The Academy Podcast The Academy of Classical Christian Studies

In this episode, Andrew speaks with this year's Lyceum Project guest, author and policy analyst Leah Libresco Sargeant. They talk about her conversion from Atheism to Catholicism, about her love of math, about her two books, about feminism, about Congress and the possibilities for a Christian politics, and about how we should all embrace depending on others and on God. 

The ninth annual Lyceum Project presents a lecture by Leah Libresco Sargeant: "The Demands of Human Dependence."

In this Lyceum Conversation Starter, Andrew reflects a bit on J-Term at Midtown, looks forward to an upcoming Lyceum Conversation, and tries to start a conversation about memory. He explores the role of memory in the life of learning and the life of faith, gestures at the connection between memory and the transformation of the self, and thinks a little bit about the consequences for our own lives of the ancient notion of memory as an art with four pillars. 

In this Lyceum Conversation Starter, Andrew describes the Academy's annual preparations for a Christmas Feast and some of our thinking about why to celebrate so regularly and so formally. Then, Andrew reveals the three ancient points of connection between Christmas and Happiness, points revealed in the writing of G. K. Chesterton in commendation of another and older English novelist, Charles Dickens. The episode concludes with three questions to consider as you begin your Christmas celebrations.

In this inaugural episode of Lyceum Conversation Starters, Andrew first explains the idea behind the series, and then explores the inaugural topic: Advent. 

This is the first of a series called "Lyceum Conversation Starters" wherein Andrew will discuss certain topics in a more abbreviated fashion. Stay tuned for more episodes in the future!

In this episode, Andrew talks with Alex Burdge, teacher of humanities at the Rhetoric School, about teaching Homer's Iliad, the ancient poem of war, as a veteran of war himself. We also talk about T. S. Eliot, the University of Kansas, classical guitar, and the role of Critical Theory in Alex's journey toward faith. 
Included in the episode are lengthier quotations from Robert Fagle's English translation of Homer's Iliad as well as a few mentions of a book by Timothy Patitsas, The Ethics of Beauty. 
A brief word of caution, this episode may be inappropriate for especially young listeners, as it deals with the experience of war, including some violent and disturbing images.