Episode 291: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Ch. 22-End
Release Date: 08/26/2025
Episode 315: "Don Juan" by Moliere, Introduction and Act 1
The Literary Life Podcast
Today on The Literary Life podcast, Angelina and Thomas begin a new series discussing Moliere's farcical play . They open the discussion with some background on Moliere's plays in general, as well as other drama of this time period, then the origins of the story of Don Juan itself. After this introduction, Thomas and Angelina read some of the play and discuss some of the key characters and ideas presented in the opening acts. If you missed this year's annual Literary Life Online Conference, "The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Quickeneth: Reading Like a Human", you can still purchase the...
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Episode 314: "Best of" - Our Favorite Poems
The Literary Life Podcast
On this "Best of The Literary Life" episode from the vault, our hosts discuss their favorite poems and poets. Cindy starts off by sharing the early influences on her developing a love of poetry. Thomas also shares about his mother reading poetry to him as a child and the poetry that made an impression on him as a child. Angelina talks about coming to poetry later in life and how she finally came to love it through learning about the metaphysical poets. Cindy and Thomas talk about the powerful effect of reading and reciting poetry in meter. Thomas also brings up the potential of hymn texts as...
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Episode 313: The Tower and the Ruin with Dr. Michael Drout
The Literary Life Podcast
On The Literary Life Podcast this week, Angelina and Thomas are pleased to have special guest Dr. Michael Drout joining them to discuss his book . Together they talk about the background for writing this book and who Drout intended his audience to be. They also share thoughts on the current academic trends and the state of the humanities and literary studies in higher education. Other topics they cover include high modernism, literary criticism, realism and fantasy, and critical reviews of Tolkien’s work. Don’t forget to share this episode with the hashtag #LitLifeTolkien on Facebook or...
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Episode 312: "Best of" - Fairy Tales and Children's Literature with Dr. Vigen Guroian
The Literary Life Podcast
Welcome to an another great episode from the archives of The Literary Life podcast! This week we bring you an interview our hosts had with special guest Dr. Vigen Guroian, retired professor of Religious Studies and Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia and author of twelve book and numerous scholarly articles. Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks discuss with Dr. Guroian the new edition of his book, . They start out talking about how the first edition of this book came about, which leads into a discussion about the current approach to fairy tales and children’s stories in...
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Episode 311: “Falling Inward” with Dr. Jason Baxter
The Literary Life Podcast
This week on The Literary Life Podcast, Angelina and Thomas are joined by their friend and colleague Dr. Jason Baxter to talk about his newest book coming soon from , Falling Inward. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina asks Jason why he wanted to update and republish this work that he originally wrote several years ago. They discuss what is different about the idea of falling inward versus navel gazing, the role of the teacher in approaching literature in a humane way, why we should seek a pre-modern cosmology, what kinds of topics Jason explored in this book, and so much more!...
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Episode 310: "Best of" - What to Do When The Literary Life Feels Overwhelming (Ep. 231)
The Literary Life Podcast
On this week's "Best of The Literary Life Podcast" episode, host Angelina Stanford is joined by friends and fellow readers Cindy Rollins, Emily Raible, and Jone Rose to discuss how to deal with overwhelm with your literary life. Angelina opens the conversation with the acknowledgment that everyone has moments when they feel overwhelmed by the amount of things to read and to know. Jone talks about how she tries to avoid comparing herself and her reading life to that of others. Emily shares her eye-opening understanding after starting out discouraged about being "behind" in her self-education...
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Episode 309: Our Literary Lives of 2025
The Literary Life Podcast
For this final episode of the 2025 season on The Literary Life Podcast, we bring you a special year-end conversation with Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks all about their year in reading. Thomas talks about how most of his reading was tied to classes he taught. Cindy and Angelina talk about the reasons they didn’t read as many books as they usually do in a year. They share some of their favorite non-fiction reads of the year, books that surprised them, and fiction highlights. In the course of the conversation, our hosts also make several points about reading in the literary...
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Episode 308: Preview of The Literary Life Season 8
The Literary Life Podcast
On this week’s episode of The Literary Life, Thomas and Angelina bring you a preview of the books we will discuss on the upcoming season of the podcast. First, Angelina explains their approach to the podcast as they approach this next year, then she and Thomas share what literary topics and book discussions you can be looking forward to in 2026. In addition, if you are looking for a reading challenge created by our Friends and Fellows for 2026, you can find it on when you join for free! The House of Humane Letters Christmas sale is live now! Head over to to peruse the discounted webinars...
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Episode 307: “Best of” – Our Year in Reading, Ep. 31
The Literary Life Podcast
This week on The Literary Life podcast, we are dipping back into the archives to bring you a delightful conversation from 2019 in which our Literary Life podcast hosts chatted all about their past year in books, as well as what they hoped to read in the coming year. Cindy, Angelina and Thomas began by sharing some commonplace quotes from books they read in 2019. They discussed their strategies for planning their reading goals and how they curate their “to be read” lists. Each of our hosts also shared some highlights from their year in books. Angelina then introduced . She talked about how...
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Episode 306: “Best of” – What Is the Literary Life?
The Literary Life Podcast
Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast and one of our “best of” episodes from the vault! Due to the busyness of the holiday season, we thought this would be the perfect time to bring you a replay from our archives instead of starting a brand new book discussion series. This week, we re-air the inaugural episode of The Literary Life, in which Cindy and Angelina introduce the podcast and what they mean when they talk about having a “literary life.” Each of them share how stories have shaped their personal lives, as well as how they believe stories have the power to shape culture. You...
info_outlineThis week on The Literary Life Podcast we wrap up the book discussion portion of our series on Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. Today, Angelina and Thomas begin with chapter 22, going through the significant scenes all the way to the end of the book. They talk about the ways in which this book is an elegy, as well as the continued glimpses of “the family” as the main character. They also discuss the ways in which May shows herself to be more cunning that she pretends in contrast to Ellen’s lack of pretense. Other topics of discussion are America’s relationship with foreign influence, Archer’s desire to live in an illusion, and the recurring theme of “Faust.” They conclude with some thoughts on this book as a parable of American culture.
Join us next week for an episode on the film adaptation of this book with our film guru, Atlee Northmore.
Visit the HouseofHumaneLetters.com to sign up for all the upcoming and past mini-classes and webinars, especially “The Viking World” taught by Dr. Michael Drout.
To view the full show notes for this week's episode, please visit https://theliterary.life/291.