I’m closing out my biweekly summer podcast schedule with an episode about my top 5 favorite Loeb Classical Library books. Do you need these if you don’t read Greek or Latin? Why collect these when there are plenty of alternatives? I address these questions and show you my top 5 (with 2 bonus books at the end) in this video podcast recorded in the Books of Titans Library.

The famous inscription a the Temple of Apollo at Delphi encourages the visitor to “Know Thyself.” Plato’s dialogue Alcibiades is an exploration of that inscription. What does it mean to know oneself? And how does Socrates lead the powerful Alcibiades in this dialogue?

In this episode, I cover Alcibiades and Second Alcibiades by Plato, two relatively short dialogues with wonderful thoughts about virtue, the soul, and the good.

What is love and what does it have to do with the immortal soul? These are some of the questions addressed in the wide-ranging Phaedrus dialogue by Plato. Similar to other Plato dialogues, this one contains a myth. Perhaps you have heard of the Tripartite Soul. This is one of the dialogues that introduces that idea and it is found within the Myth of the Winged Soul.

In this episode, I talk about how Plato used this myth to talk about ideas like love, desire, immortality, education, and the soul. I then tie that together with a major theme of this reading project, direction. I close out with a, how should I say this, interesting 😬 definition of love from Plato.

Show Notes:

2026 has been a fun year of reading so far. I’ve read the Bible, a few Plato dialogues, legends of King Arthur, and others. Here’s my mid-year reading review. It’s a great way to learn about books you may want to add to your own reading list. I go through the 20+ books I’re read so far for this year and a little about each one of them. Enjoy!

Reading List (Jan - June 2026)

* The Intertextual Tanakh

* Bibliotheca Vol II: The Latter Prophets

* Bibliotheca Vol III: The Writings

* Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell

* Bibliotheca Vol V: The New Testament

* Our Name is Dare by Kev Coleman

* Heraclitus Fragments

* The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists

* Early Greek Philosophy

* The Logos of Heraclitus by Eva Brann

* Nero & Paul by Kathie Lee Gifford w/ Brian M. Litfin

* One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

* The Greek Sophists

* The Flowering Hawthorn by Hugh Ross Williamson

* Plato: Complete Works by Plato

* Philebus Plato

* Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory

* Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite

* King Arthur and His Knights of The Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

* The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien

* Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

* The Mirror, the Mask, and the Masterpiece: A Guide to C. S. Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces” by Peter Kreeft

Last episode, I spoke to poet Malcolm Guite about his epic poem, Galahad and the Grail. In this episode, I interview Galahad’s illustrator, Stephen Crotts.

This is my Arthurian Month where I’ve been getting to know the Legends of King Arthur through the works of Sir Thomas Malory, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Malcolm Guite.

In this episode, recorded at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN, I ask Stephen about his design process, how he got into the Arthur stories, and how we should approach his artwork. He also shares a few illustrations from the second book in the series that releases later this year.

I’ve gotten to know Stephen over the past few years. He’s helped me to see how illustrators can reveal parts of the story that authors cannot. When done right, authors and illustrators can create more than the sum of their individual contributions. The two can inform each other and help the reader see and understand in unexpected ways.

Two years ago, as Stephen was preparing for this Arthuriad project, we happened to be in London at the same time and toured the British Museum together. After perusing the Egyptian and Babylonian sections, we looked at the artifacts that bridged the gap between Pagan and Christian Britain, around the time of when the Arthur stories were said to have taken place (400’s AD). Stephen was there for inspiration for that timeframe.

Show Notes:

* Stephen Crotts

* Purchase a copy of Galahad and the Grail from Landmark Booksellers

* Free Reader’s Kit

* Malcolm Guite

* Rabbit Room Publishers

* Landmark Booksellers | Recording Location

* Merlin’s Isle Trailer -

June is my Arthurian Month, a quick dive into the legends of King Arthur. In this episode, I interview author and epic poet Malcolm Guite, whose work here is something special. We trace the Arthurian threads back to Ancient Greece, talk about his collaboration with illustrator Stephen Crotts, and explore the theme of unveiling.

Show Notes:

* Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite

* Purchase a copy from Landmark Booksellers (2nd printing stock arriving in July)

* Free Reader’s Kit

* Rabbit Room Publishers

* Malcolm Guite

* Stephen Crotts

* Landmark Booksellers | Recording Location

* Lifting the Veil Conference | Oct 23 - 24 | Boston, MA

* Merlin’s Isle Trailer -

In this episode, I cover The Birth of Love myth in Plato’s Symposium dialogue. I don’t usually think of Plato as a myth maker, but here he is offering a different spin on the birth of Eros to show how love’s parentage shows our need for Beauty. The ladder of love leads to Plato’s heavenly form of Beauty in a wonderful way. I talk about this myth, Plato’s use of myth, and myth in general in the art of persuasion.

Books / Articles Referenced:

* Plato: Selected Myths / Translation by Catalin Partenie / Oxford World’s Classics

* Hesiod: Theogony / Translation by M.L. West / Oxford World’s Classics

* Plotinus: The Enneads on Love / Translation by Stephen Mackenna / Penguin Classics

* From Plato to Christ / Louis Markos

* God in the Dock: Myth Became Fact / CS. Lewis

* Better Than Sex! / Deacon Harrison Garlick

What is the good life? This is the question addressed in Philebus, one of Plato’s later dialogues, written in the late 350s BC. Philebus and his counterpart Protarchus (a pupil of Gorgias) argue for pleasure as the highest pursuit and good. Plato (through Socrates) argues for wisdom and knowledge. Can either of these be the sole pursuit of the life well-lived? The goal of the dialogue is to rank pleasure and wisdom.

Plato quickly establishes the necessity for a third option in this quest - a mixture of pleasure and wisdom. It’s impossible to have pleasure without thought and memory and a life solely dedicated to wisdom would be a bit dry. However, pleasure by its nature is unlimited, and therefore cannot be ranked or measured.

Plato then distinguishes between true and false pleasures. True pleasures are those that don’t involve pain (like witnessing a sunset or hearing a beautiful piece of music). False pleasures are those based upon false beliefs (like I’m going to win the lottery), bad measurement/distance (another beer now will hurt in the morning), and relief from pain (showing the absurdity of hedonism that more pain leads to more pleasure).

Plato concludes with a ranking or Ladder of Goods:

* Goodness in Moderation

* In Beauty

* In Intellect and Reason (Wisdom from the beginning)

* Knowledge

* Good/True Pleasures (Pleasure from the beginning, only false pleasures are not allowed)

The key point in this dialogue is that the good life does not consist of getting more of either of the initial pursuits, pleasure or wisdom. Instead, it consists of getting the correct balance between the two.

In today’s podcast episode, I cover the legend of The Flowering Hawthorn and its connection to the King Arthur legend. It’s a tale that begins with Joseph of Arimathea. He’s the rich man who buried Jesus in his tomb. Tradition holds that Joseph traveled to England many years after the resurrection carrying with him the blood of Jesus, a staff, and possibly, the holy grail. Joseph’s staff began to bud each Christmas Day in Glastonbury, England.

The story is told across the ages by bards, poets, and kings. Glastonbury attracted pilgrims from around the world to come and see this flowering hawthorn.

Is the story true? Or is it just speculation, legend, or tradition? We may never know, but there are enough connection points in this story that make it delightfully intriguing.

I recorded this video episode at the Christ Church meadow in Oxford, England.

Photos

Here are a set of photos sent to me by Stephen Crotts who visited these sites last year. Crotts is the illustrator of the new Arthuriad, an Epic Poem by Malcolm Guite, recounting the King Arthur legend.

In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of two of the earliest Greek Philosophers, Anaximander & Anaximenes of Miletus. Anaximander is credited with introducing the idea of the First Principle, of which his was the infinite, and Anaximenes, Air.

Books Referenced:

* Early Greek Philosophy - Translation by Jonathan Barnes - Penguin Classics

* The First Philosophers - Translation by Robin Waterfield - Oxford World’s Classics

* Lives of the Eminent Philosophers - Diogenes Laertius - Loeb Classical Library