Young Heretics

What's the point of all this obscure knowledge? Spencer turns from contemplative wisdom to phronēsis , practical wisdom or the knowledge of how to do what is good for you as a human being. Subjects covered include free will, determinism, and why what is good for you is not necessarily good for a fish. Spoiler: it's because you can't breathe underwater! Subscribe to my newsletter: https://rejoiceev...

Welcome to Young Heretics: Conversations, a new series of specials devoted to living out high ideals in the modern day. Spencer talks with Peachy Keenan, author of  Domestic Extremist , about how to break the spell of latter-day feminism, what it means to be extremely domestic, and why everyone's obsessed with the  Barbie  movie. Check out Peachy's book: https://a.co/d/3JRD8UL Follow her on Twitte...

This week on the show, Spencer takes the study of wisdom to the very foundations of the world, where existence came into being and human consciousness came online. This is the virtue of the soul that allows us to understand what we are, and why we're more than just accidents. It's trippy--so buckle up--but it's also the realest thing there is. Sign up for my mailing list: https://rejoiceevermore.s...

Some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual could believe them. But some wisdom is so profound only an old man can pass it on. In this new installment of his series on the virtues, Spencer introduces a form of moral excellence that is sorely lacking in the world: not intelligence or intellectual horsepower, but sophia , the wisdom that connects us to the order governing all time and space. Plus:...

This one's for the girls. The ancient Greek word for courage is  andreia --manliness. But whereas physical courage on the battlefield is a picture of something essential to manhood, there is also a womanly moral courage that no civilization can do without. In times of crisis and in the daily work of raising a family, womanly bravery is too often overlooked. Spencer concludes his series on the seco...

It's the age of the anti-hero, and Machiavelli can help explain why. Talking through the life of Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, and discussing the portrayal of him in The Prince , Spencer probes deeper into the uneasy line between recklessness and courage, shamelessness and virtue. Can we find our way out of the war between the sexes to a real vision of what it means to tame the lion of the soul?...

This 4th of July, it's hard to feel confident that everything is gonna be just fine. But that's the point: nobody said it was easy, and it may be you were born for such a day as this. Continuing a series on the cardinal virtues, Spencer pauses to consider the nature of courage in America now and at its founding. Plus: more tips from the build-a-soul workshop. Sign up for my newsletter: https://rej...

Gather round, one and all, and learn from Plato about how to get a date. Or start a workout routine. Or really...do anything good. Spencer embarks on a catalogue of the cardinal virtues--the principal forms of human moral excellence--beginning with moderation. It's not just some bland, middle-of-the-road stasis: it's a dynamic harmony among all the parts of you, and an antidote to the shallow phil...

At long last, the people's cries have been heard--Young Heretics returns! Every day seems to bring some new catastrophe, and it's easy to see all the things that have gone wrong. But what would it mean to go right? You can't build a philosophy, or a life, on saying "no" to things. Somewhere you have to say "yes." In this new series, Spencer explores the nature of  virtue and what it means to seek...

For the penultimate episode of the show, Spencer Klavan is joined by friend and Dante expert Catherine Illingworth to approach the Commedia's beatific vision. Tying together threads from the whole series, and the whole podcast, Spencer and Catherine discuss the roles of flesh and spirit in love as the pilgrim makes his final approach to God in paradise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...

In this middle portion of his series on Dante, Spencer Klavan outlines the lay of the divine "land" in Dante's Commedia. Traveling from the lust of the damned up to the longings of the saved, Dante the pilgrim meets Beatrice the redeemed soul, seeking a way to purify and channel his fleshly desires. -- Rocket Money is the new app that helps you identify and stop paying for subscriptions you don't...

In this final series of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan charts a map of Dante's career and the structure of his greatest work, the Commedia. Walking through the politics, metaphysics, and artistic background of the poem, Spencer approaches the beginning of Dante's journey to discover the true nature of love. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made...

When the Devil visits Ivan in the Brothers Karamazov, he looks at first like a rather unimpressive gentleman. But lurking under his seemingly distracted conversation is a sinister depiction of the world broken down into infinite matter, formless and void. What answer can we possibly give to this satanic vision? Spencer Klavan explores Dostoevsky's alternative to modernist perdition. -- You'll have...

"Everyone is guilty for everything before everyone": This week, through the mystery of Father Zosima's life and sermons, Spencer Klavan unfolds Dostoevsky's answer to Ivan, to Nietzsche, and to modern skepticism and scientism. The words of Zosima are at the heart of this sprawling novel, and their wisdom is, if anything, more relevant now than when they were written. -- Public Goods is the one sto...

Ivan, the most brilliant and also the most tormented of the brothers in Dotoevsky's "Brothers Karamazov," saw something that few others could see: if there is no immortal soul and no God, then everything is permitted. It's something that Nietzsche realized as well, and it drove him mad. How did Dotoevsky avoid the same fate—and how can we? Spencer Klavan picks up these questions in the second inst...

Dostoevsky was the kind of artist who peers so deep into the heart of the present that he becomes a prophet of the future. His last and greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, can be difficult to get into—but if you manage to crack the spine, it will be well worth your while. Spencer Klavan offers a little Young Heretics-style help to get you started. -- Rocket Money is the new app that helps you...

What do you want? In this final episode of his series on Thomas Traherne, Spencer Klavan explores Traherene's daring suggestion that you might not want enough. The 17th-century mystic argued that God gives us the world anew each time he creates a new human being—a thought that can radically change the way you look at basically everything. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high...

How can we retain a sense of joy in the teeth of suffering? What does it mean to forgive? These hard and painful questions are the subject of the second installment in Spencer Klavan's series on Thomas Traherne and Matthew 6. Breaking down the Greek of the gospels and using Traherne as a guide, Spencer points the way to a joy that persists even when happiness doesn't. -- How can you learn Latin, A...

"Take care that ye perform not your righteousness to be seen of men." These words, familiar to Christians around the world, have an urgent and profound meaning for our time that needs unlocking. Using the Greek of the gospels and the profound meditations of Thomas Traherne, Spencer Klavan explores what it means not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. -- Public Goods is the one...

In this final episode of his series on Athenian democracy and citizenship, Spencer Klavan tells a few rip-roaring myths and true stories from the history of Athen—from the birth of King Erichthonius out of the ground to the fraught relationship between Cleisthenes of Athens and King Cleomenes of Sparta. Then as now, the question was: what does it mean to be equal before the law? -- Rocket Money is...

Okay, so we have a country—but isn't that a little mean? Drawing on Aristotle's definition of citizenship and politics, Spencer Klavan examines the question of open borders and asks what it really means to "love thy neighbor" in a political context. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public...

What is a citizen, and who gets to be one? With immigration all over the news, Spencer Klavan takes a Young Heretics look at the nature of citizenship, starting with Aristotle's politics. From 3rd-gen Athenian philosophy to Martha's Vineyard, all in 60 minutes! -- How can you learn Latin, Ancient Greek, or Biblical Hebrew in order to read the classics of the ancient western world, in their origina...

In this final installment of the series on Owen Barfield, Spencer Klavan explores how the first and last Inkling's ideas can help us understand the arguments over the multiverse, the creation story in Genesis, and the very fabric of reality. Plus he reads some of Barfield's poetry. And all in under an hour! -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made...

Owen Barfield's "Poetic Diction" is a book about etymology that turns out to shed light on much more than language. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan describes his own life-changing experience discovering the book and explores how Barfield's vision of human perception can help unlock the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything. From scripture to science, the first and last...

What kind of knowledge does science give us? Is it the "God's-eye view" of things—a third-person, objective understanding of reality's bedrock? Owen Barfield, one of the less well-known Inklings, argued powerfully that it is not. Heeding Barfield's words can help us break free of the false religion that holds scientific truth up as the only real knowledge and makes science into a kind of new relig...