Hot Takes on the Classics

Hosted ByEmily Maeda & Tim McIntosh

Hot Takes on the Classics is no dusty, academic approach to great books. It’s a gossipy, exciting discussion about the best literature ever written. Hosted by Tim and Emily, who are veteran teachers and long-time friends, Hot Takes is packed with playful debate, meaningful speculation, and hearty laughs.

Hot Takes on the Classics is no dusty, academic approach to great books. It’s a gossipy, exciting discussion about the best literature ever written. Hosted by Tim and Emily, who are veteran teachers and long-time friends, Hot Takes is packed with playful debate, meaningful speculation, and hearty laughs.

(You may also enjoy Tim’s “The Play’s the Thing” show with CiRCE.)


All Episodes

Episode 16: A Small, Good Thing: Forgiveness from the Oven, by Raymond Carver

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore Raymond Carver’s “A Small, Good Thing,” a story of parental grief that moves from isolation...

Episode 15: A Doll’s House — Henrik Ibsen: The Door Slam Heard Around the World

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the 1879 play whose ending shocked European audiences and helped redefine modern...

Episode 14: Babette’s Feast: The Artist At Work – Isak Dinesen

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore Isak Dinesen’s “Babette’s Feast,” a story about beauty, sacrifice, holiness, and the demanding vocation...

Episode 13: Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin: Music as Life

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” a story about two brothers trying to understand one another across...

Episode 12: Hills Like White Elephants — Ernest Hemingway

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” a story in which the most important subject is...

Episode 11: Everything That Rises Must Converge: Coming Together May be Harder than it Seems – Flannery O’Connor

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore Flannery O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” a story of young adulthood, race, pride, dependence, and painful...

Episode 10: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”: Anxiety, Modernism, and a Life Deferred — T. S. Eliot

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” a poem that captures the uncertainty and...

Episode 9: Trilogy: Three Stories of One Love – Jon Fosse

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore Jon Fosse’s Trilogy, the work of a Norwegian novelist and playwright whose spare, musical prose gives...

Episode 8: “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”: Questions Can Lead You Astray by Joyce Carol Oates

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda enter the teen years with Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going? Where Have You...