We've reached Book 5, and Diomedes isn't playing around. He even stabs Ares himself. Brian, Shilo, and Jeff ask: what does it mean to have a war in which men and gods fight one another? We consider whether war is an uncanny world where the gods can be wounded, where men act like gods and gods act like men, and where the one can be mistaken for the other. Are the Homeric Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 62 Homer’s “Iliad” Book 5
Pretty Much Pop #130: CODA and Deaf Culture
The 2022 Oscar winner for Best Picture was CODA, a story about a musically inclined girl with a deaf family. Kambri Crews, herself a CODA and author of a much darker story about this called Burn Down the Ground, joins your host Mark Linsenmayer, writer Sarahlyn Bruck, and jack-of-many-intellectual-trades Al Baker to talk about how deaf culture interacts with film. Films tend Continue Reading …
NEM#177: Susan Cattaneo Leaves Nashville and Finds Herself
Susan teaches songwriting at Berklee and has released six albums since 2009. As she tells us, she started wanting to be a Nashville songwriter, decided to then sing those country songs herself, but decided that it was too much of an act. Her subsequent, meticulously crafted Americana albums in Boston better reflect her unique sensibilities. We discuss “Broken Things” (and Continue Reading …
Not Ep. 299: Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” Audioplay Feat. Jay O. Sanders, Michael Ian Black, and Michael Tow (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. The PEL Players are back, with more players than ever, doing an unrehearsed reading of William Shakespeare's least popular play, co-written with Thomas Middleton in Shakespeare's later years, probably around 1605. The play is about money and cynicism, where a man gets to see where his friends go when his money runs Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Ficino-Flavored Nightcap Early August 2022
Subscribe to get this recording in its entirety. In this hybrid discussion between Mark and Wes (is it a part three or a Nightcap?), we spent the majority of our time going through some more passages from Ficino's Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love. Listen to our discussion with Peter Adamson first. This preview presents more thinking about love as reproduction and Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 61 Homer’s “Iliad” Book 4
Athena appears to cause an end to the truce by wounding Menelaus. Brian, Shilo and Jeff look at how "the will of Zeus is fulfilled" through the wrath of Achilles and through Zeus' lying. In Book 1 we framed the wrath of Achilles in terms of his mortality, and achieving immortal greatness. And we see Zeus, an immortal, using duplicity to continue the conflict so his promise Continue Reading …
Pretty Much Pop #129: Wherefore the Cover Song?
Is re-playing or re-recording a song written and performed by someone else an act of love or predation? Mark is joined by Too Much Joy's Tim Quirk, the Gig Gab Podcast's Dave Hamilton, and the author of A Philosophy of Cover Songs Prof. P.D. Magnus to talk about different types of and purposes for covers, look a little at the history, share favorites, and more. A few of the Continue Reading …
Ep. 298: Marsilio Ficino on Love (Part Two)
Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free, plus a supporter exclusive Nightcap featuring more Ficino discussion, which you can preview. Continuing from part one on Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love (1475), with guest Peter Adamson. Peter gives us some context in terms of other Renaissance theories of love, and then we're back to the text, considering the role of beauty Continue Reading …
Phi Fic #44 The Poetry Episode (Dickinson, Baudelaire, Bishop, Byron)
On this episode, we perform close readings of four poems, each of which was selected by one of the show's contributors: Emily Dickinson's "The Brain is Wider Than the Sky"; Charles Baudelaire's "The Albatross"; Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art"; and Lord Byron's "Darkness." Below are links to the poems and the starting point in the audio file for each segment. Regarding the poems Continue Reading …
PvI#35: Submarine Observations w/ Chris Rathjen
We talk about observations and how they relate to theories and other types of preconception. Is there such a thing as pure observation? For our pen-pen-ultimate episode here of season one, I must say that these were some of my favorite scenes we've ever done. We tour a submarine and plan a party. There is no Chumbawamba in either case. Improv guy Chris starred in Continue Reading …
Ep. 298: Marsilio Ficino on Love (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love (1475), with guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy podcast joining Mark, Wes, and Seth. Attention: We'll be live-streaming video for our big ep. 300 on Friday, Aug. 19 at 8pm ET. More info at partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live. Leading up to that episode, Continue Reading …
NEM#176: Bill Lloyd’s Power Pop from Nashville
Bill is a highly successful Nashville songwriter, co-writing country hits for artists like Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, and Robert Ellis Orral as well as his late '80s duo Foster and Lloyd. His country collaborations go back to the late '70s, and he has a long connection to Rusty Young's latter-day iterations of Poco. But his true love has been power pop, starting Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 60 Homer’s “Iliad” Book 3
In this episode, Paris and Menelaus duel over Helen and the fate of Troy. Menelaus wins (yeah, he does) -- so why doesn't the war end here? Brian, Shilo, and Jeff discuss what this book of the Iliad teaches us about the difference between Greeks and Trojans: are the Greeks all about anger, and the Trojans all about sex? Also: who is the better leader: Priam, Agamemnon, or Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 57 Xenophon’s “Anabasis” Book 7
In the last book of Xenophon's "Anabasis" we look back at the three challenges Xenophon has experienced: going to war alongside Cyrus, marching the Greeks through enemy territory, and controlling the army by the sea trying to get home. We explore what Xenophon wants and the idea of leadership in these three situations and ask "what's the difference between a military leader Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 59 Homer’s “Iliad” Book 2
Would Agamemnon have made a bad Marine? Join Brian, Shilo, and Jeff as we discuss Brian's question: why does Agamemnon get a dream from Zeus telling him to test his troops before Troy, but the Trojans hear from a disguised messenger direct from the gods? We think about the different physical and moral situations of the Greeks and the Trojans after nine years of fighting. Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 58 Homer’s “Iliad” Book 1
We embark on our journey through Homer's "Iliad," humanity's longest surviving poem on war. We ask "why is human rage a good subject for a war poem, and not the wrath of gods?" You can ask us questions on our pod by emailing us at combatandclassics.org and follow us on social media @combatandclassics. Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 56 Xenophon’s “Anabasis” Book 6
How are dance parties related to diplomacy? The schisms continue in Book 6 within the Greek army, but some schisms seem better than others. Some try to make friends with the locals, some go for help, some go raiding. Xenophon turns down the generalship of the whole army. Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 55 Xenophon’s “Anabasis” Book 5
The rebels have arrived at the Black Sea, but through betrayal and bad decisions, things go awry..... Xenophon leads an expedition for provisions, but the ships they are waiting for don't show up. We flash forward to Xenophon the writer, who's bought some land in exile and wants to build a temple to Artemis. Xenophon toys with the idea of founding a city where the army is Continue Reading …
PMP#128: Jurassic Shlock
Mark is joined by NY Time entertainment writer/philosophy prof Lawrence Ware, novelist/ex-actor Sarahlyn Bruck, and filmmaker/Remakes, Reboots, and Revivals host Rolando Nieves to discuss the Jurassic Park franchise in light of the new film, Jurassic World: Dominion. Is the mere presence of cool dinosaurs enough to justify a film, or are these actually good films by any Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Ep. 297: Heidegger on the Human Condition (Part Three)
Subscribe to get Part 3 of this episode in its entirety. Concluding our close reading for the moment of Heidegger's Being and Time, now up to chapter 3, sections 15 and 16. These sections are entirely focused on H's primordial ontological category of Being: "ready to hand," or equipment. Since we are primarily action-oriented beings, then, the world is not a set of Continue Reading …