{"podcast":{"title":"Ascend - The Great Books Podcast","slug":"ascend-the-great-books-podcast-6733379","podcast_index_feed_id":6733379,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/ascend-the-great-book/","website_url":"https://ascend-the-great-book.captivate.fm","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/91cb8b50-c0b7-49d8-9476-279514463e73/TfaX-DfFN1GQWT2CL2LiBMBS.png","author":"Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan","episode_count":151,"summary":"Welcome to Ascend! We are a weekly Great Books podcast hosted by Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan. What are the Great Books? The Great Books are the most impactful texts that have shaped Western civilization. They include ancients like Homer, Plato, St. Augustine, Dante, and St. Thomas Aquinas, and also moderns like Machiavelli, Locke, and Nietzsche. We will explore the Great Books with the light of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Why should we read the Great Books? Everyone is a disciple of someone. A person may have never read Locke or Nietzsche, but he or she thinks like them. Reading the Great Books allows us to reclaim our intellect and understand the origin of the ideas that shape our world. We enter a \"great conversation\" amongst the most learned, intelligent humans in history and benefit from their insights. Is this for first-time readers? YES. Our goal is to host meaningful conversations on the Great Books by working through the texts in chronological order in a slow, attentive manner. Our host Adam Minihan is a first-time reader of Homer. We will start shallow and go deep. All are invited to join. Will any resources be available? YES. We are providing a free…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-16T04:18:19.709235+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ascend-the-great-books-podcast-6733379"},"episode":{"title":"NEW BOOK CLUB and Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry” with H.E. Eduard Habsburg","slug":"new-book-club-and-neil-gaiman-s-chivalry-with-h-e-eduard-habsburg","published_at":"2026-09-15T12:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ascend-the-great-books-podcast-6733379/new-book-club-and-neil-gaiman-s-chivalry-with-h-e-eduard-habsburg","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ascend-the-great-books-podcast-6733379","url":"http://mcidfrxn.podcastwebsites.com/episodes/new-book-club-and-neil-gaimans-chivalry-with-h-e-eduard-habsburg","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/0a5ead97-ff08-42a8-8edd-e274cd0d7960.mp3","summary":"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 sh…","meta_description":"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 transfor…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4401,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ascend-the-great-books-podcast-6733379/episodes/new-book-club-and-neil-gaiman-s-chivalry-with-h-e-eduard-habsburg/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ascend-the-great-books-podcast-6733379/new-book-club-and-neil-gaiman-s-chivalry-with-h-e-eduard-habsburg.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}