Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we produsue wisdom
Speaker 1: in the past between Primary second eight worlds. I'm Andrew Snyder,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad that you're here. All right, Hello, and
Speaker 1: welcome back to Mythic Mind. I'm really excited about everything
Speaker 1: that we have going on here. I know what a
Speaker 1: little bit early. I know it's still springtime, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to go ahead and declare this this Summer of
Speaker 1: Mythic Mind because we have so many exciting things that
Speaker 1: are coming up on the horizon here on the very
Speaker 1: near horizon. First of all, on a personal note, I'm
Speaker 1: no longer teaching on campus. I had my last day
Speaker 1: on Thursday, last Thursday, as I record this, and so
Speaker 1: now I'm just I'm grating finishing things up, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to be going back to campus for a while,
Speaker 1: the very least until the next calendar year, maybe even
Speaker 1: beyond that. I'm just teaching all online at this point,
Speaker 1: in working on my book and trying to get that finished,
Speaker 1: I'm pursuing my various independent ventures, trying to really build
Speaker 1: up the Mythic Mind fellowship even more than already is.
Speaker 1: And so with that in mind, we're just really moving
Speaker 1: in a lot of very exciting directions here. First of all,
Speaker 1: we are as a record of this. We're about to
Speaker 1: begin our book club on Augustin's Confessions. Although if you're
Speaker 1: listening to this on the public feed, then that probably
Speaker 1: just happened, because our first meeting is April twenty eighth
Speaker 1: at nine pm Eastern, and I hope that you have
Speaker 1: participated in that if you're listening to this after the fact,
Speaker 1: But if you haven't, then no worries. You can just
Speaker 1: jump in next time. We've got total of eight sessions here.
Speaker 1: We're meeting every other Monday, and so our next session
Speaker 1: will be oh listen, see let me look at the
Speaker 1: calendar here. The next session will be on the fifth,
Speaker 1: again at nine pm Eastern. If you want to be
Speaker 1: part of that, then all you need to do is
Speaker 1: become a member of the Mythic Mind Patreon community. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing. One thing that's unique about this book
Speaker 1: club is that you don't even have to be a
Speaker 1: paid patron. You can literally be a free patron, and
Speaker 1: so it doesn't have to cost you anything. Now, of course,
Speaker 1: you'll get more benefits out of becoming a paid patron
Speaker 1: and I always appreciate the financial support that allows me
Speaker 1: to keep doing more of these things. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, it's not required. I'm not going to guilt
Speaker 1: you into paying anything. Is If you want to sign
Speaker 1: off for free just because you want to read Augustine's
Speaker 1: Confessions for the first time, you want to read it again,
Speaker 1: you want to join this community, then by all means,
Speaker 1: just become a free patron, and I'm more than happy
Speaker 1: to have you along for that. Now beyond that, looking
Speaker 1: towards May, on May the fourth, we're kicking off our
Speaker 1: Star Wars series. I mean, we'll still be doing other
Speaker 1: things along the way, like, for example, the book club
Speaker 1: will come through the podcast feed as well, but we're
Speaker 1: also going to be doing a series on Star Wars.
Speaker 1: I think that that would I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. You know, we've mostly taken a
Speaker 1: literary focus up to this point. I think be fun
Speaker 1: to deal with popular media, you know, something so wide reaching,
Speaker 1: something so gripping, something so attractive as the Star Wars franchise,
Speaker 1: and we'll you know, talk about what we've enjoyed about it,
Speaker 1: what our history is with it, what we'll talk about,
Speaker 1: what it does well why it's so gripping as well as,
Speaker 1: of course where it's gone off the rails a little bit.
Speaker 1: And so we'll be doing a live stream to kick
Speaker 1: that off on May the fourth at nine pm Eastern,
Speaker 1: and so make sure that you follow along for that.
Speaker 1: That'll be on YouTube, and so make sure that you
Speaker 1: subscribe to my channel. You can find that link in
Speaker 1: the show notes if you're not already subscribed. And then
Speaker 1: a little bit later in the month, just a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks after that, we'll be kicking off a number
Speaker 1: of courses coming out of Mythic Mind. One of them
Speaker 1: will be my course on a Brief History of Ideas,
Speaker 1: which is a six week course. It's like an intro
Speaker 1: to philosophy course, although and I don't mean to sound
Speaker 1: arrogant and saying this, but it's going to be better
Speaker 1: than most of what you would get from an intro
Speaker 1: to philosophy course on a college campus. And I say
Speaker 1: that as somebody who has taught to philosophy on college
Speaker 1: campuses for a number of years that unfortunately, most philosophy courses,
Speaker 1: especially on the intro level, but even beyond, most philosophy
Speaker 1: courses really don't prioritize primary sources. I definitely do, and
Speaker 1: so with me, you'll be reading these these foundational philosophers,
Speaker 1: some representatives from each of the major eras of Western thought,
Speaker 1: and you know, you'll become better equipped with dealing with
Speaker 1: them firsthand, and as you deal with them, you'll be
Speaker 1: better equipped to honestly deal with yourself and deal with
Speaker 1: the world around us. Now, my course does prioritize the
Speaker 1: pre modern eras of philosophy, and so we get two
Speaker 1: weeks for the ancient period, mostly focusing on Plato and Aristotle,
Speaker 1: and then we'll have two weeks on the medieval period,
Speaker 1: and then we'll have one week on the moderns and
Speaker 1: one week on the postmoderns. And that's because the modern
Speaker 1: and postmodern philosophers are going to sound a lot more
Speaker 1: familiar to you once you kind of start to get
Speaker 1: your mind around what they're saying, because I mean, these
Speaker 1: are the ideas that you've lived in, These are the
Speaker 1: ideas that are around you all the time, even if
Speaker 1: you've never studied them in a direct and intentional sense,
Speaker 1: they'll become familiar to you as you come to understand them.
Speaker 1: And so that the pre modern era, it can potentially
Speaker 1: provide some correctives for us, provide another perspective, and honestly,
Speaker 1: I think it's more interesting because they tend to believe
Speaker 1: in reality that everything's not just made up, so that
Speaker 1: tends to make for much more rewarding study and conversation.
Speaker 1: And so for each week of that course will be
Speaker 1: I'll be putting out a video that goes along with
Speaker 1: the assigned readings, and all the readings will be available
Speaker 1: as PDFs of some kind that you know that can
Speaker 1: kind of dig up through the course through the Google Classroom,
Speaker 1: although I will make some recommendations for other translations along
Speaker 1: the way if you want to get some hard copies,
Speaker 1: which is always a good idea, especially for the kinds
Speaker 1: of text that we'll be dealing with. And so there's that.
Speaker 1: But I'm not the only one leading a course. We
Speaker 1: have three Mythic Mind Fellowship course creators that are coming
Speaker 1: up here out of the ranks. First we have Hannah Gilmour,
Speaker 1: who will be teaching introductory Latin. We have Joshua Traylor
Speaker 1: who will be teaching a course on Paradise Lost and
Speaker 1: then looking I believe towards the Fall. We have Judah
Speaker 1: Bruce who'll be teaching a course on American government, and
Speaker 1: so we've got just some really exciting things that are
Speaker 1: playing out here. And what follows, I'm going to provide
Speaker 1: you with a conversation that I recently had with all
Speaker 1: three of them, and just as an opportunity to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit more about their backgrounds, their their interests,
Speaker 1: what led them to teach these courses, and what you
Speaker 1: can expect from these courses. I should mention that in
Speaker 1: there in our conversation, Josh didn't even mention that he
Speaker 1: had studied Paradise Lost at the graduate level at Memorial College,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know, maybe this is all too
Speaker 1: humble in his part, But all of these creators here
Speaker 1: are very much qualified to do what they're doing. They
Speaker 1: all have some experience in this arena, whether it be
Speaker 1: academic or practical, and so I would really look forward
Speaker 1: myself to personally following along with them. You know, Paradise Law,
Speaker 1: it's such a central text for the Western Canon from
Speaker 1: the seventeenth century on the late seventeenth century on. You know,
Speaker 1: if you like Lewis, if you like I mean, honestly
Speaker 1: just I mean so many things in the Western Canon,
Speaker 1: then you're gonna want to learn a little bit about
Speaker 1: Paradise Lost, and Josh is gonna be a good guide
Speaker 1: for you in that. And with Latin. I mean, we
Speaker 1: get into the value of Latin in our conversation, but
Speaker 1: you know, there's so much value there in understanding language
Speaker 1: and dealing with the some of the classical authors in
Speaker 1: their own words. And I took a semester of Latin college.
Speaker 1: I very much look forward to kind of holding that
Speaker 1: in sharpening what I have picked up over time and
Speaker 1: getting really intentional about well knowing and using the language.
Speaker 1: And then Judah is still putting his course together, but
Speaker 1: again I really look forward to what he has to
Speaker 1: offer with laying down some foundational principles for what American
Speaker 1: governance is all about and how that relates to current events.
Speaker 1: It's something a bit more foundational, something a bit more
Speaker 1: then we're likely to get from your political pundits that
Speaker 1: you may listen to. And so all these courses have
Speaker 1: something of great value to offer, and I hope that
Speaker 1: really comes through in the conversation that you're about to
Speaker 1: listen to. And now let's go ahead and get into it,
Speaker 1: all right, Welcome back to mythic mind. Today I'm joined
Speaker 1: by Judah Bruce, Hannah Gilmour, and Josh Taylor to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about some of these courses coming up.
Speaker 1: And if you've been listening for a while, you've you've
Speaker 1: heard some of the ads, You've heard me plug it
Speaker 1: a few times here and there, but this is just
Speaker 1: an opportunity to hear a little bit more about who
Speaker 1: they are, what they have planned, and why you should
Speaker 1: continue on with us. I started this aspect of Mythic
Speaker 1: Mind last summer with the Fiction and Philosophy of C. S.
Speaker 1: Lewis course. I had no idea what was going to
Speaker 1: happen with that. It was an adventure. It was me
Speaker 1: just stepping out and trying something new, and it went
Speaker 1: very well between the live run and people who have
Speaker 1: enrolled since that time, and I've had about seventy eighty
Speaker 1: people enroll in that course, so very successful, very enjoyable
Speaker 1: on my end, and that really led me to just
Speaker 1: keep on doing this, you know. I jumped right into
Speaker 1: the bey Wolf and Bowethia's course currently finishing up Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings, got four more courses on the schedule
Speaker 1: on my end, but for a while now it's really
Speaker 1: been my objective, my desire to have this be more
Speaker 1: than just me, to have it truly be a fellowship,
Speaker 1: a fellowship of creators with a variety of interests of expertise,
Speaker 1: so that way we can all learn from each other
Speaker 1: and benefit from each other and provide that kind of
Speaker 1: academic experience but beyond the walls of institutional academia. I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of value in that. And so
Speaker 1: with that in mind, we've got our first course creators
Speaker 1: coming up beyond myself, and this is an opportunity to
Speaker 1: hear a little bit more from them. Hannah, you were
Speaker 1: the first one to step into this, and so we'll
Speaker 1: start with you. I want you tell us just a
Speaker 1: little bit about yourself and what is leading you to
Speaker 1: lead introductory Latin.
Speaker 2: Okay, Hi everyone, I'm Hannah and I'm an undergraduate student
Speaker 2: at Boys College, shedding humanities and classical education. And I've
Speaker 2: had an interest in Latin ever since my freshman year
Speaker 2: of high school when I was able to take my
Speaker 2: first Latin course and I was probably the most excited
Speaker 2: over declension chart like ever. I think my teacher was
Speaker 2: just like, what is wrong with her? That was even
Speaker 2: before getting to the fun stuff. Like Cicero and the
Speaker 2: Amian and especially poetry I love, and ever since then,
Speaker 2: that's just been a great passion of mine.
Speaker 3: And I've tutored Latin.
Speaker 2: I have taught introductory Latin before, and so yeah, that's
Speaker 2: just a little bit about me.
Speaker 1: Okay, So, so obviously you enjoy Latin. What about teaching
Speaker 1: Latin appeals to you?
Speaker 2: So I do love teaching I think I would love
Speaker 2: to see more people steady Latin. I think it's something
Speaker 2: that has not been taught very often. You'll see it
Speaker 2: in classical schools, and some have at school. Still, I
Speaker 2: was very fortunate I went to a public school and
Speaker 2: they did have Latin, but it's pretty rare, and I
Speaker 2: would say it's something that Americans today just don't really
Speaker 2: have any value for. Really, they don't really see value
Speaker 2: in it because in our utilitarian culture, it's not really
Speaker 2: seen as having a practical use, although I would argue
Speaker 2: it does have practical uses. But actually, I'm passionate about
Speaker 2: teaching Latin, especially with this course. I'm excited to teach
Speaker 2: it to some adults because a lot of times, like
Speaker 2: kids these days are who are involved in classical schools
Speaker 2: and private schools are getting Latin. There's been a resurgence
Speaker 2: in people seeing the value of it, but a lot
Speaker 2: of adults did not get that in school. And I
Speaker 2: would love to expand people's Latin knowledge and allow them
Speaker 2: to access these great works of Western tradition for themselves
Speaker 2: and come face to face with these authors and be
Speaker 2: able to read it for themselves.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, we have translations, right, and so what's
Speaker 1: the benefit of actually reading it first in Well, actually.
Speaker 2: We only have translations for just small percentage of the
Speaker 2: texts that are out there. But certainly reading through a
Speaker 2: translation is kind of like reading through a veil. Certainly
Speaker 2: there are some popular works where it the translation will
Speaker 2: be pretty accurate, But actually studying the language itself, especially
Speaker 2: with poetry, I would say, is very valuable and it's
Speaker 2: going to it's going to be a transformative experience. You know,
Speaker 2: it's more than just the actual information, but coming face
Speaker 2: to face with the authors and what they've written themselves
Speaker 2: is very valuable. And it's hard to describe to someone
Speaker 2: who's never done this before, but if you've ever studied
Speaker 2: a language, you know that reading something in the original
Speaker 2: language is a very powerful and different experience than just
Speaker 2: reading a translation, especially when it comes to poetry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very true. I'm not proficient in Latin, so
Speaker 1: I myself look forward to going along with this course.
Speaker 1: I took a semester in college just because I needed
Speaker 1: some elective credits, and so I decided to go with Latin.
Speaker 1: I'd already fulfilled my language credits elsewhere, so I definitely
Speaker 1: look forward to honing in on that. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I can speak from studying other languages, you know. I
Speaker 1: did Greek and Hebrew in seminary, and there's just there's
Speaker 1: a different way of thinking within the language that you're
Speaker 1: dealing with, and that can't always be It actually really
Speaker 1: can't be completely translated into another language. Meaning worldview ways
Speaker 1: of reasoning are built into the language itself, and so
Speaker 1: there's so much value in getting past that veil, you know,
Speaker 1: as you said, to coming face to face with what
Speaker 1: was actually said in the way of thinking of the culture.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, absolutely sympathize with that. So who should
Speaker 1: sign up for this course?
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, this course is really open to anyone who
Speaker 2: has an interest, but I think I especially have in
Speaker 2: mind people who, you know, they're past their college years
Speaker 2: and they have an interest in studying Latin. Maybe they
Speaker 2: want to be able to read some of these texts
Speaker 2: in the original language. Maybe they have kids who are
Speaker 2: in a class school in private school learning Latin, and
Speaker 2: they want to catch up and keep up with their
Speaker 2: kids and be able to help them. I think this
Speaker 2: course would be a great option for those people. But honestly,
Speaker 2: anyone who has an interest in studying Latin, just at
Speaker 2: an introductory level and getting that that headstart they need
Speaker 2: to embark on their Latin journey is welcome.
Speaker 3: To join this course.
Speaker 1: Good fantastic, Judah, Josh, do you have any thoughts? Three
Speaker 1: questions for handa on that?
Speaker 4: Oh, this isn't too loaded of a question, but if
Speaker 4: it is, can you give me, like, like a two
Speaker 4: minute or less summary of your opinions on the like
Speaker 4: the grammar translate method of learning versus the naturalized method
Speaker 4: of learning. I've like right into this, so I'm just
Speaker 4: curious what you think of that.
Speaker 2: Yes, so I haven't done like a ton of research,
Speaker 2: but from my experience of how I've been taught and
Speaker 2: how I'm.
Speaker 3: Teaching it, I taking a balanced approach.
Speaker 2: So I believe that what you can do is have
Speaker 2: that learning from you know, reading, listening speaking grow naturally
Speaker 2: alongside actual grammar instruction. I find that both are helpful
Speaker 2: because obviously there's some people who just want to teach
Speaker 2: thought and straight from a textbook. And first of all,
Speaker 2: there's that's not very much fun for students, especially if
Speaker 2: you're teaching middle schoolers, elementary schoolers, high schoolers. But also
Speaker 2: it kind of ignores the way that we learn language,
Speaker 2: because people think, oh, work, it's a dead language, no
Speaker 2: one speaks it anymore, So why should we speak Latin
Speaker 2: class Why should we listen to it? Why should we,
Speaker 2: you know, try try to read it rather than just translating.
Speaker 2: And I would say that that kind of ignores the
Speaker 2: way that humans learn language. And so I do think
Speaker 2: that that is a great thing to incorporate into the classroom,
Speaker 2: lots of spoken la and lots of listening exercises.
Speaker 3: But I also think that, you know, not everyone.
Speaker 2: I'd say most students are not going to necessarily be
Speaker 2: able to pick up on everything and all the nuances
Speaker 2: of Latin grammar just from picking it up by listening.
Speaker 2: I do think in a classroom setting, especially, it's good
Speaker 2: to actually provide formal grammar instruction and provide the basic
Speaker 2: rules so that people, you know, not everyone is linguistically
Speaker 2: gifted enough, just pick up on that, especially when you're
Speaker 2: just in a classroom setting and you're not fully immersed
Speaker 2: in the language. I'd say some grammar instruction is necessary
Speaker 2: as well. So the way I'm teaching the course is
Speaker 2: there will be grammar lessons and homework that's testing grammar concepts,
Speaker 2: but there's also going to be different projects that are
Speaker 2: going to involve speaking and writing. They'll be like weekly stories,
Speaker 2: while I'll be reading out stories and helping people work
Speaker 2: through and translate and other things like that to help
Speaker 2: provide a balanced approach between actual grammatical instruction, but then
Speaker 2: also having people practice use the language, which will help
Speaker 2: them hopefully retain those concepts and be able to translate
Speaker 2: and read better. So that's kind of where I stand.
Speaker 2: I know it's kind of a middle ground position, but
Speaker 2: I see the benefits of both sides.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like that answer a lot. I usually find
Speaker 4: myself in the middle and in a more balanced view
Speaker 4: on that and most things as well, so I appreciate
Speaker 4: that answer. Plus, we can all be you know, Michael Monte,
Speaker 4: and then just have our dads servant just speak to
Speaker 4: us in Latin only until we're eighteen years old. I
Speaker 4: don't have any servants, by the way, I don't know
Speaker 4: about you all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say it would take a lot of
Speaker 2: effort and something a lot more than this course could
Speaker 2: offer to have a full immersion experience. Obviously, there's conferences
Speaker 2: you could go to where people will just speak Latin
Speaker 2: and some really cool things. But you know, I do
Speaker 2: think just to be practical in the modern world, there
Speaker 2: is going to have to be some level of grammar
Speaker 2: instruction because we don't have a bunch of servants speaking
Speaker 2: just Latin to us.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Finally, yeah, we'll hold off for our study of broad
Speaker 1: trip at the Vatican or something. I don't know. Yes,
Speaker 1: you kind of hinted at this, But what's the week
Speaker 1: to week flow of your course look like?
Speaker 2: Okay, awesome, So let's just go over a brief isshion
Speaker 2: overview of what each week will include. So every week
Speaker 2: we'll have a main grammar video all the presentation. I'll
Speaker 2: also work through some examples in that video, and then
Speaker 2: there'll be a history or culture video.
Speaker 3: Which I'm very excited about.
Speaker 2: It'll usually alternate every week like culture history, and I've
Speaker 2: tried to target to line up the history and culture
Speaker 2: with the vocabulary as much as I can, because I
Speaker 2: like to have every week have some sort of overarching
Speaker 2: theme or topic. Didn't always line up perfectly, but just
Speaker 2: for the sake of everyone out there, if you want
Speaker 2: to know what the history and culture videos are, we're
Speaker 2: gonna have. Our history videos will be ROMs Founding Mythology,
Speaker 2: Rome's Kings, the Roman Republic, Roman Empire Part one, Roman
Speaker 2: Empire Part two, and the Fall of Rome, and then
Speaker 2: our culture will be first of all, just an introductory
Speaker 2: presentation why Latin is valuable, which I've gotten to some
Speaker 2: of that in this, but I go into more depth,
Speaker 2: both quantitative and qualitative reasons why it's worth studying. And
Speaker 2: then Latin phrase is common in English, Roman names, the
Speaker 2: Roman household, the most mayorum, and Roman social norms, and
Speaker 2: then famous Roman authors. So just trying to give a
Speaker 2: little overview of Roman history and culture. Obviously all these things,
Speaker 2: every presentation topic could really be its own course or
Speaker 2: area of study, but I want to give people an overview.
Speaker 2: And that's how I learned Latin. Obviously I did it
Speaker 2: in a high school setting, so you know, it was
Speaker 2: kind of woven into the curriculum of learning about Roman
Speaker 2: culture and history, and I think it's just valuable to
Speaker 2: equip people because you can't assume that everyone has had
Speaker 2: that knowledge. I certainly learned a lot when I took
Speaker 2: Latin in high school about Roman history and culture that
Speaker 2: I didn't know, and that really helped me to approach
Speaker 2: the authors better. And I think that that is a
Speaker 2: valuable part of the course. So then in addition to those,
Speaker 2: every week we'll have a vocabulary video. There'll be a
Speaker 2: weekly vocabulist, and I'll actually have a video reading through
Speaker 2: it so people will know how to pronounce the words,
Speaker 2: and I'll also just talk about any English words that
Speaker 2: might be derived to help people remember. And then I'll
Speaker 2: also have like a quizlet, which is basically just digital
Speaker 2: flash cards so people don't have to spend time working
Speaker 2: on that.
Speaker 3: And then there'll be a.
Speaker 2: Live meeting every week for questions and discussion. And there'll
Speaker 2: also be like a weekly project. The first weeks, because
Speaker 2: people won't know enough to really write much. It'll be
Speaker 2: something fun like cook a Roman recipe or label a
Speaker 2: Roman home drawing. But then later on it'll be some
Speaker 2: some more exciting projects that will involve some creative writing
Speaker 2: in Latin and some other exercises like that, so I'm
Speaker 2: very excited about those, and that's where you would present
Speaker 2: your project. It's optional, obviously, like people are paying for
Speaker 2: this course, you don't have to do anything. But if
Speaker 2: you want to enrich yourself further, these projects are there
Speaker 2: for that. And then there'll also be a weekly homework
Speaker 2: document and then I'll provide feedback on that so that
Speaker 2: I can actually monitor how you're doing and help give
Speaker 2: you personalized feedback on the grammar concepts you're learning. There
Speaker 2: also be a video with guided story translation for every week.
Speaker 2: The first few stories will be something that I've written.
Speaker 2: The first week there's a story because people won't know enough.
Speaker 2: They're just talking about now it's the first week. So
Speaker 2: but after that, the first few stories be like something
Speaker 2: about the farmer and things like that. But eventually I'm
Speaker 2: hoping to work people up to at least being able
Speaker 2: to do some excerpts from actual authors and we'll see
Speaker 2: how much I can find that people will actually be
Speaker 2: able to.
Speaker 3: Like translate.
Speaker 2: But that's the goal, and then let's see there also
Speaker 2: be independent practice and answer keys for every new grammar concept.
Speaker 3: So people can practice on their own and continue that.
Speaker 2: And then I have like cheat sheets and notes I've
Speaker 2: made for all the major grammar concepts, so people who
Speaker 2: aren't good note takers, who don't take nice notes, they
Speaker 2: can print those off or have them to refer to.
Speaker 2: And then there's also going to be like the live
Speaker 2: discord chat through the Mythic Mind for people to discuss.
Speaker 2: If they have questions or comments throughout the week, I'd
Speaker 2: be happy to answer. So that's just an overview of
Speaker 2: what the course will look like. And by the end
Speaker 2: of the course, people will be able to read and
Speaker 2: to write basic indicative statements in Latin questions everything. We
Speaker 2: won't cover the subjunctive, but I will hopefully provide some resources.
Speaker 3: To help people who want to continue in that route.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic, and you got a lot built into that.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of value built into that. And obviously,
Speaker 1: for any of the courses that we teach, I mean,
Speaker 1: the level of involvement is up to the participant, but
Speaker 1: for those who wanted, there's a lot packed into that.
Speaker 1: And you know, as Twitter revealed, you know, a few
Speaker 1: months ago or so, everyone's thinking about the Roman Empire. Anyways,
Speaker 1: so let's go ahead and get intentional about that.
Speaker 4: I agree.
Speaker 2: I think all these guys who are out here thinking
Speaker 2: about the Roman Empire every day, I need to go
Speaker 2: and start learning Latin.
Speaker 3: Take that to the next level.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, let's go past the memes he.
Speaker 4: Need look from like watching Ryan Holiday videos and actually
Speaker 4: like read the Stoics and Latin.
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember the day I learned that Marcus Aurelius
Speaker 2: did not write his meditations in Latin. It was a
Speaker 2: sad day for me because I realized I couldn't read them.
Speaker 2: Hopefully I will be taking Greek soon at college, but.
Speaker 4: I'm a bit more of a Greek fanboy actually, so
Speaker 4: I'm actually happy about that fact.
Speaker 2: I'm sure i'll be happy about it once I am
Speaker 2: able to read the Greek as well.
Speaker 5: So I have a good wrap up question. I think
Speaker 5: I took a couple semesters of Latin and undergraduate college,
Speaker 5: so I think your course sounds great but kind of
Speaker 5: wrapped up. Do you have any fun stories of how
Speaker 5: you've used Latin in everyday life or encountered it that
Speaker 5: might be interest to people who would be taking the course.
Speaker 3: That's a good question.
Speaker 2: I may definitely you see it everywhere. I mean, just terminology, mottos.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think.
Speaker 2: There's definitely been times, even in class today. I was
Speaker 2: in class today and the teacher was like talking about
Speaker 2: just the kind of Roman saying if you want peace,
Speaker 2: prepare for war. And he's like, does anyone know the
Speaker 2: Latin for that? And I was like, yeah, I do.
Speaker 2: Things like that just come up on a day to
Speaker 2: day basis and are just helpful in general. I mean
Speaker 2: when I'm studying theology or you know, reading a book
Speaker 2: and there's a word that I have no idea what
Speaker 2: that means, you know, Latin helps me to figure that out.
Speaker 2: And so I don't know if I have just some
Speaker 2: crazy fun story that I can think of off the
Speaker 2: top of my head, but I will say it is
Speaker 2: very useful in day to day life, and it does
Speaker 2: provide some fun moments of conversation. People are usually like Latin,
Speaker 2: like what.
Speaker 1: So, yes, yeah, I mean I will say that, you know,
Speaker 1: even though I haven't formally studied Latin any great degree,
Speaker 1: I've picked up enough for etymological purposes between Latin and Greek.
Speaker 1: And all the times I'll be just talking, I'll say
Speaker 1: some commonplace word and instantly my mind started breaking it down,
Speaker 1: like reflecting on the meaning that's contained in here that
Speaker 1: often goes unnoticed. I just all the time in my lectures.
Speaker 1: Some of my students love it. Some just think I'm
Speaker 1: a nerd, which isn't totally off. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of wisdo them just packed into
Speaker 1: our language that often goes unnoticed. But as you get
Speaker 1: into Greek, as you get into Latin, language just comes
Speaker 1: alive with all this meaning that you just didn't recognize
Speaker 1: because it's so you know, in our face on a
Speaker 1: regular basis, and so it really does help you to
Speaker 1: kind of get underneath that a little bit. So that's
Speaker 1: some practical benefit of studying something like Latin. All right,
Speaker 1: Oh cool, Josh. You also have a course coming up
Speaker 1: in May on Paradise Loss. So why can't you tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about yourself and what leads you
Speaker 1: to this place?
Speaker 4: Sure, so, I'm Josh. I've spound a couple of the
Speaker 4: podcast episodes, especially the Poetta discussions a couple of months ago.
Speaker 4: At least I am a husband, I am a father
Speaker 4: of too, and I am hoping to be teaching very soon.
Speaker 4: So that's kind of a unique thing about me actually
Speaker 4: is like I haven't had a full time teaching job. Yeah, However,
Speaker 4: between is like youth ministry, college ministry at churches, teaching
Speaker 4: like adult Sunday School, which I very recently finished a
Speaker 4: h a ten week class on there. I certainly had
Speaker 4: a lot of experience with that as well as far
Speaker 4: as like Paradise Lost actually goes. I've probably didn't read
Speaker 4: it till about like a year and a half ago,
Speaker 4: but it's one of those one of those books or
Speaker 4: even poems to be specific, that I just find myself
Speaker 4: continually going back to because there's just there's so much
Speaker 4: that Milton asks there over and over again, and the
Speaker 4: more it's one of those things we're like pretty much
Speaker 4: like any great book, where you the more questions you
Speaker 4: research and find answers to, the more questions just evolve
Speaker 4: out of your answers. So if you like that kind
Speaker 4: of reading, it's definitely Paradise Loss is kind of like
Speaker 4: a cosmos in of itself, right, So there's there's so
Speaker 4: much there, and what I will not do is be
Speaker 4: able to provide you scholarly answers to all of the
Speaker 4: really hard questions because I'm not an expert on the work,
Speaker 4: but what I can do is for those who have
Speaker 4: no idea how to read it, or are intimidated by it,
Speaker 4: or even who have read it before but don't really
Speaker 4: understand it or feel like they're just grasping at straws
Speaker 4: all the time, I believe I would be a sufficient
Speaker 4: guide to help somebody to get started into their journey
Speaker 4: into Milton and venture out from there.
Speaker 1: So, what in particular draws you to Paradise Lost or
Speaker 1: what does cause you to attach yourself to it? You know,
Speaker 1: you say you just started reading it relatively recently, and
Speaker 1: so yeah, what what do you think leads that immediate
Speaker 1: pull for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So a couple of things. And one thing is
Speaker 4: any Christian out there, Heck, there's probably even like non
Speaker 4: Christians out there that feel this way too, that find
Speaker 4: and something incredibly compelling about the like the first three
Speaker 4: chapters of the Genesis narrative or even maybe the Genesis
Speaker 4: poetry if you want to, I want to call it that, right,
Speaker 4: And there's things that are that God reveals to us
Speaker 4: through that. But there's so many things that we don't know, right,
Speaker 4: like just the age old debate about you know, literal
Speaker 4: creation days or not, or like what happened before creation?
Speaker 4: Or how did we hear about you know, Lucifer falling?
Speaker 4: And it's like, how does that tie into all of us? Right? Well,
Speaker 4: this is exactly the kind of journey that John Milton
Speaker 4: is trying to take us on here, right, He's trying
Speaker 4: to really invoke the imagination to to think about these
Speaker 4: kind of things, right, not saying that we can know
Speaker 4: and definitely all of the answers, but I think he's
Speaker 4: really ultimately drawing us in into that further, and not
Speaker 4: just for mere philosophical speculation. Milton actually pushed against that
Speaker 4: in a lot of ways, especially some of the some
Speaker 4: of just like the metaphysical speculation that was popular in
Speaker 4: like Scholasticism in the Middle Ages. He pushed back on
Speaker 4: some of that and found it to be a bit
Speaker 4: too hyper focused on non practical issues. But he's really
Speaker 4: trying to, I think, take us on like a devotional
Speaker 4: journey to not just something about cosmology and metaphysics, but
Speaker 4: also ethics in the Christian life. And really the key
Speaker 4: honestly in the whole poem in a lot of ways
Speaker 4: is just obedience to God and why God is worthy
Speaker 4: of our obedience? Why God is worthy of us following
Speaker 4: his commands? And there's many other aspects to it that
Speaker 4: tie in with that as well, But I would say
Speaker 4: those are probably a couple of the big ones as well.
Speaker 4: I think as a Christian it really is like just
Speaker 4: as much of a devotional journey as is an intellectual journey.
Speaker 4: And those things certainly don't always have to be divorced
Speaker 4: from one another, but can be directly running in parallel
Speaker 4: with one another and even intertwine at times.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people are kind of scared, honestly
Speaker 1: about jumping into epic poetry of some kind. So what
Speaker 1: would you say to that? I mean, you know, if
Speaker 1: we want a devotional that I don't even like bradening this,
Speaker 1: but I have to do it. You know, why not
Speaker 1: just read like a modern devotional, Like why go the
Speaker 1: epic poetry route and strain ourselves so much? What's the
Speaker 1: benefit of that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a next one question. I appreciate the Devil's advhate.
Speaker 4: By the way, this kind of reminds me of a
Speaker 4: quick side note here. It kind of reminds you in
Speaker 4: the Republic when like Socrates keeps asking through Cymachus questions,
Speaker 4: and it says he like turns his rudd as a
Speaker 4: tomato and starts sweating. I feel like that's what you're
Speaker 4: doing to be right now and Drew. But no excellent question,
Speaker 4: And there certainly could be value in those modern devotional
Speaker 4: works as well. I'm certainly going to say there isn't,
Speaker 4: but kind of like first to tackle the intimidation factor.
Speaker 4: I think one thing that Paradise Loss simply has the
Speaker 4: benefit of versus even Homer, Virgil or Dante, is that
Speaker 4: this is like the one great epic poem of our
Speaker 4: literary canon that English natives can really claim as their
Speaker 4: own right. And yes, there's going to be archaic references
Speaker 4: and illusions all throughout, certainly even sometimes depending on what
Speaker 4: version you have, especially that there's gonna be some odd
Speaker 4: spellings in there. But this is truly like our great
Speaker 4: English epic poem. And you don't have to in a
Speaker 4: sense like rely on translations as much in this because
Speaker 4: you can actually you can understand a word for a
Speaker 4: word in a lot of ways, even if you have
Speaker 4: to pause here and there, like you know, suppose reading
Speaker 4: Shakespeare is hard, but there's still a level to where
Speaker 4: where you can actually do that without having to study
Speaker 4: a language for hundreds or thousands of hours like you
Speaker 4: would to read The Need right or to read the Odyssey.
Speaker 4: There's a benefit there that's I think just it makes
Speaker 4: it accessible, right, And I would say even just in scope,
Speaker 4: it's more accessible versus the other great Christian epic. Usually
Speaker 4: the Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost are referred to certainly
Speaker 4: two of the greatest, if not the two greatest Christian epics,
Speaker 4: And honestly, I think Paradise Loss is more accessible than
Speaker 4: the Divine Comedy in a lot of ways, not just
Speaker 4: because of the Italian versus English aspect of it, but
Speaker 4: just because it's probably there's a lot less just archaic
Speaker 4: references in a sense, and it probably follows I think
Speaker 4: the narratives is easier to follow, to be quite frank, honestly,
Speaker 4: it's really just it's a story we're all familiar with
Speaker 4: in a way, it's just kind of trying to fill
Speaker 4: in the gap of you know, that narrative of the
Speaker 4: creation story and the fall of Man. I think there's
Speaker 4: a lot in there. And I guess as far as
Speaker 4: the component of your question regarding like just this as
Speaker 4: devotional material. I do, and and I love that you
Speaker 4: pointed out that we have a utilitarian culture, and I
Speaker 4: think people sometimes want like a really quick, easy like
Speaker 4: two plus two equals for answers sometimes even with the humanities, right,
Speaker 4: that's like almost never how it works, by the way,
Speaker 4: But I don't have like that symbol of an answer
Speaker 4: at the end of the day. But like I do,
Speaker 4: think practical benefit or not, there's a sense where Milton
Speaker 4: draws us in with the imagination in a way that
Speaker 4: other works may not. And very specifically on this and
Speaker 4: this is like the conversation for tons of just like
Speaker 4: milton scholarship basically for going on four hundred years now
Speaker 4: is you know, why is Satan so charismatic and charming
Speaker 4: and why is he such a prominent character in Paradise Lost?
Speaker 4: And that's a very valid question. Let's see Shelley and
Speaker 4: Blake were not They're not right in this. He Milton
Speaker 4: was not a Satanist. He was not like some sort
Speaker 4: of classic closet, you know, worshiper or admired of Satan
Speaker 4: himself in the biblical theological sense. But he's doing what
Speaker 4: makes us uncomfortable in a way as He's putting Satan
Speaker 4: on full display as a character in which we relate
Speaker 4: to him in a way because we are falling to
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, right through the transmission
Speaker 4: of original sin from Adam on down. And I think
Speaker 4: that and of itself is probably the most devotional aspect
Speaker 4: of it is realized. Wow, Like I'm I'm not like
Speaker 4: Michael the Archangel. I'm not like Raphael who embody these
Speaker 4: Christian virtues so are really paragons of such Christian virtues.
Speaker 4: But I identify more with Satan in a lot of ways,
Speaker 4: where it's like I am envious and prideful, and I
Speaker 4: want to do whatever I want sometimes and turn inward
Speaker 4: rather than conforming outward to God at the top of
Speaker 4: the cosmological hierarchy, right, the transcendence of hierarchy itself. That's
Speaker 4: probably would be my long winded, slightly long winded answer
Speaker 4: to that.
Speaker 1: Now, what's the I mean, Obviously, Paradise Loss has had
Speaker 1: a very influential role in the Western canon following the
Speaker 1: late teventeenth century on. I mean, so how would this course,
Speaker 1: I mean maybe help somebody just better understand or appreciate
Speaker 1: Western literature.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean definitely definitely a good question as well.
Speaker 4: So as far as it's like speaking in terms of
Speaker 4: like the English letter very tradition. This is, you know,
Speaker 4: coming right out of right after Shakespeare in a sense,
Speaker 4: speaking like historically here, So there's certainly going to be
Speaker 4: those influential dimensions as well, but it comes before you know,
Speaker 4: people talk about like Shakespeare a lot, and people talk
Speaker 4: about the Romantics a lot or the Victorians a lot. Right,
Speaker 4: So like the nineteenth century, Shakespeare being like really the
Speaker 4: best of his stuff in that first decade of the
Speaker 4: seventeenth century, whereas Milton's more towards the middle and end
Speaker 4: of the seventeenth century. But I think that Milton kind
Speaker 4: of helps bridge the gaps in a sense between those two,
Speaker 4: right Like, where you have Shakespeare, you have the nineteenth century,
Speaker 4: but what about the rest of the seventeenth century? What
Speaker 4: about the eighteenth century? Right Like that's all this helps
Speaker 4: to tie it all in in a sense. And as
Speaker 4: far as speaking even broader outside of the English literary canon,
Speaker 4: especially the modern English literary canon, I think this is
Speaker 4: a good epic to start with in a sentence, especially
Speaker 4: as a Christian, where like you're just familiar with a
Speaker 4: lot of these themes and you're familiar, familiar with like
Speaker 4: the biblical stories and the like the narrative of the
Speaker 4: Old Testament. Specifically, I think that this is a good
Speaker 4: kind of primer for understanding and reading the great epic
Speaker 4: poems of our Western tradition. And there's a lot of
Speaker 4: things in Milton that are just stylistically speaking, just very
Speaker 4: very Homeric. Certainly many things are pulling from Virgil and
Speaker 4: even in some ways indirectly Dante as well. Conversation for
Speaker 4: another day, But I think this is actually very a
Speaker 4: good place to start for that, right. I mean, I've
Speaker 4: heard many people say that they picked up a copy
Speaker 4: of the Iliad and they're, you know, it's it's not
Speaker 4: all what they were expecting, right, they were expecting like
Speaker 4: the movie with Brad Pitt from two thousand and four,
Speaker 4: and it's no, this is really intimidate and Paradise Lost
Speaker 4: is too, But there's an aspect wanting to be it's
Speaker 4: more familiar and can help prime us to reading Homer,
Speaker 4: to reading Virgil and to reading Dante as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I will say that, I mean, most of
Speaker 1: the people listening to this have appreciation for C. S. Lewis,
Speaker 1: and if you have appreciation for CS. Lewis, you should
Speaker 1: have an appreciation for Paradise Lost. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: if you want to get underneath Paralandra or even even
Speaker 1: Narnia to some degree, like these themes here are very
Speaker 1: important for Lewis, and so there's that inkling connection as
Speaker 1: well as well as just the broader literary canon. Cool, Juda, Hannah.
Speaker 1: Do you have any questions or thoughts here for Josh.
Speaker 2: I don't have any questions, but just thought wise, I
Speaker 2: agree with what you said about Paradise Lost being easier
Speaker 2: to follow than Divine Comedy, having almost a few cantons
Speaker 2: left finished my first full read through the Divine Comedy. Uh,
Speaker 2: I was reading it right before this. I definitely think
Speaker 2: that you're right like that. I think is a great
Speaker 2: place to start, and I'm actually excited. I'm hoping to
Speaker 2: take your class because I would like to further my
Speaker 2: Milton knowledge.
Speaker 4: Yeah, which appreciated.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would agree with what you said, Josh about
Speaker 5: the value of an epic poem in English. In college
Speaker 5: I read Iliad and ned Odyssey all those, but you
Speaker 5: always have the sense that you're missing something because it's
Speaker 5: a translation there's no poetic features unless the translator does
Speaker 5: a lot of work to tweak the words, and then
Speaker 5: you feel like, you know, this isn't really the original.
Speaker 5: But with Paradise Lost, you have an epic poem in
Speaker 5: the language that it was written in, and it's not
Speaker 5: so far back like Beowulf that you still need help
Speaker 5: to translate it. And so that I've thought that was
Speaker 5: really valuable and enjoyable when I was reading it, to
Speaker 5: get the sense and feeling and experience of what an
Speaker 5: epic poem should be like, because you can't get that
Speaker 5: when you're reading a foreign language.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, and yeah, especially Bao, Well, my gosh, that's
Speaker 4: that really. It truly is like a different language, right
Speaker 4: like people think people think like they cantuper retails is
Speaker 4: like a different language, and like it kind of is,
Speaker 4: but no, like, yeah, Middle Medieval English and like Anglo
Speaker 4: Saxon or Old Norse or just even those are different worlds, right,
Speaker 4: So yeah.
Speaker 1: Definitely, Yeah, I've I've got to learn Old English, learn
Speaker 1: to learn English accent at some point. You know, I've
Speaker 1: read Baywolpen so many translations and it's just I just
Speaker 1: phone translations. I can tell is such an incredible language.
Speaker 1: I have to underneath that.
Speaker 2: At some point, Hey, maybe we can find someone to
Speaker 2: teach a mythic mind course on that.
Speaker 1: Yes, I would be a big fan of that. I
Speaker 1: would definitely take that myself. Let's see, there's something I
Speaker 1: was gonna say. It might come back to me. All right, Judo,
Speaker 1: wait you and tell us a little bit about yourself
Speaker 1: and what you have coming up.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So I'm Judah Bruce. I have a bachelor's degree
Speaker 5: in Classical Communities from John Bilispoon College, and last year
Speaker 5: I completed a Master of Arts in American Government from
Speaker 5: Regent University and our own Andrew Snyder also studied at
Speaker 5: Regent for a while, so pretty cool with that. I'm
Speaker 5: hoping to teach in the late summer early fall. I
Speaker 5: teach a course on American government. But what I want
Speaker 5: to do to make it more unique is I feel
Speaker 5: like a lot of government courses you just read a
Speaker 5: textbook and says what it is, but you don't get
Speaker 5: like any context or personal kind of perspective on it.
Speaker 5: But there's a whole lot of great resources throughout American
Speaker 5: history of speeches and books and writings that people have done.
Speaker 5: So I want to teach an American government course, but
Speaker 5: focus on primary sources throughout it. And there's a lot
Speaker 5: of courses that will do that, for like the Founding era,
Speaker 5: and as great as the founding area is, you know,
Speaker 5: you got the Federalist papers and Constitutional Convention, all sorts
Speaker 5: of things that definitely I want to go over. But
Speaker 5: a lot of government courses that to include primary sources
Speaker 5: just seem to stop there and they don't continue on
Speaker 5: to go over great speeches and writings that happens later
Speaker 5: in American history. So that's kind of my vision for
Speaker 5: what I want to put together. I want to go
Speaker 5: over the major structures of government how they function, but
Speaker 5: also incorporate a lot of primary sources along the way
Speaker 5: to show the development of the institutions in our government.
Speaker 1: Cool. Yeah, I always appreciate the Regent connection. You know,
Speaker 1: there are one in addition to studying there that they're
Speaker 1: one of the online schools that I teach for. Hopefully
Speaker 1: i'll I think I'm going to be teaching the range
Speaker 1: some series with them in the fall. But that's that's
Speaker 1: a beside the point. So what interests you about American government?
Speaker 5: Oh, well, there's a lot of things about it. I
Speaker 5: guess one simple reason is that there's a never ending
Speaker 5: fountain of new things happening. Government is never a static
Speaker 5: there's always tension or progress or sometimes regression going on,
Speaker 5: so there's always something new that you can learn in government.
Speaker 5: It's also, I feel like a very important topic because
Speaker 5: it affects all of us. You know, everyone likes to,
Speaker 5: you know, complain about it or viewed as entertainment or whatever,
Speaker 5: but it does have a real impact on the world.
Speaker 5: And so I want to do my part to be
Speaker 5: well informed on government and if I have the privilege
Speaker 5: of influencing government decisions someday, being wise and prudent in
Speaker 5: what I would do. So I think government is important
Speaker 5: for everyone to know, especially in a country where we
Speaker 5: do have the ability to vote and petition our government leaders,
Speaker 5: as the Constitution says. So yeah, I want to do
Speaker 5: my part for that, and I would love to help
Speaker 5: other people have that same experience of being informed and
Speaker 5: enjoyed the subject.
Speaker 1: So what would your course offer someone that they couldn't
Speaker 1: get from their political podcast, you know, your daily wire
Speaker 1: whoever you know people listen to.
Speaker 5: I would say it's just the foundation. Like this one
Speaker 5: thing I found going through college, you know, and being
Speaker 5: a young person in the Internet age, like you can
Speaker 5: get a fire hose of information on any topic you want,
Speaker 5: anything under the sun. But because of that, it's very
Speaker 5: easy to be overwhelmed, like you don't have any sort
Speaker 5: of foundation in a topic that you're going into. So
Speaker 5: as I went through college, I really found that the
Speaker 5: value of an instructor was laying that foundation of Okay,
Speaker 5: this information is important, and this is the next step
Speaker 5: that we build on it. And then you see over time,
Speaker 5: as you build up that foundation, eventually you can go
Speaker 5: on to study more yourself and add more bricks to
Speaker 5: your house of knowledge. So in the case of government specifically,
Speaker 5: when you have tons of podcasts and things, they're always
Speaker 5: talking about government and the latest stuff, but that doesn't
Speaker 5: give you the foundation of Okay, this is why our
Speaker 5: system is set up this way. These are the circumstances
Speaker 5: that led to where we are now and potentially what
Speaker 5: could happen in the future. If you're just going on
Speaker 5: watching the news, you know, you're like, oh, yeah, the
Speaker 5: electoral college vote is this, but you know, we also
Speaker 5: should change the electoral college, and maybe that would be
Speaker 5: a better system. But you can't really be equipped to
Speaker 5: respond to that or understand it unless you know the
Speaker 5: foundation of the electoral college in the first place. As
Speaker 5: just a simple example.
Speaker 1: So what would your course look like on a week
Speaker 1: to week basis?
Speaker 5: I will say I'm still much more of an early
Speaker 5: phase of playing than Hannah or Josh, so I don't
Speaker 5: have that set in stone yet. Definitely some videos discussing
Speaker 5: what the week would look at, and then probably a
Speaker 5: recap at the end of the week. And also I'm
Speaker 5: really hoping to have strong live discussion because I feel like,
Speaker 5: on the one hand, as I said earlier, government is
Speaker 5: always progressing and things are happening, so I feel like
Speaker 5: live discussion would be a really good way to go
Speaker 5: over current events and how what would be learning reflects
Speaker 5: or informs current events. And also I just really love
Speaker 5: in person discussion when it comes to learning. When I
Speaker 5: was in college, in person, I found that I learned
Speaker 5: a lot in our outside of class discussions with my
Speaker 5: friends and classmates. And then when I switched to online
Speaker 5: school for graduate studies, I no longer had as much
Speaker 5: actual interaction, and I saw how much less I actually
Speaker 5: digested and synthesized because of that. So I'm really hoping
Speaker 5: that live discussion be a good part of the course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I definitely agree with that as somebody who's
Speaker 1: studied some online as well as I've taught a good
Speaker 1: bit online. There's definitely a different dynamic at play. And
Speaker 1: when you're doing anything in the humanities, I mean that
Speaker 1: live communal aspect. It's just so important to making it real,
Speaker 1: having people talking to people about people things that that's
Speaker 1: so essential to the humanities. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: obviously everyone has to busy schedules and so you know,
Speaker 1: it's nice to also have things available to go at
Speaker 1: their own speed. But if you can get invested in
Speaker 1: something like the actual live run of any of these courses,
Speaker 1: including something like government, that just adds so much more
Speaker 1: value to the whole experience. Hannah, Josh, you have any
Speaker 1: questions or thoughts for Judah.
Speaker 2: This is kind of a fun question, but do you
Speaker 2: have a favorite branch of government?
Speaker 5: And if so, why dear favorite branch? Well, you know
Speaker 5: they're all supposed to be equal, right, I would say
Speaker 5: the legislature is really important just to understand because they're
Speaker 5: supposed to be supreme, at least that's what the founder
Speaker 5: has said in the Federalist papers that the legislature is
Speaker 5: supposed to be supreme, So having a good knowledge of
Speaker 5: Congress and how it works is important in something I enjoy. Unfortunately,
Speaker 5: it's also a more complicated branch to understand. Another good one.
Speaker 5: You know, the judiciary is very powerful, so it's really
Speaker 5: important to know how it works. But also I feel
Speaker 5: like it's probably the most neglected branch. You know, people
Speaker 5: can name the president, they can name pop members of Congress,
Speaker 5: but very few people can name many Supreme Court justices.
Speaker 5: So I think that's another great branch to look into.
Speaker 1: I feel like, now we got to return that question
Speaker 1: in a Roman empire or public?
Speaker 2: Oh hmm, that's a good question. I guess I would
Speaker 2: say the Republic, but I also yeah, I would say
Speaker 2: the Republic. I have to side with my I rested
Speaker 2: I should mind that but with Ciceroo and be in
Speaker 2: favor of the republic. However, I do think that learning
Speaker 2: about all the emperors is very cool, and I hope
Speaker 2: to expand my own knowledge as I'm studying for the
Speaker 2: course and teaching about that.
Speaker 1: Fair enough entirely side question there, but I like I
Speaker 1: had to return that.
Speaker 5: It's a great one.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, any I mean anything else that
Speaker 1: you feel like you any of you need to share
Speaker 1: about your courses or any questions.
Speaker 5: That you have. I have one more thing to share.
Speaker 5: One thing I didn't answer before is who would be
Speaker 5: a good fit for this course. So obviously this isn't
Speaker 5: going to be an introductory level course, so I think
Speaker 5: that means it would be best suited for maybe high
Speaker 5: schoolers dual enrollment type level I think would get a
Speaker 5: lot out of it. And then also any adults who
Speaker 5: maybe want to brush up on the type branches of government.
Speaker 5: You know, lots of people take civics classes in high school,
Speaker 5: but unfortunately, when we're in high school, we're not necessarily
Speaker 5: equipped to really value that knowledge. So if there's anyone
Speaker 5: who wants to brush up on that information so that
Speaker 5: they can be a better citizen, more informed voter, or
Speaker 5: even just understand the news better, I think would take
Speaker 5: or have some good learning and takeaways from the course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I will say that one value that we
Speaker 1: can offer that you don't necessarily get an institution is
Speaker 1: that when you go through high school, you go through college.
Speaker 1: You know, there are number of courses that you just
Speaker 1: kind of have to take. You're concerned about getting your
Speaker 1: degree and moving forward. But if any of these courses
Speaker 1: that we're talking about seem interesting to you who are listening,
Speaker 1: then odds are you're gonna get a lot more value
Speaker 1: out of this course than you would an institutional course,
Speaker 1: simply for the reason that you would be choosing to
Speaker 1: engage with it. That as an entirely different dynamic. Now
Speaker 1: it's no longer simply something you have to do, now
Speaker 1: something you're pursuing for your own enrichment, which just adds
Speaker 1: so much more value. It also tends to be a
Speaker 1: lot less expensive as well, because you know, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be a range of prices involved in the different courses
Speaker 1: that we're offering, but none of our courses are gonna
Speaker 1: be anything like the cost of college tuition. And so
Speaker 1: there's so much more value to be had by just
Speaker 1: people who want, who are interested in this material, who
Speaker 1: recognize the value on a deep level one to offer
Speaker 1: it to you, you recognize the value to be had.
Speaker 1: It makes for a really good relationship there that you
Speaker 1: largely don't get in an institutional college or you know,
Speaker 1: especially lower than college class. And you know, I certainly
Speaker 1: found that in my own experience, cool, anything else anyone
Speaker 1: wants to throw in there.
Speaker 4: I think just to emphasize too, that part of the
Speaker 4: value of any of these courses is that communal aspect
Speaker 4: of this. It may be different depending on each person
Speaker 4: this chat or anybody listening, but you may find yourself
Speaker 4: with a lot of people in your everyday life to
Speaker 4: talk to these things about. You may find some and
Speaker 4: some people may find that they're absolutely alone in there
Speaker 4: just regular ordinary life with people to talk to. I
Speaker 4: know I feel that way a lot right where It's
Speaker 4: just like I right now, I work in corporate America,
Speaker 4: and I certainly just don't have a lot of personal
Speaker 4: friends that want to listen to me rand about this
Speaker 4: kind of stuff, even though I make them sometimes. But
Speaker 4: the beauty of this is like you can have people
Speaker 4: to discuss these things with. There's a sense where like
Speaker 4: the digital age has pros and cons, of course, but
Speaker 4: one of the pros is that it does provide like
Speaker 4: a platform where you can discuss these things online with others.
Speaker 4: And one thing I've learned, even just like from like
Speaker 4: grad school, is you you learn the most from your professor,
Speaker 4: but you still learn a lot from other students. As well,
Speaker 4: whether that's their their writings or the comments that they
Speaker 4: make in class, usually both of those things. But I
Speaker 4: think there's just really an aspect there where, like you,
Speaker 4: I can't overstate enough like how important it is to
Speaker 4: have those discussions, and it should be especially compelling. I
Speaker 4: would think if somebody feels like they don't have that
Speaker 4: a lot in their ordinary, everyday life, and I can
Speaker 4: certainly relate to that, Yeah.
Speaker 2: To speak to that right now, Like I'm at college
Speaker 2: and so I suddenly have this abundance of community to
Speaker 2: talk to about humanities things, which is such a blas
Speaker 2: but I try not to forget that not that long ago,
Speaker 2: I was in the public school system and I didn't
Speaker 2: have any friends who wanted to talk about the things
Speaker 2: I was interested in, or even really teachers who did.
Speaker 2: And honest honestly with the mythic mind has meant a
Speaker 2: lot because of that during that time, especially with the
Speaker 2: Csluist course last spring mental Law, that was the first
Speaker 2: time that I met a community of like minded individuals
Speaker 2: who were passionate about similar things. And I grew a
Speaker 2: lot through that course and the community is my favorite,
Speaker 2: one of my favorite parts about that. So I can
Speaker 2: definitely also relate to that sense of loneliness. And even
Speaker 2: though I now have a lot of friends in person
Speaker 2: who I can talk to, you know, not everyone has
Speaker 2: the opportunity, and so I definitely think that's one of
Speaker 2: the most valuable things about these courses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely appreciate you you both of you speaking
Speaker 1: to that. And from my own experience, I mean, I teach,
Speaker 1: you know, up to this point, I've been teaching on
Speaker 1: campus at a state university, and I don't have a
Speaker 1: humanities community at my state university. So that's in my
Speaker 1: own experience, like this has been such a value of
Speaker 1: mythic mind. I mean, and this segment where we really
Speaker 1: branched out beyond the podcast to this the fellowship as
Speaker 1: I've started calling it, really came because I just started
Speaker 1: reading basically everything that C. S. Lewis had to offer
Speaker 1: is really where that got started, and I didn't have
Speaker 1: anyone to talk to about it, and so I just
Speaker 1: put together this course and it gave birth that community.
Speaker 1: And now it's just continuing to move in that direction
Speaker 1: and in various other directions now that you all are
Speaker 1: coming into the mix, and I just I'm excited about
Speaker 1: where things are going. I'm excited that there are other
Speaker 1: people coming along here to create their own courses, create
Speaker 1: their own subcommunities within the broader community that we all
Speaker 1: share together here. And so if you know, if you're
Speaker 1: listening to this and you know any of these courses
Speaker 1: sound appealing to you, then just go ahead and enroll.
Speaker 1: Just just do it, because you know, even if maybe
Speaker 1: you feel like you have a lot going on, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe have work, family, institutional, school of your own, whatever
Speaker 1: you have going on, maybe it feels like a bit much.
Speaker 1: But the good news about a course, about any of
Speaker 1: these courses, is like you can participate in a level
Speaker 1: that works for you and you have indefinite access and so,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you fall behind, maybe you can't keep up,
Speaker 1: that's okay because you have access to the material and
Speaker 1: you have access to the community and definitely, whether that
Speaker 1: be through discord, whether that be through interactions with the
Speaker 1: course facilitators, whatever, by establishing those connections, you know, this
Speaker 1: can work in your time, it can fit with what
Speaker 1: your particular needs are, even if you can't necessarily move
Speaker 1: along in you know, lifetime with the progress of the course.
Speaker 1: And so there's really no reason not to make it happen.
Speaker 1: And so I just encourage anybody here join this community,
Speaker 1: join with these subcommunities, join all of them, make it happen.
Speaker 1: As a reminder, if you're already in Mythic Mind, if
Speaker 1: you're already a patron, you can get half off here.
Speaker 1: And so this is just an incredible value here on
Speaker 1: any and all of these courses. So I definitely appreciate
Speaker 1: you all coming on. Is there anything else that anyone
Speaker 1: wanted to say before we close it up? All right, Well,
Speaker 1: thanks again for coming on, Thank you for putting together
Speaker 1: these courses and expanding what the Mythic Mind Fellowship past offer.
Speaker 1: And I personally look forward to moving along with each
Speaker 1: of you in your own courses that you're leading, and
Speaker 1: I hope that many others come alongside us as well.
Speaker 1: And until then, I'll see all around the discord and
Speaker 1: podcast and wherever else, and best of luck as you
Speaker 1: continue to put your courses together. All right, well, I
Speaker 1: really hope that you enjoyed learning, that you enjoyed hearing
Speaker 1: from these upcoming course creators, and I really hope that
Speaker 1: you'll take their courses now if you want the absolute
Speaker 1: best to you'll get the most value out of the
Speaker 1: whole Mythic Mind experience. Then here's what you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to do. You're gonna want to go to patreon dot
Speaker 1: com slash Mythic Mind, become a patron, become an annual
Speaker 1: patron at the tier three level as the apprentice level,
Speaker 1: because when you become an annual Tier three patron of
Speaker 1: Mythic Mind, you get access to all of my courses
Speaker 1: that are currently on the schedule that includes a brief
Speaker 1: history of Ideas, Plato Stoicism until we have Faces, the
Speaker 1: Elder Scrolls, and Philosophy, and the Silmarillion. If even two
Speaker 1: or more of those courses seem appealing to you, then
Speaker 1: you're gonna get the best deal by becoming a Tier
Speaker 1: three patron of Mythic Mind at the annual level. And
Speaker 1: by the way, I've currently I'm going to keep this
Speaker 1: going up until my course starts in May. I've currently
Speaker 1: upped the annual discount for patronage up to twenty percent,
Speaker 1: And if you sign on at that level with an
Speaker 1: annual patronage, then next year, if you decide to renew,
Speaker 1: and I think you will based off everything we have
Speaker 1: to offer, then you actually get to keep that price
Speaker 1: at renewal, and so this is a great deal. You
Speaker 1: get all of my courses that are currently on the books,
Speaker 1: all the way up to the Summarullion, which will be
Speaker 1: at the beginning of twenty twenty six. But then also
Speaker 1: you get fifty percent off the price of other Mythic
Speaker 1: Mind creators, So you get half off of Paradise Lost,
Speaker 1: half off of Introductory Latin, and half off of American Government,
Speaker 1: as well as any other courses that may pop up
Speaker 1: over time. And by the way, that that fifty percent
Speaker 1: discount actually applies to any Mythic Mind patrons. And so
Speaker 1: you want the best deal, go become a patron to
Speaker 1: Mythic Mind, and then from there go to all of
Speaker 1: their courses, enroll in all of them. Even if you
Speaker 1: think you don't have enough time to follow along with
Speaker 1: the live runs of these courses, the good news is
Speaker 1: that you get access to any of these courses indefinitely
Speaker 1: once you are enrolled, and so even if you have
Speaker 1: to go at your own pace, even if you have
Speaker 1: to get to it a little bit later down the road,
Speaker 1: go ahead and get access to this materials. Now, support
Speaker 1: our team and help all of us to continue going
Speaker 1: further up and further in so that way we have
Speaker 1: a growing array of option to provide for you, and
Speaker 1: so I hope that you will join us in some
Speaker 1: of these courses. I hope you'll join us in all
Speaker 1: of these courses. But if nothing else, I just appreciate
Speaker 1: you continuing to listen here and I look forward to
Speaker 1: all that we have in store. And now before we
Speaker 1: sign off, I do want to thank all of my
Speaker 1: current patrons, and specifically by name, I want to thank
Speaker 1: all Tier three patrons and higher, and that is Mark, Amanda, Chase,
Speaker 1: Chas Clinton, Aaron Evy, Jamie, Justin, Justin, Kyle, Mariah, Paul,
Speaker 1: Roger Tyler and William and most of those Tier three
Speaker 1: patrons right there. I have taken the deal of annual patronage.
Speaker 1: You get access to all of those courses, and so
Speaker 1: I hope that you'll join them. I hope you'll join
Speaker 1: this growing community at any level. All levels of support
Speaker 1: are very much appreciated and give you access to the
Speaker 1: mythic mind community, and so I hope to see you there.
Speaker 1: But until next time, godspeed. When you go to the
Speaker 1: roots of the word philosophy, you find the love of wisdom,
Speaker 1: which unfortunately is not what you find at the roots
Speaker 1: of all who call themselves philosophers. Now, how do we
Speaker 1: get here? What are the ideas that shape our world?
Speaker 1: And what can the old world tell us in response
Speaker 1: to the perennial questions of what it means to be human,
Speaker 1: what is our purpose? And what, if anything, ought we
Speaker 1: aspire to? In a brief history of ideas, we will
Speaker 1: navigate major epics of thought and survey some of the
Speaker 1: most important figures in the Western canon, including Plato, Aristotle, Boethius, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Nietzsche,
Speaker 1: Sart and carec. Guard and of course we will consider
Speaker 1: even more names. But these are the thinkers that will
Speaker 1: supply our primary readings. Each week will include primary sources
Speaker 1: that will be provided as PDFs. Although these are all
Speaker 1: texts that do belong in your personal library. You will
Speaker 1: be recommended some secondary texts. You will be provided with
Speaker 1: some recorded presentations for you to watch at your leisure,
Speaker 1: ongoing discord chats, and weekly live meetings to discuss the readings.
Speaker 1: I've been teaching philosophy for many years, and I can
Speaker 1: say with confidence that you will leave this six week
Speaker 1: course with a better understanding of the foundation to Western
Speaker 1: thought than most contemporary philosophy majors. Enroll today by going
Speaker 1: to patreon dot com slash Mythic Mind and checking out
Speaker 1: the shop. Or you can gain access to all courses
Speaker 1: past present, and any course that begins during the term
Speaker 1: of your subscription by purchasing a Tier three annual subscription.
Speaker 1: So again, purchase a Tier three annual subscription, and I
Speaker 1: will give you a special code that gives you access
Speaker 1: to all courses that either have taken place or do
Speaker 1: start in this term. And I sincerely hope to see
Speaker 1: you there.