J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork The Lord of the Rings delighted so many of us as children, yet it and its vast body of accompanying work, such as the Silmarillion, contain a rich depth not well understood by most adults. Tolkien's work reflects his academic interests in the history of language and the Medieval world, as well as his Catholic faith. What purpose a ... Show More
Today
Verena Halsmayer on Managing Growth in Miniature: Solow’s Model as an Artifact
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, chats with Verena Halsmeyer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vienna, about her recent, award-winning book, Managing Growth in Miniature: Solow’s Model as an Artifact. The book explores the history of the way economists think about gro ... Show More
1h 22m
Yesterday
Mary Edwards, "Sartre’s Existential Psychoanalysis: Knowing Others" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
Thinking of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it is hard to think of him without imagining him in very particular contexts. One will likely imagine him in a Parisian cafe working through a pack of cigarettes and coffee, working on his latest play while waiting for his frie ... Show More
1h 47m
Nov 22
Faisal Devji, "Waning Crescent: The Rise and Fall of Global Islam" (Yale UP, 2025)
Faisal Devji's Waning Crescent: The Rise and Fall of Global Islam (Yale UP, 2025) is a compelling examination of the rise of Islam as a global historical actor. Until the nineteenth century, Islam was variously understood as a set of beliefs and practices. But after Muslims began ... Show More
1h 4m
Sep 2023
WOF 402: The Faith of J.R.R. Tolkien w/ Holly Ordway
<p>J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece, <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>, is one of the best-selling books ever, selling over 150 million copies. In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, <em>The Lord of the Rings</em> was judged to be their favorite "book of the millennium".</p> <p>However ... Show More
36m 54s
Dec 2021
JRR Tolkien, creator of The Hobbit
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in 1892. Orphaned before he was a teenager, he fought at the Somme in the First World War before going on to become one of the best-selling authors of all time. Bilbo, Gandalf, Gollum, Frodo, Sauron - these are just a few of the ... Show More
27m 56s
Sep 2023
Michelle Karnes, "Medieval Marvels and Fictions in the Latin West and Islamic World" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
Marvels like enchanted rings and sorcerers’ stones were topics of fascination in the Middle Ages, not only in romance and travel literature but also in the period’s philosophical writing. Rather than constructions of belief accepted only by simple-minded people, Michelle Karnes s ... Show More
31m 24s
Jan 2022
La magie des œuvres de Tolkien - Entretien avec Vincent Ferré
Mes chers camarades, bien le bonjour et bienvenue dans ce nouvel entretien historique avec Vincent Ferré, professeur de littératures comparées à l'université Paris Est Créteil, spécialiste de Proust mais aussi de Tolkien, dont il est traducteur et éditeur depuis plus de vingt ans ... Show More
1h 47m
Jul 2018
Valhalla & the Viking Afterlife w/ Tom Shippey
In today's show, I had the honor of talking with Tom Shippey, a British scholar who has taught at six universities in Britain and America, including both Oxford and Harvard, and who succeeded Tolkien (many years later) in the Chair of Medieval Literature at Leeds University. Tom ... Show More
25m 20s