Episode 86: Chess

Nathan Gilmour moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about chess. Long regarded as the mark of an educated person, skill in chess requires, as the Humanists discover, both a strong grasp of mathematical possibilities and a keen awareness of contingency as the character of human reality. Among the texts, artists, and other realities engaged are the Ruy Lopez chess manual, T.S. Eliot, the Hardy Boys, Thomas Middleton, Garry Kasparov, the etymology of "checkmate," and The Wire.