Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

118. Stephen Greenblatt (humanities scholar) – Irresistible Fictions


Listen Later

An ancient, one-and-a-half-page-story that just won't let us go. Humanities scholar Stephen Greenblatt and host Jason Gots discuss how Adam and Eve have shaped and been shaped by Western art, culture, and science, in this, Big Think's latest brain-fertilizing podcast.

Greenblatt is the Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and the author of thirteen books, including the Pulitzer prize-winning The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. His latest, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, traces the cultural history of that most primal of stories about a man, a woman, God, and a snake. It’s a couple thousand years old and only about two pages long, but it’s still exerting a powerful cultural influence today.

Surprise conversation-starter clips in this episode: Salman Rushdie on recent white supremacist clashes in America and Virginia Heffernan: The Internet is not a neurotoxin

--

About Think Again - A Big Think Podcast: Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think’s interview archives.

You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel? Why not gambling? The Art of War? Contemporary parenting? Some of the best conversations happen when we're pushed outside of our comfort zones. Each week on Think Again, we surprise smart people you may have heard of with short clips from Big Think's interview archives on every imaginable subject. These conversations could, and do, go anywhere.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Think Again - a Big Think PodcastBy Big Think / Panoply

  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5

4.5

551 ratings


More shows like Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

View all
This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,968 Listeners

Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Radiolab

43,972 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,505 Listeners

Criminal by Vox Media Podcast Network

Criminal

37,538 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,693 Listeners

Bookworm by KCRW

Bookworm

579 Listeners

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry by David Naimon, Tin House Books

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry

472 Listeners

Philosophy Bites by Edmonds and Warburton

Philosophy Bites

1,548 Listeners

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso by Higher Ground

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

1,443 Listeners

DEKONSTRUKTIV KRITIK by Aron Flam

DEKONSTRUKTIV KRITIK

32 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

112,250 Listeners

The Michael Shermer Show by Michael Shermer

The Michael Shermer Show

939 Listeners

City Arts & Lectures by City Arts & Lectures

City Arts & Lectures

395 Listeners

Empire: World History by Goalhanger

Empire: World History

2,477 Listeners

ill-advised by Bill Nighy by EYEPOD Studios

ill-advised by Bill Nighy

544 Listeners