In May of 2021 I launched a podcast called ENDURING INTEREST. There are lots of podcasts devoted to the Great Books—generally acknowledged classics—and recently published books, but there are not many devoted to all the books in between. ENDURING INTEREST covers books and essays that are unjustly neglected or forgotten—works that deserve a wider audience. At EI we group series of episodes (6-8) around a particular theme. First we examined works related to totalitarianism and ideology, next we turned to the topic of education. Future themes will include: American identity and culture; war; American constitutionalism; and public morality and liberal society. We also have an occasional series devoted to the lesser-known works by authors of the Great Books. Our first entry in this series is a conversation with Matthew Dinan on Søren Kierkegaard’s Two Ages.
If you have suggestions for books or guests, please send an email (ftaylor at skidmore dot edu) or send a message on Twitter (@theEIpod).
The first series includes:
Jacob Howland on Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novel We
Daniel J. Mahoney on Raymond Aron’s The Opium of the Intellectuals
Clare Cavanagh on a few poems by Czeslaw Milosz
The second series includes:
Michael & Catherine Zuckert on two essays by Leo Strauss
Rita Koganzon on two essays by Hannah Arendt
Pavlos Papadopoulos on Eva Brann’s Paradoxes of Education in a Republic
You can listen to brief excerpts from many of these conversations at our YouTube channel.
