Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)

In this show Robert Harrison and Crystal Cassidy discuss the biology, spirit, and outcomes of meditation. Crystal Cassidy is a meditation master and founder of SoulPod. Songs in this episode: “Silence Must be Heard” by Enigma, and “The Voice of Enigma” by Enigma.

Transcribed - Published: 16 December 2025

This episode features Robert Harrison’s conversation with Christy Wampole about Zeitgeist and the spirit of planet Earth, which took place at Princeton University on October 23, 2025.

Transcribed - Published: 4 December 2025

A conversation between Robert Harrison and Christy Wampole about the origins and history of Entitled Opinions.

Transcribed - Published: 10 November 2025

In this monologue Robert Harrison reflects on the differences between human intelligence, animal intelligence, and artificial intelligence. Songs in this episode: “From the Beginning” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer; “La Nuit du Rat” by La Féline; and “If” by Pink Floyd.

Transcribed - Published: 22 October 2025

In this show Robert Harrison and Michaela Hulstyn discuss various experiences of unselfing, focusing on the nature of its shapeshifting and the knowledge that unselfing delivers. Michaela Hulstyn is a Lecturer at Stanford and Associate Director of Stanford’s Structured Liberal Education program. She is the author of Unselfing: Global French Literature at the Limits of […]

Transcribed - Published: 2 October 2025

A conversation about the uses and abuses of action in the history of philosophy and contemporary society with Grant Dowling. Songs in this episode: “Silence Must Be Heard” by Enigma, and “Easy Does It” by Supertramp.

Transcribed - Published: 19 September 2025

A conversation about crystals and their mysterious quantum powers with Dr. Aaron Breidenbach. Songs in this episode: “From the Beginning” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and “Crystalised” by The xx.

Transcribed - Published: 5 September 2025

A monologue in which our host, Professor Robert Harrison, gets swept up by the spirit of the wind and carried toward some indeterminate destination. Songs in this episode: “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac, “Annabelle Lee” by Glass Wave, and “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix.

Transcribed - Published: 8 May 2025

A conversation about David Jones’ “In Parenthesis” with Tim Noakes, Head of Public Services, Special Collections at Stanford University. Songs in this episode: “A Fool No More” by Peter Green, and “Machine Gun” by Jimi Hendrix.

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

A conversation about sex, intimacy, and human relations in the era of AI with Jeanne Proust, Vice President of the Public Philosophy Network. Songs in this episode: “Reckoner” by Radiohead, and “She’s Not There” by The Zombies.

Transcribed - Published: 26 March 2025

A monologue in which our host, Professor Robert Harrison, performs a “cover” of Walter Benjamin’s essay titled “The Destructive Character,” first published in 1931.

Transcribed - Published: 20 February 2025

A conversation about Carl Jung, the Red Book, and Jung’s descent into the unconscious with Laura Wittman, Associate Professor of French and Italian at Stanford University. Songs in this episode: “Into the Night” by Julee Cruise, and “End of the Night” by The Doors.

Transcribed - Published: 11 February 2025

A conversation about the real, the actual, and the virtual with Jan Söffner, Visiting Professor in German Studies at Stanford University and Chair of Cultural Theory and Cultural Analysis at Zeppelin University. Songs in this episode: “Echo” by Glass Wave, and “Compared to What” by Ray Charles.

Transcribed - Published: 12 December 2024

A conversation about the origins of language and everything in between with Julie Sedivy, a psycholinguist and author of Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love. Songs in this episode: “From the Beginning” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and “Belly Button Window” by Jimi Hendrix.

Transcribed - Published: 12 November 2024

A conversation about the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke with Alexander Sorenson, Assistant Professor of German Studies at Binghamton University and author of The Waiting Water: Order, Sacrifice and Submergence in German Realism. Songs in this episode: “The Trampled Rose” by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, and “New Age of the Earth” by Ash-Ra Temple.

Transcribed - Published: 17 October 2024

A conversation about the work of Peter Kingsley, the thought of Parmenides, and everything in between, with Grant Bartolomé Dowling, a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Stanford University, who is currently finishing his dissertation on elenchus in Plato’s Socratic dialogues. Songs in this episode: “La nuit du rat” by La Féline and “End Of The […]

Transcribed - Published: 19 September 2024

A conversation about the intersection of Giambattista Vico’s philosophy, Roman history, and the recent rise of “American Fascism” with Julian Davis, a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Stanford University, who is also a well-known activist and attorney in San Francisco. Songs in this episode: “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones and “Lotus Flower” by […]

Transcribed - Published: 3 September 2024

A conversation about the creative peak of Nietzsche and van Gogh in 1888 with Brian Pines, Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco. Song in this episode: “The Ghost” by Fleetwood Mac.

Transcribed - Published: 16 August 2024

A conversation about bioregionalism and reinhabitation with Mark Gonnerman, author of “A Sense of the Whole: Reading Gary Snyder.” Songs in this episode: “Comin’ Back to Me” by Jefferson Airplane and “Dear Mother Earth” by Canned Heat. PLEASE NOTE: In his introduction, Professor Robert Harrison misattributes the following passage to Gary Snyder: “reinhabitation means learning to […]

Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2024

A meandering monologue on rivers with our host, Professor Robert Harrison. Songs in this episode: “Getting Ready” by Frans Bak, and “You Better Move On” by Arthur Alexander.

Transcribed - Published: 18 April 2024

A conversation about crime in America with Scott Thomas Anderson, author of “Shadow People,” journalist for Sacramento News & Review, and producer of the podcasts “Drinkers with Writing Problems” and “Trace of the Devastation.” Songs in this episode: “Helen” by Glass Wave and “Hey Joe” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Transcribed - Published: 28 March 2024

A conversation with Nate Klemp, a philosopher, writer, and founding partner at Mindfulness Magazine, on practicing mindfulness in our fast-paced, technology-dependent world. He is also co-author of the New York Times bestseller “Start Here.” Songs in this episode: “Nausicaa” by Glass Wave and “Dayvan Cowboy” by Boards of Canada.

Transcribed - Published: 15 February 2024

In this philosophy-heavy episode, Professor Robert Harrison and David Bates, Professor of Rhetoric at UC Berkeley, discuss the “unnatural” origins of human technology and the difficulty of drawing sharp distinctions between artificial and natural intelligence. Songs in this episode: “Bourée” by Jethro Tull and “Ghost” by Fleetwood Mac.

Transcribed - Published: 1 February 2024

A monologue on Dante’s unflattering (and unjustified) portrait of his teacher, Brunetto Latini. This episode wraps up the first season of Robert Harrison’s series on “Dante’s Characters.” Songs in this episode: “La nuit du rat” by La Féline and “Preludio” by Dolce Acqua.

Transcribed - Published: 18 January 2024

A monologue on Guido da Montefeltro, a false counselor whose speech foreshadows literary modernism’s stream of consciousness. Songs in this episode: “Present Tense” by Radiohead and “Prufrock Blues” by Robert Harrison and Anne-Sophie Bine.

Transcribed - Published: 4 January 2024

A monologue on Dante’s Ulysses, the Homeric hero who, in Dante’s retelling, foregoes his return to Ithaca and opts instead to venture into the unknown and unpeopled world, at his own peril. Songs in this episode: “Winter Mind” by Robert Harrison, “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1” by Pink Floyd, and “Calypso” by Suzanne […]

Transcribed - Published: 20 December 2023

A monologue on Dante’s famous love heroine, Francesca da Rimini. This episode is part one of a new mini-series on “Dante’s Characters,” set to air over the coming weeks, in which Professor Robert Harrison discusses some of the most fascinating characters in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Song in this episode: “Helen” by Glass Wave.

Transcribed - Published: 14 December 2023

A conversation with Garry Nolan, who is the Rachford and Carlota Harris Professor of Immunology in the Department of Pathology at Stanford. He has authored numerous medical research papers, has founded biotechnology companies, two of which are on the NASDAQ, and has been particularly active in ufology, the study of Unidentified Flying Objects, also known as […]

Transcribed - Published: 8 December 2023

A conversation with Maria Massucco, who earned her PhD in Italian at Stanford in 2023. Her dissertation is titled “Woundedness and Reintegration: The Phenomenology and Transmission of Women’s Trauma in Modern and Contemporary Italy.” Songs in this episode: “Helen” by Glass Wave, and “Ophelia” by Glass Wave.

Transcribed - Published: 19 October 2023

A conversation with Corey Dansereau, a PhD Candidate in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford, about the impact of Giambattista Vico on James Joyce’s writing. Songs in this episode: “Echo” by Glass Wave, and “I Might Be Wrong” by Radiohead.

Transcribed - Published: 12 October 2023

A monologue in which our host, Professor Robert Harrison, discusses the originality and continued relevance of Giambattista Vico’s New Science (1748). Songs in this episode: “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors, “Nausicaa” by Glass Wave, and “Cycle of Eternity” by Tangerine Dream.

Transcribed - Published: 14 September 2023

A conversation with gardener, social entrepreneur, and venture investor William Rosenzweig about the ethics of care in the private and public spheres. Songs in this episode: “Bourée” by Jethro Tull and “A Lotus On Irish Streams” by Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Transcribed - Published: 31 August 2023

A conversation with philosopher and professor Lydia Moland about the life and thought of Lydia Maria Child, one of the best known American writers and abolitionists of the 19th century. Songs in this episode: “Bourée” by Jethro Tull and “Trampled Rose” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

Transcribed - Published: 24 August 2023

A conversation with Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Albert Guérard Professor of Literature (Emeritus) at Stanford University. He is a recurring guest on Entitled Opinions, and he is back to discuss amor mundi, our collective future, and the role of love in politics alongside our host, Professor Robert Harrison.

Transcribed - Published: 4 August 2023

A monologue in which our host, Professor Robert Harrison, reflects on different kinds of human love, and above all, love of the world.

Transcribed - Published: 28 July 2023

Ana is a Mellon Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center and a Lecturer of French and Italian at Stanford. Her teaching and research focus on the relationship between literature, the industrial revolution, and technology from a Southern perspective.

Transcribed - Published: 12 April 2023

A conversation with Bryan Cheong about Artificial Intelligence. Bryan Cheong received his Bachelor of Science from Stanford University, with a degree in applied and computational mathematics.  He then went on to receive a Masters degree in Materials Science, also from Stanford. This is Byran’s second apparance on our show (previous episode title: What is Matter?)  […]

Transcribed - Published: 13 March 2023

Our host Robert Harrison on America’s nature and political history. Songs in this episode: “I’m A King Bee” by Grateful Dead  “Machine Gun” by Jimi Hendrix “Dear Mother Earth” by Canned Heat

Transcribed - Published: 2 March 2023

Reflections by our host, Professor Robert Harrison.  Songs in this episode: “Winter Mind” by Robert Harrison “St. Lucy” by Robert Harrison “Adagio per archi” by Samuel Barber “Annabel Lee” by Glass Wave

Transcribed - Published: 21 December 2022

Aishwary Kumar is Professor and Shri Shantinath Endowed Chair in Political Nonviolence at California State and Polytechnic University, Pomona, Los Angeles. Aishwary is the author of “Radical Equality: Ambedkar, Gandhi, and the Risk of Democracy”– subject of two Entitled Opinions episodes back in 2016. He returns to the show today to speak on what he calls […]

Transcribed - Published: 16 December 2022

A conversation with Maria Elena Monzani, lead scientist at SLAC national accelerator laboratory and one of the world’s pioneer investigators of dark matter.Songs in this episode:“The World Spins” by Julee Cruise

Transcribed - Published: 23 September 2022

This episode is a pre-recorded show that originally aired on March 4th, 2019 on Christopher Lydon’s “Open Source” podcast.In this conversation, Christopher Lydon and professor Robert Harrison discuss René Girard and his theory of mimetic desire. Additionally, professor Harrison also comments on social media, and recent advancements in biotechnology.

Transcribed - Published: 7 May 2020

In this episode filmmaker and author Werner Herzog discusses his remarkable book “Of Walking in Ice”, first published in 1978. The audio in this show is a recording of a live event that took place at Stanford University on May 7, 2019. Discussing this book with Herzog are professors Robert Harrison and Amir Eshel. Werner […]

Transcribed - Published: 27 May 2019

In this 20 minute conversation, two Stanford undergraduates, Evan Kanji and Sammy Potter, interview our host professor Harrison on the topic of love.Evan and Sammy are the hosts of the KZSU show “Really, Bro?” If you are interested in knowing/hearing more of this podcast, the full list of episodes is available via the following link: […]

Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2019

A conversation with William Hurlbut on the ethical implications of CRISPR-Cas9 and human intervention in the genetic makeup of life. William B. Hurlbut, MD, is Adjunct Professor of Neurobiology at the Stanford Medical School. After receiving his undergraduate and medical training at Stanford University, he completed postdoctoral studies in theology and medical ethics, studying with […]

Transcribed - Published: 6 July 2017

Werner Herzog is one of the most important film directors of the past half-century. He has directed nearly twenty feature films, including such masterpieces as Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo. He has also directed dozens of influential documentaries, including many acclaimed recent films such as Grizzly Man, Encounters at the End of the […]

Transcribed - Published: 22 March 2016

Niklas Damiris is a natural philosopher, trained in biophysics, who has of late taken a turn toward social theory to investigate money’s role in organizing human existence. He is adjunct professor at the University of Lugano in Switzerland, and a visiting scholar at Stanford, where he recently gave a course on the philosophy of money. […]

Transcribed - Published: 10 November 2015

Martin Lewis is a Senior Lecturer in International History in the Department of History at Stanford University. He studied at UC-Santa Cruz and UC-Berkeley, receiving his PhD in Geography in 1987.  His dissertation, and first book, examined the interplay among economic development, environmental degradation, and cultural change in the highlands of northern Luzon in the […]

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2013

Richard Saller is the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities & Sciences at Stanford University. He is also the Kleinheinz Family Professor of European Studies as well as Professor of Classics and History. Dean Saller received Bachelor’s degrees in both History and Greek at the University of Illinois in […]

Transcribed - Published: 25 October 2011

Blair Hoxby studies the literature and culture of the long seventeenth century. Two of his foremost interests are the commercial culture and the theatrical practices of the period. His book Mammon’s Music: Literature and Economics in the Age of Milton (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002) examines the impact of the commercial revolution on writings […]

Transcribed - Published: 8 March 2011