Download or stream this episode. David Grubbs talks riddles with Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer.
Tag: William Shakespeare
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode 194: The Lecture
Nathan Gilmour leads Michial Farmer and David Grubbs in a discussion of the academic lecture–an endangered species? Lecture Me. Really. Should Colleges Really Eliminate the College Lecture?

The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode 173: Doctor Faustus
Download or Stream this Episode Nathan Gilmour leads a discussion with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs on Christopher Marlowe’s 1594 play Doctor Faustus. Doctor Faustus on Gutenberg.org
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #161: The Devil Takes Visa
Nathan Gilmour leads David Grubbs and Michial Farmer in a discussion of Rodney Clapp’s 1996 article “Why the Devil Takes Visa.”
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #157: Fools
Michial Farmer leads Nathan Gilmour and David Grubbs in a discussion of the fool in theology, literature, and culture.
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #149: Dead Poets Society
Nathan Gilmour converses with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about Dead Poets Society, the second of our Robin Williams trilogy. The trio takes on the strange, truncated readings of poetry in the film, as well as the conceptions of conformity and friendship that arise.
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #148: The Fisher King
Mea Culpa: In this episode, I (Michial) say that Amanda Plummer is British. In fact, she is the daughter of Christopher Plummer and is therefore American/Canadian. I still hate her accent in this movie. * * * Michial Farmer leads David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour into the semester’s trilogy of episodes on Robin Williams movies…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #146: Psalm 119
Nathan Gilmour chats a spell with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about Psalm 119. The trio ranges from the literary form of the verse to the ways that the Psalm has shaped the identities of monks and fundamentalists, landing eventually on some pedagogical speculation.
Christian Humanist Profiles 12: Structuralism, Modern Literature, and Christianity
Anyone who’s spent any time at all with the New Testament is familiar with the opening sentences of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart…
House of Cards: A Tragedy for Our Moment
Opining about House of Cards is a cottage industry of sorts these days, so I must endeavor here to say something you good folks couldn’t read elsewhere. So I advance this hunch: like any good tragedy, House of Cards is the sort of entertainment that rewards learning without requiring it and lets those inclined to repent of sins do…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #125: The Great American Novel
General Introduction – Keeping the seat warm – Danny gets it right! – Listener feedback – Christian Humanist University Personal Definitions – Exemplifying American-ness – The changing representation of Huckleberry Finn – Shakespeare as American author – Subverting the American spirit – Great Novels from other countries The Nationalist Epic – Ex post facto epics…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #112: Authenticity
General Introduction – Listener feedback – The Christian Feminist Podcast Beginning with Grammar – Reflection of essential being – The trouble with the term – Self-concept and projected self – Inauthenticity and hypocrisy Heideggerian Authenticity – What makes Dasein Dasein? – Death as Dasein’s ownmost – Authenticity vs. genuineness – Inauthentic attitudes toward death –…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #106: Witches
General Introduction – The end of the season – On doctoral regalia – Summer courses – Slightly less minor internet celebrities – Ongoing projects Witches in the Bible – Saul and the non-witch of Endor – Necromancy – Countercultural power – Not suffering chanters – Other Ancient Near Eastern prohibitions – State-sponsored sorcery Greco-Roman Witches…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #98: Ode on a Grecian Urn
General Introduction – We read the poem – Happy snow—happy, happy snow! – No listener feedback The Great Odes of 1819 – What do they have in common? – Experimentation with sonnets – The lyric tradition – Meditations on inner states – What is an ode, anyway? “Grecian Urn” and British Romanticism – The production…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #94: The Forest
General Introduction – Grubbs is back! – Old English – Snow – Listener feedback Etymology – Not promising – Madness and wood Biblical Forests – The Epic of Gilgamesh – Wildernesses and deserts – Man-eating forests – Trees clapping their hands – Joseph the stonemason Classical Forests – Forests and mountains – Centaurs – Categories…