There may be some whose ESP power enables them to actually do that. But James (the Amazing) Randi, having sought them for many years, has  never found one. However – and it is a big “however” – he does  do great “cold readings” which persuade the person being read that his mind and history have been magically probed. Here he is one night disguised as “The Incredible Zoran” as he practices and explains the mind-reading art.

Those, say our guests, that are among “the best that has been thought or said.” Our two very well read guests are Mark Bauerlein of Emory University and Bruce Gans of Wright College – who is also the founder of the Great Books Institute. Yes of course, Plato, Machiavelli, Dante, Shakespeare and the rest of that crowd are discussed; but you will be surprised and probably fascinated by some of the other authors who show up and are here quoted and appreciated in a memorable discussion from 2004.

That’s one way to define Robert Parker, who was the master of that literary genre – though personally he was a great friend and an always amusing companion. I was lucky enough to know him for many years before his too-early demise. Here is one of our conversations which covers a hell of a lot in a mere 22 minutes.

According to Richard Posner, a public intellectual uses general ideas drawn from history, philosophy and the sciences to analyze public problems and issues of general concern. George Orwell is an example of a great public intellectual, says Judge Posner – who goes on to argue that they don’t make them as they used to. In this vigorous conversation from 2002, Posner and Ron Grossman run through a large list of “intellectuals” who presume to explain – through their writing and broadcasting – what’s right, wrong and worth conserving or rejecting in contemporary society.

Of the making of books there is no end. So says the Book of Ecclesiastes. But according to Adam Bellow, son of Saul, the strong liberal or “progressive” tilt of modern fiction is not counter-balanced by conservative or “traditionalist” fiction. As a publisher of conservative writers such as Charles Murray and Dinesh deSousa and – as influenced by his father and his father’s close associate, Alan Bloom – Bellow has undertaken to stimulate, encourage and “print” fiction that reflects conservative and traditionalist values.

In this podcast we discuss with him: how he transited from “Zabar’s liberal” to neoconservative; how his Liberty Island web site presents and stimulates short stories and essays in the conservative mode; and, most newsworthy, the new conservative genre novels he is about to launch.

Also emergent in this conversation is a good deal of engaging representation of the lives and relationship of Saul the father and Adam the son.