Episode 38: Be Still and Know: Reclaiming Attention, Time, and Wonder in Christian Education
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, Jesse Hake speaks with Dr. Patrick R. Manning about his book Be Still and Know: Contemplative Practice for Christian Schools and Educators. Drawing from...
Episode 57: Remembering Well: Restoring History Through Sympathy, Story, and Place
Description Andrew Zwerneman, writer and narrator for HISTORY250® and co-founder and president of Cana Academy, joins Christopher Perrin to argue that America’s cultural crisis is, at root, a crisis of memory—and that...
Episode 26: Classical Christian Education: Going Global with Eric Cook and Dr. David Diener
In this episode, Karen Elliott interviews Eric Cook and Dr. David Diener. Together they explore the remarkable global growth of classical Christian education and the mission of the Society for Classical Learning to strengthen...
Episode 24: Favorite Reads of 2025
Description In this special year-end episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda share their five favorite reads of 2025. Moving from plays and poetry to...
Episode 56: A Nice Definition of Classical Education: The Language, Metaphors, and Meaning Behind “Classical”
Description Christopher Perrin explores why “classical education” is both widely used and widely misunderstood—and why the language we choose matters. He surveys common assumptions people attach to the word classical (Greek...
Episode 23: What We Learned About Love
Description In this penultimate episode of Hot Takes on the Classics’ season on love, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh step back to reflect on what a sustained engagement with classic...
Episode 37: Education as Soul Craft: Three Leaders in Conversation as Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican Classical Teachers
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, host Jesse Hake—joined by Scholé Academy Director Dr.Joylynn Blake—welcomes the leaders of Scholé Academy’s three Houses of Study: Monika Minehart, Fr. Nathan Dickinson, and Presb. Maria...
Episode 25: The Good Teacher: Cultivating Wisdom, Wonder, and Virtue
In this thoughtful and contemplative conversation, Karen Elliott interviews Dr. Christopher Perrin and Carrie Eben. Together they reflect on what makes a teacher truly “good” within the classical Christian...
Episode 55: From Fragmentation to Fellowship: The Intellectual Renewal Behind Classical Education
Description David Diener, Assistant Professor of Education at Hillsdale College and president of The Alcuin Fellowship, joins Christopher Perrin to reflect on how a philosopher’s training can become a vocational doorway into...
Episode 36: Seeing with the Quadrivium: How Medieval Stories Reflect a Living Cosmos
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, Jesse Hake speaks with Dr. Shannon Valenzuela about her new course releasing this spring on medieval literature and the harmonics of story....
Episode 22: Waiting on God – Simone Weil: An Incandescent Life
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh close their season on love by turning to Simone Weil’s Waiting for God. Through a wide-ranging...
Episode 24: Logic, Language, and Love: The Mission of John and Gwen Cicone
In this inspiring episode, John and Gwen Cicone share how classical Christian education is flourishing at the Rafiki Village in Moshi, Tanzania—right in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. From...
Episode 21: Revelations of Divine Love: St. Julian’s Mystical Sight
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich, the first known book written in English by...
Episode 54: The Festive School: Prayer, Feasts, and the Recovery of Wonder
Description Father Nathan Carr, Headmaster of The Academy and often dubbed “the Jack Sparrow of classical education,” joins Christopher Perrin to recount his unexpected path into classical Christian school leadership—and the...
Episode 20: The Temple: The Architecture of the Soul — George Herbert
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore The Temple by George Herbert, one of the most profound devotional poetry collections in the English...
Episode 19: The Art and Music of Love: Theresa, Dido, and Shepherds
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore how Western art and music have depicted the many faces of love—from divine ecstasy...
Episode 18: A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections – Jonathan Edwards: Testing of Our Loves
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh take a deep dive into Jonathan Edwards’s A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, one of the most...
Episode 35: Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, and the Cosmic Story of Christmas: A Conversation with Addison Hodges Hart
In this Christmas-season episode, Jesse Hake speaks with author, retired parish priest, and former university chaplain Addison Hodges Hart about Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, and the meaning of the...
Episode 17: The Confessions of St. Augustine: The Journey of Transformed Love
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore one of the most influential works in Western thought—St. Augustine’s Confessions. Through Augustine’s prayerful reflections,...
Episode 23: From Mexico to Malawi: Leading the Teacher’s College at the Rafiki Village
In this episode, Karen Elliott speaks with Anna Liebing, head of school and principal of the teacher’s college at the Rafiki Village in Mzuzu, Malawi. Anna shares how classical...
Episode 16: The Gospel of St. John – Cosmic Love
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh turn to the fourth and final love in C.S. Lewis’s taxonomy—agape, or divine charity—through the...
Episode 15: Anna Karenina: The Marriage Plot
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh close out their episodes on Eros with Leo Tolstoy’s monumental novel Anna Karenina. They explore how Tolstoy intertwines...
Episode 14: The Making of a Great Marriage: Pride and Prejudice
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh unpack Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, exploring how this beloved novel redefines what makes a good...
Episode 34: Teaching in Reality: D. C. Schindler on Classical Education and Metaphysics
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, philosopher D. C. Schindler joins Jesse Hake for a conversation on the metaphysical and theological foundations of classical education. Interview questions address epistemology,...
Episode 13: Romeo and Juliet: The Wisdom of Young Love
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh revisit Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, asking what makes this story so enduring and how it reshapes...
Episode 22: Beyond the Concert: Global Worship Through Music
Dr. Brady McNeil shares the story of taking the Wheaton Symphonic Band on its first international tour—to Kenya and Tanzania with the Rafiki Foundation. This episode explores the power...
Episode 12: The Divine Comedy: Disordered Eros
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh dive into Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, one of the most ambitious works in world literature....
Episode 11: The Phaedras: Love is a Madness
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore Plato’s Phaedrus, a dialogue that weaves together questions of love, rhetoric, and the soul. They...
Episode 53: Teaching Toward Truth as a Living Reality
In this reflective episode, Christopher Perrin interviewed Andrew Kern, his long-time colleague and friend, President and CEO of The CiRCE Institute, in a wide-ranging conversation about the philosophy and practice...
Episode 10: The Wind in the Willows: A Classic Tale of Friendship
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, a beloved children’s classic that also raises profound...
Episode 9: Huckleberry Finn: Can a Man and Child be Friends?
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim and Emily explore Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, asking whether a man and a child can truly be friends....
Episode 8: Cicero, On Friendship: Virtue–The Basis of Friendship
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh turn to Cicero’s On Friendship, a dialogue exploring what makes friendship possible, lasting, and good. They...
Episode 33: Leadership in the Classical Tradition with Aristotle, Aurelius, and Christopher Perrin
In this conversation, Jesse Hake welcomes Dr. Christopher Perrin to explore leadership in the virtue and liberal arts tradition. Drawing from the ClassicalU courses Leadership and the Liberal Arts and Essential School...
Episode 21: Deserts, Dante, and Discipleship: The Global Mission of Classical Education
In this inspiring conversation, Dr. Brian Williams joins Karen Elliott to explore the growing movement of classical Christian education across Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Drawing on his global experience...
Episode 7: Epic of Gilgamesh: Superhuman Friendship
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda journey into the world’s oldest surviving epic, The Epic of Gilgamesh. They explore how...
Episode 6: East of Eden, John Steinbeck: The American Epic
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh dive into John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, exploring how the novel wrestles with the tension...
