Podcast
Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)
Hosted by Robert Harrison · EN
The narcotic of intelligent conversation
19episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Robert Harrison on Human Intelligence
Oct 2200:34:20Tap to summarizeIn this monologue Robert Harrison reflects on the differences between human intelligence, animal intelligence, and artificial intelligence. Songs in this episode: “From the Beginning” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer; “La Nuit du Rat” by La Féline; and “If” by Pink Floyd.
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Unselfing the Self with Michaela Hulstyn
Oct 200:42:10Tap to summarizeIn this show Robert Harrison and Michaela Hulstyn discuss various experiences of unselfing, focusing on the nature of its shapeshifting and the knowledge that unselfing delivers. Michaela Hulstyn is a Lecturer at Stanford and Associate Director of Stanford’s Structured Liberal Education program. She is the author of Unselfing: Global French Literature at the Limits of […]
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The Philosophy of Inaction with Grant Dowling
Sep 1900:49:05Tap to summarizeA conversation about the uses and abuses of action in the history of philosophy and contemporary society with Grant Dowling. Songs in this episode: “Silence Must Be Heard” by Enigma, and “Easy Does It” by Supertramp.
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World War I, Modernism, David Jones with Tim Noakes
Apr 15, 2025Tap to summarizeA conversation about David Jones’ “In Parenthesis” with Tim Noakes, Head of Public Services, Special Collections at Stanford University. Songs in this episode: “A Fool No More” by Peter Green, and “Machine Gun” by Jimi Hendrix.
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Thomas Ryckman on Albert Einstein
Oct 28, 2015Tap to summarizeThomas Ryckman is a professor of philosophy at Stanford University. He received his PhD from Columbia in 1986 and taught at Wesleyan University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northwestern, and UC-Berkeley, before ultimately coming to Stanford. His main area of research is the philosophy of science, specifically the philosophy of physics. He has published […]
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Mark McGurl on Fiction-Writing Programs
May 7, 2014Tap to summarizeMark McGurl is a professor in the Department of English at Stanford, where he teaches postwar and contemporary American literature. He has taught at Stanford since 2011, having previously taught at UCLA. He received his BA from Harvard and his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1998. He has held fellowships from the Office of the […]
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Paul Robinson on Charles Darwin
Apr 10, 2013Tap to summarizePaul Robinson has been teaching at Stanford since 1967 and is the Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities (Emeritus) in the Department of History. Before coming to Stanford, he studied at Yale and Harvard, where he got his PhD. He works on the history of European (and sometimes American) thought in the 19th and […]
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Tanya Luhrmann on Magic, God, and the Supernatural
May 2, 2012Tap to summarizeTanya Marie Luhrmann is the Watkins University Professor in the Stanford Anthropology Department. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the Stanford Psychology Department. She received her PhD from Cambridge University in 1986. Her books include “Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft,” (Harvard, 1989); “The Good Parsi” (Harvard 1996); “Of Two Minds” (Knopf 2000) and “When […]
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Richard Martin on Homeric Epics
Nov 16, 2011Tap to summarizeRichard Martin is Antony and Isabelle Raubitschek Professor of Classics at Stanford University. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1981 and has also taught at Harvard, Princeton, and Berkeley. Among his publications are the books “Healing, Sacrifice, and Battle: Amechania and Related Concepts in Early Greek Poetry” (1983), “The Language of Heroes: Speech and […]
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