The classical education you never knew you were missing. Join scholar and writer Spencer Klavan on a tour through the great works of the West. In a world gone mad, we're not alone: the great men and women who went before us have wisdom to guide us. With their help, we can recover truth, beauty, and the stuff that matters.
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Put that Twinkie down, you slob, and let's talk about GLUTTONY. The fourth circle of hell is where Dante encounters the people who lived their lives scarfing down cannoli and now spend their afterlife getting pelted with slime and chewed up by the three-headed beast Cerberus. It's also where the poet subtly introduces some key concepts that help make sense of the whole poem--the relation between…
We're in hell for real now. Dante enters the circle of the lustful, where the sinister King Minos strips souls naked and condemns them to their proper place. What does that mean? What does it mean to be "evil-born," and what does Dante show us about the nature of lust? Not, it turns out, that its wages are physical or sexual suffering, but that it has to do with broken love and broken…
Hell is murky. Today we enter limbo, which is technically the least painful section of hell but actually leaves me with some of the toughest questions in the poem. What does Dante make--what do Christians in general make--of all the noble, wise, and humane people who apparently lived outside the reach of Christ? Were they outside His reach? Are human virtues enough to save us? If so, why aren't we…
ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE: We've made it at last to the gates of hell, and we're on our way to the river of Acheron. On the way, we'll meet the "neutrals" and the cowards—those who never lived and have no names. From here on out, the poem becomes a horror movie. But in this episode, I want to show you just how deep the horror goes. Worms and flames are just the beginning: it's the…
Where can I find a woman like...Dante's girl? On this episode of Young Heretics, we finally get the high-fallutin' invocation of the Muses we've come to expect from any epic poem. But it's not enough! Dante needs more woman than the Muses can be...more grace, more truth, more light. And it comes from on high--first from the Virgin Mary, then Sainty Lucy, then finally his beautiful, his famous, his…
I'm very pleased to introduce a new Young Heretics feature. Since I've been teaching at the University of Austin, Texas, I've had the chance to get to know some brilliant, energetic, and charismatic professors. And none more so than J.J. Kimche, assistant professor of religion and philosophy. I got together with J.J. while in Austin for a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation on the…
Lions, and wolves, and leopards...oh my! Dante the pilgrim is balanced on a knife-edge, tipping over into the start of a new century, a new period of life, a new world. It's creation and crucifixion all at once, a fever pitch of both hope and dread. How can he go on? How can he make sense of things? How can we? Those are the questions we'll deal with today as we continue our journey toward the…
Welcome to Young Heretics, the classical education you didn't know you were missing. It's Good Friday...in the year 1300. And also now! Because Dante's Divine Comedy is a poem for all time and our time. Today we are (finally!) beginning our Young Heretics journey through this masterpiece, following Dante's pilgrim step by step as he wanders from the straight and true way into a dark and dangerous…
Welcome back!! Happy 2026!! After a holiday hiatus, we're starting the year off strong with the Second Annual Inkling Awards for Literary Excellence. As an exciting new term of teaching kicks off for me at the University of Austin, TX, It's a good time to be thinking about some of the best questions: why should we read? How should we read? And how much? Without further ado, here are Dr. Klavan's…
It's the most wonderful time of the year: that's right, the Lent of St. Martin! Okay okay, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but the lead-up--known as the season of Advent--is an unbelievably rich tradition filled with deep meaning. On this Young Heretics special, I explain the big ideas of Advent through the surprising history of everyone's favorite song of the season, "O Come, O…
