Michial Farmer holds court with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about the children's novel "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The trio digs into the satirical and philosophical character of the book before discovering once again that Gilmour is heartless and Farmer gets sad more easily than most.
David Grubbs holds forth with Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer about allegory, both as a mode of reading and as a literary genre. The debate hinges on what terms mean in which contexts: is a literary text defective because it's an allegory, or are there good or bad allegories? Explore that and other possibilities with us.
Nathan Gilmour hosts a conversation with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about the five "proofs of God" from the opening sections of Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae. The trio's discussion ranges over what a proof is for, whether the ontology in the proofs holds up post-Kant, whether reason and revelation can really be friends, and all sorts of groovy philosophical things.
Michial Farmer hosts a conversation with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about the suburbs, their history, and their place in ethical reflection. Among the writers, texts, and places engaged are John Cheever, the Roman Empire, the suburbs of Mongomery, Atlanta, and Indianapolis, and the politics of suburbanization.
David Grubbs chats with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the range of Christian convictions and backgrounds that go into the Christian Humanist project. Among other matters for discussion, the trio discusses why one is an existentialist, why another isn't a Pelagian, and how the Bible relates to what the Christian Humanist project is all about.
Los Tres Humanistas respond to a variety of listener emails. Among the topics covered (and when we cover them) are as follows: [03:05] Mark Heard and listener feedback about listener feedback. [04:29] Karl Barth's Evangelical Theology and "A Primer on Religious Existentialism." [06:41] Spoon River Anthology and A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. [08:47] A case for stupid songs and Grubbs's Dick Van Dyke moment. [12:08] Non-Trinitarian Christianity. [16:05] Postmodernism vs. Bertrand Russell. [2...
Nathan Gilmour holds forth with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer on Tertullian's treatise "On Idolatry." The trio digs into the rhetorical performance that marks the piece as masterful prose as well as the concept of complicity that makes it troubling and interesting even eighteen hundred years later.
Michial Farmer hosts a chat with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about influential but little-known Jesus-rocker Mark Heard. Focusing on his final three albums, the Humanists dig into the sound, the content, and themes of love and death in his late work, from the early nineties, conversing as well about other works that hold in common Heard's particular outlook on human existence.
Wrapping up the spring semester, David Grubbs hosts a chat with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about what plays when we listen to the Internet. From politics to Walt Disney World, the trio suggests a wide range of shows for our own listeners to check out.
Nathan Gilmour holds forth with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer on "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World," two short stories by recently deceased Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Garcia Marquez was one of the most prominent writers of Spanish-language fiction for a generation, and his pioneering work in realismo magico occupies the Humanists this go-round. Among the writers and other realities engaged are Magical Realism, Borges, hermeneutics, ...
Michial Farmer chats with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about William Blake's poetic collection "Songs of Innocence and Experience." The trio takes on the standard anthology pieces like "Little Lamb," "The Tyger," and "London," and they also discuss some of the back-catalog poems in the collection and venture on occasion into "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" and the prophetic poems. Among the poems and other realities discussed are "America: A Prophecy," "The Clod and the Pebble," Romanticism...
David Grubbs hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about Cain, the first man born of a woman in Genesis. A figure of subhuman, superhuman, and otherwise inhuman terror through much of literature, Cain contains multitudes, sometimes existing as the figure of urban corruption and other times as the swamp-dweller who shuns cities. Among the texts and other realities discussed are Genesis, City of God, East of Eden, Hebrews, 1 John, and Bruce Springsteen.
Nathan Gilmour hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer, David Grubbs, and Book of Nature host Charles Hackney about psychology. After the quartet looks at the history of the discipline, Hackney introduces the listeners to the field of Positive Psychology, and there's a side trip into Tolkien along the way. Among the theories, theorists, and other realities engaged are Aristotle's De Anima, Patristic psychological theology, Positive Psychology, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and why Psychology i...
Michial Farmer hosts a conversation with David Grubbs, Nathan Gilmour, and Book of Nature host Todd Pedlar about physics. From Aristotle to Einstein and beyond, human beings have proposed mathematical and metaphorical models for how the universe works, and physicists take as their work to refine and to teach those models. Among the theories, theorists, and other realities engaged are Aristotle's Physics, Edgar Allen Poe, relativity, radioactivity, quantum mechanics, and bad reasons to be a relat...
David Grubbs hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer, Nathan Gilmour, and Book of Nature host Dan Dawson about meteorology. Starting from the contrast between weather-mythologies and explanations from states of matter, the quartet spend much of the time examining why storms in particular inspires such respect and awe among human beings. Among the writers, ideas, and other phenomena discussed are Aristotle, Job, the water cycle, the synoptic gospels, forecasting, Polar Vortex, and Snowmageddon....
Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer hold forth about Neil Postman's 1985 book "Amusing Ourselves to Death." Postman's most widely read book explores the philosophical and psychological implications of the historical shift from a print culture to a televised culture and examines what happens to institutions like political debate and public education when such shifts happen. Among the ideas and other realities engaged are media ecology, cable television news, MTV, Sesame Street, the genre-distinctiv...
Michial Farmer holds a conversation with Nathan Gilmour and David Grubbs about C.S. Lewis. In a survey-style conversation, the trio digs into his children's novels, his forays into science fiction, his popular apologetics, and especially his influence among 21st-century Evangelicals. Among the books and other realities engaged are The Chronicles of Narnia, the Space Trilogy, the Abolition of Man, Surprised by Joy, and The Great Divorce.
Nathan Gilmour hosts a conversation with Danny Anderson, Michial Farmer, and David Grubbs about the 1984 movie "Ghostbusters." Digging into its treatment of the supernatural and its ties to emerging political phenomena, the quartet both appreciates its staying power and wonders at the strange ideas that lie just beyond the screen. Among the religious movements and other realities engaged are Spiritualism, Cold War nuclear weapons anxieities, the Tea Party, the Comedy of Humors, and Bill Murray.
Michial Farmer hosts a conversation with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour about Willa Cather's short story "Neighbour Rosicky." The crew explores the story's complex treatment of city and country and the American work ethic before settling in on a conversation of the ethics of love that moves the story's plot and defines the title character.
Danny Anderson talks with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the career and films of Alfred Hitchcock. Beginning with their personal histories with Hitchcock's films and Hitchcock's own central role in the rise of film studies as an academic discipline, the Humanists dig into the psychological and literary character of some of his works. Among the movies and other realities discussed are Psycho, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, The Birds, Notorious, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Spel...
Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about postmodernism. Exploring in brief the Derridean, Foucaultian, and Gadamerian streams of thish twentieth-century cultural phenomenon, the trio likewise examines some Christian responses to the postmodern. Among the writers, concepts, and other realities tackled are differance, genealogy, progressivism, metanarrative, and relativism.
Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour about the American folk music scene in the twentieth century. Focusing on three giants of the genre and the political questions that they raise, the Humanists dig into the grand myth of populist music, the strange mix of radicalism and conservatism that follows folk music, and the recent death of Pete Seeger. Among the singers and other realities discussed are Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, folk-rock, Joseph Stalin, and th...
Danny Anderson hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the concept and examples of the Great American Novel. Starting with a World War and quickly diving into culture wars, the search involves the particularly American genre, the novel, and an ongoing dispute about the character of literary education. Among the novels, novelists, and other realities discussed are Moby-Dick, The Grapes of Wrath, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, the New ...
Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction. One of the most recognizable instances of postmodern cinema, Pulp Fiction brings the conversation into matters of cinema violence, nonlinear plots, dramas of interpretation, and the wall-to-wall ego that is Quentin Tarentino.
Michial Farmer interviews Danny Anderson about Danny's recent trip to the Modern Language Association national conference in Chicago.
Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer take some time to read and respond to listener emails and Facebook messages.
The Humanists take on John Milton's early poem "Nativity Ode" for this year's Christmas episode. Milton's poem is a theologically and literarily rich take on the birth of Christ differs significantly from post-Puritan versions of Christmas, and its strange blend of idol-smashing and cosmic vision make for a fun Christmas read. Among the ideas, poetic devices, and other realities engaged are the sympathetic fallacy (or pathetic fallacy), mythology theory, Trinitarian theology, and actus dei.
Danny Anderson moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour on the essay "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell. A freshman-composition workhorse, "Politics" makes composition a matter of ethical deliberation and insists on truthful language. Among the questions, concepts, and other realities pondered are prescriptive and descriptive grammar; pretentious language; meaningless words; and Orwell's intellectual relationships to the New York intellectuals and to Rich...
Nathan Gilmour chats with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about about the bizarre sentence "God is dead," first written in Nietzsche's The Gay Science, later adapted by Christian theologians, and eventually becoming an evangelical bogeyman. At the core of the conversation is the seeming chasm between philosophical discourse and Christian pop culture. Among the texts, thinkers, and other realities discussed are Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Altizer, Steve Taylor, The Newsboys, and "God's Not Dead...
Danny Anderson hosts a a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about monster movies, focusing on the evolution of the genre from the early Dracula and Frankenstein movies to the self-referential remakes of the twenty-first century. At every turn the trio explores the philosophical implications of the monstrous and the place of such narrative in Christian worlds of thought. Among the movies, ideas, and other realities explored are slasher films, Frankenstein, zombies, Scream, and wh...
