Walking With Dante

About Walking With Dante

Ever wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then walks across the known universe. New episodes every Sunday and Wednesday.

Publisher

Mark Scarbrough

Category

arts · fiction · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

26 Sept 2020

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

167 of 532 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   14 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Justice Permits No Excuses: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 64 - 90

   Host Mark Scarbrough explores Beatrice's challenging rationale on free will and its implications for Piccarda and Constance in Dante's Paradiso, Canto IV.

2. 

   11 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Plato and Beatrice, Together At Last: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 49 - 63

   Host Mark Scarbrough explores Beatrice's use of Plato to explain free will in Paradiso, Canto IV, offering insights into medieval thought and textual authority.

3. 

   4 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Seeing Is (Almost) Believing: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 28 - 48

   Host Mark Scarbrough explores Beatrice's discourse on the nature of souls in heaven and the limits of sensory perception in Dante's Paradiso, Canto IV.

Inside a recent episode

Justice Permits No Excuses: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 64 - 90

Published 14 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And this may seem odd to say involuntary will. What is that? Like your heart beating? No, that's not what Aristotle means. Aristotle claims that there are two ways that the will acts involuntarily. And we might say in the modern world, not in its right mind or not fully understanding what's going on. And Aristotle's two claims are the will acts involuntarily by ignorance or by falsehood. So you cannot know the right answer or not know the full ramifications of what you're doing. And therefore, you're kind of willing something involuntarily, again, not in your right mind or not in the full capacity of your will. […]

Reach and audience

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

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

210 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

141 ratings

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