Podcast appearances and mentions of Don Quixote

Ahead of her new book What's So Great About the Great Books? coming out in April, Naomi Kanakia and I talked about literature from Herodotus to Tony Tulathimutte. We touched on Chaucer, Anglo-Saxon poetry, Scott Alexander, Shakespeare, William James, Helen deWitt, Marx and Engels, Walter Scott, Les Miserables, Jhootha Sach, the Mahabharata, and more. Naomi also talked about some of her working habits and the history and future of the Great Books movement. Naomi, of course, writes Woman of Letters here on Substack.TranscriptHenry Oliver: Today, I am talking with Naomi Kanakia. Naomi is a novelist, a literary critic, and most importantly she writes a Substack called Woman of Letters, and she has a new book coming out, What's So Great About the Great Books? Naomi, welcome.Naomi Kanakia: Thanks for having me on.Oliver: How is the internet changing the way that literature gets discussed and criticized, and what is that going to mean for the future of the Great Books?Kanakia: How is the internet changing it? I can really speak to only how it has changed it for me. I started off as a writer of young adult novels and science fiction, and there's these very active online fan cultures for those two things.I was reading the Great Books all through that time. I started in 2010 through today. In the 2010s, it really felt like there was not a lot of online discussion of classic literature. Maybe that was just me and I wasn't finding it, but it didn't necessarily feel like there was that community.I think because there are so many strong, public-facing institutions that discuss classic literature, like the NYRB, London Review of Books, a lot of journals, and universities, too. But now on Substack, there are a number of blogs—yours, mine, a number of other ones—that are devoted to classic literature. All of those have these commenters, a community of commenters. I also follow bloggers who have relatively small followings who are reading Tolstoy, reading Middlemarch, reading even much more esoteric things.I know that for me, becoming involved in this online culture has given me much more of an awareness that there are many people who are reading the classics on their own. I think that was always true, but now it does feel like it's more of a community.Oliver: We are recording this the day after the Washington Post book section has been removed. You don't see some sort of relationship between the way these literary institutions are changing online and the way the Great Books are going to be conceived of in the future? Because the Great Books came out of a an old-fashioned, saving-the-institutions kind of radical approach to university education. We're now moving into a world where all those old things seem to be going.Kanakia: Yes. I agree. The Great Books began in the University of Chicago and Columbia University. If you look into the history of the movement, it really was about university education and the idea that you would have a common core and all undergraduates would read these books. The idea that the Great Books were for the ordinary person was really an afterthought, at least for Mortimer Adler and those original Great Books guys. Now, the Great Books in the university have had a resurgence that we can discuss, but I do think there's a lot more life and vitality in the kind of public-facing humanities than there has been.I talked to Irina Dumitrescu, who writes for TLS (The Times Literary Supplement), LRB (The London Review of Books), a lot of these places, and she also said the same thing—that a lot of these journals are going into podcasts, and they're noticing a huge interest in the humanities and in the classics even at the same time as big institutions are really scaling back on those things. Humanities majors are dropping, classics majors are getting cut, book coverage at major periodicals is going down. It does seem like there are signals that are conflicting. I don't really know totally what to make of it. I do think there is some relation between those two things.Ted Gioia on Substack is always talking about how culture is stagnant, basically, and one of the symptoms of that is that “back list” really outsells “front list” for books. Even in 2010, 50 percent of the books that were sold were front-list titles, books that had been released in the last 18 months. Now it's something like only 35 percent of books or something like that are front-list titles. These could be completely wrong, but there's been a trend.I think the decrease in interest in front-list books is really what drives the loss of these book-review pages because they mostly review front-list books. So, I think that does imply that there's a lot of interest in old books. That's what our stagnant culture means.Oliver: Why do you think your own blog is popular with the rationalists?Kanakia: I don't know for certain. There was a story I wrote that was a joke. There are all these pop nonfiction books that aim to prove something that seems counterintuitive, so I wrote a parody of one of those where I aim to prove that reading is bad for you. This book has many scientific studies that show the more you read, the worse it is because it makes you very rigid.Scott Alexander, who is the archrationalist, really liked that, and he added me to his blog roll. Because of that, I got a thousand rationalist subscribers. I have found that rationalists at least somewhat interested in the classics. I think they are definitely interested in enduring sources of value. I've observed a fair amount of interest.Oliver: How much of a lay reader are you really? Because you read scholarship and critics and you can just quote John Gilroy in the middle of a piece or something.Kanakia: Yeah. That is a good question. I have definitely gotten more interested in secondary literature. In my book, I really talk about being a lay reader and personally having a nonacademic approach to literature. I do think that, over 15 years of being a lay reader, I have developed a lot of knowledge.I've also learned the kind of secondary literature that is really important. I think having historical context adds a lot and is invaluable. Right now I'm rereading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. When I first read it in 2010, I hardly knew anything about French history. I was even talking online with someone about how most people who read Les Miserables think it's set in the French Revolution. That's basically because Americans don't really know anything about French history.Everything makes just a lot more sense the more you know about the time because it was written for people in it. For people in 1860s France, who knew everything about their own recent history, that really adds a lot to it. I still don't tend to go that much into interpretive literature, literature that tries to do readings of the stories or tell me the meaning of the stories. I feel like I haven't really gotten that much out of that.Oliver: How long have you been learning Anglo-Saxon?Kanakia: I went through a big Anglo-Saxon phase. That was in 2010. It started because I started reading The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. There is a great app online called General Prologue created by one of your countrymen, Terry Richardson [NB it is Terry Jones], who loved Middle English. In this app, he recites the Middle English of the General Prologue. I started listening to this app, and I thought, I just really love the rhythms and the sounds of Middle English. And it's quite easy to learn. So then, I got really into that.And then I thought, but what about Anglo-Saxon? I'm very bad at languages. I studied Latin for seven years in middle school and high school. I never really got very far, but I thought, Anglo-Saxon has to be the easiest foreign language you can learn, right? So, I got into it.I cannot sight read Anglo-Saxon, but I really got into Anglo-Saxon poetry. I really liked the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Most people probably would not like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle because it's very repetitive, but that makes it great if you're a language learner because every entry is in this very repetitive structure. I just felt such a connection. I get in trouble when I say this kind of stuff, because I'm never quiet sure if it's 100 percent true. But it's certainly one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Europe. It's just so much older than most of the other medieval literature I've read. And it just was such a window into a different part of history I never knew about.Oliver: And you particularly like “The Dream of the Rood”?Kanakia: Yeah, “The Dream of the Rood” is my favorite Anglo-Saxon poem. “The Dream of the Rood” is a poem that is told from the point of view of Christ's cross. A man is having a dream. In this dream he encounters Christ's cross, and Christ's cross starts reciting to him basically the story of the crucifixion. At the end, the cross is buried. I don't know, it was just so haunting and powerful. Yeah, it was one of my favorites.Oliver: Why do you think Byron is a better poet than Alexander Pope?Kanakia: This is an argument I cannot get into. I think this is coming up because T. S. Eliot felt that Alexander Pope was a great poet because he really exemplified the spirit of the age. I don't know. I've tried to read Pope. It just doesn't do it for me. Whereas with Byron, I read Don Juan and found it entertaining. I enjoyed it. Then, his lyric poetry is just more entertaining to read. With Alexander Pope, I'm learning a lot about what kind of poetry people wrote in the 18th century, but the joy is not there.Oliver: Okay. Can we do a quick fire round where I say the name of a book and you just say what you think of it, whatever you think of it?Kanakia: Sure.Oliver: Okay. The Odyssey.Kanakia: The Odyssey. Oh, I love The Odyssey. It has a very strange structure, where it starts with Telemachus and then there's this flashback in the middle of it. It is much more readable than The Iliad; I'll say that.Oliver: Herodotus.Kanakia: Herodotus is wild. Going into Herodotus, I really thought it was about the Persian war, which it is, but it's mostly a general overview of everything that Herodotus knew, about anything. It's been a long time since I read it. I really appreciate the voice of Herodotus, how human it is, and the accumulation of facts. It was great.Oliver: I love the first half actually. The bit about the Persian war I'm less interested in, but the first half I think is fantastic. I particularly love the Egypt book.Kanakia: Oh yeah, the Egypt book is really good.Oliver: All those like giant beetles that are made of fire or whatever; I can't remember the details, but it's completely…Kanakia: The Greeks are also so fascinated by Egypt. They go down there like what is going on out there? Then, most of what we know about Egypt comes from this Hellenistic period, when the Greeks went to Egypt. Our Egyptian kings list comes from the Hellenistic period where some scholar decided to sort out what everybody was up to and put it all into order. That's why we have such an orderly story about Egypt. That's the story that the Greeks tried to tell themselves.Oliver: Marcus Aurelius.Kanakia: Marcus Aurelius. When I first read The Meditations, which I loved, obviously, I thought, “being the Roman emperor cannot be this hard.” It really was a black pill moment because I thought, “if the emperor of Rome is so unhappy, maybe human power really doesn't do it.”Knowing more about Marcus Aurelius, he did have quite a difficult life. He was at war for most of his—just stuck in the region in Germany for ages. He had various troubles, but yeah, it really was very stoic. It was, oh, I just have to do my duty. Very “heavy is the head that wears the crown” kind of stuff. I thought, “okay, I guess being Roman emperor is not so great.”Oliver: Omar Khayyam.Kanakia: Omar Khayyam. Okay, I've only read The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald, which I loved, but I cannot formulate a strong opinion right now.Oliver: As You Like It.Kanakia: No opinions.Oliver: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.Kanakia: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I do have an opinion about this, which is that they should make a redacted version of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I normally am not a big believer in abridgements because I feel like whatever is there is there. But, Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, first of all, has a long portion before Boswell even meets Johnson. That portion drags; it's not that great. Then it has all these like letters that Johnson wrote, which also are not that great. What's really good is when Boswell just reports everything Johnson ever said, which is about half the book. You get a sense of Johnson's conversation and his personality, and that is very gripping. I've definitely thought that with a different presentation, this could still be popular. People would still read this.Oliver: The Communist Manifesto.Kanakia: The Communist Manifesto. It's very stirring. I love The Communist Manifesto. It has very haunting, powerful lines. I won't try to quote from it because I'll misquote them.Oliver: But it is remarkably well written.Kanakia: Oh yeah, it is a great work of literature.Oliver: Yeah.Kanakia: I read Capital [Das Kapital], which is not a great work of literature, and I would venture to say that it is not necessarily worth reading. It really feels like Marx's reputation is built on other political writings like The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and works like that, which really seem to have a lot more meat on the bone than Capital.Oliver: Pragmatism by William James.Kanakia: Pragmatism. I mean, I've mentioned that in my book. I love William James in general. I think William James was writing in this 19th-century environment where it seemed like some form of skepticism was the only rational solution. You couldn't have any source of value, and he really tried to cut through that with Pragmatism and was like, let's just believe the things that are good to believe. It is definitely at least useful to think, although someone else can always argue with you about what is useful to believe. But, as a personal guide for belief, I think it is still useful.Oliver: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw.Kanakia: No strong opinions. It was a long time ago that I read Major Barbara.Oliver: Tell me what you like about James Fenimore Cooper.Kanakia: James Fenimore Cooper. Oh, this is great. I have basically a list of Great Books that I want to read, but four or five years ago, I thought, “what's in all the other books that I know the names of but that are not reputed, are not the kind of books you still read?”That was when I read Walter Scott, who I really love. And I just started reading all kinds of books that were kind of well known but have kind of fallen into literary disfavor. In almost every case, I felt like I got a lot out of these books. So, nowadays when I approach any realm of literature, I always look for those books.In 19th-century American literature, the biggest no-longer-read book is The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, which was America's first bestseller. He was the first American novelist that had a high reputation in Europe. The Last of the Mohicans is kind of a historical romance, à la Walter Scott, but much more tightly written and much more tightly plotted.Cooper has written five novels, the Leatherstocking Tales, that are all centered around this very virtuous, rough-hewn frontiersman, Natty Bumppo. He has his best friend, Chingachgook, who is the last of the Mohicans. He's the last of his tribe. And the two of these guys are basically very sad and stoic. Chingachgook is distanced from his tribe. Chingachgook has a tribe of Native Americans that he hates—I want to say it's the Huron. He's always like, “they're the bad ones,” and he's always fighting them. Then, Natty Bumppo doesn't really love settled civilization. He's not precisely at war with it, but he does not like the settlers. They're kind of stuck in the middle. They have various adventures, and I just thought it was so haunting and powerful.I've been reading a lot of other 19th-century American literature, and virtually none of it treats Native Americans with this kind of respect. There's a lot of diversity in the Native American characters; there's really an attempt to show how their society works and the various ways that leadership and chiefship works among them. There's this very haunting moment in The Last of the Mohicans, where this aged chief, Tamenund, comes out and starts speaking. This is a chief who, in American mythology, was famous for being a friend to the white people. But, James Fenimore Cooper writing in the 1820s has Tamenund come out at 80 years old and say, “we have to fight; we have to fight the white people. That's our only option.” It was just such a powerful moment and such a powerful book.I was really, really enthused. I read all of these Leatherstocking Tales. It was also a very strange experience to read these books that are generally supposed to be very turgid and boring, and then I read them and was like, “I understand. I'm so transported.” I understand exactly why readers in the 1820s loved this.Oliver: Which Walter Scott books do you like?Kanakia: I love all the Walter Scott books I've read, but the one I liked best was Kenilworth. Have you ever read Kenilworth?Oliver: I don't know that one.Kanakia: Yeah, it's about Elizabeth I, who had a romantic relationship with one of her courtiers.Oliver: The Earl of Essex?Kanakia: Yeah. She really thought they were going to get married, but then it turned out he was secretly married. Basically, I guess the implication is that he killed his wife in order to marry Queen Elizabeth I. It's a novel all about him and that situation, and it just felt very tightly plotted. I really enjoyed it.Oliver: What did you think of Rejection?Kanakia: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte? Initially when I read this book, I enjoyed it, but I was like, “life cannot possibly be this sad.” It's five or six stories about these people who just have nothing going on. Their lives are so miserable, they can't find anyone to sleep with, and they're just doomed to be alone forever. I was like, “life can't be this bad.” But now thinking back over it, it is one of the most memorable books I've read in the last year. It really sticks with you. I feel like my opinion of this book has gone up a lot in retrospect.Oliver: How antisemitic is the House of Mirth?Kanakia: That is a hotly debated question, which I mentioned in my book. I think there has been a good case made that Edith Wharton, the author of House of Mirth, who was from an old New York family, was herself fairly antisemitic and did not personally like Jewish people. What she portrays in this book is that this old New York society also was highly suspicious of Jewish people and was organized to keep Jewish people out.In this book there is a rich Jewish man, Simon Rosedale, and there's a poor woman, Lily Bart. Lily Bart's main thing is whether she's going to marry the poor guy, Lawrence Selden, or the rich guy, Percy Gryce. She can't choose. She doesn't want to be poor, but she also is always bored by the rich guys. Meanwhile, through the whole book, there's Simon Rosedale, who's always like, “you should marry me.” He's the rich Jewish guy. He's like, “you should marry me. I will give you lots of money. You can do whatever you want.”Everybody else kind of just sees her as a woman and as a wife; he really sees her as an ally in his social climbing. That's his main motivation. The book is relatively clear that he has a kind of respect for her that nobody else does. Then, over the course of the book, she also gains a lot more respect for him. Basically, late in the book, she decides to marry him, but she has fallen a lot in the world. He's like, “that particular deal is not available anymore,” but he does offer her another deal that—although she finds it not to her taste—is still pretty good.He basically is like, “I'll give you some money, you'll figure out how to rehabilitate your reputation, and later down the line, we can figure something out.” So, I think with a great author like Edith Wharton, there's power in these portrayals. I felt it hard to come away from it feeling like the book is like a really antisemitic book.Oliver: Now, you note that the Great Books movement started out as something quite socially aspirational. Do you think it's still like that?Kanakia: I do think so. Yeah. For me, that's 100 percent what it was because I majored in econ. I always felt kind of inadequate as a writer against people who had majored in English. Then I started off as a science fiction writer, young adult writer, and I was like, “I'm going to read all these Great Books and then I'll have read the books that everybody else has read.” In my mind, that's also what it was—that there was some upper crust or literary society that was reading all these Great Books.That's really what did it. I do think there's still an element of aspiration to it because it's a club that you can join, that anyone can join. It's very straightforward to be a Great Books reader, and so I think there's still something there. I think because the Great Books movement has such a democratic quality to it, it actually doesn't get you to the top socially, which has always been the true, always been the case. But, that's okay. As long as you end up higher than where you started, that's fine.Oliver: What makes a book great?Kanakia: I talk about it this in the book, and I go through many different authors' conceptions of what makes a book great or what constitutes a classic. I don't know that anyone has come up with a really satisfying answer. The Horatian formulation from Horace—that a book is great or an author is great if it has lasted for a hundred years—is the one that seems to be the most accurate. Like, any book that's still being read a hundred years after it was written has a greatness.I do think that T. S. Eliott's formulation—that a civilization at its height produces certain literature and that literature partakes of the greatness of the civilization and summarizes the greatness of the civilization—does seem to have some kind of truth to it.But it's hard, right? Because the greatest French novel is In Search of Lost Time, but I don't know that anyone would say that the France in the 1920s was at its height. It's not a prescriptive thing, but it does seem like the way we read many of these Great Books, like Moby Dick, it feels like you're like communing with the entire society that produced it. So, maybe there's something there.Oliver: Now, you've used a list from Clifton Fadiman.Kanakia: Yes.Oliver: Rather than from Mortimer Adler or Harold Bloom or several others. Why this list?Kanakia: Well, the best reason is that it's actually the list I've just been using for the last 15 years. I went to a science fiction convention in 2009, Readercon, and at this science fiction convention was Michael Dirda, who was a Washington Post book critic. He had recently come out with his book, Classics for Pleasure, which I also bought and liked. But he said that the list he had always used was this Clifton Fadiman book. And so when I decided to start reading the Great Books, I went and got that book. I have perused many other lists over time, but that was always the list that seemed best to me.It seemed to have like the best mix. There's considerable variation amongst these lists, but there's also a lot of overlap. So any of these lists is going to have Dickens on it, and Tolstoy, and stuff like that. So really, you're just thinking about, “aside from Dickens and Tolstoy and George Eliot and Walt Whitman and all these people, who are the other 50 authors that you're going be reading?”The Mortimer Adler list is very heavy on philosophy. It has Plotinus on it. It has all these scientific works. I don't know, it didn't speak to me as much. Whereas, this Clifton Fadiman and John Major list has all these Eastern works on it. It has The Tale of Genji, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Story of the Stone, and that just spoke to me a little bit more.Oliver: What modern books will be on a future Great Books list, whether it's from someone alive or someone since the war.Kanakia: Have you ever heard of Robert Caro?Oliver: Sure.Kanakia: Yeah. I think his Lyndon Johnson books are great books. They have changed the field of biography. They're so complete, they seem to summarize an entire era, epoch. They're highly rated, but I feel like they're underrated as literature.What else? I was actually a little bit surprised in this Clifton Fadiman-John Major book, which came out in 1999, that there are not more African Americans in their list. Like, Invisible Man definitely seemed like a huge missed work. You know, it's hard. You would definitely want a book that has undergone enough critical evaluation that people are pretty certain that it is great. A lot of things that are more recent have not undergone that evaluation yet, but Invisible Man has, as have some works by Martin Luther King.Oliver: What about The Autobiography of Malcolm X?Kanakia: I would have to reread. I feel like it hasn't been evaluated much as a literary document.Oliver: Helen DeWitt?Kanakia: It's hard to say. It's so idiosyncratic, The Last Samurai, but it is certainly one of the best novels of the last 25 years.Oliver: Yeah.Kanakia: It is hard to say, because there's nothing else quite like it. But I would love if The Last Samurai was on a list like this; that would be amazing.Oliver: If someone wants to try the Great Books, but they think that those sort of classic 19th-century novels are too difficult—because they're long and the sentences are weird or whatever—what else should they do? Where else should they start?Kanakia: Well, it depends on what they're into, or it depends on their personality type. I think like there are people who like very, very difficult literature. There are people who are very into James Joyce and Proust. I think for some people the cost-benefit is better. If they're going to be pouring over some book for a long time, they would prefer if it was overtly difficult.If they're not like that, then I would say, there are many Great Books that are more accessible. Hemingway is a good one and Grapes of Wrath is wonderful. The 19th-century American books tend to be written in a very different register than the English books. If you read Moby Dick, it feels like it's written in a completely different language than Charles Dickens, even though they're writing essentially at the same time.Oliver: Is there too much Freud on the list that you've used?Kanakia: Maybe. I know that Interpretation of Dreams is on that list, which I've tried to read and have decided life is too short. I didn't really buy it, but I have read a fair amount of Freud. My impression of Freud was always that I would read Freud and somehow it would just seem completely fanciful or far out, like wouldn't ring true. But then when I started reading Freud, it was more the opposite. I was like, oh yeah, this seems very, very true.Like this battle between like the id and the ego and the super ego, and this feeling that like the psyche is at war with itself. Human beings really desire to be singular and exceptional, but then you're constantly under assault by the reality principle, which is that you're insignificant. That all seemed completely true. But then he tries to cure this somehow, which does not seem a curable problem. And he also situates the problem in some early sexual development, which also did not necessarily ring true. But no, I wouldn't say there's too much. Freud is a lot of fun. People should read Freud.Oliver: Which of the Great Books have you really not liked?Kanakia: I do get asked this quite a bit. I would say the Great Book that I really felt like—at least in translation—was not that rewarding in an unabridged version was Don Quixote. Because at least half the length of Don Quixote is these like interpolated novellas that are really long and tedious. I felt Don Quixote was a big slog. But maybe someday I'll go back and reread it and love it. Who knows?Oliver: Now you wrote that the question of biography is totally divorced from the question of what art is and how it operates. What do you think of George Orwell's supposition that if Shakespeare came back tomorrow, and we found out he used to rape children that we should—we would not say, you know, it's fine to carry on to doing that because he might write another King Lear.Kanakia: Well, if we discovered that Shakespeare was raping children, he should go to prison for that. No. It's totally divorced in both senses. You don't get any credit in the court of law because you are the writer of King Lear. If I murdered someone and then I was hauled in front of a judge and they were like, oh, Naomi's a genius, I wouldn't get off for murder. Nor should I get off for murder.So in terms of like whether we would punish Shakespeare for his crime of raping children, I don't think King Lear should count at all, but it's never used that way. It's never should someone go to prison or not for their crimes, because they're a genius. It's always used the other way, which is should we read King Lear knowing that the author raped children, but I also feel like that is immaterial. If you read King Lear, you're not enabling someone to rape children.Oliver: There's an almost endless amount of discussion these days about the Great Books and education and the value of the humanities, and what's the future of it all. What is your short opinion on that?Kanakia: My short opinion is that the Great Books at least are going to be fine. The Great Books will continue to be read, and they would even survive the university. All these books predate the university and they will survive the university. I feel like the university has stewarded literature in its own way for a while now and has made certain choices in that stewardship. I think if that stewardship was given up to more voluntary associations that had less financial support, then I think the choices would probably be very different. But I still think the greatest works would survive.Oliver: Now this is a quote from the book: “I am glad that reactionaries love the Great Books. They've invited a Trojan horse into their own camp.” Tell us what you mean by that.Kanakia: Let's say you believed in Christian theocracy, that you thought America should be organized on explicitly Christian principles. And because you believe in Christian theocracy, you organize a school that teaches the Great Books. Many of these schools that are Christian schools that have Great Books programs will also teach Nietzsche. They definitely put some kind of spin on Nietzsche. But they will teach anti-Christ, and that is a counterpoint to Christian morality and Christian theology. There are many things that you'll read in the Great Books that are corrosive to various kinds of certainties.If someone who I think is bad starts educating themselves in the Great Books, I don't think that the Great Books are going to make them worse from my perspective. So it's good.Oliver: How did reading the Mahabharata change you?Kanakia: Oh yeah, so the Mahabharata is a Hindu epic from, let's say, the first century AD. I'm Indian and most Indians are familiar with the basic outline of the Mahabharata story because it's told in various retellings, and there's a TV serial that my parents would rent from the Indian store growing up and we would watch it tape by tape. So I'm very familiar with it. Like there's never been a time I have not known this story.But I was also familiar with the idea that there is a written version in Sanskrit that's extremely long. It is 10 times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. This Mahabharata story is not that long. I've read a version of it that's about 800 pages long. So how could something that's 10 times this long be the same? A new unabridged translation came out 10 years ago. So I started reading it, and it basically contains the entire Sanskrit Vedic worldview in it.I had never been exposed to this very coherently laid-out version of what I would call Hindu cosmology and ethics. Hindus don't really get taught those things in a very organized way. The book is basically about dharma, the principle of rightness and how this principle of rightness orders the universe and how it basically results in everybody getting their just deserts in various ways. As I was reading the book, I was like, this seems very true that there is some cosmic rebalancing here, and that everything does turn out more or less the way it should, which is not something that I can defend on a rational level.But just reading the book, it just made me feel like, yes, that is true. There is justice, the universe is organized by justice. It took me about a year to read the whole thing. I started waking up at 5:00 a.m. and reading for an hour each morning, and it just was a really magical, profound experience that brought me a lot closer to my grandmother's religious beliefs.Oliver: Is it ever possible to persuade someone with arguments that they should read literature, or is it just something that they have to have an inclination toward and then follow someone's example? Because I feel like we have so many columns and op-eds and “books are good because of X reason, and it's very important because of Y reason.” And like, who cares? No one cares. If you are persuaded, you take all that very seriously and you argue about what exactly are the precise reasons we should say. And if you're not persuaded, you don't even know this is happening.And what really persuades you is like, oh, Naomi sounds pretty compelling about the Mahabharata. That sounds cool. I'll try that. It's much more of a temperamental, feelingsy kind of thing. Is it possible to argue people into thinking about this differently? Or should we just be doing what we do and setting an example and hoping that people will follow.Kanakia: As to whether it's possible or not, I do not know. But I do think these columns are too ambitious. A thousand-word column and the imagined audience for this column is somebody who doesn't read books at all, who doesn't care about literature at all. And then in a thousand-word column, you're going to persuade them to care about literature. This is no good. It's so unnecessary.Whereas there's a much broader range of people who love to read books, but have never picked up Moby Dick or have never picked up Middlemarch, or who like maybe loved Middlemarch, but never thought maybe I should then go on and read Jane Austen and George Eliot.I think trying to shift people from “I don't read books at all; reading books is not something I do,” to being a Great Books card-carrying lover of literature is a lot. I really aim for a much lower result than that, which is to whatever extent people are interested in literature, they should pursue that interest. And as the rationalists would say, there's a lot of alpha in that; there's a lot to be gained from converting people who are somewhat interested into people who are very interested.Oliver: If there was a more widespread practice of humanism in education and the general culture, would that make America into a more liberal country in any way?Kanakia: What do you mean by humanism?Oliver: You know, the old-fashioned liberal arts approach, the revival of the literary journal culture, the sort of depolitical approach to literature, the way things used to be, as it were.Kanakia: It couldn't hurt. It couldn't hurt is my answer to that question.Oliver: Okay.Kanakia: What you're describing is basically the way I was educated. I went to Catholic school in DC at St. Anselm's Abbey School, in Northeast, DC, grade school. Highly recommend sending your little boys there. No complaints about the school. They talked about humanism all the time and all these civic virtues. I thought it was great. I don't know what people in other schools learn, but I really feel like it was a superior way of teaching.Now, you know, it was Catholic school, so a lot of people who graduated from my school are conservatives and don't really have the beliefs that I have, but that's okay.Oliver: Tell us about your reading habits.Kanakia: I read mostly ebooks. I really love ebooks because you can make the type bigger. I just read all the time. They vary. I don't wake up at 5:00 a.m. to read anymore. Sometimes if I feel like I'm not reading enough—because I write this blog, and the blog doesn't get written unless I'm reading. That's the engine, and so sometimes I set aside a day each week to read. But generally, the reading mostly takes care of itself.What I tend to get is very into a particular thing, and then I'll start reading more and more in that area. Recently, I was reading a lot of New Yorker stories. So I started reading more and more of these storywriters that have been published in the New Yorker and old anthologies of New Yorker stories. And then eventually I am done. I'm tired. It's time to move on.Oliver: But do you read several books at once? Do you make notes? Do you abandon books? How many hours a day do you read?Kanakia: Hours a day: Because my e-reader keeps these stats, I'd say 15 or 20 hours a week of reading. Nowadays because I write for the blog, I often think as I'm reading how I would frame a post about this. So I look for quotes, like what quote I would look at. I take different kinds of notes. I'll make more notes if I'm more confused by what is going on. Especially with nonfiction books, I'll try sometimes to make notes just to iron out what exactly I think is happening or what I think the argument is. But no, not much of a note taker.Oliver: What will you read next?Kanakia: What will I read next? Well, I've been thinking about getting back into Indian literature. Right now I'm reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. But there's an Indian novel called Jhootha Sach, which is a partition novel that is originally in Hindi. And it's also a thousand pages long, and is frequently compared to Les Miserables and War and Peace. So I'm thinking about tackling that finally.Oliver: Naomi Kanakia, thank you very much.Kanakia: Thanks for having me. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk

RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the channel Islands for another audio described theatre review.This time we have Birmingham Royal Ballet's revival of Director Carlos Acosta's 2022 production of ‘Don Quixote' at the Birmingham Hippodrome described by Professional Audio Describers Julia Grundy and Jonathan Nash.About ‘Don Quixote'In this first revival of his 2022 production Director Carlos Acosta delivers entertainment for all ages. Don Quixote introduces us to Cervantes' famous knight himself, lovers Kitri and Basilio, and a host of supporting characters. As the Don sets out on a quest to track down his true love, with his loyal friend and servant Sancho Panza at his side, he finds himself embroiled in an unlikely adventure of love and dreams.If you like Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, you shouldn't miss this stunning 19th-century masterpiece, full of thrilling pas de deux, delightful music played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and much, much more!https://www.brb.org.uk/shows/don-quixote-202

Aller guten Dinge sind drei. Nach zwei verlorenen Kriegen muss der dritte Krieg doch wohl für Deutschland zu gewinnen sein?! Vielleicht mit KI?Ein Standpunkt von Hermann Ploppa.Geboostert und geplustert strotzt unsere Bundesregierung vor Kriegslust.Auch wenn die Regierung der USA gerade ein bisschen die Kriegslust, zumindest was Russland angeht, verdirbt, soll der Germanenzug gen Osten wieder seinen Schwung aufnehmen, den er jetzt über achtzig Jahre so schmerzlich vermissen ließ. Unser geliebter „Verteidigungs“minister Boris Pistorius, der einzige Minister, der den Wechsel von Scholz dem Kahlen zum Merz dem Langen politisch überlebt hat, sagte schon im Jahre 2024 männlich-entschlossen der staunenden Öffentlichkeit des Bundestags: „Wir müssen bis 2029 kriegstüchtig sein!“ (1) Dreimal Hurra!An das Serum „kriegstüchtig“ haben wir uns nach zwei Jahren nun schon ganz gut gewöhnt. Aber keiner fragt, wie der Pistorius Boris eigentlich auf die Zielmarke des Jahres 2029 gekommen ist? War das locker über den Daumen gepeilt? Oder haben die Berater des wackeren Niedersachsen zur Ermittlung des genauen Knalljahres eine uns geheime Formel verwendet?Wie auch immer. Wir sollen also ab 2029 in den Krieg gegen die bösen Russen ziehen. Die bösen Russen sind bis jetzt, so zeigt der Ukraine-Krieg uns nur allzu deutlich, erstaunlich leidensbereit und resilient. Der böse Putin musste bislang noch kaum junge Männer zum Kriegsdienst in der Ukraine zwingen. Die jungen Männer melden sich sogar freiwillig für den Dienst an der Waffe in der Ukraine. Werden unsere jungen deutschen Männer auch freiwillig und jauchzend zu den Waffen eilen, wenn der Boris sie im Jahre 2029 herbeiruft? Das darf bezweifelt werden. Während bei einer Umfrage unter Menschen zwischen 18 und 80 Jahren im Jahre 2025 sage und schreibe 58 Prozent die Wiedereinführung der Wehrpflicht begrüßten, sah das nach dem Grad der persönlichen Betroffenheit doch recht unterschiedlich aus (2). Während die Alten begeistert der Wehrpflicht zustimmen („Also, mir hat das ja auch nicht geschadet!“), haben die jungen Leute keinen Bock auf Mord und Totschlag. Nur 14 Prozent der Youngster können sich vorstellen, Soldat zu werden. Kaum ein Lebensanfänger möchte im Frost und im Schlamm der Ukraine irgendwelche Projektile um die Ohren gepfiffen bekommen.Das ersehnte Ziel der Kriegstauglichkeit in schon drei Jahren wirkt auf wache Beobachter wie eine Episode aus Don Quixote und Sancho Pansa. Hat Pistorius womöglich wichtige Komponenten einer professionellen Kriegsvorbereitung vernachlässigt? Ich erinnere mich, dass Kriegsvorbereitungen für den Ersten und den Zweiten Weltkrieg nach gewissen Grundsätzen abliefen. Erstmal muss die Verkehrsinfrastruktur topp in Schuss sein. Und zwar in alle Himmelsrichtungen. Man weiß ja nie, wie sich die Feindlage ändert. Zweitens muss das Humankapital, wie es manche zynische Kreise zu nennen pflegen; also die real existierenden Menschen, mit der Regierung einverstanden sein. Zumindest jedoch mit der Regierung kooperieren können. Die Menschen müssen zudem gesund und gut motiviert sein. Sie müssen gebildet und kooperativ sein. Sie müssen wissen, wie man am besten in der Gruppe zusammenwirkt. Oftmals lässt sich dieser Konsens über verfeindete Gruppen hinweg nur durch die Erfindung eines gemeinsamen Feindes herstellen. Die Untertanen werden derweil durch gute Laune von Heinz Rühmann und Hans Albers bespaßt.Neben der gesellschaftlichen Harmonie, der intakten Infrastruktur und dem nötigen Wir-Gefühl ist es aber auch wichtig, dass die Finanzen einigermaßen im Lot sind. Geld muss einen Wert repräsentieren. ...https://apolut.net/ist-deutschland-wirklich-kriegstuchtig-von-hermann-ploppa/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jack Myers has been sharing observations and insights about media longer than some platforms have even existed. I used to study his “Jack Myers Report,” when I started in cable and it was actually the first faxed newsletter. Then fast forward a decade or two and I became the first Managing Editor of Jack’s next successful communications platform: Media Village! Its thousands of articles, interviews, and executive insights now serve as a living history of the business. That was where I created my first podcast…and fast forward another decade and Jack has his own podcast now, too… and has authored some seven books! But DON’T fast forward through this half hour of gems from Jack that will inform and inspire you about how we may not really BE in a “technology-first era.” Jack acknowledges he can relate to Don Quixote as some might think he’s “tilting at windmills” in fighting the perception that humanity will prevail in our tech-focused world. Why? Because Jack has seen and understands the through line of it across generational changes…and as a strategy. In this episode — and in fact in his own show with Tim Spengler, called Lead Human — we talk about what it means to be “human first” in a technology-accelerated era. We topline what empathetic leadership, performance culture, and how organizations are recalibrating as they navigate AI. He and Tim go deep on those topics, so check it out. In what Jack calls a human-recalibrated era, he's seeing a shift from “people first” as a cultural slogan to “people first” as a performance strategy — embedded into compensation, collaboration models, and operating systems. “It's not about how much content we produce, but how thoughtfully we decide what deserves to exist and be amplified.” But now that we’re both in podcasting how does this Media Ecologist see it as a business model? He explains the tension between programmatic advertising and authenticity, and why speed — in content, in media, in AI — may be the most overrated metric in the room.   Early podcasting days at MediaVillage And yes, we cover his latest reinvention: a historical fiction novel, a forthcoming science fiction trilogy, and what writing fiction reveals about understanding the human condition. At the end, I ask Jack what he hopes the media industry embraces more of — and less of — in the years ahead. His answer is less sentimental than you might expect, and more structural than most pundits are willing to articulate. This conversation spans decades of media evolution — from fax machines to AI voice replication — but it ultimately comes down to one idea: Speed without judgment is just noise. Key Highlights: 01:34 – What “human first” really means in media. 02:17 – Just the fax… the start of tracking generational shifts. 05:18 – Media Village: The house that Jack built  – on relationships and thought leadership 09:44 – How good listening led to a podcast — first for E.B., now for Jack 12:02 – Launching a leadership podcast in the AI era and how empathy is a performance strategy  19:32 – Technology-first or a time for human recalibration. 23:50 – The future of podcast monetization 28:32 – His pivot to fiction (or is it?!) in The Kissinger Conspiracy 32:17 – Media's inflection point. More responsibility. Less addiction to speed. Think ecosystem — not silos. Connect with Jack Myers: Jack Myers The Jack Myers Report  Connect with E.B. Moss and Insider Interviews: With Media & Marketing Experts            LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mossappeal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insiderinterviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InsiderInterviewsPodcast/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@insiderinterviews Substack: Moss Hysteria Please follow Insider Interviews, share with another smart business leader, and leave a comment on @Apple or @Spotify… or a tip in my jar!: https://buymeacoffee.com/mossappeal!  THANK YOU for listening!

Today we talk about current events.Also… last chance to order SIGNED Copies of Strange Company and the Wasteland Saga. Thank you.Strange Company Series and The Wasteland Saga Series are ready for ordering SIGNED copies. I do this at specific times because I need to order them in advance, as they are not always available. I'd jump on this if you want SIGNED copies for yourself, or, a gift for a special friend during the holidays or birthdays.These will be SIGNED Copies.I'll be SIGNING the Strange Company Books BUNDLE for $99.99 You get all 3 Books SIGNED for that price.TRIVA: These are beautiful books. The art on the covers is done by three of the most in-demand artists working in SciFi art today. Pascal Blanche (Dune Concept Artist) did Strange Company. Trent Kaniuga (Twilight Monk, Blizzard Diablo 3 Artist) did Voodoo Warfare. And Marc Lee (Coffee and Perspectives) did Hearts of Darkness. I think these are collectors' editions and I hope you take advantage of this offer. I wanted the best artists for the Strange Company, and I think the art adds to the story in an exceptionally satisfying way.I'll also be ordering copies of The Wasteland Saga.I'll be SIGNING The Wasteland Saga Series for $69.99. You get all 3 Books SIGNED for that price.TRIVIA: Artist M.S. Corley conceived and executed a very specific vision of the covers I wanted for The Wasteland Saga books. These were the third edition of the covers. The first, way back in 2011, was a cover I bought from an artist that was expensive for me at the time but didn't necessarily evoke what I wanted. Those were the early days of Indie pub and it was all I had the money for. It was kind of a take it or leave it deal. Then I sold the series to Harper Collins and they basically did a photoshop hack job for the covers. When I finally recovered the rights in 2019 I wanted to do something that evoked the Post-Apocalyptic Hemmingway nature of the books. I have a favorite sketch from Picasso. Don Quixote. I gave an image of the sketch to M.S. Corely and together we came up with covers that finally captured the series. Honestly… they are beautiful pieces of art and I love them even without the books. But that vintage feel they give to the covers of these books is very special to me and makes it feel like it was all worth it, and I am very pleased to offer them to you, SIGNED. These are keepers and I hope you cherish them as much as I do. -Nick This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nickcole.substack.com/subscribe

To celebrate the centennial Left Page we go to the start, the originator of the modern novel: Don Quixote de la Mancha!We go over the fantasies of Don Quixote, the way the two books deal with reality, fantasy, and primarily books and reading! All the while not forgetting the deep materiality involved in the depictions, and how there is still more than we think to it.Come celebrate our 100th episode with one of the greatest of all time!Enjoy!Check out all the free stuff on Patreon and support us if you can there!https://www.patreon.com/leftpage And do join our Discord for more chats about games, books, and plenty more!https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPNIntro Music: Ultralounge · Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Outro Music: Don't Leave! · El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. From the Album: Zareef ℗ 2006 El-Funoun Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our journey begins in Madrid's Plaza de España, standing before the weathered bronze figures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as Miguel de Cervantes watches from above. We explore why this "Impossible Dreamer" became a profound symbol for the Jewish experience, from the 19th-century Yiddish schlemiel to the "Prince of Dreams" in modern Israeli pop. From the shadow of the Expulsion to the stages of Broadway, we trace the knight's journey and the "messianic yearning" that makes this 400-year-old character feel like a member of the Tribe. Links for Additional ReadingThe Secret Jewish History of Don Quixote by Benjamin Ivry (The Forward, 17 February 2014)Why You Should Read ‘Don Quixote'? by Ilan Stevens (Ted Ed, 18 October 2018)Don Quixote: An Honorary Wandering Jews – A Spotify PlaylistFollow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn!Find more at j2adventures.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comedy and radio legend Phil Proctor talks about the origin of the Firesign Theater, his love of radio, his many careers as an actor, reporter, writer, comedian, author, and how he made the New York, San Francisco, and LA scenes when there were scenes to make!  He also talks about his biography “Where's My Fortune Cookie” and how he almost died three times.  Let's see if he survives our podcast. Bio: Proctor is a founding member of the thrice-Grammy-nominated Firesign Theatre, one of Rolling Stone's “Thirty Greatest Acts of All Time” and whose archives were purchased by the Library of Congress. He's appeared on-and-off Broadway, toured the USSR with the Yale Russian Chorus and the US and Canada with Proctor & Bergman and the L.A. Guitar Quartet in Don Quixote. He has appeared in scores of commercials, audiobooks, video games, films and TV shows, receiving Theatre World, LA Weekly, LA Free Press and Drama Critics' awards, and the Norman Corwin Excellence in Audio trophy as well as a recent Emmy for the PBS-aired documentary Feast Your Ears: The Story of WHFS Radio. His voice credits include memorable characters in Academy Award-winning films for Pixar and Disney from A Bug's Life to Inside Out, the Drunken French Monkey in Dr. Dolittle, Dr. Vidic in Assassin's Creed, Simon Stagg in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Howard in the multi-Emmy-winning Rugrats, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has also added scores of voices to the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction series and appeared on Irish radio and live on stage with his late wife, Melinda Peterson, at the 77th Science Fiction Convention in Dublin. He was the announcer for 3 seasons of Big Brother and has a recurring role as Detective Polehaus on the long-running Adventures in Odyssey and can be seen in many old--time radio recreations at the Online Radio Theatre on YouTube. He is a 15-year member of the Antaeus Theater and to accompany his autobiography and audiobook, Where's My Fortune Cookie? co-authored by Brad Schreiber, he co-wrote What to Say to Your Crazy Right-Wing Uncle, with Samuel Joseph and God Help Us! a political comedy which toured the U.S. and Canada starring the late Ed Asner. He currently co-hosts Phil & Ted's Sexy Boomer Show, every Tuesday afternoon on KPFK with Ted Bonnitt, featuring conversations with friends like John Goodman, Penn Jillette, Weird Al,  Laraine Newman and Harry Shearer among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mario Bros. is the biggest franchise of all time. Bigger than Star Wars, Marvel… bigger than Harry Potter. Nintendo is an empire. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is… Well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Travis Crawford Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with you, and Stephen Semple’s alongside, with another empire-building story for us that- Stephen Semple: An exciting story. Dave Young: It’ll take you back to childhood, but it doesn’t take me back to childhood because I’m too goddamned old. Stephen Semple: Well, it depends how you look at this, this might be- Dave Young: No, I suppose. I suppose the company [inaudible 00:01:55]. Stephen Semple: It might be older than your childhood, but depends what we decide to talk about. Dave Young: Yeah, it’s just like when the big games came out, the… So we’re talking about Nintendo today. Stephen Semple: Correct. Correct. Dave Young: And I had Atari and things like that. And my kids all had the Nintendo. I actually have a Nintendo Switch, but I didn’t get that until I was… Stephen Semple: It also originally started as an arcade game, if we go back, because we are going to go back far enough. Dave Young: Well, that’s true. That’s true. Stephen Semple: Yes, yes. But if we actually went back to the company, Nintendo, we would be going back to 1889. Dave Young: Okay. So not so much my childhood. There you go. Stephen Semple: 1889. Yeah. And we’re really not going to talk so much about the origin and Nintendo as a company, but really, the origin of the video game business, and more specifically Donkey Kong, and went on later to become the Mario Brothers franchise. That’s really what we’re going to talk about. Dave Young: Now, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Now, I don’t know everything, but I’m pretty sure video wasn’t around in 1889. Stephen Semple: It was not. Dave Young: There was no video games. Stephen Semple: No, there was not. So that’s why we’re really going to be talking about more of the recent history of Nintendo. Dave Young: A real Donkey Kong, climbing ladders and throwing barrels. Stephen Semple: Okay. That’s it. That’s it. Dave Young: Or a monkey, a gorilla. Yeah. Stephen Semple: And here’s the thing, the Mario Brothers franchise is huge. It’s one of the biggest franchises in history. There’s been 800 million video games sold worldwide, making it the bestselling video game of all time. It’s bigger than Pokemon in game sales alone. The estimated lifetime sales across all revenues for the Mario Brothers franchise is $60 billion. Bigger than Star Wars, bigger than Harry Potter, bigger than Marvel. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: The movies alone sold over a billion dollars. There’s theme park now. It’s huge. It’s absolutely massive. And the Nintendo company is very old. It was founded back in Kyoto, Japan in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. That’s it, Yamauchi. Dave Young: Oh. Stephen Semple: Boy, I’m going to struggle with these names. Dave Young: What were they doing back then? What was the company doing? Stephen Semple: The first product they did was a playing card called Hanafuda, and it was very, very successful. So they actually started- Dave Young: As a gaming company. Stephen Semple: … in game business doing playing cards. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Now, during the 1950s, during Japan’s economic recovery, because if you remember, the economy was decimated in World War II, and through the Marshall Plan and whatnot, there was this rebuild going on. And during that time, they had a new leader, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who decided to explore all sorts of new businesses. He was doing all sorts of stuff. They had taxis, they had love hotels. Yes, you heard it right, love hotels. Dave Young: Love hotels. Stephen Semple: Instant rice, and of course, toys. And most of the things they did failed, except toys held a promise, so they continued to lean into toys. So it’s April 1978, so this is basically really where our story starts, and Taito, a competitor, releases a game called Space Invaders. Dave Young: Oh, right. I remember Space Invaders. Sure. Stephen Semple: Remember Space Invaders? And of course, this is back in the day of arcades, and you’re putting money into the games. This is so big in Japan, there’s 100 yen shortage. It would be like being in the U.S., and we run out of quarters. Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: It’s so big. So Nintendo, because it’s having some success in the game space, decides to make a knockoff of Space Invaders. So it’s October 1980, they create this knockoff called Radar Scope, and they decide also to ship it to the U.S., because they’ve started up a U.S. division. And it takes four months for the game to travel from Japan to the United States, and once it arrives, the trend has changed, it’s no longer Space Invaders, it’s now Pac-Man is the big game. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: So they’re left with these 2,000 unsold cabinets sitting in the United States. Enter Shigeru Miyamoto, who’s a graphic designer with Nintendo, and he has an idea, and he says to them, “Look, let’s reuse the cabinets, and let’s just create a new game. Let’s do that.” And it’s like, “What the heck? Let’s give this a try.” So Shigeru grew up in rural Japan, and this deeply influenced how he looked at games, because he grew up in a place where there was no television, none of these things, and he would go and he would play in like a cave that was nearby, and he would create all of these stories and characters. And this is the ’80s where the games do not have characters or a story. Dave Young: Okay. Yeah. Stephen Semple: They didn’t have that. Dave Young: Space Invader, you’re just knocking down… Stephen Semple: Right. Pac-Man, the same thing, there was no story. Pong, all that stuff, no stories. He takes a look around and he realizes that Nintendo has the rights to use Popeye, so Shigeru makes a suggestion to create a game using Popeye, where they already have the rights, and he moves ahead and does that. And so he also decides to make a game where characters move up rather than scrolling left to right, and there’d be different levels, which was also a relatively new idea. And he created this whole thing where they could jump, and using just a joystick in the buttons that already existed. So they started to create this game, but they hit a snag. Just before the release, they discovered Nintendo only had the rights to use Popeye for playing cards. Dave Young: For playing cards. Darn it. Stephen Semple: Now, turns out this was a gift from heaven, and the best thing that could ever happen in Nintendo. Dave Young: So it would’ve been Bluto up at the top, and Popeye trying to get up there, climbing the ladders and- Stephen Semple: And saving- Dave Young: So sort of a nautical theme? Stephen Semple: And saving olive oil. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Because remember, he would always capture olive oil. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And Popeye was this love triangle, right? Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So what does Shigeru do? Replaces- Dave Young: Bluto becomes- Stephen Semple: … with- Dave Young: … the gorilla. Stephen Semple: Right. Popeye becomes Mario. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And olive oil is Princess Peach. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: It’s the same story. Dave Young: Yeah. Beautiful. Stephen Semple: It’s exactly the same story. And if you think about it, even the whole idea of this gorilla capturing the princess kind of sounds like King Kong, doesn’t it? Dave Young: A little bit. Sure. Stephen Semple: A little bit. And of course, they can’t use the name King Kong, so it’s Donkey Kong. And the reason why Donkey Kong is, he went looking through English dictionaries, and there’s all this stubbornness, and all this other things that go along with it. So we went, “You know what? This monkey, this Kong is kind of stubborn.” So Donkey Kong is the name of the game. Dave Young: Did they run into any issues with the King Kong folks? Stephen Semple: Nope. Dave Young: No? Stephen Semple: No, because you think about it, it’s a completely different name, Donkey Kong, right? Dave Young: Yeah, but it’s still a big gorilla with the word Kong in it. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Nope, no. It was different enough. Dave Young: [inaudible 00:09:14] just because it’s stubborn, and it sort of went with the word Kong? Stephen Semple: Yep. So it was different enough. It was all great. And the original character was not Mario. Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories To Sell Ad] Let’s pick up our story where we left off, and trust me, you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: And the original character was not Mario. The original character was Jumpman. Jumpman. Dave Young: I kind of remember that. Stephen Semple: Jumpman. And the game allowed them to reuse the cabinets, and just do it. And think about it, the objective of this, because he was also just a very junior graphic designer, and the objective on this was, “Hey, if we can sell these 2,000 unsold cabinets sitting in the U.S., that’ll take the financial strain off of our U.S. operations, and it will be great, it will keep them afloat.” And here’s what happened, they sold in 1981 alone 60,000 cabinets. Dave Young: I tell you, I poured a lot of money into one of those cabinets when I was in college. Stephen Semple: So Shigeru goes from this low-level designer to the creator of one of the best performing games up to that point. And one of the things that also ends up happening, he starts making modifications to the game. And one of the modifications is, he’s walking one day, and he sees these pipes, and he realizes character should be a plumber, and the landlord for one of the Nintendo properties’ name was Mario. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: So that’s where the whole idea of Mario came from, and eventually evolved to being brothers, Mario and Luigi. And of course, there was continuing success, and other formats and differing games. And Mario Brothers grew beyond Donkey Kong, it went from Donkey Kong to really the franchise being the Mario Brothers, with all sorts of new characters being added, and all sorts of new themes, like there’s go-kart racing and all sorts of different things. But the birth of the idea happened when they had this problem of, “We’ve got to have these cabinets…” And Shigeru saying- Dave Young: “And we either have to make a whole bunch of Popeye playing cards, or we have to find something to put in these cabinets.” Stephen Semple: “We have to find something to put in these cabinets.” And Shigeru saying, “It needs to be a story.” Dave Young: Yeah. No, that’s brilliant. And I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out to our listeners here in the U.S. that Steve is Canadian, and he pronounces it Mario, and everybody I’ve ever met says Mario. Stephen Semple: Mario. Dave Young: Mario. It’s Mario Brothers. Stephen Semple: Mario. Dave Young: It’s sort of like you say Mazda, we say Mazda. Stephen Semple: Right. Yes. Yes. Dave Young: So- Stephen Semple: Yeah, that’s true. Dave Young: Here’s a weird tangential thought. Do you have a minute for one of my weird tangential thoughts? Stephen Semple: Isn’t that why we’re here? Just for your weird tangential… Isn’t what we tune in for? Dave Young: That’s the way I look at it. I wonder if the guy that shot the UnitedHealthcare… Luigi, I wonder if there was a little bump in Nintendo stock. Stephen Semple: Oh, I wonder. Dave Young: And I wonder too, what was the discussion inside Nintendo about that? At first it was probably, “Oh my God, a guy named Luigi just shot someone.” And that was probably, “Oh my God, a guy named Luigi just shot someone that… Okay.” It’s not cut and dry. Stephen Semple: Well, it isn’t, because sometimes these negative events actually have positive impacts on sales. The one that I always remember that always comes to mind, I always find bizarre, is the white two-door Ford Bronco was due to be discontinued until O.J. Simpson went and did a joyride on LA freeways, and it actually extended the sales of that vehicle several years. And to this day, the white two-door Ford Bronco is a premium price from that year. Dave Young: Yeah- Stephen Semple: It’s nuts. Sometimes these crazy things happen. Dave Young: I don’t know if it was a joyride, but yeah. But we remember it, for sure. Stephen Semple: But we remember it. But- Dave Young: And those things have these impacts that you couldn’t buy that. There’s nothing Ford Motor Company could do that would’ve done that, that would’ve saved the Bronco. Stephen Semple: So here’s the interesting thing, coming back to Nintendo, that I find… So one of the influences it had was it was the first game that came along and basically said, “We should have a story.” And if we take a look at video games today, they’re all very heavy story based. And in fact, the stories are unbelievably rich, like Zelda, and all these other ones are these very complex universes that have been created. And he was kind of the first to come along, and his influence from that came from the fact that he didn’t grow up with these things. Dave Young: Yeah, he grew up with stories. Stephen Semple: So again, it’s this whole outside… We had this graphic designer that didn’t grow up with these things saying to a game, “Here’s what it should do. It should have this story, and there should be this imagination.” And all these things. And when you think about it, there was a couple of accidents, a couple of lucky happenstances that led to the birth of this. First of all, the console. Because if you think about it, if it was the creating of a brand new game, you wouldn’t take some junior graphic artist and put on it. The objective was, “All we need to do is move these 2,000 consoles.” So it was like, “Okay, so we’ll give it to the junior guy to do.” And then it blows out of the water. The other lucky happenstance is, think about how Nintendo’s fortunes would be completely different if they actually had the rights to use Popeye. Dave Young: Yeah, it would have been, like, Mario Brothers, that whole universe would never have come about, and- Stephen Semple: Well, the whole universe would be Popeye Universe, even if it worked. Dave Young: And I can’t see that happening. Stephen Semple: Right. But even if it worked, it would not have been theirs, it would have been- Dave Young: Oh, true. Stephen Semple: The people who would have made all the money were the owners of the Popeye license, would have been a licensee. Dave Young: Yeah, that’s true. Stephen Semple: So they had a couple of really lucky, fortunate things that happened that totally changed the trajectory of Nintendo. But here’s the other interesting lesson, and look, we talk about this all the time in storytelling, is there’s a couple of things you can do in storytelling. One is, you can take an existing story and just change the characters. We just took Popeye, changed as Donkey Kong. And what you know is, we knew that story worked, so it’ll work over here with different characters. Or what you can do is, you can take existing characters, and you can change the setting. In magical worlds, you’re always talking about how Sherlock Holmes, and- Dave Young: House M.D. Stephen Semple: … House M.D. is the same story. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: It’s just one is a detective during Elizabethan times, and the other one is an emergency room doctor in modern times. Same character, different setting, changes the story. Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: So when you’re looking to use stories, find ones that work, and do that. Dave Young: Find the popular stories and just take the framework. And I’ll give you another example- Stephen Semple: Right. Either change the characters, make it same story with different characters, or take the characters and put them in a different setting. Dave Young: … there’s a book called the Bible that had this story about this Jesus fella. Stephen Semple: I think it’s rather a relatively popular book. Dave Young: And then in 1605, a guy named Miguel Cervantes wrote a book called Don Quixote, and he took a lot of the storylines and metaphors from this story in the Bible and created a book that became the second bestselling book of all time right after the Bible. Then a guy named John Steinbeck took a lot of the stories from Don Quixote, and renamed characters, and put them in different situations, but took the structures of the stories, and… So this works. Just do this. Stephen Semple: Oh, yeah. Dave Young: Just find a story you like- Stephen Semple: Absolutely. Dave Young: … and take the [inaudible 00:17:59]. Stephen Semple: Reimagine it. Reimagine it. Reimagine it. Either change it, keep the same story and change characters, or take the characters and put them in a new setting. Dave Young: I mean, the cool thing is, you can’t copyright a story arc, right? Stephen Semple: No, no. Dave Young: Something bad happens to someone and they overcome it. “Okay, no, that’s mine.” Stephen Semple: I’m still waiting for the overcome part. Dave Young: Yeah. Right? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: That’s still the part of the story. Oh, I love it. Stephen Semple: I just found these things that came together for the creating of the Mario Brothers to be really interesting. And it’s also interesting when you consider who was expected to be the star of the show was the donkey, and it ended up becoming the Mario Brothers. Dave Young: Yeah. Great story. And I see it. Thank you for switching to English. American English. I’m sorry. Stephen Semple: American. Dave Young: [inaudible 00:18:54]. Stephen Semple: All right. Thanks, David. Dave Young: Where can we go play some Donkey Kong next time? Stephen Semple: Well- Dave Young: Anybody got an old Donkey Kong console? Stephen Semple: Yeah. You know what? My kids have got some old play stuff, I’ll bring it down. Dave Young: No, I want the console. I want the big- Stephen Semple: Oh, you want that… Well, I think we may have to look hard for that. Dave Young: Yeah, that’s good. Well, keep your eyes out. Stephen Semple: I will. Dave Young: Thanks for the story of Nintendo, Stephen. Stephen Semple: All right. Thanks, David. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a big, fat, juicy five-star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute empire-building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

Cheryl Drury, a lifelong reader, is on a misssion to read a long list of classic books which she found on Ted Gioia's Substack page. She now has her own Substack page that features her podcast "Crack the Book" about classic books. We talk about The Great Gatsby, The Red Badge of Courage, Romeo and Juliet and other works of Shakespeare, The Odyssey, David Foster Wallace, James Joyce's Ulysses, Swann's Way, Les Miserables, Louise May Alcott's Little Women, Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, reading on a Kindle vs hardcopies, things we learn about life and human nature from reading classic books, Great Expectations and Charles Dickens, Gentleman in Moscow, Dead Souls, Fathers and Sons, The Brothers Karamazov, The Death of Ivan Ilyitch, characters, taking notes while reading, Dante, what makes a book a classic, Bleak House, Blood Meridian, The Road and Cormac McCarthy, Canticles for Liebowitz, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, reading aloud, poetry, Pablo Neruda, writing every day, why we love to read, Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Cold Blood, Brave New World, Blood Child, This is How you Lose the Time War, Isaac Asimov, classic science fiction, Don Quixote, The Golden Ass, and more.  Links are on the podcast shownotes page Support the show through Patreon

After agreeing to marry a mysterious, beautiful girl after a near death experience, Nasa Yuzaki has his world turned upside down on his 18th birthday when she suddenly appears on his doorstep with a marriage form in hand! Who is this woman and why does she remind him so much of the fabled moon princess Kaguya?This week on Manga Tak, Mat is joined once more by AC Yoshimura (aka prodtally) to discuss T̶o̶n̶i̶k̶a̶k̶u̶ ̶K̶a̶w̶a̶i̶i̶ Fly Me To The Moon by Kenjiro Hata! Join us as we discuss the dangers of 2am Don Quixote visits, how the manga compares to the anime, and watch in real time as Mat does a complete 180 turn on reading on based solely on the mention of one of his favourite movies...---Show Notes---Manga---Urusei Yatsura by Rumiko TakahashiRanma 1/2 by Rumiko TakahashiLove Hina by Ken AkamatsuTrigun by Yasuhiro NightowRevolutionary Girl Utena by Chiho Saito / Be-PapasNeon Genesis Evangelion by Yoshiyuki SadamotoWash It All Away by Mitsuru Hattori---Other---Highlander Mamoru OshiiSeikima-II Japan's Culture CouncilThanks to Juliano Zucareli for our theme music!Find us on:X: Manga Tak PodBluesky: Manga Tak PodInstagram: Manga Tak Pod

Let's talk about Don Quixote and Don Trump losing their battles against windmills....

Das wurde auch Zeit! Star-Cellist Steven Isserlis konzertiert erstmals mit dem BRSO, als Solist in Richard Strauss' "Don Quixote". Im Interview spricht Isserlis über Humor bei Strauss, Nervosität vor Auftritten und starken Kaffee.

Support the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USOne on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meeting# Episode 1: “You Are Living in Flatland (And You Don't Even Know It)”-----**Welcome to the dimensional war. You just don't know you're fighting it yet.**In 1884, Edwin Abbott wrote *Flatland* - a mathematical romance about a two-dimensional world where beings live as shapes on a plane, unable to perceive the third dimension of depth. He thought he was writing social satire.**He was actually writing a transmission about 2026.**About YOU.Living in a reality you think is solid, complete, “realistic” - while being completely blind to dimensions you can't perceive.**Your worth measured in 2D metrics:** Credentials. Salary. Followers. Job titles.**Your identity flattened to geometry:** How many “sides” you've accumulated in the game of status.**Your future planned on a horizontal plane:** Assuming linear time, guaranteed tomorrows, safe predictability.**You are A Square. And you don't even know you're trapped.**-----## What if I told you there's a vertical dimension hiding in plain sight?**Not “up” in some abstract spiritual sense.**But **UP** as in: *What becomes visible when death shatters your 2D certainty?*When you're fired after 26 years and your identity evaporates.When someone you love faces mortality and all your careful plans dissolve.When you turn fifty and realize you don't fit in the traditional game anymore.**These aren't tragedies. These are dimensional initiations.**Moments when the **Sphere** - a being from a higher dimension - enters your flat world and shows you: *Everything you thought was solid is just a cross-section.*-----## This episode activates your Reticular Activating System.That part of your brain that filters reality - deciding what you notice and what you ignore.**After this episode, your RAS will be tuned to see Flatland everywhere:**- In conversations where people brag about credentials- In systems designed to keep you flat and measurable- In your own thoughts when you catch yourself playing the 2D game- **In the moments when death whispers: “None of this is real”****Once activated, you can't deactivate it.**You'll start seeing the prison bars. The dimensional limitations. The game beneath the game.**And you won't be able to unsee it.**-----## This isn't a book review. This is an initiation.I've been lifted out of Flatland three times:- **Fired after 26 years** (identity death - the 2D game of job = worth revealed as illusion)- **Wife fighting cancer** (mortality confrontation - the future I was planning for might not exist)- **Turning fifty** (threshold moment - realizing I don't fit in the traditional workforce anymore)**These were my Sphere moments.** When death entered my flat world and showed me dimensions I couldn't perceive before.Now I'm back in Flatland. But I'm… changed.I can't play the game anymore. Can't pretend credentials matter. Can't believe in “realistic” thinking.**Because I've seen the vertical dimension.**And once you've been there - once you've been initiated by death, loss, shattering - **you can never fully believe in Flatland again.**-----## What you'll discover in this episode:**The architecture of Flatland** - How 2D thinking imprisons you without you realizing it**Death as the third dimension** - The vertical axis that breaks the flat plane of “normal life”**Your initiations** - Recognizing the moments when the Sphere appeared in YOUR life (and you might have missed it)**The RAS activation** - How this episode will permanently change what you perceive in your reality**The elder's burden** - What to do when you've been lifted out but dropped back into a world that thinks you're crazy-----## WARNING: This is not safe content.This episode is designed to make you **dangerously curious** and **a little uncomfortable.**Not reassured. Not inspired in the Instagram quote way.**Initiated.**By the end, you'll question:- Whether your job defines you (it doesn't - that's Flatland)- Whether your plans are guaranteed (they're not - that's 2D thinking)- Whether “being realistic” is wisdom (it's not - it's prison maintenance)- **Whether consensus reality is actually real (it's not - it's Flatland)**You'll start seeing patterns you can't unsee.Noticing dimensional breaks you used to ignore.Recognizing when death is trying to teach you something.**And there's no going back.**-----## This is Part 1 of a 6-episode series exploring:**Episode 1:** You Are Living in Flatland (And You Don't Even Know It) ← *You are here***Episode 2:** The Sphere Has Already Appeared. You Just Don't Remember Yet.**Episode 3:** Being Lifted Out - What You See From the Vertical Dimension**Episode 4:** Dropped Back In - When You Can't Fit in Flatland Anymore**Episode 5:** The Prison of Consensus Reality - Why They'll Call You Crazy**Episode 6:** Living Between Dimensions - The Work of the Initiated-----## Required reading (but read it AFTER this episode):***Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions*** by Edwin Abbott Abbott (1884)- Free online, any edition- ~100 pages- **Warning:** After this podcast series, you won't read it as fiction-----## The quote that changes everything:*“You are not crazy for seeing dimensions others can't perceive. You've just been initiated by death. And prisoners who see the bars become insurgents.”*-----**Your RAS is now activated.****You can't unknow this.****Welcome to the vertical dimension.****Welcome to the resistance.**-----*Initiated by death. Returned to Flatland. Speaking from the vertical dimension.**This is the Flatland series. This is the dimensional war.**And you just enlisted.*-----**[CONTENT WARNING: Discusses death, mortality, job loss, cancer, identity dissolution, dimensional initiation, reality destabilization, and the systematic dismantling of consensus thinking. Not recommended for those committed to remaining comfortably two-dimensional.]**-----## About this series:Following the 5-episode *Don Quixote* initiation series (where we explored tilting at windmills, vision vs delusion, defeat at fifty, and coming home), the *Flatland* series takes you deeper into dimensional knowing.**This is live philosophy.** Real-time transformation documented through literature.Not memoir. Not self-help.**Transmission from someone who's been lifted out and dropped back.**Consider this your field manual for the dimensional war.-----*Listen with headphones. Take notes. Your future self will thank you.* One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US

Tilting at Windmills. In 1605, the first edition of Don Quixote hit the shelves, or whatever humans were using to keep their books off the floor then. In it, the aforementioned knight saddles up and hits the dirt road in an attempt to bring back some measure of civic values and romance to his daily […]

Support the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USOne on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingThe Knight of the White Moon: Coming HomeAt 50—the same age Don Quixote was when he lost his mind to become a knight and the same age he was when he was finally defeated—I found myself knocked off my own horse.After 26 years as a UPS driver, I was fired. My wife is fighting cancer. The future we planned may never arrive.In the book, the Knight of the White Moon (his friend in disguise) forces Don Quixote to give up the quest, take off the armor, and go home. Everyone thinks he's finally “cured.” But what if it wasn't defeat? What if it was the doorway?This episode is about the moment life forces you to shed the identity you've worn for decades—the job, the role, the armor—and asks: Who are you when it's all gone?I call it the second adolescence. The initiation into elderhood. The hard, beautiful rite of passage our culture forgot to give us.We explore:•  The terror and gift of being stripped of what defined you•  Why “coming home” to yourself might be the real point of the quest•  How defeat can be the beginning of something quieter, wiser, more real•  The power of elders: not what you do, but what you know after surviving it allIf you're 50, 60, 70… if you've been fired, retired, divorced, gotten sick, or simply feel the armor cracking… you're not alone.This isn't the end. It's the beginning of becoming who you actually are.Listen now. Walk through the doorway with me.(From the heart of a former UPS driver who's still figuring it out.)#SecondAdolescence #Elderhood #ComingHome #DonQuixote #LifeAfter50 One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US“Follow me, and I'll make you governor of an island.”In Don Quixote, a poor farmer named Sancho Panza leaves his wife, his kids, and everything he knows to follow a lunatic into the wilderness. Why? Because he was promised an island.Sound familiar?“Work hard and you'll make partner.”“Grind now, equity later.”“We're a family here - your loyalty will be rewarded.”“Be your own boss - unlimited earning potential.”We're all Sancho Panza now. Following someone else's quest, enduring the chaos, waiting for an island that might never come - or worse, comes in a form we never actually wanted.This episode explores what happens when the everyman follows the madman's promise. What Cervantes understood about gig economy exploitation 400 years before Uber existed. And why Sancho's choice at the end might be the most radical thing you hear all year.Part 2 of “The Wisdom of Don Quixote” series. One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USIs Your Vision Real or Are You Delusional?Don Quixote descended into a cave.He was down there for one hour.When they pulled him back up, he was pale, shaking, transformed. And he told them an impossible story:“I was in an enchanted palace. For three days. I met legendary knights. I saw magical maidens. I witnessed wonders I can barely describe.”Sancho looked at him. “Master, you were down there for an hour. Maybe less.”Don Quixote's voice wavered. For the first time in the entire novel, he seemed… uncertain.“I know what I saw,” he said. Then, quieter: “God knows the truth.”This is the Cave of Montesinos. The most mysterious, psychologically complex scene in all of Don Quixote.And it asks the question every visionary, creator, entrepreneur, and dreamer faces:How do you know if what you saw in the dark was real… or if you just made it all up?I've had 860 conversations on this podcast. And I keep coming back with the same vision: I see genius in people that the world doesn't validate. I see systems rigged against passion. I see the fight itself as what keeps us alive.But what if I'm just Don Quixote in the cave? What if I descended into the darkness with my own expectations and came back up with a beautiful story that isn't real?What if your calling is just a dream you had in the dark?What if the business idea that won't leave you alone is delusion dressed as vision?What if the injustice you see so clearly is just confirmation bias?You'll never know for sure.And that's the point.This episode is about what Don Quixote learned in that cave: Certainty is madness. Doubt is wisdom. And acting on your vision despite the doubt—that's the only courage that matters.“Time will tell,” Don Quixote said when asked if his vision was real.That's all any of us can say. One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US

We are jumping straight into a flashback and finally learning what makes Law who he is. The duality of the Donquixote brothers is explored between Doflamingo and Rosinante. Cora goes out of his way to find a cure for Law and in the process, sacrifices himself so Law doesnt fall back into the clutches of Doflamingo.Next Week: Episodes 707-712https://linktr.ee/goingmerrypodMake sure you are checking out The Variant Vendetta Podcast! They will be returning from their break in just a few weeks!https://linktr.ee/VariantVendetta

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USIn a world besieged by the relentless march of AI, where algorithms whisper promises of utopia or apocalypse, one timeless tale rises from the dust of centuries to mirror our chaotic present: Don Quixote. Join host [Your Name] in the premiere episode of [Podcast Name], “The Knight of the Sorrowful Algorithm,” as we embark on a quixotic quest through Cervantes' masterpiece—a story of a man whose brain “dried up” from devouring too many fantastical romances, only to armor up and charge into a reality that mocked his dreams.But this isn't just dusty literature. It's us. Right now. Scrolling through endless feeds of AI doomsayers and saviors: “Your job is obsolete!” “Embrace the disruption!” “AGI will save—or end—humanity!” We're all Don Quixote, lost in a whirlwind of narratives that blur truth and fiction, leaving us paralyzed by questions: Is adaptation surrender? Is optimism naivety? And who are the true mad knights of our age—the artists defying generative machines, the workers reclaiming their humanity, or those daring to pursue passion in a profit-obsessed empire?Delve into the heart of the madness: Why Don Quixote chose delusion over despair, and why “sanity”—accepting a world ruled by efficiency, oligarchs, and obsolescence—might be the deadliest illusion of all. In a finale that shatters illusions, discover how renouncing the quest led to his demise… and what that means for us tilting at digital windmills.Epic, introspective, and urgently relevant, this episode challenges you to ask: In the AI era, is going a little mad the only way to stay truly alive? Tune in, saddle up your Rocinante, and ride into the fray. Next up: “Sancho Panza and the Gig Economy”—the everyman's gamble on a madman's promise. One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US

Sarah and Carrie are joined by Cameron Burns and DeVaughn Taylor to talk 2019's The Platform - it's bleak but we manage some laughs! We talk panna cotta, Indonesian names, sociopolitical architypes, dog death, cannibalism, snails, Don Quixote, and more! 

Chuck Heinz and Jamie Lent talk about NCAA Basketball point shaving, Don Quixote, comments from Grant McCasland, Red Raider Football running backs next year and NFL playoffs this weekend.

"Dance Talk” ® with Joanne Carey and special guests, Skylar Brandt and Vladimir RumyanstevIn this episode of "Dance Talk” ® , host Joanne Carey engages with Skylar Brandt, a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, and her fiancé, pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev. They discuss their artistic journeys, the cultural differences in music and dance education, and how they met through their shared passion for the arts. The conversation delves into the emotional experience of performing, the creative process behind choreography, and the significance of art in serving humanity. They also explore their future aspirations, including the idea of incorporating their artistry into their wedding celebration.Skylar Brandt began her training at the age of six at Scarsdale Ballet Studio. She attended the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre from 2005-2009. Brandt was a silver medalist at Youth America Grand Prix in 2004 and 2008. Brandt joined ABT II in 2009, became an apprentice with ABT in 2010, and joined the corps de ballet in 2011. She was promoted to Soloist in 2015 and to Principal in 2020. Among her leading roles with the Company are Giselle in Giselle, Medora in Le Corsaire, Kitri in Don Quixote, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Gamzatti in La Bayadere, Olga in Onegin, Clara, the Princess in The Nutcracker, Young Jane in Jane Eyre, Columbine in Harlequinade, Princess Praline in Whipped Cream, the Lead Maiden in Firebird, the Golden Cockerel in The Golden Cockerel, and roles in The Green Table, Pillar of Fire, The Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda Divertissements, Sinfonietta, Symphonic Variations, and AFTERITE to name a few. Brandt was awarded a 2013 Princess Grace Foundation-USA Dance Fellowship. That same year, she was featured in the movie “Ballet's Greatest Hits”. In 2018, Brandt was the recipient of an unprecedented Special Jury Award for her performances on the Russian television show “Big Ballet”. In 2022, Brandt was named to the renowned "Forbes 30 Under 30" list of most influential leaders and entrepreneurs.https://www.skylarbrandt.com/ Vladimir Rumyantsev  is an internationally acclaimed pianist. At just seven years old, he made his debut at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory where he won Moscow's Glinka competition.Rumyantsev received his foundational training at the Gnessin Moscow Special School for Music under Mikhail Khokhlov and later studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Sergey Dorensky, Alexander Bakhchiev, Elena Sorokina, Pavel Nersessian and Nikolai Lugansky. He earned advanced degrees at the Mannes School of Music in New York under Pavlina Dokovska and is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The Hartt School under the mentorship of Jose Ramos Santana.Rumyantsev has performed worldwide at such prestigious venues as the Moscow Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Covent Garden, the Mariinsky Theatre, New York City Center, The Kennedy Center, to name a few. His performances led to collaborations with the Mariinsky Ballet. The New York Times describes his playing of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations as “excellent,” and The Wall Street Journal noting his “potent” interpretation.In 2024 he recorded "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Sean Hickey for solo piano. Most recently, Rumyantsev toured the world as a solo artist with Twyla Tharp Dance for her Diamond Jubilee and is producing his own concerts of piano and dance alongside Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Skylar Brandt. https://vladimirrumyantsev.com/“Dance Talk” ® with Joanne Carey wherever you listen to your podcasts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dancetalkwithjoannecarey.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Joanne on Instagram @DanceTalkwithJoanneCarey Tune in. Follow. Like us. And Share. Please leave us review about our podcast! “Dance Talk” ® with Joanne Carey"Where the Dance World Connects, the Conversations Inspire, and Where We Are Keeping Them Real."

In The Man Behind the Curtain, a bonus Close Readings series for 2026, Tom McCarthy and Thomas Jones examine great novels in terms of the systems and infrastructures at work in them. For their first episode, they turn to the book that invented the modern novel. Don Quixote, the ingenious man from La Mancha, is thought to be mad by everyone he meets because he believes he's living in a book. But from a certain point of view that makes the hero of Cervantes' novel the only character who has any idea what's really going on. Tom and Tom discuss the machinery – narrative, theoretical, economic, psychological and literal (those windmills) – which underpins Cervantes' masterpiece. This is a bonus episode from the Close Readings series. To listen to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applecrna⁠⁠⁠ In other podcast apps: ⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/closereadingsna⁠⁠ Further reading in the LRB: Karl Miller on ‘Don Quixote': ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n03/karl-miller/andante-capriccioso⁠ Michael Wood: Crazy Don ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n15/michael-wood/crazy-don⁠ Gabriel Josipovici on Cervantes' life: ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v01/n05/gabriel-josipovici/the-hard-life-and-poor-best-of-cervantes⁠ Robin Chapman: Cervantics ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n16/robin-chapman/cervantics⁠

In The Man Behind the Curtain, a bonus Close Readings series for 2026, Tom McCarthy and Thomas Jones examine great novels in terms of the systems and infrastructures at work in them. For their first episode, they turn to the book that invented the modern novel. Don Quixote, the ingenious man from La Mancha, is thought to be mad by everyone he meets because he believes he's living in a book. But from a certain point of view that makes the hero of Cervantes' novel the only character who has any idea what's really going on. Tom and Tom discuss the machinery – narrative, theoretical, economic, psychological and literal (those windmills) – which underpins Cervantes' masterpiece. This is a bonus episode from the Close Readings series. To listen to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applecrna⁠⁠⁠ In other podcast apps: ⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/closereadingsna⁠⁠ Further reading in the LRB: Karl Miller on ‘Don Quixote': ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n03/karl-miller/andante-capriccioso⁠ Michael Wood: Crazy Don ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n15/michael-wood/crazy-don⁠ Gabriel Josipovici on Cervantes' life: ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v01/n05/gabriel-josipovici/the-hard-life-and-poor-best-of-cervantes⁠ Robin Chapman: Cervantics ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n16/robin-chapman/cervantics⁠

Reposted from Still Slaying: A Buffy-verse podcast which you can find at Still Slaying: a Buffy-verse podcast | Podcastica. Fun, in-depth talk about great TV. CW: Discussion of sexual topics and rape. “Because it's wrong.” Penny and Sam and Dina welcome Dina to Still Slaying and the trio get nostalgic about the TV landscape at the turn of the millennium. The wide-ranging discussion touches on The X-files, future robot selves, trauma, stevedores, porn stereotypes, queer subtext (and text), whether we would have sex with a clone of ourself, masturbation as healthcare, Stranger Things, heteronormativity, Heated Rivalry and the progress in queer representation on screen, Don Quixote, rape, Outlander, Nielson families and Sweeps Week, Repo Man, spoilers, hopes for the reboot and the nature of evil.  Next time we'll be talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 4, Episode 17, “Superstar” and Episode 18, “Where the Wild Things Are.” Keep Slaying! News Links/Referenced Links Original Episode Promo https://youtu.be/Aoykd5iVt9g —---------------------------------------- Viewing Order Buffy 4x16 - Who Are You? (2/2) Buffy 4x17 - Superstar & 4x18 - Where the Wild Things Are Angel 1x16 - The Ring & 1x17 - Eternity Buffy 4x19 - New Moon Rising Angel 1x18 - Five by Five (1/2) Angel 1x19 - Sanctuary (2/2) Buffy 4x20 - The Yoko Factor (1/2) Buffy 4x21 - Primeval (2/2) Buffy 4x22 - Restless Angel 1x20 - War Zone Angel 1x21 - Blind Date Angel 1x22 - To Shanshu in LA Join the conversation! You can email or send a voice message to stillslayingfeedback@gmail.com, or join us at facebook.com/groups/podcastica and Still Slaying A Buffy-verse Podcast where we put up comment posts for each episode we cover.  Follow us on Instagram Still Slaying: a Buffyverse Podcast from Podcastica Network (@stillslayingcast) • Instagram photos and videos Join the Zedhead community - https://www.patreon.com/jasoncabassi Theme Music:℗ CC-BY 2020 Quesbe | Lucie G. MorillonGoopsy | Drum and Bass | Free CC-BY Music By Quesbe is licensed under a Creative Commons License. #smashthepatriarchy #slaythepatriarchy #feminism #patriarchy #sarahmichellegellar #marcblucas #buffy #buffyverse #buffyrewatch #alisonhannigan #amberbenson #anthonystewarthead #sunnydale #hellmouth #buffthevampireslayer #buffyseason4 #spike #spuffy #jamesmarsters #elizadushku #faith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The boys are in a festive and historically in-depth mood, combining laughs, facts, and a taste of nonsense, diving into stuffing or dressing, Don Quixote, cool small towns, 19th century politics, counterculture, and even more. A hearty mix that cries out "Salut"!

Join us in this episode of JKL Media Reviews as we delve intoWindmills'. Our hosts discuss the strong character arcs and rich symbolism present throughout the episode, drawing parallels with Don Quixote. Highlights include Chrisjen's poignant visit to Holden's mother on the farm, Joe's search for Julie Mao, and the intense dynamics aboard the Rocinante. We analyze key scenes, character interactions, and speculate on future plot developments, all while celebrating the layered storytelling. Tune in for an engaging discussion that promises to deepen your appreciation of the series. 00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview 00:46 First Impressions from the Co-Hosts 01:56 Deep Dive into Chrisjen and Holden's Mom 16:25 Joe's Journey and Symbolism 29:36 Holden's Leadership and Crew Dynamics 32:52 Planning the Next Move 33:14 Character Dynamics and Theories 34:54 Holden's Leadership and Amos' Growth 37:44 The Spy's Role and Tensions 38:30 Password Struggles and Tech Talk 39:39 Character Analysis and Movie References 41:12 Kenzo's Motives and Crew Dynamics 46:38 Canadian Talent and Show Appreciation 47:38 Series Wrap-Up and Future Speculations 52:38 Contact Information and Sign-Off

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Megan are discussing: Bookish Moments: finally reading a big book and nerdy bookends Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: how the podcast has changed Megan P. Evan's life in all ways. The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site). .  .  .  2:01 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week 2:26 - From the Front Porch podcast 2:28 - Bookshelf Thomasville 2:33 - Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and John Rutherford (translator) 2:39 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry  3:39 - The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor 4:33 - Wicked Lego Bookends 6:36 - Our Current Reads 7:04 - The Book of I by David Greig (Megan) 10:07 - Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivy (Kaytee) 10:15 - Booktenders 10:31 - The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivy 15:46 - The Deep End by Julie Mulhern (Megan) 21:11 - House Love by Patric Richardson (Kaytee) 21:43 - Laundry Love by Patric Richardson 23:25 - Safe and Sound by Mercury Stardust 23:26 - Right at Home by Bobby Berk 25:19 - Above the Fire by Michael O'Donnell (Megan) 27:05 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy 27:44 - Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice 27:51 - Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice 27:52 - These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant 29:20 - Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell (Kaytee) 35:03 - Megan's Reading Life 49:54 - Meet Us At The Fountain 50:12 - I wish you would consider reading more short books. (Megan) 51:05 - I wish for a book parade like the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. (Kaytee)   Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. December's IPL is a recap of the year with Kaytee and Meredith. Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business.  All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

'Gismonti 70' es el título del disco de la pianista Bianca Gismonti en el que toca obras de su padre, Egberto Gismonti, como 'Sete anéis', 'Palhaço', 'Sanfona', 'Agua e vinho' o 'Don Quixote'/'Auto retrato'. Canciones de Djavan ('Océano', 'Azul'', 'Capim', 'Beiral') y de Guinga ('Saci') en el disco 'Ventoèla' de la cantante Tatiana Valle y el guitarrista Alberto Capelli. Cierran Gaia Wilmer y Jaques Morelenbaum con 'Queixa' de Caetano Veloso. Escuchar audio

Bu hafta Kent Takvimi'nde Direnen Akademi'nin açık dersinden Berkol Bilimkurgu Günleri'nin açılışına, Attilâ İlhan'ın 100. yıl etkinliklerinden Suç ve Ceza Festivali'nin son gösterimlerine; Afife, Don Quixote ve Güneşin Oğlu gibi tiyatrolardan Peter Bence, Kardeş Türküler ve Weval konserlerine; Salt, Pera, Sevil Dolmacı ve İMÇ'deki yeni sergilere kadar yoğun bir kültür–sanat programı ziyaretçilerini bekliyor.

In the podcast this week, Suzy & Nicola talk fragrances they've been obsessed with wearing lately (& some are quite unexpected…) Plus, there's an absolutely BRILLIANT #listenerprescription from ballet costume designer Isabelle, who asked for recommendations to scent her way through working on costumes for a 2026 tour of Don Quixote - dreaming of Spanish sunshine in the depths of a chilly English winter!Fragrances we can't stop wearing…Nicola:@nosuparfum Been Trying to Meet You - wistful, hay & meadow-infused memories@nosuparfum Sain No More - Smoked herbaceous rituals welcome a fresh start@merit Retrospect - Nostalgia meets newness via juicy sparkles & second-skin@floraiku Sand & Skin - Amber-glazed skin, vanilla horizons & gilded dreams@bamford Geranium Candle – Instantly-uplifting botanical blissSuzy:@angelaflanders Rose Sauvage – Dew-bright, berried wild rose bursts with sheer joy@headspaceparfum Rose - A rose frozen in glass, awoken by a silver bullet@bdkparfumsparis 312 Saint-Honoré - Couture chalky floral drifts chic clouds of comfort@memoizeperfume Imber - Succulent cherry, cassis & rhubarb spiced to a musky trail@juliettehasagun Powder Love - Marshmallow, sugared almond & a gentle hug#listenerprescription for Isabelle / Don Quixote ballet:Principal Lady@monegalperfumes Flamenco extrait – Raspberries, roses & sizzling saffron woodiness. Passion personified@lartisanparfumeur Histoire d'Oranger – Orange trees, dappled sunlight & tendrils of incense@parfumsmicallef Ylang in Gold – A solar shimmer of ylang-ylang, orange, fluffy vanilla & coconut for a glimmering finaléThe Rascals@jusboxperfumes Studio 54 – Cocktails, cardamom-studded vanilla & naughty patchouli – for hedonists: flamboyant & ready for anything@rndl.ltd Together – Bergamot & mandarin, irresistible vanilla praline & a spicy trail of suede – the scent of friendship & assurance for scene-stealersThe scent of Spain@lamontagnacandles Winter Oranges – The scent of a Valencian orange harvest, warmly spiced, evoking citrus-soaked sunsets & festive cheer@alvarez_gomez_perfumes Agua de Colonia Concentrada – Mediterranean lemons & aromatic herbs, bottled Spanish sunshine with historic soul

Dearest Gentle Listeners,In today's episode we finally get to unpack Don Quixote and all that it means to Colin and Eloise as the two finally discuss the elephant in the room - Colin's love for Penelope. Episode 5 is really not Eloise's finest moments whether that's as a sister or a friend so buckle up for a wild ride. Yours Truly,The Ladies Bridgerton

"The protection of interiority is the central motivation of Metamodernism." So says Greg Dember, a Seattle-based musician, songwriter and independent researcher in Metamodernism. As the co-founder of the What Is Metamodern? website with Linda Ceriello, PhD, Greg's writing and podcast appearances speaking on metamodernism have helped popularize the terminology outside of academic discourse through accessible writing. He is the author of Say Hello To Metamodernism!: Understanding Today's Culture of Ironesty, Felt Experience, and Empathic Reflexivity (2024 Exact Rush). He is also a co-editor of the forthcoming multi-author volume, My Impossible Soul: The Metamodern Music of Sufjan Stevens (Bloomsbury/Lexington). He holds a BA (1987) from Yale University.____________Greg and Linda's Metamodern site - https://www.whatismetamodern.comGreg's article on the 11 methods of Metamodernism - https://medium.com/what-is-metamodern/after-postmodernism-eleven-metamodern-methods-in-the-arts-767f7b646cae Greg's book on Metamodernism - https://www.amazon.com/Say-Hello-Metamodernism-Understanding-Reflexivity/dp/B0DHGFKZ8W/__________In this conversation, I sit down with Greg to explore metamodernism as the cultural backdrop that's emerged since roughly 2000, taking over from postmodernism's ironic detachment. We discuss how metamodernism oscillates between modern earnestness and postmodern irony to defend the significance of interiority and felt experience. Greg introduces his framework of 11 metamodern methods—including empathic reflexivity and the double frame—and we examine how artists like the Daniels (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Wes Anderson, Bo Burnham, and even The Beatles navigate this territory. The conversation ranges from David Letterman's evolution to Don Quixote as a proto-metamodern text, exploring how this sensibility has spread from indie niches into mainstream culture, and what it means for how we make and experience art today._____________⏳Timestamps0:00 Episode Intro2:26 Greg's current work: Sufjan Stevens book3:26 What is metamodernism? Cultural backdrop since 20104:50 From modernism to postmodernism to metamodernism7:36 David Letterman: from postmodern irony to Metamodern maturity10:32 The oscillation between modern and postmodern attributes12:26 Jimmy Fallon and the trend toward sincere enthusiasm15:56 Felt experience vs. detached observation19:26 Bo Burnham's Metamodern masterpiece "Inside"24:31 Rick Glassman and the Dance of Irony25:26 The new sincerity and its relationship to metamodernism28:26 Defending interiority as Metamodernism's central motivation31:38 From indie niches to mainstream: Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift33:29 Everything Everywhere All At Once: metamodernism as hell38:26 Wes Anderson and the metamodern sensibility39:28 The 11 metamodern methods framework40:31 Method #1: Empathic reflexivity40:56 Method #2: Oscillation between modern/postmodern dualities41:24 Method #3: The double frame (Raoul Eshelman)44:26 Quirky as a metamodern aesthetic46:26 Irony vs. cynicism: an important distinction49:26 Don Quixote as proto-metamodern?53:26 History rhymes: Shakespeare, Nietzsche, and cultural crossroads57:26 Exploring quirky and other metamodern methods59:39 Play, playfulness, and Wes Anderson1:01:01 Method #4: Meta-cute1:01:46 Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox as meta-cute1:03:56 Protecting interiority: the motivation behind metamodern art1:04:56 Metamodernism as reclaiming something eternally human1:06:26 Sufjan Stevens and the Illinois album1:07:16 Proto-metamodern vs. actually metamodern: the key distinction1:08:26 The Metamodern "Rocky Racoon"1:12:29 The Proto Metamodern Morrissey and The Smiths1:14:43 Guest recommendation: Linda Ceriello1:14:58 Where to find Greg's work

Age of Transitions and Uncle 10-10--2025AoT#478The maniacs taking over the US government are actually idealistic. They are the quixotic, dark idealists, pushing their Dark Enlightenment philosophy. Topics include: Don Quixote, quixotic, idealists, etymology, Tron Ares, occult concepts, virtual reality, Monterey CA, mundane world, The Ninth Gate, Grail legend, Left Hand Path occultism, dark idealism, Peter Thiel, Anti Christ lecture series, misunderstanding occult, theology, Christianity, Gil Duran, 33, transhumanism, Singularity, AGI, Mark Andreessen, contradictions, controlling and being above the government, displacing American Constitutional government, Curtis Yarvin, Silicon Valley, America turned inward to war on itself, Executive Branch used as a tool of destruction, useful idiots of online media, Tolkien, Anduril, Palantir, wizards, Lord Of the Rings, Martine Rothblatt, technocracy, Stargate, AI vs AGI, X propaganda platform, reviving War on Terror, luxury bunker, divide and conquer, martial law, nonviolent resistance, deposing tyranny, nothing is real, the EventUtp#385The knobs break, but Uncle is undeterred. Topics include: Friday Night Special, let it ring, TikTak, dog couch, IKEA, alien genetics, telepathy, channeling, Independence Day movie, UFOs, MLB playoffs, talking over callers, volume levels, bad knobbing, heaven isn't too far away, headphones, bad audio, Robin, Australia, Sidekick gets fwustwated, expansion teamsFRANZ MAIN HUB:https://theageoftransitions.com/PATREONhttps://www.patreon.com/aaronfranzUNCLEhttps://unclethepodcast.com/ORhttps://theageoftransitions.com/category/uncle-the-podcast/FRANZ and UNCLE Merchhttps://theageoftransitions.com/category/support-the-podcasts/---BE THE EFFECTEmergency help for Ochelli and The NetworkMrs.OLUNA ROSA CANDLEShttp://www.paypal.me/Kimberlysonn1---NOVEMBER IN DALLAS LANCER CONFERENCEDISCOUNT FOR YOU10 % OFF code = Ochelli10https://assassinationconference.com/Coming SOON Room Discount Details The Fairmont Dallas hotel 1717 N Akard Street, Dallas, Texas 75201BE THE EFFECTListen/Chat on the Sitehttps://ochelli.com/listen-live/TuneInhttp://tun.in/sfxkxAPPLEhttps://music.apple.com/us/station/ochelli-com/ra.1461174708Ochelli Link Treehttps://linktr.ee/chuckochelliAnything is a blessing if you have the meansWithout YOUR support we go silent.---NOVEMBER IN DALLAS LANCER CONFERENCEDISCOUNT FOR YOU10 % OFF code = Ochelli10https://assassinationconference.com/Coming SOON Room Discount Details The Fairmont Dallas hotel 1717 N Akard Street, Dallas, Texas 75201. easy access to Dealey Plaza

The maniacs taking over the US government are actually idealistic. They are the quixotic, dark idealists, pushing their Dark Enlightenment philosophy.  Topics include: Don Quixote, quixotic, idealists, etymology, Tron Ares, occult concepts, virtual reality, Monterey CA, mundane world, The Ninth Gate, Grail legend, Left Hand Path occultism, dark idealism, Peter Thiel, Anti Christ lecture series, misunderstanding occult, theology, Christianity, Gil Duran, 33, transhumanism, Singularity, AGI, Mark Andreessen, contradictions, controlling and being above the government, displacing American Constitutional government, Curtis Yarvin, Silicon Valley, America turned inward to war on itself, Executive Branch used as a tool of destruction, useful idiots of online media, Tolkien, Anduril, Palantir, wizards, Lord Of the Rings, Martine Rothblatt, technocracy, Stargate, AI vs AGI, X propaganda platform, reviving War on Terror, luxury bunker, divide and conquer, martial law, nonviolent resistance, deposing tyranny, nothing is real, the Event

From A Clockwork Orange to Cloud Atlas, via the many attempts at Don Quixote, we consider the challenge of adapting books deemed “unfilmable” and why directors can't resist the challenge.-----------If you love what we do, please like, subscribe and leave a review!Edited and produced by Lily Austin and James BrailsfordOriginal music by James BrailsfordInstagram TikTokLetterboxdEmail us

In this episode, the filial impiety finale of our Sancho September, we zoom in on the second half of Don Quixote, including the boldly blasphemous, bodaciously blood-drenched, bad-hair-day blonde big sister Manager of La Manchaland Don Quixote, who is somehow sad despite having a very cool lance, and ask a question that's a matter of degrees: Why isn't she straight? No I don't mean in her personal preferences, I mean like, you know, orthagonally? Follow along:  https://limbuscompany.wiki.gg/wiki/Don_Quixote Support the show:  https://ko-fi.com/ivyfoxart Follow the show on Tumblr:  https://soul-mates-podcast.tumblr.com/ Follow the show on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@Soul-Mates-Podcast Listen to Together We'll Shine: An Utena Rewatch Podcast:  https://bunnygirlbrainwave.substack.com/archive Art by Ryegarden:  https://www.instagram.com/ryegarden Music by Sueños Electrónicos:  https://suenoselectronicos.bandcamp.com/ Follow and support ash:  https://ko-fi.com/asherlark

Let me know what you thought of the episode!On this episode I talk about anime episode 710-712 where we see more fierce battles with the Donquixote executives while Luffy continues to struggle against Bellamy trying to convince him not to fight! Hope you enjoy!Support the show

EPISODE 106 -  “FROM THE BAD SEED TO THE WONDER YEARS: PATTY MCCORMACK AND DAN LAURIA IN CONVERSATION” - 9/22/25 This week, we are thrilled to welcome two celebrated actors —  PATTY McCORMACK, who made an indelible mark on cinema as the unforgettable child star of “The Bad Seed,” and Dan Lauria, beloved for his role as the father on “The Wonder Years” and his extensive work on stage and screen. Patty and Dan share personal stories from their careers, reflect on the craft of acting, and talk about what continues to inspire their love of performance. It's a lively, heartfelt conversation that blends Hollywood history with the enduring passion of two artists who've spent their lives in the spotlight.  Patty and Dan are currently starring in Dan's play “Just Another Day,” a beautiful look at aging, love, memories and the power of a good classic movie.   SHOW NOTES:  To purchase tickets to JUST ANOTHER DAY starring Patty McCormack and Dan Lauria, visit https://odysseytheatre.com/whats-on/just-another-day/ through September 28, 2025. Sources: Wikipedia.com; TCM.com; IBDB.com; IMDBPro.com Movies Mentioned: The Bad Seed (1956), starring Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, and William Hopper; Frost/Nixon (2008), starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, & Kevin Bacon; The Master (2012), staring Philip Seymour Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix; Reagan (2924), starring Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller, & Jon Voight; All Mine To Give (1957) starring Glynis Johns & Cameron Mitchell; Kathy O (1958), starring Dan Duryea, Patty McCormack, Jan Sterling, & Sam Levene: Jacktown (1962), starring Patty McCormack & Richard Meade; Mary Jane (1968), starring Fabian & Diane McBain; The Young Runaways (1968), starring Kevin Coughlin & Patty McCormack; Don Quixote (1972), starring Akim Tamiroff; 9 1/2 Weeks (1986); starring Mickey Rourke & Kim Basinger; --------------------------------- http://www.airwavemedia.com Please contact sales@advertisecast.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, the midpoint of droll Sancho September, we zoom in on the dashing, the daring, the deftly puntable, the daft and drollest of them all THE DON QUIXOTE (or at least, look at the first half of her art, with the rest coming next episode) and ask a question fitting of her, on occasion, somewhat unsettling countenance: Hey, is this guy actually a bit messed up, or...? Follow along:  https://limbuscompany.wiki.gg/wiki/Don_Quixote Support the show:  https://ko-fi.com/ivyfoxart Follow the show on Tumblr:  https://soul-mates-podcast.tumblr.com/ Follow the show on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@Soul-Mates-Podcast Listen to Together We'll Shine: An Utena Rewatch Podcast:  https://bunnygirlbrainwave.substack.com/archive Art by Ryegarden:  https://www.instagram.com/ryegarden Music by Sueños Electrónicos:  https://suenoselectronicos.bandcamp.com/ Follow and support ash:  https://ko-fi.com/asherlark

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old suspect in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, is not cooperating with investigators, Utah's governor said. As officials continue to search for a motive, we're learning more about the alleged gunman. CBS News' Carter Evans reports. In a rematch of last season's Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday to keep the Chiefs winless to start their season. The NFL Today host James Brown breaks down the rematch and other highlights from around the NFL. HBO's medical drama, "The Pitt" beat out heavily-favored Apple TV's "Severance" for outstanding drama series at the Emmy Awards. Meanwhile, Apple TV's "The Studio" walked away with 13 awards and broke the Emmy record for the most wins by a comedy in a single season.The 2025 Emmy Awards delivered red carpet fashion, candid moments and first-time nominees alongside veteran stars. "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King caught up with some of the stars. Ballet star Misty Copeland joins "CBS Mornings" to discuss her new children's book "Bunheads, Act Two: The Dance of Courage." The sequel to her bestseller introduces readers to the ballet "Don Quixote" and inspires young dancers to persevere through setbacks. David Begnaud introduces the team behind CBS News Atlanta as the station launches its first newscasts. Built in just 12 weeks, the newsroom combines startup energy, immersive technology, and a mission to serve the community with heart. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Idle listener: thou mayest believe me without any oath that I would this podcast, as it is the child of our brain, were the fairest, gayest, and cleverest that could be imagined. But I could not counteract Nature's law that everything shall beget its like; and what, then, could this sterile, illtilled wit of ours beget but the study of a dry, shrivelled, whimsical man, in arts beset by drunken dads and sickly pale horses, by guitar playing ladies and miniature squires, by star wars heads and amalgamate uma musume. My wish would be simply to present it to thee plain and unadorned, without any embellishment of preface or uncountable muster of customary sonnets, epigrams, and questions, such as are commonly put in the episode description; I have given thee condensed all the squirely drolleries that are scattered through the swarm of these vain images of Don Quixote. And so—may God give thee health, and not forget us. Vale. Follow along:  https://soul-mates-podcast.tumblr.com/post/794722326630514688/soul-mates-s2e7-bonus-images Support the show:  https://ko-fi.com/ivyfoxart Follow the show on Tumblr:  https://soul-mates-podcast.tumblr.com/ Follow the show on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@Soul-Mates-Podcast Listen to Together We'll Shine: An Utena Rewatch Podcast:  https://bunnygirlbrainwave.substack.com/archive Art by Ryegarden:  https://www.instagram.com/ryegarden Music by Sueños Electrónicos:  https://suenoselectronicos.bandcamp.com/ Follow and support ash:  https://ko-fi.com/asherlark

Hey lady! This week Dr. Dom and Terri are thrilled to welcome a legend who needs no introduction. Misty Copeland is known around the world as not only as a trailblazer and groundbreaking ballet dancer, most notably as the first African American female Principal Dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theater, but also philanthropist, author, and mother. She joins Terri and Dr. Dom to discuss her upcoming final bow with the theater after a storied career and her plans for her exciting next chapter.Copeland's introducing the latest installment of her Bunheads, Act 2: the Dance of Courage, a picture book series offering a realistic and fun view of dance life. The series' characters embark on wonderous tales of adventure and this latest addition to the series follows them as they learn about the glorious tale of Don Quixote. By the end of the episode you'll want to grab a copy for the young dancers in your life.And, lady, Misty gives us a peek into her life that you can only catch on Patreon. Girl, are you on Patreon yet? It's our special area where we dive deeper and give behind the scenes of how we create this podcast and other cool things you won't want to miss. Join us! Quote of the Day:"I'll always be committed to opening doors, creating space, and making ballet a place where everyone belongs." – Misty Copeland  Goal Map Like a Pro WorkbookCultivating H.E.R. Space Sanctuary  Where to find Misty Copeland:Website: Misty CopelandBook: Bunheads, Act 2: The Dance of CourageTwitter: @mistyonpointeInstagram: @mistyonpointeFacebook: Misty CopelandYouTube: @MistyCopelandLifeInMotion  Resources:Dr. Dom's Therapy PracticeBranding with TerriMelanin and Mental HealthTherapy for Black Girls Psychology Today  Therapy for QPOC  Where to find us:Twitter: @HERspacepodcastInstagram: @herspacepodcastFacebook: @herspacepodcastWebsite: cultivatingherspace.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/cultivating-h-e-r-space-uplifting-conversations-for-the-black-woman--5470036/support.

“No endeavor to write a travel book is ever lost, since it gives you a useful perspective on (and intensified attention to) the reality of the travel experience itself. When embraced mindfully, the real-time experience of a journey is invariably its truest reward.” –Rolf Potts In this episode of Deviate, Rolf touches on nine lessons from attempting to write a (never finished) van-life vagabonding memoir at age 23, including: On Pilgrims in a Sliding World (1:00) Lesson #1: No work is lost (and “failure” has lessons to teach) On the author as a character (6:30) Lesson #2: “Show, don't tell” is still good narrative advice On depicting other people (14:30) Lesson #3: Travel books require reporting (not just recollecting) On recounting dialogues (22:30) Lesson #4: Be true to what was said (but make sure it serves a broader purpose) On veering from the truth (32:30) Lesson #5: The truth tends to work better than whatever you might make up On depicting places (39:30) Lesson #6: “Telling details” are better than broad generalizations about a place On neurotic young-manhood (48:30) Lesson #7: Balance narrative analysis with narrative vulnerability The seeds of Vagabonding (1:01:30) Lesson #8: Over time, we write our way into what we have to say The journey was the point (1:06:30) Lesson #9: In the end, taking the journey counts for more than writing it Books mentioned: The Geto Boys, by Rolf Potts (2016 book) Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts (2003 book) The Anxiety of Influence, by Harold Bloom (1973 book) On the Road, by Jack Kerouac (1957 book) The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951 book) Epic of Gilgamesh (12th century BCE Mesopotamian epic) Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes (17th century novel) The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (14th century travelogue) True History, by Lucian of Samosata (2nd century novella) Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson (21st century memoir) Marco Polo Didn't Go There, by Rolf Potts (2008 book) Labels: A Mediterranean Journal, by Evelyn Waugh (1930 book) Essays, poems, and short stories mentioned "The Mystical High Church of Luck," by Rolf Potts (1998 essay) "Greenland is Not Bigger Than South America", by Rolf Potts (1998 essay) “The Faces,” by Robert Creeley (1983 poem) "Reflection and Retrospection," by Phillip Lopate (2005 essay) "Why so much travel writing is so boring," by Thomas Swick (2001 essay) "10 Rules of Writing," by Elmore Leonard (2001 essay) "In the Penal Colony," by Franz Kafka (1919 short story) Places and events mentioned People's Park (activist park in Berkeley) 924 Gilman Street (punk-rock club in Berkeley) Alphabet City (neighborhood New York City's East Village) Brentwood (Los Angeles neighborhood) 1994 Northridge earthquake Panama City Beach (Florida spring-break city) Gainesville (Florida college town) Athens (Georgia college town) Big Sur (coastal region of California) Humboldt Redwoods State Park (park in California) Other links: "Van Life before #VanLife" (Deviate episode) Paris Writing Workshops (Rolf's annual creative writing classes) Picaresque (prose genre) Roman à clef (fictionalized novel about real-life events) "Jumping freight trains in the Pacific NW" (Deviate episode) "Telling travel stories, with Andrew McCarthy" (Deviate episode) "Rolf Potts: The Vagabond's Way" (Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank podcast) "A personal history of my grunge-bandwagon band" (Deviate episode) Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln speech) José Ortega y Gasset (Spanish philosopher) Jack Handey (American humorist known for "Deep Thoughts" jokes) Laurel Lee (American memoirist) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel's 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don't host a “comments” section, but we're happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“No endeavor to write a travel book is ever lost, since it gives you a useful perspective on (and intensified attention to) the reality of the travel experience itself. When embraced mindfully, the real-time experience of a journey is invariably its truest reward.” –Rolf Potts In this episode of Deviate, Rolf touches on nine lessons from attempting to write a (never finished) van-life vagabonding memoir at age 23, including: On Pilgrims in a Sliding World (1:00) Lesson #1: No work is lost (and “failure” has lessons to teach) On the author as a character (6:30) Lesson #2: “Show, don't tell” is still good narrative advice On depicting other people (14:30) Lesson #3: Travel books require reporting (not just recollecting) On recounting dialogues (22:30) Lesson #4: Be true to what was said (but make sure it serves a broader purpose) On veering from the truth (32:30) Lesson #5: The truth tends to work better than whatever you might make up On depicting places (39:30) Lesson #6: “Telling details” are better than broad generalizations about a place On neurotic young-manhood (48:30) Lesson #7: Balance narrative analysis with narrative vulnerability The seeds of Vagabonding (1:01:30) Lesson #8: Over time, we write our way into what we have to say The journey was the point (1:06:30) Lesson #9: In the end, taking the journey counts for more than writing it Books mentioned: The Geto Boys, by Rolf Potts (2016 book) Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts (2003 book) The Anxiety of Influence, by Harold Bloom (1973 book) On the Road, by Jack Kerouac (1957 book) The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951 book) Epic of Gilgamesh (12th century BCE Mesopotamian epic) Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes (17th century novel) The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (14th century travelogue) True History, by Lucian of Samosata (2nd century novella) Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson (21st century memoir) Marco Polo Didn't Go There, by Rolf Potts (2008 book) Labels: A Mediterranean Journal, by Evelyn Waugh (1930 book) Essays, poems, and short stories mentioned "The Mystical High Church of Luck," by Rolf Potts (1998 essay) "Greenland is Not Bigger Than South America", by Rolf Potts (1998 essay) “The Faces,” by Robert Creeley (1983 poem) "Reflection and Retrospection," by Phillip Lopate (2005 essay) "Why so much travel writing is so boring," by Thomas Swick (2001 essay) "10 Rules of Writing," by Elmore Leonard (2001 essay) "In the Penal Colony," by Franz Kafka (1919 short story) Places and events mentioned People's Park (activist park in Berkeley) 924 Gilman Street (punk-rock club in Berkeley) Alphabet City (neighborhood New York City's East Village) Brentwood (Los Angeles neighborhood) 1994 Northridge earthquake Panama City Beach (Florida spring-break city) Gainesville (Florida college town) Athens (Georgia college town) Big Sur (coastal region of California) Humboldt Redwoods State Park (park in California) Other links: "Van Life before #VanLife" (Deviate episode) Paris Writing Workshops (Rolf's annual creative writing classes) Picaresque (prose genre) Roman à clef (fictionalized novel about real-life events) "Jumping freight trains in the Pacific NW" (Deviate episode) "Telling travel stories, with Andrew McCarthy" (Deviate episode) "Rolf Potts: The Vagabond's Way" (Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank podcast) "A personal history of my grunge-bandwagon band" (Deviate episode) Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln speech) José Ortega y Gasset (Spanish philosopher) Jack Handey (American humorist known for "Deep Thoughts" jokes) Laurel Lee (American memoirist) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel's 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don't host a “comments” section, but we're happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "Pierre Menard, Author Of The Quixote" which can be found in Collected Fictions. If focuses specifically on the main portion of the story, where the author discusses Pierre Menard's "other, subterranean, interminably heroic production", namely that of writing the Don Quixote, a project which he was able to carry out in part before his death. We look at the inspiration, the motivation and intention, and the method of this work, and the author's own assessments of the superiority of Menard's over Cervantes' Quixote. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Collected Fictions here - https://amzn.to/3xZnwHA

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "Pierre Menard, Author Of The Quixote" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It focuses specifically on the first portion of the story, where the author discusses Pierre Menard's visible work, of which he provides a definitive and chonological listing, supplemented by "a few vague sonnets", and certain portions of Don Quixote. In this video, we look at some of the common themes, features, and preoccupations of Menard's writing. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Collected Fictions here - https://amzn.to/3xZnwHA

“More agile than a turtle! Stronger than a mouse! Nobler than a head of lettuce! His shield is his Heart! It's… El CHAPULIN COLORADO!”El Chapulín Colorado – The Red Grasshopper – was a Spanish-speaking television star loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world.The Red Grasshopper would shout “¡Síganme los buenos!” and leap into action whenever a ghost, a bandit, or any other threat appeared.(“¡Síganme los buenos!” translates to “Follow me, the good ones,” or “Good guys, follow me.”)And then he would run into a wall. Or tumble down the stairs. The results of following the lead of the Red Grasshopper were never straightforward. He had a good heart, but he was very poor, clumsy, and inept. His leadership would often increase the trouble, cause a mess, or create some other disaster that, through sheer luck, would always solve the problem.El Chapulín Colorado was Don Quixote dressed as a comedic superhero.Notice how these simple, concrete nouns are easy to visualize in your mind. “Turtle, mouse, head of lettuce, heart, red grasshopper.”And the verbs associated with El Chapulín Colorado are simple as well. “Leap, follow, run, tumble.”El Chapulín Colorado averaged 350 million viewers* per episode in Latin America alone during the mid-1970's and 1980's. The show has made $1.7 billion in syndication fees since it ceased production in 1992.Luis Castañeda, one of the Wizard of Ads Partners, recently sent an email to the partner group.Gentlemen,I was listening to this podcast “Outliers: Anna Wintour – Vogue” [The Knowledge Project Ep. #233] when I heard this comment:“Digital transformation isn't about abandoning what made you successful. It's about translating it to a new medium.”I took this to mean:“How can we translate what Roy has taught us into better digital marketing?”What do you think?LuisToday I will teach you a simple but profound answer to the question posed by Luis. In fact, I already have:These simple, concrete nouns are easy to visualize in your mind. “Turtle, mouse, head of lettuce, heart, red grasshopper.”And the verbs are simple as well. “Leap, follow, run, tumble.”Do you want to create better online ads? Avoid abstract words. Use simple, concrete nouns that people can easily see in their mind. Use simple verbs that are easy to visualize as well.Avoid abstract words. Use concrete words.Avoid abstract words. Use concrete words.Avoid abstract words. Use concrete words.And repetition is effective.Professional writers have long been familiar with that advice, but it was only recently scientifically proven. The publication is “Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.” The paper is titled, “Concrete Words Are Easier to Recall Than Abstract Words: Evidence for a Semantic Contribution to Short-Term Serial Recall.” The tests were performed, and the paper was written, by Ian Walker and Charles Hulme of the University of York.Their paper is long and filled with scientific jargon, but this summary sentence is relatively easy to understand:“It is also apparent that the short words were much better recalled than the long words, and that the concrete words were much better recalled than the abstract words, with the possible exception of the first and last serial positions.”When Walker and Hulme refer to “the first and last serial positions,” they are referring to the long-established laws of Primacy and Recency. These terms describe how humans tend to remember the first item...

Susan Jaffe is a former ballerina who performed for 22 years as a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater. She is known for iconic roles such as Swan Lake’s Odette and Odile, Kitri in Don Quixote, and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Jaffe has performed internationally and her repertoire includes the works of iconic choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, and Merce Cunningham. After retiring from the stage, Jaffe previously served as the dean for the School of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and as the artistic director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. In our conversation, Jaffe shares how she got her start as a ballerina, the impact legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov had on her career, and what it was like reviving ABT after the Covid-19 pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.