Classical Stuff You Should Know

In this episode, A.J. gives some tips on Style, the third canon of rhetoric. If followed, these tips will improve your prose.

In this episode, we discuss a few essays from the prominent thinker, Wendell Berry.

In this episode, Graeme finishes (or comes near finishing) a brief history of the house of Plantagenet, the house that helped to found the British Empire.

Graeme reviews the beginnings of the British empire, focusing mainly on awesome kings and royal drama. You know, the good stuff.

Thomas walks us through some thoughts on literacy and the appropriate time for entering the classical world.

A.J. walks us through the Hero's journey and outlines a the theory of the cosmic journey. Tableware also makes an appearance. Spoiler: it's gold.

In this episode, A.J. brings us into the world of the Odyssey, noting some important scenes as we explore the story.

Graeme leads us through the notion of Deep Joy. It's shorthand for the experience that inspired the romantics.

In this episode, we discuss the purpose of college, beginning specifically with the changes in mission of a specific college.

In this episode we discuss the person of Socrates. The man himself is a little tough to nail down, considering that he didn't write anything down.

We discuss the church's attitude toward lending, interest, and money. We also try to figure out definitions and how to survive the apocalypse.

We introduce you to Dante in this episode and give you a guide to understanding his best known work. Oh, also, it's a little bit about Hell, which is fun.

Adequatio is the notion that the understanding of the knower must be adequate to the thing known.

Graeme teaches us about the fall of man according to Milton. Our eighth-grade boys will be disappointed to hear that it isn't all Eve's fault.

In this episode, A.J. walks us through the ancient method of loci and its modern uses. Ever see Sherlock poke his brain and information comes out? Well, the memory palace is a real thing, but it doesn't exactly work like that.

In this episode, Thomas takes us through the ancient understanding of despair--both its symptoms and its remedies.

In this episode, Graeme takes us through the theology of Milton's paradise lost. Even if you never plan on reading this mountain of a book, it's a good way to delve into the theology of Adam and Eve.

In this episode, A.J. takes us through an alternative to the five paragraph essay that is more useful for everyone, including those of us no longer in school. Need to convince someone of something? You can use this.

In this one, Bees walks us through a classical view of friendship.

Dante recorded what folks had been doing for a long time as they read scripture. In this episode, we run you through Dante's method for studying scripture.

Dorothy Sayers' "Lost Tools of Learning" is the article that helped to form a movement. We talk through it in this episode, and we end up talking a little more trivium while we're at it.

When we say , "The Ideal Type," it's really just a way of expressing in shorthand that we cling to the idea of an ideal: an ideal way to live, an ideal way for man to live in culture. This is a discussion of that ideal.

The Trivium--grammar, logic, and rhetoric--provides the three grand divisions upon which classical education is based. Sounds boring, I know, but it ain't so bad.

In this episode, Bees walks us through Josef Pieper's book, "Leisure the Basis of Culture." A.J. takes issue with those uppity philosophers.

In this episode, we discuss the classical understanding of the seven deadly sins and their import today.