Online Great Books Podcast

Scott is joined by Karl Schudt in this week’s discussion of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance.” For Emerson, authentic, unmediated thought has some sort of divine truth in it. This is crucial to our mission at Online Great Books. In seminar discussion, everyone has a unique perspective that we need to hear about. Your thoughts are worth a whole lot!    Despite that freedom Emerson felt, and wrote about, and saw in transcendentalism, we are more conformist than ever as a nation. Even with endless choices in front of us, is true freedom of action waning? Scott and Karl talk about everything from finding the glory of your own consequences, to the problem of pathological empathy, to internet trolling. Tune in for an unforgettable episode!  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.

Do we reveal our most authentic inner selves by our choice of partner? How can you identify meaningful love in others? In what ways does love grow? Scott discusses the role of choice in love with fellow OGB interlocutors Karl Schudt and Marsha Enright. The trio digs into a chapter from José Ortega y Gasset’s book On Love.   Gasset is a prolific 20th-century Spanish philosopher who, in his writings, focuses on the subtle, almost ineffable aspects of human personality that are oftentimes overlooked. What if actions and words are not the best clues in identifying a person's authentic self but rather their gestures and facial expressions? Without giving up all the answers, Gasset urges us to think deeply about what it is we love in proportion to our range of values and source of character. Tune in to this week's episode and let us know your thoughts!  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.  

The tables have turned. Scott makes Karl read “A Scandal In Bohemia” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Understanding this short story is to understand what made young Scott tick. Sherlock Holmes is a saint of reason. The world is an explicable place- one where he can deduce who you are simply by looking at your shoes. To Holmes, humans are rational actors with incentives and motivations. So long as he can find out what their motives are, all that’s left is looking at the sense data to figure out what happened and who did it. Scott and Karl talk about this view of rationality in great length. Tune in and hear the discussion of what is, to an art, the first real detective story. 

In the second installment of the series, Scott Hambrick and Karl Schudt continue their discussion of Tolkien’s magic in The Lord of the Rings. The two talk about the problem of evil in this Homeric story, what the good life actually looks like, models of hope we see in many of the characters, the unyielding power of friendship, language’s captivating ability to transmit culture, and so much more. Not only is The Lord of the Rings a monumental work of a single intellect, but it’s also so expertly integrated with foreshadowing, world-building, new language creation, and anthropology, you’ll feel the pages fly by. Even if you’re not the sort to read fantasy literature, you ought to give LOTR a try. Karl thinks, 300 years from now, if people are still reading Great Books, LOTR will probably be on that list. Do you agree? Tune in to this week’s episode and let us know your thoughts! If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online

After years of Karl’s persistent hounding, Scott finally reads The Lord of the Rings. The two discuss elves, orcs, dwarfs, hobbits, and so much more. Disclaimer: If you haven’t yet already, do not watch The Lord of the Ring movies before reading the books. Don’t let your first Tolkien experience be from Peter Jackson. Karl will find you and scold you. The whole genre of fantasy literature, creating a world that isn’t this one and giving it a history, originates from one man— J.R.R. Tolkien. In the first episode of this two-part series, Scott and Karl begin discussing Tolkien’s ability to create a world so big it doesn’t have edges. Amidst all the magic, you’ll find themes of classism, progressive temptation, and domination of will. But you’ll also come to know what true friendship looks like, what glory feels like once you've given yourself the occasion, and ultimately how you ought to relate to the world.

If you don't believe in anything, how can you make meaningful art? Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss their first encounter with philosopher-novelist Iris Murdoch. Her essay "Against Dryness" addresses that question, along with the ideas and forces that brought that question about. Looking at art and of literature, Murdoch laments the loss of moral context, concepts and a full vocabulary for the examination of human personality. Scott and Karl agree. Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!

Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss Walker Percy's essay on how preconceived ideas about experiences cause us to overlook their essence. Why do so many people surrender their experiences of things to the way others want those people to experience them? How do we get around Percy's "symbolic complex" of a book or a place, and find a way to experience the thing in itself? Can we be sovereign in our engagement with the world? Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!

Plato's Seventh Letter has it all - history, politics, epistemology, pedagogy. And the complaints of an old man who has watched his life's work...fail? Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss the letter and the drama behind it, and then wrestle with the question of whether or not a lover of wisdom actually has the ability to "make people good." And even if the answer is no, is it still a worthwhile pursuit? Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!

In the second installment of the Moments miniseries, seminar leader Karl Schudt reflects on the capricious and tenuous nature of our current political environment. As Thucydides reminds us, extreme partisanship is nothing new: "reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal supporter... prudent hesitation specious cowardice." And where there is partisan rancor, violence and revolution is often not far behind.   If Thucydides was right, we should be worried.   OGB enrollment is open as of July 8th! Podcast listeners can use the discount code OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!

Scott says it all the time -- if you can start your own Great Books  group at home, do it! There's nothing that can truly replace the camaraderie, the deep shared intellectual experiences, and the accountability of an in-person group. Several years ago Scott started his own Great Books group in the tradition set forth my Mortimer Adler in his foundational How to Read a Book. The group is still going strong, and one of its members, Thad Hensley, joins today's show to discuss his experience with the group.   Having trouble starting your own group? Online Great Books is opening enrollment on July 8th, 2019. Podcast listeners can save 25% off enrollment by using the discount OGBPODCAST at Online Great Books!

This week we're trying something new at Online Great Books: a new series of short episodes reflecting on one aspect of the Great Books. We're calling them Moments. We'll hear personal reflections from the seminar staff and from members.   One core tenet of Online Great Books is that seminar staff do NOT teach during seminars. They serve to moderate and guide discussion about the books, posing questions and digging into the participants arguments to help them better understand what they believe, and why they believe it. So the Moments are a way to hear some of the seminar leaders' own thoughts about the books we read. We'll hear from some of our members too.   This week Karl Schudt reflects on Medea and the uncomfortable -- even terrifying -- rationality of her decisions.     Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!  

Scott Hambrick and Karl Schudt discuss Friedrich Nietzsche's book The Joyful Wisdom, Book 3, which contains his infamous proclamation "God is dead." Nietzsche is perhaps best known for his writings about nihilism, the rejection of God and moral principles, or of any notion of meaning in life. From the nihilist's perspective, nothing in the world is real; it's merely a representation of the real, a concept that hearkens back to Plato's Allegory of the Cave.     Despite his systematic dismantling of God, religion, and the traditional moral codes of the West, Nietzsche was not an advocate for nihilism but rather viewed it as modern man's essential challenge: to overcome the sense of despair and meaninglessness.   Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!

Scott Hambrick and Online Great Books member Miles Marco Bennett -- in fact the very first member to join OGB -- discuss Michel de Montaigne's insightful, tongue-in-cheek, and occasionally droll essay Of Cannibals. Montaigne's essay, which appears in a larger collected work of his essays written in the 16th century, describes the author's experience with the native Tupi peoples of Brazil, a vibrant warrior culture that practiced ceremonial cannibalism of their enemies.   Montaigne draws comparisons between these strong, swarthy people and the barbarians of medieval Europe, praising their "natural" way of life and value system which prized strength and valor. He also notes how their loose governance -- led by people with the most strength and force of ams -- emerged naturally from their values and habits, as opposed to the contrived government and value systems proposed in Plato's Republic.   In this way Montaigne rebuts traditional Western philosophy and impugns its figureheads, showing disdain for philosophe

Scott talks to Joe McCormack, author of Brief: Make Bigger Impact by Saying Less, about the importance of brevity in communication. Joe is an author, speaker, and consultant who has worked with executives, military personnel, and many others to hone their ability to communicate efficiently in critical situations.   With attention spans shrinking and ever-growing demand for that limited resource, communicating briefly is an essential skill for the modern human being. For some, communicating with brevity is a matter of life or death. For others, it may make the difference in nailing an interview, or securing an important contract with a client. Whatever your reason for communication, brevity should be your chief aim.   You can find Joe at The BRIEF Lab, where he offers online classes, bootcamps, and other resources to improve your communication skills. He also hosts a podcast called Just Saying where he reflects on various aspects of communication in short 10-15min episodes.

Psychiatrist Dr. David Puder joins the podcast to discuss Sigmund Freud's 1917 paper Melancholia and Mourning.   You can find Dr. Puder on Instagram @dr.davidpuder and you can subscribe and listen to his podcast at https://psychiatrypodcast.com.    Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.

Online Great Books founder Scott Hambrick and seminar leader Emmet Penney tackle the first scientific work on the podcast, Euclid's Elements. The Elements are a collection of treatises, postulates, and propositions that ultimately drive toward important mathematical concepts such as the Pythagorean theorem and the theory of numbers, i.e. integers, divisibility, prime numbers.   Everyone who has attended American public school has heard of these concepts, and their mention likely dredges up memories of endless, boring, rote work about triangles and algebra. Indeed school teaches the formulas, but it does not teach Euclid, who compiled numerous propositions form earlier mathematicians and weaved them into a thoughtful, cogently argued work about the nature of geometry and mathematics. Studying Euclid prompts the question: are these concepts discovered or invented? Does mathematics represent a fundamental truth of the universe, or does it merely describe the truth?   And that's why we study Euclid and other form

Scott and Producer Trent wrap up their discussion of Shakespeare's Hamlet, close-reading Hamlet's soliloquies and dissecting the structure of Shakespeare's verse. They reflect on Shakespeare's impact on modern literature, the curiously secular perspective of the play in a highly religious time period, and whether Shakespeare sought to moralize or draw conclusions (spoiler: we don't think he does).   You can't read Hamlet and not talk about the most famous of his soliloquies, the "To Be or Not to Be?" speech at the heart of the play, both literally and figuratively. A surface level reading suggests that Hamlet is contemplating suicide at this moment of the play, having come to no certain conclusions about the best way to resolve his dilemma -- his father murdered, his mother's loyalty in doubt, and many of his friends suspect. It's an understandable position, but perhaps Hamlet is also touching on something deeper, a question of existence; whether humans would be better off having never existed, rather than fa

Producer Trent returns to the podcast to discuss the first modern piece of literature to appear on the podcast: Shakespeare's Hamlet. A dark, introspective, sprawling drama, Hamlet is arguably Shakespeare's masterpiece, and certainly one of the best of the twelve tragedies he penned. Scott and Trent discuss how Hamlet remains vital and relevant even in contemporary culture, and how Shakespeare's incisive wit and rhetorical devices permeate the English language.   Despite his dense, layered verse and immense vocabulary -- scholars estimate Shakespeare used over 25,000 words -- Shakespeare wrote for a wide variety of people, commoners and kings alike, and found a way to weave language and story into plays that are accessible regardless of one's education or background. Many readers encountering Shakespeare for the first time are intimidated by the complexity of the language. However, as Trent argues, Shakespeare's plays are first and foremost meant to be seen, and good actors bring life and context to the langu

Brett Venoitte of the School Sucks Project returns for Part 2 of our interview discussing the problems with college admissions and the persistent myth that college is a sure path to financial success and career fulfillment. In the second half of the interview, Scott and Brett argue that the value of the college is on the decline, and that young people should pursue marketable skills rather than diplomas (or at least, in addition to diplomas).   Follow Brett Venoitte at the School Sucks Project and make sure to subscribe to his School Sucks Podcast while you're there!   Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.

Scott Hambrick interviews podcaster, author, former test prep educator, and education contrarian Brett Veinoitte about the rapidly changing role of school and, particularly, secondary school. As the recent scandal involving celebrities paying bribes to obtain university admissions for their children has revealed, college has become so ingrained as a symbol of status and opportunity that an entire industry has sprung up to facilitate the admission of subpar students. Meanwhile, the costs of college steadily rise, in both dollars and time.   Brett offers a history of schooling, tracing the modern public school system we are familiar with back to the Prussian educational reforms in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Prussian system groomed common-born children for military service by establishing free, taxpayer-supported schools with a basic curriculum of technical skills needed in a modernizing world (such as reading and writing). The curriculum attempted to impose a strong sense of national identity and a s