Liberal Arts the Podcast

Liberal Arts the Podcast

By Nichole Almanzar and Drew CunninghamSociety & Culture
Download on the App Store

Liberal Arts the Podcast episodes

  • Meet Me in Manhattan Court

    In this episode, Nichole and Drew continue with their discussion of Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." 


    • Adorno's response to Benjamin's essay in the New Left Review
    • Benjamin's Author as Producer
    • Patricia Leighton's The White Peril and L'art Nègre: Picasso, Primitivism, and Anticolonialism 
      • 1 hr 11 min
    • The Tea Must Be Ginger Because It's Spicy

      In this episode, Nichole and Drew tackle the first half of Walter Benjamin's infamous essay-- "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935). Be prepared to inhale some Marxism!


      Modernism Lab -- introduction to the essay

      1 hr 45 min
    • The Architect

      In this episode, Nichole and Drew join Molly in discussing a paper she wrote way back in 2019 about social media and revolutions. 

      1 hr 31 min
    • Is She Wrong Though?

      In this episode, Nichole and Drew conclude discussing the life and times of Susan Sontag, meeting, along the way, some very controversial topics. 

      • Sontag's comments regarding 9/11 to the New Yorker
      • Sontag: Her Life and Work (2019) by Benjamin Moser 
      • Reborn, Early Diaries 1947-1963 by Susan Sontag
        • 1 hr 24 min
      • Camp... You Just Know What It Is

        In this episode (the first of two about Susan Sontag), Nichole and Drew discuss Sontag's early years, college life, and her rise to popularity--as well as all the troubles she experienced along the way. 


        • Reborn, Early Diaries 1947-1963 (first of a trilogy of her diary entries)
        • Sontag: Her Life and Work (2019) by Benjamin Moser
          • 1 hr 8 min
        • Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves

          In this episode, Nichole and Drew recount the tragic fate of Oscar Wilde brought upon by scandalous criminal accusations and resultant legal proceedings. 


          • Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde 
          • Famous Trials, Professor Douglas O. Linder 
          • Oscar Wilde, a biography by Richard Ellmann
            • 1 hr 2 min
          • I Find It Harder and Harder to Live Up to My Blue China

            In this episode, Nichole and Drew talk about the life of Oscar Wilde leading up to his trials for gross indecency. 

            You can email us at: [email protected] 

            Links to things referenced in the episode:

            • Magdalen College, Oxford University (Oscar's hard to spell and pronounce alma mater) 
            • The Portrait of Mr. W. H. (Oscar's story about a theory that Shakespeare's romantically charged sonnets are actually about a young man)
            • Cyril Holland (Oscar's son, whose name Drew forgot) 
            • Willie Wilde (Oscar's brother, whose name Drew forgot) 



              • 1 hr 2 min
            • I Just Don't Know

              Nichole and Drew discuss the history of art with their friend Mack, who reads an excerpt from an essay she wrote about Julie Mehretu's works and their relation to technology and politics. 

              Links to mentioned art by Mehretu: 

              Stadia II

              Conjured Parts

              Mural (Goldman Sachs) 


              1 hr 21 min

            About Liberal Arts the Podcast

            From the publisher's feed

            Nichole and Drew invite guests who have studied the liberal arts to revisit written work, such as essays and lab reports, which they completed while in college. After having read excerpts of their…