349 Kafka's Metamorphosis (with Blume)

What does it mean to live a good life? How can we accomplish it? For more than two thousand years, Western civilization has looked to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics to help answer those questions. In this episode, Jacke talks to translator Robin Waterfield and scholar John Sellar ...  Show more

What do Iranians - both home and abroad - think of race? Does "blackness" exist in Iran? And what can we learn about race and slavery in Iran from folklore, ethnography, literature, and films? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Amy Motlagh about her book Colorblind: Racial Th ...  Show more

Hi friends!! We're here with the most requested episode yet: Kafka! In this one we discuss The Trial, Metamorphosis, Letters to Milena, and Kafka in general.

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Franz Kafka - "The Metamorphosis" - is a profound tale that explores themes of alienation, identity, and the human condition. Kafka's celebrated literary style masterfully draws listeners into a bizarre yet strangely relatable universe, where the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, awaken ...  Show more

Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis is a strange tale that poses the question of what it would be like to one day wake up and suddenly find yourself transformed into an insect, however, through the use of satire and absurdism, Kafka has sculpted a story that has far deeper me ...  Show more

Today we talk about Camus' book The Fall and what the main character represents in his larger project. We also talk about someone Camus deeply admired, Franz Kafka, and how to think of the images he created in his work. We talk about the experience of the modern individual in rel ...  Show more