Alexander Schmid Podcast

In this conversation with Ms. Sarah Miller and Mr. Wes Schantz, we talked about chapters 13-18 in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Specifically, we consider (1) Dolores Umbridge and her particular brand of "educating" and disciplining; (2) the contrasts and parallels between Percy, Umbridge, and Sirius Black, and (3) how power and wisdom interrelate (or contrast) in an educational setting! And much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this conversation, Mr. Wes Schantz and I are joined by Dr. Jason Hawreliak, PhD, Assistant Professor of Game Studies at Brock University in their Centre for Digital Humanities. Dr. Hawreliak, Wes, and I consider (1) ideology, death-anxiety, and the relationship between "shooters", game-play mechanics, and the relationship between shooting games and times of war; (2) we consider video games as a vessel for narrative compared to literature and film, and (3) we consider to what extent a hero is a cultural construction, and how the image of a hero evolves over time and across media. Below are a few sites which Dr. Hawreliak has helped start or been a part of and a link to one of his books: https://brocku.academia.edu/JasonHawreliak http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/johan-huizinga-in-the-shadow-of-tomorrow/ https://brocku.ca/humanities/digital-humanities/faculty-and-staff/ https://www.routledge.com/Multimodal-Semiotics-and-Rhetoric-in-Videogames/Hawreliak/p/book/9781138065734 http://twinery.org/ https://

In this lecture, we discuss (1) Odysseus waking up in Ithaka and plotting the destruction of the suitors with Athene, (2) Odysseus, now disguised as a beggar, meeting and lying about his identity to Eumaios, and (3) Telemachos being summoned from Sparta by Athene and finally making it to Eumaios' house. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, we (1) consider the "Golden Ladder" of contemplation, (2) come to understand the "ineffability" of predestination in relation to free-will, and (3) learn that (perhaps ironically today) St. Benedict fled the city and its corruption for the contemplative life. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, we discuss (a) Odysseus' journey home in a Phaiakian ship, (b) the denouement of the Phaiakian disobedience to Poseidon (but obedience to Zeus), and (c) what returning "home" is. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this episode of Night School, Mr. Wes Schantz and I consider "Mending Walls" by Robert Frost. Specifically, (1) we consider the haphazard meter/rollicking and disjointed language of the poem; (2) the necessity and beauty of walls, and how they relate to institutions, like the American political edifice; and how (3) relevant the lines, "Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more:" might be to America today. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this episode, Mr. Wesley Schantz and I consider (a) making it to the third disc and how beginnings and ends affect our judgments of any communicative effort; (2) what Hojo and Aeris and Sephiroth mean as ideals, and (3) how the Final Fantasy series as a whole mimics the epic tradition through its serial growth, what the epic tradition is attempting to produce, and we begin to answer whether Final Fantasy VII is itself worthy of the moniker "great" or "epic". (Unfortunately, some of our best stuff was left unrecorded (due to operator error--me), and thus was lost to time like tear drops in the rain.) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, we (1) review the passing of the Sirens and Skylla and Charybdis (the Rovers/Roving Rocks); (2) we again witness the "brilliance" of Eurylochos, and (3) witness the catastrophe that befalls Odysseus' men when he again falls asleep and is not there to guide their judgment. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, we discuss (a) can humans understand divine justice? (b)  What about people who existed before Christianity or outside its physical range (those born along the Indus)? And (c) how can Trajan and Ripheus (noble pagans) be in heaven, but not Virgil? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this conversation, Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wes Schantz, and I consider (a) Harry's Hearing and the corruption at the Ministry of the Magic; (2) we consider Mr. Weasley and the introduction of Dolores Umbridge and Luna Lovegood, and (c) consider the source of Harry's new increasing humanity, quick temper, and his evolving relationship with his friends and the heroic ideal. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, we (1) finish considering Tityos, Tantalos, Sisyphos, and Herakles in the Underworld of Homer; (2) return to Circe's isle, Aiaia, and plan for the Sirens, Skylla and Charybdis, and Thrinakia (the Isle of the Sun); (3) we then witness the song of the alluring Sirens, and watch "the most pitiful thing [Odysseus'] eyes have ever seen". --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, we (1) enter Jupiter and observe its blush recede to objective paleness; (2) we learn about the just rulers who occupy Jupiter and the eagle that symbolizes and vocalizes their collective will, and (3) we consider whether divine justice is effable or ineffable for Dante. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this episode of Conversations, Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wesley Schantz, and I open the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," and consider its first six chapters. Specifically, we considered (a) Harry's new attitude and the deepening layers in the fifth installment; (b) how Harry is dealing with the coming of the dark lord and the death of Cedric, and (c) how the darkness and awareness of darkness within the series of books mimics the developing darkness and awareness of darkness within Harry himself. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, we discuss (a) Odysseus' fate in relation to Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Ulysses", (b) why the shades in the underworld do in the underworld what they did while alive, and (c) we meet the three great tortured souls: Sisyphos, Tantalos, and Tityos. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, we consider (a) Cacciaguida's foretelling of Dante's bitter future, (b) the philosophy and psychology of seeing good times in the future (heaven/promised land) or the past (Eden/Ogygia/Golden Age), and (c) we concluded with a consideration of how to turn catastrophe to one's immortal advantage. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, enter Homer's underworld and witness (a) Elpenor's folly, (b) the tragedy of Antikleia's death, and (c) meet some old friends: Agamemnon and Achilleus. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this lecture, I (a) give an overview of Dante's sphere of Mars, (b) introduce the symbol of the cross, and (c) introduce Cacciaguida and illuminate the connections between him and Anchises from Virgil's Aeneid. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this episode, Mr. Wesley Schantz and I consider (1) the Lucrecia side-quest and the emerging complexity of the question of good and evil in the game, (2) the emergence of hierarchies of antagonism in the emergence of Diamond Weapon, and (3) we question whether a video game can stand against the narrative force of epic literature. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support

In this conversation with Mr. Wesley Schantz, we consider (1) Individualized Education Plans, the science and philosophy behind them, and what their impact is on students and educational systems of standards; (2) we think about the role of character development in education and its actual neuropsychological benefits, and (3) we consider what information and resources educators can access which are scientifically rigorous, rather than good-hearted but ideologically motivated (re: prejudiced).  Special Education Teachers on Decline: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0014402916684620?journalCode=ecxc https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/12/05/shortage-of-special-educators-adds-to-classroom.html LA Teachers and Pensions: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-los-angeles-teacher-strike-has-a-huge-problem-pensions Individualized Education Plans: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/the-charade-of-special-education-programs/421578/ --- Send in a voice message: http

In this lecture, we (a) review the Kikones, Lotus Eaters, Cyclopes, Aiolos, and Laistrygones episodes from Odysseus' story-journey; (b) we then move on to Circe's house and (c) observe the demise of poor, foolish Elpenor. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support