Alexander Schmid Podcast

In this lecture, we review (a) the lost epics: "The Aethiopis" and "The Little Iliad" and move through (b) "The Sack of Ilium" and "The Returns". Specifically, we consider (a) the Trojan Horse, Sinon, and Laocoon, (b) the carnage at Troy the night it falls, and (c) the misbegotten ways home of the Achaian heroes.

* Aigisthos, not Orestes, kills Agamemnon!

In this episode, Mr. Wes Schantz and I consider (a) the disorienting experience of moving on after tragedy, (b) the significance of the snowboard and the map, and (c) what real-world lessons the game has to teach us about behavior and adapting to change in the world.

In this episode of Night School, Mr. Wes Schantz and I consider the American poet Emily Dickinson's "Come Slowly--Eden!" and "Arcturus". Specifically, we consider (a) transitions between religious and naturalistic uses of language and perceptions of reality, (b) Dickinson's use of structure and form to convey meaning, and (c) the relationship between scientific knowledge and the experience of meaning and its changing relationship in language and time.

In this episode of Recurrent Events, Mr. Wes Schantz and I consider (1) what the role of educational certification is and how it relates to the craft of teaching, (2) how the responsibilities of substitute teaching differ from classroom (TOR) teaching, and (3) how one can transform the teaching profession from within the classroom.

In this lecture, we consider summaries of the lost epics: (a) "The Aethiopis", and (b) "The Little Iliad". Specifically, we consider the fates of (1) Achilleus, (2) Aias the Greater, and (3) Paris of Troy.

On this special episode of Side Quests, Mr. Wesley Schantz and I welcome Dr. Matt Roos from the Consilience Conversations podcast (https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/episodes/Consilience-Conversations-001-Confirmation-Bias-e26n1v) to talk about addiction and gaming. We talk about (a) the positive and negative aspects of gaming, (b) the relationship of addiction to habit formation and how game developers can build addictive habits into gameplay (and the ethics of these practices); and (c) the relationship between narrative/fantasy and addiction in young people, and particularly in young men.

In this episode of Night School, Mr. Wes Schantz and I conclude our foray in Whitman's "Song of Myself" with Pts. 50, 51, and 52. We consider (a) the interplay of time in poetry and life and what is eternal about both, (b) what the meaning of contradiction is within a poem and poet, and (c) what the meaning of the poem is writ-large, and what is the purpose of the poet.

In this lecture, we conclude the Homer's "Iliad" lecture course. We consider (a) the underworld journey of Priam to Achilleus, (b) the realization of his own mortality by Achilleus, and (c) the range of human experience and suffering.

In this second podcast on the 4th volume in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wes Schantz, and I discuss (a) what magical drinks we would have in the Leaky Cauldron, (b) the positive and negative aspects of groups at the Quidditch World Cup and (c) the ever more defined nature of darkness and the wizarding world in this fourth book of the series!

In this lecture we consider: (a) The duplicity of Apollo and Athene, (b) the fight and pre-fight between Hektor and Achilleus, and (c) the catastrophic consequences of Achilleus' actions afterward.