Classical Stuff You Should Know

Philosophers always say that the best life is the life of a philosopher, the life of contemplation. I have always disagreed. Listen to Graeme change my mind (this is A.J., by the way).

In this episode, we discuss a psychological reading of Beowulf, and why it fails to approach the text honestly. Weirdly, we all agree. The whole crew. It's strange.

The Poetic Edda are the primary source for most of our information on Norse Mythology. They also happen to be the most heavy-metal myths you've ever heard. Half-corpse god of Hell named "Hel"? Yes, please.

Antonio Gramsci was a Marxist, and we see some of his theories finding purchase today. Don't worry, we don't really get political, but we do discuss the ideas themselves.

In book X of Plato's Republic, he rails on imitative poetry some more, argues for the immortality of the soul, and tells a creepy story about a guy named "Er."

In the old'n days, an artist was like a parasite, but a friendly one. You know, like those birds who clean the teeth of alligators. In this episode we discuss the relationship between patron and artist.

We're almost there, guys, and this is the penultimate chapter of Plato's republic. This one is all about tyranny. A tyranny named Tyrone.

As a follow up to book IX of the republic, Graeme leads us on a thought journey to the medieval land of government. So strap on your cassock and let's get weird.

We've done Dante's Inferno before, so Thomas introduces us to his Purgatorio in this episode. Doesn't "Purgatorio" sound like the Italian version of famous horror movie "The Purge"? It isn't, though.

In book eight of Plato's Republic, Socrates discusses the degradation of an Aristocracy into more mediocre forms of government. Spoiler, democracy is not near the top.