Young Heretics

What does it mean to be a man in a fallen world and a degraded age? Crime novelist and professional person-I-have-never-heard-of Andrew Klavan joins the show to discuss his brilliant new novel The House of Love and Death. We discuss Klavan The Elder's literary inspirations, thoughts on chivalry, and experience writing a recurring character almost against his will. Plus: why university administrators are so annoying. Read Andrew Klavan's Cameron Winter novels Listen to The Andrew Klavan Show Sign up to my mailing list to ask mailbag questions and recommend new guests.

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” So wrote Oscar Wilde in his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, defending himself against charges of corruption in his art. But was he right? His own art, no less than his own sad and morally compromised private life, suggest otherwise. Spencer discusses the history of “art for art’s sake” and the impossibility of excepting art from moral judgment, in Wilde’s day as well as our own. Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/ Pick up my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

Digital alienation, material politics, and the re-enchantment of the world: this week, reactionary feminist Mary Harrington joins Spencer to discuss the disorenting transformations wrought upon human societies and psyches by the advent of digital technology. The discussion ranges from Mary's realization that woke politics was destroying her life, to the war between the sexes, to the return of something that looks a lot like Medieval conditions--complete with angels and demons haunting the air. Get Mary's book, Feminism Against Progress: https://a.co/d/4WLROtO Read Mary's writing at UnHerd: https://unherd.com/author/mary-harrington/ Subscribe to Mary's Substack: https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/

Explore the haunted history of the enchanted world, including the Aes Sidhe and Halloween. Discuss the cultural transformations of holidays and preference for psychological terror. Dive into ancient festivals in Ireland and their connection to changing seasons. Examine the interconnectedness of science and subjectivity, exploring human souls and pagan mythology. Delve into gods and angels in the Bible, their worship, and taming the old gods. Explore purgatory, neo-paganism, and responding to spiritual forces.

Teresa Mull, assistant editor of The Spectator World, shares practical advice on navigating the woke revolution. Topics include small town living, distractions of social media, taking control of your child's education, avoiding woke companies, and the power of prayer and virtues.

Divine love: the most natural, and the least natural, thing in the universe. In this conclusion to his series on virtues, Spencer walks through the history of Christian love from its earliest origins in the church to its extremes in the most exalted realms of human life. We have arrived at last at the virtue that suffuses all others and defines their objective. It's been quite the journey. Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/ Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

What is going on with men? For that matter, what is going on with women? The war between the sexes has entered a new phase, as whatever wave of feminism we're currently surfing produces its own backlash. Helen Roy--mother, writer, and podcaster--joins Spencer to discuss how men and women alike can get past the narrative mill and come together again. Listen to Helen's podcast, Girlboss, Interrupted: https://girlbossinterrupted.podbean.com/ Read Helen's Substack, Ladies' Late Rome Journal: https://helenroy.substack.com/

It's been years since the days when we Young Heretics discussed Plato's Symposium. But now we've come back around a second time to that fundamental question: what is love? (Baby, don't hurt me.) This time, Spencer takes a thousand-year look at the question from the Hebrew angle while--GASP--actually saying something less than favorable about C.S. Lewis. As the series on virtue draws toward its close, it's time to discuss the most important one of all, and the hardest one to define. What, I ask again, is love? Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/ Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

A revival in classical education is sweeping the nation. But where are we going to get good classical educators? In this interview, Josh Herring of Thales College discusses how he and his colleagues are equipping teachers to rise to that noble calling. From the humanities to the natural sciences, we need leaders who can do more than just pass on information. Josh and Spencer discusses who will shape the souls of the soul-shapers themselves, and how. Check out Thales College's degree in Classical education: https://www.thalescollege.org/academics/classical-education Listen to the Optimistic Curmudgeon podcast: https://optimisticcurmudgeon2021.podbean.com/ Read Josh's writing: https://theimaginativeconservative.org/author/josh-herring

If faith is the substance of things hoped for, what is hope? Reaching back into Jewish history and the Hebrew Bible, Spencer explains the gritty determination that saves us from despair in the valley of the shadow of death. As war rages in modern Israel after a savage terrorist attack by Hamas, it becomes as urgent as it's ever been to know where hope can reside securely in a darkened world. Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/ Check out my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh My essay on Cyrus the Great: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/one-king-to-rule-them-all/