From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

The Jews made the desert bloom.

They planted millions of trees, drilled wells everywhere, ultimately launched drip irrigation, and just completely made the desert bloom.

This is your host, Scott Bertram. Welcome to the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, part of the Hillsdale

College Podcast Network. That was George Gilder, author of The Israel Test, how Israel's genius enriches and challenges

the world. We'll talk with George about that book coming up in just a little bit. First, we're

joined by Dr. Stephen Smith. He is Dean of Humanities, Temple Family Chair in English Literature

and Professor of English at Hillsdale College. Dr. Smith,

thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me on. We are pleased to have you today to talk about

the brand new Hillsdale College online course, Paradise Lost. And you can find it at Hillsdale.edu

slash new course, C-O-U-R-S-E, Hillsdale.edu slash new course, C-O-U-R-S-E, Hillsdale.

Dot E-D-U-S-N-U-S-N-U-Course.

It is available now as we speak.

So you've done a few of these online courses in the past.

Why this one?

Why one with a focus on Paradise Lost?

Great question.

I've loved this poem since my college years.

I remember being in O'Hare Airport in the middle of a long, long delay and reading this poem for the first time.

I was blown away.

I loved it immediately. And all I really wanted to do was

recite the poem out loud. I was so struck by the greatness of Milton's English. So it started there,

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