JOHN RUSKIN ON FREEDOM & IMPERFECTION: Throughout the whole second half of the nineteenth century "to read [John] Ruskin was accepted as proof of the possession of a soul" (as art historian Kenneth Clark put it). And Ruskin's "The Stones of Venice" is a work of huge compassion, intelligence, and beauty that still has a great deal to say to artists. "No good work whatever can be perfect," says Ruskin, "for no great [person] ever stops working till [they have] reached [their] point of failure ... To banish imperfection is to destroy expression." Mentioned in this episode: John Ruskin; Ruskin's The Stones of Venice; Kenneth Clark; Industrial Revolution; Victorian England; Arts & Crafts Movement; Mahatma Ghandi; the European Gothic Age; Joseph Campbell; social reform; the digital age.

Music: "Drifting" by Lake Union; "Autumn Wind" by Yehezkel Raz; "Best Summer Ever" by When Mountains Move (All songs used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)