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About Zachary Davis
Zachary Davis is the host of Ministry of Ideas and Writ Large and the Editor-in-Chief of Radiant.
NBN Episodes hosted by Zachary:
December 29, 2023
The Enemy of Morality Is Not Modernity, It’s Me
The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment – the period some historians identify as the beginning of …
December 28, 2023
A Genealogy of Gun Violence
The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America’s present epidemic of gun violence has its roots…
December 10, 2023
A Medieval Anti-Racist
What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to an early form of anti-racism and t…
December 9, 2023
Picturing Race in Colonial Mexico
Race is sometimes treated as a biological fact. It is actually a modern invention. But for this concept to gain power, its logic had to be spread – an…
December 8, 2023
Jamestown and the Myth of the Sovereign Family
What is the “traditional American family?” Popular images from the colonial and pioneer past suggest an isolated and self-sufficient nuclear family as…
December 7, 2023
What Is Genealogy?
Genealogy, in Charles Darwin’s terms, is the study of “descent with modification.” Taken as an analogy for the study of history, genealogy can guard a…
December 6, 2023
What Is Modernity?
We often think of modernity as a distinct time period in history – one that is said to start at different places, but which always includes us. Yet pe…
December 5, 2023
Climbing the Mountains of Modernity
We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test cas…
November 20, 2023
Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 3
Part 3 starts with a discussion of general reading strategies to help you discover the poetic techniques and insights of any individual sonnet. It con…
November 13, 2023
Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 2
Part 2 focuses closely on the two major “characters” to whom the sonnets are addressed: a beautiful young man, and a woman described as black. You’ll …
November 6, 2023
Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 1
The sonnet — a 14-line poem with a strict rhyme scheme, conventionally associated with love — was one of the most popular poetic forms in late Elizabe…
October 30, 2023
Shakespeare's "The Tempest" Part 3: The Language
Part 3 features close-readings from Professor Laurie Maguire of some of the play’s key speeches: Caliban’s extraordinarily lyrical description of the …
October 30, 2023
Shakespeare's "The Tempest" Part 3: The Language
Part 3 features close-readings from Professor Laurie Maguire of some of the play’s key speeches: Caliban’s extraordinarily lyrical description of the …
October 23, 2023
Shakespeare's "The Tempest" Part 2: Characters and Questions
With Professor Laurie Maguire, Part 2 explores the play’s many ambiguities — its uncertain geography, mental space, and genre — and how they reflect t…
October 16, 2023
Shakespeare's "The Tempest" Part 1: The Story
The Tempest, one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote, draws on themes and stories that fascinated him throughout his career while also taking his art …
October 9, 2023
Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" Part 3: The Language
In Part 3, Professor Simon Palfrey offers close-readings of some of the play’s most significant scenes. You’ll hear the play’s dark energies emerge th…
October 2, 2023
Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" Part 2: Characters and Questions
With Professor Simon Palfrey, Part 2 looks closely at the play’s characters, and especially at the intelligence and swiftness of Juliet. You’ll see ho…
September 25, 2023
Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" Part 1: The Story
Children of families who are locked in a fatal feud, Romeo and Juliet risk community, identity, and life to pursue an all-consuming love. Today, Romeo…
September 18, 2023
Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" Part 3: The Language
In Part 3, Professor Emma Smith offers close-readings of some of the play’s most important scenes, which dramatize the wide range of relationships and…
September 11, 2023
Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" Part 2: Characters and Questions
Part 2 looks at the many instances of inversion and transgression, looking at how characters cross boundaries of gender, status, and social role, and …
September 4, 2023
Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" Part 1: The Story
Twelfth Night, named for the celebration that is both the culmination and the close of the Christmas festivities, is a bittersweet romantic comedy at …
August 28, 2023
Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" Part 3: The Language
In Part 3, Professor Stephen Greenblatt offers close-readings of some of the play’s most significant scenes. You’ll get an in-depth look at the powerf…
August 21, 2023
Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" Part 2: Characters and Questions
Part 2 discusses the play’s central characters, their profound bonds of intimacy and animosity, and the effect of money on those bonds. Professor Step…
August 14, 2023
Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" Part 1: The Story
The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most gripping and challenging plays. Labeled as a comedy in Shakespeare’s First Folio, today it resonat…