Alexander Schmid Podcast

In this episode, we discuss (a) Sordello and prayer, (b) the drama of the Angels and the Serpent, and (c) the dream of Ganymede and Jupiter.

In this edition of Night School, Mr. Wes Schantz and I consider Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" parts 28-30. We specifically think through (a) Whitman's first showing of vulnerability and his confrontation with his own ethical/poetical limits, (b) the connection between a "golden age" and the world of culture produced and maintained by the articulated word, and (c) a return to his universalistic imagery.

On this episode of Side Quests, Mr. Wes Schantz and I discuss (a) the Rocket Launch Area and the new party member Cid; (b) we then discuss the tilted, failed, and rusted rocket as a symbol for a failed ideal which no longer serves one, and (c) how the romantic and competitive aspects of this game, and perhaps all, naturally interact, reinforce each other, and serve to create a memorable experience for the subject.

In this edition of Night School, Mr. Wes Schantz and I consider Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" parts 25-27. We specifically think through (a) Whitman's questioning whether he is ready to attempt a poetic "magnum opus", (b) the connection between a poem, music, and the movements of the heavens, and (c) will Whitman take a stand for something beyond universality of experience/liberality of expression?

In this morning edition of Night School, Mr. Wes Schantz and I consider Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" parts 23 and 24. We specifically think through (a) the contrast between poetic expression and scholarly knowledge, (b) the divinity of human subjective experience, and (c) Whitman's engaging with Dante and the epic tradition.

In this episode of Night School, Mr. Wes Schantz and I consider parts 20-22 of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." We then specifically think through (a) Whitman's varied claims to both individuality and universality and their interplay, (b) his use of feminine figures of chthonic deitiies (Night, Earth), and (c) how he as a poet is responsible for representing all without judgment, and all thus as worthy of wonder as a creation of some abstract or embodied god.

On this episode of Side Quests, Mr. Wes Schantz and I discuss (a) the end of the Shinra mansion, Vince, and the ghostly enemies there, (b) the path and relationship of Sephiroth to you, Jenova, and Lucrecia, and (c) how the game rewards the Odyssean over the Achillean elements in one's character or style of play.

In this special Halloween edition of Potter's Pockets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wes Schantz, and I discuss (a) the Expelliarmus charm and the changing of one's perspective, (b) the spooky and the revealing element of the masks people wear, and (c) we considered the proper approach to conversation and the search for truth, and its most unlikely sources!

In this episode, Mr. Wes Schantz and I discuss Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," parts 17-19. We discuss (a) the poetic act and poet himself, (b) originality and ingenuity in poetry, and (c) the meaning of life being tethered to being-itself, and its self-reflection. And how articulation, poetry, is a specifically human, and thus glorious example of the manifestation of a human's being.

In this episode of Consilience Conversations, Dr. Matt Roos and I discuss (a) reward and pleasure, their differences, and how the neurotransmitter dopamine mediates the former; (b) the relationship between Dante's "Purgatorio", habit formation, and how the brain/body adapts to the world by developing skill, and (c) we considered one's capacity to use executive functioning to attend to and alter formed habits of action or thought developed during one's childhood past when one's brain (prefrontal cortex) was less mature.