This podcast will be published on April 1st, which just happens to be my birthday. Yes, in fact, I was born on April Fool’s. And believe me, at this point in my life, I have heard all the jokes. [Read More]
Episode 87 – The Persuasiveness of Epideictic
There are a lot of people in the public eye trying to be persuasive right now. Ketanji Brown Jackson is trying to persuade Congress she is fit for the Supreme Court. President Zelenskyy of Ukraine is trying to persuade other world leaders to establish a no-fly zone over his country and supply him with supplies to fight off an invading force. And President Biden is trying to convince the American public to trust him to lead them through some financially difficult times, while Republicans are trying to persuade them to ditch Democrats because of their economic failures. [Read More]
Episode 86 – Literati
I do everything I can to interest my kid in literature. This week I told them it was the Ides of March and when they asked what that meant I gave them a brief run-down of Julius Ceasar and tried to explain the phrase, “Et tu, Brute?” and what it means and how somebody might use it. [Read More]
Episode 85 – A Man’s World
I had an incident in class this week which bothered me, but ultimately was kind of a non-event.
We were talking about militarism and sports, and some of my students were NOT happy. They did not like the implication that their precious sports could in any way be tainted. To be clear, I never made that claim. I made the observation that sports celebrated the military, then I asked whether that was propaganda, persuasion, or good marketing and let the class take the wheel. [Read More]
Episode 84 – Legends and Ukraine
I don’t know how you can watch the news and not get emotional. I have cried so many times hearing and seeing the news coming out of Ukraine. What is happening there is both heart-breaking and terrifying.
And the scale is immense. One of the world’s major powers has attacked one of Europe’s largest countries and the ENTIRE WESTERN WORLD is getting involved in some way. I mean, the Swiss have taken a side. Not even Word War II could get them to do that. [Read More]