Classical Stuff You Should Know

Arthur Brooks, a researcher of happiness at Harvard, has distilled his research about happiness into a simple equation. Want to know how to be happy? Turns out this is the way.

The Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid are all part of one story. That story was common knowledge for the Greeks, but mostly unknown to us moderns. This episode is that story, giving the context necessary for understanding the Iliad, which begins in the middle of things.

It's an announcement. A speedy one.

Thomas has recently left his position as the Dean of Student Life at Veritas. These are the things he's learned.

A.J. has always struggled with his views of poetry as a genre. He might have finally sorted it out with the help of John Donne.

Kierkegaard faced the absurdity of the universe, the absurdity of faith, and held both in tension. In this episode we explore his book "Fear and Trembling" as it traces the mystifying story of Abraham and Isaac.

Shakespeare's "The Tempest" is a bit of a mystery of a play, especially since nothing really happens.

The Book of Common Prayer is for those of us who don't always know what to say. So . . . all of us. Thomas gives us a little history, then a quick rundown of the book.

This is the second half of A.J.'s series on Machiavelli's "The Prince." It addresses how a prince can establish a reputation. We also chat about pie.

"The Great Divorce," by C.S. Lewis, recounts a bus trip to heaven. We discuss the Problem of Evil in the perspective of the book.

Euclid's "Elements" was the math text for over a thousand years. We all try to do a proof, and we end up with something looking like an Eiffel Tower.

Machiavelli was a statesman that wanted back into the good graces of the Medici. It half worked. This is a discussion of the work that was supposed to do the job of charming the prince. It's entitled, shockingly, "The Prince."

Jane Austen is a delight, and her novel Pride and Prejudice is no exception. In this episode, we review the book and talk about what it takes to change as drastically as Elizabeth and Darcy.

While "The Gates of Paradise" mark one of the first uses of perspective in sculpture, Rodin's "Gates of Hell," made much later in response, chronicle the existential despair of human suffering, so that's great!

"A Mathematician's Lament," by Paul Lockhart, mourns the way we teach math to children. In many ways, he's right. A.J. will probably still find something to complain about, though.