PODCAST · arts
Talk Write
by Brandon Cook
Excerpts and commentary on great writing brandoncookwriter.substack.com
Episodes
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Brilliant Beginnings: Ulysses
In today’s episode, I take a look at the iconic beginning of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and discuss what makes it so luminous. “Ulysses” is often credited with having a famous opening, but it’s worthwhile unpacking everything that Joyce is doing. How does the Irish sea symbolize a dead mother? How...
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Brilliant Beginnings: Number9dream
In today’s reading, I take a look at the turbocharged beginning of David Mitchell’s 2001 novel, Number9dream. Although not as highly regarded as some of his other work, Mitchell’s early novel still shows the trademarks of the master’s fireworking style: humor, clipped pacing, gorgeous details,...
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Brilliant Beginnings: Lolita
A few weeks ago, I talked about what made the beginning of Dickens’s Bleak House so outstanding. Continuing on with this theme, today I take a look at Vladimir Nabokov’s demonic fairytale, Lolita. Everybody knows its euphonic opening line (light of my life, fire of my loins) but what else is...
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Mythic Images: Ascending the Mountain
In today’s video, I look at a piece of travel writing by Robert Twigger and discuss its mythological implications. Whether we admit it or not, mythic patterns are the grammar of our worldviews and are found not just in literature, but anywhere we encounter narrative. Get full access to Talk Write...
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Brilliant Beginnings: Bleak House
In this series, I’ll be looking at some opening pages and talking about what makes them so great. Today, I’m beginning with Dickens’s “Bleak House.” It’s an opening I’ve covered before on my podcast, but there’s still so much to talk about. In twopages, Dickens not only manages to create one of…
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Shakespeare's Most Enigmatic Poem
Among Shakespeare’s least-read works are his early, long poems: Venus and Adonis (1593), and The Rape of Lucrece (1594), and “The Phoenix and the Turtle” (1601). The last poem remains deeply enigmatic. What can it teach us today? And what sort of light does it shed on the rest of Shakespeare’s...
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War and Peace: The Best Battle Scene
In 2025 I got to reread one of my all-time favorites, "War and Peace." While it's widely considered the gold standard for lengthy, 'classic' novels, this title can often discourage would-be readers from this work, which, while long, never drags. Here, I give you one of my favorite scenes that...
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A Chesterton New Year Reflection!
Welcome to 2026! But before we celebrate too hard, it’s important to reflect on what a new year actually is. Are we going to keep repeating the same cycles we always have? Are we going to go on making the same mistakes? Or are we going to recognize that Christmas is the date that marks the...
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Eliot's Death of an Old World
In this video, I talk about T.S. Eliot’s 1927 poem, “The Journey of the Magi.” Dashed off in just forty-five minutes, Eliot’s poem looks at the Christmas miracle from the perspective of the Magi, now grown old and full of years. In the midst of the Christmas season, we can forget that the Birth…
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Enchanting the World with "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
In this video, I talk about how Keats manages to find enchantment everywhere he looks: in nature, old books, the songs of birds, or here, on a Greek vessel which he’d read about in a magazine. Enchantment, however, is never a simple matter with Keats, who knows well that the spells Fancy draws…
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Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale"
Today, I talk about one of John Keats’s most famous poems. In “Ode to a Nightingale,” the great poet creates not just an evocative description of a spellbinding song; he goes on a journey in which, bespelled by beauty, he falls into death and dissolution and is ultimately reborn. But how is this...
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John Keats's "To Autumn"
As the days darken and the temperatures cool, it’s worth visiting one of the most famous autumn poems of all time. Keats wrote this poem in 1819: an extremely prolific year which saw the writing of some of the most beautiful lyric poems of all time. Who needs Spring when you have October? Get…
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To Autumn
As the days darken and the temperatures cool, it’s worth visiting one of the most famous autumn poems of all time. Keats wrote this poem in 1819: an extremely prolific year which saw the writing of some of the most beautiful lyric poems of all time. Who needs Spring when you have October? Get…
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In My End is My Beginning
In today’s reading, we come at last to the end of the journey. Dante has experienced “the three lives of the spirit.” Having passed through the torments of Inferno and Purgatory and seen literally everything between Heaven and Hell, Dante is at last prepared for his final vision. In this ecstatic...
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Holy Tapestry
In today’s reading, Saint Bernard guides Dante through the heavenly mysteries of the Divine Rose. In this heavenly tapestry, all opposites are united: those who proclaimed Christ before His Incarnation, and those who believed in Him after; the Hebrew women of the Nation of Israel, and the…
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I Am Going Away; I Will Come to You
In today’s reading, Dante, enraptured by this vision of heaven, turns to express his wonder to Beatrice, only to find that she has gone, translated higher up into the Divine Rose, with her place taken by Saint Bernard (1090-1153). However, rather than bewail her loss as he did the loss of Vergil...
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Seeing Things as They Really Are
In today’s reading, Dante gets his first look at the Divine Empyrean: the reality of all realities. Having ascended through all nine levels of Heaven, he comes to the Garden of Paradise. But things are still not in their final form: to see the light without blemish, he must drink deeply from the...
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Receive in the Measure you Give
In today’s reading, Beatrice continues her explanation of the angels. We are blessed in proportion that we hunger and thirst for God. No angel envies its neighbor their proximity to God, for all receive love in the same measure that they desire love. Having articulated this, Beatrice then decries...
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Choirs of Angels
In today’s reading, Dante is given a vision of God himself, surrounded by his nine choirs of angels. God is pure, radiant light, and the angels surround him like Saturn’s rings, each ring moving faster the closer it is to the center. Beatrice explains the divine physics at work: the closer we are...
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Ready for Liftoff
In today’s reading, Dante has finally passed all three virtue tests and is ready to move into the Empyrean…but not before Saint Peter has a final say about the current papacy. Turning literally with righteous indignation, the first pope lets loose all holy ire in a (not quite final) rage against...
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Reunion with the Allfather
In today’s reading, Dante completes the last of his three examinations on the theological virtues. Having answered correctly, his blindness is stripped away, revealing a fourth light: his forefather, Adam. Dante’s questions about Eden, the Fall, and the First Language all get settled as he…
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Examination 2: Hope
In today’s reading, having gotten Saint Peter’s dance of approval, Dante ascends to the next examination. Hope, in which he is lectured by Saint James, is not mere optimism, but a powerful force that enables us to overcome darkness, despair, and depression: everything Dante faced when exiled. As…
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Examination 1: Faith
In today’s reading, Dante meets the first of his three examiners. Saint Peter asks Dante what he knows about faith and in what he puts his faith. In true, dry scholastic method, Dante lays out his case perfectly: the ideal pupil. In exhaltation, Saint Peter dances thrice around the student. Get...
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Ready to Soar
In today’s reading, Dante, having passed through the realms of the contemplatives, enjoys the full radiance of Beatrice’s smile. Given a rapturous vision of Christ Triumphant, he is now ready to mount even higher. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe
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Pale Blue Dot
In today’s reading, Dante meets St Benedict, prince of the contemplatives. As ever, Benedict has some choice words for the state of the monasteries now. Having met the contemplatives and passed through all seven heavenly spheres, Dante is now ready to move into the fixed stars, but not before he...
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The Rings of Saturn
In today’s reading, Dante surreptitiously advances to the seventh realm of the blessed. Here dwell the spirits of the great spiritual contemplatives. Dante’s 11th century guide, Peter Damiano, instructs him through spiritual physics, all while spinning like a happy dredl. Get full access to Talk...
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Et tu, Ripheus?
In today’s reading, Dante is astonished to learn the identities of the saved. Of course, Kings David and Solomon are numbered among the just, but what are we to make of Ripheus, who appears in Virgil’s “Aeneid,” calling himself a Christian? Dante’s amazement at those whom God chooses to save is...
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Who Are You to Judge?
In Canto 19, the Roman Eagle of Justice speaks. While Dante wishes to know what becomes of those just rulers who do not profess Christ, the Eagle chides him that this is the wrong question. Man cannot work out God’s justice through moral reasoning. Better is it to look to himself and his own…
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Mighty to Save
In today's reading, having been treated to a parade of the great warriors of God, from Joshua to the heroes of the Crusades, Dante ascends to the next rung of Paradise: the sphere of Jupiter. The poet is treated to a fabulous light show of illuminating souls, which then transforms into the body…
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Taking the Bitter with the Sweet
In today’s reading, Caccuiaguida tells Dante what he can expect in the future. Violence. Betrayal. Banishment. Nevertheless, Dante is told to keep the hope—although his future will be a bitter pill to swallow, his future will long outlast those of his enemies. Get full access to Talk Write at...
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How Far the Great Have Fallen
In today’s reading, Dante’s grandfather Cacciaguida walks him through the greatness that once was Florence, compared to its present degeneracy. After taking his grandson through a whirlwind tour of the great and not so great families of his own time, Cacciaguida references bitterly the murder…
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Warriors of God
In today’s reading, having ascended to the fifth level of Paradise (Mars), Dante encounters his grandfather, Cacciaguida. Paternal and wistful, Cacciaguida recounts how things used to be in Florence, before the hideous faction rivalries that would ultimately lead to Dante’s banishment. Get full...
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Behold the Wondrous Cross
In today’s canto, Beatrice asks a pertinent question: what will glory be like in the resurrection? None other than Solomon the Wise answers her, using the beautiful image of a glowing coal. Then, hardly realizing what is happening, Dante ascends to the fifth sphere of Heaven, where he sees an…
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Got Wisdom?
In today’s canto, Thomas Aquinas performs yet more intellectual winnowing on Dante, explaining how it came to be that none arose wiser than Solomon. To do this, he resorts to much succinctly reasoned Scholastic syllogizing, in which he employs the theory of Platonic forms and decries the largely...
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Opposites Attract: Saint Dominic
In today’s canto, we look at the second of Dante’s two great poverty-marrying patrons. We hear Bonaventure wax poetic on the life of Dominic, whose intellectually-minded approach to the question of poverty remains a lodestone for believers today. Just one question: what happened? Trans. John…
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Opposites Attract: Saint Francis
In today’s canto, still in the fourth sphere of the Sun, Aquinas waxes poetic on the state of the Franciscan order and its patron, Saint Francis. The Church is at her best when she remembers her duties: prayers, alms, and poverty. Saint Francis married poverty despite the ire of his father, but...
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Doctors of the Soul
In today’s canto, Dante ascends to the fourth sphere, that of the sun, where he encounters another of his intellectual heroes: Thomas Aquinas. Here repose the souls of the wise and the great intellectual defenders of the Church throughout history. Trans. John Ciardi Get full access to Talk Write…
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Redeemed to Love: The Amorous
In today’s canto, Dante is still in the sphere of Venus, where he encounters two souls: Cunizza Da Romano and the onetime Bishop of Marseilles, Folquet. How are the amorous saved, and what does it mean to give up a life of worldly love for divine love? Trans. John Ciardi Get full access to Talk...
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What Do You Want To Be?
In today’s canto, Dante and Beatrice ascend to Venus, the third sphere of Paradise, where they encounter Charles Martel, the Medieval king of Hungary. Dante asks the king how it is, if men are made through the divine harmony of the heavenly spheres, that so much disharmony can arise. Charles…
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Just Vengeance, Justly Avenged
In today’s canto, Dante has some choice questions for Beatrice. How exactly does atonement work? How can the sin of humanity be wiped out? How does Christ’s suffering our punishment translate into redemption? Beatrice as ever answers Dante in good, reasonable scholastic method, and even delivers...
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Eagles in Flight
Today, Emperor Justinian discourses about the history and trajectory of the Roman Eagle. From its humble origins among the brood of Romulus to the most powerful empire in Western History, the eagle flies over history, left and right. In addition to that, Justinian discusses the age-old problem of...
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Think Before You Swear: And Other Heavenly Advice
In today’s canto, Beatrice finishes her discourse on the will. Take vows seriously! You’re offering up nothing less than your freedom to God; sacrifice that, and you tear the terms of the covenant. That being said, “like an arrow driven with such might it strikes its mark before the string is...
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How to Prepare the Perfect Will
In today’s canto, Dante asks how is it that Picccarda Donati, whose vow was broken through no fault of her own, could still be punished. Beatrice is on hand to explain things: a will broken through outside interference is still a will unperfected. Want to see a will in perfect alignment with God?...
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Oathbreakers
Dante and Beatrice ascend to the first level of the blessed. In the Ptolemaic scheme Dante employs, the moon stands at the furthest reach of God’s paradise. It’s home to those who were inconstant in their vows towards God; even those who were forced to break vows through some outside influence…
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Theology Ahead: Turn Back Now!
Canto 2! In today’s podcast, we take a look at Dante’s famous theological “trigger warning” to the reader. Faced with the impossible task of representing the completely unrepresentable, he resorts to the abstract to help him describe heaven’s glories. Also, those spots on the moon come from what,...
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Heaven: The Final Frontier
Today marks the beginning of our thirty-three-day examination at Dante’s “Paradiso.” What makes this work such a towering achievement? Despite its being the crowning achievement of the whole Comedy, why does it remain one of the lesser-read books in comparison to the “Inferno?” How does Dante...
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Bleak House Revisited
Today, we’re revisiting an episode from February. What makes Dickens’s “Bleak House” so compelling? A number of factors, not least of which is his as-always remarkable powers of description, mood, and setting-building. Nothing exemplifies this better than the opening pages of this middle...
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Orientalism: A (Blurry) Window to the East
Today, I offer my thoughts about Edward Said’s classic 1978 study, “Orientalism.” According to Said, for the past three hundred years, Western powers have built up a series of representations and traditions about Eastern culture which now forms the background to everything said or thought about...
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The Best Christian Novel?
Today, we’re talking about what gives this 1827 novel by Allesandro Manzoni the claim of “Greatest Christian Novel Ever Written.” Is it the celebration of marriage? The dauntless, magnanimous characters? The humanity shown for even the most depraved villain? All of the above? Absolutely! Not to...
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The Best of the Romans
Today, we take a look at classicist Gilbert Highet’s delightful travelogue-poetry collection “Poets in a Landscape.” Showcasing the works from the best of the Roman poets—Vergil, Catullus, Horace, and more—Highet walks his readers through the Latin Golden Age of Poetry in a way that is at once...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Talk Write have?
Talk Write currently has 148 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Talk Write about?
Excerpts and commentary on great writing brandoncookwriter.substack.com
How often does Talk Write release new episodes?
Talk Write publishes regularly with 148 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Talk Write?
You can listen to Talk Write on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Talk Write?
Talk Write is created and hosted by Brandon Cook.
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