{"id":13634,"date":"2020-07-07T09:26:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T13:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=13634"},"modified":"2020-07-09T11:41:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T15:41:11","slug":"episode-381-zena-hitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-381-zena-hitz","title":{"rendered":"Episode 381 – Zena Hitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 381:
\nZena Hitz<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_381_-_Zena_Hitz.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

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“The forms of learning for its own sake that happen in ordinary life are more fundamental than the professional versions.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Author & St. John’s College<\/a> tutor Zena Hitz<\/a> joins the show to talk about her wonderful new book, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life<\/a> (Princeton University Press). We get into the nature of learning for its own sake, the corruption of academia and its potential reform, how St. John’s prepared us for the world by not preparing us, and why the Newton’s Principia<\/a> is the toughest thing on the SJC curriculum. We also talk about the joy of autodidacts and our shared love of The Peregrine<\/a>, why she disagrees with the notion that learning-for-its-own-sake is a privilege of the elite, the challenges of leading seminars by Zoom, and how bureaucracy creeps into every system. We also tackle my lightning round of questions for SJC tutors, what she’d add to the curriculum and what she’d subtract, and answer the long<\/em>-standing question: What is virtue and can it be taught? Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“St. John’s is a different place. It has different values, and you don’t want the rest of the world to be like that, but it changes the way you interact with the world.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n