MUSEUMS

• Isabella Gardner Museum

• Museum of Fine Arts

• Harvard Art Museum

• Harvard Natural History Museum/Peabody

• Science Museum

• Children’s Museum

• MIT Museum

• ICA

• New England Aquarium

• Boston Athenaeum

SIGHTS AND ACTIVITIES

• Harvard

• MIT

• Boston Public Library murals

• Trinity church

• Concert at BSO

• The Mapparium

• Paul Revere house

• Ride the swan boats in Public Gardens

• Boston Common

• Boston Tea Party

• Bunker Hill

• Walk around Mt. Auburn Cemetery

• Old North Church

• Faneuil Hall

• Old State House

• Walk along the Charles river by Harvard

• Walk along esplanade

• Shop on Newbury St

• Fenway Park

• Walk around Beacon Hill

CHEAP EATS

• Pokeworks

• Opa Gyros

• Bon Chon

• Yume Wo Katare Ramen

• Friendly Toast brunch

• Otto’s Pizza

• Siam Ginger pad thai

FANCY DINNER

• Sarma

• Toro

• Contessa

• O Ya

• Full list

DAYTRIPS

• Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, Ipswich, MA

• Arnold Arboretum

• Concord and Lexington

• Walden Pond

• Rockport/Halibut Point

• Portland, Maine

• World’s End

• Salem

• Cape Cod

• Gloucester whale watching

• Martha’s Vineyard

• Kennebunkport, Maine

• Newport Mansions

• Plymouth

• Vermont Fall Foliage

TREATS

• Mike’s Pastry Cannolis and Lobster Tails

• Praline french pastries (millefeuille)

• Union Square Donuts

• Tatte fruit tarts

• LA Burdick Hot Chocolate and Canelé

• Salt Bakery egg tarts

Share

Subscribe now

I was born in Provo, Utah to two Brigham Young University students in April 1984. A few weeks after I was born, my parents dressed me in white and presented me in front of their congregation (we call them wards) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My father held me and made a prayer circle with 7 or 8 other men in the congregation and gave me a name and a blessing for my life. He blessed me with health, love, and faith.

Every Sunday without fail my parents brought me to church with them. The first hour was sacrament meeting, where the bread and water was blessed and passed, and members of the congregation give short sermons. The second and third hours were for instruction, the Sunday school portions. When I was 2, I began going to nursery, a daycare during church where a few adults watch the children and teach them basic lessons. This allowed my parents to attend the classes.

Those nursery workers were not paid for watching the kids. It was a volunteer position. They were assigned that role (called a calling) by the ward leader, called a Bishop, who is also a volunteer. He could be a dentist or an accountant or a teacher. The bishop typically serves for 5 years. The sunday school teachers were also volunteers. Every person in the ward was expected to serve and given callings—jobs include: youth teacher, greeter, charity coordinator, scout troop leader, bookkeeper, janitor, post-church snack provider.

Not only is every ward member expected to donate their time to serve, they are also asked to contribute 10% of their income towards tithing, to support the mission of the church.

When I turned 5, I began attending primary, which are age appropriate church classes for kids—we sang songs like “I am a child of God” and “I’m trying to be like Jesus.” We read scripture verses and discussed their meaning. We learned about Joseph Smith and the subsequent prophets of the church.

When I was 8, I put on a white outfit and was baptized in a font full of water by my father. My extended family and the whole ward was in attendance. I was then confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost to be my constant companion. My parents gave me a leather bound set of LDS scriptures with my name engraved in gold letters. It had four books—the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. The pages were impossibly thin. I gently marked my favorite passages with a delicate red-colored pencil.

When I was 12, my father laid his hands on my head and ordained me to the Aaronic priesthood and the office of deacon. I was now authorized to pass the sacrament—the bread and water—to members of the ward. Every Sunday, after the blessing on the sacrament, I was given a tray of bread and walked up and down the pews to deliver the Lord’s supper. I was expected to keep myself morally clean in order to be worthy of this responsibility. I was encouraged to prayer on my knees every morning and every night and to search and study the scriptures.

At age 13 we moved to St. George, Utah, a relatively small desert town in the southwest corner of Utah near Zion national park. The city was surrounded by rust-colored bluffs. We joined our new ward and my parents were given callings. I began to accompany my father on home teaching visits, where were assigned a family in our ward to care for, both spiritually and materially. We would show up once a month, share a gospel message, and find out if they had any needs.

I was now old enough to enter our local temple—a massive, gleaming white building in the exact center of town. I performed proxy baptisms for my ancestors and other people’s ancestors, helping to extend Christian salvation to all of humanity and linking all human beings together in an eternal family.

At 15 I began attending seminary, a daily religious instruction class before high school. We memorized scriptures, and learned theology and history.

At 16 I was ordained to the office of priest, which enabled me to say the blessing over the bread during Sunday services.

Once a month, the ward fasted for 24 hours and donated the money they would have spent to support families in need. I would go door to door to collect those donations and give them to the bishop. My neighborhood was 90% Mormon, pretty much every person in my area knew my family, knew my name and encouraged me in my spiritual growth.

At 17, I was taken to the basement of a man named Clayton Farnsworth, who was our stake patriarch. He gave me a patriarchal blessing, telling me my spiritual lineage in the house of Israel and prophesying about my life.

At 18 I was ordained to the Melchezidek priesthood and received the sacraments of washing and anointing. I was given a new sacred name. I made covenants to live the gospel of christ, be obedient, live a chaste life, and consecrate all that I have to the kingdom of God. I began wearing special undergarments that remind wearers of these covenants.

At 19 I began a 2 year mission in Spain. Every day, I woke up at 6am, read scriptures and prayed, and taught strangers and church members lessons about Christ and core teachings of the LDS church—that the fullness of Christ’s church had been lost since the apostles, that the prophet Joseph Smith was chosen by God to restore Christ’s Church, that the Book of Mormon was a true book of scripture, that faith, repentance and baptism were the path of life and true joy. I lived a life of obedience, poverty, humility and service.

I didn’t teach some of our other, more radical doctrines to the public, but I privately marveled at them—that mortality is a school for becoming Gods, that the universe was infinite and full of a divine community I belonged to, that we have a heavenly mother, that I was born with a sacred purpose to gather God’s children on this earth into one great whole under Christ.

I returned home from my mission and enrolled at Brigham Young University, the same church-owned school my parents went to. Our school’s mission was enter to learn, go forth to serve. I studied in order to be of service to my future family, my community and the world. Alcohol, drugs and sex was not allowed. I made beautiful friendships with young idealists and we discussed philosophy, culture and theology into the night.

When I was 26, I moved to Washington DC and went to a retreat in Outer Banks, North Carolina for young Latter-day Saints on the east coast. I was bored by the beach volleyball and retreated to the house to read. I noticed a young woman reading Tolstoy in a corner. We fell in love and got married a year later in her home-town temple in Kyiv Ukraine, binding ourselves together for time and eternity. We were both virgins until our wedding night. We’ve been married 14 years now and have three children, who are themselves beginning their spiritual journeys with nursery, primary and baptism.

These are many of the beautiful elements of my culture.

Now, what was wrong about it?

In my early 20s, I began to ask harder questions about the claims my church made about itself—questions about the origins of the Book of Mormon, the character of the founder of the church, Joseph Smith, the practice of polygamy, and the likelihood that of all the religions in the world, mine happened to be God’s favored, chosen one. I had been taught to think about religion in dualistic, true/false ways and once I applied enlightenment ways of thinking to my faith, belief as I had known it became unsustainable. That same tendency for fundamentalist, black/white thinking meant that our tradition does not by and large produce complex or beautiful art, nor substantial intellectuals, nor patterns of culture that are deeply attractive to outsiders.

We are a generous, kind, and productive people, but our culture is less good at beauty, mystery, complexity, or tragedy and so anybody in the tradition seeking spiritual growth in the form of contemplation, mysticism or mythic patterning often feels unsatisfied and often leaves their faith and become nones.

I believe that authentic religious life is the only path to resisting the dehumanizing forces of our time. But the question for me is how can we create communities where our children can be deeply formed by love, education, sacrifice and faith but also be supported as they move through each stage of spiritual development towards higher forms of union with themselves, each other, the natural world and God. How can we have high-demand faith but also nurture the path of kenosis and theosis?

This was a public address originally delivered at the 2025 Doomer Optimism Campout at The Wagon Box.

Share

Subscribe now

A few highlights from 2025:

Esther (5) enjoys reading Brambly Hedge and loves all things bunnies.

Beata (8) began violin lessons, joined the St. Peter’s School basketball team, and is obsessed with her best friend Alex.

Ari (13) performed at Tanglewood, was named head chorister of his school, and with new braces and burgeoning acne, has officially entered teenagehood.

Mariya was appointed the new State of Faith newsletter writer and published nonstop for Deseret News, including a profile of Jane Clayson, a magazine piece about The Bulwark, and an inspiring story of a refugee family.

Zach continues to believe that Faith Matters, worked on Issue 5 and Issue 6 of Wayfare, launched a new podcast called Article 13, and thought about peace, New Theism, AI, Atlas Shrugged, and Abbot Suger.

And our biggest news is that next summer we’re moving to Salt Lake City. We just closed on a beautiful home in our favorite neighborhood and can’t wait to gather with our Utah friends soon (and host our Boston friends for hiking or ski trips!).

We are so grateful for your friendship and support and pray that you feel peace, joy and hope this season and throughout the coming year.

With warmest wishes,

Zach and Mariya

P.S. We’d love to hear from you! Write us back by replying to this message or email us zacharysdavis@gmail.com and mariya.manzhos@gmail.com.

INVITATION TO JULBORD ON DEC. 6TH

Join us for our annual Scandinavian Christmas party in Boston on December 6th. ​As always, we’ll have food, drink, music, and good cheer. Feel free to bring something to share and a friend or two!

RSVP

INVITATION TO ARI’S CHRISTMAS CONCERT ON DEC. 7TH

Join us for Ari’s Christmas concert on December 7th 3pm in Harvard Square as the Saint Paul’s Choir School expresses the wonder, hope, and joy of Christ’s birth.

GET TICKETS

Share

Subscribe now

One of the great creative joys of my life has been to produce a podcast called Writ Large, a show about the books that changed the world. Today, I’m excited to share the final episode, on Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged explores the question: What happens when the creators of a society refuse to create?

Her answer was a work that is equal parts dystopian warning, philosophical manifesto, and cultural Rorschach test. Though critics panned it, the book’s characters, symbols, and moral vision continue to reverberate through American political life.

Our guest is Jennifer Burns, Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History at Stanford University. Burns is one of the world’s leading scholars of Ayn Rand and the history of American conservatism. In this episode, we explore Rand’s dramatic life—from her family’s business being seized by Bolsheviks, to her improbable career in Hollywood, to the fervent intellectual circle that formed around her—and unpack the philosophical and political legacy of Atlas Shrugged.

Atlas Shrugged has never gone out of print. It persists because it captures an enduring American anxiety: fear of an overreaching state, of a society that punishes excellence, and of a world where individual freedom might fall under collective control. It has become a continual source of inspiration for libertarians, business leaders, and generations of young conservatives.

WRIT LARGE WEBSITE

EVENT TONIGHT AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL

In our era of machine-aided prediction and probability, the necessity of free and spontaneous play for human meaning and joy has become more clear.

​In 2023, Cambridge University Philosopher of Religion Douglas Hedley gave a series of lectures entitled The Spirit of Play in which he probed the connection between play, imagination, and divinity in dialogue with thinkers such as Friedrich Schiller, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Johan Huizinga, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

​In this conversation at Harvard Divinity School, Douglas Hedley will be joined by Wayfare Editor Zachary Davis to explore the deeper meanings and possibilities of poetry, philosophy, ritual, and other forms of sacred play. The event will be followed by a dinner.

WHEN: November 24th, 6pm

WHERE: Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave, Cambridge, MA

​​​Douglas Hedley is Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge University. He was educated at Keble College, Oxford and at the University of Munich, and has previously taught at Nottingham University. He is the Director of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism and co-chair of the Platonism and Neoplatonism section of the American Academy of Religion. Dr Hedley’s work centers on concepts of imagination, violence, and the sublime, and he has published widely, from early modern philosophy—particularly the Cambridge Platonists—to Coleridge. He is the Principal Investigator for the AHRC grant on The Cambridge Platonists at the Origins of Enlightenment: Texts, Debates, and Reception (1650-1730), and is co-editor of the Series Studies in Philosophical Theology. He is a former Templeton Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Secretary of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion, and President of the European Society for the Philosophy of Religion. He has also held the Directeur d’études invités at the EPHE of the Sorbonne, the Alan Richardson Fellow at the Theology Department in Durham, and was Teape Lecturer in India in 2006. Dr Hedley is a highly sought-after expert in his field. In 2023, Dr Hedley delivered the inaugural Sophia Lectures at Ralston College.

RSVP

Share

Her answer was a work that is equal parts dystopian warning, philosophical manifesto, and cultural Rorschach test. Though critics panned it, the book's characters, symbols, and moral vision continue to reverberate through American political life.

Our guest is Jennifer Burns, Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History at Stanford University. Burns is one of the world’s leading scholars of Ayn Rand and the history of American conservatism. In this episode, we explore Rand’s dramatic life—from her family’s business being seized by Bolsheviks, to her improbable career in Hollywood, to the fervent intellectual circle that formed around her—and unpack the philosophical and political legacy of Atlas Shrugged.

Atlas Shrugged has never gone out of print. It persists because it captures an enduring American anxiety: fear of an overreaching state, of a society that punishes excellence, and of a world where individual freedom might fall under collective control. It has became a continual source of inspiration for libertarians, business leaders, and generations of young conservatives.

For more information about Writ Large, visit https://www.ministryofideas.org/writlarge

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past few years, I’ve been working on a new podcast called ARTICLE 13.

American society is fractured across political and cultural lines. Healing will not happen quickly or easily, but will require a sustained commitment to peaceful discussion and the development of new, creative frameworks for finding common ground.

Article 13 aims to model the kind of hopeful, intelligent discourse our country needs—and to offer ways that each individual listener can start the healing, right where they are.

The name of the show is inspired by the 13th Article of Faith:

“We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”

Our first episode looks at why Americans are losing trust in most of their major institutions, including the institutions of government and democracy. This distrust is driven in large part because Americans realize that many people in those institutions have started seeing them as a platform rather than a responsibility. We can help rebuild the institutions to which we belong — families, churches, schools, local communities — by recommitting ourselves to the people we serve within them.

The episode features some extraordinary voices, including:

• Danielle Allen

• Andy Crouch

• Shaylyn Romney Garrett

• Robert George

• Benjamin Klutsey

• Yuval Levin

• Robert Putnam

• Cornel West

You can listen to Episode 1 above, or on Apple Podcasts or Spotify:

Article 13 is produced by Maria Devlin McNair and Gavin Feller. Music is by Steve LaRosa. Art is by Charlotte Alba. You can learn more about Article 13 here.

Share

Subscribe now

In 58 BC, the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe living in what is now Switzerland, attempted to migrate westward to a more fertile area in Gaul. Their route would take them through Roman territory, and so they sought safe passage from the governor of the province. Unfortunately for them, the governor was a highly ambitious, deeply indebted man—Julius Caesar. Seeing an opportunity for personal gain and glory, Caesar granted permission for the Helvetii to pass through, only to secretly gather 30,000 soldiers, chase the tribe down, and attack. In his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Caesar boasted that of the 368,000 men, women, and children who sought to migrate, only 110,000 survived.

Under the pretext of regional instability, Caesar launched a full-scale invasion of Gaul. Over the next six years, he waged relentless warfare on the Celtic tribes. By the time of the final battle in 52 BC, over one million Gauls had been killed, another million enslaved, and entire populations wiped out. As a result, Rome’s borders stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Rhine in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the south to the English Channel in the north.

Caesar was rewarded for his conquests with a triumph, a grand parade through the streets of Rome. Ever the showman, Caesar rode in a gleaming chariot, dressed in a purple and gold toga, a laurel crown on his head, a scepter in hand. In imitation of Jupiter, he painted his face red. Alongside him his soldiers sang bawdy songs of praise (“men, keep your wives close, the bald adulterer is back and triumphant!”), carried captured treasure and loot, and held up flags and banners depicting victorious battles. Forty elephants and other exotic animals were paraded to delight the crowd. Behind Caesar's chariot walked captured prisoners and slaves, including Vercingetorix, the Gallic chieftain, who was publicly executed by strangulation.

Caesar’s adopted son and successor, Octavian, expanded his father’s territorial gains and transformed the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. With the absence of major wars, Octavian’s reign initiated what became known as the Pax Romana—the Roman Peace. The term pax derives from the concept of a treaty, but in Roman military contexts, it meant “to pacify,” “subdue,” or “subjugate” rebellious territories. Pax was something achieved through conquest and maintained through overwhelming domination—order imposed through violence. As the first-century historian Tacitus wryly noted, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant—“They make a desert and call it peace.”

Octavian took power in 27 BC and adopted the title Caesar Augustus. Thirty years into his rule, he called for an empire-wide census. In a remote part of the empire, a young woman, unexpectedly pregnant with her first child, traveled with her new husband to fulfill the registration requirement. The birth of this son in a humble barn was heralded by a host of angels proclaiming “peace on earth.” But despite many of his people’s messianic expectations, this child did not come to replace Pax Romana with a Pax Judea. Instead, he would teach a radically different vision of peace—one not born of domination but of love, sacrifice, and reconciliation.

It is not incidental that Jesus was born at the very height of Roman power. The entire message of the gospel can be read as a revolutionary inversion of the way of Caesar. Caesar sought glory through the defeat and death of his enemies, while Jesus taught that we should love and pray for them. Caesar accumulated wealth and honor, while Jesus wandered homeless and counseled giving away riches to the poor. Caesar celebrated the strong and powerful, while Jesus ministered to the sick and the outcast. Caesar pursued greatness by ruling over others, while Jesus taught, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.”

At a final meal with his anxious and fearful disciples, Jesus reassured them: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Jesus would have used the Aramaic version of the Hebrew word shalom (שלום). Shalom means far more than absence of conflict; it conveys wholeness, completeness, and well-being in all aspects of life, both physical and spiritual.

The theologian Cornelius Plantinga describes shalom as “the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight . . . a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, one that inspires joyful wonder.”

The peace the world gives is pax. The peace of Christ is shalom. Pax is imposed by power, maintained by hierarchy. Shalom is cocreated in friendship. Pax seeks control, shalom seeks at-one-ment.

These contrasting visions of peace become most vivid when we compare Caesar’s Gallic triumph to Jesus’s Passion procession. Caesar was honored for the number of people he had conquered, subjugated, and killed. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he was surrounded by those he had healed, taught, and set free. Caesar rode in a grand chariot drawn by four white horses; Jesus rode a donkey. Caesar wore a purple and gold robe; Jesus had his robe stripped away. Caesar wore a gilded crown and painted his face red to mimic divinity; Jesus wore a crown of thorns, his face red with his own blood. Caesar carried a scepter; Jesus carried a cross. Caesar executed his captives; Jesus forgave his captors. In the climax of his triumph, at the top of the Capitoline Hill, Caesar sacrificed a bull; at Calvary, Jesus sacrificed himself.

Caesar or the Cross. Pax or shalom. We all must choose.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus invites us to join him in his path of shalom. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Making shalom is a dynamic response to the needs of the people and communities we are bound to. It requires creativity, action, and courage. The enemy of shalom is fear. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Fear makes us passive. Fear isolates us. Fear leads us to see each other not as friends to cherish but as enemies to defeat. It was fear that caused the chief priests to reject the Messiah before them and shout to Pontius Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar!”

The antidote to fear is presence. When the Israelites camped in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt, Moses ascended Mount Sinai to speak with God. In one encounter, God gave Moses a prayer for Aaron and his sons to offer the people:

The Lord bless you and keep you; 
the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 
the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Peace flowed from the shining face of God. Peace is relationship. Absence of conflict may be a starting point, but what we really seek is the deep presence of love. We long to be in face-to-face communion with our friends, our family, and above all, with our God. This is a peace that no empire can impose and no sword can secure—a peace that comes through the Prince of Peace Himself. As Paul wrote to the saints in Ephesus, where Jewish and Gentile Christians were struggling to trust each other: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” And when we become one, we will find ourselves at last in Zion—the New Jerusalem, the eternal City of Shalom.

Share

This essay is the introduction to Wayfare Issue 5. Learn more about the issue and subscribe to the print edition here. And if you’re in Utah, join us for the issue release party on May 2. RSVP here.

Art by Andrea Mantegna and Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin.

Subscribe now

Wayfare

Explorations in Faith

By Faith Matters

Faith Matters

A companion on the journey of faith through expansive conversations about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Kirsten Hall Herlin

Featured Scholars: 

• Walter Jackson Bate (1918-1999), Professor of English, Harvard University

• Matt Bucher, Managing Editor, The Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies

• Jack Lynch, Professor of English, Rutgers University

• D. T. Max, Staff Writer, The New Yorker

Special thanks: Dutton Kearney

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Christopher Nygren, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh

Featured Scholars: 

Catherine Fletcher, Professor of History, Manchester Metropolitan University

Priya Satia, Professor of History, Stanford University

Special thanks: James DeMasi, Chloé Hogg, Jonathan Lyonhart, Pernille Røge, Jennifer Waldron, Catherine Yanko.

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Terence Sweeney, Assistant Teaching Professor, Honors College, Villanova University

Featured Scholars: 

Rolena Adorno, Sterling Professor Emerita of Spanish, Yale University

María Cristina Ríos Espinosa, Professor of Arts, Humanities, and Culture, University of Sor Juana’s Cloister, Mexico City

David Orique, Professor of History, Providence College

Special thanks: Chiyuma Eliott, Michael Sawyer

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Christopher Nygren, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh

Featured Scholar: Ilona Katzew, Curator and Head of Latin American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Special thanks: Elise Lonich Ryan, Nayeli Riano, Jennifer Josten

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Caro Pirri, Assistant Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh

Featured Scholars: 

Jean Feerick, Professor of English, John Carroll University

Steven Mentz, Professor of English, St. John’s University

Special thanks: Molly Warsh

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh; Senior Research Fellow, Beatrice Institute

Featured Scholars: 

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study

Caro Pirri, Assistant Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh

Michael Puett, Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University

Special thanks to: Eduard Fiedler, Christopher Firestone, Thomas A. Lewis, Thomalind Martin Polite, Sara Trevisan

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh; Senior Research Fellow, Beatrice Institute

Featured Scholar:

Michael Puett, Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University

Special thanks: Travis DeCook, Rokhaya Dieng, Gina Elia, Thomas A. Lewis 

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh

Featured Scholars: 

Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Director of Range Creek Field Station, University of Utah

Larry Coats, Career-line Associate Professor of Geography, University of Utah

Peter Hansen, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Dawn Hollis, Independent Historian

Special thanks to: Jake Grefenstette, John-Paul Heil, Jason König, Michael Krom, Michael Puett

Media and scholarship referenced:

Hansen, Peter. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2013.

Hollis, Dawn. “Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Genealogy of an Idea.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26:4 (2019): 1038-61.

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests

Lorraine Daston, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Ann Blair, Harvard University

Rebecca Bushnell, University of Pennsylvania

Staffan Müller-Wille, University of Cambridge

James Rosindell, Imperial College London

Amy Tigner, University of Texas at Arlington

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests:

-Jennie Rosenn, Founder & CEO of Dayenu

-Andrue Kahn, Central Synagogue

-Malkah Binah Klein, Community leader

This episode was produced by Liya Rechtman.

Zachary Davis is the host of Ministry of Ideas and Writ Large and the Editor-in-Chief of Wayfare Magazine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests

Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory

Ann Blair, Harvard Professor of History

John Heilbron, Historian of Science Emeritus, University of Berkeley

Stephen Barr, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Delaware

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests

Erika Milam, Princeton University

Cecilia Heyes, Oxford University

This episode was produced by Simon Brown and Maria Devlin McNair.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests

Lois Rosson, Bergruenn Institute (Los Angeles)

Catherine Newell, University of Miami

Joni Kinsey, University of Iowa

Episode produced by Liya Rechtman.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices