The New Thinkery

In this week's episode, the guys dive into Tacitus' Agricola, a text recounting the life of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola. The text has much more to it than simply a retelling of Agricola'…

Tragedy, or calamity, is inevitable in life. How we deal with those events can be thought of as defining moments in our character.  Many have sought to find the "best" way to endure calamities, and t…

In case you ever wanted to see the shiny dome that is Alex's head or the beard of his hair planted on Greg's chin, now you can! This Wednesday, April 14, the guys will be recording an episode of The …

In the sixth installment of an ongoing series breaking down Plato's Symposium, the guys reconvene to analyze Agathon's speech on Eros, emphasizing what Agathon claims Eros is and what it is the cause…

Death is always a difficult subject, and having to give a eulogy, as Greg notes, is extremely difficult. Pericles gave one of the most memorable funeral orations in history. So good, in fact, that Ab…

This week the guys turn to cinema instead of their bookshelves to analyze Woody Allen's movie, Love and Death. A step removed from the slapstick comedy and parody Allen is known for, Love and Death c…

This week the guys return to Plato’s Symposium to analyze the philosophical messages contained within individual speeches. This time, the guys delve into Aristophanes’ speech, which deals with the na…

In this week's edition of TNT, the guys are joined by Flagg Taylor, professor of political theory at Skidmore College. The group analyze Walker Percy's essay, "The Loss of the Creature," and focus es…

In this President's Day edition of The New Thinkery, the guys are joined by Professor Steve Hayward, senior resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, and a visiting le…

This week the guys are back to discuss another of Francis Bacon's works: New Atlantis. This short work might be presented to readers as incomplete, but Bacon includes several interesting philosophic …

In this week's installment of The New Thinkery, the guys are joined by Jan Blits, Professor Emeritus in the University Honors Faculty at the University of Delaware. Together, they analyze the underly…

This week the guys are back to discuss Jonathan Swift. Everyone has heard of Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal, but he has another work worth looking at: The Battle of the Books. Plus: the aud…

In this week's edition of The New Thinkery, the guys discuss Jacob Klein's The Idea of Liberal Education. Specifically, they delve into the questions raised by Klein's analysis of education and wheth…

In this week's episode of The New Thinkery, the guys discuss William James, one of the leading proponents of American pragmatism, on the question of whether our warlike passions can have a peaceful p…

In this edition of The New Thinkery, the guys are back to help bring in the new year, and are joined by Dr. Richard Velkley, the Celia Scott Weatherhead Professor of Philosophy at Tulane University. …

Join the guys this week as they continue to break Plato's Symposium into sections and analyze the philosophical messages contained within. This week the guys take on Eryximachus' speech on love from …

In this week's episode of The New Thinkery, the guys discuss the Christmas classic: A Christmas Carol. They go through the book's plot, themes, underlying philosophical points, and talk about the cul…

In this week's episode of The New Thinkery, the guys discuss another of Aristotle's works, this time focusing on Aristotle's account of virtue in the second book of the Nicomachean Ethics. Plus: the …