247 episodes

The classical education you never knew you were missing. Join scholar and writer Spencer Klavan on a tour through the great works of the West. In a world gone mad, we're not alone: the great men and women who went before us have wisdom to guide us. With their help, we can recover truth, beauty, and the stuff that matters.

Young Heretics Spencer Klavan

    • Education
    • 4.9 • 4.4K Ratings

The classical education you never knew you were missing. Join scholar and writer Spencer Klavan on a tour through the great works of the West. In a world gone mad, we're not alone: the great men and women who went before us have wisdom to guide us. With their help, we can recover truth, beauty, and the stuff that matters.

    It Depends on What the Meaning of the Word "Is" Is (Words, Words, Words 19)

    It Depends on What the Meaning of the Word "Is" Is (Words, Words, Words 19)

    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 the answer is...it's complicated. Buckle up!
    Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
    Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
    Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

    • 35 min
    We're Reading Homer: The Movie I'm Most Excited about This Year

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

    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 whole story of the Homeric epics, starting today with the man (and the myth, and the legend) himself. Can't wait!!
    Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
    I maked this: "Rachel Maddow's J.D. Vance Fan Fiction" at The Washington Examiner https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/3090704/rachel-maddow-j-d-vance-fan-fiction/
    Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
    Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com
    Watch Martin West snatch Gregory Nagy's wig: https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2001/2001.09.06/
     

    • 1 hr
    Lend me a Kleenex: How Foreign Words Become English (Words, Words, Words 18)

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

    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 English. The answer is...#itscomplicated. But also amazing. And cool. And awesome. Let's discuss!
    Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
    Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
    Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com
     

    • 35 min
    You Best Not Miss: The Assassination Attempt on Trump, according to Machiavelli

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

    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 to get some distance on the situation. And there could hardly be a better guide through this kind of event than Niccolò Machiavelli, realist extraordinaire. 
    Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
    I maked this: Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/0fUMLN9f
    Gateway to the Epicureans: https://a.co/d/03RaCAP5
    Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com
    Subscribe to my joint substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

    • 1 hr 6 min
    Moving in the Breeze: How to Translate Untranslatable Words (Words, Words, Words 17)

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

    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 interested in any of that noise and just want to pick a good English version of a book you've heard rules in the original. Plus I sing in this one, so I'm pretty sure that's more than enough podcasting for one day.
    Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
    Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
    Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

    • 34 min
    The Mac Daddy of Sports Riots: Allegregores IV

    The Mac Daddy of Sports Riots: Allegregores IV

    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 stories, is about so much more than that. It reveals profound and perhaps unsettling truths about our human nature and the strange forces I've come to call allegregores.
    Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
    I maked this: Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/0fUMLN9f
    Gateway to the Epicureans: https://a.co/d/03RaCAP5
    Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com
    Subscribe to my joint substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

    • 1 hr

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
4.4K Ratings

4.4K Ratings

333710 ,

July 16 you best no miss

Great insightful analysis
Required listening for the leaders and talking heads who have been drumming up hatred against trump for the past 8+ years

Hitchkennedy ,

A Brilliant & Joyous Exploration of the Letters

…and why it matters. Like that eccentric and mischievous professor you studied under. He’s back. Learned, witty, wise, demanding. Be grateful for this mind at work. Take your place and begin.

Bill Ibbo ,

So glad you are back

Enjoyed the first return program on virtue. I do believe a revelation of morality as you have in the Torah is essential to prevent poor reason from leading you astray. Hazony's book Conservatism Rediscovered lays this out well. Maybe that can be a few weeks of pods down the road. I have enjoyed the Daily Wire content as well.

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