Young Heretics

With Thrasymachus the sophist thoroughly spanked and sent home crying, the real philosophers in the room get to work. That's the premise of Republic Book II, in which Socrates embarks with Glaucon and Adeimantus on a monumental project of imaginary civilization-building. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan explores the question, can they craft a city of pure justice, or just a totalitarian nightmare? -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- The Spectator believes that life is bigger than politics, which is why it covers arts, culture, food, wine, travel, and life all around. Sign up today and receive three free months, plus a free hat with promo code HERETICS: https://spectatorworld.com/specialoffer. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit https://minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 25% off men's grooming and shave kits. -- The Liz Wheeler Show is a personal, researched, and unapologetic take on how we think about our culture. Subscribe for new episodes three times each week at https://lizwheelershow.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Romeo and Juliet are two truly iconic characters—Shakespeare's tragedy has made them so powerfully real that it's almost as if they're still alive. But who are they, really, and why did this one play stick so firmly in the mind of the West? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan talks through the high drama, the classical sources, and the world-famous speeches of this classic play. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit https://minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 25% off men's grooming and shave kits. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- Don't let Big Tech rule our relationship. Submit your email so Spencer can stay in touch if—when?—Big Tech pulls the plug: https://youngheretics.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we put blood guilt to rest? It isn't pretty. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through the conclusion of Aeschylus' Oresteia and traces the ideas it conveys throughout Western history. In the end, the question is not "what are we owed," but, "how can we live?" -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- The Spectator believes that life is bigger than politics, which is why it covers arts, culture, food, wine, travel, and life all around. Sign up today and receive three free months, plus a free hat with promo code HERETICS: https://spectatorworld.com/specialoffer. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit https://minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 25% off men's grooming and shave kits. -- Lifting is infrastructure. This exclusive Young Heretics muscle shirt is NOW AVAILABLE, but hurry, because there's only a limited number. Get yours today at https://youngheretics.com/shop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who is Orestes? What kind of man will he be? That is the question on which the middle play of the Oresteia turns. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through the tragedy and the questions it raises for men and women facing the unfairness of life today. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit https://minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 25% off men's grooming and shave kits. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- Lifting is infrastructure. This exclusive Young Heretics muscle shirt is NOW AVAILABLE, but hurry, because there's only a limited number. Get yours today at https://youngheretics.com/shop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are the sins of the father really the sins of the son? That's the question driving Aeschylus' Oresteia, the only surviving complete trilogy of Greek tragedies. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan begins a three-part journey through Aeschylus' prizewinning masterwork, seeking wisdom for today's debates over the history of racism. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/heretics. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can we still do America anymore? Is the Constitution just hopelessly outdated? In a world governed by elites who think the whole America thing doesn't work, Spencer Klavan uses Aristotle's "Politics" to examine what living in political community means, and how we can (still) make it work in this country. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit https://minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 25% off men's grooming and shave kits. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- Don't let Big Tech rule our relationship. Submit your email so Spencer can stay in touch if—when?—Big Tech pulls the plug: https://youngheretics.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The First Crusade is one of the most maligned events in all of Western history. But what was it really about? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses the history of the Crusade and its impact on The Song of Roland. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. -- Lifting is infrastructure. This exclusive Young Heretics muscle shirt is NOW AVAILABLE, but hurry, because there's only a limited number. Get yours today at https://youngheretics.com/shop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Song of Roland" is a glorious legend about the doomed hero, Roland, and his tragic defeat at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan talks through the history behind this great epic and what it can tell us today. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit https://minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 25% off men's grooming and shave kits. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free on ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- Lifting is infrastructure. This exclusive Young Heretics muscle shirt is NOW AVAILABLE, but hurry, because there's only a limited number. Get yours today at https://youngheretics.com/shop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Gawain gallops toward his potentially deadly encounter with the Green Knight, he faces an unexpected challenge: seduction. In the second Young Heretics episode on "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Spencer Klavan discusses the tradition of courtly love poetry and what to make of its more scandalous elements. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- If you're not already a Young Heretics VIP on Locals, now is the time! Become one of the first 50 people between now and the end of July to become an annual VIP and receive a FREE Young Heretics t-shirt: https://youngheretics.com/locals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the chivalric code one of civilization's great achievements, or is it all just a lie? That's the question Spencer Klavan takes up in the first of two episodes on "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," a jewel of Middle English literature and of chivalric poetry. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer reads Simon Armitage's masterful translation and argues that the high ideals of honor can still guide us today. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. -- Lifting is infrastructure. This exclusive Young Heretics muscle shirt is NOW AVAILABLE, but hurry, because there's only a limited number. Get yours today at https://youngheretics.com/shop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The royal history of England is a story of triumphs and mishaps—but is there a plan behind it all? For that matter, is any of us free to affect the course of history? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through Shakespeare's tale of war and loss, asking what the medieval kings can teach us about our present crisis. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. -- If you're not already a Young Heretics VIP on Locals, now is the time! Become one of the first 50 people between now and the end of July to become an annual VIP and receive a FREE Young Heretics t-shirt: https://youngheretics.com/locals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are all cultures, all countries, all governments as good as each other? How do we know what's right and wrong? In this episode of Young Heretics—the first of many episodes on the foundation-stone of Western political philosophy, the Republic—Spencer Klavan walks through the context, the history, and the profound impact of Republic Book 1. Get your copy of "The Republic of Plato" here: https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Plato-Allan-Bloom/dp/0465094082. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- How did we get to the point that political correctness dominates our culture and society? Order your copy of "Speechless" by Michael Knowles to find out: http://speechlessbook.com. -- If you're not already a Young Heretics VIP on Locals, now is the time! Become one of the first 50 people between now and the end of July to become an annual VIP and receive a FREE Young Heretics t-shirt: https://youngheretics.com/locals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Young Heretics is the classical education you've been denied. But what is a classical education, anyway? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through the history of the three- and four-fold way (the "trivium" and the "quadrivium") to explain how we can shape our souls to love the good in a degraded age. Get your copy of Allan Bloom's translation of Plato's "Republic" here: https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Plato-Allan-Bloom/dp/0465094082?tag=youngheretics-20 Get your copy of David R. Slavitt's translation of "Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy" here: https://www.amazon.com/Consolation-Philosophy-Boethius/dp/0674048350?tag=youngheretics-20 -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Get 3 months free: https://expressvpn.com/heretics. -- How did we get to the point that political correctness dominates our culture and society? Order your copy of "Speechless" by Michael Knowles to find out: http://speechlessbook.com. -- Lifting is infrastructure. This exclusive Young Heretics muscle shirt is NOW AVAILABLE, but hurry, because there's only a limited number. Get yours today at https://youngheretics.com/shop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happened to the lovers of the French Revolution after it dissolved into terror? Some never changed their minds. But others—like the great Romantic poet William Wordsworth—reconsidered. Reading through Wordsworth's great poem "The Prelude" in this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan discusses how we can all turn around after a wrong turn. Read along with Spencer with your own copy of "The Prelude" here: https://www.amazon.com/Prelude-1799-Norton-Critical-Editions/dp/039309071X?tag=youngheretics-20 -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- Lifting is infrastructure. This exclusive Young Heretics muscle shirt is NOW AVAILABLE, but hurry, because there's only a limited number. Get yours today at https://youngheretics.com/shop. -- How did we get to the point that political correctness dominates our culture and society? Order your copy of "Speechless" by Michael Knowles to find out: http://speechlessbook.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first time on Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan tackles a philosopher with whom he thoroughly and entirely disagrees: David Hume. Reading through the "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding," Spencer examines the roots of modern skepticism and its influence on later thinkers like Freud. Read along with Spencer with your copy of Hume's "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" here: https://www.amazon.com/Enquiry-concerning-Understanding-Oxford-Philosophical/dp/0198752482. -- If you believe that your data is your business, secure yourself with the number-one-rated VPN on the market. Save 35% on a 12-month plan: https://expressvpn.com. -- The Liz Wheeler Show is a personal, researched, and unapologetic take on how we think about our culture. Subscribe for new episodes three times each week at https://lizwheelershow.com. -- The Young Heretics Father's Day merch sale is on! Get a gift for dad (or yourself) at 15% off for a limited time only. Use the code FATHER at https://youngheretics.com/shop. -- Don't let Big Tech rule our relationship. Submit your email so Spencer can stay in touch if—when?—Big Tech pulls the plug: https://youngheretics.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if all this Western culture stuff is just a mistake? That's the provocative question Spencer Klavan explores in this episode, with the help of that infamous German polemicist Friedrich Nietzsche. Spencer begins with Nietzsche's first book, "The Birth of Tragedy," taking a hard look at the weakness Nietzsche saw in Socrates, and so in the Western tradition of philosophy. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- The Classic Learning test is an alternative to the ultra-biased College Board tests that puts students in front of the kinds of thinkers we love at Young Heretics. Get 20% off your registration fee by using the code HERETICS at https://cltexam.com. -- The Liz Wheeler Show is a personal, researched, and unapologetic take on how we think about our culture. Subscribe for new episodes three times each week at https://lizwheelershow.com. -- The Young Heretics Father's Day merch sale is on! Get a gift for dad (or yourself) at 15% off for a limited time only. Use the code FATHER at https://youngheretics.com/shop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are surrounded these days by people who tell us our natural assumptions are all wrong: patriotism is evil, gender is a construct, everyone should eat bugs. Using the writing of Edmund Burke, Spencer Klavan argues that you have a right to be suspicious of billionaires who want to reduce your life to mere mathematics. -- The Classic Learning test is an alternative to the ultra-biased College Board tests that puts students in front of the kinds of thinkers we love at Young Heretics. Get 20% off your registration fee by using the code HERETICS at https://cltexam.com. -- The Liz Wheeler Show is a personal, researched, and unapologetic take on how we think about our culture. Subscribe for new episodes three times each week at https://lizwheelershow.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are we living through another French Revolution? With the help of the great statesman Edmund Burke, Spencer Klavan examines what made the difference in the 18th century—and what makes the difference now—between justified reform and destructive anarchy. -- The Classic Learning test is an alternative to the ultra-biased College Board tests that puts students in front of the kinds of thinkers we love at Young Heretics. Get 20% off your registration fee by using the code HERETICS at https://cltexam.com. -- Public Goods is the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order at https://publicgoods.com/HERETICS. -- The official "Young Heretics" shop is here! For ONE more week, you can get all of your swag plus 10% off your entire order today with the offer code LAUNCH: https://youngheretics.com/shop​. -- The Liz Wheeler Show is a personal, researched, and unapologetic take on how we think about our culture. Subscribe for new episodes three times each week at https://lizwheelershow.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Death is real. It's not going away, and no amount of risk management can stave it off. So what do we do about it? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan talks with journalist and editor Sohrab Ahmari about the Stoic Seneca's approach to death, as discussed in Ahmari's new book, "The Unbroken Thread." -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics -- The Classic Learning test is an alternative to the ultra-biased College Board tests that puts students in front of the kinds of thinkers we love at Young Heretics. Get 20% off your registration fee by using the code HERETICS at https://cltexam.com. -- For the first time ever, you can become an annual Young Heretics VIP on Locals! Spencer shares beard tips, we all share our favorite books, plus you get the episodes ad-free. Become a VIP today at https://youngheretics.com/locals​​ and get 4 MOTHS FREE with the annual support option. -- The official "Young Heretics" shop is here! For TWO more weeks, you can get all of your swag plus 10% off your entire order today with the offer code LAUNCH: https://youngheretics.com/shop​. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this second episode on C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, Spencer Klavan explores the lead-up to the book's climactic moment, and the philosophy of courage that lies behind it. Courage is "every virtue at the testing point"—the thing which, in Lewis's day as well as ours, we cannot do without. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics -- The Classic Learning test is an alternative to the ultra-biased College Board tests that puts students in front of the kinds of thinkers we love at Young Heretics. Get 20% off your registration fee by using the code HERETICS at https://cltexam.com. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! Become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals​​ and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. -- The official "Young Heretics" shop is here! For three more weeks, you can get all of your swag plus 10% off your entire order today with the offer code LAUNCH: https://youngheretics.com/shop​. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Probably no work by the great C.S. Lewis is more famous than his "Screwtape Letters," an imagined series of notes from one hellish tempter to another. In this first part of a two-part "Young Heretics" series, Spencer Klavan talks about Screwtape's view of sex and love, as well as the poetry and philosophy that informed Lewis's work. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame​. -- The official "Young Heretics" shop is here! Get all of your swag plus 10% off your entire order today with the offer code LAUNCH: https://youngheretics.com/shop. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals​ and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Twelfth Night, a comedy first performed at the turn of the 17th century, Shakespeare demonstrates a subtler and more sophisticated understanding of how sex and gender work than all our modern ideologues put together. As Spencer Klavan explains this episode of "Young Heretics," the play acknowledges the delicate counterplay between male and female, before ultimately affirming that each is a unity of body and soul. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame​. -- The official "Young Heretics" shop is here! Get all of your swag plus 10% off your entire order today with the offer code LAUNCH: https://youngheretics.com/shop. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals​ and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fyodor Dostoevsky lived a life like one of his novels: harsh, dramatic, profound. His exile and hard labor in Siberia showed him the innate worth of the human soul and laid the groundwork for one of his best-known masterpieces, "Crime and Punishment." In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan talks through the hard conditions of 19th-century St. Petersburg and Dostoevsky's harrowing psychological portrait of the murderer Raskolnikov. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics -- America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame​. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals​ and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was Milton on the devil's side? The great revolutionary confronted the limits of rebellion in his masterwork, "Paradise Lost." In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan takes a first look at the epic to expose the logic of Milton's Satan and how it turns everything inside out. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics. -- America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame​. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Miracles aren't magic, they're real life. But what really did happen on the cross? In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan describes how scripture and sculpture both can express the profound truths of life, death, and resurrection that Christians commemorate this time of year. -- Big Tech is cracking down on conservative voices, but you can protect your online privacy with ExpressVPN. Get 3 extra months free with a 12-month plan: https://expressvpn.com/heretics -- America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at https://yaf.org/longgame​. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals​ and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can't cancel the West. You can try, but its truths are eternal and the great conversation across generations marches on. That's the vision of Raphael in his masterwork, the School of Athens. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan walks through the history and meaning of his favorite painting. -- Big Tech is cracking down on conservative voices, but you can protect your online privacy with ExpressVPN. Get 3 extra months free with a 12-month plan: http://expressvpn.com/heretics -- America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at yaf.org/longgame. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Led by communists like Antonio Gramsci, progressives began their long march through the institutions in the 1960s. They indoctrinated students with dangerous socialist ideas beginning at the earliest levels of education. The effect has been a hatred of America that persists even in today's youth. In this "Young Heretics" special, Spencer Klavan sits down with the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker, to break down YAF's new action plan, a plan that Walker says will wrestle back education and culture from the clutches of Left. You can join the fight to save America as we know it by joining The Long Game at https://YAF.org/LongGame. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Paul stood in the Athenian court on the Hill of Mars (the Areopagus) to plead his case for Christianity before the Epicureans and Stoics, no one knew what would happen. Would he be laughed out of town? Or put in chains? What nobody expected was what eventually came to pass. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan discusses how the obscure faith of this Jewish scholar took over the world. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 20% off men's grooming and shave kits. -- America is under siege. As the new president of Young America's Foundation, Governor Scott Walker is launching The Long Game to fight back. It's a bold plan to win the culture battle and the culture war. Get your free copy at yaf.org/longgame. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plato dreamed that philosophers would rule the state; Marcus Aurelius made that a reality. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan examines Aurelius's Stoic belief system as articulated in his famous "Meditations," which have made him an enduring model of manly self-control for all the ages. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 20% off men's grooming and shave kits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Atoms bouncing off one another in an infinite void, a world without interference from God, and a life of seeking pleasure above all else...sound familiar? That's the ancient philosophy of Epicureanism, and it dominates our lives today though we don't know it. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan discusses, and criticizes, the teachings of Epicurus. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 20% off men's grooming and shave kits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Philosophy isn't an abstract academic subject: it's a way of life. After lots of requests, Spencer Klavan sits down in this episode of "Young Heretics" to talk through the Hellenistic philosophical schools of ancient Athens, starting with Stoicism—its roots in Greece, its encounter with Christianity, and what it has to say for us today. -- "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. -- Everyone wants a beard that looks like Spencer Klavan's. Visit minimoustachery.com/heretics and use the code HERETICS to get 20% off men's grooming and shave kits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan answers questions from listeners who have supported the show and want to dig deeper into some of the great ideas of the West. Plus, "Young Heretics" is now on Locals! You can become a Young Heretics VIP by visiting https://youngheretics.com/locals and subscribing for only $4.99 per month. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics -- Big Tech is cracking down on conservative voices, but you can protect your online privacy with ExpressVPN. Get 3 extra months free with a 12-month plan: http://expressvpn.com/heretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is Game of Thrones better than WAP? Or is it? This kind of question is always flying around on Twitter, especially among conservatives. But it has an ancient pedigree: from Plato's "Republic" and Aristotle's "Poetics," on through Philip Sidney and Camille Paglia, the critics and philosophers of the West have puzzled over what it means to enjoy depictions of weird or even ugly things. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan digs into that history to help resolve our modern controversies. -- Big Tech is cracking down on conservative voices, but you can protect your online privacy with ExpressVPN. Get 3 extra months free with a 12-month plan: http://expressvpn.com/heretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where do we go from here? Home. In this episode of "Young Heretics," the series on America's and the world's present crisis draws to a close with a survey of localism, from G.K. Chesterton in Dublin to Wendell Berry in America. Spencer Klavan argues that building outward from our immediate surroundings is the key to healing our damaged country. -- Big Tech is cracking down on conservative voices, but you can protect your online privacy with ExpressVPN. Get 3 extra months free with a 12-month plan: http://expressvpn.com/heretics -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is political violence ever justified? The question has never felt more serious in our lifetimes than it does today. The hard truth is, America was founded on political violence, and yet, our founders understood the gravity and terrible cost of their drastic actions. When is that cost worth paying? In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan takes up that question in light of the Capitol riot and America's founding history. -- Big Tech is cracking down on conservative voices, but you can protect your online privacy with ExpressVPN. Get 3 extra months free with a 12-month plan: http://expressvpn.com/heretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When is civil disobedience justified? It's a question that has loomed over the past year and continues to haunt us. With lockdowns crushing businesses and riots terrorizing the streets, Spencer Klavan begins a three-part series to bring the great wisdom of the West to bear on this modern crisis. In this episode of "Young Heretics" he covers Sophocles' "Antigone" and the philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you learn only one Greek word, learn this one: mimēsis. It's the explanation of everything—or at least, it describes something profound that governs human nature and the cosmos. In this episode of "Young Heretics", Spencer Klavan explains how the pattern of mimēsis is everywhere—from the structure of musical scales, to the shape of Creation, to the Crucifixion itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a tense moment for America, and there's a lot of talk in the air of national decline. It's a good time to be thinking about how things can go wrong. In this conclusion to his two-part discussion on the Roman monarchy, Spencer Klavan explains how kingship tends to fall apart—and what a person can do in the midst of dark times. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots of people are thinking it, but not that many people are asking it out loud: is America in for a monarchy in the near future, and would that be such a bad thing? Spencer Klavan thinks the answers are "no" and "yes." In this episode of "Young Heretics," the first installment of a two-part discussion, he explains why by working his way through Livy's remarkably even-handed portrayal of Roman monarchy. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do you honor most? In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan offers his prescription for saving the republic: honor virtue and seek to imitate it. He explores the importance of honor in ancient Rome through the thrilling legend of Horatius Cocles, who held up the young republic's defenses against all odds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a very Young Heretics Christmas, which can only mean one thing: we are going straight to the good stuff. In his first foray into the New Testament on the show, Spencer Klavan gets at the heart of the story of Jesus' birth and its meaning in the grand sweep of Western history we've been studying all year. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Liberty" and "liberalism" are overused words—but what do they even mean? Are all kinds of freedom good per se, or do we need boundaries like the kinds provided by religious teaching? There are profound and urgent debates raging on these questions right now. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan navigates some of the major issues with his friend and fellow traveler, the academic Brandon Van Dyck. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Herodotus, the West's first historian, is also much-maligned as the father of lies. In this episode of "Young Heretics," superstar historian and lifelong Herodotus fan Tom Holland joins Spencer Klavan to explain the genius of Herodotus and the meaning of his myths, from urinating Egyptians to the divine lineage of the Persians and everything in between. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The name Machiavelli calls a thousand things to mind: pitiless conquest, hard-nosed realism, violent death. But who was the man, really, and why did he leave such a mark? Machiavelli was a man in full—humanist, diplomat, scholar, mastermind. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan gives Machiavelli the fresh introduction he deserves. -- Learn a language and have fun doing it. Meet the Ancient Language Institute and receive 15% off with the code HERETICS: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the story they don't want you to hear about the holiday they don't want you to celebrate. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan walks through the real history of Thanksgiving—the good, the bad, and the amazing about the Pilgrims' journey from Europe to America. It's a story of faith, providence, human nature, and the small mercies of God in the sad history of human affairs. Here's the amazing story of our proud country's improbable beginnings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shakespeare's "Macbeth" is a gory, nail-biting, creepy romp. But it's also a brilliant depiction of how the world caves in upon a man who violates the law of God, and how intimate, personal relationships can change the course of history. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan dives into his first Shakespeare episode (but certainly not his last) to take a look at how free will and fate overlap to make one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the West. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How you think about your founding fathers determines how you think about yourself. That's something America is learning right now, and it's something of which ancient civilizations were acutely aware. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan tells the story of how the Trojan hero Aeneas became Ancient Rome's central founding figure through Virgil's "Aeneid"—and what that means for politics in Rome and America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy Halloween! It's a bizarre year—Halloween is basically forbidden in some of the stricter lockdown states. On this special episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan, with help from the great American master of horror Edgar Allan Poe, dives into the history of the day and explains why the people who attack it are absurd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This. Is. Sparta!!!! "300," the blood-soaked Zack Snyder movie adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novel, is based on stories of the Persian War told by the first historian ever, Herodotus. But how accurate is "300" really, and does it matter? In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan tells the real story of the 300 at Thermopylae, and argues that "300" is a better take on the whole thing than you might expect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Maltese Falcon" is a groundbreaking movie and a seminal work of American literature. It's more than pop culture, though it is pop culture at its finest. It's also a tale of what it takes to be a man in America. In this episode of "Young Heretics," Spencer Klavan defends the work's place in the canon and analyzes its enduring greatness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices