Best Spencer Klavan Podcasts (2024)

1
Choose Your Fighter: Achilles as a Manly Archetype 59:44

19h ago59:44

59:44

The game is on, Helen is abducted, and now it's time to gather the Greeks for war. There are lots of stories about how the Achaean forces made their way to Troy, and some of them--like the story of the Achilles heel--are permanently associated in the popular imagination with Homer's stories. But how many of them are actually in the Iliad? And what'…

1
What Does "This Is My Body" Mean? (Words, Words, Words 20) 29:17

20h ago29:17

29:17

Time's up! I gave you a weekend extension on the first-ever Young Heretics homework assignment, but now it's time to review some of the responses that came in. From a purely grammatical perspective, it turns out to be one of the most fascinating sentences in the English language, and the grammar actually has a little bit to say about the theology o…

1
Villain Origin Story: The Judgment of Paris 57:04

4h ago57:04

57:04

Stop me if you've heard this one: guy walks into a bar...and his head is an orange. If you know, you know. If you don't know, let me tell you how my favorite joke is also a perfect foil for the story that started it all in the Homeric universe, the Judgment of Paris. In hindsight it's pretty clear that Paris could have navigated the situation a lit…

1
It Depends on What the Meaning of the Word "Is" Is (Words, Words, Words 19) 35:49

26m ago35:49

35:49

I always say I don't want to step on any theological land mines. Then somebody tosses me a juicy theological question and it's like...LEEEEROOOOOOOOYYYYYYY JEENNNKINNNNS. Actually today's question is mostly about grammar, but it's also about transubstantiation and somehow also, the Monica Lewinsky scandal? Basically it's "what does 'is' mean?" And …

1
We're Reading Homer: The Movie I'm Most Excited about This Year 1:00:44

2h ago1:00:44

1:00:44

GUYS. Guys. They're making an Odysseus movie. With Ralph Fiennes. Will it be any good? Will it do well at the box office? Does this mean I finally have to learn how to spell "Fiennes"? I don't know. But I do know I've been waiting for an opportunity to go back to Homer on this show since way back in episode one. So get in, losers, we're telling the…

1
Lend me a Kleenex: How Foreign Words Become English (Words, Words, Words 18) 35:36

11d ago35:36

35:36

Enough about politics! Let's answer the really tough questions in life. Is "Logos" an English word? How about Sitzfleisch? Algebra? Café? This week, in response to my previous Words, Words, Words episode, I got an exceptionally astute question about what makes something a "foreign word" versus simply a "loan word" that has been integrated into Engl…

1
You Best Not Miss: The Assassination Attempt on Trump, according to Machiavelli 1:06:23

14d ago1:06:23

1:06:23

This isn't a politics podcast, but sometimes politics comes for you. We've just lived through a deadly serious event--the kind that defines an epoch and brings us face-to-face with some of the most consequential political realities of our era. There couldn't possibly be a better use case for stepping back and using the archives of the Western Canon…

1
Moving in the Breeze: How to Translate Untranslatable Words (Words, Words, Words 17) 34:09

21d ago34:09

34:09

I know you've been waiting with bated breath...at long last, it's the much-anticipated conclusion to our two-part episode on what happens when a word just doesn't want to be translated. I've covered some bad options here, now I'm proposing a few good ones. These will help not just if you want to write a translation of your own, but if you're not in…

1
The Mac Daddy of Sports Riots: Allegregores IV 1:00:37

3d ago1:00:37

1:00:37

Sex, violence, arson, theological disputes...the story of the Nika Riots has it all. Today, in response to a listener question, I'm telling one of history's most underappreciated stories about an utterly bananas and ultimately catastrophic breakdown in law and order that began with a rivalry over chariot racing. But the full story, like all sports …

1
One More Thing: The Three Things You Need to Understand a Poem 24:19

12d ago24:19

24:19

If you thought I was all patriotism-ed out...you'd be wrong! The banger of a July 4 poem we read on Tuesday is a perfect chance to learn more about the basics of poetry analysis. Turns out, Tennyson was pretty good at like, writing poetry and stuff. His ode to England and America is an absolutely metal fusion of old-timey balladeer adventure and st…

1
Spring 2024 Review with Charles Kesler 45:27

1M ago45:27

45:27

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan meet the afternoon before the first 2024 presidential debate to discuss the new Spring CRB. Kesler and Spencer spin insightful short-term prophecies--and Kesler calls Biden's flop in advance--using the editor's note as a starting point. Meanwhile, Lee Edwards' tribute to Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag…

1
The Best July 4 Poem Ever: Trump, Biden, and...Tennyson? 1:04:12

1M ago1:04:12

1:04:12

It's not the most inspiring July 4 I've ever lived through, I'll say that much. But even after a thoroughly disorienting debate experience, and even with the Brits stealing thunder from our special day by hosting their own election (rude!), what we celebrate on the 4th isn't whatever happens to be going on at this particular moment, since in any gi…

1
One More Thing: Santa Claus Made me Do It 34:53

15d ago34:53

34:53

The conversation after this week's episode on demons and psychology has been so fascinating that I wanted to add one more thing. If on Tuesdays we wear pink, on Fridays we talk about language--so in this episode I'm exploring what it means to think about the transition from soul-talk to therapy-talk as an act of translation, by which, as in all suc…

1
Words, Words, Words 16: In the Beginning Was the...What?? 32:44

1M ago32:44

32:44

Untranslatable...that's what you are...and forevermore...that's how you'll...stay? This week, prompted by a listener who's working on a very cool coding project, I'm talking a little bit about famously untranslatable words like logos, ruach, and my personal favorite, aphiēmi. It's an ancient problem, debated and fussed over basicaly since the Bible…

1
Inside Out: Allegregores III 1:02:44

1M ago1:02:44

1:02:44

Is Anxiety a demon? It's a question raised, weirdly, by the most popular kids' movie in America right now--and by the entire practice of modern psycotherapy. Typically, when we try to understand mental illness, we refer to natural causes like brain chemistry or personal and family history. But are there some forms of cognitive disorder that don't o…

1
AI Demons: Allegregores II 59:51

2M ago59:51

59:51

Is AI taking on a life of its own? Or is it just a mindless machine? Sly grin why can't we have both? Some of our earliest Western literature is fraught with the suggestion that one day we might make a machine so complex, it would think for itself. But what would that say about us? Our new, allegregorical way of talking about AI shows that when we …

1
Words, Words, Words 15: HWÆT! 31:57

2M ago31:57

31:57

Next time you want to get everyone's attention for a speech at a party, try this: stand up on a table, pound your mead-chalice on a hard surface (you've got a mead-chalice, right?) and shout HWÆT! No one will have any idea what you're saying, but they'll have no choice but to listen. That's the power of Old English. We've hit bedrock in our excavat…

1
Mother Nature Returns: Allegregores I 1:00:28

2M ago1:00:28

1:00:28

Mother nature is one of the most ancient pagan deities, and also one of the trendiest in modern times. What gives--why is a character whose name you can literally find carved into primitive rocks also being portrayed by Octavia Spencer in Apple PR campaigns? In this essay, I argue that Mother Earth or Mother Nature represents one of the most natura…

1
Interview: Discovering the Great Books with Johnathan Bi 37:29

2M ago37:29

37:29

I really enjoyed comparing notes with Johnathan Bi, whose journey in some ways mirrors my own: whereas I moved from a humanities background into an interest in science, Johnathan started in the science and tech world, then came to appreciate the importance of great literature. Together we discuss the rise of generalism, the promise and perils of th…

1
World's Wildest Travel Blog: Dr. Fauci, the Science, and the Return of the Pagan Gods 1:02:48

2M ago1:02:48

1:02:48

Will we ever get to stop hearing about Dr. Fauci? Does anyone even remember COVID anymore? These are the sorts of profound questions that define our times. I will not be answering them. Instead, I want to tell you a Very Young Heretics story about how the pagan gods found their way into modern science--and why they might be finding their way back o…

1
Words, Words, Words 14: The Father of English Literature 27:15

2M ago27:15

27:15

The prologue of The Canterbury Tales used to be part of a standard-issue training set in English courses. Today I'm RETVRNing to tradition and rebooting the old practice of memorizing--or at least reciting--the first few lines of this defining English poem in Middle English. Plus: should whisky be spelled with an -ey, or a -y? The answer will show …

1
Jeffrey H. Anderson on the Real COVID Catastrophe 33:07

2M ago33:07

33:07

Now that COVID is effectively behind us, it's increasingly easy to throw the hazy blur that was late 2019-2022 down the memory hole. Jeffrey Anderson's latest CRB essay shines a light on the COVID craze: government overreach, popular complacency, and collective amnesia. Spencer sits down with Anderson to continue the post mortem analysis and ask ho…

1
Beyond Cultural Christianity 1:01:16

2M ago1:01:16

1:01:16

Can Europe survive without its Christian spirit? Can the West? It's a question that's weighing on more and more intelligent people's minds, and Novalis helps us to grapple with it in a unique way. In this episode I look at three key areas--science, religion, and politics--where the secular spirit of Enlightenment humanism has exhausted itself and n…

1
A Brief History of Absolutely Everything 58:35

3M ago58:35

58:35

Are we on the brink of a return to Medieval wonder? A collapse into total warfare? Both? Bear with me while I present my Unified Field Theory of Human History in thirty minutes or less, by way of introduction to the mind-blowing essay "Christendom or Europe," by Novalis. He's the most important figure you've never heard of in Western literature, an…

1
Words Words Words 13: Viking Visibility Week 34:42

3M ago34:42

34:42

This week we're going still further back in time, and further north, to read some Middle English from the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight. It's a galloping adventure that's been translated by some of the greats--including J.R.R. Tolkien--and reading the original is a good chance to practice dipping your toe into the more obscure forms of Englis…

1
Why Read? iPads, Culture Wars, and the Point of the Canon 59:31

3M ago59:31

59:31

So you want to defend the Western canon, huh? Why, exactly? In this episode I take a step back and ask why, outside of politics, we should care about books. Especially in the age of podcasts and digital media, with the publishing industry bleeding profits, it's easy to think of books as obsolete. But that might be exactly why we need them most--to …

1
Words, Words, Words 12: English is a Foreign Language 41:25

3M ago41:25

41:25

Have you ever thought about how weird it is that our oldest English literature is somehow...in another language? If you want to become a better communicator, understand your own history better, and just generally have an awesome time reading cool stories about knights and stuff, you could do no better than to read the great chivalric tales of the E…

1
Doin' It Live: How to Read a Poem for the First Time 1:04:02

3M ago1:04:02

1:04:02

If you've never read a great work of literature before...where do you start? This week, in response to a listener request, I'm taking a poem I had never read before and walking through my process of getting to know it with you step by step. Hopefully, this will help give you some tips and pointers for getting acquainted with new authors and new ide…

1
Words, Words, Words 11: The Translation Cinematic Universe 34:14

3M ago34:14

34:14

When it comes to picking a translation, which brands can you trust? Like streaming services and video game consoles, publishers are always competing for eyeballs, which means no one imprint is going to be able to gather all the best authors and translators under one roof. But here are some good rules of thumb to help you understand the lay of the l…

1
The Abolition of Sex: IVF, Designer Babies, and Goethe's Faust 1:07:33

3M ago1:07:33

1:07:33

Before C.S. Lewis, before George Orwell, there was Goethe: in Faust Part II, the magician's servant Wagner concocts a literal test tube baby--a "homunculus" or "little man" made without any sexual intercourse at all. This picture of humanity cut off from its natural origins is frighteningly familiar, and it leads to a final word on science, magic, …

1
Words, Words, Words 10: The Holy Ghost Story 35:52

3M ago35:52

35:52

Why do we say "Holy Spirit" more often than "Holy Ghost"? It's not just because we're scared of things that go bump in the night. This week I'm taking a listener question about why "Spirit" and "Ghost" seem interchangeable in early modern English translations of the Bible, but not so much anymore. It's about how English has changed, how the Biblica…

1
Nope-ing Out on Humanity 1:12:05

4M ago1:12:05

1:12:05

"We're not a good species": that's the rallying cry of Les Knight, founder of the Voluntary Extinction Movement. But the idea that humanity was a mistake didn't just spring out of nowhere. It was built up gradually over centuries, as a side-effect of the scientific revolution. Goethe's Faust is a brilliant attempt to recover and sanctify the role o…

1
Interview: Jeremy Carl, [Insert Youtube Warning Label Here] 37:59

4M ago37:59

37:59

Is it OK to be white? Claremont Institute Senior Fellow is out with a provocative new book about anti-white discrimination in America, and what's to be done about it. We got into a really interesting discussion about race, culture, and politics--including questions like whether Western culture is "white" and what racial harmony in 21st-century Amer…

1
Dan Mahoney on Russian Politics, Past and Future 37:02

4M ago37:02

37:02

For a country that features so prominently in the news and so wildly in many conspiracy theories, Russia is a country that many Americans—especially many in the press—scarcely understand. Dan Mahoney’s new review essay in CRB gives a clarifying survey of major trends, challenges, and attitudes in Russian politics since the days of the Tsars. Withou…

1
Say Yes to the Dress: Goethe, Newton, and the Internet's Biggest Fight Ever 1:06:30

4M ago1:06:30

1:06:30

Blue and black? Or yellow and white? For eons, mankind has grappled with this essential question. Wars have been fought. Families have been torn asunder. Brother has turned against brother and father against son. But now, at last, we can resolve this most important of debates with help from none other than--Ludwig Goethe? Turns out the whole affair…

1
Words, Words, Words 9: Mary Mary, Quite Contrary 25:48

4M ago25:48

25:48

It's not every podcast that comes with a disclaimer, but this one is just spicy enough that it needs a warning on the label. I got a great and fascinating question about how to translate a passage from John's Gospel...and the answer will take me into Mary's status in the church, the meaning of the word "the," and the cosmic significance of each of …

1
Demons In My View: AI, Free Will, and the Quantum Revolution 1:04:04

4M ago1:04:04

1:04:04

Gather round, me hearties, and attend the tale of Pierre-Simon Laplace--a demon-haunted man. This is a story I've been itching to tell for a while, about the birth of quantum physics and the revenge of the Atomic Swerve. It stretches all the way back to Marcus Aurelius and all the way forward to the AI revolution, with some incredible tea to spill …

1
Interview with John Daniel Davidson: Silence, Pagan! 34:13

4M ago34:13

34:13

In his new book, Pagan America, Federalist Senior Editor John Daniel Davidson argues that America is not only becoming, but functionally already is, a pagan society. We talk about what that means, why it's happened, and what can be done about it. It's a fascinating discussion touching on a lot of themes that have really been mainstays of the show t…

1
Yuval Harari's Faustian Bargain 1:04:41

4M ago1:04:41

1:04:41

You've probably seen that meme of the IQ bell curve, where the guy with the lowest IQ and the guy with the highest IQ both agree, while the guy in the middle copes and seethes. Well, this week I am here to tell you that it really do be like that. Chris Marlowe and my Uber driver are in agreement that the soul is real, while Dr. Faustus and professi…

1
Words, Words, Words 8: It's Not Bird 32:18

4M ago32:18

32:18

On this Good Friday, we're doin' it live: translating Aquinas, that is. I talk through some extremely sticky medieval philosophy of language, but it's all worth it because at the end it turns out that existence is bananas and humanity really is made in God's image, which, come on, is good payoff for 30 minutes. A blessed Easter weekend to you; hope…

1
I Ain't Got No Crystal Ball 1:03:21

4M ago1:03:21

1:03:21

The universe just keeps getting weirder and weirder, man. New data from the James Webb Space Telescope might actually be the most important news story that no one's talking about. It invites us to consider whether we're going to freak out, like the Commies, or rejoice in the glory of God, like civilized people. It's possible Christopher Marlowe can…

1
Words, Words, Words 7: By Any Other Name 36:28

5M ago36:28

36:28

Lying awake one night, I pulled out my Japanese grammar dictionary, as you do. And I suddenly realized some of the stuff in there--i.e., in Japanese, a language the Ancient Greeks had never heard of--could have been taken right out of Plato's Cratylus. What the heck is that about? And what does it have to do with the name of God? Answers to these a…

1
Winter 2023/24 Review with Charles Kesler 33:34

5M ago33:34

33:34

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan meet to discuss the winter CRB. Kesler’s cover essay covering the intellectual differences between national conservatism and Trump's brand of nationalism takes top billing. Michael Knowles's insightful review of Chris Rufo's new book invites us to consider where Rufo's project may be headed.…

1
Kate Merlinton, Princess of Wales 1:01:05

5M ago1:01:05

1:01:05

Will the real Merlin please stand up? Every major new development in scientific knowledge comes with a period of upheaval in what it means to do magic--or in what counts as magic, and what counts as science. This week, in providential synchronicity with a listener question, I wanted to talk about two twentieth-century depictions of Merlin in the ag…

1
Interview: Isabel Brown, Gen Z Champion 38:12

5M ago38:12

38:12

Are the kids alright? Before you leap to respond "absolutely not," listen to content creator Isabel Brown argue that in fact there really is honest-to-goodness hope among members of--wait for it--Gen Z. As an ancient Millennial myself, I think this is great news. Isabel lays out the case for why Gen Z might actually be trending conservative cultura…

1
That Magician Ain't Real! 58:48

5M ago58:48

58:48

These days we tell a tidy little story: once there was magic, now there's reason. But there's another, older story that might be closer to the truth: once there was fake magic, now there's real magic. In fact, not only is that the story that many luminaries of the scientific revolution told--it's also a story that extends back before the scientific…

1
Words, Words, Words 6: What's in a Name? 33:33

5M ago33:33

33:33

Oh, we're really in it now. On today's translation segment, I take a question that will lead us into the heart of magic, language, and human nature: what's in a name? Specifically, what's in God's name? Throughout the Bible, not just God but God's name is invoked as a stand-in for God himself. Figuring out why will take us through Greek philosophy,…

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