Advertise on podcast: St. John's College (Santa Fe) Lectures

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Krishnan Venkatesh on October 9, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “’To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogin.’ Any reader of Thoreau will have been struck by the quotations and allusions to Chinese and Indian thinkers on almost every page of his major works. He has read more Asian than Western philosophy, and even wrote essays on Confucius and Buddhism, as well as a translation (from French) of part of the Mahabharata. His reading in the Eastern Classics was extensive and formidable. He was not alone in this: Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Whitman, and other Transcendentalist writers were also fired up by Asian thought. They were preceded by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. In this lecture I will be exploring Thoreau’s reading of Asian philosophy: What exactly did he study, how deeply did he understand these books, did they influence him, can he be considered an American version of an Asian philosopher? I will also explore Thoreau’s profound affinity with a body of work he could not possibly have known: the poet-recluses of China and Japan, the Japanese poetic diarists, and his peripatetic brother Matsuo Basho. What is the significance of all this? It will become evident in this lecture that the presence of an Eastern Classics program in Santa Fe reflects an interest that is as American as…the Founding Fathers and the Transcendentalists.”

Audio recording of a lecture given by Donna Orwin on October 2, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “This talk will compare the three Sevastopol sketches. Ms. Orwin will discuss the narrative structure of all of them with an eye to whether or not the point of view of the narrator changes. Who is this narrator in each sketch, and what is his attitude towards war in general and the particular situation in each sketch?”

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Grant Franks onSeptember 18, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series.  The Dean’s Office has provided thisdescription of the event: “Our country is now celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Everyone understands the urge to place special emphasis on anniversaries that are even multiples of ten, but July 4, 1776, was neither the beginning of the American revolution nor its end.  Arguably a more important date in our nation’s history was September 17, 1787, two hundred thirty-nine years ago – sadly, a prime number! – when the Constitution under which our country still operates was signed in Philadelphiaand submitted to the thirteen states for ratification.  This lecture will inquire into the nature of a ‘constitution’ in general, describe some of the intellectual, historical, and political currents that shaped the document produced by the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787, ask which of its features have proved especially valuable, and discuss whether some other might profit from reconsideration or amendment.”

Audio recording of a lecture given by Jillian Conrad onSeptember 11, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series.  The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “When is a threshold just an in-between space, andwhen is it the whole point?  A threshold is at once a place, a metaphor, a structure given to use by language.  It marks the space between one thing and another.  Drawing on notes from the artist’s studio, this talk asks what changes when a threshold is worked from different directions, in different sculptural materials, across different artworks.”

Audio recording of a lecture given by Tahirih Motazedian onSeptember 4, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series.  The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “Key is one of the simplest building blocks of musicand a central property of a work’s musical identity—we refer to “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C Minor,” not “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in Four Movements and 34 Minutes” or “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony With the Very Iconic Motive.”But for a variety of reasons, key has always been ignored as a significant parameter in film music. This talk will show how keys can tell stories in film. The concept of soundtrack is expanded beyond just original scoring to includepre-existing music and sound effects, which represents a paradigm shift in how we perceive films since sound effects aren’t normally heard as “music.” Studying the keys traversed in a film can reveal fascinating insights and hidden layers of narrative meaning, granting new ways to engage with ourfavorite films.”

Audio recording of a lecture given by Dean Sarah Davis on August 28, 2026 as part of the the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series.  The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “At St. John’s we talk a lot about the importance ofquestions.  We understand that questioning is required for independence of mind, for one to come to one’s own conclusions, to live according to one’s own convictions. In this lecture, questioning looks even more radical.  More than simply the way we access the truth of things, the suggestion is that questioning itself, the shape of a questionas question, is particularly revealing of the nature of the world we are trying to understand, not as a means to an end, but in its own right.  The lecture focuses on the description that Socrates gives Meno of shape in Plato’s Meno as the only existing thing that is found always following color.  I argue thismoment marks a turn in their inquiry into virtue toward the question as question.  I investigate this turn and connect it to Heidegger’s argument in his essay ‘The Way to Language’ and the way-making that happens when, as he puts it, ‘language speaks.’”

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Nick Gooding onJuly 29, 2026 as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series.  The Graduate Institute Office has providedthis description of the event: “In Book V, Chapter 10 of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle offers an account of ‘equity’ (epieikeia). The virtue of equity, according to Aristotle, serves as a necessary ‘correction of justice according to law.’  This presents us with difficulty: on the one hand, the need for ‘equitable’ judges seems to belong to the nature of the case – there is simply no way of capturing the demands of justice in a set of general rules; on the other hand, one thing justice demands is that ‘like cases be treated alike’ and that all individuals not be treated arbitrarily – and this seems to require legal verdicts to be determined by general rules, with judicial discretion kept to an absolute minimum.  I want, in this talk, to go some way towards resolving this tension.  I’ll do so on the basis of a careful consideration of why justice resists being reduced to a set of rules, and why we nonetheless value the rule of law.”

Audio recording of a lecture given by David Satran on July22, 2026 as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series.  The Graduate Institute Office has provided thisdescription of the event: “Between the events of the Prague Spring of 1968 and the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia in the final months of 1989, a preeminent figure emerged within the dissident movement: Václav Havel, a young playwright whose dramatic works had been banned from the stage but whose political essays gave trenchant expressions to the principles and goals of the dissenters.  It is no surprise that Havel was one of the principal signatories of ‘Charter (Charta) 77,’ the central document of opposition to the regime, but far from obvious was one of the namesthat appeared next to his: Jan Patočka, a professor of philosophy nearing seventy, a student of both Husserl and Heidegger, and who, until this moment, had remained far from the political stage.  Even as an academician, Patočka had been a marginalized figure – barred from university teaching for almost his entire career due to his refusal to join the Communist party.  His unofficial seminars, however, attended by Havel and scores of other curious and creative youngpeople, earned him an extraordinary stature and deep influence within the Opposition movement.  Patočka’s tragicdeath, only a few months after his emergence as one of the spokesmen of the movement, transformed his status into that of a philosophic martyr for truth and freedom.  This talk will examine the relationship between Havel and Patočka, with an emphasis on central themes in their views on moral responsibility, sacrifice and living in truth.”

Audio recording of a panel discussion given by tutor Seth Appelbaum and visiting scholars David Satran and Ahmed Siddiqi on July 15, 2026 as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series. The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “A panel of tutors and visiting scholars discuss the origins and goals of the Santa Fe Graduate Institute’s newest Master’s Degree Program, which focuses on the classic literary and philosophic works of the Jewish and Islamic traditions. After hearing from each of the panelists, attendees had an opportunity to engage with panel members in a discussion related to the role of St. John’s newest M.A. degree from the perspective of our nation’s, and the world’s, larger engagement with the questions and traditions taken up in this new program.”

Audio recording of a lecture given by Musa al-Gharbi on July 8, 2026 as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series. The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “One virtue of a Great Books curriculum is that it helps pull people out of the immediate moment, allowing us deeper and richer context of contemporary society. In his lecture, Musa al-Gharbi will explore how Max Weber’s ‘The Protestant Work Ethic’ can shed light on contemporary struggles around ‘social justice.’”

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor David Levine on July 1, 2026 as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series.

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Richard McCombson June 24, 2026 as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series.  The Graduate Institute Office has providedthis description of the event: “After rejecting Christianity and God, George Eliot continued to speak, seemingly with approval, of conversion, saints, worship, and religion.  Onemight be tempted to write off her extensive use of religious language as mere metaphor or as vague and impotent spirituality.  But before adopting this easy explanation, one must reckon with several highly suggestive facts.  First, there is the utter seriousness of her moral vision.  Second, it is very tempting to venerate the protagonists of her last twonovels as saints.  And third, she writes many stories of conversion, two of which at least are perhaps more moving than that of St. Augustine in his Confessions.  In this lecture I will argue that George Eliot’s last three novels should be read as attempts to reveal that the best human life is lived with a kind of secular or natural religiousness.”

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Michael Grenkeon May 15, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series.  The Dean’s Office has provided thisdescription of the event: “In his novella, Benito Cereno, Herman Melville depicts the aftermath of a slave uprising aboard a Spanish ship.  The ship is encountered by an American vessel, and the unknowing and friendly American captain visits the now slave-run ship to aid in its distress, assuming it is still a Spanish-run ship.  The sights and incidents witnessed by the visiting American captain repeatedly give rise to suspicions that are dismissed or allayed by the American’s kindliness, obtuseness, and prejudice.  The reader, though no better informed, can hardly help conclude the truth of the situation.  In this respect alone, Melville’s story is amasterful presentation of the kind of anticipatory emotion that fear itself is.  But there is a deeper thought underneath.  The leader of the slave revolt, Babo, turns out to be a mastermind of unsuspected authorial power.  He authors the whole pageant aboard ship that convinces the American that Spanish rule persists.  He authors the revolt itself.  He authors the actions and speech of the titular character Benito Cereno.  Babo’s authorship raises the very possibility one man can so enslave another as to infect the very seat of choice and action.  How is such a slavery possible and can it be undone?  Is there a slavery from which the slave cannot be freed?”

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Sarah Stickneyon May 8, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series.  The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “This lecture will look at Prince Hal’s passage fromtavern brawler to battlefield hero in Shakespeare’s Henry VI part I.  Many elements of the play suggest that Hal will fail and Harry Hotspur will triumph; why does the opposite happen? What kind of education does Hal need in order to become king and keep the newly usurped throne in the family?  From Bolingbroke’s perspective, Hal is threatening the precious reputation of the new kingship, wrested so unconventionally from Richard’s poetic but impotent hands.  Hal’s high jinks could come at enormous cost to the kingdom’s tenuous stability.  Yet Hal might understand better than his father that the new order of the kingdom will have to be newly invented now that the divine right of kings no longer holds.”

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Jim Carey onApril 24, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series.  The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “According to Aristotle, there is a science (epistēmē) that considers being as being, or that which is insofar as it is.  This science later came to be known as ‘metaphysics,’ a word that Aristotle himself does not use but which came into use a few centuries after he died and has been with us ever since. Metaphysics does not consider that which is in terms of its particular features, as do other sciences such as astronomy, chemistry, biology, and psychology.  The concern of metaphysics is broader than that of physics.  Physicslimits itself to the study of perceivable beings, to bodies that are in motion or capable of being put into motion. Though metaphysics does not limit itself this way, it does not adopt as a premise that there is something outside the domain of physics.  Instead, it begins by considering the verythings that physics considers, but in a different way.  Whether, starting from such a basis, metaphysics can demonstrate the existence of something ‘beyond’ nature, and, if so, what pertains to its essence, is a controversial question.  The various answers to this question constitute the history of metaphysics, or discourse about being, from ClassicalAntiquity through the Middle Ages and into Modernity.  In my talk I will highlight and attempt an assessment of what I consider to be the most consequential events in thishistory, which culminates, after a fashion, in Heidegger’s claim that not only is discourse about being historical, but being itself is historical."