I hope will be many times, I'm announcing my awards for the best books I read in four categories, with one bonus:

Non-Fiction Criticism Fiction Theology Bonus Category: Worst Book of the year

You can find links to the winners above, and a few runner-ups here, here, here, here, and here. Who will win? Who belly-flopped the hardest? Were there any good movies this year? All this and more, plus a preview of things to come.

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Join in the Rejoice Evermore Advent Calendar: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/p/coming-soon-light-of-the-world-the

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Odysseus: Where Is He Now? Nov 27, 2024

"I cannot rest from travel," says Odysseus in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses. But wasn't resting from travel...kind of the whole point? Come to think of it, what does happen to an indelible character when his story comes to an end? Maybe the answer is, it doesn't. As a coda to our series on Homer, here's one last look at Odysseus through the years, as his story has inspired everyone from Dante to Spongebob.

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Check out iBreviary: https://www.ibreviary.org/en/

Join in the Rejoice Evermore Advent Calendar:

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Listen to EPiC, the Musical: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2kdmTOXncgNHSuYVMhdd5I?si=t3N9X8bGSPmp6ZX5t7QDRw

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Advent Nov 25, 2024

Hey you! Yeah, you!! PUT DOWN THAT NAT KING COLE CHRISTMAS ALBUM. It's not time yet!! Technically, it won't even be time on December 1, which is the beginning not of Christmas but of the Advent season. It's also the beginning of the liturgical calendar. And since these sorts of things can be hard to focus on unless you really set out with intention at the beginning, I thought this year I'd invite you to read and meditate with me during the season. And don't worry, you can still play Christmas music.

To join in my Rejoice Evermore advent calendar, go to https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/p/coming-soon-light-of-the-world-the

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The Suitors Get Theirs: The End of the Odyssey Nov 19, 2024

It's payback time. Odysseus at last throws off his disguise and wages holy war on the men who tore up his house and home for ten years, in what is still one of the most metal sequences in all of world literature. Does he go too far? Lots of people think so--but I don't. I think he gets right up to the brink and then, in a key moment that brings the hero's journey to its close, his son pulls him back from the brink. After that it's really all over but the shouting--and a little husband-wife trickery--before we bring this journey to a close.

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Check out iBreviary: https://www.ibreviary.org/en/

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

What I Learned about Lord of the Rings by Inventing a Language Nov 15, 2024

Confession: for a long time I never understood why Tolkien had to make up a language to go with The Lord of the Rings. It felt a little bit like trying to tell an adventure story while getting bogged down in the details of imaginary corn law. But when the Daily Wire asked me to invent a new language for the Pendragon series, I instantly understood Tolkien in a whole new way. So when a listener asked me to comment on the idea that world building essentially is language building, I was all in. Here's what I learned from my first time language building, or "conlanging."

Check out more behind-the-scenes footage from Daily Wire: https://x.com/dailywireplus/status/1717656941122461910

Order Osweald Bera: https://ancientlanguage.com/vergil-press/osweald-bera/

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

The Sins of the Father: How Odysseus got his Name Nov 13, 2024

Odysseus' journey isn't over when he reaches Ithaca's shores. It won't be fully over until he takes back his rightful place at the head of his household--but first, he has one last journey of self-discovery to make. With the help of his nursemaid Eurycleia, he has to learn at last that he's not just the person war has made him: he's also the person he left behind at home. At the end of all his wanderings, he returns at last to find himself.

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Check out iBreviary: https://www.ibreviary.org/en/

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

How to Learn Old English (feat. Colin Gorrie) Nov 08, 2024

My guest today is someone who I believe, without exaggeration, will help transform the way people learn ancient languages for years to come. While our institutional academies crumble, a new academy is quietly emerging in independent organizations like the Ancient Language Institute, and Colin Gorrie is one of its leading figures. His aspiration is to "bring linguistics out of the ivory tower," which he's done magnificently with his new book Osweald Bera, now available for pre-order. We talk about Tolkien, Beowulf, and the magic of learning ancient languages.

Pre-order Osweald Bera: https://ancientlanguage.com/vergil-press/osweald-bera/

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

This One's For the Boys: Ithaca's Favorite Dog Nov 06, 2024

We've met the ladies at the end of Odysseus' journey--though not, of course, the most important one. But now it's time for the main man to get re-acquainted with the fellas: his faithful wingman, his furry friend, and most of all, his long-lost son. In a moving series of reunion scenes, Odysseus learns that though he brought much of himself to war and back again, he also left much of himself at home--and the worst of his failures are not the last word. Plus: an update about the revival of higher ed at New College, Florida.

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Check out iBreviary: https://www.ibreviary.org/en/

Watch my conversation with Jordan Peterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMRT2ZbXa2s

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Word and Tomato Salad (Words, Words, Words 30) Nov 01, 2024

If tomatoes are a fruit, why can't you put them in a fruit salad? Somewhat more importantly, did you know cashews aren't nuts? And most importantly of all, what does any of this have to do with the theory of translation? Today I'm responding to a question about the difference between technical, scientific terminology, and the words we use in everyday speech. Are these really the same language, even if they use the same vocabulary? The answer may surprise you, and affect the kinds of mixed nuts you serve at parties.

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Homecoming King: Calypso, Nausicaa, and Athena Oct 30, 2024

We are truly on the home stretch now--folding up the frame story around Odysseus' adventures, we can see there are three women that walk beside him on his way back to Ithaca. Each of them, in her own way, must love him without holding on to him, as he goes through the painful process of recovering who he is after all the accretions of war and wandering have been stripped away. It's an epic drama but also, in some deeply essential way, the story of all of us.

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Check out iBreviary: https://www.ibreviary.org/en/

Watch my conversation with Jordan Peterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMRT2ZbXa2s

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Rate My Translation: Comparing Versions of the Odyssey (Words, Words, Words 29) Oct 25, 2024

We're so back, folks--it's Words, Words, Words, our series on translation! Election or no, we stay translating Homer. This time I've taken one of the passages from our Odyssey walkthrough--the summoning of the dead in Book 11--and compared versions from the 1700s to today. What sorts of compromises do translators have to make, and how well have different translators (including me) made them? We'll answer those questions while reading Homer a bunch, which honestly is just always good for the soul.

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Choose Your Own Adventure: Scylla, Charybdis, and Tradeoffs Oct 22, 2024

We're nearing the last leg of Odysseus' journey, and he's really caught between a rock and a hard place. Between the devil and the deep blue sea. Between...well, between Scylla and Charybdis. After a dramatic turning point among the dead, Odysseus is now faced with what he says is the saddest and most pitiable horror he has ever seen on all his suffering journeys across the sea. What is it--and would you have chosen differently?

Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Special Episode: My Conversation about Science and Faith with Professor Brian Keating Oct 21, 2024

It's been just under a week since my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World was released. In that time, I've been privileged to have a whole array of wonderful conversations about the book and its themes. One of the most stimulating, wide-ranging, and enjoyable of those was with the UCSD physicist Brian Keating, who asked well-framed and fascinating questions about the reconciliation of science and faith.

If you haven't already, you really should subscribe to Dr. Keating's own podcast, Into the Impossible. It's consistently one of the best out there.

And if you order my book today (October 21), send me a screenshot of your order--I'll enter you to win one of five free signed bookplates.

If you've already got the book, please consider giving it a five-star review on Amazon. That makes a huge difference in spreading the word.

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Andrew Klavan: What Comes After America's Decline? Oct 18, 2024

I was startled when I walked into my living room today to find Andrew Klavan (no relation) sitting in my chair! But while he's in town I thought we might as well talk about his new book, A Woman Underground, the latest in the Cameron Winter series. It's a detective story that's at once gripping and intellectually fascinating, so we explored some of the influences and themes that make this book an essential read for our times. As it turns out, we've taken two very different approaches to one idea: materialism is in decline. So what comes next?

Read the new mystery, A Woman Underground: https://a.co/d/9qvGY33

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

My book is out!! Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

The Texas Chainsaw Underworld Oct 15, 2024

It's about time for our Halowe'en special--and as luck would have it, I can think of no more chilling or eerie storie than the one we have to tell today. It's Odysseus' meeting with the shadows of the dead in the Odyssey Book 11. In it, both Odysseus and Homer must confront the ultimate existential crisis and grapple with the possibility that life itself ends in nothing but worm food. So why go on living? It's a painful question, but one a hero must face to make his way out the other side of death and come back home.

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

My book is out!! Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

The Angel on the Hilltop Oct 12, 2024

Who doesn't love a free sample? This week, to change it up, I'm offering a sneek peak behind the paywall at rejoiceevermore.substack.com, where I've been creating an audiobook of John Milton's epic Paradise Lost. Hard to believe it's almost done! But to entice you to join, and to solicit suggestions for what to record next, here's the latest installment, in which Adam--newly expelled from Paradise--gets a glimpse of what will come in the wake of sin.

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Thoughts and Prayers for Odysseus: Circe's Island Oct 08, 2024

Life is very hard for Odysseus. He's lost comrades to war and to people-eaters of both the one- and two-eyed varieties. He's far from home, wandering at sea, and now, after all that...he has to go to bed with a beautiful goddess. Please bow your heads in a moment of silence. Truly, though, the island of Aeaea, where Circe the witch lives, does represent a major trial that Odysseus must go through to make his way back into civilization. But it's not he kind of trial we'd imagine today, when Christianity has totally transformed sexual ethics. What does it mean to stay true to your family, and what is true strength? Odysseus is going to have to answer both questions to make it home.

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Is there Objective Reality? (Words, Words, Words 28) Oct 04, 2024

Translation should be impossible--but it works. Does that prove there's such a thing as universal, objective reality? For that matter, what would "objective" reality even mean? This week, thanks to a listener question, I'm lead to the heart of these ancient mysteries via Aristotle, Kant and...Kanye West? Plus: the Light of the Mind book tour begins! Guess where I am this week...

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Cyclops Nationalism: The One Thing Worse than Politics Oct 01, 2024

Ah, the state of nature: a peaceful utopia where each man is free to live off his own vineyards, sit under his own fig tree, and eat people alive. Wait--what?? In Book 9 of the Odyssey, Homer gives us a diabolical bait-and-switch, from the pure serenity of primitive life to the gruesome horrors of a world without law. It's the perfect antidote to the wishful thinking that might set in around election time, when all we want is to get away from politics: if you can believe it, the alternatives might be even worse!

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Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Light of the Mind (Words, Words, Words 27) Sep 27, 2024

Let's pick up where we left off last week: words are symbols of symbols, representing inward states of the soul. But those inward states are also symbols, because the world is symbolic--that is, it naturally produces symbols as a real feature of its construction. So...what do we do about it? To answer that question we turn to Thomas Aquinas, whose little book De Natura Verbi Intellectus tells you everything you need to know about Adam naming the animals, and probably also about quantum superposition. Which is...cool.

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The Never-Ending Story: Who Is Odysseus? Sep 24, 2024

The Odyssey begins with a big empty space where Odysseus should be. His home, his familiy, his household are all suffering for want of him. But where is he--and more importantly, who is he? That's the poem again and again and today, we begin trying to answer it. If there's one thing everyone remembers from this poem it's the adventure stories in the middle: the Cyclops, Circe, the Lotus Eaters. We embark on those stories now, beginning with the moment when Odysseus finally chooses to reveal his true identity to his hosts the Phaeacians...and perhaps also to himself.

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Peter Struck’s interactive Odyssey Map: https://www2.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/homer/index.php?page=odymap

Simon Netchev’s Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Selective attention test (the basketball gorilla): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

EPiC, a concept album by Jorge Rivera-Herrans: https://solo.to/jayherrans

And check out Rivera-Herrans’s Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/jayherrans/?hl=en

The Rosetta Soul (Words, Words, Words 26) Sep 20, 2024

If a tree falls in the forest...does it make a sound? There's actually a great answer to that question, and Aristotle just tweeted it out way back when. Today, in response to a listener question, I finally lay it all on the line and tell you my nuts-and-bolts theory of translation, which is also a theory of the world. It's basically Aristotle, with some Thomas Aquinas mixed in: the mysteries of the soul are inscribed all over with the hieroglyphs of the body, and symbols are the rosetta stone that bridge between them.

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The Writing of the Gods, by Edward Dolnick: https://a.co/d/4jGv6NO

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The Unified Field Theory of Greek Myth Sep 17, 2024

Let's check in on how Odysseus' other buddies from Troy are doing.

*Briefly scans news report from Proteus*

Yeah so uh it's a dumpster fire. Today Telemachus arrives at Troy, where he hears from Menelaus about his own fraught journey home, including his encounter with an immortal seal dad (real) which led to the first news of Odysseus in years. It won't bring him home but it will bring his son hope, which might be just what he needs to fill the void that has opened up since Odysseus left.

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The Story of the Rosetta Stone (Words, Words, Words 25) Sep 13, 2024

The name "Rosetta Stone" has great brand recognition, but how much do you really know about Ptolemy V's royal decree? When you get right down to it, it's one of the wildest little corners of world history, stretching from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the defeat of Napoleon, with lots of bonkers facts in between. Plus it'll help us uncover more about the nature of language, logic, and humanity itself. Not bad for a hunk of rock!

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Boyz 2 Men: How Telemachus Grows Up Sep 10, 2024

The Odyssey is a very different poem from the Iliad in many ways, but in one way it picks up right where the Iliad leaves off: with the fallout of war and the journey to re-integrate soldiers back into the civil society they came from. Today we begin Odysseus' long journey home, which actually begins at the end and works backward, starting with his son Telemachus' journey to grow to manhod without his dad around.

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Stephen C. Meyer, The Return of the God Hypothesis: https://a.co/d/gbIOQSY

Owen Barfield, Worlds Apart: https://a.co/d/1eVagdy

Owen Barfield, Saving the Appearances: https://a.co/d/ioLqsnf

C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man: https://a.co/d/e3QeBte

C.S. Lewis, Miracles: https://a.co/d/g9hpjq5

Victor Stenger, God: The Failed Hypothesis: https://a.co/d/gmGwcoW

James Hannam, God’s Philosophers: https://a.co/d/625AA62

Ed Feser, Aristotle’s Revenge: https://a.co/d/bPGnKuf

Augustine, Confessions: https://a.co/d/99APz4T

Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram imperfectus liber: https://www.augustinus.it/latino/genesi_incompiuto/index.htm

The Isaiah Code: How to read prophecy (Words, Words, Words 24) Sep 06, 2024

Is prophecy a species of translation, or encryption, or both? This fascinating question, prompted by last week's episode on quantum cryptography, breaks down into two different sub-questions: how do prophets receive and communicate their messages, and how should we understand them? There are lots of ways to go wrong here--think doomsday cults--but also some fascinating ways to go right that help reveal the nature of language, scripture, and history. Plus: an illustration of the four traditional ways to interpret the Bible.

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I maked this: a full translation of the Book of Isaiah at https://www.rejoice-evermore.com/just-the-translation

Pumpkin Spice Patroclus: The real relationship between Achilles and his companion Sep 03, 2024

Fall is in the air, which means the time has come for us to close out our study of the Iliad. From book 16 to the end in book 24, the poem engages in what remains one of the most enduring subtle studies of rage, war, grief, and even PTSD that the human mind has ever produced. It shows us the roots of all tragedy in our own lives and throughout history, leaving the stage set for a new adventure in the Odyssey. Which we'll pick up next week!

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Alice Oswald, Memorial: https://a.co/d/dcToGpW

Christopher Logue, War Music: https://a.co/d/fF2eVnb

Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: https://a.co/d/3Jo7LpD

Books of Titans: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/books-of-titans-podcast/id1237365806

Cracking the Code: What Bitcoin and Quantum Cryptography have to do with Kabbalah and AI (Words, Words, Words 23) Aug 30, 2024

Ifmmp! After months spent explaining how communicating works in different languages, I've gotten a question about now not communicating works, in any language. Turns out the answer will take us through ancient mysticism, the invention of computers, and the technology behind Bitcoin...all in 30 minutes! At the end of it all, a tl;dr on what we should think about the race to build bigger faster quantum systems to make and break codes in our age of AI and machine-generated poetry.

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Troy but for Real: The Best Scene in the Iliad Aug 27, 2024

If I were making a movie of the Iliad (a good one, not the Brad Pitt version of Troy), there's no question the trailer would have to include today's central scene: Hector and Andromache on the wall. This is the money shot that reveals the poem in its full greatness, honest and sober about the realities of war but capable of mourning with those who suffer defeat. The Trojans might be the most interesting part of the poem, especially for what they reveal about the problems of polytheism and the contrast it poses to the Christian gospel. All this and more on our second-to-last Iliad episode.

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How Alphabets are Formed (Words, Words, Words 22) Aug 24, 2024

"A word is a kind of painting of which the subject is a thought," wrote Nicolas Beauzée. Even an Enlightenement Frenchman is right twice a day. But where does that leave the written word--as a picture of a picture of a thought? Yes, I argue in this episode, and there's profundity in that which goes far beyond the history of alphabets--though that is, in its own right, exceptionally cool too. It's all here in the latest words, words, words.

Dear English Language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ69ny57pR0

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Our Greatest Technology (Words, Words, Words 21) Aug 22, 2024

The cotton gin, the railroad, the printing press, the internet...there are plenty of candidates for the world's biggest tech revolution, but the biggest one might be one we've never even thought about before. And it has to do with how we process language, so naturally...I'm obsessed. PLUS: in a very special announcement, all my listeners are invited to join me at New College Florida this fall semester for an online course on Greek literature! Link below.

Class is in session: https://www.ncf.edu/youngheretics/

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Muad'Dib! Why Achilles was Right and Agamemnon was Wrong Aug 20, 2024

And we're off to the races! The Iliad begins in earnest this week with the outbreak of the feud between Achilles and Agammemnon (#TeamAchilles). The drama that unfolds contains almost the entirety of all that was to come in Greek culture, from the terror of hubris to the magnificent achievement of city-states in coalition. Plus: stick around to the end for a bunch of very cool announcements.

Trump the Sandworm: https://x.com/Babygravy9/status/1823830496872136776

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Foundations of the West:Athens and the Logos

Greek Myth Comix: https://greekmythcomix.com/comic/deaths-in-the-iliad-a-classics-infographic/

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Achilles in the Coconut Tree Aug 13, 2024

Is the Iliad just a cautionary tale about toxic masculinity? Or is there something deeper at work in Achilles' murderous rage? To really understand the poem, you have to understand--and internalize--what it means to live in an honor culture, and to seek justice in a universe that makes no guarantees. After listening to this episode you can understand the story of the poem as it was meant to be understood, rather than letting petty modern ideologues set the terms of interpretation.

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One More Thing: Breaking News! Aug 09, 2024

What a time to be alive. New Euripides just dropped! Results are pouring in not only from the AI project that's unearthing new passages from the charred scrolls of Herculaneum, but also from the good old-fashioned method of leafing through mounds of old scrolls. Some of it is directly related to everything we've been talking about in Homer and the mythic cycle. It's the only Young Heretics news that's fit to break.

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Choose Your Fighter: Achilles as a Manly Archetype Aug 06, 2024

The game is on, Helen is abducted, and now it's time to gather the Greeks for war. There are lots of stories about how the Achaean forces made their way to Troy, and some of them--like the story of the Achilles heel--are permanently associated in the popular imagination with Homer's stories. But how many of them are actually in the Iliad? And what's Homer doing by making this version of Achilles the central focus of his story? This week we sift through the myths to get to know the man, and what he tells us about masculinity in the 21st century.

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I maked this: "Zombie Paganism" at The New Jerusalem: https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/essay-7-zombie-paganism

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What Does "This Is My Body" Mean? (Words, Words, Words 20) Aug 05, 2024

Time's up! I gave you a weekend extension on the first-ever Young Heretics homework assignment, but now it's time to review some of the responses that came in. From a purely grammatical perspective, it turns out to be one of the most fascinating sentences in the English language, and the grammar actually has a little bit to say about the theology of the thing, too. As if you guys needed another reason to nerd out with me about words.

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Villain Origin Story: The Judgment of Paris Jul 30, 2024

Stop me if you've heard this one: guy walks into a bar...and his head is an orange. If you know, you know. If you don't know, let me tell you how my favorite joke is also a perfect foil for the story that started it all in the Homeric universe, the Judgment of Paris. In hindsight it's pretty clear that Paris could have navigated the situation a little better, but...if you'da been there...if you'da seen it...how sure are you that you wouldn't have done the same?

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It Depends on What the Meaning of the Word "Is" Is (Words, Words, Words 19) Jul 26, 2024

I always say I don't want to step on any theological land mines. Then somebody tosses me a juicy theological question and it's like...LEEEEROOOOOOOOYYYYYYY JEENNNKINNNNS. Actually today's question is mostly about grammar, but it's also about transubstantiation and somehow also, the Monica Lewinsky scandal? Basically it's "what does 'is' mean?" And the answer is...it's complicated. Buckle up!

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We're Reading Homer: The Movie I'm Most Excited about This Year Jul 23, 2024

GUYS. Guys. They're making an Odysseus movie. With Ralph Fiennes. Will it be any good? Will it do well at the box office? Does this mean I finally have to learn how to spell "Fiennes"? I don't know. But I do know I've been waiting for an opportunity to go back to Homer on this show since way back in episode one. So get in, losers, we're telling the whole story of the Homeric epics, starting today with the man (and the myth, and the legend) himself. Can't wait!!

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I maked this: "Rachel Maddow's J.D. Vance Fan Fiction" at The Washington Examiner https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/3090704/rachel-maddow-j-d-vance-fan-fiction/

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Lend me a Kleenex: How Foreign Words Become English (Words, Words, Words 18) Jul 19, 2024

Enough about politics! Let's answer the really tough questions in life. Is "Logos" an English word? How about Sitzfleisch? Algebra? Café? This week, in response to my previous Words, Words, Words episode, I got an exceptionally astute question about what makes something a "foreign word" versus simply a "loan word" that has been integrated into English. The answer is...#itscomplicated. But also amazing. And cool. And awesome. Let's discuss!

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You Best Not Miss: The Assassination Attempt on Trump, according to Machiavelli Jul 16, 2024

This isn't a politics podcast, but sometimes politics comes for you. We've just lived through a deadly serious event--the kind that defines an epoch and brings us face-to-face with some of the most consequential political realities of our era. There couldn't possibly be a better use case for stepping back and using the archives of the Western Canon to get some distance on the situation. And there could hardly be a better guide through this kind of event than Niccolò Machiavelli, realist extraordinaire.

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Moving in the Breeze: How to Translate Untranslatable Words (Words, Words, Words 17) Jul 12, 2024

I know you've been waiting with bated breath...at long last, it's the much-anticipated conclusion to our two-part episode on what happens when a word just doesn't want to be translated. I've covered some bad options here, now I'm proposing a few good ones. These will help not just if you want to write a translation of your own, but if you're not interested in any of that noise and just want to pick a good English version of a book you've heard rules in the original. Plus I sing in this one, so I'm pretty sure that's more than enough podcasting for one day.

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The Mac Daddy of Sports Riots: Allegregores IV Jul 10, 2024

Sex, violence, arson, theological disputes...the story of the Nika Riots has it all. Today, in response to a listener question, I'm telling one of history's most underappreciated stories about an utterly bananas and ultimately catastrophic breakdown in law and order that began with a rivalry over chariot racing. But the full story, like all sports stories, is about so much more than that. It reveals profound and perhaps unsettling truths about our human nature and the strange forces I've come to call allegregores.

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One More Thing: The Three Things You Need to Understand a Poem Jul 05, 2024

If you thought I was all patriotism-ed out...you'd be wrong! The banger of a July 4 poem we read on Tuesday is a perfect chance to learn more about the basics of poetry analysis. Turns out, Tennyson was pretty good at like, writing poetry and stuff. His ode to England and America is an absolutely metal fusion of old-timey balladeer adventure and statetly classical grandeur. A perfect mash-up, kind of like England and America themselves. If you struggle to get into poems, but want to start, here are three steps that can get you started reading the vibes.

The Making of a Poem: https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Making-of-a-Poem/

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The Best July 4 Poem Ever: Trump, Biden, and...Tennyson? Jul 02, 2024

It's not the most inspiring July 4 I've ever lived through, I'll say that much. But even after a thoroughly disorienting debate experience, and even with the Brits stealing thunder from our special day by hosting their own election (rude!), what we celebrate on the 4th isn't whatever happens to be going on at this particular moment, since in any given year it's likely to be grim. What we celebrate is the Anglo-American spirit of ordered liberty, which Alfred Lord Tennyson knew better than anyone how to salute. So raise a white claw to him this Thursday, and to our embattled old flag--she's still the best around.

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One More Thing: Santa Claus Made me Do It Jun 28, 2024

The conversation after this week's episode on demons and psychology has been so fascinating that I wanted to add one more thing. If on Tuesdays we wear pink, on Fridays we talk about language--so in this episode I'm exploring what it means to think about the transition from soul-talk to therapy-talk as an act of translation, by which, as in all such cases, some things are lost and some are gained. Like a camera lens shifting in and out of focus, we may need both sets of vocabulary--spiritual and scientific--for seeing the whole depth of field.

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Umberto Eco, Mouse or Rat: https://a.co/d/000FYjjB

Words, Words, Words 16: In the Beginning Was the...What?? Jun 26, 2024

Untranslatable...that's what you are...and forevermore...that's how you'll...stay? This week, prompted by a listener who's working on a very cool coding project, I'm talking a little bit about famously untranslatable words like logos, ruach, and my personal favorite, aphiēmi. It's an ancient problem, debated and fussed over basicaly since the Bible was written...can it be solved? Where to begin? I'll crack open the question today, and try to answer it next week.

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Inside Out: Allegregores III Jun 25, 2024

Is Anxiety a demon? It's a question raised, weirdly, by the most popular kids' movie in America right now--and by the entire practice of modern psycotherapy. Typically, when we try to understand mental illness, we refer to natural causes like brain chemistry or personal and family history. But are there some forms of cognitive disorder that don't originate within us--that invade us from the outside? I'm using sources both ancient and modern to tackle that question today after a listener wrote in with some provocative thoughts.

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Scott Alexander's review of Robert Falconer: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-the-others-within-us?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

AI Demons: Allegregores II Jun 18, 2024

Is AI taking on a life of its own? Or is it just a mindless machine? Sly grin why can't we have both?

Some of our earliest Western literature is fraught with the suggestion that one day we might make a machine so complex, it would think for itself. But what would that say about us? Our new, allegregorical way of talking about AI shows that when we fear that our machines might be like us, we're really afraid that we might be like our machines.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

I maked this: "A Matter of Taste" https://americanmind.org/salvo/a-matter-of-taste/

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Words, Words, Words 15: HWÆT! Jun 14, 2024

Next time you want to get everyone's attention for a speech at a party, try this: stand up on a table, pound your mead-chalice on a hard surface (you've got a mead-chalice, right?) and shout HWÆT! No one will have any idea what you're saying, but they'll have no choice but to listen. That's the power of Old English. We've hit bedrock in our excavation of the history of English, which brings us to Beowulf and what Seamus Heaney calls "the coffered riches of grammer and declensions."

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Mark Forsyth's books on curiosities of the English language: https://a.co/d/fxudMAn

https://a.co/d/3A5XpbQ

Live reading of Beowulf from Hillsdale: https://youtu.be/CH-_GwoO4xI?si=tQCTnID9A7gi5s5_

Mother Nature Returns: Allegregores I Jun 11, 2024

Mother nature is one of the most ancient pagan deities, and also one of the trendiest in modern times. What gives--why is a character whose name you can literally find carved into primitive rocks also being portrayed by Octavia Spencer in Apple PR campaigns? In this essay, I argue that Mother Earth or Mother Nature represents one of the most natural assumptions for humans to make about the world, transformed by the scientific revolution into something materialist, and now re-made via allegory into something very like the old pagan god. I call it, an "allegregore": a supposedly metaphorical way of talking that takes on a life of its own.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

I maked this: Gateway to the Epicureans: https://a.co/d/2uyMIWw

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Interview: Discovering the Great Books with Johnathan Bi Jun 07, 2024

I really enjoyed comparing notes with Johnathan Bi, whose journey in some ways mirrors my own: whereas I moved from a humanities background into an interest in science, Johnathan started in the science and tech world, then came to appreciate the importance of great literature. Together we discuss the rise of generalism, the promise and perils of the AI age, and what the canon has to teach us in our unusual times.

Take a look at Johnathan's website: http://greatbooks.io/

And his new lecture series: https://youtu.be/M0w2eQ-FcEA

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

I maked this: Paradise Lost, the audiobook: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/p/paradise-lost

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World's Wildest Travel Blog: Dr. Fauci, the Science, and the Return of the Pagan Gods Jun 04, 2024

Will we ever get to stop hearing about Dr. Fauci? Does anyone even remember COVID anymore? These are the sorts of profound questions that define our times. I will not be answering them. Instead, I want to tell you a Very Young Heretics story about how the pagan gods found their way into modern science--and why they might be finding their way back out again in the age of "The Science" (TM). Plus: is listening to audiobooks the same as reading? No, but you should still do it anyway.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

I maked this: Paradise Lost, the audiobook: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/p/paradise-lost

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Words, Words, Words 14: The Father of English Literature May 31, 2024

The prologue of The Canterbury Tales used to be part of a standard-issue training set in English courses. Today I'm RETVRNing to tradition and rebooting the old practice of memorizing--or at least reciting--the first few lines of this defining English poem in Middle English. Plus: should whisky be spelled with an -ey, or a -y? The answer will show you just what a carnival the English language is.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Harvard's interlinear translation of The Canterbury Tales: https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/general-prologue-0

Beyond Cultural Christianity May 28, 2024

Can Europe survive without its Christian spirit? Can the West? It's a question that's weighing on more and more intelligent people's minds, and Novalis helps us to grapple with it in a unique way. In this episode I look at three key areas--science, religion, and politics--where the secular spirit of Enlightenment humanism has exhausted itself and needs a new source of inspiration. Perhaps those sources are to be found in the middle ages, and perhaps Novalis can help us find them.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

I maked this: "How Woke Hierarchy Created an Upper-Class Underclass," at The Spectator World: https://thespectator.com/topic/how-woke-hierarchy-created-upper-class-underclass/

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Christendom or Europe? in a new edition, edited by Michael Martin: https://angelicopress.com/products/christendom-or-europe

My review of Tom Holland and further thoughts on cultural Christianity: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-anxiety-of-influence/

A Brief History of Absolutely Everything May 21, 2024

Are we on the brink of a return to Medieval wonder? A collapse into total warfare? Both? Bear with me while I present my Unified Field Theory of Human History in thirty minutes or less, by way of introduction to the mind-blowing essay "Christendom or Europe," by Novalis. He's the most important figure you've never heard of in Western literature, and now is the perfect time to get to know him, because he's going to be with us in the years ahead.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

I maked this: pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

Christendom or Europe? in a new edition, edited by Michael Martin: https://angelicopress.com/products/christendom-or-europe

A Brief History of Absolutely Everything May 21, 2024

Are we on the brink of a return to Medieval wonder? A collapse into total warfare? Both? Bear with me while I present my Unified Field Theory of Human History in thirty minutes or less, by way of introduction to the mind-blowing essay "Christendom or Europe," by Novalis. He's the most important figure you've never heard of in Western literature, and now is the perfect time to get to know him, because he's going to be with us in the years ahead.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

I maked this: pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

Christendom or Europe? in a new edition, edited by Michael Martin: https://angelicopress.com/products/christendom-or-europe

Words Words Words 13: Viking Visibility Week May 17, 2024

This week we're going still further back in time, and further north, to read some Middle English from the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight. It's a galloping adventure that's been translated by some of the greats--including J.R.R. Tolkien--and reading the original is a good chance to practice dipping your toe into the more obscure forms of English that make the past feel like another country. Plus: how we appropriated Viking culture.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Tips on pronouncing Middle English:

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cb45/middle-english-basic-pronunciation-and-grammar

https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/mediawiki/media/images_pedia_folgerpedia_mw/1/1f/How_to_pronounce_Middle_English.pdf

Recordings of expert readings:

https://www.arthuriana.com/sggk-rendall

Why Read? iPads, Culture Wars, and the Point of the Canon May 14, 2024

So you want to defend the Western canon, huh? Why, exactly? In this episode I take a step back and ask why, outside of politics, we should care about books. Especially in the age of podcasts and digital media, with the publishing industry bleeding profits, it's easy to think of books as obsolete. But that might be exactly why we need them most--to hold ourselves together in a world of digital dissolution.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

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We maked this: Lists of recommended works at The New Jerusalem. https://open.substack.com/pub/thenewjerusalem/p/list-16-brightness-visible?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Words, Words, Words 12: English is a Foreign Language May 10, 2024

Have you ever thought about how weird it is that our oldest English literature is somehow...in another language? If you want to become a better communicator, understand your own history better, and just generally have an awesome time reading cool stories about knights and stuff, you could do no better than to read the great chivalric tales of the English past. But how to start? Today I'm embarking on a new Friday series that will answer that very question, for busy people who want to read Aurthurian romances and have time to play Prince of Persia.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Doin' It Live: How to Read a Poem for the First Time May 07, 2024

If you've never read a great work of literature before...where do you start? This week, in response to a listener request, I'm taking a poem I had never read before and walking through my process of getting to know it with you step by step. Hopefully, this will help give you some tips and pointers for getting acquainted with new authors and new ideas. If nothing else, by the time we're done you'll know which English queen helped make Shakespeare's career possible, what sorts of romantic entanglements can end you up in the Tower of London, and how to telegraph your sad boy vibes without getting your head chopped off.

A review of Graven With Diamonds, by Nicola Shulman: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/graven-with-diamonds-by-nicola-shulman-2286444.html

A podcast with Susan Bridgen, author of Thomas Wyatt: The Heart's Forest: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-just-the-tudors/id1564113869?i=1000554333559

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

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I maked this: "The Tale of the Brothers True," at Rejoice Evermore: https://open.substack.com/pub/rejoiceevermore/p/the-frat-bros-of-the-round-table?r=wm1tt&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Words, Words, Words 11: The Translation Cinematic Universe May 03, 2024

When it comes to picking a translation, which brands can you trust? Like streaming services and video game consoles, publishers are always competing for eyeballs, which means no one imprint is going to be able to gather all the best authors and translators under one roof. But here are some good rules of thumb to help you understand the lay of the land when it comes to choosing a translation or series of translations, so you always know what you're getting yourself into.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

The Abolition of Sex: IVF, Designer Babies, and Goethe's Faust Apr 30, 2024

Before C.S. Lewis, before George Orwell, there was Goethe: in Faust Part II, the magician's servant Wagner concocts a literal test tube baby--a "homunculus" or "little man" made without any sexual intercourse at all. This picture of humanity cut off from its natural origins is frighteningly familiar, and it leads to a final word on science, magic, and the coming age of genetic screenings. Where do we go from here? Only the past can help guide us into the future.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

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We maked this: The New Jerusalem, featuring Andrew Klavan's latest essay on antisemitism: https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/essay-4-antisemitism-is-the-devils

Words, Words, Words 10: The Holy Ghost Story Apr 26, 2024

Why do we say "Holy Spirit" more often than "Holy Ghost"? It's not just because we're scared of things that go bump in the night. This week I'm taking a listener question about why "Spirit" and "Ghost" seem interchangeable in early modern English translations of the Bible, but not so much anymore. It's about how English has changed, how the Biblical languages changed over time, and how we've changed since salvation history began.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Nope-ing Out on Humanity Apr 23, 2024

"We're not a good species": that's the rallying cry of Les Knight, founder of the Voluntary Extinction Movement. But the idea that humanity was a mistake didn't just spring out of nowhere. It was built up gradually over centuries, as a side-effect of the scientific revolution. Goethe's Faust is a brilliant attempt to recover and sanctify the role of humanity in creating reality. It is more important now than ever.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

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I maked this: "China's Three-Body Problem--and Ours," at Law & Liberty: https://lawliberty.org/chinas-three-body-problem-and-ours/

Interview: Jeremy Carl, [Insert Youtube Warning Label Here] Apr 19, 2024

Is it OK to be white? Claremont Institute Senior Fellow is out with a provocative new book about anti-white discrimination in America, and what's to be done about it. We got into a really interesting discussion about race, culture, and politics--including questions like whether Western culture is "white" and what racial harmony in 21st-century America can and should look like. Take a listen, and then check out Jeremy's book:

The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism is Tearing America Apart: https://www.amazon.com/Unprotected-Class-Anti-White-Destroying-America/dp/1684514584

Find Jeremy on Substack: https://jeremycarl.substack.com

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

I maked this: "Civil LARP," a review of Alex Garland's Civil War: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2963967/civil-larp-the-journalists-are-at-it-again/

Say Yes to the Dress: Goethe, Newton, and the Internet's Biggest Fight Ever Apr 16, 2024

Blue and black? Or yellow and white? For eons, mankind has grappled with this essential question. Wars have been fought. Families have been torn asunder. Brother has turned against brother and father against son. But now, at last, we can resolve this most important of debates with help from none other than--Ludwig Goethe? Turns out the whole affair brings up all the important issues we need to start moving from Marlowe's Faust to Goethe's, and on the way to pick up a whole new vision for the future of science.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

I maked this: "Civil LARP," a review of Alex Garland's Civil War: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2963967/civil-larp-the-journalists-are-at-it-again/

Words, Words, Words 9: Mary Mary, Quite Contrary Apr 12, 2024

It's not every podcast that comes with a disclaimer, but this one is just spicy enough that it needs a warning on the label. I got a great and fascinating question about how to translate a passage from John's Gospel...and the answer will take me into Mary's status in the church, the meaning of the word "the," and the cosmic significance of each of our lives. How's that for a Friday afternoon?*

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

*Words words words is a subsidiary of Young Heretics hosted by Spencer Klavan and represents exclusively the views of one dudebro books podcaster on exclusively those lexical matters he chooses to address. It has not been approved by the USCCB and is not intended to throw shade on or resolve disputes among Christians including but not limited to Catholics, Anglicans, evangelicals, baptists, anabaptists, katabaptists, parabaptists, pseudobaptists, and baptists with funny hats, regarding issues pertaining but not limited to the perpetual virginity of Mary, her immaculate conception, her experience of labor, her preference for the Browns over the Packers, or her views on the seasoning of fish. Side effects may include morphological fixation and fine grained knowledge of Biblical Greek; if either of these persist longer than a languid afternoon spent leafing through dictionaries and sighing like a character in a Victorian novel, consult your pastor.

Demons In My View: AI, Free Will, and the Quantum Revolution Apr 09, 2024

Gather round, me hearties, and attend the tale of Pierre-Simon Laplace--a demon-haunted man. This is a story I've been itching to tell for a while, about the birth of quantum physics and the revenge of the Atomic Swerve. It stretches all the way back to Marcus Aurelius and all the way forward to the AI revolution, with some incredible tea to spill along the way (including a cameo from Napoleon). Buckle up, kids: this is a fun one.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

I maked this: Gateway to the Stoics and Gateway to the Epicureans: https://a.co/d/cS72QtB

https://a.co/d/2Kwu4Yu

Interview with John Daniel Davidson: Silence, Pagan! Apr 05, 2024

In his new book, Pagan America, Federalist Senior Editor John Daniel Davidson argues that America is not only becoming, but functionally already is, a pagan society. We talk about what that means, why it's happened, and what can be done about it. It's a fascinating discussion touching on a lot of themes that have really been mainstays of the show this year. Also take a listen to my introduction for a wild tesetimonial to liturgical providence (and to find out what happened with my car).

Read John's Book, Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come: https://a.co/d/3UXz7VS

Follow John on Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnddavidson

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

I Maked This: "After Chivalry" at Fairer Disputations: https://fairerdisputations.org/after-chivalry/

Yuval Harari's Faustian Bargain Apr 02, 2024

You've probably seen that meme of the IQ bell curve, where the guy with the lowest IQ and the guy with the highest IQ both agree, while the guy in the middle copes and seethes. Well, this week I am here to tell you that it really do be like that. Chris Marlowe and my Uber driver are in agreement that the soul is real, while Dr. Faustus and professional midwit Yuval Harari want to tell you humans can be hacked. The choice is yours! Literally. Stay tuned until the end for a new weekly segment, "I Maked This."

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

I Maked This: "After Chivalry" at Fairer Disputations: https://fairerdisputations.org/after-chivalry/

Words, Words, Words 8: It's Not Bird Mar 29, 2024

On this Good Friday, we're doin' it live: translating Aquinas, that is. I talk through some extremely sticky medieval philosophy of language, but it's all worth it because at the end it turns out that existence is bananas and humanity really is made in God's image, which, come on, is good payoff for 30 minutes. A blessed Easter weekend to you; hope you spend it doing and thinking about the stuff that well and truly matters.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

I Ain't Got No Crystal Ball Mar 26, 2024

The universe just keeps getting weirder and weirder, man. New data from the James Webb Space Telescope might actually be the most important news story that no one's talking about. It invites us to consider whether we're going to freak out, like the Commies, or rejoice in the glory of God, like civilized people. It's possible Christopher Marlowe can help us tell the difference. But probably we'll just keep yelling at each other online!

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Read the latest about James Webb:

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1037233

https://www.astronomy.com/science/we-just-discovered-the-impossible-giant-young-galaxies-shake-up-our-understanding-of-the-early-universe/

Words, Words, Words 7: By Any Other Name Mar 22, 2024

Lying awake one night, I pulled out my Japanese grammar dictionary, as you do. And I suddenly realized some of the stuff in there--i.e., in Japanese, a language the Ancient Greeks had never heard of--could have been taken right out of Plato's Cratylus. What the heck is that about? And what does it have to do with the name of God? Answers to these and other questions, taken straight from my groggy 2am brain, on today's installment of Words, Words, Words.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Kate Merlinton, Princess of Wales Mar 19, 2024

Will the real Merlin please stand up? Every major new development in scientific knowledge comes with a period of upheaval in what it means to do magic--or in what counts as magic, and what counts as science. This week, in providential synchronicity with a listener question, I wanted to talk about two twentieth-century depictions of Merlin in the age of industrial technology. Was he friend, foe, or fraud? Mark Twain and C.S. Lewis will help us decide. Also somebody, please, tell me what I'm supposed to think about the latest royal scandal.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

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Read Sabine Hossenfelder on Oppenheim's new theory of "post-quantum" gravity:

https://nautil.us/the-end-of-the-dark-universe-531983/

https://nautil.us/what-physicists-have-been-missing-506607/?_sp=9994ab18-0835-44f3-9a87-f15989a55825.1710844533125

Interview: Isabel Brown, Gen Z Champion Mar 15, 2024

Are the kids alright? Before you leap to respond "absolutely not," listen to content creator Isabel Brown argue that in fact there really is honest-to-goodness hope among members of--wait for it--Gen Z. As an ancient Millennial myself, I think this is great news. Isabel lays out the case for why Gen Z might actually be trending conservative culturally in her new book, The End of the Alphabet. Bored with the wokescolds and searching for meaning, the newest generation to come of age may have more going for it than its skeptics claim.

Check out Isabel's Book, The End of the Alphabet: https://a.co/d/fO4QMWN

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/

That Magician Ain't Real! Mar 12, 2024

These days we tell a tidy little story: once there was magic, now there's reason. But there's another, older story that might be closer to the truth: once there was fake magic, now there's real magic. In fact, not only is that the story that many luminaries of the scientific revolution told--it's also a story that extends back before the scientific revolution, to the days of Merlin and King Arthur in the Medieval chronicles of English history. Scientists, meet Merlin: you guys have a lot in common.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

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Read Scott Yenor's essay on the women of country music: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-first-ladies-of-country-music/

Words, Words, Words 6: What's in a Name? Mar 08, 2024

Oh, we're really in it now. On today's translation segment, I take a question that will lead us into the heart of magic, language, and human nature: what's in a name? Specifically, what's in God's name? Throughout the Bible, not just God but God's name is invoked as a stand-in for God himself. Figuring out why will take us through Greek philosophy, Medieval theology, Jewish wisdom literature, and magical thinking of the most intense kind. Let's dive in.

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The Ursula-Jafar Theory of Bad Magic Mar 05, 2024

Are you a good magician, or a bad magician? This week, I start diving into the weird and complicated world of magic, from Disney to the Book of Acts. There's lots to say here, but let's start with what we want to avoid, namely: stealing people's voices and usurping the throne. In a deep cut from back when Disney wasn't awful, I hereby present: the Ursula-Jafar Theory of Bad Magic.

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Words, Words, Words 5: She Thinks I'm a Steed! Mar 01, 2024

YOU ARE ENTIRELY A STAR CHILD! Maybe you've seen the internet meme where someone--or perhaps some program--translates the lyrics of Smash Mouth's "All Star" into Aramaic and then back into ornate, florid English. For '90s kids who grew up screaming those lyrics, this is hilarious. But it's also kind of revealing about our assumptions when it comes to register in translation. Why does the process of going into Aramaic, then back into English, end you up in a higher register than the original? Answers to these and other questions on a new installment of Words, Words, Words.

Plus, here's a new essay on translation by yours truly in the Claremont Review of Books: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/homer-without-heroes/

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Neuralink is Magic (And that Might Not be a Good Thing) Feb 27, 2024

They’re putting chips! In people’s brains! We have to talk about it. But this is Young Heretics—so let’s not talk about it from a panicked, world-is-ending catastrophe mindset, or from a naïve, tech-will-save us progressive mindset. With one eye on tradition and one eye on the future, I want to embark this week on an attempt to seriously argue that what we’re doing with tech is, and always has been, actual magic—with all the enticements and dangers that come along with that.

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Interview: John A. Burtka on the Art of the Possible Feb 23, 2024

I'm joined today by Johnny Burtka, whose new Gateway to Statesmanship is a collection of writings on one of our most neglected virtues. Statesmanship is the art of leading in complex and difficult times, especially when all of the options on the table involve painful trade-offs (sound familiar?). Johnny and I discuss the changing conditions of history, the fight over "Christian nationalism," and what it would mean for a modern politician to recover the ancient virtue of prudence.

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Eye Has Not Seen Feb 20, 2024

Since last we spoke, I have literally traveled around the world--and I can say with certainty there's nowhere I'd rather be than here. This week, a few reflections from my trip to Cambodia about what every culture has to grapple with when it comes to depicting God--and what's unique to the Bible. No one has ever seen God. So how can anyone know him? It's a question fundamental to both art and science, and absolutely everyone everywhere has to face it.

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Words, Words, Words 4: The Holy Spirit Will Live Rent-Free in You Feb 16, 2024

Why is the Gen Z Bible a joke and not a translation? In this installment of our series on register, I'm doing a close reading (yes, actually) of a passage from the Gen Z Bible. Bear with me, because there's actually a method to my madness, and it speaks to the strengths and weaknesses of another, much more widely used version of the bible--the Message.

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Yes and No Feb 13, 2024

Is it spirit or flesh? Matter or form? Symbol or symbolized? On this episode I want to argue that these questions aren't only religious questions--or rather, they're religious questions that cut right to the heart of reality. They've become newly important as anti-humanists propose to leave our embodied life as human beings behind. Discard the spirit and you get senseless matter; discard the matter and you get heartless calculation. Only with the two combined can we be fully human.

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[SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT]: Light of the Mind, Light of the World Feb 09, 2024

I've got a new book coming out! Light of the Mind, Light of the World: How New Science is Illuminating Ancient Truths about God will come out on August 13, and it's available now for pre-order. We are confronted today by a dark philosophy that views the world as a machine and humanity as a mistake. But as listeners of Young Heretics know, this philosophy is not only evil: it's also hopelessly out of date. Light of the Mind, Light of the World is a story of how God reveals himself through science and scripture alike. It's an ancient message, and an urgent one for our times.

Pre-order now and be one of the first to get your copy!

https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Light-of-the-Mind-Light-of-the-World/Spencer-Klavan/9781684515332

She's an Icon Feb 06, 2024

The veneration of icons is one of the longest-lasting and most intense controversies in the history of the church. But it's not just a matter of religious practice: it also happens to touch on even more ancient and profound issues in the nature of perception and reality. So, just exactly what Young Heretics has been all about this year! Thanks to encouragement from you guys, I'm going deeper on the subject of icons, art, and reality (though not much deeper on the whole Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift situation--but Tay does feature.)

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Words, Words, Words 3: Puppers, Hell-Hounds, and the Dogs of War Feb 02, 2024

Is the Message a good translation of the Bible? Is it even a translation? This is one of the questions I get asked all the time, and with good reason: people like the vividness of a more plainspoken translation, but they worry about the accuracy of bringing the Bible so far down to earth. How can we tell the difference between a faithful but idiomatic translation, and one that goes off the reservation? How do translators think about these things, and how should we? It's such a profound issue that I'm going to do a few episodes about it, dipping into ancient Greek literary criticism, cockney slang, and the French translation of Harry Potter to explain how we ought to think about tone and register. Someone oughta stop me: I am having way too much fun.

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Check out the Guardian's guide to Cockney slang:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/guide-to-cockney-rhyming-slang

Taylor Swift and Ben Shapiro in Thessalonike Jan 30, 2024

Today I'm tackling (no pun intended) a very important philosophical question of our age: why does anyone care what Taylor Swift thinks? No, seriously--that's a real question. It's basically the one that Plato deals with in his Ion. Trying to answer it can lead us to some pretty fascinating insights about the nature of celebrity and even reality itself. Who would have thought the Biden Administration's efforts at courting celebrity would take us into 9th-century Thessalonikē and the Eastern Church's battle over icons? But here we are. Only on Young Heretics, folks.

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Words, Words, Words 2: John 11:4 Jan 26, 2024

"This sickness is not unto death, but..." what? On this episode of Words, Words, Words, I answer a listener question about how to understand what Jesus says about Lazarus' illness shortly before healing him. It's a juicy question that leads into all sorts of issues about ambiguity (good and bad) and how to understand the Bible.

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What's Therapy Good For? Jan 23, 2024

People are fighting online (shocking, I know) about whether therapy is a godsend, a scam, or something in between. Without delving too deep into the Twitter weeds, we can actually extract a pretty important insight from this debate: whatever the merits or drawback of any particular therapeutic practice, our understanding of spiritual matters--our actual psychology or "study of the soul"--is badly in need of a reboot. As part of my ongoing investigation into the relationship between the inner and outer life, I take a look at what T.S. Eliot and Freud have to say about the nature of spiritual life.

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More on the "chemical theory" of depression: https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/articles/a-popular-theory-of-depression-wasnt-debunked-by-a-new-review-it-got-debunked-years-ago-363986

Words, Words, Words, Part 1: Homer's Iliad I.1 Jan 19, 2024

In this new occasional series, I want to try and help you guys answer some of the questions you often ask about translation--how it works, what challenges it presents, and how to pick a good edition of a work originally written in a foreign language you don't speak. Each time I'll pick a small sentence from a famous work--this time it's the first line of Homer's Iliad--and talk through some of the questions that it raises.

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The Stuff that (Actually) Matters Jan 16, 2024

Election 2024 is in motion, and no question it's an important one--but will it be the decisive cataclysm that everyone will surely make it out to be? Somehow it almost feels as if we hope it will: as if we're longing for some definitive event to deliver a verdict on where all this turbulence is headed. But deeper currents are moving beneath far beneath the surface of politics, and there is, if you can believe it, something more real than the presidential race.

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Interview: Alex Petkas, Ancient Life Coach Jan 12, 2024

When did we stop looking to great men gone by as role models? My guest today, Alex Petkas, is a recovering academic who founded the Ancient Life Coach podcast in order to make a more immediate connection between past and present. He's recovering Plutarch--once antiquity's most cherished moralist--as a guide for today. We discuss the transformation of scholarship from instruction to dissection, and how ancient pagans can help modern seekers get a hold of themselves.

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Men Should Be What they Seem Jan 09, 2024

Claudine “Fake and” Gay is out at Harvard, and there’s something about this scandal that reveals what makes academic corruption so painful and infuriating: it’s the humiliation of having to believe a lie. As it happens, this is a news story that can illustrate—with a little help from William Shakespeare—the core issue in matters of sin, art, and our present national dysfunction.

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Satan at the Center of the Sun (Special Episode) Jan 05, 2024

Over on Substack, I’ve been gradually creating an audiobook reading of Milton’s epic poem of mankind’s fall, Paradise Lost. It’s one of the greatest works of English literature, well…ever. So this Friday, I thought I’d do something a little different: this is a free sample of the audiobook so you can get a feel for the poem and see whether you’d like to sign up to hear the rest. So here’s Paradise Lost Book 3, read aloud by yours truly.

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Leap Year Vibes Jan 02, 2024

Everything is completely insane, so, in other words, it’s business as usual. Everyone seems to feel certain that we’re in for a year of madness, and it’s hard to disagree. But it’s also hard to remember that human life is always madness, playing out against the backdrop of the stars. That’s what the calendar itself represents. So on this first episode of the year, I’ll talk a bit about the history of leap years and the wisdom I want to seek with you in 2024.

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Interview: Louise M. Perry, "Ludicrous Crackpot" Dec 29, 2023

What is a TERF? I’m joined for this week’s interview by Louise M. Perry, one of the most insightful and thoughtful observers of the wreckage left behind by the sexual revolution. We discuss the “radical” part of being a “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist,” whether social norms can leave space for abnormality, and the limits of “cultural Christianity” as a sustaining civilizational force.

Read Louise’s book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: https://a.co/d/0nVZ3nD

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Wise Men from the East Dec 26, 2023

It's (still) Christmas!! On the feast of St. Stephen's Day (AKA Boxing Day), we gather around the cozy fire with our egg nogg and our gifts to talk about...martyrdom? Here's one extra Christmas special on the full twelve days of the holiday and the connections between Christmas morning, the first Christian martyr, and the final festival of Epiphany, when wise men came from the east to seal Jesus as the Messiah, not just for the Jews, but for the whole world.

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Interview: Inez Stepman, Bane of the Academy Dec 22, 2023

Academia delenda est...et tunc recolenda. "The academy must be destroyed...and then rebuilt." Today's guest, Inez Stepman, is a thoughtful obsesrver of the American education system and an insightful exponent of hard-nosed practical action plans to revive the country's academic health. We discuss the great American tradition of local, homegrown classical education and the role it will play in our uncertain future.

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Slay a Demon, Hang a Stocking: A Young Heretics Christmas Special Dec 19, 2023

It's that time of the year again: time for some very online doofus to point out that Christmas falls around the same date as the Saturanalia, as if no one figured this out until Reddit was invented. In fact, the date of Christmas is carefully posed against the date of Easter so that the whole liturgical year can emerge out of the "signs and markers" laid down in the heavens from the creation of the world. Chew on that, reddit bros! It's a very Young Heretics Christmas.

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Interview: Paul VanderKlay, Very Online Pastor Dec 15, 2023

How do you do church in the digital age? Is there such a thing as an atheist? To what extent are our crazy times really unprecedented, and to what extent are they nothing the Church hasn't seen before? These are some of the questions I tackle with my friend Paul VanderKlay, a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, a close observer of Jordan Peterson's rise to fame and the young men who find meaning in his work, and a rather unwitting YouTube sensation.

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It's All Right, It's All True, It All Happened Dec 12, 2023

Is Christmas just a rebranded pagan holiday? Or does the rabbit hole go somewhat deeper? After last week's foray into hermeneutics, this week I take a closer look at the history of Christian allegory, and why this particular form of reading became so important to the early church--and why it's still essential for understanding the meaning of Christmas (and everything else).

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Interview: Stephen C. Meyer, Wizard of Sciences Natural and Divine Dec 08, 2023

Does science disprove God, or reveal his handiwork? My guest today, Stephen C. Meyer, makes some of the most powerful contemporary arguments that the "God hypothesis" is becoming increasingly necessary to make sense of science and of human life. Stephen has a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from Cambridge, and his lucid explanations of his subject have drawn wide attention--as well as resistance from the more hidebound materialists of our age.

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Read Stephen's book, The Return of the God Hypothesis: https://a.co/d/4hY9lQe

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Like, Literally. Dec 05, 2023

Literally, though, how do we read stuff? It's a question we rarely ask seriously, but it's an ancient one with profound implications for art, faith, and morality. This week I'm presenting an ancient distinction between literal and allegorical reading that helps to get past simplistic modern bickering over merely material truths. Carrying forward our conversation in art, this is a theme that will help guide the show in 2024.

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Interview: Faith Moore, Christmas Elf Dec 01, 2023

Faith Moore is BACK to kick off the Christmas season with a moving meditation on faith, loss, and the meaning of the nativity. We discuss how the characters in her new novel took shape, why Christmas always comes associated with a certain nostalgic melancholy, and what to eat for breakfast on Christmas morning. Plus some embarassing (maybe?) stories about when we were kids.

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Find faith on Twitter @FaithKMoore

Was Atlantis Real? Nov 28, 2023

All your questions answered! This week, as the Thanksgiving daze settles gradually over us all, I dig into the mailbag and pull out three juicy questions I haven't had time to answer yet in the course of the show. Did Plato invent the myth of Atlantis? What kind of love does Jesus ask for from Peter after his betrayal? And what did Paul mean that personal spiritual gifts shall fall away when we see love "face to face"? It's a deep dive into questions linguistic, spiritual, and philosophical. Plus: a dig at 19th-century Germans.

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Interview: Lexi O. Hudson, Defender of Civility Nov 24, 2023

"Civility" is almost a dirty word these days on both the right and the left. But Lexi Hudson has written a book to defend it, arguing that being civil--being a good fellow citizen--doesn't mean being nice or tiptoeing around disagreements. Civility is always under a certain kind of assault, but that doesn't mean it's hopeless. We discuss pictures of civility in Homer, Ovid, and the Old Testament, as well as high and low trust societies and whether our age is a uniquely uncivil one.

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Rejoice Evermore Nov 21, 2023

What's to be thankful for? This Thanksgiving, the answer is: everything. Gratitude is a virtue we didn't cover during our series, but Cicero calls it the mother of all virtues and Aquinas files it cheek by jowl with justice. Spencer traces the etymology and rationale of thanksgiving down to its cosmic roots, opposing it to the philosophy of death that rises to confront us everywhere. Happy Thanksgiving--and again I say, rejoice!

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Interview: Michael Martin, Modern-Day Druid Nov 17, 2023

Does not Wisdom cry out? Michael Martin joins me to discuss how and why God prepares our reading lists. Michael traces an alternate stream of modernity that flows quietly alongside the decadent materialist one. From Jakob Bohme, to Coleridge and the Romantics, to modern farmsteading, we talk about why the political parties switched places and how the everyday world breathes forth supernatural wisdom.

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The Glorious Deeds of Men Nov 14, 2023

Do you want to see the world as it is, or as it ought to be? This difficult question is at the heart of the millennia-old debate over morality and art. Pulling back the camera to ask how we got to our current dysfunction, Spencer moves from Homer and Isaiah to Nabokov and Matthew Arnold, looking for answers to the questions that are currently wracking the culture. The digital age has shattered a lot of our old systems, but somewhere in the aftermath there is hope for a new middle ages and a re-enchanted world.

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Interview: Andrew Klavan, Kingpin of the Klavan Literary Mafia Nov 10, 2023

What does it mean to be a man in a fallen world and a degraded age? Crime novelist and professional person-I-have-never-heard-of Andrew Klavan joins the show to discuss his brilliant new novel The House of Love and Death. We discuss Klavan The Elder's literary inspirations, thoughts on chivalry, and experience writing a recurring character almost against his will. Plus: why university administrators are so annoying.

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Art for Art’s Sake? Nov 07, 2023

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” So wrote Oscar Wilde in his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, defending himself against charges of corruption in his art. But was he right? His own art, no less than his own sad and morally compromised private life, suggest otherwise. Spencer discusses the history of “art for art’s sake” and the impossibility of excepting art from moral judgment, in Wilde’s day as well as our own.

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Interview: Mary Harrington, Reactionary Feminist Nov 03, 2023

Digital alienation, material politics, and the re-enchantment of the world: this week, reactionary feminist Mary Harrington joins Spencer to discuss the disorenting transformations wrought upon human societies and psyches by the advent of digital technology. The discussion ranges from Mary's realization that woke politics was destroying her life, to the war between the sexes, to the return of something that looks a lot like Medieval conditions--complete with angels and demons haunting the air.

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Read Mary's writing at UnHerd: https://unherd.com/author/mary-harrington/

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Ghosts of the Old Gods Oct 31, 2023

At the turning of the year, as fall passes into winter, the world hovers for an instant between past and future in the "otherworld," the space between life and death. And that is where we meet the Aes Sidhe, fearsome people of the hollow hills, who roam the earth each year in what has become Halloween. In this holiday special, Spencer dives into the haunted history of the enchanted world.

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Read my review of The Fall of the House of Usher: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-fall-of-the-house-of-mumbo-jumbo

Interview: Teresa Mull, Professional Woke-Proofer Oct 27, 2023

Do you even pray, bro? Teresa Mull is the assistant editor of The Spectator World. Her book, Woke-Proof Your Life, offers practical and concrete suggestions for opponents of the woke revolution to put their money where their mouths are. Spencer talks with Teresa about how families and single people alike can suit their actions to their words, and their words to their actions. Plus: some reflections on the definition of wokeness itself.

Check out Teresa's book: https://a.co/d/550uQq2

Find Teresa's writing at The Spectator World: https://thespectator.com/author/teresa-mull/

Love versus the World Oct 24, 2023

Divine love: the most natural, and the least natural, thing in the universe. In this conclusion to his series on virtues, Spencer walks through the history of Christian love from its earliest origins in the church to its extremes in the most exalted realms of human life. We have arrived at last at the virtue that suffuses all others and defines their objective. It's been quite the journey.

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

Interview: Helen Roy, Matriarch in the Making and Peacemaker Between the Sexes Oct 20, 2023

What is going on with men? For that matter, what is going on with women? The war between the sexes has entered a new phase, as whatever wave of feminism we're currently surfing produces its own backlash. Helen Roy--mother, writer, and podcaster--joins Spencer to discuss how men and women alike can get past the narrative mill and come together again.

Listen to Helen's podcast, Girlboss, Interrupted: https://girlbossinterrupted.podbean.com/

Read Helen's Substack, Ladies' Late Rome Journal: https://helenroy.substack.com/

The Seven Loves Oct 17, 2023

It's been years since the days when we Young Heretics discussed Plato's Symposium. But now we've come back around a second time to that fundamental question: what is love? (Baby, don't hurt me.) This time, Spencer takes a thousand-year look at the question from the Hebrew angle while--GASP--actually saying something less than favorable about C.S. Lewis. As the series on virtue draws toward its close, it's time to discuss the most important one of all, and the hardest one to define. What, I ask again, is love?

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

Interview: Joshua Herring, Archon of the Milesian Renaissance Oct 13, 2023

A revival in classical education is sweeping the nation. But where are we going to get good classical educators? In this interview, Josh Herring of Thales College discusses how he and his colleagues are equipping teachers to rise to that noble calling. From the humanities to the natural sciences, we need leaders who can do more than just pass on information. Josh and Spencer discusses who will shape the souls of the soul-shapers themselves, and how.

Check out Thales College's degree in Classical education: https://www.thalescollege.org/academics/classical-education

Listen to the Optimistic Curmudgeon podcast: https://optimisticcurmudgeon2021.podbean.com/

Read Josh's writing: https://theimaginativeconservative.org/author/josh-herring

Oh Israel, Hope in the Lord Oct 10, 2023

If faith is the substance of things hoped for, what is hope? Reaching back into Jewish history and the Hebrew Bible, Spencer explains the gritty determination that saves us from despair in the valley of the shadow of death. As war rages in modern Israel after a savage terrorist attack by Hamas, it becomes as urgent as it's ever been to know where hope can reside securely in a darkened world.

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

My essay on Cyrus the Great: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/one-king-to-rule-them-all/

Interview: Emmet Penney, Nuclear Barbarian Oct 06, 2023

What does it look like when people who don't hate humanity build technology that doesn't suck? Emmet Penney is one of the most original thinkers when it comes to industry, energy, and the long history of human stewardship on earth. We discuss his departure from the left wing of the environmental movement, his search for a new aesthetics of nuclear energy, and the crisis of faith in the technological age.

Check out Emmet's substack, Nuclear Barbarians: https://nuclearbarbarians.substack.com/

Sign up for his newsletter, Grid Brief: https://www.gridbrief.com/

Read his essay, which we discuss on the podcast: https://www.cityofpraxis.com/journal/the-industrial-revolution-never-happened

What Do You See? Oct 03, 2023

A voice comes down from heaven--or was it thunder? Your answer will depend on what you believe, and what you beleive will change the way you see. In this episode, Spencer explores the twisted paradox of faith, and the Christian' Church's history of wrestling with it. From Heraclitus to Martin Luther, the question is who can possibly give sight to the blind.

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

Interview: Erik Rostad, Marathon runner of the canon Sep 29, 2023

Today's guest is someone whose life has been transformed by classical literature. Erik Rostad has reorganized his life around reading, with remarkable effects. We discuss how he was called to seek truth and beauty in the canon, which books have shaped him most deeply, and how he manages to read, run a business, and take care of his family all at once. If you're looking for strategies to get you started reading great works, Erik's your guy.

Check out Erik's project, Books of Titans: https://www.booksoftitans.com/

Cyril of Jerusalem at Al-Anon Sep 26, 2023

"Man of the worldly mind, do you believe in me or not?" That's what Jacob Marley's ghost asks Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. In this episode, Spencer points out that everyone believes in something they can't see--the question is, what? So begins the first episode on faith in our tour through the three theological virtues.

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

You Are Not Enough Sep 19, 2023

Everyone wants to be happy--so why are so many people miserable? That's the simple question that the early Christian bishops posed to the canonical authors of the Greco-Roman world. It's also the question that kicks off Spencer's new series on the "theological virtues," or the Christian contribution to the classical philosophy of ethics. Using the basic experiences of everyday life, Spencer makes the practical case for--*gasp!*--going beyond Aristotle.

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

The Day With No Yesterday Sep 12, 2023

Today on Young Heretics, a minor topic: the origins of the universe. Very casual.

New details and images from the James Webb Space Telescope have called into question the standard model of cosmology in Physics, leading Spencer into a series of reflections on the deeper histories of thought and of the universe (not so distinct as you might initially imagine). Plus, a cosmic mailbag question: what would you ask Satan if you met him?

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/7UomkWB

Office Hours! Sep 05, 2023

In the interval between finishing the cardinal virtues and starting on the Christian virtues, Spencer takes some listener questions in a special Office Hours episode of Young Heretics. Topics include: Getting kids interested in the classics, differences between Judaism and Christianity, Body Count Discourse, and naked women doing political protests. Plus: a close read of The 6th Sense.

Sign up for my mailing list at rejoiceevermore.substack.com.

Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/7RRj8fd

Read the new issue of CRB at https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/.

Interview: Drew Weatherhead, Black Belt in both Physical and Mental Jiu-Jitsu Sep 01, 2023

There's a movement afoot--and its coming from the ground up. All around the internet and the real world, there's a spirit moving people to reconsider the nature and purpose of consciousness in creation. Drew Weatherhead is one of those people--a writer and pocaster red-pilled by COVID and moved to explore some of the themes that have also been of urgent importance to Young Heretics. We discuss his journey and the central role of humanity in the creation of the world.

Check out Drew's book, Consciousness Reality & Purpose: https://a.co/d/2a8a7gE

Listen to Drew's podcast, Social Disorder: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-social-disorder-podcast/id1555590611

What Justice Ain't Aug 29, 2023

From the Ballad of Ye and the Kardashians to the Hatfields and the McCoys, there are a million ways to get justice wrong. Straight is the road and narrow is the gate: in this final installment of the cardinal virtues series, Spencer discusses justice at the macro level, not as a collection of prohibitions but as a law of love.

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Interview: Alex Priou, Persian Satrap of the Kallipolis Aug 25, 2023

Why isn't every book on philosophy like this one? Alex Priou, classicist and co-host of the New Thinkery podcast, has written an exploration of Plato's Symposium that is both readable and profound. It's a text we've talked a fair bit about on Young Heretics, and Alex has a great sense of what it can reveal to a modern reader. We discuss the true meaning of love, the nature and limitations of science, and the significance of prose style in philosohpy.

Order Alex's book, Musings on Plato's Symposium: https://a.co/d/3sODJ8R

Listen to Alex's Podcast, The New Thinkery: https://thenewthinkery.com/

Gee, Officer Krupke Aug 22, 2023

We hear the word "justice" and immediately think "punishment." But justice in the truest sense isn't only a set of rules: it's also a virtue. From Plato to Dante by way of Stephen Sondheim, Spencer explains the last of the four cardinal virtues as both a source and a destination of love. Plus: an extended mailbag question about dealing with gender dysphoria.

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/fisa1Kq

Interview: Faith Moore, Hostess of Storytime for Kids Young and Old Aug 18, 2023

For this week's interview, Spencer is joined by Faith Moore, relation, to discuss her upcoming novel Christmas Karol. The two siblings discuss the power of storytelling to change hearts, how to truly recognize the value of motherhood, and why Charles Dickens's tale of Christmas has become such an enduring classic. Plus: stories about how annoying it was to grow up with Spencer.

Pre-order faith's book, Christmas Karol: https://a.co/d/9IDMq9C

Find faith on Twitter @FaithKMoore

Observe, Orient, Decide, Aristotle Aug 15, 2023

How do you decide whether to start a side hustle? Who to vote for in 2024? When to pop the question? These moment-to-moment decisions, large and small, are the stuff character is made out of. Spencer discusses decision-making tactics in the modern and the ancient world, ranging from Brexit and the OODA loop to Aristotle and the virtue of practical wisdom.

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/2rg35qD

More on the OODA loop: https://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2020/3/17/the-ooda-loop-and-the-half-beat

Interview: Shane Sorensen, Professional Gym Bro and Renaissance Man Aug 11, 2023

How does a wandering mind find its way to the classics? How do you cultivate renewal in a world of ruin? Spencer interviews Shane Sorensen, author of Renaissance Wisdom, about his self-instructed entry into the great conversation, and the pursuit of eternal virtues at the end of an age. Much like Petrarch and the leaders of the Renaissance, we find ourselves today on the cusp of something altogether new.

Check out Shane's book, Renaissance Wisdom: https://a.co/d/7mM4AD6

Discover Shane's podcast: https://renaissance-wisdom.com/

Follow him on Instagram: https://instagram.com/renaissancewisdom

News You Can Use Aug 08, 2023

What's the point of all this obscure knowledge? Spencer turns from contemplative wisdom to phronēsis, practical wisdom or the knowledge of how to do what is good for you as a human being. Subjects covered include free will, determinism, and why what is good for you is not necessarily good for a fish. Spoiler: it's because you can't breathe underwater!

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/3OhqD3i

"God in Translation," an essay on the language of the Gospels in CRB: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/god-in-translation/

Interview: Peachy Keenan, Mother of Dragons and Right Wing Body Builders Aug 04, 2023

Welcome to Young Heretics: Conversations, a new series of specials devoted to living out high ideals in the modern day. Spencer talks with Peachy Keenan, author of Domestic Extremist, about how to break the spell of latter-day feminism, what it means to be extremely domestic, and why everyone's obsessed with the Barbie movie.

Check out Peachy's book: https://a.co/d/3JRD8UL

Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KeenanPeachy

Read her substack: https://peachykeenan.substack.com/

Things Get Trippy Aug 01, 2023

This week on the show, Spencer takes the study of wisdom to the very foundations of the world, where existence came into being and human consciousness came online. This is the virtue of the soul that allows us to understand what we are, and why we're more than just accidents. It's trippy--so buckle up--but it's also the realest thing there is.

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Check out my book: https://a.co/d/9Zq300Q

I Know Kung Fu Jul 25, 2023

Some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual could believe them. But some wisdom is so profound only an old man can pass it on. In this new installment of his series on the virtues, Spencer introduces a form of moral excellence that is sorely lacking in the world: not intelligence or intellectual horsepower, but sophia, the wisdom that connects us to the order governing all time and space. Plus: an elaborate reference to the Matrix.

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Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/6hxh8Oo

Spartan Moms for Liberty Jul 18, 2023

This one's for the girls. The ancient Greek word for courage is andreia--manliness. But whereas physical courage on the battlefield is a picture of something essential to manhood, there is also a womanly moral courage that no civilization can do without. In times of crisis and in the daily work of raising a family, womanly bravery is too often overlooked. Spencer concludes his series on the second canonical virtue with an episode dedicated to the women in our lives.

Sign up for my newsletter to be in the mailbag: rejoiceevermore.substack.com

Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/jeylhUj

Rooting for the Anti-Hero Jul 11, 2023

It's the age of the anti-hero, and Machiavelli can help explain why. Talking through the life of Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, and discussing the portrayal of him in The Prince, Spencer probes deeper into the uneasy line between recklessness and courage, shamelessness and virtue. Can we find our way out of the war between the sexes to a real vision of what it means to tame the lion of the soul? Plus: a close reading of Taylor Swift. Sort of.

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Check up my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/fUJfnkJ

Saddling Up (Independence Day Special) Jul 04, 2023

This 4th of July, it's hard to feel confident that everything is gonna be just fine. But that's the point: nobody said it was easy, and it may be you were born for such a day as this. Continuing a series on the cardinal virtues, Spencer pauses to consider the nature of courage in America now and at its founding. Plus: more tips from the build-a-soul workshop.

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Check out my book: https://a.co/d/bZKnihe

The Many-Headed Beast Jun 27, 2023

Gather round, one and all, and learn from Plato about how to get a date. Or start a workout routine. Or really...do anything good. Spencer embarks on a catalogue of the cardinal virtues--the principal forms of human moral excellence--beginning with moderation. It's not just some bland, middle-of-the-road stasis: it's a dynamic harmony among all the parts of you, and an antidote to the shallow philosophy of "following your heart."

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Purchase my book: https://a.co/d/6YqXKqf

We're So Back Jun 20, 2023

At long last, the people's cries have been heard--Young Heretics returns! Every day seems to bring some new catastrophe, and it's easy to see all the things that have gone wrong. But what would it mean to go right? You can't build a philosophy, or a life, on saying "no" to things. Somewhere you have to say "yes." In this new series, Spencer explores the nature of virtue and what it means to seek a truly good life (rather than just a not-bad one).

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Buy How to Save the West: Ancient Wisdom for Five Modern Crises: https://a.co/d/6gjMDkl

Ep. 138: To See the Face of God Jan 03, 2023

For the penultimate episode of the show, Spencer Klavan is joined by friend and Dante expert Catherine Illingworth to approach the Commedia's beatific vision. Tying together threads from the whole series, and the whole podcast, Spencer and Catherine discuss the roles of flesh and spirit in love as the pilgrim makes his final approach to God in paradise.

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Ep. 137: Where Matter Meets Flesh Dec 27, 2022

In this middle portion of his series on Dante, Spencer Klavan outlines the lay of the divine "land" in Dante's Commedia. Traveling from the lust of the damned up to the longings of the saved, Dante the pilgrim meets Beatrice the redeemed soul, seeking a way to purify and channel his fleshly desires.

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Ep. 136: Eat Your Heart Out Dec 20, 2022

In this final series of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan charts a map of Dante's career and the structure of his greatest work, the Commedia. Walking through the politics, metaphysics, and artistic background of the poem, Spencer approaches the beginning of Dante's journey to discover the true nature of love.

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Ep. 135: Quality and Quantity Dec 13, 2022

When the Devil visits Ivan in the Brothers Karamazov, he looks at first like a rather unimpressive gentleman. But lurking under his seemingly distracted conversation is a sinister depiction of the world broken down into infinite matter, formless and void. What answer can we possibly give to this satanic vision? Spencer Klavan explores Dostoevsky's alternative to modernist perdition.

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Ep. 134: Guilty Dec 06, 2022

"Everyone is guilty for everything before everyone”: This week, through the mystery of Father Zosima's life and sermons, Spencer Klavan unfolds Dostoevsky's answer to Ivan, to Nietzsche, and to modern skepticism and scientism. The words of Zosima are at the heart of this sprawling novel, and their wisdom is, if anything, more relevant now than when they were written.

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Ep. 133: Everything Is Permitted Nov 29, 2022

Ivan, the most brilliant and also the most tormented of the brothers in Dotoevsky's "Brothers Karamazov," saw something that few others could see: if there is no immortal soul and no God, then everything is permitted. It's something that Nietzsche realized as well, and it drove him mad. How did Dotoevsky avoid the same fate—and how can we? Spencer Klavan picks up these questions in the second installment of this series.

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Ep. 132: Heart Truths Nov 22, 2022

Dostoevsky was the kind of artist who peers so deep into the heart of the present that he becomes a prophet of the future. His last and greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, can be difficult to get into—but if you manage to crack the spine, it will be well worth your while. Spencer Klavan offers a little Young Heretics-style help to get you started.

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Ep. 131: Give All for All Nov 15, 2022

What do you want? In this final episode of his series on Thomas Traherne, Spencer Klavan explores Traherene's daring suggestion that you might not want enough. The 17th-century mystic argued that God gives us the world anew each time he creates a new human being—a thought that can radically change the way you look at basically everything.

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Ep. 130: The Hard Question Nov 08, 2022

How can we retain a sense of joy in the teeth of suffering? What does it mean to forgive? These hard and painful questions are the subject of the second installment in Spencer Klavan's series on Thomas Traherne and Matthew 6. Breaking down the Greek of the gospels and using Traherne as a guide, Spencer points the way to a joy that persists even when happiness doesn't.

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Ep. 129: The God’s-Eye View Nov 01, 2022

"Take care that ye perform not your righteousness to be seen of men." These words, familiar to Christians around the world, have an urgent and profound meaning for our time that needs unlocking. Using the Greek of the gospels and the profound meditations of Thomas Traherne, Spencer Klavan explores what it means not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.

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Ep. 128: A Government of Laws Oct 25, 2022

In this final episode of his series on Athenian democracy and citizenship, Spencer Klavan tells a few rip-roaring myths and true stories from the history of Athen—from the birth of King Erichthonius out of the ground to the fraught relationship between Cleisthenes of Athens and King Cleomenes of Sparta. Then as now, the question was: what does it mean to be equal before the law?

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Ep. 127: Political Love Oct 18, 2022

Okay, so we have a country—but isn't that a little mean? Drawing on Aristotle's definition of citizenship and politics, Spencer Klavan examines the question of open borders and asks what it really means to "love thy neighbor" in a political context.

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Ep. 126: In This House, We Believe Oct 11, 2022

What is a citizen, and who gets to be one? With immigration all over the news, Spencer Klavan takes a Young Heretics look at the nature of citizenship, starting with Aristotle’s politics. From 3rd-gen Athenian philosophy to Martha’s Vineyard, all in 60 minutes!

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Ep. 125: Words Without End Oct 04, 2022

In this final installment of the series on Owen Barfield, Spencer Klavan explores how the first and last Inkling's ideas can help us understand the arguments over the multiverse, the creation story in Genesis, and the very fabric of reality. Plus he reads some of Barfield's poetry. And all in under an hour!

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Ep. 124: World in the Mind Sep 27, 2022

Owen Barfield's "Poetic Diction" is a book about etymology that turns out to shed light on much more than language. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan describes his own life-changing experience discovering the book and explores how Barfield's vision of human perception can help unlock the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything. From scripture to science, the first and last Inkling has much to say to our modern predicament.

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Ep: 123: Splitting the Atom, Dividing the World Sep 20, 2022

What kind of knowledge does science give us? Is it the "God's-eye view" of things—a third-person, objective understanding of reality's bedrock? Owen Barfield, one of the less well-known Inklings, argued powerfully that it is not. Heeding Barfield's words can help us break free of the false religion that holds scientific truth up as the only real knowledge and makes science into a kind of new religion. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan introduces Barfield and embarks on a journey through quantum physics, Copernican cosmology, and the Book of Genesis.

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Ep. 122: A Complete and Total Shutdown on Celebrities Sep 13, 2022

We did it! The final installment of the Republic series is here. In this last and possibly most infamous book of his masterwork, Plato calls for a complete and total shutdown on artists until he figures out what the hell is going on. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses Plato's challenge to art, and the ways we might grapple with it today.

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Ep. 121: Save the Republic, Turn Off Your Dang Phone Sep 06, 2022

Drawing on Plato's highly sophisticated account of the relationship between psychology and politics, Spencer Klavan delivers an important message for the ages: turn off your dang phone! At least before bed. In Book IX of the Republic, Plato's Socrates explores what it means to be tyrannical—to be enslaved to your own desires—and how we can avoid that fate.

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Ep. 120: Starting With the Man in the Mirror Aug 30, 2022

If your ship of state really is sinking, what can you possibly do about it? As we reach the conclusion of our series on Plato's Republic, psychology and politics converge upon some striking answers to this very pressing question. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan talks through Socrates's survey of kinds of state and kinds of people, and reveals why you should turn off your durn phone if you want to save the world.

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Ep. 119: Art Reborn Aug 23, 2022

In the 13th century, the world held its breath as it waited for a new kind of art to be born. Then came Cimabue—or was it Duccio? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through the fascinating and complicated history of early Florentine Renaissance art, asking along the way what it might mean for us to seek rebirth out of a dark age.

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Ep. 118: The Death of Art Aug 16, 2022

How dark were the middle ages, really? And are we living through our own period of decline today? By studying the good and the bad of how art developed after the fall of the Roman Empire, Spencer Klavan reflects on our own time of fracture and uncertainty. It may be we are due for our own rebirth, and sooner than we think.

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Ep. 117: Saving Art Aug 09, 2022

Today begins a journey through Florence, the hub of rebirth in what Giorgio Vasari called the "rinascita" and we call the Renaissance. Vasari will be our tour guide through this explosive period of transformation. Much like movies and TV in our day, the art of the Medieval period had exhausted its possibilities. Then as now, we might ask: what comes next?

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Ep. 116: The Man Who Would Not Be King Aug 02, 2022

Does history only ever move in one direction? Is decay inevitable? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan argues that it is not, using the example of America's greatest founding figure—George Washington. Washington's refusal to seize more power than he needed made him the anti-Caesar, and the perfect hero for our nation.

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Ep. 115: To Bury Caesar Jul 26, 2022

Shakespeare's great tragedy, Julius Caesar, carries the story of Caesar forward beyond the Rubicon and beautifully dramatizes the tragic machinery of history that led Rome's republic to its downfall. Did Caesar have a choice? Do we? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses all this and more in the latest installment of the Shakespeare series.

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Ep. 114: Crossing the Rubicon Jul 19, 2022

When was Rome doomed? What about America? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan tells the famous story of Julius Caesar's choice to invade Rome, but with a twist: since no one knows exactly what happened in that fateful moment, the story becomes an opportunity for reflection on the great conflict between destiny and free will. This is the first of a series on the fall of Rome and the future of America.

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Ep. 113: The Reality Crisis Jul 12, 2022

It's often said that our politics has become "post-truth." But how far back does that problem go, really, and what are its deeper causes? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan examines these questions with the help of Plato's Republic, bringing our series on Athens, democracy, relativism, and virtual reality to a close.

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Ep. 112: Plato's Metaverse Jul 05, 2022

There's a lot of hype around Web 3 and the Metaverse. But what can the sales pitches for these new technologies tell us about the governing philosophy of our elites? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan applies Platonic insight to modern tech proposals to show what's really going on behind the news cycle.

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Ep. 111: There Are Four Lights Jun 28, 2022

From Athens' late-stage democracy to the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. Why should that be so? In a discussion ranging from the quadrivium, to Dante's Paradiso, on into Star Trek, Spencer Klavan explores the close connection between lies and violence.

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Ep. 110: The Cave Jun 21, 2022

Plato's cave is one of the most famous metaphors ever. But what does it really mean? At long last, this Young Heretics series on the Republic has gotten us far enough to understand what Plato is saying about Athenian society—and our own—in book 7. Plus: how do you find your purpose in life?

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Ep. 109: Systemic Sophistry Jun 14, 2022

How do you find the truth in a world designed to keep it from you? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan talks through statesmanship, philosophy, and the relationship between the two in a culture that rewards power, but not truth. From the cave to Twitter, most of what passes for philosophy is just regime enforcement—Spencer unpacks Plato's advice for turning the mind toward the true, the beautiful, and the good.

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Ep. 108: Lindy Law and the Slippery Slope Jun 07, 2022

In the final installment of his Young Heretics series on rights, Spencer Klavan asks how we can ever make changes and reforms to longstanding laws without hurtling down the slippery slope. Can we advance to meet the challenges of the day without dissolving into madness? Using Chesterton, Newman, Burke, Lewis, and the Seneca Falls declaration, Spencer shows how the tree of tradition can bear new fruit without cutting off the roots that feed it.

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Ep. 107: Uplifting Nonsense May 31, 2022

We're so used to talking about "human rights" and "human dignity" that it's easy to just nod along when people start declaring the brotherhood of man. But how did we get here? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan argues that God is a load-bearing pillar—cut him out, and sooner or later the whole building comes crashing down. From the Enlightenment to the present day, if your rights are going to be secure, they have to come from God.

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Ep. 106: The Brotherhood of Man May 24, 2022

If all men are brothers, then who is their father? If we have rights, who gives them to us? In today's episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan embarks on a series of episodes to trace the history of natural law and natural right that underlies our modern debates about abortion, euthanasia, and so much more.

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Ep. 105: Not My King May 17, 2022

Is Joe Biden your president? Was Donald Trump? Whatever your political outlook, bad leadership is a crisis. Shakespeare's Richard II is one of the West's most profound meditations on what happens when a human leader doesn't live up to his country's divine mandate.

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Ep. 104: The Vatican With Mouse Ears May 10, 2022

Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have taken action against Disney in the battle over parents' rights. But are conservatives betraying their free-market values? What even are those values, and why do conservatives hold them? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explores the history behind corporate law in America and the deeper truths that underlie free enterprise.

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Ep. 103: Rationalism and the Reasons of the Heart May 03, 2022

In an era of emotional partisanship, it's tempting to retreat into pure, cold reason. But that way madness lies—Spencer Klavan discusses rationalism throughout the ages, from Plato and Bacon to Bayes, Aella, and Slate Star Codex. We need our minds, but we need our hearts too—they have their reasons that reason knows not of.

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Ep. 102: Too Much of a Good Thing Apr 26, 2022

Is there such a thing as too much justice? How about too much reason? In Plato's Republic, Book V, Socrates follows the constraints of his argument to conclude that the ideal city would be one of eugenics and sexual communism. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses some of Plato's most controversial arguments, and the danger of snuffing out your gut instincts.

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Ep. 101: The Truth and Beauty ft. Andrew Klavan (No Relation) Apr 20, 2022

The Romantic poets lived in an age much like ours: science was ascendant, religion was collapsing, and revolutions in mores and politics were tearing down everything that seemed certain. How did they find their way through their turbulent time—and how can we find our way through ours? In this episode of Young Heretics, Andrew Klavan joins Spencer Klavan to discuss his new book on the subject, "The Truth and Beauty."

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Ep. 100: The State of the West Apr 12, 2022

We are officially 100 episodes into the Young Heretics journey. Looking back with gratitude at the growth of the show during its lifetime, Spencer Klavan gives an assessment of where the West currently stands, where hope lies, and why a classical education is more urgent than ever. Plus: a secret Locals announcement.

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Ep. 99: Trans Communist Utopia Apr 05, 2022

If women ran the world...Aristophanes' Assemblywomen is a play about the abolition of the family, the imposition of matriarchy, and communism of absolutely everything—including sex. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explains the play's raunchy humor and its surprising significance for today.

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Ep. 98: The Abolition of Women Mar 29, 2022

God is not ashamed of the female body: that is Christine de Pizan's simple yet radical assertion. It was radical when she made it in the 1400s, and it is radical now, when a new kind of rhetoric is reducing women to "menstruators" and turning human beings generally into collections of parts for sale. Spencer Klavan concludes his series on womanly virtues with a reflection on Christine's enduring message for the age of transhumanism.

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Ep. 97: Medieval Girlboss Mar 22, 2022

Misogyny is a real thing, even though the word has lost all meaning. But what does it really mean to be pro-woman, and what are the highest womanly virtues? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan introduces Christine de Pizan, a Medieval advocate for the excellence of women who puts modern feminists to shame.

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Ep. 96: Hard Times Make Strong Men Mar 15, 2022

With his country hemorrhaging money and its leadership too weak to function (sound familiar?) William the Marshal, a man of seventy, had to lead English forces against the French at the Battle of Lincoln. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses the courage that took, and how we can learn from it today.

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Ep. 95: Chivalry's Not Dead Mar 08, 2022

Headlines across America have been unanimously proclaiming the death of chivalry for decades—10 out of 10 tastemakers agree, it's sexist, hippocrytical, and probably somehow racist to aspire to manly excellence. So why won't chivalry stay dead? Using the biography of England's greatest knight, William Marshal, Spencer Klavan uncovers the true meaning of chivalry, and its enduring importance for today.

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Ep. 94: Souls in Embryo Mar 01, 2022

Last week, Spencer Klavan explored the crucial role of first principles in debates of every kind. This week on Young Heretics, he applies those ideas to one of America's most heated public discussions—the discussion about abortion. Why can't we stop fighting? A look at the first principles involved shows why.

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Ep. 93: The Firstest Things Feb 22, 2022

American public discourse is breaking down. On abortion, on coronavirus, on war, we just seem to be talking past each other—why? Using the abortion debate as an example and Aristotle as a guide, Spencer Klavan gets at the philosophical heart of America's first principle problem in this episode of Young Heretics.

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Ep. 92: Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried Feb 15, 2022

Why can't we come to terms with the horrors of Gulag? Why were so many of us taught about the Holocaust, but not about Stalin? In this next installment of his series on Solzhenitsyn's masterwork, Spencer Klavan describes the dark shadow-religion that swept over Russia and created concentration camps in the archipelago.

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Ep. 91: All the World's a Social Construct Feb 08, 2022

Shakespeare's As You Like It is a reflection on social roles: how they work, and what happens when they don't. Escape with Spencer Klavan to the Forest of Arden, where you can be free from the expectations of society, MAN. Or can you?

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Ep. 90: Not Worth Living Feb 01, 2022

In The Apology of Socrates, Plato exposes the pretensions of self-styled experts and authorities. Socrates was the only man in Athens who admitted he was not wise—and neither was anyone else. This didn't make him very popular, but he was willing to die rather than give up the truth.

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Special: Pro-Liberty, Pro-Life ft. Kristan Hawkins Jan 27, 2022

The fight for life is a crucial issue that touches on the deepest principles of the West. Without the right to life, there are no other rights. In a Young Heretics special, Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins joins Spencer Klavan to discuss her bold new campaign to restore and preserve the most fundamental right for the most vulnerable members of society. It’s the Final Fight for Freedom. The pair examines why this moment is so crucial both for the pro-life and conservative movement, and what we can do to make abortion both illegal and unthinkable.

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Ep. 89: Laughing at the Emperor Jan 25, 2022

Experts hate to be laughed at, especially when they have something to hide. Aristophanes, the genius of Old Attic Comedy, shows us how it's done in Clouds, his goofy satire of an education system in decline. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explores the question, was Socrates part of the problem—or part of the solution?

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Ep. 88: Ruining the Marvel Cinematic Universe Jan 18, 2022

It's the year of our Lord 2022 and Spencer Klavan is here to spoil your fun. Not really, but since the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become such an enormous cultural touchstone, it makes sense to ask: where do its ideas come from? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan takes a deep dive into the multiverse, an ancient concept that is now gaining currency in art and physics alike.

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Ep. 87: Platonic Resolutions Jan 11, 2022

As the new year rolls in, most of us think about how to be better—but what does that even mean? Luckily, our journey through Plato's Republic has taken us to the perfect book for thinking about excellence of all kinds. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses the cardinal virtues and how to cultivate them.

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Ep. 86: God of Science Jan 04, 2022

The final installment in the Space Trilogy, "That Hideous Strength," is a perfect allegory for our Fauci-worshiping times. In this episode of “Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan describes the logic which Lewis reveals in his myth of megalomania and satanism—a logic which is still at work today.

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Ep. 85: The Hinge of the Universe Dec 28, 2021

In the second book of the Ransom trilogy, C.S. Lewis imagines what it would have been like if Eve got a second chance in the Garden of Eden. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan reads from this rip-roaring tale of demonic possession and space travel to tell a Christmas story about the cosmic power of one human choice to change the world.

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Ep. 84: Christmas Aliens Dec 21, 2021

Sometimes to see earth clearly, you have to look down on it from mars. C.S. Lewis's space trilogy is a classic of sci-fi literature but it's also, weirdly, the perfect thing to read at Christmas. In "Out of the Silent Planet," Lewis takes his place alongside Dante and Milton with a Christian vision of the worlds beyond our world.

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Ep. 83: Every Human Heart Dec 14, 2021

We say "never forget"...but do we really mean it? We deceive ourselves if we think that murderous tyrants like Stalin are uniquely evil in some way that we ourselves could never be. Reading through Volume 1 of the Gulag Archipelago, Spencer Klavan shows how ordinary people can consent to terrible things.

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Ep. 82: Truth in the Gulag Dec 08, 2021

In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan begins a journey through Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's masterwork, "The Gulag Archipelago," which exposed the horrors of Lenin's and Stalin's Russia to the West. Describing how Russia's Empire was overthrown and replaced with a socialist state, Spencer explains the nightmare philosophy behind it all and reveals what really made Stalin's rule so gruesome.

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Ep. 81: The 1620 Project Nov 30, 2021

You've heard about the "first Thanksgiving," but have you heard about the miraculous sea crossing that made it possible in the first place? In this Young Heretics Thanksgiving special, Spencer Klavan talks about the journey of faith that gave birth to the American spirit.

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Ep. 80: What is Art? Nov 23, 2021

Are video games art? What about a urinal? And how about splotches of paint on a wall? We all have instinctive answers to these questions, but it can be hard to articulate the logic behind them. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses one of the West's oldest and most sophisticated books on the topic and how it can help us solve modern problems about censorship and cancel culture.

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Ep. 79: Politics Doesn't Care About Your Art Nov 16, 2021

If you want a perfect state, you have to seize the means of artistic production. That's something that both the Right and the Left now instinctively understand... which is why we're fighting so hard over things like Netflix. Plato saw to the heart of the matter in the third book of his Republic, which is why that book has caused, shall we say, quite a bit of trouble. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explains.

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Ep. 78: Mob Rule Nov 09, 2021

Everyone's talking about mob rule these days—but why is it happening now? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explains insights into mob rule from the French anthropologist, philosopher, and literary critic René Girard. Using Girard's brilliant exposition of the Gospels, Spencer explains everything that's going on in our politics... and what to do about it.

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Ep. 77: Be Careful What You Wish For Nov 02, 2021

W.W. Jacobs was a one-hit wonder, but his one hit is a Halloween masterpiece: The Monkey's Paw. In this Young Heretics holiday special, Spencer Klavan reads the story and reveals the theological truths behind it—without which, many of our modern ghost stories are doomed to fall flat.

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Ep. 76: The Eternal Library Oct 26, 2021

In an age when everyone wants us to think we are bound to our time, our race, and our place, Henry James's story "The Great Good Place" reminds us of the brotherhood of man. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan reads from this gem of a story and joins it with the witness of Machiavelli, Raphael, and DuBois to show that we are more than the here and now.

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Ep. 75: Who Decides? Oct 19, 2021

Your right to make your own choices is under assault. But where does that right come from anyway? Conscience is one of the oldest and deepest ideas in the Western tradition, developed by millennia of thought stemming from both Athens and Jerusalem. Spencer tells the story of conscience and defends your right to choose.

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Ep. 74: Who Is Free? Oct 12, 2021

In this episode of Young Heretics, we follow St. Thomas More to his death, and ask how it can be that he managed to find the strength for martyrdom. Spencer Klavan offers comfort and guidance from the great Saint for a moment when the powers of the world seem both powerful and threatening.

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Ep. 73: Stronger Than Death Oct 06, 2021

In an age when anxieties about state persecution are running high, Spencer Klavan looks to the ironclad perseverance of Saint Thomas More. More lived in a far more dangerous time than our own, and his confidence in the reality of the hereafter kept him firm in the face of tyranny. This episode of Young Heretics is the first of two on how one man gave it all rather than buckle under pressure.

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Ep. 72: My Redeemer Lives Sep 28, 2021

How can a good and just God allow suffering? The Book of Job is where the Old Testament looks this question squarely in the face. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses this masterwork of wisdom literature, drawing out lessons for patience in suffering that go beyond happy talk and nihilism.

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Ep. 71: Face to Foot Style Sep 21, 2021

With Thrasymachus the sophist thoroughly spanked and sent home crying, the real philosophers in the room get to work. That's the premise of Republic Book II, in which Socrates embarks with Glaucon and Adeimantus on a monumental project of imaginary civilization-building. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explores the question, can they craft a city of pure justice, or just a totalitarian nightmare?

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Ep. 70: Young Love Sep 14, 2021

Romeo and Juliet are two truly iconic characters—Shakespeare's tragedy has made them so powerfully real that it's almost as if they're still alive. But who are they, really, and why did this one play stick so firmly in the mind of the West? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan talks through the high drama, the classical sources, and the world-famous speeches of this classic play.

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Ep. 69: The Agony of Mercy Sep 07, 2021

How do we put blood guilt to rest? It isn't pretty. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through the conclusion of Aeschylus' Oresteia and traces the ideas it conveys throughout Western history. In the end, the question is not "what are we owed," but, "how can we live?"

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Ep. 68: Coming of Age Aug 31, 2021

Who is Orestes? What kind of man will he be? That is the question on which the middle play of the Oresteia turns. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through the tragedy and the questions it raises for men and women facing the unfairness of life today.

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Ep. 67: Blood Feud Aug 24, 2021

Are the sins of the father really the sins of the son? That's the question driving Aeschylus' Oresteia, the only surviving complete trilogy of Greek tragedies. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan begins a three-part journey through Aeschylus' prizewinning masterwork, seeking wisdom for today's debates over the history of racism.

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Ep. 66: What is America? Aug 17, 2021

Can we still do America anymore? Is the Constitution just hopelessly outdated? In a world governed by elites who think the whole America thing doesn't work, Spencer Klavan uses Aristotle's "Politics" to examine what living in political community means, and how we can (still) make it work in this country.

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Don’t let Big Tech rule our relationship. Submit your email so Spencer can stay in touch if—when?—Big Tech pulls the plug: https://youngheretics.com.

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Ep. 65: “Pagans Are Wrong” Aug 10, 2021

The First Crusade is one of the most maligned events in all of Western history. But what was it really about? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses the history of the Crusade and its impact on The Song of Roland.

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Ep. 64: The Man Who Built Europe Aug 03, 2021

"The Song of Roland" is a glorious legend about the doomed hero, Roland, and his tragic defeat at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan talks through the history behind this great epic and what it can tell us today.

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Ep. 63: Adultery and Courtly Love Jul 27, 2021

As Gawain gallops toward his potentially deadly encounter with the Green Knight, he faces an unexpected challenge: seduction. In the second Young Heretics episode on "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Spencer Klavan discusses the tradition of courtly love poetry and what to make of its more scandalous elements.

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Ep. 62: Chivalry and Hypocrisy Jul 20, 2021

Is the chivalric code one of civilization's great achievements, or is it all just a lie? That's the question Spencer Klavan takes up in the first of two episodes on "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," a jewel of Middle English literature and of chivalric poetry. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer reads Simon Armitage's masterful translation and argues that the high ideals of honor can still guide us today.

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Ep. 61: Worst King Ever Jul 13, 2021

The royal history of England is a story of triumphs and mishaps—but is there a plan behind it all? For that matter, is any of us free to affect the course of history? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through Shakespeare's tale of war and loss, asking what the medieval kings can teach us about our present crisis.

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Ep. 60: Might and Right Jul 06, 2021

Are all cultures, all countries, all governments as good as each other? How do we know what's right and wrong? In this episode of Young Heretics—the first of many episodes on the foundation-stone of Western political philosophy, the Republic—Spencer Klavan walks through the context, the history, and the profound impact of Republic Book 1.

Get your copy of "The Republic of Plato" here: https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Plato-Allan-Bloom/dp/0465094082.

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Ep. 59: What is a Classical Education? Jun 30, 2021

Young Heretics is the classical education you've been denied. But what is a classical education, anyway? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through the history of the three- and four-fold way (the "trivium" and the "quadrivium") to explain how we can shape our souls to love the good in a degraded age.

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Ep. 58: How to Repent Jun 22, 2021

What happened to the lovers of the French Revolution after it dissolved into terror? Some never changed their minds. But others—like the great Romantic poet William Wordsworth—reconsidered. Reading through Wordsworth's great poem "The Prelude" in this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses how we can all turn around after a wrong turn.

Read along with Spencer with your own copy of "The Prelude" here: https://www.amazon.com/Prelude-1799-Norton-Critical-Editions/dp/039309071X?tag=youngheretics-20

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Ep. 57: Hume Was Wrong Jun 15, 2021

For the first time on Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan tackles a philosopher with whom he thoroughly and entirely disagrees: David Hume. Reading through the "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding," Spencer examines the roots of modern skepticism and its influence on later thinkers like Freud.

Read along with Spencer with your copy of Hume's "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" here: https://www.amazon.com/Enquiry-concerning-Understanding-Oxford-Philosophical/dp/0198752482.

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Ep. 56: It's All Socrates' Fault Jun 08, 2021

What if all this Western culture stuff is just a mistake? That's the provocative question Spencer Klavan explores in this episode, with the help of that infamous German polemicist Friedrich Nietzsche. Spencer begins with Nietzsche's first book, "The Birth of Tragedy," taking a hard look at the weakness Nietzsche saw in Socrates, and so in the Western tradition of philosophy.

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Ep. 55: Don't Eat the Bugs Jun 01, 2021

We are surrounded these days by people who tell us our natural assumptions are all wrong: patriotism is evil, gender is a construct, everyone should eat bugs. Using the writing of Edmund Burke, Spencer Klavan argues that you have a right to be suspicious of billionaires who want to reduce your life to mere mathematics.

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The Classic Learning test is an alternative to the ultra-biased College Board tests that puts students in front of the kinds of thinkers we love at Young Heretics. Get 20% off your registration fee by using the code HERETICS at https://cltexam.com.

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The Liz Wheeler Show is a personal, researched, and unapologetic take on how we think about our culture. Subscribe for new episodes three times each week at https://lizwheelershow.com.

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Ep. 54: Liberty or Chaos? May 26, 2021

Are we living through another French Revolution? With the help of the great statesman Edmund Burke, Spencer Klavan examines what made the difference in the 18th century—and what makes the difference now—between justified reform and destructive anarchy.

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The Classic Learning test is an alternative to the ultra-biased College Board tests that puts students in front of the kinds of thinkers we love at Young Heretics. Get 20% off your registration fee by using the code HERETICS at https://cltexam.com.

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The official "Young Heretics" shop is here! For ONE more week, you can get all of your swag plus 10% off your entire order today with the offer code LAUNCH: https://youngheretics.com/shop.

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The Liz Wheeler Show is a personal, researched, and unapologetic take on how we think about our culture. Subscribe for new episodes three times each week at https://lizwheelershow.com.

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Ep. 53: How to Die ft. Sohrab Ahmari May 18, 2021

Death is real. It's not going away, and no amount of risk management can stave it off. So what do we do about it? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan talks with journalist and editor Sohrab Ahmari about the Stoic Seneca's approach to death, as discussed in Ahmari's new book, "The Unbroken Thread."

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For the first time ever, you can become an annual Young Heretics VIP on Locals! Spencer shares beard tips, we all share our favorite books, plus you get the episodes ad-free. Become a VIP today at https://youngheretics.com/locals and get 4 MOTHS FREE with the annual support option.

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Ep. 52: The Indispensable Virtue May 12, 2021

In this second episode on C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, Spencer Klavan explores the lead-up to the book's climactic moment, and the philosophy of courage that lies behind it. Courage is "every virtue at the testing point"—the thing which, in Lewis's day as well as ours, we cannot do without.

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Ep. 51: Sex and the Devil May 04, 2021

Probably no work by the great C.S. Lewis is more famous than his "Screwtape Letters," an imagined series of notes from one hellish tempter to another. In this first part of a two-part "Young Heretics" series, Spencer Klavan talks about Screwtape’s view of sex and love, as well as the poetry and philosophy that informed Lewis’s work.

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America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame.

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Ep. 50: Manhood and Womanhood, Body and Soul Apr 28, 2021

In Twelfth Night, a comedy first performed at the turn of the 17th century, Shakespeare demonstrates a subtler and more sophisticated understanding of how sex and gender work than all our modern ideologues put together. As Spencer Klavan explains this episode of "Young Heretics," the play acknowledges the delicate counterplay between male and female, before ultimately affirming that each is a unity of body and soul.

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America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame.

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The official "Young Heretics" shop is here! Get all of your swag plus 10% off your entire order today with the offer code LAUNCH: https://youngheretics.com/shop.

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Ep. 49: The Soul of a Murderer Apr 20, 2021

Fyodor Dostoevsky lived a life like one of his novels: harsh, dramatic, profound. His exile and hard labor in Siberia showed him the innate worth of the human soul and laid the groundwork for one of his best-known masterpieces, "Crime and Punishment." In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan talks through the hard conditions of 19th-century St. Petersburg and Dostoevsky's harrowing psychological portrait of the murderer Raskolnikov.

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America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame.

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Ep. 48: Rebellion Against Reality Apr 13, 2021

Was Milton on the devil's side? The great revolutionary confronted the limits of rebellion in his masterwork, "Paradise Lost." In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan takes a first look at the epic to expose the logic of Milton's Satan and how it turns everything inside out.

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Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics.

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America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame.

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Ep. 47: Spirit and Flesh Apr 06, 2021

Miracles aren't magic, they're real life. But what really did happen on the cross? In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan describes how scripture and sculpture both can express the profound truths of life, death, and resurrection that Christians commemorate this time of year.

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America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame.

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Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics

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Ep. 46: The Eternal Conversation Mar 30, 2021

You can't cancel the West. You can try, but its truths are eternal and the great conversation across generations marches on. That's the vision of Raphael in his masterwork, the School of Athens. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan walks through the history and meaning of his favorite painting.

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America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at yaf.org/longgame.

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"Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month.

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Special: Saving the Republic ft. Governor Scott Walker Mar 29, 2021

Led by communists like Antonio Gramsci, progressives began their long march through the institutions in the 1960s. They indoctrinated students with dangerous socialist ideas beginning at the earliest levels of education. The effect has been a hatred of America that persists even in today's youth. In this "Young Heretics" special, Spencer Klavan sits down with the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker, to break down YAF's new action plan, a plan that Walker says will wrestle back education and culture from the clutches of Left. You can join the fight to save America as we know it by joining The Long Game at https://YAF.org/LongGame.

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Ep. 45: Clash of Civilizations Mar 23, 2021

When Paul stood in the Athenian court on the Hill of Mars (the Areopagus) to plead his case for Christianity before the Epicureans and Stoics, no one knew what would happen. Would he be laughed out of town? Or put in chains? What nobody expected was what eventually came to pass. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan discusses how the obscure faith of this Jewish scholar took over the world.

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America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at yaf.org/longgame.

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"Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month.

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Ep. 44: Empire and the Soul Mar 16, 2021

Plato dreamed that philosophers would rule the state; Marcus Aurelius made that a reality. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan examines Aurelius's Stoic belief system as articulated in his famous "Meditations," which have made him an enduring model of manly self-control for all the ages.

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Ep. 43: We Are All Epicureans Now Mar 09, 2021

Atoms bouncing off one another in an infinite void, a world without interference from God, and a life of seeking pleasure above all else...sound familiar? That's the ancient philosophy of Epicureanism, and it dominates our lives today though we don't know it. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan discusses, and criticizes, the teachings of Epicurus.

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Ep. 42: The Stoic Life Mar 02, 2021

Philosophy isn't an abstract academic subject: it's a way of life. After lots of requests, Spencer Klavan sits down in this episode of "Young Heretics" to talk through the Hellenistic philosophical schools of ancient Athens, starting with Stoicism—its roots in Greece, its encounter with Christianity, and what it has to say for us today.

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"Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month.

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Ep. 41: What's It All About? Feb 24, 2021

In this special episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan answers questions from listeners who have supported the show and want to dig deeper into some of the great ideas of the West. Plus, "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month.

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Ep. 40: Truth and Beauty Feb 16, 2021

Why is Game of Thrones better than WAP? Or is it? This kind of question is always flying around on Twitter, especially among conservatives. But it has an ancient pedigree: from Plato's "Republic" and Aristotle's "Poetics," on through Philip Sidney and Camille Paglia, the critics and philosophers of the West have puzzled over what it means to enjoy depictions of weird or even ugly things. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan digs into that history to help resolve our modern controversies.

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Ep. 39: The Long Road Home Feb 09, 2021

Where do we go from here? Home. In this episode of "Young Heretics," the series on America's and the world's present crisis draws to a close with a survey of localism, from G.K. Chesterton in Dublin to Wendell Berry in America. Spencer Klavan argues that building outward from our immediate surroundings is the key to healing our damaged country.

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Ep. 38: The Right of Revolution Feb 02, 2021

Is political violence ever justified? The question has never felt more serious in our lifetimes than it does today. The hard truth is, America was founded on political violence, and yet, our founders understood the gravity and terrible cost of their drastic actions. When is that cost worth paying? In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan takes up that question in light of the Capitol riot and America's founding history.

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Ep. 37: Defying the Law Jan 26, 2021

When is civil disobedience justified? It's a question that has loomed over the past year and continues to haunt us. With lockdowns crushing businesses and riots terrorizing the streets, Spencer Klavan begins a three-part series to bring the great wisdom of the West to bear on this modern crisis. In this episode of "Young Heretics" he covers Sophocles' "Antigone" and the philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience.

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Ep. 36: The Cosmos and the Crucifixion Jan 19, 2021

If you learn only one Greek word, learn this one: mimēsis. It's the explanation of everything—or at least, it describes something profound that governs human nature and the cosmos. In this episode of "Young Heretics", Spencer Klavan explains how the pattern of mimēsis is everywhere—from the structure of musical scales, to the shape of Creation, to the Crucifixion itself.

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Ep. 35: Things Go South Jan 12, 2021

It's a tense moment for America, and there's a lot of talk in the air of national decline. It's a good time to be thinking about how things can go wrong. In this conclusion to his two-part discussion on the Roman monarchy, Spencer Klavan explains how kingship tends to fall apart—and what a person can do in the midst of dark times.

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Ep. 34: Are You a Good King, or a Bad King? Jan 05, 2021

Lots of people are thinking it, but not that many people are asking it out loud: is America in for a monarchy in the near future, and would that be such a bad thing? Spencer Klavan thinks the answers are "no" and "yes." In this episode of "Young Heretics," the first installment of a two-part discussion, he explains why by working his way through Livy's remarkably even-handed portrayal of Roman monarchy.

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Ep. 33: Honor Dec 29, 2020

What do you honor most? In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan offers his prescription for saving the republic: honor virtue and seek to imitate it. He explores the importance of honor in ancient Rome through the thrilling legend of Horatius Cocles, who held up the young republic's defenses against all odds.

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Ep. 32: The Word Was With God Dec 22, 2020

It's a very Young Heretics Christmas, which can only mean one thing: we are going straight to the good stuff. In his first foray into the New Testament on the show, Spencer Klavan gets at the heart of the story of Jesus' birth and its meaning in the grand sweep of Western history we've been studying all year.

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Ep. 31: How Free Should We Be? ft. Brandon Van Dyck Dec 15, 2020

"Liberty" and "liberalism" are overused words—but what do they even mean? Are all kinds of freedom good per se, or do we need boundaries like the kinds provided by religious teaching? There are profound and urgent debates raging on these questions right now. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan navigates some of the major issues with his friend and fellow traveler, the academic Brandon Van Dyck.

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Ep. 30: Greeks From the Ground and Persians From Heaven ft. Tom Holland Dec 08, 2020

Herodotus, the West's first historian, is also much-maligned as the father of lies. In this episode of "Young Heretics," superstar historian and lifelong Herodotus fan Tom Holland joins Spencer Klavan to explain the genius of Herodotus and the meaning of his myths, from urinating Egyptians to the divine lineage of the Persians and everything in between.

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Ep. 29: Prophets and Princes Dec 01, 2020

The name Machiavelli calls a thousand things to mind: pitiless conquest, hard-nosed realism, violent death. But who was the man, really, and why did he leave such a mark? Machiavelli was a man in full—humanist, diplomat, scholar, mastermind. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan gives Machiavelli the fresh introduction he deserves.

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Ep. 28: The Real Story of Thanksgiving Nov 26, 2020

This is the story they don't want you to hear about the holiday they don't want you to celebrate. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan walks through the real history of Thanksgiving—the good, the bad, and the amazing about the Pilgrims' journey from Europe to America. It's a story of faith, providence, human nature, and the small mercies of God in the sad history of human affairs. Here's the amazing story of our proud country's improbable beginnings.

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Ep. 27: The Blood of the King Nov 17, 2020

Shakespeare's "Macbeth"is a gory, nail-biting, creepy romp. But it's also a brilliant depiction of how the world caves in upon a man who violates the law of God, and how intimate, personal relationships can change the course of history. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan dives into his first Shakespeare episode (but certainly not his last) to take a look at how free will and fate overlap to make one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the West.

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Ep. 26: What It Takes to Rule the World Nov 10, 2020

How you think about your founding fathers determines how you think about yourself. That's something America is learning right now, and it's something of which ancient civilizations were acutely aware. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan tells the story of how the Trojan hero Aeneas became Ancient Rome's central founding figure through Virgil's "Aeneid"—and what that means for politics in Rome and America.

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Ep. 25: The Chill of Death Oct 31, 2020

Happy Halloween! It's a bizarre year—Halloween is basically forbidden in some of the stricter lockdown states. On this special episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan, with help from the great American master of horror Edgar Allan Poe, dives into the history of the day and explains why the people who attack it are absurd.

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Ep. 24: Undying Glory Oct 27, 2020

This. Is. Sparta!!!! "300," the blood-soaked Zack Snyder movie adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novel, is based on stories of the Persian War told by the first historian ever, Herodotus. But how accurate is "300" really, and does it matter? In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan tells the real story of the 300 at Thermopylae, and argues that "300" is a better take on the whole thing than you might expect.

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Ep. 23: Mean Streets and Tough Men Oct 20, 2020

The "Maltese Falcon" is a groundbreaking movie and a seminal work of American literature. It's more than pop culture, though it is pop culture at its finest. It's also a tale of what it takes to be a man in America. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan defends the work's place in the canon and analyzes its enduring greatness.

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Ep. 22: Heroes of Old Oct 13, 2020

One of the biggest lies we're told is that celebrating our ancestral past is stupid, dishonest, or worse. None of that is true. "Beowulf," the Anglo-Saxon masterpiece about England's Germanic forefathers, is a sophisticated tale full of weirdness, complexity, and melancholy—plus, it's an awesome romp with lots of crazy monsters and sick fights. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan uncovers the poem's greatness.

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Ep. 21: What Are You For? Oct 06, 2020

Want some self-help that actually works? Despite being complicated and somewhat intimidating, Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" is actually a very practical book with advice you can use. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan unpacks Aristotle's profound insights in one of the most life-changing books you'll ever read.

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Ep. 20: All Shall be Well Sep 29, 2020

If you really want to talk pandemics, then let's talk Julian of Norwich. She lived in religious seclusion, but she understood deeply that there are no guarantees in life—no safety other than in God. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan talks through the weird, intense, and powerful visions of Julian and what they say about God and womanhood.

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Ep. 19: The Death of the Old World Sep 22, 2020

"Gone with the Wind" is the movie they don't want you to see. Following HBO pulling it from streaming services and then putting it back up with a ridiculous health warning, Spencer Klavan insists on rewatching it. In this episode of "Young Heretics" Klavan proves why the movie is not just a masterwork, but a triumph of American culture in the best traditions of Western art, and a tragedy in the true sense of the word.

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Ep. 18: The Resurrection of the West Sep 15, 2020

Francesco Petrarca, commonly known as Petrarch, lived at the dawning of a new age. He's credited with helping to revive classical learning when it went dormant, which makes him an excellent guide for our own day. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan reads Petrarch's poems and contemplates how to revitalize the wisdom of the past—not through nostalgia, but through rebirth.

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Ep. 17: Chaos Sep 08, 2020

How do you acknowledge the wild forces of the world without letting them destroy you? Euripides, the youngest Greek tragedian whose work survives, asked exactly this question in his radical, boundary-pushing play "The Bacchae." In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explores how, with the clarity of an artist's vision, Euripides saw the downfall of Athens coming and spoke wisely into the heart of his moment—and our own.

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Ep. 16: Greece at War ft. Victor Davis Hanson Sep 02, 2020

The Peloponnesian War was one of the most catastrophic conflicts of the ancient world—protracted, brutal, and disastrous for the Athenian hegemony that had grown over the course of the early 5th century BC. In this episode of "Young Heretics," classical scholar and military history expert Victor Davis Hanson joins Spencer Klavan to discuss the war's causes, tactics, and consequences.

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Ep. 15: The Bloody Surgeon Aug 25, 2020

T.S. Eliot's God was no mere fantasy or abstraction: he was a tough, strange, sorrowful savior presiding over a world gone terribly wrong. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan concludes his series on Eliot by walking through the passages in "Four Quartets" which outline the trinity to reveal what God looks like in the modern world.

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Ep. 14: God Beyond Time Aug 18, 2020

How do you find authentic faith in a world that is falling to pieces around you? In this episode of “Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan returns to his series on T.S. Eliot—this time with a study of "Four Quartets," Eliot's greatest Christian work.

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Ep. 13: Capitalist Music ft. Stephen Limbaugh Aug 13, 2020

Why is capitalism good for music and what does any of it have to do with outer space? In this episode of “Young Heretics,” classical composer Stephen Limbaugh joins Spencer Klavan to discuss the thrilling profusion of musical creativity that accompanied the Belle Époque period. Plus, Spencer and Stephen get into the wonders of music theory, the benefits of patriotism, and the future of American art.

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Ep. 12: Freedom and the Fall of Man Aug 04, 2020

As cancel culture is on the rise, freedom of speech is all over the news. Why do we even believe in freedom of speech in the first place? Take a look at John Milton, the revolutionary firebrand whose writing nearly cost him his life. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan explores the connections between Milton's views on speech, sin, and revolution in "Areopagitica."

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Ep. 11: America’s Eternal Truths ft. Senator Ted Cruz Jul 28, 2020

America is not only a great nation, it is also the inheritor of the best the West has to offer. In this special episode of "Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan sits down with Senator Ted Cruz to talk through the enduring principles of the United States Constitution, their roots in English law, and their relevance for all time.

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Ep. 10: Manhood and the Fall of Civilization Jul 21, 2020

Does this story from the fall of the Roman republic hold wisdom for America in her troubled moment? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explores how Gaius Gracchus tries and fails to propose an entirely new constitution. But it's more fun than that! An unsolved murder mystery, a trip to Africa, and a deadly riot later, we will find our takeaway from this story.

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Ep. 9: The Beginning of the End Jul 14, 2020

To prevent our own republic from failing, we must look to the wisdom of Western history and find insights from moments similar to our own. If only our elite professors would pay attention! In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explores the "Gracchan disturbance," a turbulent and dramatic period in Roman history, to find wisdom for our own unsettled times.

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Ep. 8: Who Walks Beside You? Jul 07, 2020

Sometimes, you have to face up to despair before you can find an honest way to hope. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan returns to T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land to uncover the surprising hope that waits just beyond the edges of Eliot's dark vision.

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Ep. 7: Fragments Shored Against Our Ruin Jun 30, 2020

T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land is known as one of the most depressing poems ever. Eliot refuses to offer any BS or happy talk: his spare, cold look at the woes of modernity can help us understand where hope lives when everything else goes dark. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan argues that this work also contains the seeds of Eliot's eventual conversion to Christianity and hope for us in our own depressing age.

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Ep. 6: The Pride Before the Fall Jun 23, 2020

The victory of Greece over Persia at Salamis blew everybody's mind. In Persians, the great tragedian Aeschylus looks back on the wars he fought and questions what makes a civilization great. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks listeners through the play, the genius of tragedy, and the Western tradition of honoring your enemies.

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Ep. 5: The Greatest Intellectual of the 20th Century Jun 16, 2020

Was C.S. Lewis the 20th century’s greatest thinker? Lewis was a war veteran, the unofficial pastor of the West in its darkest hour, and a supremely gifted philosopher with a masterfully light touch. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan takes the audience through a close look at Lewis’s The Abolition of Man to prove that those who dismiss Lewis as “just the Narnia guy” are just plain wrong.

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Ep. 4: What is Love? Jun 09, 2020

It's more than sex. In fact, sex is just the beginning. Plato's Symposium is the hilarious, weird, and profound story of one magical night on which the erotic secrets of the universe were unveiled. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan does a deep dive into the world of Socrates and the mysteries of love.

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Ep. 3: Birth of an Empire Jun 02, 2020

At the Battle of Actium, the fabled lovers Antony and Cleopatra made a doomed last stand against Julius Caesar's heir, Octavian. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan and Cornell historian Barry Strauss talk through the battle that ended the Roman republic, and the sex, treachery, and feuding that transformed the world.

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Ep. 2: God's Prophet in the Valley of Death May 26, 2020

The Prophecy of Isaiah is so much more than the excerpts you hear at Christmas. It's a story of war and politics, of defiance in the face of utter despair, and of faith when everything you believed in—even the city of God—comes crumbling to the ground. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan tells the story of this enigmatic genius from the 8th century BC.

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Ep. 1: Glory and the Songs of War May 19, 2020

It all starts with Homer: the man, the myth, the musician. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through the glorious tale of valor, tragedy, and heroism known as the Iliad, reading aloud from the rhythms of the original Greek and recounting this ancient tale of the war for the most beautiful woman in the world.

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Trailer: Culture Without the Culture Wars May 15, 2020

Is reading Shakespeare racist? Is it too exclusive to study Homer? On Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan has only one thing to say about identity politics: it's crap. Why not leave it in the garbage where it belongs? Young Heretics does just that, instead focusing on the enormous wealth of wisdom that is found in Western culture.

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