Episoder

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

    *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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    I Maked This: "If--," Then (And Now) https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/p/if-then-and-now

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  • 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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  • Manglende episoder?

    Klik her for at forny feed.

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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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  • 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.

    Watch my interview on the Ben Shapiro Sunday Special: https://youtu.be/5qjDUhzJqgc?si=T8JBpdXzc1dlfCzy

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  • "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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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.

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

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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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    I maked this: Gateway to the Epicureans: https://a.co/d/8x07OA9

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  • 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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  • 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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    Watch Martin West snatch Gregory Nagy's wig: https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2001/2001.09.06/

  • 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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  • 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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    I maked this: Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/0fUMLN9f

    Gateway to the Epicureans: https://a.co/d/03RaCAP5

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  • 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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