118. Stephen Greenblatt (humanities scholar) – Irresistible Fictions

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2017

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An ancient, one-and-a-half-page-story that just won't let us go. Humanities scholar Stephen Greenblatt and host Jason Gots discuss how Adam and Eve have shaped and been shaped by Western art, culture, and science, in this, Big Think's latest brain-fertilizing podcast. Greenblatt is the Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and the author of thirteen books, including the Pulitzer prize-winning The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. His latest, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, traces the cultural history of that most primal of stories about a man, a woman, God, and a snake. It’s a couple thousand years old and only about two pages long, but it’s still exerting a powerful cultural influence today. Surprise conversation-starter clips in this episode: Salman Rushdie on recent white supremacist clashes in America and Virginia Heffernan: The Internet is not a neurotoxin -- About Think Again - A Big Think Podcast: Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think’s interview archives. You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel? Why not gambling? The Art of War? Contemporary parenting? Some of the best conversations happen when we're pushed outside of our comfort zones. Each week on Think Again, we surprise smart people you may have heard of with short clips from Big Think's interview archives on every imaginable subject. These conversations could, and do, go anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Huh, have you ever wondered what a sandwich sounds like?
0:04.3	Not much to it, is there?
0:06.2	Unless, of course, it's a Walker's sandwich.
0:10.9	Mmm, that is good.
0:12.9	Now that's what Asani should sound like.
0:15.8	Go all crisp in with walkers.
0:19.0	Delicious.
0:20.0	Hi there, I'm Jason Gatz and you're listening to Think Again a Big Think podcast.
0:28.6	Started in 2008, Big Think is a kind of online think tank of big ideas from some of the most creative thinkers on the planet.
0:36.6	On the Think Again podcast, we revisit these ideas in new and unpredictable ways.
0:41.5	Our producer surprised me and my guests with short interview clips from Big Things
0:45.0	Archives, ideas that we didn't necessarily come here expecting to discuss.
0:49.2	I'm very, very happy to be here today with Humanity Scholar and author Stephen Greenblatt.
0:53.8	He's the Kogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, General
0:58.1	Editor of the Norton Anthology of English Literature and the author of 13 books,
1:02.2	including the Pulitzer Prize winning The Swerve, How the World Became Modern.
1:06.3	His latest book, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, traces the cultural history of that
1:10.7	most primal of stories about a man, a woman, God Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, traces the cultural history of that most primal
1:11.4	of stories about a man, a woman, God, and a snake.
1:15.1	It's a couple thousand years old and only about two pages long, but it's still exerting
1:18.6	a powerful cultural influence on us today.
1:21.6	Welcome to think again, Stephen.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Big Think / Panoply, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Big Think / Panoply and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.