Ada Palmer on Viking Metaphysics, Contingent Moments, and Censorship

Ada Palmer on Viking Metaphysics, Contingent Moments, and Censorship

Ada Palmer is a Renaissance historian at the University of Chicago who studies radical free thought and censorship, composes music, consults on anime and manga, and is the author of the acclaimed Terra Ignota sci-fi series, among many other things.

Tyler sat down with Ada to discuss why living in the Renaissance was worse than living during the Middle Ages, how art protected Florence, why she's reluctant to travel back in time, which method of doing history is currently the most underrated, whose biography she'll write, how we know what old Norse music was like, why women scholars helped us understand Viking metaphysics, why Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist is an interesting work, what people misunderstand about the inquisition(s), why science fiction doesn't have higher social and literary status, which hive she would belong to in Terra Ignota, what the new novel she's writing is about, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded June 28th, 2023.

Other ways to connect

Photo Credit: Jason Smith

Avsnitt(286)

Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe

Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe

Carl Zimmer is one of the finest science communicators of our time, having spent decades writing about biology, evolution, and heredity. His latest (and 16th) book, Air-Borne: The Hidden History of t...

5 Mars 202551min

Gregory Clark on Social Mobility, Migration, and Assortative Mating (Live at Mercatus)

Gregory Clark on Social Mobility, Migration, and Assortative Mating (Live at Mercatus)

How much of your life's trajectory was set in motion centuries ago? Gregory Clark has spent decades studying social mobility, and his findings suggest that where you land in society is far more predic...

19 Feb 20251h 23min

Ross Douthat on Why Religion Makes More Sense Than You Think

Ross Douthat on Why Religion Makes More Sense Than You Think

Sign Up for the Boston Listener Meet Up For Ross Douthat, phenomena like UFO sightings and the simulation hypothesis don't challenge religious belief—they demonstrate how difficult it is to escape rel...

5 Feb 20251h 13min

Joe Boyd on the Birth of Rock, World Music, and Being There for Everything

Joe Boyd on the Birth of Rock, World Music, and Being There for Everything

Sign Up for the Boston Listener Meet Up Joe Boyd was there when Dylan went electric, when Pink Floyd was born, and when Paul Simon brought Graceland to the world. But far from being just another music...

22 Jan 20251h

Scott Sumner on Monetary Rules, Blooming Late, and the Death of Cinema

Scott Sumner on Monetary Rules, Blooming Late, and the Death of Cinema

Scott Sumner didn't follow the typical path to economic influence. He nearly lost his teaching job before tenure, did his best research after most academics slow down, and found his largest audience t...

8 Jan 20251h 8min

Conversations with Tyler 2024 Retrospective

Conversations with Tyler 2024 Retrospective

Donate to Conversations with Tyler Give Crypto Other Ways to Give On this special year-in-review episode, Tyler and producer Jeff Holmes look back on the past year in the show and more, including ...

25 Dec 202458min

Paula Byrne on Thomas Hardy's Women, Jane Austen's Humor, and Evelyn Waugh's Warmth

Paula Byrne on Thomas Hardy's Women, Jane Austen's Humor, and Evelyn Waugh's Warmth

Donate to Conversations with Tyler Give Crypto Other Ways to Give What can Thomas Hardy's tortured marriages teach us about love, obsession, and second chances? In this episode, biographer, novelist,...

11 Dec 202454min

Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography

Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography

Donate to Conversations with Tyler Give Crypto Other Ways to Give In his landmark multi-volume biography of Stalin, Stephen Kotkin shows how totalitarian power worked not just through terror from abo...

4 Dec 20241h 26min

Populärt inom Utbildning

rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
historiepodden-se
det-skaver
nu-blir-det-historia
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
johannes-hansen-podcast
allt-du-velat-veta
not-fanny-anymore
rss-viktmedicinpodden
rss-foraldramotet-bring-lagercrantz
roda-vita-rosen
sektledare
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
sa-in-i-sjalen
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
alska-oss
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
rss-om-vi-ska-vara-arliga
rss-basta-livet
sex-pa-riktigt-med-marika-smith