Classical Wisdom Speaks

The Myth of Atlantis has captured the imagination since ancient times... when even then people questioned whether it was true or not. Renowned British philosopher and academic, Angie Hobbs delves into the validity of Plato's myth... and what it means for us today. More about Angie: Angie Hobbs is Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield.  She contributes regularly to radio and TV programmes and other media, including 24  appearances on BBC’s In Our Time on Radio 4.  She has spoken at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Houses of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and Westminster Abbey and been the guest on Desert Island Discs, Private Passions and Test Match Special.  She was a judge of the Man Booker International Prize 2019 and was on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council 2018-9 for Values, Ethics and Innovation. Her most recent publication for the general public is Plato’s Republic: a Ladybird Expert Book...which you can purchase here: https://www.amazon.com/Platos-Republic-Ladybird-Expert/dp/0718188527You can learn more about Classical Wisdom and Classical Wisdom Speaks here: https://classicalwisdom.com/Get your FREE Guide: How to Be Happy: An Ethical Guide to ancient Philosophy here: https://classicalwisdom.com/how-to-be-happy/

Sarcophagus comes from Greek, with "sarco" meaning flesh and "phagus" meaning eater... but what can a flesh eating box tell us about the ancient Romans? Dr. Ferst drove a hundred thousand miles across four continents in over fourteen expeditions in search of the remaining 2000 stone Sarcophagi scattered across the globe. Barry Ferst is Professor of Ancient Philosophy, Islam: Philosophy and Culture, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Art and Beauty, Carrol College. He  discusses his book, “Stone Sarcophagi of the Roman Empire” and the amazing journeys he embarked on to create it. You can purchase Barry’s book, Stone Sarcophagi of the Roman Empire Here:https://www.amazon.com/Stone-Sarcophagi-Roman-Empire-Barry/dp/1984544969You can learn more about Classical Wisdom and Classical Wisdom Speaks here: https://classicalwisdom.com/Get your FREE Guide: How to Be Happy: An Ethical Guide to ancient Philosophy here: https://classicalwisdom.com/how-to-be-happy/

Why doesn't Homer mention Thebes? It was a powerful city-state, at one point the most powerful in the Mediterranean... and yet it's conspicuously not prevalent in the great epics. Perhaps its absence speaks volumes... This Classical Wisdom Speaks episode is with Elton Barker and Joel Christensen, joint authors of both Homer’s Thebes: Epic Rivalries and the Appropriation of Mythical Pasts as well as Homer: A Beginner's Guide. Elton Barker is Professor of Greek Literature and Culture at the School of Arts & Cultures at the Open University, in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. He is also the General Secretary at Pelagios Network and Author of “Entering the Agon: Dissent and Authority in Homer, Historiography, and Tragedy”. Joel Christensen is Professor and Chair at the Department of Classical Studies in Brandeis University. In addition to his and Elton’s joint books, he is Author of The Many-Minded Man: The "Odyssey," Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic (Myth and Poetics II)We’ll discuss women in Archaic Greece, the possibility of a Theban Epic and whether or not Homer stole... or sampled from other traditions. You can purchase Elton and Joel’s, book, Homer’s Thebes: Epic Rivalries and the Appropriation of Mythical Pasts here: https://chs.harvard.edu/book/barker-elton-and-joel-christensen-homers-thebes/ You can learn more about Classical Wisdom and Classical Wisdom Speaks here: https://classicalwisdom.com/Get your FREE Guide: How to Be Happy: An Ethical Guide to ancient Philosophy here: https://classicalwisdom.com/how-to-be-happy/

It was said her poetry will be sung as long as there are boats on the nile... There are still boats on the nile (last I checked) and yet almost no one know her works...So who exactly was Sappho? Why was she so controversial and what happened to her prolific body of work? Discover the remarkable life, work and loss of the 7th century BC poetess who was considered equal to Homer in this week's Classical Wisdom Speaks episode. You can help inspire the love of history, poetry and archeology in the next generation with Classical Wisdom's newest children's book - Sappho: The Lost Poetess. Purchase it on Amazon here: http://tick.news/i2 You can learn more about Classical Wisdom and Classical Wisdom Speaks here: https://classicalwisdom.com/Get your FREE Guide: How to Be Happy: An Ethical Guide to ancient Philosophy here: http://classicalwisdom.com/how-to-be-happy/

Skepticism has woven its way throughout the entire history of philosophy... and yet as a formal school of thought it was (and still is) fairly niche and unknown. Why is that? What does Skepticism REALLY entail? And what can we learn from the remaining Skeptic works (of which there are so few) that can help us bridge our political divides? Richard Bett, Professor of Philosophy and Classics at Johns Hopkins University and author of How to Keep an Open Mind: An Ancient Guide to Thinking Like a Skeptic discusses the pros and cons of  Sextus’ Empiricus, the only Greek Skeptic whose work has survived.We'll delve into how exactly can ancient skepticism help you attain tranquility by learning to suspend judgment.... You can find Professor's Bett's book, How to Keep an Open Mind: An Ancient Guide to Thinking Like a Skeptic, Here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206042/how-to-keep-an-open-mind You can learn more about Classical Wisdom and Classical Wisdom Speaks here: https://classicalwisdom.com/Get your FREE Guide: How to Be Happy: An Ethical Guide to ancient Philosophy here: http://classicalwisdom.com/how-to-be-happy/ 

It's not the most intuitive comparison: Alexander the Great and Hernán Cortés... but what does the Macedonian Conquerer and the Spanish Conquistador have in common? We look at their commanding abilities, motivations as well as some of the larger questions that emerge from comparing the conquests of the Persian and Aztec Empires....Featuring Justin D. Lyons, Associate Professor of Political Science, Cedarville University in Ohio and author of the book: Alexander the Great and Hernán Cortés: Ambiguous Legacies of Leadership and Anya Leonard of Classical Wisdom. You can purchase Justin's book, Alexander the Great and Hernán Cortés: Ambiguous Legacies of Leadership, Here. You can learn more about Classical Wisdom and Classical Wisdom Speaks at: https://classicalwisdom.com/You can also get a FREE E-book on "Money, Gold and the End of an Empire" Here: https://classicalwisdom.com/free-e-book-money-gold-endofanempire/

Is Sparta under attack? Or is it time for a new look at the ancient power? Myke Cole, author of “The Bronze Lie: Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy” counts up Sparta’s wins and losses and asks: What if, in fact, the Spartans weren’t such great warriors? And what does that mean for us today?We discuss if this is true, the implications of this research and just as importantly... How should we really remember Sparta? Myke Cole is an American author of history, fantasy, and science fiction. His emergency response career spans service in the US military, intelligence, law enforcement services as well as firefighting. He starred on CBS’ investigative TV show Hunted, and Discovery Channel’s Contact. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Slate, The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, and The New Republic. To purchase Myke's new book,  “The Bronze Lie: Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy”, click here: https://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Lie-Shattering-Spartan-Supremacy/dp/1472843754For more information about Classical Wisdom's Podcast Classical Wisdom Speaks, please check out our website at: http://classicalwisdom.com​​​Get our recent Magazine - dedicated to Ancient Music - with our Classical Wisdom Litterae Magazine subscription Here: https://classicalwisdom.com/product/classical-wisdom-litterae-magazine-subscription/

Why did a system of over 1,500 autonomous city-states that had resisted a massive invasion in 480 BC, lose their independent statuses to Macedon 150 years later when they were far richer and more powerful? Victor Davis Hanson, Professor Emeritus of classics at California State University and Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, delves into the fall of ancient Greece's city-states. This discussion took place LIVE on Saturday, August 21st as part of Classical Wisdom's Symposium 2021: The End of Empires and the Fall of Nations. If you would like to watch all the recordings please go to: https://courses.classicalwisdom.com/product/symposium-2021-the-end-of-empires/or email us at info@classicalwisdom.com.About our speaker:Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and chair of the Military History Working Group; Victor is a scholar of ancient and modern warfare and the author of many books. He is a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno, and the annual Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Visiting Fellow in History at Hillsdale College since 2004. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush, and was a recipient of the Bradley Prize in 2008. Victor Davis Hanson's newest book, "The Dying Citizen" was just released on October 5th: https://www.amazon.com/Dying-Citizen-Progressive-Globalization-Destroying/dp/154164753XAbout our Moderators: Alexandra Hudson is an author and founder of Civic Renaissance - an intellectual community dedicated to beauty, goodness and truth and reviving the wisdom of the past. She's working on her first book on civil discourse for St Martin's Press. Alexandra O. Hudsonwww.civic-renaissance.comwww.alexandraohudson.com Anya Leonard is the founder and director of Classical Wisdom, a site dedicated to bringing Ancient Wisdom to Modern minds. Her children's book, "The Lost Poetess" will be released later this month. https://classicalwisdom.com/https://classicalwisdom.com/product/sappho-the-lost-poetess/

Celebrated historians Niall Ferguson, James Hankins of Harvard University and renowned philosopher Angie Hobbs delve into the end of empires: How they meet their demise and what that means to us in the here and now. Hosted by Jack Visnjic of Ancient Greece Declassified Podcast, this conversation covers Ancient, Renaissance and the more modern state of states.   This discussion took place LIVE on Saturday, August 21st as part of Classical Wisdom's Symposium 2021: The End of Empires and the Fall of Nations. If you would like to watch all the recordings please go to: http://classicalwisdom.com/symposium or email us at info@classicalwisdom.com. About our Panelists: Niall Ferguson, MA, DPhil, FRSE, is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. He is also a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is the author of sixteen books, including The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild, Empire, Civilization and Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, which won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Prize.He is an award-making filmmaker, too, having won an international Emmy for his PBS series The Ascent of Money. In 2020 he joined Bloomberg Opinion as a columnist. In addition, he is the founder and managing director of Greenmantle LLC, a New York-based advisory firm, a co-founding board member of Ualá, a Latin American financial technology company, and a trustee of the New York Historical Society and the London-based Centre for Policy Studies. His most recent book, The Square and the Tower, was published in the U.S. in 2018, and was a New York Times bestseller. A three-part television adaptation, Niall Ferguson’s Networld, aired on PBS in March 2020. His most recent book, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, has just been published by Penguin.Angie Hobbs gained a degree in Classics and a PhD in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. After a Research Fellowship at Christ’s College, Cambridge, she moved to the Philosophy Department at the University of Warwick; in 2012 she was appointed Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, a position created for her. Her chief interests are in ancient philosophy and literature, and ethics and political theory from classical thought to the present, and she has published widely in these areas, including Plato and the Hero (C.U.P). Her most recent publication for the general public is Plato’s Republic: a Ladybird Expert Book. She contributes regularly to radio and TV programmes and other media, including 22 appearances on In Our Time on Radio 4. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Houses of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and Westminster Abbey and been the guest on Desert Island Discs, Private Passions and Test Match Special.She was a judge of the Man Booker International Prize 2019 and was on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council 2018-9 for Values, Ethics and Innovation.Dr. James Hankins, professor of History at Harvard University and an intellectual historian specializing in the Italian Renaissance. He is the general editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library, which publishes bilingual editions of important Latin works of the Renaissance as well as author of many books, including, Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft.

What control do we have over the End of Empires? And how can we prepare for their inevitable fall? Professors A.A. Long and William B Irvine and cognitive behavior therapist, Donald Robertson discuss the role we as individuals can play during the decay of empires...and how we can mentally fortify ourselves for inevitable changes.  This discussion took place LIVE on Sunday, August 22nd as part of Classical Wisdom's Symposium 2021: The End of Empires and the Fall of Nations. If you would like to watch all the recordings please go to: http://classicalwisdom.com/symposium or email us at info@classicalwisdom.com About our Panelists: Donald Robertson is a writer, trainer, psychotherapist, and an expert on the relationship between modern cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and classical Greek and Roman philosophy. He is also the founder of Modern Stoicism and the author of ‘How to Think Like a Roman Emperor’.William B. Irvine is professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, USA.  He is the author of eight books that have been translated into more than twenty languages.  Among them are A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (Oxford University Press, 2008) and most recently, The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient (W.W. Norton, 2018).  He is currently at work on a book about thinking critically, but with an open mind, in the age of the internet.Anthony Arthur Long is a British and naturalised American classical scholar and Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Classics and Irving Stone Professor of Literature Emeritus, and Affiliated Professor of Philosophy and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many books, including Greek Models of Mind and Self, How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life, as well as most recently, Seneca: Fifty Letters of a Roman Stoic.