In this shady & obscure episode, hear an enthusiastic summary of Hawthorne's short story, "The Minister's Black Veil," and listen as your host tries to make it relevant in 2021 -- what do veils & masks signify psychologically? Do we wear them instead of simply repenting? Are we trying to hide from God? From each other? Has it become impossible to live truly -- has the punitive culture of "political correctness" forced us all to hide, even from ourselves? Questions of authority and author...
Jan 06, 2021•44 min
In this all-American episode, we’ll talk about the German Higher Criticism, the Rosetta Stone, heiroglyphs, and Emerson’s notion of the Self. American Transcendentalism wasn’t the first iteration of Perennialist thinking, but it became one of the most interesting. It was a refuge for the intellectuals in Boston who couldn’t fit themselves in with the remnant of Puritanism that lingered in the 19th century, but who also weren’t satisfied with the strictly empirical worldview of the Enlightenment ...
Jan 03, 2021•44 min
The stoics, Marcus Aurelius -- be a better person. Attain virtue, etc. You know all that. This episode is about how Stoicism understood the Logos, and how we can tie together personal responsibility with... international politics? Yes!
Dec 28, 2020•36 min
Dec 23, 2020•42 min
In this multi-layered episode, you'll find yourself becoming an expert in the first seven lines of Dante's Inferno. We'll talk a little about his biography a little, but I tried to focus on explaining the most important literary elements (aside from rhythm and rhyme, which can't be translated perfectly). You know what, this one's about Dante and hell, and the way he was basically a psychologist before Psychology... but just go listen.
Dec 20, 2020•45 min
It's about Parmenides & Heraclitus! Mysticism, monism, and the real purpose of Philosophy. Also ontology & metaphysics, but also like, swimming & just talking with buddies all day!
Dec 16, 2020•45 min
In this brain-tingling episode, hear more from Peter Kingsley, as well as Casey's better-than-average hot take on what Heraclitus was all about. Do I have a Philosophy degree? Am I qualified to have authority on this topic? No. Do I have a serious opinion about it, yes. Heraclitus was a shaman, just like Parmenides and Socrates -- and that's the main thing. Comparing "what they said" is a mid-wit thing to do. It's like contrasting the different homily styles of 13th century Roman Catholic priest...
Dec 14, 2020•43 min
In this heady episode, hear more from Hubert Dreyfus, as well as some choice cuts out of William James's classic, The Varieties of Religious Experience. Are there non-ordinary states of consciousness that are nevertheless not dangerous, and maybe even positively advantageous? Can those who have not experienced mystical experience ever understand those who have? Finally, is modern Psychiatry just another mechanism of institutional control? Is Thomas Szasz right? Is Tom Cruise!?
Dec 10, 2020•43 min
In this episode of Godward Podcast, we learn why eye-contact is so interesting, and what it has to do with social status -- and we learn of the psychology of depression and anxiety, although I don't like to use those labels. Dostoevsky seems to pull a trick on unwary readers, and shows them that the sad sack anti-hero main character of "Notes from Underground" may not be very different from most of us. In fact, he might be just a little more honest.
Dec 08, 2020•44 min
This provocative episode features a nice audio drop from Douglas Rushkoff and Duncan Trussell, as well as obscure references to 2010 articles published in the New York Times -- but the main thing is, we read chunks from Dostoevsky's (Dostoyevsky's) "Notes from Underground," and we try to figure out what's so interesting about the main character. It definitely has something to do with atheism and modernism, but there are even more subtle psychological things going on here, and this episode tries ...
Dec 07, 2020•44 min
In this monomaniacal episode, hear your humble host summarize the Odyssey and then offer a close analysis of the part involving the conflict between Odysseus and the Cyclops. There are powerful political ramifications when a dialogic culture like the Greeks' bumps up against a monologic culture like the one they discover among the Cyclops. Which is the better way? Let's get realpolitik. Hear clips from Jordan Peterson and some other guy!
Dec 06, 2020•44 min
In this groundbreaking episode, hear about how Melville was likely what psychiatrists call "bipolar," and learn about how that allowed him to write some of the most mystical scenes in the history of literature. We'll talk about non-ordinary states of consciousness, near-death experiences, and the relationship between trauma and revelation. Hear quotes from Melville's novels "Pierre" and "Mardi," and receive upon your eardrums some of the sweetest passages from Moby-Dick that you'll ever hear rea...
Dec 02, 2020•44 min
In the best episode to date, you'll hear our boy Hubert Dreyfus along with some stuff about the Enlightenment, but mainly, just take huge quaffs of straight up literary, philosophical, and metaphysical TRUTH... or at least, hear good questions about those, including: is Captain Ahab really an okay guy, maybe, in some ways? Ahem. There's lots of talk about whether Moby-Dick is gay (it is Romantic and Hellenic, not gay) and whether the whiteness of the whale is really because Sperm Whales are Angl...
Dec 01, 2020•41 min
In this super-serious episode, you'll accept responsibility or else be banished to outer darkness! Hear quotes from numerous professors and a country Bible preacher, but more importantly, some finely chosen excerpts from Moby-Dick itself. Morality matters, even if Ishmael pretends like it doesn't.
Nov 27, 2020•44 min
Yes, the Puritans hated art and subverted the Catholic hierarchy, but they weren't totally without insight. In this episode, hear a few sections from William Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation," including the primary source for the Thanksgiving story. It includes mention of eating wild turkey!
Nov 24, 2020•28 min
In this fiery episode, the first of a three or five part series on Melville, you get to hear clips from Dreyfus and some expert on painting, but more importantly, you hear a relaxed summary of Moby-Dick and just the right amount of Melville biography to whet your appetite for the greatest novel ever written.
Nov 24, 2020•44 min
In this improved episode, your host merely follows the Holy Spirit and goes on a 44 minute tirade about what's wrong with everything and offers tentative suggestions about how we can begin to fix it.
Nov 21, 2020•45 min
This special episode is simply a reading of Stephen Crane's short story, "The Open Boat," and it's meant to accompany episode 16.2, which will be a wide-ranging discussion concerning Truth, epistemology, metaphor, lying, postmodernism, and the nature of Nature.
Nov 16, 2020•29 min
In this razor sharp episode, hear the story of the destruction of Jerusalem as told by the Jewish historian, Josephus. Clips from Rabbi Tovia Singer and Pastor Chuck Baldwin form the poles of the discussion, and the outro music is especially poignant this time!
Nov 15, 2020•45 min
In this controversial and borderline heretical episode, we delve into the process of moving from a synopsis to an interpretation -- how does History come to have meaning? Quotes from Hubert Dreyfus illuminate us and a backdrop of Vivaldi makes this episode extra perfect for late Fall.
Nov 13, 2020•44 min
In this searingly truthful episode, your mystical host quotes Plato's Timaeus, Joseph Campbell, Victor Pelevin, and Ovid, all while making reference to 12,800-year historical cycles and with an emphasis on anti-communism. Dig it.
Nov 11, 2020•41 min
In this high-energy, but still opium-like episode, you'll hear a dozen or more of the greatest similes found in Homer's Iliad, a quote from Anderson Cooper, and an enchanting background music made from a sad Bach sonata.
Nov 07, 2020•45 min
In this scintillating episode, comparisons are made between Greece & India, between Hinduism and Christianity. Plato is quoted, the Upanishads are quoted, and the Bible is quoted. Soundbites from Alan Watts and some credible-looking Indian guru guy!
Nov 06, 2020•44 min
In this ragin' episode, we do the medium-deep dive on Hinduism's golden nugget, the Bhagavad Gita, and question when it's time to take up arms! -- uh, figuratively.
Nov 04, 2020•44 min
In this semi-miraculous episode, appearing only one day after the last episode, your host discusses the 8th century manuscript called "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People," written by a guy called Bede -- it's full of supernatural anecdotes and medieval atmospheres, and yeah it's a little disorganized because it's election day and everything is distracting!
Nov 03, 2020•45 min
In this fine episode, Pierre Grimes and Johnny Cash are quoted, and the discussion centers on the four (or five) political "regimes" described by Socrates in Book VIII of the Republic. There's also a new jingle somewhere in the middle. Hold on to your togas.
Nov 01, 2020•44 min
In this ear-thrilling episode, hear clips from Peter Kingsley and one of Casey's mystical friends, as well as hot takes on Plotinus and another, even better description, of the Eleusinian Mystery rites. Wake up! Wake up!
Oct 30, 2020•44 min
In this luminous episode, Casey quotes PewDiePie and Socrates seamlessly, and tries to summarize Plato's doctrine of the Forms for a bunch of listeners who are too lazy to read about it for themselves.
Oct 26, 2020•42 min
In this heartbreaking episode, Casey explains the distinction found in Book 2 of The Republic between Being Just and Seeming Just.
Oct 23, 2020•43 min
In this heart-breakingly brief overview of The Annals of Tacitus, Casey summarizes and quotes the greatest Roman historian. The episode contains audio clips from Chris Hedges, Camille Paglia, and the BBC's own Melvyn Bragg. Feeling degenerate? This one's for you.
Oct 20, 2020•33 min
