Sigmund Freud once said of the philosopher and cultural critic Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) that "he had a more penetrating knowledge of himself than any man who ever lived or was likely to live.” Well known for his iconoclastic views and intoxicating prose style, Nietzsche went from near obscurity in his lifetime to dominating the ideas of philosophers, ... Show More
Sep 10
829 Charlotte Brontë and Her Biographer Elizabeth Gaskell (with Susan Dunne) | My Last Book with Travis Franks | The Odyssey Kerfuffle
Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell, two of the leading novelists of the 19th century, shared a remarkable literary friendship. After Charlotte's death, Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë became one of the most famous--and controversial--literary biographies ever written. In t ... Show More
1h 11m
Aug 31
827 American Literature's War on Crime (with Theodore Martin) | W.E.B. DuBois Sits with Shakespeare
The second half of the twentieth century was marked by an extreme increase in America's prison population, from roughly 250,000 inmates in 1940 to well over two million by 2008. At the same time, American readers were devouring mysteries, thrillers, detective novels, police proce ... Show More
1h 23m
May 2025
Close Readings: Nietzsche's 'Schopenhauer as Educator'
In this extended extract from their series 'Conversations in Philosophy', part of the LRB's Close Readings podcast, Jonathan Rée and James Wood look at one of Friedrich Nietzsche's early essays, 'Schopenhauer as Educator'. For Nietzsche, Schopenhauer’s genius lay not in his ideas ... Show More
32m 14s
Mar 2024
89: Sigmund Freud - Sublimations, Dreams & Repressions
<p>Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) said of Nietzsche that he had "more penetrating knowledge of himself than any man who ever lived or was likely to live." In spite of this, Freud always denied that Nietzsche was an influence on his thought, in spite of his multiple reference ... Show More
1h 20m
Jul 2021
Human All Too Human | Friedrich Nietzsche
<p>Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits was published by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1878 and represents a “monument of a crisis” for Nietzsche, a critical turning point in his life and thought.</p>
<p>The book marks the beginning of a second period in Nietzsche’s philosophy, ... Show More
10 m
Jun 2021
1: How the True World Finally Became a Fable
Welcome to The Nietzsche Podcast! In this first episode, we introduce Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), through the passage, "How the True World Finally Became a Fable", from his book, The Twilight of Idols. In this passage, Nietzsche sketches the history of a particular error in ... Show More
58m 3s