Required Reading

In honor of the new movie by Joel Coen and starring Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, and Kathryn Hunter, we are covering the Tragedy of Macbeth. This is a crossover with the Myopia Movies podcast. Panel: Dr. Nic Hoffmann, Mike Carroll, and Betsy Holcomb

This week we unwrap the first of our gift exchange books, the Mike Burns select Kindred by Octavia Butler. Time travel? History? Fantastic! Enjoy this back to form episode after Hoffmann’s parental leave! Panel: Dr. Nic Hoffmann and Mike Burns

Happy New Year from Required Reading! This week we dive into one of the classics of feminist literature. The Bell Jar is dark and funny. It is about feminism, depression, and a woman making her way in the world. It is an incredible work needing to be picked up and read again. Compassionate and complex Read More

Hello everyone! This week on Required Reading, we visit some childhood classics as I have become a new father and family stuff is always nice during the holidays! Host: Nic Panel: Mike B and Mike C

Welcome to Required Reading, this episode we dive into southern literature with Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor. The story of a vet, a bible, a gorilla suit, and black hat. One of the class comedy novels of past century. Mike and I welcome our colleague Betsy Holcomb, presenter at the Flannery O’Connor and Families 2021 Read More

This episode, we have flashbacks to reading aloud in 9th grade over the pronounciation of Hrothgar or Geat, Geet, Ge-at, or whatever….Grundle. Sigh, dude kills a monster, his mother, and a dragon. Enjoy the discussion with Mike Carroll, enjoy the book! Great read! Please rate us where ever you read it and thanks!

First off, let me explain the episode. When I was in graduate school, I worked on a show called Doomed to Repeat with my co-host Dr. Alex Cummings, which was in conjunction with the blog Tropics of Meta, which they were the editor of. The podcast will sound different and much more produced, with additional clips. In an era where Critical Race Theory is a topic of conversation, let's dive in.  Read...

In honor of the approaching spookiness, we thought we would delve into America’s most Victorian Macabre. Edgar Allen Poe led a troubled life and died a tragic death. We discuss possibly the most known and read American horror poem, The Raven along with his unsettling short story The Fall of the House of Usher. Know Read More

This episode we start season 2 with the biographical graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. This incredible work is about his father Vladek’s time as a Jew in Nazi Europe and ultimately his time in the Concentration Camps. Overlayed in this are the stories and relationship of Vladek with the author and his wife, and Read More

This week, we end season one and talk Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger and literally reconsider our curricula! Also, with the end of season one, stay tuned here! I will continue dropping stuff all summer and in this I announce a contest! Prove to us you get people to listen and subscribe Read More

This week we are joined by Melissa Lowry for the American dystopian classic about completely relatable stuff like digital devices making it difficult to have personal relationships.

This week we welcome back LaRita and welcome Dr. Shannon Hipp to to talk about the James Baldwin fictional work If Beale Street Could Talk.

This week we dive into the world of graphic novels with the award winning Batman – Arkham Asylum: A Serious Place on a Serious Earth by Grant Morrison and ‎Dave McKean‎. Let’s see if Nic can explain to Mike what is happening, together, like a family.

This week we have a Mike-less episode, wherein we talk about Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, our first book aimed at student. I am joined by guest LaRita Williams, and members of my department Jose Gregory and Kevin Moore.

The classic fantasy novel by J. R. R. R. Tolkien R. Join Mike, Nic, and guest Robert von Hagen as we discuss the classic YA fantasy novel. Also, in an effort to aid our numbers and have less competition, we are going to begin releasing midweek every other week. Sorry about the confusion.

This week we talk The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, Nic talks history and Mike talks literature, we both leave happy.

In this masterful piece of history, we learn about serial killers, architects, assassins, and waffle cones! This complex narrative combines narratives of the Chicago Columbian Exposition, the killer H. H. Holmes, and the architects building both.

This episode we are paralyzed with happiness! We talk The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece about why being rich isn’t always so easy. As the poet said, “mo money, mo problems.” Also, now that it is out of copyright projection, what is next for the story? Panel: Nic Hoffmann and Mike Burns.

Following the more modern high school path (which I guess follows the slightly older collegiate path) of having students read social justice material for summer reading, our school assigned the High School Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Also, (exciting) we are joined by our first guests! Wooo!

This episode Dr. Nic and Mike break down the proto-feminist novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter! Yes, like the rest of you, I didn’t like this book when I read it in High School, but see how the reassessment goes! Oh, and skip the Custom House Chapter.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Required Reading, a podcast coming out every other week (during the school year, of course), that looks at the books we assign, wished we assigned, and read ourselves in high school and college. This week we start with the classic American rags to riches, heroes journey with a happy ending, slave narrative...you read that right, The Narrative of the Life of Fred...