The World Is Too Much With Us Getting and Spending

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I think most of us are too weak. I include myself in this to completely say I'm just going to know about. And also like, you know, there's real value in these things. We spend an average of seven, 17 hours on your phone this week. That's 20% more than last week or the reverse and you feel good about yourself or worse about yourself. It's quite fascinating that we struggle to lead the lives we want to lead.

Tolkien read it as a tale about mortality. The poet David Whyte said it was a metaphor for the psychological demons deep in our minds. And that, insists the cartoonist and writer Zach Weinersmith, is precisely Beowulf's appeal: Its richness opens the door to endless interpretation. Listen as the author of Bea Wolf, a graphic novel for children based on the Old English poem, speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about poetry in general, Beowulf in particular, whether we should require students to memorize poems, and the value of stories for children even without a moral lesson.