Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)

Cynthia L. Haven is a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar and author of Czesław Miłosz: A California Life, from Berkeley’s Heyday Books and 2018’s Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard, the first-ever biography of the renowned French theorist. She has also published two previous books on Czesław Miłosz: An Invisible Rope: […]

Dr. Miles Osgood received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Harvard University, and he is currently a Lecturer in the Structured Liberal Education program at Stanford. He has designed and taught classes on Ulysses, modernist women writers, and global short fiction. In this episode, Dr. Osgood and Robert Harrison discuss the 1927 novel by Virginia […]

Dr. Chloe Summers Edmondson is a Lecturer in the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education program at Stanford. She received her PhD from Stanford in the French & Italian Department in 2020, and MA in Communication in 2014. Her research is situated at the crossroads of literary criticism, cultural history, and media studies, with a focus […]

Sophus Helle is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin. He previously translated “The Epic of Gilgamesh” into Danish with his father. His English translation of the epic was recently published by Yale University Press.  Songs in this episode: “Helen” by Glass Wave  “Gilgamesh Blues” by Glass Wave

Markus Gabriel holds the chair in epistemology, modern, and contemporary philosophy at the University of Bonn, Germany, and also serves as the Director of its International Center for Philosophy. He works mainly in epistemology and metaphysics (ontology) drawing his inspirations from the history of philosophy (in particular, 19th century Post-Kantian philosophy, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein). He […]

This episode is a brief monologue by our host, Professor Robert Harrison.  Songs in this episode: “Voodoo Child” by Jimi Hendrix “Present Tense” by Radiohead

Scott Thomas Anderson is a journalist whose work regularly appears in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento News & Review. He studied American Literature at the University of California at Davis, and while the bulk of his 15-year career has been primarily as a crime reporter, he’s recently started to balance that focus by […]

Joseph Cermatori is assistant professor of English at Skidmore College. He specializes in the fields of comparative literature, modern and contemporary drama, performance studies, and critical theory. Beyond his research in twentieth-century modernism, his scholarship encompasses the broad history of art and ideas in Western culture from 1600 to the present, focusing on the philosophical […]

Alex Rex Nielson is a Scottish musician and songwriter.  He is the founding member of the UK band Trembling Bells, which recorded six albums before Alex went on to make four solo albums under the band name Alex Rex. Songs played in this episode: “Directing Hand- for PB”— drum solo by Alex Rex “Master” by Alex […]

A conversation with Thomas Woltz about landscape architecture. Thomas Woltz is the owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Over the past two decades of practice Thomas and his team have infused narratives of the land into the places where people live, work, and play, engendering stewardship and inspiring connections between people and the natural […]