Dec 7, 2020
Cohosts Ryan McDermott and Elise Lonich Ryan have a conversation about the art that has accompanied them through 2020. They discuss the mysterious ending of Pulitzer-nominated Heroes of the Fourth Turning, a play that explores the political beliefs of four conservative Catholics and has had multiple runs on Zoom. Ryan and Elise share a love of Marilynne Robinson and critiques of Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life. Ryan explains how the Norwegian show Beforeigners ties into his project Genealogies of Modernity, and Elise recommends the best nature writing.
Reading the signs of the times
The relationship between affect and reason
Can you make sense of the present?
How sci-fi and dystopia help us find meaning in times of anxiety
Affective responses and structures of feeling
Franz Jäggerstätter and the intellectual life
American transcendentalism and sentimentalism
Wilma Theater production of Heroes of the Fourth Turning
“Unpacking My Library” by Walter Benjamin
Flourishing in the Wake of COVID-19
Marilynne Robinson on The Ezra Klein Show
“A beginners guide to The Ezra Klein Show”
Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery