# Ep. 125 – Christopher Nolan's Odysseus and the Attack on Western Literature

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/magnus-podcast-conversations-from-the-catacombs-of-liberal-education-251308/ep-125-christopher-nolan-s-odysseus-and-the-attack-on-western-literature
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/magnus-podcast-conversations-from-the-catacombs-of-liberal-education-251308/ep-125-christopher-nolan-s-odysseus-and-the-attack-on-western-literature.md
Podcast: [Magnus Podcast: Conversations from the Catacombs of Liberal Education](https://stenobird.com/podcast/magnus-podcast-conversations-from-the-catacombs-of-liberal-education-251308)
Published: 2026-07-24T20:25:16+00:00
Episode link: https://magnuspodcast.podbean.com/e/ep-125-%e2%80%93-christopher-nolans-odysseus-and-the-attack-on-western-literature/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/ui9kkvvz7g7ppkzb/Ep_125_Liza_Libes_audio_only6fdgr.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/magnus-podcast-conversations-from-the-catacombs-of-liberal-education-251308/episodes/ep-125-christopher-nolan-s-odysseus-and-the-attack-on-western-literature
Duration seconds: 4570

## Resource

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has sparked renewed interest in Homer, but has also raised a deeper question. What happens when modern assumptions begin to reshape the great books themselves? Joshua Mazrin sits down with Liza Libes of Pens & Poison to discuss Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey, the influence of modern translations, the state of higher education, and why so many universities now teach students to read the classics through an ideological lens rather than on their own terms. The conversation moves well beyond the film. It explores what is lost when we no longer allow Homer, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and the rest of the Western tradition to speak in their own voices. If the classics have endured for centuries, perhaps the first task is not to rewrite them, but to read them.

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## Transcript

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