Composed: Timeless Ways of Living

About Composed: Timeless Ways of Living

Composed: A timeless way of living. A podcast for women exploring living patterns of virtue, craft, community, and delight, that carry enduring wisdom into modern life.

Publisher

Humanitas Institute

Category

arts · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Feb 2026

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

21 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   Relational Education: Love, Friendship, Attention and Return with Grant Holbrook

   What if some of the most formative patterns in a life begin with simple obligations, reading the same book again, walking the dog each morning, showing up for students, or staying rooted in one place? Christine Perrin talks with teacher Grant Holbrook about the relationships and repeated practices that quietly shape a person over time. Their conversation moves through Augustine, the Psalms, friendship, beauty, teaching, and the connection between knowledge and love. Along the way, Grant considers why education is deeply relational, why older students need responsibilities to younger ones, and how good books can become lifelong companions. For parents and teachers wondering what habits truly help form a human being, this conversation offers a hopeful picture of a life shaped through attention, fidelity, and love. Grant also shares practical patterns from his own life, including memorizing the Psalms while walking his dog, rereading great books under the helpful pressure of obligation, and taking time with former students who return, to walk, talk, and continue learning. About the Guest Grant Holbrook and his family live in Richmond, Virginia, where he is an upper school teacher at Veritas School. He spends most of his classroom time with the oldest students, teaching Rhetoric, Theology, and Biblical Hebrew to juniors and seniors. His graduate and doctoral work was in Old Testament, and his dissertation considered the poetry and ethics of the Hebrew acrostic Psalms. The works of Erik Varden, Bishop of Trondheim, and St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo propel much of his current reading and writing. The Holbrooks are members of Church Hill Presbyterian, atop the oldest and loveliest neighborhood in the city. Guest Links Chastity as the Power to Love: A Discussion as Parents and Teachers (https://classicalu.com/courses/chastity-as-the-power-to-love-a-discussion-as-parents-and-teachers/) Connect with the Humanitas Institute Humanitas Institute | https://humanitasinstitute.org (https://humanitasinstitute.org/)X | https://x.com/HIClassicalEd (https://x.com/HIClassicalEd)Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/ (https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/)TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute (https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute)Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070 (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070)YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute (https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute)

2. 

   28 Sept 2026

   The Life An Education Makes with Elspeth Currie

   What if the books you read at sixteen, the habits you formed in a classroom, or the things you learned simply because they were beautiful were never meant to “pay off” only in a career? Christine Perrin talks with historian Elspeth Currie about education as lifelong formation, and about the ways learning can shape motherhood, family culture, work, and our capacity for attention and enjoyment. Drawing on Currie’s research into educated women in Renaissance England, they explore why learning matters even when its effects cannot be measured, how good books and thoughtful teachers shape us over time, and why practices like reading aloud, Sabbath rest, community, and celebration can keep us from simply drifting through family life. It is a conversation that recognizes the good work that might  already be unfolding in ordinary life. About the Guest Elspeth Currie is a PhD candidate in history at Boston College, where she studies women and Latin in Renaissance England. She holds a BA in History and Classical Studies from Gordon College and a MSt in Women’s Studies from the University of Oxford. Prior to her doctorate, she taught Latin and history in a classical Christian school. She is the author and translator of To Marvel More: Holy Attention in the Incarnation Poems of Martha Marchina, a Christmas devotional on the Latin poetry of a seventeenth-century Italian woman. Elspeth and her family make their home on Boston’s North Shore. Guest Links Elspeth Currie at Boston College | https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/morrissey/departments/history/people/graduate-students/elspeth-currie.html (https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/morrissey/departments/history/people/graduate-students/elspeth-currie.html) To Marvel More (https://a.co/d/0c9g6eJq) | https://a.co/d/0c9g6eJq (https://a.co/d/0c9g6eJq) Connect with the Humanitas Institute Humanitas Institute | https://humanitasinstitute.org X | https://x.com/HIClassicalEd Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070 YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute

3. 

   14 Sept 2026

   What the Seasons Can Teach Us About Work, Rest, and Raising Children with Kerry Hasler-Brooks

   What if a flourishing family life depends less on doing more and more on recovering rhythms of work, rest, attention, and belonging? Christine Perrin talks with Dr. Kerry Hasler-Brooks about the life she and her family have built on a small Pennsylvania farm, where agricultural seasons make limits, dependence, and renewal impossible to ignore. Their conversation explores how parents can create room for boredom, Sabbath, reading, meaningful work, and life together, even without radically rearranging their circumstances. Kerry also reflects on technology, simplicity, literature, and the formative power of returning to the same places and texts over time. For families feeling crowded by schedules and competing demands, this conversation offers a hopeful vision of choosing what to value and making space to live accordingly. Along the way, Kerry considers the sustaining power of literature, from Zora Neale Hurston to Emily Dickinson, and the way reading can help us attend more deeply to ourselves, one another, the natural world, and God. Her reflections suggest that formation often happens through ordinary practices repeated faithfully: walking the same ground, rereading a beloved poem, sharing work with children, welcoming others, and protecting stretches of time in which nothing has been planned. About the Guest Dr. Kerry Hasler-Brooks researches and teaches the literary history of American life, with a particular focus on race and gender, from Phyllis Wheatley to Marilynne Robinson, Sherwood Anderson to Zora Neale Hurston, Herman Melville to Toni Morrison. In her work, Dr. Hasler-Brooks pursues engaged pedagogy, literary reading as spiritual practice, and literary studies toward Christian vocation. She believes stories speak truth and can teach all of us to be the creative thinkers, engaged communicators, perceptive readers, and responsible writers the world needs. Kerry lives with her husband and two children on a small, sustainable farm in Pottstown, Pennsylvania where they toil together to produce organically-grown fruits, vegetables, and flowers for families in their CSA program, at local farmers markets, and through collaborations with local non-profit organizations. Connect with the Humanitas Institute Humanitas Institute | https://humanitasinstitute.org X | https://x.com/HIClassicalEd Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070 YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Contact Composed: Timeless Ways of Living

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.