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The Wager: Shipwreck, Mutiny and the Art of Writing History
How do you make a history book read like a novel—and where should you draw the line?This week on History Book Buffs, Antonia Senior and Roger Moorhouse discuss David Grann’s The Wager, an extraordinary story of shipwreck, survival and mutiny. Both loved the book, but what makes its storytelling so powerful?When HMS Wager is wrecked off the coast of South America, naval discipline gives way to competing loyalties and a desperate struggle to survive.
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Shyness and Dignity’ by Dag Solstad
What happens when the techniques of realist literature become absorbed into our understanding of real life? And what would it mean to try to depict that experience in fiction? In Dag Solstad’s Shyness and Dignity (1994), a middle-aged teacher, Elias Rukla, is teaching Ibsen’s The Wild Duck for perhaps the hundredth time when he has a revelation about an apparently insignificant detail in the play relating to a minor character, Dr Relling.
Shaun Bythell: Return of the Bookseller Diarist
Listen to Shaun Bythell: Return of the Bookseller Diarist from The Book Club.
Republic Book One: Polemarchus (331e-336a)
Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we continue our slow, beautiful pilgrimage through Plato’s Republic. Last week Dr. Alex Priou walked us through the opening and the dialogue with Cephalus. This week we focus on Polemarchus, Cephalus’ son who inherits his father’s argument. We are joined by two excellent guides: Dr. Frank Grabowski, Dean
36. The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plath’s Tragedy
How did the paranoia of 1950s McCarthyist America shape Sylvia Plath? Why was The Bell Jar the poet's only novel? And, what was the truth of her relationship with fellow poet Ted Hughes?
St. Carlo Acutis's Five Steps to Become a Saint
Today is the feast day of Saint Carlo Acutis, the youth who became a saint through his love for Christ in the Eucharist. Get Your Copy of “Carlo Acutis Saint of the Young: His Life, Miracles, and Five Steps to Being a Saint” Here: https://ignatius.com/carlo-acutis-6casyp/ We are honored to be joined by Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo to talk about the great saint Carlo Acutis. Msgr.
London Revisited: The Monster
In 1737, Samuel Johnson and his student David Garrick decided to walk to London from Lichfield in search of opportunity. It worked out well for both of them, but for many of the large number who made their hopeful journey to the capital from all over the country in the 18th century, life was more likely to end up like a scene from a Hogarth print, ruined by gin and despair.
Matthew Sweet: The Great Dictator
Listen to Matthew Sweet: The Great Dictator from The Book Club. In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by author Matthew Sweet to discuss his new biography, The Great Dictator, about the bestselling novelist Barbara Cartland.They explore the extraordinary life behind Barbara Cartland’s instantly recognisable image – from her beginnings in the aftermath of the First World War to her career as one of the bestselling authors of all time.
Republic Book One: Intro, Prologue & Cephalus with Dr. Alex Priou (327a-331d)
Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we start our slow, beautiful pilgrimage through arguably the most important book in Western philosophy: Plato’s Republic. It is about justice and whether justice is more profitable to the soul than injustice—but along the way it provides rich conversations on the soul, virtue, education, metaphysics, and the afterlife. If you read this book and read it well, it will change your life.
Episode 348: "Lilith" by George MacDonald, Ch. 6-16
This week Angelina and Addison are back on The Literary Life podcast to continue their discussion series on George MacDonald’s . Today’s episode will cover chapters 6-16. They open the conversation with some thoughts on the disorientation we experience when reading MacDonald in general and Lilith in particular. In comparing this work to episodic medieval romances, they give some advice on how to orient yourself as you read this story. Addison shares what it means that the images in this book are “un-displaced.” After many preliminary thoughts,
35. Goldfinger: The Ultimate James Bond Novel
Why did James Bond appeal to 1950s Britain? Is Goldfinger hopelessly out of date? And, who really inspired the titular villain?
A Catholic Approach to Abortion, Transgenderism, and Other Matters of Conscience w/ Dr. Christopher Kaczor
While not always easy, discussions about abortion, transgenderism, and other hot button issues are extremely important, and today Dr. Kaczor provides a Catholic approach to these topics. Get Your Copy of “Vital Conflicts” https://ignatius.com/vital-conflicts-vcdap/?searchuuid=c753d2fa-3b96-4abd-9bda-ca08562f5ec0&search_query=vital+conflicts Dr.
Afl. 83 – Gerrit Rietveld moest lang strijden voor erkenning
We kennen hem van ‘de stoel’ en ‘het huis’. Gerrit Rietveld zou wereldberoemd worden, ook in eigen land, maar zijn succes had een lange aanloop. Nederland was zogezegd niet meteen klaar voor zijn werk en zijn ontwerpen. Rémon van Gemeren schreef een lijvige biografie over de ontwerper en schuift aan om te vertellen over zijn onderzoek.Een negentiende-eeuwse Schotse dominee had het als eerste over een land zonder volk voor een volk zonder land.
Lord Cochrane: The real Jack Aubrey?
Thomas Cochrane: The real-life Master and Commander | Peter Moore’s A Dangerous GameNaval hero. Political radical. Convicted fraudster. Thomas Cochrane’s life makes the fiction he inspired look almost tame.Antonia Senior and Roger Moorhouse discuss Peter Moore’s A Dangerous Game, a biography of one of Britain’s most extraordinary—and troublesome—naval commanders.
Steven Pinker: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows
Listen to Steven Pinker: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... from The Book Club. In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker to discuss his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…Pinker explores the powerful idea of ‘common knowledge’ - not simply what we know, but what we know that other people know, and what we know they know we know.
Narrative Poems: ‘Amours de Voyages’ by Arthur Hugh Clough
In 1848, Arthur Hugh Clough resigned his fellowship at Oxford after realising that he could no longer in good conscience teach the doctrines of the Anglican Church, as the job required. He immediately embarked on some European travel and the following year found himself in Rome during the short-lived republican uprising against the Pope, led by Giuseppe Mazzini.
How to Read Plato
Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we are preparing to read Plato’s Republic (we start next week!). Before turning to that long and demanding text, we ask a simple question: how do you read Plato well? Plato does not write treatises or lectures. He writes dialogues, and the setting, the characters, the irony, and
34. American Psycho: Murder, Trump, and New York City
Why was the book so heavily censored on publication? Is the novel gratuitously violent? And, what happened when Tabby met Bret Easton Ellis?
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