The 2 Best Writ Large Podcast Episodes
1) On Edward Said's "Orientalism"
Beginning in the 17th century, European countries began colonizing countries east of Europe. They imposed their own ideas over local cultures and extracted free labor and resources. One way that Europ...Show More
2) On John Rawl's "A Theory of Justice"
How do you create a fair society? Who deserves to rule? What rights do citizens have? How are those rights protected? What does it mean to act morally within society? These are the kinds of questions ...Show More
3) On Martin Heidegger's "Being and Time"
Martin Heidegger did not like small thoughts. He was fascinated by the most expansive questions humans can ask themselves. Questions like: Why are we here at all? Why do things exist as they do? What ...Show More
4) On Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot
In Paris in 1953, one of the strangest and most popular plays of the 20th century premiered, Waiting for Godot, written by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. Since the premier, people have been trying t...Show More
5) On William Shakespeare's "Hamlet"
William Shakespeare is the greatest writer in history, and Hamlet is his greatest work. In Hamlet, Shakespeare gave us one of the first modern characters in literature. We are invited into the mind of...Show More
6) On Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote"
Don Quixote was written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. He wrote it in two parts. Part one was published in 1605, and part two ten years later, in 1615. The story is centered around a middle ag...Show More
7) On Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time"
The French writer Marcel Proust was fascinated by life. But he was even more interested in how we perceive life. In 1908, when he was in his late 30s, he began to write a novel that explored themes of...Show More
8) On Voltaire's "Candide"
Many people made the European Enlightenment, but probably nobody better represents the movement’s spirit than the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. He was a man of letters and strong critic of t...Show More
9) On Gabriel García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
In 1967, Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez published his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Because of that book, he won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1982. One Hundred Years of Soli...Show More
10) On James Joyce's "Ulysses"
Perhaps more than any other book, Ulysses has the reputation of being difficult—it is dense, allusive, and often hard to follow. But Joyce wasn’t trying to be challenging for its own sake, or because ...Show More