Best Ancient Language Institute Podcasts (2024)

1
Pagans and Christians, Glory and Piety | Episode LXXI 1:00:45

12d ago1:00:45

1:00:45

The things of God belong to a heavenly kingdom. But politics is taken up with what is earthly. Surely, therefore, Christians should keep politics at a distance as much as possible. Right? Even while defending the life of contemplation and retreat from the earthly, Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Bocaccio laud Christian involvement in public life. P…

1
Petrarch's Little Dark Age | Episode LXX 59:51

28d ago59:51

59:51

Imagine that you are the leading figure in a movement to renew the study and appreciation of classical literature, but you have come to the end of your life and not only has the educational and political situation not improved - it has gotten worse. Such was the vista spread out before Petrarch in his twilight. Jonathan and Ryan read and discuss so…

1
Liberal Arts for Liberal Hearts | Episode LXIX 55:24

1M ago55:24

55:24

Are the liberal arts for everyone? We tend to think that the liberal arts can be helpful and edifying for anyone. But even amidst the humanist enthusiasm for the study of letters, the Renaissance writer Pier Paolo Vergerio denied that the liberal arts could improve a corrupt soul. In his mind, the liberal arts are proper only for those born free fr…

1
What is Tyranny? | Episode LXVIII 53:00

2M ago53:00

53:00

We think we know what a "republic" is, but what did the Romans mean with their phrase "res publica"? What about the Italian humanists? And how did they distinguish a republic from a tyranny? We take a look at two more chapters from James Hankins's book, Virtue Politics, a groundbreaking examination of Renaissance political theory. These chapters fo…

1
The Renaissance Politics of Virtue | Episode LXVII 1:09:32

2M ago1:09:32

1:09:32

A pandemic. A changing climate. A hopelessly divided country. Christianity threatened by Islam. Universities completely out of touch with normal people. Late medieval Italy was a basket case. All the while, a small group of men was dreaming of the Roman Empire - maybe emulating Rome was the way to save Italy? In his book Virtue Politics, James Hank…

1
Christine de Pizan | Episode LXVI 38:23

3M ago38:23

38:23

The poet of Joan of Arc, and a notable example of a female writer in the premodern period, Christine de Pizan took a turn at the popular humanist genre of the mirror to princes in her book "The Book of the Body Politics." Jonathan and Ryan take a look at her characterization of virtue, corporal punishment, and what it takes to educate a Caesar. Ric…

1
Your Children Are Weak | Episode LXV 47:46

3M ago47:46

47:46

In his essay "On Educating Children," a follow-up to his denunciation of pedantry, Michel de Montaigne warns that "natural affection makes parents too soft" and incapable of properly disciplining their children, or even of letting their children take the risks and encounter the dangers they ought to. Book-learning, in Montaigne's essay, takes a bac…

1
The Art of Language Teaching, feat. Tim Griffith | Episode LXIV 1:13:58

4M ago1:13:58

1:13:58

When Tim Griffith was coaching soccer and reading ancient Roman rhetorical theory, he realized he had stumbled across a pedagogical goldmine. In this episode, Jonathan and Ryan talk with Tim about raising kids as native Latin speakers, the roles that comprehensible input vs. grammar instruction play in the language classroom, prescriptive versus de…

1
Republican Education, feat. Clifford Humphrey | Episode LXIII 1:07:52

4M ago1:07:52

1:07:52

We threw off the monarchy... now what? Having established a republic on American soil, the Founding Fathers were faced with the question of how to educate a new generation of people who would protect American liberty. The most underrated of the Founding Fathers, Dr. Benjamin Rush, devoted considerable time and attention to this question. In this ep…

1
Mediocrity Versus Glory in the Renaissance | Episode LXII 48:05

5M ago48:05

48:05

Leonardo Bruni was the titan of Renaissance historians and a prolific humanist. In a long letter to an aristocratic Italian woman, Battista Malatesta, he lays out his philosophy of humanistic education, which is meant to help the student achieve glory. But laziness or ineptitude, he says, threatens the student always, and will drag her down to craw…

1
Does Education Improve the Soul? | Episode LXI 58:16

5M ago58:16

58:16

Michel de Montaigne was a native Latin speaker in modern Europe and yet a great innovator in French letters; among other things, he invited the genre known as the essay. His elegant, searching essays are intended to expose the reality of his own soul - and that of his readers. In "On Schoolmasters' Learning," this most studios of men wonders aloud …

1
Pope Humanist | Episode LX 46:14

6M ago46:14

46:14

Aeneas Silvius was an accomplished Renaissance humanist, author of erotic literature, and influential aide to emperors and popes (and an antipope). Then, he became a pope himself. As Pope Pius II, he then added memoirist, urban planner, and antiquarian to his list of accomplishments. He contributed to the popular Renaissance "mirror of princes" gen…

1
Prince Erasmus | Episode LIX 49:33

6M ago49:33

49:33

Jonathan and Ryan turn to a set of selections from the Prince of Humanists himself, Desiderius Erasmus. In Liber Antibarbarorum, Erasmus pillories the precious Christians who refuse to read pagan authors on account of their own squeamish consciences. In Education of a Christian Prince, and On the Education of Children, Erasmus gives principled argu…

1
All Education Is Religious | Episode LVIII 1:05:42

7M ago1:05:42

1:05:42

"As only the Catholic and communist know, all education must be ultimately religious education." So argues T.S. Eliot in his essay "Modern Education and the Classics," in which he contrasts three different camps in the world of education: the radical, the liberal, and the orthodox. Eliot seems to say that the only hope for continued erudition in th…

1
Compassion Versus Classical Antiquity | Episode LVII 1:10:45

8M ago1:10:45

1:10:45

In The Greek State, Friedrich Nietzsche argues that the Greek polis existed in order to hold the many in slavery so that the Olympian few could give birth to the beautiful Helen known as Greek culture, and that the Greek state had to be periodically renewed by war so that it could continue to create geniuses. This, he says, is the esoteric meaning …

1
Nietzsche, Homer, and Cruelty | Episode LVI 1:16:01

8M ago1:16:01

1:16:01

Why was it that the Greeks, the most humane of all peoples, also possessed such a tigerish lust for blood? Why did the Greeks so delight in Homer's depiction of cruelty and death in the Iliad? That is the question animating Friedrich Nietzsche's preface to an unwritten book, "Homer's Contest." Nietzsche turns to the dark Hellenic past, the "womb of…

1
The Mirror for Princes | Episode LV 1:12:32

10M ago1:12:32

1:12:32

Thomas Elyot wrote "The Boke named the Governour," the first book about education written in the English language, an outstanding example in the crowded field of Renaissance-era mirrors for princes. The mirrors for princes were works designed to instruct and train future kings, nobles, and leading men. Machiavelli and Erasmus wrote famous mirrors f…

1
Martin Luther for Public Schools (or, Don't Be an Ostrich) | Episode LIV 59:53

11M ago59:53

59:53

"Simple necessity has forced men, even among the heathen, to maintain pedagogues and schoomasters if their nation was to be brought to a high standard." In his address "To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany," Martin Luther exhorts Germany's civic leaders to establish public schools for the education of all German children. Foremost among his p…

1
Only the Weak Desire a Quiet Life | Episode LIII 1:06:38

11M ago1:06:38

1:06:38

Ulrich Zwingli was one of the towering figures of the Reformation, a committed humanist, and a warrior who ultimately fell in battle. He despised the idea that Christianity could render men passive, and in a short treatise from 1523 to a young nobleman, he sketches the outlines of his ideal education for the creature called man: "We are set between…

1
Return of the Old Gods in Germany | Episode LII 1:15:51

12M ago1:15:51

1:15:51

In the opening lecture of his course on Homer, the Professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, Phillip Melanchthon, first invokes the aid of the gods and declares that to Homer belongs "the highest and noblest place." Further, Melanchthon proclaims that Homer "alone snatches away the palm of victory from all poets that any age has brought f…

1
The Warm and Capacious Calvin | Episode LI 50:03

12M ago50:03

50:03

A stern prophet of the new and harsh doctrine of predestination. A bloodthirsty tyrant burning people at the stake. A narrowminded dour Puritan. The magnitude of the popularity of these Calvinist stereotypes is matched by their massive distance from the truth of the man. In his affection for the pagan authors, Calvin reveals a deeply humanistic sou…

1
How to Educate the Queen | Episode L 58:54

1y ago58:54

58:54

How do you prepare a royal princess for the throne? In this episode, we look at the writings of two giants of Reformation humanism: Johannes Sturm and Roger Ascham, and in particular, their correspondence about Ascham's work training the future Queen Elizabeth I in Latin and Greek. Ascham himself variously tutored and served as Latin secretary to L…

1
Bread and Circuses for Rome | No Republic Was Ever Greater 47:32

1y ago47:32

47:32

King Tarquinius secures his hold on power by expanding the Senate, but encounters a roadblock to strengthening the military in the person of a famous augur. Tarquinius is ruthless, productive, and the first great Roman promoter of "bread and circuses" (among other things, according to Livy, Tarquinius builds the Circus Maximus). Despite his politic…

1
Enter the Tarquins | No Republic Was Ever Greater 1:08:00

1y ago1:08:00

1:08:00

Strange omens, plague, occult religious rites. King Tullus Hostilius' reign collapses in something like supernatural madness. The great Ancus Marcius takes over, but is finally deceived by a rich, mysterious newcomer to Rome: Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. Join Jonathan and Ryan as they outline how the first of the Tarquins takes the throne after first…

1
Democracy Dies with Lysander, feat. Alex Petkas | Episode XLVII 1:22:18

1y ago1:22:18

1:22:18

Lysander is a troubling figure. As a child, he was a charity case who excelled his more affluent peers; he never cared for wealth, and yet overlooked the rapaciousness of his friends, allowing money and luxury into Sparta, corrupting it. He liberated the Greek world from the yoke of Athenian imperialism, but then installed oligarchic juntas to rule…

1
Education that Makes Aquinas Look Modern, feat. John Peterson | Episode XLVI 1:52:09

1y ago1:52:09

1:52:09

In his wise and humane Didascalicon, the teacher, canon regular, and mystical theologian Hugh of St. Victor lays out his advice and instructions for teachers and students engaged in liberal study. The heir of centuries of thought in Christendom on the liberal arts, Hugh and his contemporaries were on the precipice of a revolution--the western redis…

1
The Danger of Plato | Episode XLV 49:57

1y ago49:57

49:57

Does Plato, and philosophy more generally, belong in schools? In a lecture, professor and Davenant Institute VP Colin Redemer suggests that Plato is too dangerous to be allowed into classical schools. Jonathan and Ryan take a look at this lecture and at the response it received, focusing on esoteric writing, reason versus revelation, and the Platon…

1
Can Humanism Replace Christianity? | Episode XLIV 52:53

1+ y ago52:53

52:53

Irving Babbitt was the architect of New Humanism. He was also T.S. Eliot's mentor at Harvard. But in 1928, the newly Anglican Eliot's essay criticizing his old mentor's humanistic project was published, which provoked a terse, and sharp, rebuke from Babbitt. What is the relationship between traditional religion and humanistic learning? Can humanism…

1
Wars of Ancient Religion | No Republic Was Ever Greater 57:18

1+ y ago57:18

57:18

The duel between the Horatii brothers and the Curiatii brothers seemed to settle the Roman-Alban dispute and give Rome authority over Alba. But wily Mettius Fufetius has a trick or two up his sleeve. Meanwhile, the one surviving Horatius brother strikes down his sister in cold blood, an incident Jacques-Louis David drew but never ended up painting.…

1
The Roman Will to Power | No Republic Was Ever Greater 53:48

1+ y ago53:48

53:48

After the long peace of Numa's reign, Rome gets a new king, even more ferocious than Romulus: Tullus Hostilius. As soon as he comes to power, he begins looking for a way to start a war (while keeping a good conscience about it). This is the fifth episode of "No Republic Was Ever Greater," a podcast series examining the rise of the Roman Empire thro…

1
Lincoln with the Bard, feat. Ted J. Richards | Episode XLI 1:08:18

1+ y ago1:08:18

1:08:18

Abraham Lincoln spent less than 1 year of his life going to school. Nevertheless, he became a lawyer, a surveyor, and one of the greatest statesmen in American history. He also carried on correspondence with one of the country's leading Shakespearean actors about the relative merits of different plays and speeches in Shakespeare's dramatic oeuvre. …

1
Numa Numa Yeah | No Republic Was Ever Greater, Ep. 4 52:36

1+ y ago52:36

52:36

When Romulus dies, the city of Rome is riven by ethnic conflict between Romans and Sabines, and class conflict between senators and plebeians. The city cannot agree on its next king; an interregnum ensues. The stalemate is eventually resolved in favor of Numa Pompilius, who is crowned king of Rome in a mysterious, mystical ceremony which almost see…

1
Milton Against the Trivium | Episode XXXIX 59:56

1+ y ago59:56

59:56

John Milton's clarion call to educators to "repair the ruins of our first parents" has inspired countless teachers and parents in the classical education movement and beyond. But is Milton really the classical education ally he appears to be? In "On Education" he pays lip service to grammar, logic, and rhetoric - the three components of the Trivium…

1
Messing Up Your Kid's Education | Episode XXXVIII 54:11

1+ y ago54:11

54:11

Giambattista Vico was a Renaissance Man after the Renaissance, but he was largely forgotten for centuries. As a professor of rhetoric, he often had the occasion to speak and write about the education of the young. We take a look at some of his orations on the topic, which are a mine of profound insight. Vico has some complaints that will sound very…

1
Reflections on the Sexual Revolution in France | Episode XXXVII 52:18

1+ y ago52:18

52:18

After reading Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, a member of the French National Assembly wrote to Burke, asking for more of his analysis on the revolution then underway. In reply, Burke wrote a long letter which included a sustained attack on the preeminent philosopher of the revolution: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This analysis identifie…

1
The Startup City | No Republic Was Ever Greater, Ep. 3 56:35

1+ y ago56:35

56:35

What if you gathered a bunch of friends, went out to the desert of Arizona, and built the greatest city that the world had ever seen? That is what Romulus does, and what Livy chronicles (except it's not in Arizona). We explore the challenges a founder faces in a startup city, how to fill it with people, and how to unify the inhabitants into one, co…

1
How to Stage a Coup | No Republic Was Ever Greater, Ep. 2 1:11:20

1+ y ago1:11:20

1:11:20

This is the second episode of our series about Livy's "Ab Urbe Condita," called "No Republic Was Ever Greater." The story of the founding of Rome continues with the story of twin brothers Romulus and Remus, as they escape certain death in a coup against their grandfather, grow up as shepherd bandits, and stage a counter-coup to return their grandfa…

1
No Republic Was Ever Greater, Ep. 1 1:16:43

1+ y ago1:16:43

1:16:43

This is the first episode of a new series on New Humanists, called "No Republic Was Ever Greater." We are walking through the masterpiece, "Ab Urbe Condita," by Ancient Roman historian Titus Livy and the great commentary on Livy, Renaissance philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli's Discourses. In this episode, we consider the lessons that founders and lea…

1
Was Virgil Divinely Inspired? | Episode XXXIII 1:06:31

1+ y ago1:06:31

1:06:31

The late antique and medieval Church saw Virgil as a pagan herald of Christ, due to the seemign messianic prophecies in Eclogue IV. In a 1953 essay titled "Vergil and the Christian World," T.S. Eliot argues that the Christian sympathies in Virgil's poetry go even deeper than that single poem, and in fact suffuse the entire Virgilian corpus. T.S. El…

1
The First English Conversation, feat. Dr. Colin Gorrie | Episode XXXII 1:11:49

2y ago1:11:49

1:11:49

Ælfric's Colloquy is a dialogue between a teacher and his students, written both in Old English and Latin, designed to teach Latin to Anglo-Saxon schoolboys. It is also the earliest record of a (relatively) realistic English-language conversation. In celebration of the Ancient Language Institute's new Old English program, Dr. Colin Gorrie joins Jon…

1
Maybe the Liberal Arts Are Useful? | Episode XXXI 1:01:00

2y ago1:01:00

1:01:00

Are classical educators dooming their students to poverty? Even back in the early 1800s, that accusation was gaining steam. Edward Copleston was a titanic figure at Oxford's Oriel College in the early 19th century, and inspired John Henry Newman, among others. Facing attacks by utilitarian critics of Oxford, Copleston launched a defense of classica…

1
Newman on Knowledge for Its Own Sake, feat. Dr. Robert Jackson | Episode XXX 1:09:19

2y ago1:09:19

1:09:19

Is knowledge its own end? Or is it a means to something else? In Discourse Five of his The Idea of a University, John Henry Newman juxtaposes Cato and Cicero as opponents on this question, but Newman’s juxtaposition is not without its own difficulties. Jonathan’s old teacher, Dr. Robert Jackson of the Great Hearts Institute, joins the podcast to ta…

1
The Classical Definition of Classical Education | Episode XXIX 49:06

2y ago49:06

49:06

Milton and Shakespeare? Or Homer and Virgil? Why should our students study Greeks and Romans when we have English-language poets, philosophers, and historians worthy to be placed on the same level as the ancients? Maybe because the “ancients” aren’t really so ancient after all… So argues Thomas Arnold in his defense of the classical curriculum he i…

1
Doing the (Intellectual) Work | Episode XXVIII 1:07:20

2y ago1:07:20

1:07:20

The intellectual life can’t just be reading all day. Eventually, you have to sit down and do the work. According to A.G. Sertillanges, the intellectual vocation finds its fulfillment in creation. Jonathan and Ryan wrap up their reading of Sertillanges’s The Intellectual Life as they walk through the final three chapters. There was a software proble…

1
The Intellectual Life, Continued | Episode XXVII 48:15

2y ago48:15

48:15

Jonathan and Ryan continue their discussion of A.G. Sertillanges’s marvelous The Intellectual Life. In chapters 4 -6, Sertillanges touches on, among other things, sleep, the pursuit of wisdom in everyday life, and breadth of study in service of depth. A.G. Sertillanges’s The Intellectual Life: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780813206462 Editorial No…

1
Me, an Intellectual | Episode XXVI 55:16

2y ago55:16

55:16

The French Thomist A.G. Sertillanges, O.P., is most famous for The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. The book is a moving and handy meditation inspired by Thomas Aquinas’ Letter to Brother John about what it will take to devote your life to contemplation. This is the first episode in a three-part series on The Intellectual Life in…

1
Academic Leadership | Episode XXV 1:01:17

2y ago1:01:17

1:01:17

Who is at the helm of the ship of state? Is the United States doomed to go the way of the Titanic? In the essay “Academic Leadership,” Paul Elmer More expounds on the crucial role that humanistic study plays in cultivating a natural aristocracy that guides and protects the body politic. More, along with Irving Babbitt, was a luminary of the New Hum…

1
Justin Martyr’s First Apology, feat. Calvin Goligher | Episode XXIV 1:11:27

2y ago1:11:27

1:11:27

Was Socrates a Christian? Did Plato meet Jeremiah? Are pagan myths based on garbled versions of the Hebrew prophets? Welcome to Justin Martyr’s First Apology, a plea to the Roman Emperor to stop killing Christians, a philosophical defense of Christianity, and a master class in biblical exegesis. ALI Latin & Greek Fellow Calvin Goligher returns to N…

1
Beowulf, feat. Colin Gorrie | Episode XXIII 1:19:05

2y ago1:19:05

1:19:05

Where is Geatland? Beowulf has been taken as a founding poem for England, yet England never appears in the poem. Linguist Colin Gorrie joins Jonathan and Ryan to discuss this heroic and tragic Old English masterpiece, the history of scholarship surrounding the poem, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s titanic contribution to modern understanding of it. Seamus Hea…

1
Should Everyone Be Educated? | Episode 22 50:24

2y ago50:24

50:24

Making humanistic education democratic and freely available was its downfall, at least in the eyes of Albert Jay Nock, as he discusses in The Theory of Education in the United States. Taking a cue as well from Plato’s Republic, Jonathan and Ryan address the apparent tension between the excellence of the tradition and the equalitarian, democratic mo…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Ancient Language Institute Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide