New Humanists

Ancient Language Institute
  • 4.9 (48)
  • LANGUAGE LEARNING
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Join the hosts of New Humanists and founders of the Ancient Language Institute, Jonathan Roberts and Ryan Hammill, on their quest to discover what a renewed humanism looks like for the modern world. The Ancient Language Institute is an online language school and think tank, dedicated to changing the way ancient languages are taught.

  1. 4D AGO

    The Case Against Meritocracy | Episode CVIII

    Send a text Two ways to support the show and unlock bonus episodes: Download and subscribe to Ekho: ancientlanguage.com/ekho/ Subscribe to New Humanists+ for bonus episodes: buzzsprout.com/1791279/subscribe What's the matter with meritocracy? Shouldn't college acceptances and jobs and awards be distributed on the basis of merit? The alternative, some sort of quota system, seems unjust and intolerable.  In his book, Notes Toward the Definition of Culture, T.S. Eliot makes a case against meritocracy. This is the subject of Chapter Two: "The Class and the Elite." While admitting that every "honest man is vexed" to see people who have obtained positions "for which neither their character nor their intellect qualified them," Eliot argues that the doctrine of meritocracy is a radical position. Far from being a conservative or even moderate outlook, true meritocracy requires a total transformation of society, in which family and cultural life must be re-engineered by committees of elites.  Eliot distinguishes between the old concept of aristocracy and the new concept of elites, categories we tend to confuse. He argues for the necessity of an upper class to maintain manners and standards and taste, which he says is required for the perpetuation of great art and high culture. T.S. Eliot's Notes Toward the Definition of Culture (in Christianity and Culture): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780156177351 New Humanists episode on Chapter 1 of Notes Toward the Definition of Culture: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/18764670-defining-culture-episode-cvii Paul Fussell's Class: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780671792251 David Hicks's Norms & Nobility: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781538195352 New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/ Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores. Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Support the show

    1h 4m

  2. MAR 1

    Defining "Culture" | Episode CVII

    Send a text Download Ekho: ancientlanguage.com/ekho/ Subscribe to New Humanists+ for bonus episodes: buzzsprout.com/1791279/subscribe Pop culture. Cancel culture. Judeo-Christian culture. Everyone likes to talk about "culture," but what actually is it? One of the greatest writers of the 20th century, the poet and essayist T.S. Eliot, wrote a short book, Notes Toward the Definition of Culture, attempting to answer exactly that question. Written in the latter days of World War Two, as the Allied nations began to realize that Germany's surrender was imminent and that it was up to them to rebuild European culture, Eliot's Notes Toward the Definition of Culture was part of a broader anxiety among European and American elites about what the postwar world would look like.  In Chapter One, Eliot proposes three necessary ingredients for the existence of high culture: the durability of social classes, regionalism, and the balance of unity and diversity in religion. He also gestures towards two possible definitions of culture: first, simply that which makes life living, and secondly, the incarnation of the religion of a people. Jonathan and Ryan discuss Chapter One, as well as related matters, such as California cuisine. Alan Jacobs's The Year of Our Lord 1943: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780190864651 T.S. Eliot's Notes Toward the Definition of Culture (in Christianity and Culture): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780156177351 Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781935191568 C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060652920 Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199538744 H.I. Marrou's A History of Education in Antiquity: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780299088149 Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Why I Am Now a Christian": https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-i-am-now-a-christian/ Charles Taylor's A Secular Age: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674986916 New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/ Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores. Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Support the show

    1h 10m

  3. FEB 15

    Technology Versus the Classics, feat. Timothy Griffith | Episode CVI

    Send a text When the Loeb Classical Library was launched, the greatest language teacher of the age, W.H.D. Rouse, wrote an essay meant to promote the Loebs by extolling the magnificence of Greek literature and Latin literature. And boy did he. "Your mind cannot live without them. All the great intellectual impulses begin in Greece; the modern world only grows crops from the Greek seed." While Rouse admitted that his space was short, and so he had to "be dogmatic," this essay, "Machines or Mind?" is a worthy read, not least because of its response to the utilitarians who'd prefer we abandon the humanities and instead bend all of our time, effort, and resources to making more machines. One of Rouse's 21st century heirs, Senior Fellow of Classical Languages at New Saint Andrews College and founder of Picta Dicta, Timothy Griffith, joins the podcast to discuss the essay, Rouse's place in the tradition of humanist education, and whether the Aeneid can properly be called an epic. W.H.D. Rouse's Machines or Mind?: https://antigonejournal.com/2024/11/machines-or-mind-loebs-rouse/ Picta Dicta: https://pictadicta.com/ W.H.D. Rouse's Latin on the Direct Method: https://scholalatina.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Rouse-Appleton-Latin-on-the-direct-method.pdf C.S. Lewis's Preface to Paradise Lost: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780195003451 New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/ Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores. Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Support the show

    53 min

  4. FEB 1

    Straussian Aristocracy, feat. Pavlos Papadopoulos | Episode CV

    Send a text Liberal education is for the man of leisure: Either a gentleman engaged in politics, or a philosopher engaged in contemplation. What role, then, can liberal learning have in a mass democracy? In the lecture "Liberal Education and Responsibility," the political theorist Leo Strauss defends his statement that "Liberal education is the ladder by which we try to ascend from mass democracy to democracy as originally meant. Liberal education is the necessary endavor to found an aristocracy within democratic mass society." Along the way, he also discusses religious education, the distinction between the gentleman and the philosopher, and the insufficiency of the great books movement. Wyoming Catholic College professor Pavlos Papadopoulos rejoins the podcast for another dive into Strauss. Leo Strauss's Liberal Education and Responsibility: https://archive.org/details/LeoStraussOnLiberalEducation/Strauss-LiberalEducationResponsibility/ NH episode on Leo Strauss's What Is Liberal Education?: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/18277048-big-bad-leo-strauss-feat-pavlos-papadopoulos-episode-ci Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781451683202 Jonathan Swift's The Battle of the Books: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781507890530 Mark A. Noll's The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780802882042 Greg Lukianoff's and Jonathan Haidt's The Coddling of the American Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780735224919 Pete Hegseth's and David Goodwin's Battle for the American Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780063215054 Robert R. Reilly's The Closing of the Muslim Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781610170024 Allan Bloom's translation of The Republic of Plato: https://amzn.to/49ZMPIs Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy in America (trans. Harvey Mansfield): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780226805368 Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta: https://amzn.to/4buKd7W C.S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060652944 Josef Pieper's Leisure The Basis of Culture: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781586172565 New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/ Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores. Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Support the show

    1h 15m

  5. JAN 15

    Out of the Steppe, feat. Colin Gorrie | Episode CIV

    Send a text What do you think of laryngeals? How should we refer to the Anatolian languages? Where do you stand on Gimbutas and Renfrew? In this episode of New Humanists, Dr. Colin Gorrie helps guide us through the Indo-European family tree. We follow the various branches as they spread out across Europe and Asia: Anatolian, Tocharian, Celtic, Germanic, Italic, and more. This episode covers the second half of Laura Spinney's introduction to the field of Indo-European studies, Proto. Laura Spinney's Proto: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781639732586 Colin Gorrie's YouTube interview with Laura Spinney: https://youtu.be/_nVIV-qaHHY M.L. West's Indo-European Poetry and Myth: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199558919 Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780226458120 Colin Gorrie's "Dead Language Society" Substack: https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/ Calvert Watkins' How to Kill a Dragon: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780195085952 Ekho, the ancient language audiobook app, is coming soon. Check here for more details: https://ancientlanguage.com/ekho New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/ Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores. Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Support the show

    59 min

  6. JAN 1

    Enter the Indo-Europeans, feat. Colin Gorrie | Episode CIII

    Send a text Supposedly, about half of the world population speaks languages that all come from one root language: Proto-Indo-European. How do we know, and where did "PIE" come from? Ukraine, Anatolia, or somewhere else? Did the Indo-Europeans spread out in a massive, peaceful migration of farmers? Or as small bands of shepherds, stealing livestock and killing anyone standing in the way? How do we even know what a prehistoric language sounded like if we don't have any record of their language? In this episode, Colin Gorrie joins us to discuss the opening chapters of Laura Spinney's Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, a fascinating and enjoyable survey of the current state of research into Proto-Indo-European, and a useful introduction to the fields of historical linguistics, archaeology, and paleogenetics, and how they relate to the question of Indo-European origins. Laura Spinney's Proto: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781639732586 Colin Gorrie's YouTube interview with Laura Spinney: https://youtu.be/_nVIV-qaHHY Fustel de Coulanges's The Ancient City: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780648690542 Erwin Rohde's Psyche: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780415225632 New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/ Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores. Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Support the show

    1h 11m

  7. 12/15/2025

    The Sophists Are the Founders of Classical Education | Episode CII

    Send a text The classical education revival movement began in the 1980s as a DIY, grassroots attempt to recover the medieval liberal arts, most notably the Trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. However, the classical ed movement also frequently drapes itself in the garb of Plato: leading students out of the cave, employing Socratic techniques in the classroom, and ensuring its students do not lead unexamined lives. But what if classical education, both in its love for the Trivium (and Quadrivium) as well as its institutional character, borrows more from the great enemy and rival of Socrates - sophistry? In this episode, Jonathan and Ryan read H.I. Marrou's chapter from A History of Education in Antiquity on the sophists and the birth of classical education proper. Henri-Irénée Marrou's A History of Education in Antiquity: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780299088149 Plato's Symposium: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780521682985 New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/ Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores. Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Support the show

    54 min

  8. 12/01/2025

    Big Bad Leo Strauss, feat. Pavlos Papadopoulos | Episode CI

    Send a text What is liberal education? It's the prompt that has launched one thousand essays, and in a 1959 lecture at the University of Chicago, the (in)famous Leo Strauss gave his answer. Despite fleeing Nazi Germany and coming to the United States, Strauss wasn't afraid of criticizing the positivism, historicism, and relativism of the American academy. And as is evident in reading his lecture "What is Liberal Education?" neither was he afraid of calling into question the value and feasibility of modern democracy. Wyoming Catholic College professor Pavlos Papadopoulos joins Jonathan and Ryan to discuss Strauss, his relation to the Great Books movement, and his views on the relation between liberal education and mass democratic society. Leo Strauss's What Is Liberal Education? https://archive.org/details/LeoStraussOnLiberalEducation/Strauss-WhatIsLiberalEducation/ Josef Pieper's Leisure, The Basis of Culture: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781586172565 New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/ Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores. Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Support the show

    1h 12m
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4.9
out of 5
48 Ratings

About

Join the hosts of New Humanists and founders of the Ancient Language Institute, Jonathan Roberts and Ryan Hammill, on their quest to discover what a renewed humanism looks like for the modern world. The Ancient Language Institute is an online language school and think tank, dedicated to changing the way ancient languages are taught.

Information

  • Creator
    Ancient Language Institute
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    108
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Ancient Language Institute
  • Show Website
    New Humanists

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