The Great Eight

Emma Weinheimer interviews Mary Johnson about Flannery O'Connor's "The Fiction Writer and His Country" and "The Life You Save May Be Your Own."

Prof. Johnson is a professor of English at Mount St. Mary's University.

0:00 Context

8:10 Message vs Story

13:30 The Fiction Writer and His Country

23:45 Parables

29:25 The Life You Save May Be Your Own

35:00 Disabled Characters

39:35 Lessons for Living Well

45:00 Parker's Back

47:40 Great Books

Emma Weinheimer and Joshua Hochschild interview John Hersey about Plato's Republic.

Dr. Hersey is a professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University.

0:00 Context

8:30 Justice

14:30 Book One

21:00 Thrasymachus

26:30 Personality

29:45 Cave Allegory

38:45 Return to the Cave

43:05 Relation to Justice

48:50 Cardinal Virtues

54:10 Totalitarian?

Emma Weinheimer and Joshua Hochschild interview Chris Anadale about Nietzsche & Twilight of the Idols.

Dr. Anadale is a professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University.

0:00 Background

6:45 Content of Twilight

10:45 Why Read Nietzsche?

20:10 Spiritual Writer?

24:00 Postmodernity

30:10 Will to Power

36:40 Overman

42:00 Education Quote

Emma Weinheimer and Joshua Hochschild interview Susann Samples about Arthurian Legends.

Dr. Samples is a professor of German and Spanish at Mount St. Mary's University.

0:00 Background

10:40 Kalamazoo

17:30 English vs German Versions

21:45 Christian Stories

29:40 Morgan le Fay & Guinevere

32:20 Arthur as an Ideal

39:20 No Single Text

43:00 Historical Arthur

Emma Weinheimer and Joshua Hochschild interview Stephen McGinley about Beowulf and The Song of Roland.

Prof. McGinley is a professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University.

Recorded 2020-21

0:00 Introduction

4:20 Context

9:00 Beowulf & Roland

13:50 Human Questions

17:15 Grendel

22:20 Huxley's Brave New World

29:35 Song of Roland

33:40 Chesterton's The Ball and the Cross

35:30 Reading in Community

Emma Weinheimer and Joshua Hochschild interview Kurt Blaugher about Sophocles' plays Antigone and Philoctetes.

Dr. Blaugher is a professor of theater at Mount St. Mary's University.

Recorded 2020-21

0:00 Core Curriculum

4:45 Sophocles' Context

9:00 Function in Greek Society

11:40 Antigone

16:30 Divine vs Human Law

21:30 End of the Play

25:30 Philoctetes

30:20 Challenges of Performing

34:55 Mount St Mary's Trivia

37:00 New Translations for Veterans

Emma Weinheimer interviews Paige Hochschild about St. Augustine's Confessions.

Dr. Hochschild is a professor of Theology at Mount St. Mary's University.

Recorded 2020-21

0:00 Augustine's Context

6:10 Boethius

8:35 Structure of Confessions

16:15 Walkthrough Books 1-9

20:20 Recurring Themes

24:45 Book 2 Community

28:35 Book 3 Manichees

32:30 Book 4 Concubine

34:20 Book 5 Intellectual Pride

41:00 Book 6 Continence

46:20 Books 9-10 Sin

49:35 Books 12-13 Time & Space

53:30 Final Thoughts

Emma Weinheimer and Joshua Hochschild interview Barrett Turner about Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan.

Dr. Turner is a professor of Theology at Mount St. Mary's University.

Recorded 2020-21

0:00 Introduction

6:50 Hobbes' Context

13:02 Political Authority

17:20 Content of Leviathan

20:35 Alternative Salvation

23:17 Logic of the Social Contract

29:47 Liberty without Justice

31:25 Historical Account

34:25 Plato's Glaucon

37:15 Tyranny & Conscience

42:22 Leviathan Books 3 & 4

45:38 Practical Effects

52:05 Advice for Readers

Emma Weinheimer and Joshua Hochschild interview Joshua Brown about four books of Chinese thought.

Dr. Brown is a professor of Theology at Mount St. Mary's University.

Recorded 2020-21

0:00 Introduction

6:00 Context

11:55 Content

20:20 Philosophy vs Theology

23:50 Teaching to Students

26:55 Self-Cultivation

30:00 Reading Advice

32:50 Doctrine of the Mean

38:25 The Great Learning

41:50 Taoism

45:35 Relation to Christian Tradition

Emma Weinheimer and Joshua Hochschild interview Justin Matchulat about St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae.

Dr. Matchulat is a professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University.

Recorded 2020

0:00 Background

5:55 What Sort of Text

11:10 Theology

14:48 Content Overview

19:50 Other Voices

28:10 Favorite Article

35:00 Stories about St. Thomas

40:20 Reading Advice