Dante's Inferno, Episode 1: Middle-Aged Heretics in Hell
Young Heretics
Spencer Klavan
4.9 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to Young Heretics, the classical education you didn't know you were missing. It's Good Friday...in the year 1300. And also now! Because Dante's Divine Comedy is a poem for all time and our time. Today we are (finally!) beginning our Young Heretics journey through this masterpiece, following Dante's pilgrim step by step as he wanders from the straight and true way into a dark and dangerous adventure that will lead him, ultimately, to the heights of heaven. We'll talk about gu(w)elphs, gh(w)ibellines, art, theology, and of course Studio Ghibli memes. Join me on this new adventure!
Check out Klavans on the Culture, my new podcast with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://youtu.be/ZJpXAoIlbxI?si=3uzICi-kmeShxezu
Sign up for Hebrew, Greek, or Latin courses at the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/heretics/
Listen to Inferno read aloud on the Digital Dante site: https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/sound/bausi-readings/
Check out Jonathan Pageau on Dante: https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/courses/dantes-inferno-the-course
Get the Durling and Martinez translation: https://amzn.to/47zWZPK
Get the Anthony Esolen translation: https://amzn.to/4sgKLTj
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back at last to young heretics. |
| 0:03.0 | I've waited so long to record this episode that I think this show has finally become middle-aged heretics. |
| 0:10.0 | For a very good reason, actually, as I will explain, but it's going to be worth the wait. |
| 0:15.0 | I'm really excited because finally, finally, it's time to dig in to Dante's Divine Comedy. Let's get started. |
| 0:28.0 | So thank you for your patience. Thank you for waiting. Really, really appreciate all of you who |
| 0:33.6 | have been writing in and letting me know about what you'd like to hear next. |
| 0:40.9 | We're finally getting around to it. For those of you that have been following the show for a while, |
| 0:46.9 | you know that I've been out at the University of Austin doing some teaching. I was teaching for the winter term, Plato, Aristotle, some selections from the Hebrew Bible. It was really just a terrific experience. |
| 0:55.7 | In fact, so invigorating, so much fun. |
| 0:57.6 | The students were so great that I'm going back in the fall. |
| 1:00.3 | I'm going to be doing this regularly now. |
| 1:03.2 | But one of the cool things about teaching is that the more, the better it goes, the more of it you get. |
| 1:09.1 | In other words, it becomes more and more engrossing as it goes better or better. |
| 1:13.0 | And that meant that I just was completely immersed in the university world out there in Austin. |
| 1:18.4 | I think they're doing some really cool stuff. |
| 1:20.9 | I'm going to, I've done some writing about it that I'm going to share in a little bit. |
| 1:24.7 | But basically, this is a kind of new venture that is designed to fix a lot of what's wrong with American higher education. And that includes a really strong, deep, robust liberal arts program, which is what I was, was and am a part of. And it was just such a rewarding experience that I was so immersed in it that I really didn't feel like I had time to dig into a new Young Heretics series. |
| 1:49.0 | And I wanted to do it right because this is why I love you guys. |
| 1:54.0 | At the end of last year, I finished this big, long series on epics. |
| 1:59.0 | I did. Homer, starting with the Iliad, starting before the Iliad really, |
| 2:03.6 | and the whole story, the whole epic cycle going up to the Iliad, on through to the Odyssey, |
| 2:08.6 | and then on again into Rome with Virgil and the Aeneid. And I got to the end of this huge series |
... |
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