Young Heretics

spencer.klavan@gmail.com

For verified host and producer emails, sign up to view.

Dante's Inferno, Episode 5: Can Pagans Be Saved?

June 12, 2026

Hell is murky. Today we enter limbo, which is technically the least painful section of hell but actually leaves me with some of the toughest questions in the poem. What does Dante make--what do Christians in general make--of all the noble, wise, and humane people who apparently lived outside the reach of Christ? Were they outside His reach? Are human virtues enough to save us? If so, why aren't we doing better?? Dante, in his characteristic way, rachets these questions up to 11 and then moves...

Dante's Inferno, Episode 4: Nothing Is Very Strong

May 22, 2026

ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE: We've made it at last to the gates of hell, and we're on our way to the river of Acheron. On the way, we'll meet the "neutrals" and the cowards—those who never lived and have no names. From here on out, the poem becomes a horror movie. But in this episode, I want to show you just how deep the horror goes. Worms and flames are just the beginning: it's the spiritual deformities that the torments represent that make them truly chilling. Then, Dante goes off t...

Dante's Inferno, Episode 3: Lady of the Mind

May 01, 2026

Where can I find a woman like...Dante's girl? On this episode of Young Heretics, we finally get the high-fallutin' invocation of the Muses we've come to expect from any epic poem. But it's not enough! Dante needs more woman than the Muses can be...more grace, more truth, more light. And it comes from on high--first from the Virgin Mary, then Sainty Lucy, then finally his beautiful, his famous, his beloved Beatrice. Today we introduce this central figure in the Comedy, inspiration of Dante's c...