Critical Readings

Episoade

• CR Episode 325: The Once and Future King, Part I 01.06.2026 1h 10min

  The panel reads the first seven chapters of The Sword in the Stone, with attention given to the modern and medieval aspects of the setting, White's own narratorial voice, the differing metaphors and parallels of characterisation, and the original sources.
• CR Episode 324: The Poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson 25.05.2026 58min

  The panel reads three poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson—"Uriel", "Ode Inscribed to William H. Channing", and "The Snow Storm"—with special attention to the role of the poet-philosopher's transcendentalist, romanticist, and abolitionist views in the poems.
• CR Episode 323: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V 18.05.2026 1h 8min

  The panel discusses the concluding act and scene of the play, with special attention to the linguistic wordplay and the Shakespearean critique of players, audiences, and critics alike in the both the play-within-a-play device and in Puck's epilogue.
• CR Episode 322: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV 11.05.2026 53min

  The panel discusses the resolution of the love quadrangle, as Puck puts right the enchantments in order to bring Oberon's original plan to fruition, before turning to consider Titania's relationship to her husband in the wake of her own enchantment.
• CR Episode 321: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III 04.05.2026 1h 10min

  The panel discusses the deployment of additional fairy magic, with the transformation of Bottom and the confounding of Helena, and the confusion that results when both Bottom and Helena misbelieve that they are subject of their friends' pranks.
• CR Episode 320: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II 27.04.2026 1h

  The panel discusses the second act and the moment in the play when the plans of the characters begin to go astray due to mischance, with special attention to the tension between Titania and Oberon, and the expanding geographical knowledge of the time.
• CR Episode 319: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I 20.04.2026 52min

  The panel discusses the setting and form of the play, before discussing the first act and its complicated love quadrangle, with attention given to love and the threat of violence, and the characters' creation of overlapping plans that threaten to collide.
• CR Episode 318: Paradise Regained, Book IV 13.04.2026 1h 3min

  The panel discusThe panel discusses the end of the second temptation, with Satan's exasperation and the exhaustion of his intellect, followed by his less cunning and crafty final temptation, set high atop the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, whence he falls anew.
• CR Episode 317: Paradise Regained, Book III 06.04.2026 1h

  The panel discusses the continuation of the second temptation in the desert, with Satan's various presentations of worldly power, and the explication that acceptance of any of his 'gifts' is tantamount to acknowledging his sovereignty over the recipient.
• CR Episode 316: Paradise Regained, Book II 30.03.2026 56min

  The panel discusses the second book, with special attention to the newest appearance of Satan, his confusion, and the difference between his first temptation (bread) and this second temptation (a feast), before shifting to his offer of worldly powers.
• CR Episode 315: Paradise Regained, Book I 23.03.2026 1h 8min

  The panel discusses the first book of Paradise Regained, the sequel (or continuation) of Paradise Lost, with special attention paid to the particular qualities of the first temptation in the desert, and to the poet's references to the earlier poem.
• CR Episode 314: W.H. Auden and Mediaevalism 16.03.2026 1h 9min

  The panel is joined by a special guest, the poet and author Aaron Poochigian, to discuss three medievally-inflected poems by Auden: "Lady Weeping at the Crossroads", "Ode to the Medieval Poets", and the 'Bombing Run' excerpt from "The Age of Anxiety."
• CR Episode 313: Sense and Sensibility, Part IV 09.03.2026 1h 13min

  The panel discusses the closing chapters of the novel, with special attention to the quasi-reformation of Willoughby's character, the depths of villainy attained by Lucy Steele, the triumph of Col. Brandon, and Elinor's emotional displays: grief and joy.
• CR Episode 312: Sense and Sensibility, Part III 02.03.2026 1h 21min

  The panel discusses chapters 30–39, with the unveiling of secrets including Edward and Lucy's engagement, and Colonel Brandon's connexion to Willoughby, and featuring a discussion of Colonel Brandon's good character and Willoughby's extravagant villainy.
• CR Episode 311: Sense and Sensibility, Part II 23.02.2026 1h 14min

  The panel discusses chapters 18–29, with a omparison of the relationship of Elinore and Edward versus that of Marianne and Willoughby, a discussion of the role of leisure or industry in happiness, and a consideration of the failures of civility on show.
• CR Episode 310: Sense and Sensibility, Part I 16.02.2026 1h 10min

  The panel discusses the first seventeen chapters of Sense and Sensibility, with special attention given to contemporary inheritance law, the character faults of the Dashwoods, and the opposition between Elinore's 'sense' and her family's 'sensibility'.
• CR Episode 309: The Vanity of Human Wishes 09.02.2026 1h 16min

  The panel discusses Dr. Johnson's imitation of the tenth satire of Juvenal, with its message of caution about advanced age and the temptations of academic life, with special attention given to the difference lying between imitation and translation.
• CR Episode 308: The Hobbit, Part V 02.02.2026 1h 31min

  The panel discusses the closing chapters—the battles against Smaug and between the five armies, and the journey home—with special attention to the influence of great wealth, the difference between leaders amongst the Lake-men, and Bilbo's significance.
• CR Episode 307: The Hobbit, Part IV 26.01.2026 1h 34min

  The panel discusses the party's arrival in and departure from Lake-Town, and their arrival at and infiltration of the Lonely Mountain, with special attention to the contrast between rationalism and romanticism, particularly in the Master of Lake-Town.
• CR Episode 306: The Hobbit, Part III 19.01.2026 1h 17min

  The panel reads chapters 8 and 9, with special attention to the episodic structure of the narrative, the maturation of Bilbo and his rising stature amongst the dwarves, the role of hunger and darkness in creating tension, and the timeframe of events.