Online Great Books Podcast

In the spring of 1845, Henry David Thoreau borrowed an ax, walked into the woods, and started cutting down trees to make a shack to live in. Walden is the result of this endeavor. Through this process, Thoreau spells out his distinctly American project — simple living with as few compromises as possible. Karl says, “The book is not a guide to your life, the book is a challenge to your life.” In the woods, Thoreau makes precise, scientific observations of nature, writing his thoughts down in pastoral poetry. He wishes to drive life into a corner, to experience a sense of wonder, but also oneness, with nature.   When you are feeling uncoupled from your life, how might you come to “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life?” Tune in to this week's episode to hear more about Thoreau's experiment and what can happen when you pick up an ax. 

Scott and Karl are back at it again, this time with Tom Wolfe and his book, The Painted Word. Wolfe is a mid-century American writer and the inventor of New Journalism. He’s known for straddling multiple genres at once, reporting back to his readers on a world we ultimately couldn't see without him.  In The Painted Word, Wolfe provides a critique of modern art and the world that surrounds it. In a way only Tom Wolfe can, he's able to describe how the art world of the 1970s was controlled by an insular circle of rich collectors, museums, and critics with outsized influence.  For Wolfe, modern art has become completely literary— the paintings and other works exist only to illustrate the text. To understand modern art, one must know the words of current criticism. In other words, can you know if modern art is any good unless someone tells you? Tune in to hear an enlightening conversation on the history of taste-making, "Cultureburg," and the project of modern art. In the process, Scott and Karl reveal their crit

This week, Scott and Karl dive into The Gulag Archipelago by Russian writer and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  Published in 1973, the title refers to a series of disconnected prisons in the Soviet Union that, nevertheless, all shared the same culture. The manuscript had to be hidden, originally published by the underground Samizdat press which reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader. This work of literature, and countless others like it, were essential in ultimately undoing the Soviet Union.  Solzhenitsyn has his own theory on the vast importance of literature. He believes this beauty will save the world. How does that work?  Scott says, “Beauty transcends language, it transcends rationality— it’s such a visceral thing that everyone can recognize. We might have trouble recognizing truth, we might have trouble recognizing goodness, those things might be hidden from us, but you just can’t hide the beautiful. The lowest among us and the most poisonous among us

In this week’s episode, Scott and Karl talk with Michelle Hawkins, music professor and Online Great Book’s member. The trio listen and discuss Beethoven’s Third Symphony and read The Heiligenstadt Testament, a heartbreaking letter written by Beethoven to his brothers.  Beethoven's Third Symphony is regarded as a turning point in musical history, the ideas for which began during his tumultuous "Heiligenstadt Testament" period. Why is it that so few of us are listening to this landmark symphony? In today's music climate, understanding and enjoying classical music may seem far-fetched for some. Michelle has a theory: “We’re living in a post-musical culture now… people are not growing up in the same musical atmosphere that used to be the case. It is harder to listen to these pieces of music because you do need to have a little bit of context. They are complex, it may be hard to enjoy something so complex when you have no context and no exposure.” What if you want to explore classical music, but you’re not sure wh

We’re switching up our normal routine to answer your Online Great Books questions. In this episode, Scott and Karl address everything from membership, seminar, accountability, and our mission. What will reading the books on this list do for you, anyway? Scott says, “If you read them in earnest and you take them seriously and actually go to the seminar, they will make you address the bedrock questions behind so many of your opinions.” In short, “it'll ruin the life you’ve got but you’ll get a different one.” Tune in to hear answers like these plus the reasons behind some of the decisions we make. Even if you’re a member with us already, you’re bound to learn something new.

This week, Scott and Karl read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, author unknown. This narrative poem is considered to be one of the jewels of English Literature and a crowning achievement of Middle English poetry. Filled with chivalric knights, seductive sirens, and plenty of temptation and testing, this Arthurian legend lives up to the name. This poem was lost for a while, from a region that didn’t win the language war. Karl remarks, “It’s a pattern of language that still works, even if it lost the lottery.” When you take on one of these lost pieces of literature that really hasn't been a part of the conversation, what's the interest? Why would you want to read it? Scott says, “This poem gives me a better understanding of English, of English history, and doggonit, it’s fun!” Go read Sir Gawain and the Green Night, then tune in for an adventure-packed conversation!  As a reminder, if you are interested in starting your own adventure with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at

The medium is the… massage? In 1967, Marshall McLuhan teamed up with graphic designer Quentin Fiore to write The Medium is the Massage, a short 160-page picture book that offers us a glimpse as to how the medium "shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action,” of work and leisure. Karl points out, “to say the media is the massage means the medium, this conceptional world, is massaging you— it’s rhetoric." Have societies always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which we communicate or by the content of the communication? This nonconventional book is a nice companion piece to Bernays’ Propaganda and part of our “Modern Sophists” podcast series. Tune in to this week’s episode and discover how media can touch our character formation, our public and private lives, even our sentimentality versus hard-head clarity.

“I would prefer not to.” In their simplicity and politeness, these five words illustrate a story of passive resistance that will both move you and leave you searching for answers. You may have even uttered the line yourself at work. "Bartleby, the Scrivener, A Story of Wall-Street," was published in Putnam's magazine in November and December 1853 by Herman Melville. It is centered around the dehumanization of Bartleby the scrivener, the nineteenth-century equivalent of a photocopy machine.  Sound intriguing? If you’ve ever read Moby Dick, you’ll know the more profound Melville gets, the more elusive the solutions he arrives at.  Tune in to this week’s episode for a fascinating discussion on this eerily aching short story and one of the most enigmatic sentences in American literature.

In this week’s episode, Scott and Karl discuss Edward Bernays’ 1928 book Propaganda. Referred to as “the father of public relations,” and “the Machiavelli of the 20th century,” Bernays pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion which he famously dubbed “engineering of consent.” His seminal work, Propaganda, is a look behind the veil of the most powerful and influential institutions orchestrating the unseen mechanisms of society. In Karl’s own words, “It’s a very good book you want to throw across the room.” Tune in to hear a fascinating discussion about the methods, uses, and ideas behind Bernays' influencers to regiment the collective mind.

When you begin reading the Great Books, family and friends may be puzzled. They will see you toting around huge books, taking notes, and gazing off thoughtfully into the void. Greg, one of our members, was questioned by a coworker. “Why are you reading Thucydides at lunch?” He restated this question on our OGB Slack channel. We have an active community of readers, friends who help each other work through the texts.  In this week's episode, Scott and Karl dive into the many reasons why we decide to travel through two-and-a-half millennia of the greatest of the Western tradition.  If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.

This week, Scott and Karl read Josef Pieper’s Leisure the Basis of Culture. The duo dives into the Pieper-style definition of leisure, work, and their relationship. Pieper shows us that the Greeks and medieval Europeans understood the great value and importance of leisure. But do we? Most of us have been brought up on heavy doses of careerism, or what Pieper would define as work related to the servile arts, with the sole purpose of survival. Leisure, in effect, becomes a bad word, merely a way of recharging our batteries. For Pieper, the whole point of civilization is leisure, or the active engagement in higher things that aren’t economic. Idleness isn’t the point. Leisure should be contemplative, divine, and distinctly human. What must be present for contemplation to occur? How can you be more intentional with your leisure time? Tune in to this week’s episode and let us know your thoughts.  

This week, Scott and Karl discuss Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The America Scholar.” This address was delivered at Cambridge in 1837, before the Harvard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. According to Emerson, there’s a fundamental challenge American scholars are faced with— what is it they ought to be doing? Emerson has a reverence for work and the common man. The scholar must realize the importance of action in the life of the American intellectual or risk becoming a mere thinker. Emerson believes you must do action, and the deeds you do become your vocabulary. If you are in your head all the time, you lose touch. Emerson writes, “Instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm.” On the surface, this may appear to be a challenge to what we do at Online Great Books. However, a big part of what we do is achieved in our seminar discussions. As Scott points out, “the seminar is where you take action on what you read. The seminar is where you start to incorporate the book into the self. The seminar is where you dodg

In this week’s episode, Scott and Karl discuss all things related to reading. Before opening a book, it’s crucial to define your “why” and then your “how.” If you are reading for entertainment, your methods will differ than if you’re reading for enlightenment. Here at Online Great Books, the first book our members read in the program is How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. Adler has four basic questions a reader should have in active reading: What is this book about was a whole? What is being said in detail, and why? Is the book true, in whole or part? What of it? This method of investigation is our gold reading standard as we encounter Great Books authors from Aristotle to Shakespeare. But instead of letting Adlerian perfection be the enemy of the good, Scott advises, “Be patient with yourself, allow yourself to be eclectic in your reading style, and let the text be the measure of how well you’re reading.” In this episode, Scott and Karl discuss tools, timing, and note-taking methods as you take on your Gre

This week, Scott and Karl discuss Book I of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle may seem like an intimidating figure that you can’t tap into, but this just isn’t true. As the author of the first book on ethics, Aristotle treats human behaviors like a science. If you believe in reason, if the world is a place you want to learn about and explore, what things must hinge on each other? Are things good because we aim at them or do we do things because they aim at the good? Aristotle asks readers to consider the highest good and how it can be achieved. In doing so, he devotes his first book to a preliminary account of happiness. But as Karl points out, you must first differentiate the English and Greek definitions of happiness. Happiness is not the correct word for what Aristotle is talking about but it's as close as we could get. "In English, happiness means a smile on your face, it is related to the word happen," Karl continues, "so you’re walking down the street and find $20 and you’re happy because someth

In this week's episode, Scott and Karl discuss an essay by Plutarch, “How a Man May Become Aware of His Progress in Virtue.” As an eminent biographer and moralist, Plutarch is best known for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans arranged in tandem to illuminate their common vices and virtues. To Karl’s initial dismay, Plutarch’s essay is less about the metaphysical elements of virtue and more of a self-evaluation for the reader. Presuming you already want to be a good person, what are the signs you’re doing alright? How do you know your vices and follies are in abatement and that your virtues are in ascendancy? If you know all about virtue and you still don’t get any better, do you really know all about virtue? Plutarch is in opposition of the Stoics— he believes you can get better, even if it's hard to see progress. It just takes practice and habituation. Tune in to this week’s episode to find out what virtue looks like according to Plutarch and how to take real action towar

This week, Scott and Karl discuss Dorthy Sayers’ paper, "The Lost Tools of Learning." This groundbreaking work is a great deal important to our mission here at Online Great Books, and for anyone else who wants a redo on their education. What did Sayers notice was lost back in 1947? Why does it matter that we have lost the tools of learning? In this episode, the guys talk about the all-encompassing ideas behind the Trivium, the downfalls of specialization, and the purpose of school. In school, you learn math and biology, but do you learn how to learn? For Sayers, the materials you use in order to teach how to learn doesn’t matter, only the process. “The sole true end of education,” says Sayers, “is to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.” Tune in to this week’s episode and find out how your schooling may have failed you and how to recover your own tools of learning.  

One year ago, Karl decided to give up his 20-year teaching career as a university professor of humanities and philosophy. Why did he make this decision? In Karl’s own words, “It was no longer rewarding for me or valuable to the students.” Towards the end of his teaching career, Karl started to notice a decline in his student’s ability to read and a general reluctance to share opinions. Scott and Karl dig into the dismal state of higher education today and the problem of chasing credentials. These days, Karl is helping people get strong in body and mind. He’s a barbell coach and an interlocutor here at Online Great Books. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Karl’s full story! 

In this week’s episode, Scott and Karl pay homage to the recently deceased Harold Bloom, a great ally to our mission at Online Great Books. Once hailed the most notorious literary critic in America, Bloom was a professor of humanities at Yale and a fierce defender of canonicity.  His version of the canon, with Shakespeare reigning at its center, is far more extensive than the Adlerian version. Scott and Karl read Chapter 1 of Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. The two discuss what makes this book so controversial to begin with, the problems with postmodernism, and the aesthetic value of books. What is your goal in reading the canon? Do you read because it’s good for you or just because it’s good? According to Karl, your goal should be “to seek as hard a pleasure as you can.” Here at OGB, we welcome the simplicity in reading from the canon– it narrows down how you should be spending your time. We think Dr. Bloom would agree. If you are interested in starting your journey with the Grea

This week, Scott and Karl read Chapters 1-3 of Gabriel Marcel’s Man Against Mass Society. Mass society doesn’t just include people for Marcel, he also includes art, media, and technology. Marcel is concerned with human existence, or more specifically, with the quality of human life in relation to the transcendent.  Written in 1952, Marcel’s discussion of these topics is remarkably contemporary. He believes we are in danger of losing our humanity and certain “techniques of degradation” in modern systems are the root cause. Scott and Karl talk in length of these dangers and the problems that lie with giving in to a spirit of abstractions. For Marcel, the problem with abstraction lies in the ability to fascinate, its tendency to draw us into thinking that the abstraction itself is the reality in which we move and relate with one another.  In Karl’s own words, “if all you can get into your mind space is thin gruel, that’s all you can digest.” How can we avoid flat, diluted access to the transcendent that leaves u

Thomas Hobbes is the type of writer you love to hate– but he’s also the guy you’d love to play cards with. Scott believes Hobbes’ Leviathan is one of the most fruitful books he has ever read. It’s a founding text of western thought filled with original ideas that are still relevant to contemporary politics.  In today’s episode, Scott and Karl dig into chapters 13-15 and 17. It's only 36 pages so make sure to read it before listening in! For Karl, Hobbes says things about human nature that he doesn’t want to be true. But that he’s not sure aren't true. Around the time “Leviathan” entered the English lexicon, Britain was engaged in a time of civil discord. The tooth and nail mentality of the time might explain Hobbes’s summary of man as “solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.” In order to improve these conditions, the duo considers what makes people want to live in a commonwealth. For Hobbes, it was 3 things: fear of death, the desire of commodious living, and hope of getting it. Hobbes then provides 19 la