Books of Titans Podcast

“In fact, free speech may well be the most powerful engine of equality ever devised by human kind.”

Free Speech by Jacob Mchangama presents a thorough and fascinating look at the history of free speech through the ages. What’s amazing is that free speech is a rather recent phenomenon, is quite fragile, and most of the people I consider to be the bulwarks of free speech were not as principled as I thought.

I got to meet Jacob last week and hear more about this book at an event at Landmark Booksellers. I talk a bit about that and the question I asked him as well as cover some key themes from his book.

If you’d like to watch the event at Landmark, you can do so here:

A few years ago, I read a book about a coffee entrepreneur. It was really good. I immediately thought about a new friend of mine who worked at a coffee shop. I bought the book for him and met up a few weeks later to hear what he thought. His comments shocked me.

He thanked me for the book and said it was the first full book he had read since college. This was a man in his early 30s, which means he hadn’t read a book in nearly 10 years.

I think that’s where a lot of adults find themselves. Life gets busy. Work becomes the focus. Family, kids, activities, yard work. And now, all of those minutes in the margins are consumed with scrolling. It’s an addiction few of us can break.

So how can we get into reading and then become better at it as adults?

That’s the focus of this podcast episode. I hope you enjoy.

Euripides’ Phoenician Women mimics the Aeschylus tragedy Seven Against Thebes with some key differences. One of those is the composition of the members of the chorus. Aeschylus chose Theban women as the members of his chorus but Euripides selected foreign slave women from Tyre en route to Delphi. They don’t have skin in the game like the Theban women do as they watch their royal line destroy themselves before their eyes.

I think Euripides’ choice is so interesting. Not only did he select the Phoenician Women as the members of the chorus but they also occupy the title of the play as well. The play could just have easily been named Jocasta, a character who ties all the others together and who starts the entire play recalling the recent family history.

I love reading these retellings of the myths. I love seeing these slight changes and trying to figure out the reason by behind the choices. I love the themes that keep popping up and the ways these ideas are discussed amongst characters in the worst of circumstances.

These and other topics encompass episode 244 of the podcast.

Most of the sayings of Confucius consist of three parts:

* The Saying

* The Person

* The Time/Location

If you just read The Analects, you get all of the sayings and if you’re very diligent (or use a commentary), you can get to know the people Confucius addresses in his responses. What’s difficult to gather from The Analects is the historical context (time/location) in which each statement was made.

That’s where Annping Chin’s book comes in, The Authentic Confucius. Organized along the path of Confucius’ life, Annping takes us through the various political situations, locations, and career points that align with many of the sayings of Confucius. This book provides a very helpful analysis of that third part of each saying, while also being an interesting look at the life of this great teacher.

I was surprised to learn that Confucius was not a religious teacher (he was a philosopher), that he would deeply ponder a question before answering instead of spouting off an answer based upon a set worldview, and that he was very politically minded.

In this podcast episode, I talk about these things that surprised me, some things I learned about Confucius, and cover The One Thing, my key takeaway from The Authentic Confucius.

Here’s my episode about The Analects:

As well as an article about something Confucius said that I’m thinking about a lot:

The life of Confucius (551 - 479 BC) overlaps the life of Greek playwright Aeschylus (525 - 455 BC). Confucius makes it clear that he is a transmitter, not an originator. He’s transmitting wisdom from the past, specifically from an ancient era of perfect rulers. The Analects is a set of collected sayings of Confucius compiled by his disciples.

I was expecting a religious text but this read more like wisdom literature. The focus was on the rites and rituals that provide a path to moral virtue. The goal was to become a gentleman worthy of a life of politics. Confucius pursued (and pushed) a love of learning, speaking only when necessary, and leading by example.

In this podcast episode, I cover ten themes found in The Analects and share the One Thing I’m still thinking about having read the statements of this greatest of Chinese teachers.

I read the following versions / translations of The Analects:

* Arthur Waley Translation (1938) / Everyman’s Library

* Annping Chin Translation (2014) / Penguin Classics