Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with Nathan Gilmour and David Grubbs about some really terrible movies that claim to be based on some really good books. After trash-talking some real duds, the trio discusses what it means to appropriate a book for the screen and even some of the films and TV series that do so especially well. Among the films discussed are Beowulf, Branaugh's Hamlet, Troy, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Contact, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Demi Moore's The Scarlet Letter.

Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer chat about David Brooks's 2001 essay "One Nation, Slightly Divisible" and the political metaphors of "red" and "blue" America that arose in its wake. At stake in our discussion is the extent to which regional-level sociological analysis emerges from observation and the extent to which it frames observation. Among the texts and other interesting entities discussed are "One Nation, Slightly Divisible," college towns, Mitt Romney, John Kerry, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Al Gore. (Wow. We really did get political this time!)

Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour hold forth abut Fyodor Dostoevsky's grand novel The Brothers Karamazov. We dig into the main characters (and every character is a main character in Dostoevsky), the big questions of atheism and miracles, and the consequences of atheism. Among the scenes, characters, and other artifacts discussed are The Grand Inquisitor, Ivan as Christian Atheist, Alyosha the compelling Christian character, and the devil.

Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer hold forth abut George Marsden's 1997 book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. The main points of discussion are the extent to which the academy that Marsden saw in 1997 has persisted in the fifteen years since and what has changed; the difficulties of prognosticating change in college; and ways and extents to which Christian scholars are making their mark now. Among the writers and artifacts discussed are George Marsden, James Berlin, digital journals, and the Golden Rule.

Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour (until Gilmour has to leave for a meeting) about the genre autobiography, its roots, and what separates the good ones from the mediocre ones. At stake in our discussion are the problems of presenting one's own self and the narration of interiority, and along the way we also dig into questions of the ways in which memoirs should be true. Among the writers and artifacts discussed are Augustine's Confessions, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin, Jean Jacques Rousseau, A Million Little Pieces, and the difference between autobiography and memoir.

David Grubbs moderates a discussion with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about Dante, specifically about some of the background and context that makes Dante a more enjoyable read. We take on the theology, philosophy, poetry, and other influences on the Florentine poet, and we include in the discussion those works after Dante that shed light retrospectively. Among the writers and artifacts discussed are Virgil, Aristotle, St. Thomas, T.S. Eliot, and Hart Crane.

Nathan Gilmour moderates a conversation with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about about the documentary hypothesis, a tool that Bible scholars have used, abused, and disputed for some hundred and thirty years. At stake are the character of Biblical inspiration and the operation of God in the world, and we have a good discussion not only about historical reactions to the theory but also regarding the theological ramifications. Among the writers and artifacts discussed are The Fundamentals, Prolegomenon to the History of Israel, and Biblical Scholarship.

Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about about patience, the length of will that Aristotle linked to anger and Paul to persecution. Perhaps the most troubled of the three virtues that we've discussed so far, much of our conversation has to do with why we always feel the need to apologize for patience. Among the writers and artifacts discussed are Job, Aristotle, the Stoics, Fabius Maximus, Chaucer's Clerk's Tale, and Galatians.

David Grubbs moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about about valor or courage, the virtue of responding well in the face of onrushing danger. Beginning with the grammar of the Hebrew stative verb (it's related, we promise), the conversation moves through medieval conceptions and on into the possibility or impossibility of courage in a world of mechanized war and standing armies. Among the writers and artifacts discussed are Joshua (the biblical book), Summa Theologica, Tolkien, Tennyson, Wilfred Owen, Camus, and the Iliad.

Nathan Gilmour moderates a conversation with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about about humility, that particularly Christian virtue that was a vice to the Greeks and a rot to Nietzsche. The conversation situates medieval conceptions of humility as syntheses of Pauline and Aristotelian teachings and proposes that precisely such a robust medieval moral philosophy stands to correct both the abuses of imposed "humility" and late-modern critiques of the same. Among the texts and thinkers discussed are Philippians, Summa Theologica, Nietzsche's The Antichrist, The Lord of the Rings, Walt Whitman, and Paradise Lost.