Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)

A monologue in which our host, Professor Robert Harrison, performs a “cover” of Walter Benjamin’s essay titled “The Destructive Character,” first published in 1931.

A conversation about Carl Jung, the Red Book, and Jung’s descent into the unconscious with Laura Wittman, Associate Professor of French and Italian at Stanford University. Songs in this episode: “Into the Night” by Julee Cruise, and “End of the Night” by The Doors.

A conversation about the real, the actual, and the virtual with Jan Söffner, Visiting Professor in German Studies at Stanford University and Chair of Cultural Theory and Cultural Analysis at Zeppelin University. Songs in this episode: “Echo” by Glass Wave, and “Compared to What” by Ray Charles.

A conversation about the origins of language and everything in between with Julie Sedivy, a psycholinguist and author of Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love. Songs in this episode: “From the Beginning” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and “Belly Button Window” by Jimi Hendrix.

A conversation about the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke with Alexander Sorenson, Assistant Professor of German Studies at Binghamton University and author of The Waiting Water: Order, Sacrifice and Submergence in German Realism. Songs in this episode: “The Trampled Rose” by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, and “New Age of the Earth” by Ash-Ra Temple.

A conversation about the work of Peter Kingsley, the thought of Parmenides, and everything in between, with Grant Bartolomé Dowling, a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Stanford University, who is currently finishing his dissertation on elenchus in Plato’s Socratic dialogues. Songs in this episode: “La nuit du rat” by La Féline and “End Of The […]

A conversation about the intersection of Giambattista Vico’s philosophy, Roman history, and the recent rise of “American Fascism” with Julian Davis, a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Stanford University, who is also a well-known activist and attorney in San Francisco. Songs in this episode: “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones and “Lotus Flower” by […]

A conversation about the creative peak of Nietzsche and van Gogh in 1888 with Brian Pines, Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco. Song in this episode: “The Ghost” by Fleetwood Mac.

A conversation about bioregionalism and reinhabitation with Mark Gonnerman, author of “A Sense of the Whole: Reading Gary Snyder.” Songs in this episode: “Comin’ Back to Me” by Jefferson Airplane and “Dear Mother Earth” by Canned Heat. PLEASE NOTE: In his introduction, Professor Robert Harrison misattributes the following passage to Gary Snyder: “reinhabitation means learning to […]

A meandering monologue on rivers with our host, Professor Robert Harrison. Songs in this episode: “Getting Ready” by Frans Bak, and “You Better Move On” by Arthur Alexander.

A conversation about crime in America with Scott Thomas Anderson, author of “Shadow People,” journalist for Sacramento News & Review, and producer of the podcasts “Drinkers with Writing Problems” and “Trace of the Devastation.” Songs in this episode: “Helen” by Glass Wave and “Hey Joe” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

A conversation with Nate Klemp, a philosopher, writer, and founding partner at Mindfulness Magazine, on practicing mindfulness in our fast-paced, technology-dependent world. He is also co-author of the New York Times bestseller “Start Here.” Songs in this episode: “Nausicaa” by Glass Wave and “Dayvan Cowboy” by Boards of Canada.

In this philosophy-heavy episode, Professor Robert Harrison and David Bates, Professor of Rhetoric at UC Berkeley, discuss the “unnatural” origins of human technology and the difficulty of drawing sharp distinctions between artificial and natural intelligence. Songs in this episode: “Bourée” by Jethro Tull and “Ghost” by Fleetwood Mac.

A monologue on Dante’s unflattering (and unjustified) portrait of his teacher, Brunetto Latini. This episode wraps up the first season of Robert Harrison’s series on “Dante’s Characters.” Songs in this episode: “La nuit du rat” by La Féline and “Preludio” by Dolce Acqua.

A monologue on Guido da Montefeltro, a false counselor whose speech foreshadows literary modernism’s stream of consciousness. Songs in this episode: “Present Tense” by Radiohead and “Prufrock Blues” by Robert Harrison and Anne-Sophie Bine.

A monologue on Dante’s Ulysses, the Homeric hero who, in Dante’s retelling, foregoes his return to Ithaca and opts instead to venture into the unknown and unpeopled world, at his own peril. Songs in this episode: “Winter Mind” by Robert Harrison, “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1” by Pink Floyd, and “Calypso” by Suzanne […]

A monologue on Dante’s famous love heroine, Francesca da Rimini. This episode is part one of a new mini-series on “Dante’s Characters,” set to air over the coming weeks, in which Professor Robert Harrison discusses some of the most fascinating characters in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Song in this episode: “Helen” by Glass Wave.

A conversation with Garry Nolan, who is the Rachford and Carlota Harris Professor of Immunology in the Department of Pathology at Stanford. He has authored numerous medical research papers, has founded biotechnology companies, two of which are on the NASDAQ, and has been particularly active in ufology, the study of Unidentified Flying Objects, also known as […]

A conversation with Maria Massucco, who earned her PhD in Italian at Stanford in 2023. Her dissertation is titled “Woundedness and Reintegration: The Phenomenology and Transmission of Women’s Trauma in Modern and Contemporary Italy.” Songs in this episode: “Helen” by Glass Wave, and “Ophelia” by Glass Wave.

A conversation with Corey Dansereau, a PhD Candidate in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford, about the impact of Giambattista Vico on James Joyce’s writing. Songs in this episode: “Echo” by Glass Wave, and “I Might Be Wrong” by Radiohead.

A monologue in which our host, Professor Robert Harrison, discusses the originality and continued relevance of Giambattista Vico’s New Science (1748). Songs in this episode: “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors, “Nausicaa” by Glass Wave, and “Cycle of Eternity” by Tangerine Dream.

A conversation with gardener, social entrepreneur, and venture investor William Rosenzweig about the ethics of care in the private and public spheres. Songs in this episode: “Bourée” by Jethro Tull and “A Lotus On Irish Streams” by Mahavishnu Orchestra.

A conversation with philosopher and professor Lydia Moland about the life and thought of Lydia Maria Child, one of the best known American writers and abolitionists of the 19th century. Songs in this episode: “Bourée” by Jethro Tull and “Trampled Rose” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

A conversation with Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Albert Guérard Professor of Literature (Emeritus) at Stanford University. He is a recurring guest on Entitled Opinions, and he is back to discuss amor mundi, our collective future, and the role of love in politics alongside our host, Professor Robert Harrison.

A monologue in which our host, Professor Robert Harrison, reflects on different kinds of human love, and above all, love of the world.

Ana is a Mellon Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center and a Lecturer of French and Italian at Stanford. Her teaching and research focus on the relationship between literature, the industrial revolution, and technology from a Southern perspective.

A conversation with Bryan Cheong about Artificial Intelligence. Bryan Cheong received his Bachelor of Science from Stanford University, with a degree in applied and computational mathematics.  He then went on to receive a Masters degree in Materials Science, also from Stanford. This is Byran’s second apparance on our show (previous episode title: What is Matter?)  […]

Our host Robert Harrison on America’s nature and political history. Songs in this episode: “I’m A King Bee” by Grateful Dead  “Machine Gun” by Jimi Hendrix “Dear Mother Earth” by Canned Heat

Reflections by our host, Professor Robert Harrison.  Songs in this episode: “Winter Mind” by Robert Harrison “St. Lucy” by Robert Harrison “Adagio per archi” by Samuel Barber “Annabel Lee” by Glass Wave

Aishwary Kumar is Professor and Shri Shantinath Endowed Chair in Political Nonviolence at California State and Polytechnic University, Pomona, Los Angeles. Aishwary is the author of “Radical Equality: Ambedkar, Gandhi, and the Risk of Democracy”– subject of two Entitled Opinions episodes back in 2016. He returns to the show today to speak on what he calls […]

A conversation with Maria Elena Monzani, lead scientist at SLAC national accelerator laboratory and one of the world’s pioneer investigators of dark matter.Songs in this episode:“The World Spins” by Julee Cruise

Andrew J. Mitchell is professor of philosophy at Emory University. He has appeared on Entitled Opinions in the past, and he is back today to discuss Nietzsche's “The Birth of Tragedy” with our host, Professor Robert Harrison.  Songs in this episode: “Echo” by Glass Wave “Tenerè” by Agricantus Image: a scene from the Franco-Prussian War

In this episode our host, Professor Robert Harrison, speaks on the topic of depression.  Songs in this episode: “All Along The Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix “Ophelia” by Glass Wave “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix

A conversation with Scott Thomas Anderson, writer and producer of the documentary podcast series “Drinkers with Writing Problems”. Season 2  of Scott's podcast premiered on January 20, 2022. Songs played in this episode: “Moby Dick” by Glass Wave “Fat Angel” by Jefferson Airplane

Cynthia L. Haven is a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar and author of Czesław Miłosz: A California Life, from Berkeley’s Heyday Books and 2018’s Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard, the first-ever biography of the renowned French theorist. She has also published two previous books on Czesław Miłosz: An Invisible Rope: […]

Dr. Miles Osgood received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Harvard University, and he is currently a Lecturer in the Structured Liberal Education program at Stanford. He has designed and taught classes on Ulysses, modernist women writers, and global short fiction. In this episode, Dr. Osgood and Robert Harrison discuss the 1927 novel by Virginia […]

Dr. Chloe Summers Edmondson is a Lecturer in the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education program at Stanford. She received her PhD from Stanford in the French & Italian Department in 2020, and MA in Communication in 2014. Her research is situated at the crossroads of literary criticism, cultural history, and media studies, with a focus […]

Sophus Helle is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin. He previously translated “The Epic of Gilgamesh” into Danish with his father. His English translation of the epic was recently published by Yale University Press.  Songs in this episode: “Helen” by Glass Wave  “Gilgamesh Blues” by Glass Wave

Markus Gabriel holds the chair in epistemology, modern, and contemporary philosophy at the University of Bonn, Germany, and also serves as the Director of its International Center for Philosophy. He works mainly in epistemology and metaphysics (ontology) drawing his inspirations from the history of philosophy (in particular, 19th century Post-Kantian philosophy, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein). He […]

This episode is a brief monologue by our host, Professor Robert Harrison.  Songs in this episode: “Voodoo Child” by Jimi Hendrix “Present Tense” by Radiohead 

Scott Thomas Anderson is a journalist whose work regularly appears in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento News & Review. He studied American Literature at the University of California at Davis, and while the bulk of his 15-year career has been primarily as a crime reporter, he’s recently started to balance that focus by […]

Joseph Cermatori is assistant professor of English at Skidmore College. He specializes in the fields of comparative literature, modern and contemporary drama, performance studies, and critical theory. Beyond his research in twentieth-century modernism, his scholarship encompasses the broad history of art and ideas in Western culture from 1600 to the present, focusing on the philosophical […]

Alex Rex Nielson is a Scottish musician and songwriter.  He is the founding member of the UK band Trembling Bells, which recorded six albums before Alex went on to make four solo albums under the band name Alex Rex. Songs played in this episode: “Directing Hand- for PB”— drum solo by Alex Rex “Master” by Alex […]

A conversation with Thomas Woltz about landscape architecture. Thomas Woltz is the owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Over the past two decades of practice Thomas and his team have infused narratives of the land into the places where people live, work, and play, engendering stewardship and inspiring connections between people and the natural […]

A monologue by Robert Harrison. Outro song: “The End” by The Doors

A conversation with Aqsa Ijaz about the Persian poet and Sufi mystic Rumi. Aqsa Ijaz is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. She is a singer, translator, writer, book reviewer, and a literary scholar.  Outro song: “dil miravad zidastam” by Aqsa Ijaz

A conversation with Bryan Cheong about the laws of thermodynamics. Bryan Cheong received his Bachelor of Science from Stanford University, with a degree in applied and computational mathematics.  He then went on to receive a Masters degree in Materials Science, also from Stanford. Outro Song: “Pick Up The Pieces” by The Average White Band

A conversation with Professor Mark C. Taylor on the topic of his new book: Seeing Silence (University of Chicago Press, 2020). Mark C. Taylor is Professor of Religion at Columbia University and the Cluett Professor of Humanities emeritus at Williams College. Outro song: “Sword In Hand” by Madeleine Bouton

A conversation with Professor Thomas Harrison on the topic of his new book: Of Bridges: A Poetic and Philosophical Account (University of Chicago Press, 2021).  Thomas Harrison is Professor of Italian at UCLA. Outro song: “Bold As Love” by Jimi Hendrix

A conversation with Professor Mark C. Taylor on the topic of his new book: Intervolution – Smart Bodies, Smart Things (Columbia University Press, 2020). Mark C. Taylor is Professor of Religion at Columbia University and the Cluett Professor of Humanities emeritus at Williams College. Outro song: “Soliloquio” by Alusa Fallax