Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch

What makes a Faust story? Michael, Ethan, and special guests Josiah & Jacob discuss this ontological question and all things Faust in this special episode.

In this episode:

Michael begins confrontationally.

Is this episode Faust? Is this podcast Faust?

Ethan is NOT in Law School.

Is capitalism Faust?

The Bible is inevitable.

Josiah brought it up. Totally. It was Josiah. He's very smart. The Josian Anti-Faust idea (C) 2026.

Demon, Helen, Margaret - Where are the lines of demarcation between them?

Two questions: 1) What are you willing to sacrifice [to get what you want; and is it your very soul]? 2) What do you worship?

(Josiah came up with the smart thing again. (C) 2026.)

What you worship you will sacrifice.

Ethan cheats with Wikipedia.

Vein.

American Faust: do we win?

(Sorry for the Beetlejuice summoning.)

If it looks like an exchange but is a gift, it's grace. If it looks like a gift but is an exchange, it's vampi-- Faust.

When you're having night terrors, fart in the Devil's face and confess the Apostles' Creed.

Shout-out to Reading Revisited!

Every time he comes on this podcast, Jacob makes it a different podcast and/or a deal we need to wiggle out of.

There are other things in Detroit other than Eminem.

Let it be known, we can be charitable to a garbage fire.

The answer is a tautology. Or cake.

Here's each work we discuss: Is it Faust?

The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton: Is it Faust?

The book of Job: Is it Faust?

It's A Wonderful Life: Is it Anti-Faust? Is it Faust?

Jesus tempted in the desert: Is it Faust? Is it Anti-Faust? Is Faust a fan-fiction of Jesus?

Genesis 3: Is it the OG Faust?

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens: Is it Faust?

Trust, by Hernan Diaz: Is it Faust?

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt: Is it Faust?

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde: Is it Faust?

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol," by Oscar Wilde: Is it Faust?

Of One Blood, by Pauline Hopkins: Is it Faust?

Hadestown, by Anaïs Mitchell: Is it Faust? Orpheus & Euridice: Is it [proto-]Faust?

Dracula, by Bram Stoker: Is it Faust?

Hades & Persephone: Is it Faust?

Interview with the Vampire: Is it Faust?

Underworld: Is it Faust?

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by Charlie Daniels: Is it Faust?

Robert Johnson: Is he Faust?

O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Is it Faust?

Oedipus: Is he Faust?

Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke: Is it Faust?

Devil's Advocate: Is it Faust?

Beetlejuice: Is it Faust?

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare: Is it Faust?

The Waterboy: Is it Faust?

Rick & Morty: Is it Faust?

Doctor Who: Is it Faust?

Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie: Is it Faust?

Ghosts, S4E22-S5E1: Is it Faust?

The Passenger, and Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy: Are they Faust?

Previously featured on Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch

No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy: Is it Faust?

Grimm's Fairy Tales, e.g. "The Devil's Sooty Brother," "Bearskin," "The Devil and His Grandmother," "The Gravemound," "The Peasant and the Devil," "Doctor Know-all," "The Spirit in the Bottle": Are they Faust?

Irish Fairy Tales, and Russian Stories: Are they Faust?

Luther throwing his inkwell at the Devil: Is it Faust?

"The Little Mermaid," by Hans Christian Andersen: Is it Faust - WAIT, we'll talk about it later!

"The Magic Thread": Is it Faust?

Click: Is it Faust?

The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare: Is it Faust?

Breaking Bad: Is it Faust?

Rapid(-ish) Fire:

Fullmetal Alchemist

"Ain't No Rest for the Wicked," by Cage the Elephant

Better Call Saul

Melmoth the Wanderer, by Charles Maturin - WAIT, we might also talk about that later(?)

It Follows

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Death Note

"Button, Button," by Richard Matheson

"The Monkey's Paw," by W.W. Jacobs

The Third Man[, by Graham Greene]

The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis

That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis

The Magician's Nephew, by C.S. Lewis

Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis

Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis

The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

Love's Labours Lost, by William Shakespeare

"Goblin Market," By Christina Rosetti

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

Paradise Lost, by John Milton

The Tempest, by William Shakespeare

"Calliope," by Neil Gaiman

Ravelstein, by Saul Bellow

Previously featured on Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch

KPop Demon Hunters

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne

Previously featured on Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch

Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes

Previously featured on Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

Liar, Liar

Bruce Almighty

Big

Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Phantom of the Opera[, by Gaston Leroux]

"Alastor," by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

"Young Goodman Brown," by Nathanael Hawthorne

Wittenberg, by David Davalos - DON'T BOTHER

Stranger Things (especially Season 5)

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss “Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day,” by Jonathan L. Howard! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Josiah discuss Gounod’s opera Faust while drinking Suntory Toki Japanese whisky.

In this episode:

We watched Opera de Lille’s production of Gounod’s Faust

This is a two-intermission opera

Josiah’s favorite aria

How sincere is Faust? (not a Romeo and Juliet discussion)

Also not The Age of Innocence podcast

However, it MIGHT be the “Tragedy of Marguerite” podcast

Misinterpreting the plot to make it more interesting

Did the devil make Faust do it, or did Faust make the devil do it?

The Romantic Era in literature is from when Michael said to when Ethan said; the Romantic Era in music begins a couple decades before the date Ethan said

Does Michael hate opera???

Next time Michael, Ethan, and Josiah (still/again!) will discuss the Gounod opera Faust! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Josiah discuss The Memory of Whiteness, by Kim Stanley Robinson while drinking Suntory Toki Japanese whisky.

In this episode:

The orchestra!

Lots of tree stuff, also snake stuff and lizard stuff

Curation vs collage vs other art stuff

We GOTTA talk about the metadrama

Vertumnus, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1591) (another trap for a date-pilled boy)

At least two topological surnames

All (or at least some) about Margaret

College is the time when men become deterministic

Margaret in this book is the scholars from Marlowe, Margaret from Goethe, Zeitblom from Mann, and also Horatio from Hamlet

Two-thirds of this podcast think the book is an anime

The score: 2 damned, 2 saved, 2 (????) (Enraging)

Next time Michael, Ethan, and Josiah (still/again!) will discuss the Gounod opera Faust! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Josiah discuss The Memory of Whiteness, by Kim Stanley Robinson while drinking Suntory Toki Japanese whisky.

In this episode:

Accusations of cuckoo-bird-ery

Is this book Faust? Is this book Alastor? Is Alastor Faust?

Having a stroke, falling into a singularity: pretty much the same thing

The Contexts of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Faust Translations, by Mathelinda Nabugodi

Determinism leads to free will leads to determinism leads to free will, etc

Have you ever heard of a piece of music starting with a prologue???

Ethan scoops Josiah, but at least he gives Josiah credit for it

Lots of mountain stuff

The music of the spheres? THAT’s provocative

Ethan loses but is only called out for it the second time

Nepenthe, the drug of forgetfulness

Some extremely cool and not at all completely nerdy discussion of different types of genitive

We are not doing any kind of linking or backgrounding of the punishment song. We’re all suffering together

Note: Josiah did force the karaoke to go on MUCH longer, but the editors have cut it down purely for the sake of avoiding a copyright strike and for no other reason

Next time Michael, Ethan, and Josiah will continue to discuss The Memory of Whiteness, by Kim Stanley Robinson! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Jacob discuss the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by Washington Irving, while drinking Suntory Toki Japanese whisky.

In this episode:

Is Michael the devil?

What gives Benet the right?

Pedestrian deals with the devil

Faust scoreboard so far: 2 damned, 2 saved, 1 (?????)

Honesty and deeper honesty

God terms, devil terms, and Deadpool terms

Rules, rules, we want more rules

Hey hey we talk about the Monkees! (Also The Devil’s Advocate, The Simpsons, and, inevitably, Star Trek)

“Little brothers should always let their older brothers go first.” - Book of Hezekiah 14:12

The Devil and Daniel Webster — 1941 film

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss The Memory of Whiteness, by Kim Stanley Robinson! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Jacob discuss the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by Washington Irving, while drinking Suntory Toki Japanese (gasp!) whisky.

In this episode:

A not-too-presumptuous new rule

The Devil belongs in America

American mythology creating arbitrary exclusions and inclusions… who would have thought?

Landscape as character

Making up theories out of whole cloth

Everyone should know that shortcuts will go badly for them

It’s a Wonderful Life as Reverse Faust

Con men, flim-flam artists, and bunko

Public Universal Friend’s wikipedia page is worth reading

“Charity begins at home” SOUNDS very pious

Lots and lots of playing Telephone, it’s fine

There’s nothing unique about the postmodernists

God’s Philosophers, by James Hannam

Next time Michael, Ethan, and special guest Jacob will discuss the short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster," by Stephen Vincent Benet! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

“Fools that Will Laugh on Earth,” by Benji Inniger, from the Original Soundtrack to The Spiritual Tragedy of Doctor Faustus

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn as Told by a Friend, by Thomas Mann, while drinking Jura 10yo single malt.

In this episode:

We do start off this episode very, very similarly to how we started at least Part 3, if not also Part 2… sorry

REALLY REALLY REALLY helpful: A Reader’s Guide to Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus, by Tobias Boes

The Devil Is in the Details: Neurological Diseases Presenting as Religious Hallucinations in Two Literary Works, by Matheus Kahakura Franco Pedro, Thiago Ferreira Simões De Souza, Francisco Manoel Branco Germiniani

Thomas Mann knows so many things AND can get so deep in the weeds (at least seemingly)

When your hobbyhorse comes riding up, sometimes you just have to mount it

We do get into the weeds on theology and with Latin and stuff, but for once it’s like straight from the text

The devil’s objective may be the subjective

On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder

Hitler’s Monsters, by Eric Kurlander

No one said “thank you”

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by Washington Irving! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

“Fools that Will Laugh on Earth,” by Benji Inniger, from the Original Soundtrack to The Spiritual Tragedy of Doctor Faustus

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn as Told by a Friend, by Thomas Mann, while drinking Jura 10yo single malt.

In this episode:

REALLY REALLY REALLY helpful: A Reader’s Guide to Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus, by Tobias Boes

There are at least two ways to assassinate someone with a piano

Michael lies about his dogs

Notes of realism

The Devil Is in the Details: Neurological Diseases Presenting as Religious Hallucinations in Two Literary Works

Gothic frames!

Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act 1

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss Doctor Faustus, by Thomas Mann! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

“Fools that Will Laugh on Earth,” by Benji Inniger, from the Original Soundtrack to The Spiritual Tragedy of Doctor Faustus

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn as Told by a Friend, by Thomas Mann, while drinking Jura 10yo single malt.

In this episode:

REALLY REALLY REALLY helpful: A Reader’s Guide to Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus, by Tobias Boes

Lots of baffling passages in this one, sorry

Musical forms in 1930s Germany were political (a thing that never happens today, obvs)

Conservatives vs conservatives, another thing with absolutely no echoes now

Ambiguity that goes both ways

The Courage to be, by Paul Tillich

Vampire? “Explicit” -Michael VAMPIRE

“De Profundis”/Psalm 130

Icarus is symbloic of Faust

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss Doctor Faustus, by Thomas Mann! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

“Fools that Will Laugh on Earth,” by Benji Inniger, from the Original Soundtrack to The Spiritual Tragedy of Doctor Faustus

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn as Told by a Friend, by Thomas Mann, while drinking Jura 10yo single malt.

In this episode:

All digressions and fallings-apart are intentionally reflective of the novel under discussion and are not us doing a bad job

Talking about books by talking about other books (aka, this is actually us reading Tristram Shandy for at least the third time)

The narrator that gets in his own way

One or more frame stories AND several meta-layers

Lots about time, WWII, Germany, time, Germans, Nazis, and time (but not a lot that’s fun to make sassy bullet points about)

In Marlowe, Faust is damned; in Goethe, Faust is saved; in Mann, Faust is(.)

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss Doctor Faustus, by Thomas Mann! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

“Fools that Will Laugh on Earth,” by Benji Inniger, from the Original Soundtrack to The Spiritual Tragedy of Doctor Faustus

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)