Composed: Timeless Ways of Living

James LaGrand on Making a Home for Books, Beauty, and Belonging

What does it mean to build a culture of intellectual friendship, one shaped by books, music, meals, memory, and shared attention? In this episode of Composed, Christine Perrin speaks with historian and colleague, James LaGrand, about the habits that form students and teachers into a genuine community of learning. Their conversation moves from violin lessons and hymns to Augustine, Dante, Frederick Douglass, Lincoln, Tyehimba Jess, and the Sunday dinner table. Together they consider education not merely as competence or achievement, but as the patient formation of persons who can receive beauty, honor the past, and seek the good in company with others. LaGrand describes his work in Messiah University’s Honors Program as the building and protecting of a culture, rather than the management of a program. Through seminars, shared meals, walks, tea, concerts, trips to Gettysburg, and the reading of great texts aloud, he invites students into patterns of attention that join the life of the mind to friendship and delight. The episode closes with a tribute to Tyehimba Jess’s Olio, and with the quiet image of a grandmother’s Sabbath table as a pattern for a life of hospitality and care. About the Guest James LaGrand is an American historian and the Director of the Honors Program and Professor of American History at Messiah University. He has published a monograph with University of Illinois Press and essays in Quillette, Public Discourse, Patheos, The Federalist, History News Network, The Cresset, and Pennsylvania History, among other publications. He has spent his seven-year tenure as director practicing the example of his grandmother and mother in setting the table in order to draw students and faculty together for conversation about books and life that build relationships. Guest Links Messiah University Honors Program [https://www.messiah.edu/honors-program/]| https://www.messiah.edu/honors-program/ [https://www.messiah.edu/honors-program/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Indian Metropolis: Native Americans in Chicago, 1945-75 | https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p072963 [https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p072963] The Black Intellectual Tradition and the Great Conversation [https://classicalu.com/course/f1d74d43-befa-4030-8fbc-185947a9617c]  | https://classicalu.com/course/f1d74d43-befa-4030-8fbc-185947a9617c  Mentioned in the Episode Olio by Tyehimba Jess | https://www.wavepoetry.com/products/olio [https://www.wavepoetry.com/products/olio?utm_source=chatgpt.com]Tyehimba Jess | https://www.tyehimbajess.net/books.html [https://www.tyehimbajess.net/books.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Connect with the Humanitas Institute Humanitas Institute [https://humanitasinstitute.org/] | https://humanitasinstitute.org [https://humanitasinstitute.org/]X [https://x.com/HIClassicalEd] | https://x.com/HIClassicalEd [https://x.com/HIClassicalEd]Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/] | https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/ [https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/]TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute] | https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute [https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute]Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070] | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070]YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute] | https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute [https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute]

Fighting for the Real: Jeanne Schindler on Presence, Technology, and the Life We Share

What does it take to remain fully human in an age of distraction? In this conversation, Christine Perrin speaks with Dr. Jeanne Schindler about attention, technology, homeschooling, civic life, and the quiet disciplines that help us fight for what is real. Together they consider how modern devices flatten experience, weaken our sense of place, and make presence harder to practice, while also pointing toward a better way, one rooted in community life, embodied friendship, serious thought, and shared public spaces. This is a conversation about recovering the habits that make a human life deep, relational, and truly lived. Drawing from her own intellectual formation, Dr. Schindler reflects on childhood influences, her shift from history to political theory, her decision to leave tenure and devote herself more fully to home and family, and the rewards of lifelong learning through homeschooling. She and Christine also explore AI, the limits of technology, the strain placed on civic discourse, and why restlessness should not always be medicated by screens, but instead received as a summons to seek truth, communion, and a richer form of life. About the Guest Dr. Jeanne Schindler is a Fellow of the John Paul II Institute. Until 2013 she was an associate professor at Villanova University. Dr. Schindler’s intellectual interests are interdisciplinary, integrating philosophy, theology, and political science. She has lectured and published in a variety of areas, including Catholic social thought and democratic theory. She edited Christianity and Civil Society: Catholic and Neo-Calvinist Perspectives (2008) and co-edited with her husband, D.C. Schindler, A Robert Spaemann Reader (Oxford University Press, 2015). Dr. Schindler is a homeschooling mother of three children. Guest Links & Resources The Postman Pledge [https://postmanpledge.org/] James Howard Kunstler TED Talk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ZeXnmDZMQ] Amusing Ourselves to Death  The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan  The Quest for Community by Robert Nisbet Connect with the Humanitas Institute Humanitas Institute [https://humanitasinstitute.org] | https://humanitasinstitute.org [https://humanitasinstitute.org]X [https://x.com/HIClassicalEd] | https://x.com/HIClassicalEd [https://x.com/HIClassicalEd]Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/] | https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/ [https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/]TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute] | https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute [https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute]Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070] | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070]YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute] | https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute [https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute]

Patterns That Make Us Alive: Timothy Patitsas on Beauty, Learning, and Home

What makes a place, a school, or a daily life feel truly human? In this conversation, Christine Perrin and Timothy Patitsas explore beauty first living, the “quality without a name” described by Christopher Alexander, and the patterns that help people feel at home, at ease, and fully alive. Together they consider paper routes, classrooms, liturgical seasons, friendship, motherhood, teaching, and the built world, asking how living patterns form the soul and why beauty is not an ornament to life but one of its deepest truths. This episode is an invitation to notice the forms of life that nourish wonder, awaken desire for the good, and help us belong more deeply to the world. Their conversation moves from childhood memory to architecture, pedagogy, eros, ritual, and community. Along the way, Timothy reflects on the difference between potent information and quality information, the role of stories in shaping desire, and the kinds of educational practices that help students encounter truth not only analytically, but with their whole persons. About the Guest Timothy Patitsas is Assistant Professor of Ethics at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts. Between 2007 and 2019 he directed the annual seminary pilgrimage to Constantinople, Mount Athos, Greece, and the Holy Land. In 2019 he published The Ethics of Beauty, which has sold more than eight thousand copies. In 2023 he co-directed and co-produced “Amphilochios: Saint of Patmos,” a documentary short which became an official selection at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival. More from our Guest Hellenic College Holy Cross | Timothy Patitsas, PhD [https://www.hchc.edu/faculty/timothy-patitsas-phd/]The Ethics of Beauty [https://www.stnicholaspress.net/store/the-ethics-of-beauty]Amphilochios: Saint of Patmos [https://beautyfirstfilms.vhx.tv/checkout/amphilochios-saint-of-patmos]Hellenic College Holy Cross on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/helleniccollegeholycross/] The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander [https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Way-Building-Christopher-Alexander/dp/0195024028] Connect with the Humanitas Institute  HumanitasInstitute.org X [https://x.com/HIClassicalEd] | https://x.com/HIClassicalEd [https://x.com/HIClassicalEd]Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/] | https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/ [https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/]TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute] | https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute [https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute]Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070] | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070]YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute] | https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute [https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute]

Motherhood and the Dignity of Dependence

In this episode of Composed, Leah Libresco reflects on her journey from atheism to Catholicism and the deeper vision of human flourishing that emerged through that conversion. Drawing on stories from her life and work, including the patient rhythms of sourdough baking, Libresco explores how the patterns and habits of ordinary life can form us in attentiveness, responsibility, and care for others. Throughout the conversation, she challenges modern assumptions about autonomy, arguing instead for the dignity of dependence and the goodness of our embodied lives. Touching on questions of community, feminism, and human identity, Libresco invites listeners to consider how embracing our limits and our need for one another may be the very path toward a richer and more humane way of living. Leah reflects on feminism, motherhood, masculine vocation, risk, and the meaning crisis of our age, making the case that real flourishing grows not from autonomy, but from ties of love, duty, and mutual care. She also offers practical wisdom for building communities where people can give and receive help with honesty and grace. About the Guest Leah Libresco is the author of three books, most recently The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto. This book argues that women’s equality with men doesn’t depend on their interchangeability with men. Leah has been writing on these themes for some time on her Substack, Other Feminisms. Leah currently works in family policy in Washington D.C. Previously, she worked as a news writer for FiveThirtyEight and in campus ministry at Princeton. Leah lives in Maryland with her husband and children Guest Links Leah Libresco Website [https://leahlibresco.com/]The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto [https://www.amazon.com/Dignity-Dependence-Feminist-Manifesto-Catholic/dp/0268210330?crid=MAIXGHI6TPW7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.v1Vv6kgHlmtBP4DOd4OkmA.U5Yj5OeFBs9U2bkeGOqT8YIQWq9_F3xxH6Id--H5sNY&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+dignity+of+dependence+leah+sargeant&qid=1755570849&sprefix=the+dignit,aps,330&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=unequyoked-20&linkId=821bd5d42b51264be0121bdccdc4e7ed&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl]Other Feminisms [https://www.otherfeminisms.com/]“Needing Help Is Normal” at Christianity Today [https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/09/dignity-of-dependence-leah-libresco-sargeant-review/?utm_medium=widgetsocial] Humanitas Institute Links Humanitas Institute [https://humanitasinstitute.org/]X [https://x.com/HIClassicalEd]Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/]TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute]Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070]YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute]

Learning to See: Attention as Participation

In this episode, Lynette Hull invites us into a conversation about art, faith, and the quiet transformation that can happen when the two meet. With warmth and wisdom, she reflects on creativity as a spiritual practice and on the ways beauty can draw us deeper into meaning and connection. It’s a thoughtful and inspiring exchange that will leave you curious to see the world, and perhaps your own creative life, a little differently. Lynette’s work with iconography opens a rich window onto questions of sacred art, spiritual formation, and the role of beauty in everyday life. This episode offers an inviting starting point for listeners interested in faith, imagination, and the practices that shape how we see. About the Guest Lynette Hull holds a BA in English Literature from Wheaton College and was raised in an active Bible Presbyterian family as the granddaughter of an internationally known radio preacher. Married and the mother of three, she homeschooled her children through eighth grade before beginning her formal study of iconography in 2004 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Princeton, New Jersey, and converting to Holy Orthodoxy in 2009. From 2009 to 2017, she studied weekly with master iconographer Vladislav Andrejev. In 2015, she commissioned a collection of 45 icons from teachers and advanced students of the Prosopon School, later exhibited at the Icon Museum & Study Center in Clinton, Massachusetts. During the COVID years, she created a mobile icon museum to bring sacred art into churches and public spaces, and she currently serves on the board of the Icon Museum & Study Center while teaching catechism at her church in Virginia Beach. Guest Links Lynette Hull Website [https://www.wrestlingwithangels-icons.com/] Wrestling with Angels softcover [https://www.wrestlingwithangels-icons.com/shop] Wrestling with Angels: Icons from the Prosopon School of Iconology and Iconography at The Icon Museum and Study Center [https://www.iconmuseum.org/exhibition/wrestling-with-angels-icons-from-the-prosopon-school-of-iconology-and-iconography/] Video Gallery [https://www.wrestlingwithangels-icons.com/video-gallery-1] Video Tour of Icon Museum [https://www.icloud.com/attachment/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcvws.icloud-content.com%2FB%2FAa2jVIkwrCKdBUPHecnLUT9EMbxbARzb4kiS-9xV7FXUWEl06OBKGiMp%2F%24%7Bf%7D%3Fo%3DAmtPolQke9Y-yJd-C1N7dQLPx5GnTwTRoSfESi0lQLuo%26v%3D1%26x%3D3%26a%3DCAogKvN-_EfUHTPPWRlopDe4BR4eCkoqvfAFx42NNpghhaASdhDkz6KvuDMY5N-dg8IzIgEAKgkC6AMA_2jH8ZRSBEQxvFtaBEoaIylqJWXNgsmkeP4KAkOtrc5NoO53nz72Rm7Y6XIFZMTpuweOpqhuWLRyJUyVx3Kw6hcmowrLOmGvqMvf8Br45ztnC7G23wlPlAGKTOtVCH0%26e%3D1770070175%26fl%3D%26r%3D35B3E5F9-7E41-47D5-A404-778C03452089-1%26k%3D%24%7Buk%7D%26ckc%3Dcom.apple.largeattachment%26ckz%3DBE07C8D5-BB58-4F09-9F9A-23DA5FDB5AE7%26p%3D160%26s%3DsmZvPqNZo3CesAtoc7aa84wjmhE&uk=q9TFd-wuD4nwJrOlHGpB-Q&f=3CE600EC-0F46-4CF1-AE79-8DBDD13CCA9C.mov&sz=22484435] Re-creation of the Icon: Lynette Hull at TEDxCapeMay 2012 - Recreation and Re-creation [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JET4H9MhQRw] Connect with the Humanitas Institute Humanitas Institute [https://humanitasinstitute.org] X [https://x.com/HIClassicalEd] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/] TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070] YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute]