Hot Takes on the Classics

Description In this opening episode of Season 3, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh unveil a last-minute change of plans, shifting from a season on politics to an exploration of literature centered on the stages of human life. Together they build a reading list spanning childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, debating classic short stories, novellas, poems, and plays that illuminate each season...

Description In this special year-end episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda share their five favorite reads of 2025. Moving from plays and poetry to memoir, philosophy, theology, neuroscience, and historical fiction, they reflect on the books that most shaped their thinking this year. Along the way, they discuss stage design and historical drama, political memoir, levi...

Description In this penultimate episode of Hot Takes on the Classics ’ season on love, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh step back to reflect on what a sustained engagement with classic texts has revealed about love itself. Drawing on philosophy, novels, poetry, and plays explored throughout the season, they consider why love is harder to portray than war, why modern culture lacks an adequate vocabular...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh close their season on love by turning to Simone Weil’s Waiting for God . Through a wide-ranging conversation, they explore Weil’s life as an “activist mystic,” her radical commitment to solidarity with the afflicted, and her understanding of attention as the heart of prayer, learning, and love of neighbor. The...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich, the first known book written in English by a woman. They discuss Julian’s life as a fourteenth-century anchoress, her extraordinary visions during a near-fatal illness, and her enduring theological vision of divine love as all-encompassing, sustaining, an...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore The Temple by George Herbert, one of the most profound devotional poetry collections in the English language. Through close readings of Herbert’s poems and reflections on his life, suffering, and vocation, the hosts examine how Herbert uses poetic form, architectural structure, and startling imagery to...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore how Western art and music have depicted the many faces of love—from divine ecstasy to tragic longing to the gentle affections of pastoral life. They move through Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony , Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas , Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa , and Bruegel’s The Wedding Dance , examining how...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh take a deep dive into Jonathan Edwards’s A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections , one of the most important theological works ever published in America. They explore Edwards’s historical moment in the midst of the First Great Awakening, the cultural divide between “old lights” and “new lights,” and Edwards’...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore one of the most influential works in Western thought—St. Augustine’s Confessions . Through Augustine’s prayerful reflections, they trace the restless search of a soul divided between desire and grace, and how divine love— caritas —gathers a disintegrated self into unity. Emily and Tim discuss Augustine’...

Description  In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh turn to the fourth and final love in C.S. Lewis’s taxonomy— agape , or divine charity—through the Gospel of St. John. They explore how John’s vision of love transforms an ordinary Greek term into the heartbeat of Christian revelation. Emily and Tim trace the word’s evolution from the Greek poets through the Se...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh close out their episodes on Eros with Leo Tolstoy’s monumental novel Anna Karenina . They explore how Tolstoy intertwines two contrasting marriage plots—Anna’s tragic affair and Levin’s redemptive union with Kitty—to illuminate the tension between passion, virtue, and meaning in modern love. Along the way, Emil...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh unpack Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice , exploring how this beloved novel redefines what makes a good marriage. The hosts trace Elizabeth Bennet’s spirited self-knowledge and Mr. Darcy’s humbling transformation to show how love matures through mutual respect, truth-telling, and growth. Along the way, they lau...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh revisit Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , asking what makes this story so enduring and how it reshapes tragedy. They trace Romeo’s shift from infatuation to eloquent devotion, highlight Juliet’s prudence and wit, and map the play’s pivot from sparkling comedy to swift catastrophe. The hosts also consider paralle...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh dive into Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy , one of the most ambitious works in world literature. They examine how Dante portrays love—especially eros—when it becomes disordered, destructive, or distorted. From Francesca and Paolo in Inferno to the purifying flames of Purgatorio , the poem moves from the con...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore Plato’s Phaedrus , a dialogue that weaves together questions of love, rhetoric, and the soul. They trace Socrates’ speeches on the nature of desire, his paradoxical claim that love is both divine madness and a path to truth, and Plato’s broader concerns about the power and danger of persuasion. Emily an...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows , a beloved children’s classic that also raises profound questions about friendship, loyalty, and home. They reflect on the gentle affection between Mole and Rat, the comic recklessness of Toad, and the novel’s vision of rural England as a space of beauty and be...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Tim and Emily explore Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , asking whether a man and a child can truly be friends. They unpack the novel’s uneven yet profound legacy, including its powerful portrayal of Huck and Jim’s unlikely bond, its place in the tradition of banned books, and its lasting influence on American literature. Along...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh turn to Cicero’s On Friendship , a dialogue exploring what makes friendship possible, lasting, and good. They unpack Cicero’s conviction that friendship is only possible between those committed to virtue, and that true friendship is one of life’s greatest gifts—second only to wisdom. The hosts trace Cicero’s Ro...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda journey into the world’s oldest surviving epic, The Epic of Gilgamesh. They explore how the story dramatizes philia, or friendship, through the bond between Gilgamesh and Enkidu—a friendship that transforms a tyrant into a true man. From their first clash to their adventures slaying monsters, and finally to Enki...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh dive into John Steinbeck’s East of Eden , exploring how the novel wrestles with the tension between familial affection (storge), honesty, and moral responsibility. The hosts examine Steinbeck’s portrayal of family bonds marked by both tenderness and devastation, paying special attention to the complex relationsh...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily and Tim dive into Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women , a quintessential American novel exploring the power of familial affection, or storge. Through the domestic world of the March sisters, the novel celebrates love that is rooted in everyday acts of care, sacrifice, and support. Tim and Emily discuss the enduring impact of the book—es...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore Homer’s Odyssey as a foundational story of familial love and longing. They examine Odysseus as the archetypal man of arete, whose journey is motivated by storge—a profound affection for home, wife, and son. From Penelope’s weaving to Telemachus’ awakening, the episode explores how the epic gives voice t...

Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh tackle Sophocles’ Antigone as part of their series on love—specifically, storge or familial affection. They explore how Antigone’s fierce devotion to her brother puts her in direct conflict with the demands of civic duty, embodied by Creon. As the hosts unpack the moral complexity of Antigone’s choice, they ref...

Description In this special episode of Hot Takes on the Classics , Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh unveil the reading lineup for Season 2, themed around love. Drawing from C.S. Lewis’s framework of the four loves—Storge (affection), Philia (friendship), Eros (romantic love), and Agape (charity)—they nominate and debate the classic works that best represent each love. From Shakespeare and ancient epic...

Description In this opening episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh kick off Season 2 on the theme of love by diving into C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves . They unpack Lewis’s taxonomy—Storge (affection), Philia (friendship), Eros (romantic love), and Agape (charity)—and explore how each form shapes human life and literature. Along the way, they challenge some of Lewis’s dis...