In ‘Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth’ (1979), James Lovelock proposed that the Earth is something like a single living organism, capable of manipulating its circumstances and the environment to suit its needs. While many scientists reject the fullest formulation of this idea, it has nonetheless had a profound influence on our understanding of the ways in wh ... Show More
Apr 27
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ by Leo Tolstoy
In the late 1870s, shortly after the publication of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy experienced what might be described today as a midlife crisis. In his short autobiographical book A Confession, finished in 1880, he questioned what meaning there is in life that is not annihilated by the ... Show More
23m 23s
Jan 2025
671 Shakespeare's Tragic Art (with Rhodri Lewis) | My Last Book with Joel Warner
It is a truth universally acknowledged that tragedy is one of the world's highest art forms, and that Shakespeare was one of the form's greatest practitioners. But how did he do it? What models did he have to draw upon, and where did he innovate? In this episode, Jacke talks to S ... Show More
56m 6s
Jul 2025
Siobhan Phillips on Marianne Moore ("Armor's Undermining Modesty")
"What is more precise than precision? Illusion." I talked with my friend, the scholar Siobhan Phillips, about Marianne Moore's poem "Armor's Undermining Modesty." Siobhan Phillips is a professor of English at Dickinson College, where she teaches courses on American literature of ... Show More
1h 47m