This is a podcast about the West, which means Athens and Jerusalem. Without the second part of that equation you don't get the key notion of the "Imago Dei," or mankind's creation in the image of God--and without that, arguably, that you don't get America. Then of course there's the enormous storehouse of political wisdom that makes Israel a bulwark against globalism both ancient and modern.

All this makes it hugely distressing that antisemitism--philosophical, virulent, and open hatred of the Jews--has returned to prominence in developed nations. My guest today, Josh Hammer, has written a book explaining the indispensable value of Israel to the West, and to civilization more generally. We had a great conversation about the deep history and immediate future of the West.

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Speaking just for myself, I'm still not over Creusa. Aeneas' first wife, the woman who bore the future forefather of Rome's emperors, must stay behind to die in Troy while her family forges on ahead. Today we'll talk about why that has to be, what it says about the tragic cost of destiny for each of us, and how book II of Virgil's epic concludes. Plus: the cast list for Christopher Nolan's Odyssey is out! My reaction to Zendaya as Athena, and a mailbag question about the legacy of Carthage.

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We will not live in the pod. We will not eat the fake meat. We will not perform robot necromancy. But then...what should we do? With the Right in political power and a radically new mood sweeping the country, Jon Askonas of the Catholic University of America is among those thinking about how we can use technology well and in service of our humanity--not the other way around. I called him up to discuss a new First Things statement on preserving the family in the digital age. We talk AI, lab-grown meat, cursed robots, Soviet Ender's Game, Potempkin Dystopia, and so much more.

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Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/jonaskonas?lang=en

Protoclone, the horrorbot: https://x.com/clonerobotics/status/1892250639360561234

A New Technology Agenda for the Right, from First Things: https://firstthings.com/a-future-for-the-family-a-new-technology-agenda-for-the-right/

When we first met Aeneas, he wished he could have died at Troy. Today, we find out why. By all accounts, the honorable thing to do would have been to go down with the burning citadel of his fathers. But this ain't your daddy's Iliad, and one thing we're learning is that honor and glory don't fetch quite the price they used to. If there's anyone who understands that it's Neoptolemus, AKA Pyrrhus, AKA Achilles' hellspawn, AKA the living wages of Greek decadence. It's not a pretty sight. Plus: what should we make of the Septuagint?

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Hey look, it's some Greeks! Bearing gifts! What could possibly go wrong?

Today the Trojans will find out the answer to that very question, which will take us (at last!) into the story of that freaking horse. In Virgil's masterful hands it becomes a parable of Greek rhetorical trickery, Odyssean danger, and above all Roman anxiety over just how we should feel about the Greeks. On the one hand, without them, there would be no Aeneid. On the other hand, they're...kinda sus. Plus: why you should read the Aeneid instead of letting Grok do it for you.

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Don't take money...don't take fame...just takes a primordial deity whose powers of creation and destruction supervised the origins of the world, who is now divebombing straight at Dido's heart. What could go wrong? This extremely twisted Valentine's Day special will bring us to the end of The Aeneid, Book 1, which ends in blood-pumping fashion with a moment of extreme sexual tension. In the midst of which, Aeneas will be asked to relive the time his home got obliterated by a ruthless army of bloodthirsty Greeks. Fun! (No actually, it's fun.) Plus: the Drake and Kendrick of the ancient world.

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Wail, O Tyre and...where now? Just where WAS Jonah going when he got re-routed via fish? The possibilities aren't limitless, exactly, but there sure are a lot of them including...just, like, the ocean itself? Nah, probalby not, but it's a fun thought and there are lots of others. It's one of those little Biblical mysteries that holds out all sorts of tantalizing possibilities. I can't tell you which one is definitely right, but I sure have a favorite. You asked, I answer: where is Tarshish?

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It's Aeneas and Dido: A Tale of Love and War. As we get into the first major episodes of Aeneas' journey, we embark upon an intricate composition of wheels within wheels--stories of carnage and battle interlocked with stories of desire, affection, and lust. From an explanation of ring composition via Harry Potter, to a Virgilian image that has changed poetry ever since, to a bonus segment on chiasmus and the clapper (you know, that thing you can use to turn your lights on and off) it's a jam-packed addition to our Aeneas series.

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Beatrice Groves on Ring Composition in Harry Potter: 

https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/guest-post-stone-goblet-hallows-literary-links-and-riddles-in-philosophers-stone-goblet-of-fire-and-deathly-hallows-dr-groves-part-ii/

Who's that dime walking down the temple corridor? Is it Juno? Venus? Diana? Cleopatra? No, it's Dido, queen of Carthage and warrior princess of Tyre. In this episode, Virgil introduces one of literature's all-time greatest heroines, high on her throne but doomed to fall. She's demure...or is she? She's mother...or not? Whatever she is, she's always a woman to me. And to Aeneas, who at this point can't do much more than stare at her like a dope.

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When I tell you my finger smashed the "order now" button--apparently there's a fragmentary translation of the Aeneid by C.S. Lewis that he was working on all throughout his life. It's a rhyming version in 12-syllable Alexandrine lines, and you KNOW I had to do a review of it. Here are my thoughts, as well as a little more on Lewis's theory of epic and his lifelong relationship with Rome's greatest narrative poem.

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Check out a new review of the book at Law and Liberty: https://t.co/lHSo8yotG8