Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)

Entitled Opinions is on hiatus

On the 200th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, Robert Harrison and Professor Andrea Nightingale engage in a lively conversation about Walden. This year our nation celebrates the bicentennial of Henry David Thoreau. But few of the commemorations have considered Thoreau as a philosopher, focusing instead on Thoreau as a champion of civil disobedience and the […]

A conversation with William Hurlbut on the ethical implications of CRISPR-Cas9 and human intervention in the genetic makeup of life. William B. Hurlbut, MD, is Adjunct Professor of Neurobiology at the Stanford Medical School. After receiving his undergraduate and medical training at Stanford University, he completed postdoctoral studies in theology and medical ethics, studying with […]

Eric McLuhan, an internationally recognized lecturer and media expert, shares insights about his father, Marshall McLuhan's profound theories on communication. He explores how modern media reshapes perception and societal interactions, emphasizing the shift from traditional connections to digital sensory experiences. The discussion delves into 'the medium is the message' concept, examining its relevance today. Eric also highlights their collaborative efforts in defining media laws and how mass media influences public consciousness and individual identity.

Jay Kadis was born in Oakland, California. He has played guitar since high school, initially with Misanthropes, a popular bay area band of the late 1960s, whose highlights included playing the Fillmore Auditorium and opening for Muddy Waters. Jay has written and performed original rock music with several bands, including Urban Renewal and Offbeats. He […]

Dr. Michaela Hulstyn is a lecturer in the Structured Liberal Education program at Stanford University. She earned her PhD from Stanford in 2016 in French, where she taught both language and literature. She has been published in Modern Language Notes and Women in French Studies, among other places. Her research interests center on 20th and […]

Sam Ginn is a second year undergraduate student at Stanford University. He is a computer science major interested in human consciousness and whether human consciousness is artificially replicable. Sam is also a participant in the philosophical reading group at Stanford and he is a devotee of Martin Heidegger's thought. In this show Sam discusses the […]

Who is Donald Trump, and what does he stand for? Do we know? Does he himself know? Or is he caught in that precarious state of disorientation that characterizes our current political predicament?   The public discourse is heated, the language inflammatory. Philosopher Hans Sluga of the University of California, Berkeley, brings a cool head […]

Peter Sloterdijk is one of the most controversial thinkers in the world. In many ways, he is the heir of Friedrich Nietzsche, who is sometimes said to have inaugurated the 20th century. On Entitled Opinions, host Robert Harrison opens his discussion with Sloterdijk with the sound of an explosion, and Nietzsche’s words, “I am not […]

“Mary Shelley is a dissenting voice”: Inga Pierson on Frankenstein and the Age of Science January 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, and the occasion has been commemorated with celebrations, conferences, retrospectives, editorials, and more. Clearly, the book belongs to the twenty-first century, as much as it […]