Ascend - The Great Books Podcast

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we start our slow, beautiful pilgrimage through arguably the most important book in Western philosophy: Plato’s Republic. It is about justice and whether justice is more profitable to the soul than injustice—but along the way it provides rich conversations on the soul, virtue, education, metaphysics, and the afterlife. If you read this book and read it well, it will change your life.
And we have an excellent guide and mentor to walk us through the opening of Plato’s Republic and the dialogue with Cephalus in Book One (327a-331d), Dr. Alex Priou who currently serves as a professor of political philosophy at the University of Austin.
Today we start something life-changing.
Plato is philosophy. To summarize a famous line, all of Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato, and Plato’s Republic is his masterwork. He does not offer you a sterile, intellectual idea that is neat to contemplate—he makes claims on your soul. For Plato, philosophy is transformative. The goal of the pursuit of wisdom is to have a good soul, a beautiful soul.
Further Resources to Help You Read the Republic:
GUIDE: 12 Questions on Book One of Plato’s Republic
How to Read Plato
Reading schedule, podcast calendar, and more!

“I went down to the Piraeus.” The famous opening line gives you much to contemplate, and Dr. Alex Priou is a wonderful guide. We have the verb of descent, which will be important to the entire text, and we have the Piraeus, the port of Athens, which is hosting a new festival to a new goddess. Moreover, Socrates narrates the entire Republic to an unnamed listener who never interrupts… but this allows Socrates to give commentary on the argument he otherwise could not. Dr. Priou shows us how the prologue to the Republic is simple but rich with meaning—a great introduction to how Plato teaches.
In the house of Cephalus, age, wealth, and the old myths give the first account of justice. Asked the greatest good of his money, the old metic does not speak of friends or food. He speaks of the myths he laughed at when he was young, and of the peace of facing them without unpaid debts. Justice, for him, is telling the truth and giving what one owes. Socrates asks whether you return a borrowed weapon to a man who has gone mad. Cephalus cannot defend the rule he has lived by. He laughs, leaves the argument to his son, and goes back to the sacrifices. Cephalus leaves, but his conversation will haunt the entire Republic—as the text begins with a descent and religious myth and will end with an ascent and a religious myth.
Be sure to check out our entire reading schedule, so you can be sure to read alongside us.
Also, thank you to the CLASSIC LEARNING TEST for sponsoring our first month of Plato’s Republic. They are a really excellent group of people trying to change the landscape of education in America. Go check them out.
A good path is before us.
Let’s take it and ascend.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Plato's Republic and guest Dr. Alex Priou
02:01 Why read Plato's Republic today?
04:05 Historical and dramatic context of the dialogue
06:05 Dr. Priou's background and love for Plato
08:00 The purpose of the Republic and its themes
10:03 The setting and composition of the dialogue
11:57 The character of Cephalus and traditional justice
14:01 The significance of the Myth of the Cave
15:49 The pedagogical method of Plato's dialogues
18:13 The role of myths and poetry in philosophy
19:57 The purpose of the Republic and its relevance today
22:11 The character of Polemarchus and justice as friendship
23:50 The challenge of understanding the dialogue's structure
26:12 The importance of rereading Plato's works
28:07 The character of Thrasymachus and cynicism
30:06 The significance of Socrates' narration style
32:06 The allegory of the cave and ascent to truth
34:13 The role of myth and poetry in conveying truth
35:47 The balance between tradition and innovation in the Republic
37:51 The practical purpose of the dialogue
40:00 The limits of human knowledge and the form of the good
42:03 The political and moral lessons of the Republic
43:57 The significance of justice as a personal and political virtue
46:12 The character of Cephalus and his traditional views
48:02 The transition from traditional to philosophical justice
49:59 The role of Socrates in guiding the dialogue
51:56 The importance of self-knowledge and inner reflection
54:05 The myths of the afterlife and their philosophical purpose
55:58 The ongoing relevance of Plato's Republic
Join us next week as we continue our studies on Plato's Republic!

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we are preparing to read Plato’s Republic (we start next week!). Before turning to that long and demanding text, we ask a simple question: how do you read Plato well?
Plato does not write treatises or lectures. He writes dialogues, and the setting, the characters, the irony, and even the moments of confusion (aporia!) are part of the teaching. The podcast takes up the questions that help a first-time reader get started on the right foot. Overall, however, we do not read Plato to “be smart” or brag we’ve read Plato. We read Plato to have a beautiful soul. We take him seriously as a teacher who can help us pursue the true, good, and beautiful.
Here is a list of the major questions that are discussed on the podcast today:
Why read Plato?
Why is the drama important?
Are the dialogues historical transcripts?
What is the Socratic method?
What is Socratic irony?
What is the art of dialectic?
What is aporia?
What is eros?
What is pleonexia?
What are the parts of the soul?

Again, we read Plato to better understand the good life and to have a good, healthy soul.
Be sure to check out the MASTER CALENDAR for our reading schedule for Plato’s Republic. Also, if you’re interested in a deeper dive into eros, see "Rediscovering Holy Eros” (one of the most popular articles on Ascend). Moreover, you can read more about pleonexia and its dangers at “The Greatest Threat to Your Freedom is You.” Last week, to prep for the Republic, we published “How to Read Plato’s Republic like C.S. Lewis.” Finally, regarding Socratic irony, read “How a Man Pretending to be Drunk Helps You Read Plato.”
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to reading Plato and its significance
01:00 Why reading Plato is essential for philosophy
02:20 Understanding Plato's teaching through dialogues
06:29 Preparing for the Republic: preliminaries and questions
09:07 Why read the Republic and its moral importance
13:23 How to approach reading Plato's dialogues
26:06 The Socratic method and dialectic explained
33:01 Understanding Socratic irony and its purpose
39:31 Recognizing patterns in Socratic teaching
47:11 Eros, love, and the soul in Plato
55:43 Upcoming plans for studying the Republic
Next week we start Plato’s Republic!
Everything you need to know is here: "How to Read Plato's Republic with Ascend."

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we end Short Story September with “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” by Melville - a seemingly simple tale about men in a law office that becomes a puzzling, existential tale. Dcn. Garlick is joined by two excellent guests: Mr. Joey Bremer, a teacher at Holy Family Classical School and an iconographer studying at the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London, and “Montana” of Montana Classical College, an anonymous scholar who runs an X account that shares incredible insights on Melville’s Moby Dick.
Overall, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a perplexing, existential tale that tends to quietly unsettle you by revealing the realities of modern life.
CHECK OUT THE NEW ASCEND BOOK CLUB
This episode of Ascend takes up Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” a quiet, unsettling tale whose central figure answers nearly every request with the same spare formula: “I would prefer not to.” The conversation lingers on the contrast between that stubborn preference and the narrator’s own softness—an elderly lawyer who prizes the easiest way of life, cannot quite govern his office, and keeps mistaking indecision for charity. Names, nicknames, dull eyes, and the cramped windows that look onto other walls all become clues: who in this world still possesses a will, and who has already been reduced to a role?
Listeners are invited to sit with the story’s larger questions rather than resolve them. What does the monotonous labor of copying do to a man? How does a commercial, conventional life flatten thumos and leave even well-meaning people lukewarm? Why does Bartleby’s refusal feel at once more human and more deathly than the quirks of his co-workers? Drawing on the textures of Moby-Dick and the aporetic spirit of Plato, the discussion treats the tale as a puzzle that rewards patient attention—an invitation to notice what modernity may have done to the soul, and to return to the text itself with sharper eyes.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Melville and 'Bartleby'
00:12 Introduction to the episode and main themes
02:05 Biographical context of Melville's life
03:47 Overview of 'Bartleby the Scrivener'
06:54 Themes of monotony and human will
09:59 Character analysis: the narrator and Bartleby
14:57 Philosophical and literary connections
20:05 Implications for modern life and office culture
25:00 Concluding thoughts and interpretations
44:30 Dark passages and existential reflections in 'Bartleby'
45:25 Repetition of life and the prison of modernity
46:24 The loneliness of Bartleby and the narrator's solitude
46:56 Prison as a metaphor for societal dehumanization
48:02 Bartleby's awareness of death and existential insight
50:24 The role of the dead letters office and existential suffering
51:29 Melville's possible critique of modernity and capitalism
53:06 The dehumanizing nature of copying work and modern labor
55:07 Bartleby's refusal as act of will and control
57:47 Reason, preference, and the will in Bartleby's choices
01:00:20 The significance of small acts and existential meaning
01:02:19 Melville's relationship with Plato and classical philosophy
01:09:24 The philosophical underpinnings of Melville's critique
01:12:10 The aporetic nature of the story and open-ended interpretation
01:15:15 Comparison with other literary characters and philosophical figures
01:18:36 Fate, free will, and the acceptance of mortality
01:21:55 Melville, Plato, and the modern crisis of human nature
01:24:52 Final reflections on the story's philosophical depth and relevance
CHECK OUT THE NEW ASCEND BOOK CLUB

We have BIG NEWS! We have launched the new Ascend Book Club!
Ascend: The Great Books Podcast has partnered with “The Ascent” here on Substack to transform it into the new Ascend Book Club to offer you the most comprehensive online book club focused on reading the great books and living a beautiful, virtuous life.
You’ll receive the same great content as before but with much more—which now includes:
Weekly podcast and videos on the great books
Weekly articles on the great books
In-depth, detailed pdf guides on the great books
A monthly LIVE Q&A for supporters

We are also publishing years of articles, guides, videos, and other resources to the new site and organizing them by work and author so they are easy to find—tons of resources on Homer, Hesiod, the Greek plays, Plato, Dante, and more. You could start reading many great books today with the Ascend library.
Check out our new website, the Ascend Book Club, and join us today!
Join our reading group and study the great books with us!
Our next big read is Plato’s Republic this October, check out How to Read Plato’s Republic with Ascend for everything you need to know.
Chivalry with H.E. Eduard Habsburg
Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Deacon Harrison Garlick and His Excellency Eduard Habsburg, Archduke of Austria and former Hungarian ambassador to the Holy See, discuss Neil Gaiman’s short story “Chivalry.”
Before they turn to the text, Eduard speaks with warmth and candor about his family’s eight centuries of Catholic identity, the vocation of family in an atomized age, his decade in Rome, and an unexpected love of stories that runs from screenplays and Ghibli films to the understated magic of Gaiman.
What follows is a close, affectionate reading of a story in which the Holy Grail turns up in an Oxfam shop, Sir Galahad knocks on a widow’s door for tea, and the most English understatement imaginable meets Arthurian quest. Together they trace Mrs. Whitaker’s loneliness and ritual, the knight’s unironic goodness, Marie’s transformation, the slugs in the garden, the three gifts of youth and immortality, and the moment an old woman quietly refuses what does not belong to her life.
Eduard reads the tale as homage to Englishness and as a call to accept the adventure when it arrives, while Deacon Garlick asks whether that same ordinariness can also flatten what ought to remain extraordinary. It is a warm conversation on the charming short story, “Chivalry.”
Reading Schedule
We are currently finishing SHORT STORY SEPTEMBER! Next week, we will discuss “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Melville, the author of Moby Dick, with two excellent guests. Read it this week and join the conversation!
We’ll then have an introduction to Plato’s Republic on 9.29.26 and launch into Plato’s Republic on 10.6.26. Check out How to Read the Republic with Ascend for everything you need to know.
You can read the great books with the Ascend Book Club!
Join us.
Dcn. Harrison Garlick lives in rural Oklahoma with his wife and five children. He serves as a deacon at Holy Family Cathedral and as Chancellor & General Counsel for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa. Follow him on X at Dcn. Garlick or Ascend.

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Dcn. Garlick is joined by the always wonderful Alberto Fernandez to discuss "Red Shadows," a salvage tale of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard.
Check out our website for our reading schedule, articles, written guides, and more.
Dcn. Garlick and Alberto discuss Robert E. Howard’s 1928 Solomon Kane tale “Red Shadows,” a pulp adventure chosen as a lively Short Story September “palette cleanser” after heavier classical reading. Howard (1906–1936), the Texas-born creator of Conan the Barbarian, produced hundreds of stories in a short life. Alberto first encountered him through the 1960s–70s Lancer paperbacks with Frank Frazetta covers. Kane, Howard’s only recurring explicitly Christian series character, is described as a grim Puritan-Cavalier mix with pagan and philosophical streaks—“God’s angry swordsman”—a remorseless wandering avenger who rights wrongs he encounters by chance.
The story opens in the French countryside when Kane finds a dying young Catholic woman assaulted by bandits led by Le Loup (“the Wolf”). The stranger’s death prompts Kane’s vow that “Men shall die for this,” launching a relentless pursuit that takes him from France across Europe to the West African jungle.
There the narrative juxtaposes Kane’s grim, driven sense of justice (he sees himself as a “vessel of wrath”) against Le Loup’s cynical evil, tribal politics, the witch-doctor N’Longa, voodoo, jungle drums, and “blood memory.” Unlike the mirthful, vitalistic Conan, Kane is cold and mysterious even to himself. The climax features a duel framed as cosmic justice versus injustice, followed by a second, primal coda in which a gorilla avenges his mate—showing that nature itself can enact justice and that Kane often needs allies to complete vengeance.
Alberto highlights Howard’s youthful ambition (he wrote the story at 21), his debt to adventure writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, and the way Africa becomes a recurring, almost inescapable landscape in later Kane tales. He recommends the Del Rey edition and especially the later novella “Wings in the Night” as Howard’s finest Kane story. Both hosts note the stories’ value as high-energy, well-crafted adventure that can later be shared with sons, and they close by pointing listeners toward the next Short Story September episode on Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry.”
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Robert E. Howard and Solomon Kane
02:13 Howard's Background and Literary Influence
04:37 The Character of Solomon Kane and His Morality
08:36 Howard's Philosophy and Moral Duality
11:02 Why Red Shadows Was Chosen for Discussion
14:48 Beginning of the Story: France and the Dying Girl
16:52 Stranger Motif and the Western Influence
19:10 Cain's Vengeance and Inner Drive
22:50 Primal Justice and the African Setting
26:53 Howard's Use of Africa and Its Significance
32:52 Howard's Publishing Journey and African Themes
36:07 The Role of Ilonga and African Characters
43:49 Eternal Forces: Justice and Injustice
45:58 The Ending: Gorilla and Primal Justice
50:49 Howard's Final Warning and Blood Memory
54:41 Recommended Follow-up Stories and Howard's Legacy
Keywords
Solomon Kane Red Shadows, Robert E. Howard Solomon Kane, Ascend Great Books Podcast, Deacon Harrison Garlick, Alberto Fernandez, Weird Tales 1928, pulp fiction, sword and sorcery, God’s angry swordsman, Conan the Barbarian comparison, Tower of the Elephant, Le Loup the Wolf, N’Longa witch doctor, G’loka the Gorilla Slayer, Short Story September, Del Rey Solomon Kane, Wings in the Night, Moon of Skulls, Hills of the Dead, Puritan avenger, vengeance for a stranger, West Africa jungle, blood memory, jungle drums, Howard pulp adventure, 16th century historical fantasy, Christian hero pulp fiction, Frank Frazetta, Centaur Press Solomon Kane, Lancer paperbacks, Argosy rejection, eighty dollars Weird Tales, grim Puritan Cavalier, vessel of wrath, justice versus injustice.
NEXT WEEK we discuss Neil Gaiman's "Chivalry" with His Excellency Eduard Habsburg, the Archduke of Austria.