Solomon & Smith

The 20 Greatest Movies Ever Made | Jake Kuhn & Noah Stratton-Twine’s Picks Nov 6, 2026 2:04:59 *Jake and Noah's full lists pasted below* Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith 1920s Noah: Go West, dir. Len Powers Jake: Seven Chances, dir. Buster Keaton 1930s Noah: Young Mr. Lincoln, dir. John Ford Jake: Boudu Saved from Drowning, dir. Jean Renoir 1940s Noah: How Green Was

How the 20th Century Made Us Confused and Lonely, from Pooh to Pynchon | Sam Royer Oct 30, 2026 59:52 * Sam's full list pasted below * Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith 1900s: The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 1910s: Kokoro - Natsume Sōseki 1920s: Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne 1930s: Auto De Fé - Elias Canetti 1940s: The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares 1950s: Lolita -

The Greatest (and Weirdest) 19th Century Fiction, from Frankenstein to Karamazov | Sam Royer Oct 27, 2026 52:26 * Sam's full list pasted below * Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith 1800s - Shank's Mare - Ikku Jippensha 1810s - Frankenstein - Mary Shelley 1820s - Ballads and Romances - Adam Mickiewicz 1830s - Eugene Onegin.- Alexander Pushkin 1840s - Courtesans and Opium - The Ignoramus of Yangzhou

Does Canon Even Matter? | The Bible, Star Wars, and Pop Culture Dogmatism Oct 23, 2026 50:13 Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith 00:00 Intro 03:52 What is Canon? 05:38 Canon debates in Abrahamic Religions 08:50 How this maps onto Star Wars (in depth) 17:41 Lore, Doctrine, and Talmudic gloss 19:06 Why does Canon matter so much? Ancient Greece 24:17 The obsession with continuity a

This Film Changed English History (Forever?) | Jarman & Christopher Marlowe Oct 16, 2026 1:17:35 Theo Rollason joins Milo and Jack to discuss Queer Edward II, their new film built from thirty hours of unseen footage shot during the making of Derek Jarman’s Edward II, and to trace Jarman’s film back through Christopher Marlowe to the medieval king himself. Along the way: Jarman turns Renaissance history into Thatcher-era queer politics, Marlowe makes class more scandalous than homosexuality, T

Epstein, Lolita, and the P*rnification of Childhood Oct 9, 2026 59:11 00:00 Introduction 04:38 Lolita Summary 10:50 Did Epstein actually read/like Lolita? 14:32 Epstein's upbringing - boomer sexuality 19:51 Did male boomers create modern sexuality? 24:21 Differences between Epstein and Humbert 28:29 Do we all want to be children forever? 30:35 Our desires have been created for us 32:27 The modelling industry 34:55 Creation: of oneself, of others 36:30 Brit

Does Artistic Genius Come From the Devil? | Faust, Yeats, and the Poetic Sublime Oct 2, 2026 1:32:14 Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith Richard Barakat's *Faust the Magician* is available here: https://shorturl.at/CDWx0 See also the below discussions: Richard Barakat: The Literary Collective (Spring 2025): https://youtu.be/rwecUdt0p28 Richard Barakat: Philosophic Dialogues from La Fr

Is the Quran the EXACT Speech of God? Islamic Theology Explained | Ramon Harvey Sep 25, 2026 1:38:42 Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith 00:00:00 Intro 00:05:30 Ramon arrives - poetic epigraph 00:06:30 What does it mean for God to Speak? 00:09:47 Is Arabic Special? Is it older than Nature? 00:12:04 Is the Quran translated into Arabic from Transcendent Speech? 00:14:11 Could putting God's

Consciousness is NOT an illusion... REALITY IS | William Seager Sep 18, 2026 1:26:12 Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith 00:00:00 Intro 00:07:38 Why Does Consciousness Break Science 00:10:40 Is Life Special? Biophychism: Is Life Consciousness? 00:14:40 Are Observations (Quantum Physics) Dependent on Consciousness? 00:18:10 A Unique Element of Consciousness, distinguishing i

The Dark Religion of American Literature | Taylor Caron on the Neo-Gnostics Sep 15, 2026 1:22:56 Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith Taylor returns to take Milo and Jack through ten great works of American "Gnostic" literature, beginning with Emerson’s Nature and ending, exactly a century later, with Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! Along the way: Jones Very believes himself to be Christ, Hawt

The Christians Who Thought God Was Evil | Taylor Caron on the Gnostic Gospels Sep 11, 2026 1:17:43 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith Solomon & Smith on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/solomon-smith/id6808681930 On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DkVPzTS5lHkynSlHMyOL2?si=FsVpIakbR861Vg9jM3WZvQ&utm_source=copy-link On Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7ca1e4c1-2

Youtube Just Made Views Worthless | Hyper Viewflation Sep 8, 2026 45:21 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith What is a view? What is attention? Does a number become more real if it is larger? Are advertisers being ushered into a hall of mirrors? And if every video, every creator, every athlete, every billionaire, and every man on earth can be given a bigger number, have we made the

Why We May Never Understand Consciousness | Colin McGinn on Mind and Language Sep 4, 2026 1:17:43 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith Thinkers mentioned: Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky, Jerry Fodor, Charles Darwin, Paul Grice, Fred Dretske, Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Saul Kripke, Richard Montague, Iain McGilchrist, Alfred Tarski 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:49 Knife Throwing, Other Athletic Acti

Is AI About to Kill Mathematics? | Kirwin Hampshire Aug 28, 2026 1:24:47 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith Kirwin's article on mathematics is available here: https://kirwinhampshire.substack.com/p/the-dark-night-of-mathematics In this episode of Solomon and Smith, Jack and Milo speak with Kirwin Hampshire, mathematics PhD and author of the Substack Ossuray Lost at Sea. Is m

Classic Literature Is WAY More Fun Than You Think (1710-1840) | Emma Schilders Aug 25, 2026 1:22:57 *Emma's list is pasted below* Please help us to continue having these conversations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership Emma's channel can be found at: https://youtube.com/@sarcastic_fish?si=J3bGM11vCKSxpt3p 1710s - Robinson Crusoe: Daniel Defoe 1720s - Roxana: Daniel Defoe 1730s - Manon Lescaut: Abbé Prévost 1740s - Pamela: Samuel Richardson 1750s - The Fema

Why Understanding Reality Isn’t Enough | Igor Kufayev Aug 21, 2026 1:37:15 Please help us to continue having these conversations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership You can buy Igor's books directly from his publishing house here: https://songpublishing.org/?v=b6bb43df4525 In this wide-ranging conversation, artist and spiritual teacher Igor Kufayev talks with Jack and Milo about consciousness, meditation, Kashmir Shaivism (Trika Shaivism),

The 20 Best Books Ever Written | Cecily Carver’s Picks Aug 18, 2026 1:49:52 *- Cecily's list is pasted below -* Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership Check out Cecily's Substack here: https://cecilycarver.substack.com/ Tremolo expertly demonstrated by Edson Lopes, who can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTBiNRT3GPM 1800s The Earthquake in Chile - Heinrich

The Trinity is Even WEIRDER Than You Thought | Karen Kilby Aug 14, 2026 1:27:11 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith Karen Kilby is the Bede Professor of Catholic Theology at Durham University, and one of the most interesting contemporary thinkers on the Trinity, apophatic theology, and the limits of theological understanding. In this conversation, Jack and Milo talk to Karen about whet

I was a Hard Materialist... Until This INSANE Dream | Jeff Falzone Aug 7, 2026 2:24:45 Please help us to continue having these conversations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership 00:00:00 Introduction 00:05:34 Jeff arrives 00:11:09 Footballers are the most complete human beings 0013:57 Do Aliens have human aesthetics? Evolution. 00:17:56 Poetic Epigraph - Goethean Darwinism 00:22:04 What is a Mind? 00:27:27 Hypnotism - Milton Erickson 00:33:34 Dream

The Greatest Books You’ve Never Read (1800-2000) | Adam Walter’s Picks Aug 4, 2026 1:33:06 *- Adam's list is pasted below -* Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this video Adam discusses his favourite works of fiction decade by decade, starting in 1800 and going 200 years, decade by decade, until they reach the borders of our present century. If you would like to be interviewed by us ab

The Greatest Playwright of the 17th Century (after Shakespeare) | Elaine Hobby Jul 31, 2026 1:45:11 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith Elaine Hobby is one of the foremost experts in the work of Aphra Behn: the greatest playwright of the Restoration, and one of the greatest woman writers of all. In this conversation, Jack and Milo talk to Elaine specifically about Aphra Behn's theatre: how did it differ f

The Greatest Films of Every 5 Years (part two - 1970-2024) | Jack and Milo’s Picks Jul 28, 2026 2:52:38 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith - Our full lists are pasted below - 1970-1974 Jack's Pick: Amarcord, dir. Federico Fellini Milo's Pick: Aguirre, the Wrath of God, dir. Werner Herzog 1975-1979 Jack's Pick: Monty Python's Life of Brian, dir. Terry Jones Milo's Pick: All That Jazz, dir. Bob Foss

You’ve Never Heard of Russia’s Strangest Literary Genius | Oliver Ready on Dostoevsky and Sharov Jul 24, 2026 1:50:50 Oliver Ready is one of the world's greatest translators of Russian literature, most famous for his translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. In this conversation with Jack and Milo, he speaks about what makes Dostoevsky's prose so distinctive, direct, and contemporary, and why Vladimir Sharov may be the greatest Russian novelist you've never read. The discussion covers Dostoevsk

The Greatest Films of Every 5 Years (part one - 1915-1969) | Jack and Milo’s Picks Jul 21, 2026 2:19:23 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith - Our full lists are pasted below - 1915-1919 Jack's Pick: Intolerance, dir. D.W. Griffith Milo's Pick: Terje Vigen, dir. Victor Sjörström 1920-1924 Jack's Pick: Häxan, dir. Benjamin Christensen Milo's Pick: Die Niebelungen, dir. Fritz Lang 1925-1929 Jack

Was Paradise Already Lost? | Achsah Guibbory on Milton’s Theology of Desire Jul 17, 2026 1:39:57 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this conversation, Achsah Guibbory joins Jack and Milo to discuss John Donne, John Milton, love, sex, sin, marriage, desire, Paradise Lost, and the problem of whether erotic love can ever be holy. Donne and Milton are two of the great Johns of seventeenth-centur

Reading is... BAD For You Actually Jul 14, 2026 59:10 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith The smartphone has quietly assassinated humanity's greatest invention. In this discussion, we explore the decline of deep reading. An obligatory video for all book-based channels. We look at the atomic annihilation of literacy, attention spans, memory, and critical thinki

Who REALLY Wrote the Quran? | Gabriel Said Reynolds Jul 10, 2026 1:08:30 Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith Who wrote the Quran? Did it flow directly from God? Did Muhammad compose it? Did several authors compose it over several centuries? Does it have the characteristics of a dictated text, or a written text? How simple or complicated is the story of the Quran's origins? In th

This Philosopher Believed in Magic | James D. Reid on Novalis Jul 3, 2026 2:08:45 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this conversation, James D. Reid joins Jack and Milo to discuss Novalis: poet, philosopher, natural scientist, early German Romantic, and perhaps the greatest pen name in literary history. Novalis — born Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg — died of

The Greatest Novel of Every Decade (1800–2000) | Andrew Nixon’s Picks Jun 30, 2026 1:36:39 *- Andrew's list is pasted below -* Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this video Andrew discusses his favourite works of fiction decade by decade, starting in 1800 and going 200 years, decade by decade, until they reach the borders of our present century. If you would like to be interviewed by u

Virgil is the Greatest Poet of Antiquity (Not Homer) | Wright & McGill on The Aeneid Jun 26, 2026 1:35:52 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this conversation, Scott McGill and Susanna Wright join Jack and Milo to discuss their recent translation of Virgil’s *Aeneid*: one of the foundational poems of Roman literature, a work of exile, empire, grief, violence, duty, divine terror, and extraordinary poeti

Harry Potter Is Secretly About Class Jun 23, 2026 49:59 Harry Potter, the work of a 'socialist', is in love with the trappings of the upper-class. The wizarding world is based entirely on the aesthetics Britain's elite institutions. It is not the story of an outsider, but a fantasy about inheritance, privilege, and belonging to an ancient, racially pure elite. In this episode, we discuss Harry Potter as a British class allegory. We discuss - H

How Ovid Rewrote Greek Mythology Forever | Stephanie McCarter Jun 19, 2026 1:42:46 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this episode of Solomon & Smith, Jack and Milo speak with classicist and translator Stephanie McCarter about her acclaimed translation of one of the most influential works in Western literature, Ovid's Metamorphoses. Ovid retold Greek myths of transformation

The Novel That Predicted Europe’s Collapse? | Ritchie Robertson on The Magic Mountain Jun 12, 2026 1:12:44 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this conversation, Professor Ritchie Robertson joins Jack and Milo to discuss Thomas Mann’s *The Magic Mountain*: one of the great modern European novels, a thousand-page comic-philosophical epic about illness, love, death, time, politics, and the fate of humanism.

Nietzsche: Christianity Is the Most Successful Form of Nihilism Jun 9, 2026 44:03 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership This discussion is largely a response to some of the reactions to our most recent DBH interview. We discuss Nietzsche, Chesterton, antisemitism, Christianity, nihilism, morality, Nazism, Darwinism, Schopenhauer, and On the Genealogy of Morals. We examine Nietzsche'

Beckett, Bernhard, and the Literature of Rage | Mark Bowles Jun 5, 2026 1:29:37 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership All My Precious Madness is available at bookshops, both good and evil. In this conversation, novelist Mark Bowles joins Jack and Milo to discuss his debut novel All My Precious Madness, a voice-driven, rage-filled, lyrical work about Henry Nash: an academic turned

The Greatest Fiction of Every Decade (1800–2000) | Jack & Milo’s Picks Jun 2, 2026 2:38:25 *- Both out lists are pasted below -* Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this video Jack and Milo discuss their favourite works of fiction decade by decade, starting in 1800 and going 200 years, decade by decade, until they reach the borders of our present century. If you would like to be intervi

David Bentley Hart: Why Nietzsche Was Wrong About Love and Morality May 29, 2026 2:13:18 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this conversation, David Bentley Hart joins Jack and Milo to discuss among the most dangerous and controversial of all questions: where does morality come from? Is morality an evolutionary strategy for accruing power, or are love and compassion woven into the struc

Translating The Magic Mountain (And Why Thomas Mann Is So Difficult) | Simon Pare May 22, 2026 1:52:30 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this long-form conversation, Milo and Jack speak with translator Simon Pare about the challenge of translating The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann for Oxford World’s Classics. This discussion explores the language, style, and enormous technical challenges be

The Gospels Don’t Agree — And That’s the Point | John Nelson on the Bible May 15, 2026 1:27:04 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership This long-form conversation explores the New Testament, the four Gospels, and the problem of biblical interpretation with New Testament scholar John Nelson. Together we examine contradiction, canon, authorship, apocalyptic expectation, and the strange literary texture

This Conversation Changed How I Think About Reading | Brian Cummings May 8, 2026 2:13:49 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership There is nothing more intimate than reading. A book is not just paper, ink -- it isn't just an information-convoybelt. Somehow, through a handful of symbols, another consciousness begins speaking inside your mind. Across centuries, across languages, across death —

Were Medieval Pilgrimages Actually Vacations? | Anthony Bale on Medieval Travel May 1, 2026 1:02:48 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership This long-form conversation explores medieval travel, pilgrimage, and imagination with Professor Anthony Bale (University of Cambridge). We examine how people in the Middle Ages understood a world they knew to be vast, real, and inhabited—yet only partially accessible

Why Language Fails God: John Donne, George Herbert & the Limits of Poetry | Helen Wilcox Apr 24, 2026 1:53:21 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership This long-form interview explores the nature of devotional poetry in the 17th century, focusing on major figures such as John Donne, George Herbert, and their contemporaries. Together with Professor Helen Wilcox (Bangor University), we examine how early modern poets g

Can You Love an Unknowable God? | Becky Field on The Cloud of Unknowing Apr 17, 2026 2:22:34 00:00:00 Introduction 00:06:00 Becky arrives - Cambridge slander 00:11:25 London slander 00:15:45 The Middle Ages 00:19:05 Actual beginning of interview 00:29:05 The intellect, the imagination 00:40:27 Teaching the Cloud 00:53:16 Words for God - Om - Words for Flowers 01:06:00 Many religions stuffed in one big bag 01:20:30 To love language, love the world, yet go beyond it 01:35:00 Medit

How Horror Movies Created Real Religious Beliefs | Dr. Joseph Laycock Apr 10, 2026 2:07:26 Please help up to keep these conversations going, and join our reading community, by supporting us over on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership How much do movies (especially schlocky movies) really shape what we believe? In this episode of Solomon & Smith, we sit down with religious studies professor Dr. Joe Lacock to talk about how horror films like The Exorcist

Mysticism, Madness, & Medieval Women Who Spoke to God | Sue Niebrzydowski Apr 3, 2026 1:57:16 Please help up to keep these conversations going, and join our reading community, by supporting us over on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this episode we talk to Professor Sue Niebrzydowski (Bangor) about Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe—two women who claimed to experience intense visions of the divine, but whose lives could not have been more different. Julia

Faust Explains Modernity Better Than Any Philosopher | Johannes Niederhauser Mar 27, 2026 2:15:55 Please help up to keep these conversations going, and join our reading community, by supporting us over on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership Modern civilisation: is it best explained by philosophy—or by myth? In this conversation we talk about Goethe’s Faust, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, the everlasting crisis of Western civilization, and the philosophy doomscape of moder

The Artist’s Dilemma: Master One Style or Reinvent Yourself? | Samuel Andreyev Mar 20, 2026 1:44:10 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership A discussion with composer Samuel Andreyev about one of the central questions in creativity: Should artists refine one definitive style… or constantly try to reinvent themselves? The conversation introduces the idea of the mono-artist vs the poly-artist. A mono-art

Napoleon (1927) - The Greatest Film Ever Made? | Cecily Carver Mar 13, 2026 1:58:37 Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership Napoleon (1927), the monumental silent film directed by Abel Gance is frequently (and correctly) described as one of the most astonishing, awe-inspiring achievements in the history of cinema. Joined by small-handed essayist and fiction writer (and the sole inventor

Demon Possession, Neoliberalism, & Evangelical Spiritual Warfare | Sean McCleod Mar 6, 2026 2:14:11 orbs and gems wedge here - https://www.patreon.com/cw/SolomonSmith/membership In this episode, we talk with Sean McCleod about the theological, cultural, and political logic behind contemporary belief in demon possession, spiritual warfare, and deliverance ministries within Third Wave Evangelicalism. How did demons return to the center of American religious life? What distinguishes Third Wav

Killing Hitchcock: Harold Bloom and the Modern Filmmaker | Sam Jennings Feb 27, 2026 1:56:03 Please consider supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith/membership In this long-form conversation, we look at how Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence applies to cinema — and what it might reveal about modern filmmakers. Bloom argued that strong artists are “born in debt,” and must struggle against the overwhelming presence of their creative fathers. What happens

William Blake and the Burden of Vision: Prophecy, and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell | Jodie Marley Feb 20, 2026 2:00:23 If you’d like to support the channel (gold bars, gemstones, rare earth rocks accepted), check out the Patreon link: www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith/membership Welcome back to Solomon and Smith — keep it juicy, large boys. In this second part of our deep dive into William Blake, we’re joined by Jodie Marley for a rich, wide-ranging conversation on prophecy, vision, mysticism, and the strange,

Was William Blake an Orthodox Christian? | Mark Vernon Feb 6, 2026 2:16:31 👉 Support the channel on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership William Blake still awes and unsettles us. In this long-form discussion, Mark Vernon — psychotherapist, author, and former Anglican priest — joins Milo and Jack for a deep exploration of Blake’s religious imagination, visionary cosmology, and misunderstood relationship to Christianity. Together we explore Blak

Did Shakespeare Actually Believe in Anything? | Emma Smith on Othello and Timon of Athens Jan 17, 2026 1:40:31 If you’d like to support the channel (gold bars, gemstones, rare earth rocks accepted) 👉 www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith/membership In this long-form literary conversation, Emma Smith—Shakespeare scholar at Oxford (Hertford College)—joins us for a broad discussion of Shakespeare, with a special focus on Othello and Timon of Athens. The conversation explores why Iago has been imbued with such

Almost All Literature is Rubbish (Pope, Swift & Rochester) | Jane Cooper Dec 23, 2025 2:12:27 If you’d like to support the channel (gold bars, gemstones, rare earth rocks accepted) 👉 www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith/membership What is satire for — laughter, outrage, moral attack? In this conversation, we explore the evolution of English satire from the 17th and 18th centuries, examining how writers like Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Dryden, and the Earl of Rochester used anger, w

Translating Goethe’s Faust, Hölderlin & the Meaning of Poetry | David Constantine Dec 8, 2025 1:35:41 To help the channel grow, please consider supporting us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this wide-ranging literary conversation, Jack and Milo sit down with David Constantine — acclaimed poet, short story writer, and one of the leading English translators of German literature — to explore poetry, translation, Goethe’s Faust, Hölderlin, language, education, and th

The Man Who Accidentally Translated the Entire Bible | Robert Alter on Language, Beauty & Meaning Nov 29, 2025 1:41:39 If you’d like to support the channel (gold bars, gemstones, rare earth rocks accepted) 👉 www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith/membership What does it take to translate the entire Hebrew Bible — and what happens when it happens almost by accident? In this long-form conversation, we speak with Robert Alter, legendary literary scholar and translator of the Hebrew Bible, about language, beauty, story

David Bentley Hart on Screens, Dreams, and the Gnostic Nightmare of Modern Life Nov 22, 2025 2:01:51 If you’d like to support the channel (gold bars, gemstones, rare earth rocks accepted) 👉 www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith/membership Philosopher and theologian David Bentley Hart joins Milo and Jack for a wide-ranging long-form conversation on screens, smartphones, cinema, dreams, Gnosticism, and the spiritual consequences of modern technology. We explore Hart’s latest fiction collection Prisms

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