Books of Titans Podcast

2026 has been a fun year of reading so far. I’ve read the Bible, a few Plato dialogues, legends of King Arthur, and others. Here’s my mid-year reading review. It’s a great way to learn about books you may want to add to your own reading list. I go through the 20+ books I’re read so far for this year and a little about each one of them. Enjoy! Reading List (Jan - June 2026) * The Intertextual Tanak...

Last episode, I spoke to poet Malcolm Guite about his epic poem, Galahad and the Grail . In this episode, I interview Galahad’s illustrator, Stephen Crotts. This is my Arthurian Month where I’ve been getting to know the Legends of King Arthur through the works of Sir Thomas Malory, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Malcolm Guite. In this episode, recorded at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN, I ask Ste...

June is my Arthurian Month, a quick dive into the legends of King Arthur. In this episode, I interview author and epic poet Malcolm Guite, whose work here is something special. We trace the Arthurian threads back to Ancient Greece, talk about his collaboration with illustrator Stephen Crotts, and explore the theme of unveiling. Show Notes: * Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite * Purchase a copy...

In this episode, I cover The Birth of Love myth in Plato’s Symposium dialogue. I don’t usually think of Plato as a myth maker, but here he is offering a different spin on the birth of Eros to show how love’s parentage shows our need for Beauty. The ladder of love leads to Plato’s heavenly form of Beauty in a wonderful way. I talk about this myth, Plato’s use of myth, and myth in general in the art...

What is the good life? This is the question addressed in Philebus , one of Plato’s later dialogues, written in the late 350s BC. Philebus and his counterpart Protarchus (a pupil of Gorgias ) argue for pleasure as the highest pursuit and good. Plato (through Socrates) argues for wisdom and knowledge. Can either of these be the sole pursuit of the life well-lived? The goal of the dialogue is to rank...

In today’s podcast episode, I cover the legend of The Flowering Hawthorn and its connection to the King Arthur legend. It’s a tale that begins with Joseph of Arimathea. He’s the rich man who buried Jesus in his tomb. Tradition holds that Joseph traveled to England many years after the resurrection carrying with him the blood of Jesus, a staff, and possibly, the holy grail. Joseph’s staff began to...

In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of two of the earliest Greek Philosophers, Anaximander & Anaximenes of Miletus. Anaximander is credited with introducing the idea of the First Principle, of which his was the infinite, and Anaximenes, Air. Books Referenced: * Early Greek Philosophy - Translation by Jonathan Barnes - Penguin Classics * The First Philosophers - Translation by Robin...

In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of Parmenides of Elea. Robin Waterfield calls him “the single most important Pre-socratic thinker.” He introduced a puzzle about Being that required a response by philosophers who followed him. From that puzzle, we have the Atom / Void idea from Democritus and the Forms / Shadows idea from Plato. Plato even has a dialogue named after this influen...

In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of Gorgias, the father of the Sophistic Movement. We can pinpoint a shift from philosophy to sophism in the life of Gorgias. Each of the early Greek philosophers had a First Principle, an arche they considered to be the foundation of everything else. That stops with the Sophists. Instead of a love of wisdom using speech to seek after truth, the S...

In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of Democritus of Abdera. He is one of my favorite early Greek philosophers, mainly because of his wisdom/ethical sayings. He barely made the Presocratic cut, being just 1 - 10 years before Socrates. However, his ideas, way ahead of their time, were picked up by Aristotle and Epicurus and have influenced humankind to our time. A true Renaissance M...

In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae. His first principle, the thing that organized everything else, was the nous or the mind. He thought that in the beginning, there was an original mixture of unchanging seeds that a mind set in motion and began to organize. Anaxagoras was born in Asia Minor and moved to Athens, becoming one of the first philosophers to...

In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of Empedocles of Acragas. He lived from 495 - 435 BC before dramatically diving into the volcano at Mt. Etna to prove he was immortal. As we find out in this episode, the accounts of the life and death of Empedocles are varied and contradictory and contain an element of myth, which is appropriate given his use of epic poetry to present his ideas....

Aristotle called Thales the Father of Natural Philosophy. At a very high level, he’s credited with shifting from mythos to logos, from a mythological explanation of the world to one based upon natural observation. Thales believed that water was the underlying principle of everything, that an immortal soul existed, and that earthquakes were caused by waves underneath a flat earth instead of by the...

Last week, I talked about the life and philosophy of Heraclitus of Ephesus. A number of his surviving fragments deal with the concept of Logos , what Eva Brann calls “the order that is the cosmos.” This week, I’m taking a deeper look into what Heraclitus meant by Logos and how that might help us better understand John’s use of it in the New Testament Gospel, where he writes, “In the beginning was...

For the next month or so, I’m going to highlight different early Greek Philosophers on the podcast and in my Substack articles. Last year, I started reading Plato’s dialogues and realized that I didn’t know the philosophers or their ideas that he was referencing. I stopped reading the dialogues in order to get to know these Greek Philosophers. In this episode, I cover Heraclitus, a philosopher fam...

I start each year reading straight through a different version of the Bible during January & February. This year, I selected the Intertextual Tanakh for the Five Books of Moses and the Early Prophets and used the Bibliotheca version for The Latter Prophets, The Writings, and The New Testament. In this episode, I share what stuck out this year over the 80 hours of reading through the Bible. This is...

Here’s episode 7 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the New Testament books of the Gospels, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Show Notes: Dr. Jason Staples’ Suggested Bible Reading Order (start at the 1hr 16 minute mark): This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with o...

Here’s episode 6 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. Show Notes: Purchase The Intertextual Tanakh from Landmark Booksellers. Dr. Jason Staples’ Suggested Bible Reading Order (start at the 1hr 16 minute mark): This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other...

This special mid-week episode is a deep dive into the musical Hadestown , Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera that reimagines the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a haunting, jazz-inflected underworld. Last week, I had the joy of playing violin in the on-stage band for a series of local youth-theater performances of Hadestown , and sharing the stage with my daughter made the entire experience unforgettable...

Here’s episode 5 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, and Daniel. I also highlight some overarching themes so far from this reading. Show Notes: Purchase The Intertextual Tanakh from Landmark Booksellers. Dr. Jason Staples’ Suggested Bib...

Here’s episode 4 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the books of Ezekiel, the 12 Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), and the Psalms. I also highlight some overarching themes so far from this reading. Show Notes: Purchase The Intertextual Tanakh...

Here’s episode 3 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the books of Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. I also highlight some overarching themes so far from this reading. Show Notes: Purchase The Intertextual Tanakh from Landmark Booksellers. Dr. Jason Staples’ Suggested Bible Reading Order (start at the 1hr 16 minute mark) This...

Here’s episode 2 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Samuel. I also highlight some overarching themes so far from this reading. Show Notes: Purchase The Intertextual Tanakh from Landmark Booksellers Dr. Jason Staples’ Suggested Bible Reading Order (start at the 1hr 16 minute mark) T...

Over the next two months, I’m going to present quick podcast check-ins as I make my way through the Bible. I start each year reading a different translation of the Bible during the months of January and February. This year, I’m starting off with the Intertextual Tanakh, which covers The Five Books of Moses and The Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings). In this episode, I share a few idea...

READING YEAR THEME: GREEK PHILOSOPHY I’ll be spending most of 2026 ploughing the depths of Plato and Aristotle. I divide eating reading year into semesters: * Spring Semester - March - June * Summer Break - July * Fall Semester - August - November * Winter Break - December I start each year reading straight through the Bible during January & February. The versions I’m using this year are The Inter...