An episode from 9/1/23: In the first part of tonight’s episode, I read from Andrew Solomon’s Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, & the Search for Identity, where Solomon talks about musical prodigies and the difficulties they face as children and adults.

In the second part, I read one of the most powerful pieces of poetry to come out of the ancient world, God’s response to Job, from the Hebrew Bible. Nowhere else is the terror and mystery of human suffering more deeply expressed, and God’s response to it remains a confounding and sublime performance. The translation is by Raymond Scheindlin.  

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Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].