William Wheelwright joined me to discuss agriculture, education, and Homer! Here is a sample of some of his wonderful essays:
A Recipe for the American Dream (Ice Cream Nationalism)
Agriculture as Art (the quote on Left-wing environmentalism is here)
Dear Mr. Thiel (on a plan for a school)
He has appeared on many good podcasts; the two appearances that I’ve enjoyed the most:
Caribbean Rhythms Episode 114 (link to the free version)
Reactionary Agriculture with Alex Kaschuta
Previous Classical Conversations:
Phocaean Dionsyius on Aristocratical Christianity (our second conversation on this)
David Azerrad on the American founding, a diagnostic account of the contemporary situation, and thoughts about how to move forward.
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Here are the core questions that I asked William; they serve as an outline of the episode:
1. You have coined an outstanding phrase that contains within it immense memetic power: Agriculture precedes culture. You have already said a great deal about this elsewhere, but could you say a little bit about what this means? And furthermore, could you help us distinguish between Right Wing environmentalism and Left Wing environmentalism?
2. Your letter to Peter Thiel in Man’s World magazine is wonderful and discusses founding a school informed by the principles you outlined on agriculture. Before we talk about the school that Thiel will be funding over the next 10 years, could we discuss how over immersion in the internet’s man made “realities” can potentially condition us into thinking about nature / biology in the wrong way?
3. Could you walk us through what a day in the life of Wheelwright Academy looks like?
4. Speaking of your school, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine you teaching an elective there on Homer’s Iliad. You host a weekly twitter space on Pope’s translation of Homer’s Iliad; what led to you start this? And importantly, what is special about Alexander Pope’s translation of the Iliad?
5. Do you have a favorite moment from the Iliad?
William Wheelwright Interview