Professor Sarah Churchwell on Genius, Big Dreams and F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.5 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2023
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ryan speaks with Sarah Churchwell about her book Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby, the complicated figure of F. Scott Fitzgerald, how The Great Gatsby’s celebration of mad dreamers who chase the American Dream informs our pursuit of the same ideal today, and more.
Sarah Churchwell is professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her work focuses on 20th- and 21st-century American literature and cultural history, especially the 1920s and 1930s, including four books: The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Behold America: A History of America First and the American Dream, The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells, and the aforementioned Careless People. She has written for numerous publications, including The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The Spectator, the New Statesman, The Guardian and The Observer. Saraha was also a judge for the 2014 Man Booker Prize, the 2017 Baillie Gifford Prize, and the 2019 Sunday Times Short Story Prize. In April 2021, she was long listed for the Orwell Prize for Journalism.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast where each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired |
| 0:09.3 | by the ancient stillyx, a short passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find |
| 0:14.7 | strength and insight here in everyday life. |
| 0:18.3 | And on Wednesdays, we talk to some of our fellow students of ancient philosophy, well-known |
| 0:24.2 | and obscure, fascinating and powerful. |
| 0:27.5 | With them, we discuss the strategies and habits that have helped them become who they are |
| 0:32.4 | and also to find peace and wisdom in their actual lives. |
| 0:36.9 | But first, we've got a quick message from one of our sponsors. |
| 0:41.3 | Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. |
| 0:48.6 | Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic podcast. |
| 0:51.5 | I was going through some boxes upstairs at my house and I found something my parents |
| 0:55.9 | had emailed me. |
| 0:57.6 | It says AP US History honors 11 essay cover sheet. |
| 1:02.9 | So apparently I wrote an essay February 5, 2004. |
| 1:07.7 | My English teacher was Miss Cars, who I loved. |
| 1:11.2 | And I would love to reconnect with if anyone happens to know Miss Jesslyn Cars from Granite |
| 1:18.0 | Bay, California. |
| 1:19.0 | Anyways, I wrote this essay and not only did I find the essay, but I found this sheet |
| 1:24.9 | and I remembered it as soon as I saw it. |
| 1:27.8 | We'd been asked to write an essay. |
| 1:29.1 | The prompt was analyze how and why the Great Gatsby is an exploration of the American dream |
| 1:34.1 | as it exists in a corrupt period. |
... |
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