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In episode #3 of the Western Canon Podcast, Jordan takes listeners on a journey through the wine-dark seas of Homer's epic, the Odyssey--as the Greek hero Odysseus fights monsters, fends off temptresses, and struggles desperately to return to his homeland of Ithaca. With help from the goddess Athena, Odysseus battles his way through shipwreck and storm, the cave of a Cyclops, the deadly songs of the Sirens, the isle of the witch-goddess Circe, the gloomy underworld, and the vengeful wrath of the sea-god Poseidon, in order to return to his steadfast wife and faithful son. The Odyssey is not only a hero's journey, but a complex meditation on relationships--between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, as well as rulers and subjects. In this episode, Jordan is joined by New Yorker writer and bestselling author Daniel Mendelsohn (57:20), as well as philosopher and author of the book Explaining Postmodernism, Stephen Hicks (2:09:22).

Interview: Mark Bauerlein on relativism, political correctness, Christianity, and The Dumbest GenerationFile Size: 93592 kbFile Type: mp3Download File Emory Professor Mark Bauerlein joins The Western Canon Podcast to weigh in on an increasing moral, aesthetic, and epistemological relativism among today's students; he discusses problems facing literary studies; he talks about his conversion to Christianity and the "failure of liberalism"; and he looks back on his 2008 book The Dumbe [...]

In the age of identity politics, of social media and distraction, of instant gratification, of Trump--why engage with the classics of Western civilization? Why read Homer, Aristotle, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and the many other writers who make up what critic Harold Bloom calls "The Western Canon"? What makes an author’s work canonical? Who decides what works merit inclusion in this canon? And finally, assuming that we can agree, at least to some extent, on a core selection of books, how should we read this literature? What values and standards do we apply as we grapple with the great stories and ideas that underpin the foundations of the West? In this episode, we approach an answer to these questions, while also discussing the current state of the Humanities.

In the age of identity politics, of social media and distraction, of instant gratification, of Trump--why engage with the classics of Western civilization? Why read Homer, Aristotle, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and the many other writers who make up what critic Harold Bloom calls "The Western Canon"? What makes an author’s work canonical? Who decides what works merit inclusion in this canon? And finally, assuming that we can agree, at least to some extent, on a core selection of books, how should we read this literature? What values and standards do we apply as we grapple with the great stories and ideas that underpin the foundations of the West? In this episode, we approach an answer to these questions, while also discussing the current state of the Humanities.

Episode 01.mp3File Size: 203692 kbFile Type: mp3Download File In the age of identity politics, of social media and distraction, of instant gratification, of Trump--why engage with the classics of Western civilization? Why read Homer, Aristotle, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and the many other writers who make up what critic Harold Bloom calls "The Western Canon"? What makes an author’s work canonical? Who decides what works merit inclusion in this canon? And finally, ass [...]