Can the Present Be Defined? A Conversation with Michael North

Eric Adler is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Maryland. He recently wrote The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today (Oxford University Press, 2020).In this episode, he discusses the following books:1. Irving Babbitt, Literature and the American College: Essays in Defense of the Humanities (Houghton, Mifflin, 1908).2. Robert E. Proctor, Defining the Humanities: How Rediscovering a Tradition Can Improve our Schools (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998).3. Cicero, Pro Archia.

How did the humanities as a field of study develop and change since Antiquity? What should the chief goal of the humanities be? And what role do the classics play within the humanities? In this episode, I discuss these questions with Eric Adler, who is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Maryland. We will focus on his recent book The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today (Oxford University Press, 2020).

This episode is part of a new series of book-centered discussions. My goal in these episodes will be to learn more about my guests' favorite books. In this episode, Joseph Amato will discuss three books related to the history of walking.

In this episode, which is the first in a series of audio essays on walking, we discuss the history of walking. My guest is Joseph Amato, who is a historian and writer with a long list of publications. The main focus of our discussion will be his book On Foot: A Cultural History of Walking (New York University Press, 2004).

In this episode, we discuss the nature, function, and history of boredom. My guest is Peter Toohey, who is a Professor of Classics in the Department of Classics and Religion at the University of Calgary. His most recent books are Boredom: A Lively History (Yale University Press, 2011), Jealousy (Yale University Press, 2014), and Hold On: The Life, Science, and Art of Waiting (Oxford University Press, 2020). The main focus of our discussion will be his book Boredom: A Lively History.

In this episode, I discuss the limits of French republicanism with Jean Beaman, who is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. We will focus on her book Citizen Outsider: Children of North African Immigrants in France (University of California Press, 2017).

What is an intellectual life? Does the intellectual life have a specific purpose and goal, or is it open-ended? And what type of discipline is required for a fruitful intellectual life? In this episode, I discuss these questions with my guest Zena Hitz. We will focus on her recent book Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life, which was published by Princeton University Press.

In this episode, we discuss how historical narratives, ethnic categories, and a unique urban culture have shaped the distinct, much-admired, and at times nostalgically-evoked multiculturalism of the city of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. My guest is Fran Markowitz, who is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and we will focus on her 2010 book Sarajevo: A Bosnian Kaleidoscope (University of Illinois Press).

In this episode, we discuss the intersection between religion, reason, sound, and ethics. More specifically, we explore these ideas through an analysis of Islamic sermons in Egypt. My guest is Charles Hirschkind, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. We will focus on his book The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics (Columbia University Press, 2006).

In this episode, we discuss the problem of the present. What is the present? Where does it begin and end? And how does it structure our lives? My guest is Michael North, who is a Professor in the Department of English at UCLA. We will focus on his recent book What is the Present? (Princeton University Press, 2018).