The Bhagavad Gita, the 700-verse jewel of Hindu Scripture from the epic Mahabharata, gifts us Lord Krishna’s counsel to warrior prince Arjuna in time of war. This philosophical poem is endlessly instructive to us today and can aid us in times of war and conflict. In this episode of the Hardcore Literature Podcast, we’re learning […]
The Gulag Archipelago Podcast (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
Solzhenitsyn’s Nobel Prize winning The Gulag Archipelago is one of the most brutal reminders we have that the slippery slope is a dangerous place to teeter upon. Solzhenitsyn’s work is a chilling historical account of what happens when violent ideology goes unchecked. It’s a real-world demonstration of Milgram and Zimbardo’s studies into blind obedience to authority […]
The Carl Jung Podcast (Man and His Symbols)
It’s been a little while since I’ve sat down with a cup of coffee and done a podcast about a Great Book. I’ve been working hard behind the scenes putting together video lectures on Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Freud, Plato, and more over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club. There’s a great discussion going on right now, […]
The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway (Hardcore Literature Podcast)
The short stories of Ernest Hemingway are masterpieces of modern literature. In today’s episode of the Hardcore Literature Podcast, we’ll be breaking down, analysing, savouring, appreciating the following Hemingway short stories: ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’ ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’ We’ll also discuss Hemingway’s theories of writing, and his adventurous and troublesome […]
What Is Art? (The Tolstoy Podcast)
What Is Art (1897) is the culmination of Tolstoy’s spiritual crisis after writing Anna Karenina. As an aesthetic philosophical tract on the nature of art, it’s certainly controversial, but also incredibly thought-provoking. In the latest episode of Hardcore Literature, and in anticipation of the upcoming Anna Karenina Book Club Lecture Series, let’s talk about Tolstoy’s theory of […]
Shakespeare’s Sonnets Podcast
Reading Shakespeare’s sonnets in sequence across a span of many weeks, ranking your favourites, then attempting to possess the best by memory is one of the greatest literary joys a book-lover can pursue. So today we’re kicking off the new year with a discussion on how to read the sonnets, why read the sonnets, and […]
Reading and Life Goals for 2021
2020 was a crazy year. But let’s look to 2021 and set some aspirational reading and living goals. Good reading is good living, and how you read your books (indeed, what books you read) transfers to every other part of your life. We’re talking about book clubs, reading plans, goals, roles, mantras, personal manifestos, breathing, […]
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Podcast
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is endlessly reread-able, beautiful, enduring, haunting, and, despite Wilde’s contentions and theory of art, is an eminently moral book. In today’s episode of Hardcore Literature, we’re talking about the history of this great work, the censorship trial and Wilde’s imprisonment. We’re doing a close analysis, Talmudic style, of the […]
Hardcore Literature Podcast Now Available On Spotify
Thank you to everyone sending in kind words about the show. I’m truly blessed to have such intelligent, kind, lovers of literature for a listenership. After a few requests, I sought to get Hardcore Literature up on Spotify as well as iTunes, so you can listen to it there now. Listen to Hardcore Literature on […]
The C. S. Lewis Podcast (The Screwtape Letters)
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis is a guidebook to good living. In this episode of Hardcore Literature (Season 3, Episode 5), we’re talking about Aristotle, habits, entrepreneurship, law of attraction, religion/Christianity, how to read the Bible, and personal deep spiritual transformation. Check out the timestamps below the player to jump to any topic […]