Ep. 45 - Lorenzo Valterza, PhD: Dante's Inferno, Mean Girls, and the Italian Language

Dr. Lorenzo Valterza is a scholar on Dante Alighieri and the Italian language. He holds a PhD from Rutgers and has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Notre Dame. Lorenzo's doctoral thesis was about the impact of torture and Roman law in Dante. In this episode we discussed many things about the Italian language. He grew up hearing different dialects and then went on to study and teach it later in life. We talked a lot about Dante and how every generation will interpret his works through the prism of their times. For instance, the nature of torture, fate vs free will, or justice. But most importantly, we discussed the many ways that Dante was like Regina George from Mean Girls. Hint: he the Inferno as a sort of Burn Book. Read more about Lorenzo here: https://www.rolliepeterkin.com/lorenzo-valterza-phd-dante-inferno-italian-language ------ As always please feel free to reach out to me on social media! Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rolliepeterkin Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/rolliepeterkin Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rollie.peterkin Website - http://www.rolliepeterkin.com My book - The Cage: Escaping the American Dream http://amzn.to/1Y0xbzD