Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)

A conversation with Scott Thomas Anderson, writer and producer of the documentary podcast series "Drinkers with Writing Problems". Season 2  of Scott's podcast premiered on January 20, 2022. Songs played in this episode: "Moby Dick" by Glass Wave "Fat Angel" by Jefferson Airplane

Cynthia L. Haven is a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar and author of Czesław Miłosz: A California Life, from Berkeley’s Heyday Books and 2018’s Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard, the first-ever biography of the renowned French theorist. She has also published two previous books on Czesław Miłosz: An Invisible Rope: Portraits of Czesław Miłosz and Czesław Miłosz: Conver...

Dr. Miles Osgood received his Ph. D. in English Literature from Harvard University, and he is currently a Lecturer in the Structured Liberal Education program at Stanford. He has designed and taught classes on Ulysses, modernist women writers, and global short fiction. In this episode, Dr. Osgood and Robert Harrison discuss the 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse.  Song in this episode:...

Dr. Chloe Summers Edmondson is a Lecturer in the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education program at Stanford. She received her PhD from Stanford in the French & Italian Department in 2020, and MA in Communication in 2014. Her research is situated at the crossroads of literary criticism, cultural history, and media studies, with a focus on 17th and 18th-century France. Her work has appeared in the Jou...

Sophus Helle is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin. He previously translated "The Epic of Gilgamesh" into Danish with his father. His English translation of the epic was recently published by Yale University Press.  Songs in this episode: "Helen" by Glass Wave  "Gilgamesh Blues" by Glass Wave

Markus Gabriel holds the chair in epistemology, modern, and contemporary philosophy at the University of Bonn, Germany, and also serves as the Director of its International Center for Philosophy. He works mainly in epistemology and metaphysics (ontology) drawing his inspirations from the history of philosophy (in particular, 19th century Post-Kantian philosophy, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein). He ha...

This episode is a brief monologue by our host, Professor Robert Harrison.  Songs in this episode: "Voodoo Child" by Jimi Hendrix "Present Tense" by Radiohead 

Scott Thomas Anderson is a journalist whose work regularly appears in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento News & Review. He studied American Literature at the University of California at Davis, and while the bulk of his 15-year career has been primarily as a crime reporter, he’s recently started to balance that focus by returning to his roots of writing about literature, culture and tra...

Joseph Cermatori is assistant professor of English at Skidmore College. He specializes in the fields of comparative literature, modern and contemporary drama, performance studies, and critical theory. Beyond his research in twentieth-century modernism, his scholarship encompasses the broad history of art and ideas in Western culture from 1600 to the present, focusing on the philosophical content o...

Alex Rex Nielson is a Scottish musician and songwriter.  He is the founding member of the UK band Trembling Bells, which recorded six albums before Alex went on to make four solo albums under the band name Alex Rex. Songs played in this episode: "Directing Hand- for PB"— drum solo by Alex Rex "Master" by Alex Rex "Uses of Trauma" by Alex Rex "Bramley Fall Woods" by Alex Rex "I Am A Stick" by Baby...

A conversation with Thomas Woltz about landscape architecture. Thomas Woltz is the owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Over the past two decades of practice Thomas and his team have infused narratives of the land into the places where people live, work, and play, engendering stewardship and inspiring connections between people and the natural world. At present, Thomas is leading NBW i...

A monologue by Robert Harrison. Outro song: "The End" by The Doors

A conversation with Aqsa Ijaz about the Persian poet and Sufi mystic Rumi. Aqsa Ijaz is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. She is a singer, translator, writer, book reviewer, and a literary scholar.  Outro song: "dil miravad zidastam" by Aqsa Ijaz

A conversation with Bryan Cheong about the laws of thermodynamics. Bryan Cheong received his Bachelor of Science from Stanford University, with a degree in applied and computational mathematics.  He then went on to receive a Masters degree in Materials Science, also from Stanford. Outro Song: "Pick Up The Pieces" by The Average White Band

A conversation with Professor Mark C. Taylor on the topic of his new book: Seeing Silence (University of Chicago Press, 2020). Mark C. Taylor is Professor of Religion at Columbia University and the Cluett Professor of Humanities emeritus at Williams College. Outro song: "Sword In Hand" by Madeleine Bouton

A conversation with Professor Thomas Harrison on the topic of his new book: Of Bridges: A Poetic and Philosophical Account (University of Chicago Press, 2021).  Thomas Harrison is Professor of Italian at UCLA. Outro song: "Bold As Love" by Jimi Hendrix

A conversation with Professor Mark C. Taylor on the topic of his new book: Intervolution - Smart Bodies, Smart Things (Columbia University Press, 2020). Mark C. Taylor is Professor of Religion at Columbia University and the Cluett Professor of Humanities emeritus at Williams College. Outro song: "Soliloquio" by Alusa Fallax

A conversation with Professor Christy Wampole on the topic of her new book: Degenerative Realism: Novel and Nation in Twenty-First-Century France (Columbia University Press, 2020).  Christy Wampole is Associate Professor of French at Princeton University. Outro song: "Coeur Bizarre" by La Féline

A brief monologue by Robert Harrison on Marcel Proust for the 150th anniversary of his birth on July 10, 1871. Outro song: "She's Not There" by The Zombies

A monologue by Robert Harrison.

Songs featured in this episode: “We Used To Know” by Jethro Tull” “We’re Going Wrong” by Cream “Handful of Hair” by Alex Rex “Annabel Lee” by Glass Wave

Before Entitled Opinions goes on hiatus, Robert Harrison wanted to share a few brief thoughts with you on time, death, and cosmos.  

In this monologue professor Robert Harrison talks about human solarity in its various aspects. Music included in this show: La Nuit du Rat--Le Féline Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun--Pink Floyd Gimme Shelter--The Rolling Stones  

In this recently recorded monologue, professor Robert Harrison discusses the sixteenth century Italian poem l'Orlando Furioso. Additionally, professor Harrison calls into question the anticipant revelatory power of literary works that belong to the past.

This week we offer a recording of a talk that was originally given by professor Robert Harrison in 2014, for the Stanford lecture series "Memory and the Arts". Topics of discussion include: cultural memory, the enigma of beginnings, and special reference to Dylan Thomas' play "Under Milk Wood".