C.S. Lewis labeled himself a Christian Romantic, but what is Romanticism? And how did it influence not just Lewis, but all of the Wade authors? This week Drs. Crystal and David Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss Romanticism as a literary and cultural movement and to explore these questions. This week's episode features so many great references to amazing paintings, poems, books, and Romantic figures that we've created a list for you. Click on the link below to explore all the works mentioned in this week's episode. - https://tinyurl.com/y9wvk6wu

Andrew Peterson adorns the dark of our fallen world with the light of Christ through his award-winning music and novels. Drs. Crystal and David Downing sit down with Andrew this week to discuss his recently released book Adorning the Dark, conversing about homemade maple syrup along with what he has learned about the creative process from Wade Center authors such as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy L. Sayers, George MacDonald, and G.K. Chesterton.

You may know him as the poet whose work inspired the Broadway musical, and now infamous movie, Cats. T.S. Eliot, though, is widely recognized as one of (if not the) best poets of the twentieth century for his Modernist classics such as "The Waste Land" (1922) and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915). Drs. Crystal and David Downing sit down to discuss T.S. Eliot's involvement in the Modernist movement and specifically how Wade authors like C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton reacted against Modernism and against Eliot.

The genius of J.R.R. Tolkien is both inspiring and intimidating. How do you write, let alone revise, an epic fantasy like The Lord of the Rings? Drs. David & Crystal Downing sit down in this week's episode to explore various ways that Tolkien revised and rewrote The Lord of the Rings, and what aspiring writers can learn from his early drafts. You definitely won't want to miss the many rejected character names.

How do you share your faith in an increasingly post-Christian world? This week Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with leaders from C.S. Lewis Institute to discuss the challenges of defending the faith and making disciples in today’s intellectual climate. President Joel S. Woodruff and Karl “KJ” Johnson, Director of the C.S. Lewis Institute in Chicago, explain the genesis of their organization and how it seeks to live out the legacy of C.S. Lewis.

Over the last week, people have been turning to our authors, especially Lewis, for wisdom about how to live in this new coronavirus age. We felt like it was important to slow things down this week and ask, "what would our authors say in a situation like this?" Many of them, like Lewis, Tolkien, and Sayers, lived through two world wars and the Spanish Flu. Join Crystal and David as they sit down with our close friend Jerry Root to discuss how the Wade authors might respond to this global crisis.

How can we possibly see the story of Jesus with fresh eyes this Lenten season? In this week's episode Dr. Crystal Downing sits down to discuss Dorothy L. Sayers's play-cycle on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, The Man Born to Be King. Dr. Christine Colón (English Professor, Wheaton College) and Marjorie Mead (Associate Director, Marion E. Wade Center) unpack how Sayers used her skills as a playwright to help an entire generation of Britons rediscover this ancient yet still relevant story.

When is a dragon more than a dragon? In this week's episode Dr. David C. Downing (Co-Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and co-host of our podcast) sits down with Crystal and Producer Aaron Hill to discuss his inaugural lecture which compared the imaginary worlds created by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in their respective novels. Does the way that Lewis and Tolkien use dragons reveal something more fundamental about the way they approached world-building and the realm of imagination?

The Czech Republic is one of the most atheistic countries in Europe, if not in the world. Despite this, many Czech people enjoy the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Dr. Pavel Hošek (Charles University in Prague) to discuss the impact of these two British Christian authors on the Czech people as well as his own spiritual journey.

How do you adapt a literary work like The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien? Many fans of Tolkien's novels also love the movies which were directed and produced by Peter Jackson. Yet, as we discussed last week, movies and books are two entirely different mediums. Not everything on the page can make it into the movie. This week our two in-house Tolkien experts—Wade Archivist Laura Schmidt and Wade Co-director David C. Downing—join Crystal to discuss the challenges that Peter Jackson faced in adapting Tolkien's beloved novels for the screen.