Continuing the Conversation

What are the limitations and possibilities of perception—and what do ancient mathematics and modern literature have to say about this question?

This episode searches for insights into the nature of family, the tension between the safety and anxiety that family creates, and the rich and multiple ways that different artists, works, cultures, and mediums express these insights.

Can an ideal human community ever be achieved? A conversation on Plato’s Republic, Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk, and the conflict between the ideals that America was founded upon and the lived reality of life.

Does a contemplative life bring us closer to the divine, as Aristotle believed? Is it the highest form of human life or is it self-centered and lived at the expense of others? Can one lead a contemplative life while living in the real world?

What is it to write? What roles do ceremony, beauty, and material play in the act of writing? Not only is the Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon an early classic of Japanese literature, written in the 10th century, it is also the world’s first sustained portrayal of an individual self as she lives, thinks, and feels from day to day.

Liberal education is education for freedom. What kind of freedom does it or should it cultivate? A probing conversation into the nature of freedom, the ways in which individuals and communities can cultivate it, and the need for self-discipline in tempering our freedoms.

This episode, rich in metaphor and poetry, connects gastronomy, language, thought, and community to a theme to which all humans can relate: wanting to know and be at home in the world.

Sophrosyne is the ancient Greek word for moderation, one of the four classical virtues. But what does Socrates’ definition of moderation really mean and how is it connected to another virtue: courage?

Is a book dead or alive? Can one be friends with a book, or with the author behind the book? This episode explores the very personal relationships that humans have with books, and the complex questions they bring up in all of us.

How did the Civil War bring about a new birth of freedom? What about the lynchings, segregation, and deep economic inequalities that followed? Did Lincoln foresee the nation would need multiple new births to maintain its ideals and opportunities for all citizens? How has—and hasn’t—the nation realized Lincoln's vision at Gettysburg?

Is it important to feel when we read literature? Or when we learn math and science? On a related front, what is the role of order and disruption in literature, in life, and in our observation of the universe?

Why do writers travel? Why do some authors write their most influential works in foreign countries? Does the unknown bring new insights and transformation, or do new lands provide nothing more than romantic myths for the imagination?

In this episode, a conversation on St John's College' unique approach to scientific and mathematical study. Authors touched upon include Galileo, Leibniz, Maxwell, Thompson, Schrödinger, Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, Faraday, and Descartes.

Through the writings of the 13th-century Japanese author Dogen and the 16th-century French author Montaigne—explore how physical presence and pain can take us out of our minds and into a practice that prepares us for the vicissitudes of life and the certainty of death through an integration of mind, body, and soul.

In this episode, we discuss the complexities of translation, including the role of interpretation and emotion, as humans attempt to understand and communicate ideas across linguistic boundaries through literary translation and dialogue with each other.

What is the relationship between sports and war? And what is seminar's relationship to both? From conversational cooperation to sportsmanlike competition to brutal war, this episode takes us on a journey through the best and worst of human nature.

This episode discusses the importance of learning to hear and understand the language of those who are unlike us, of supporting quieter and less represented voices in conversation, and building true community through the committed practice of listening.

Can killing and dying in war be beautiful? Is a just cause required for glory to be gained? Is war a courageous way of fulfilling human nature and, ultimately, of embracing the reality that death awaits us all?

Today, our world is defined by consumerism, self-expression, and a gnawing lack of meaning. Can the contemplative life of the mind play a central role in addressing this void? What about the role of its supposed counterparts—doing, making, and simply being?

This episode takes us through a close reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94, which many consider to be his most enigmatic.