The Towering Inferno: Dante's Poem Discussed by Translator Michael Palma
The most frequently translated work in America today is Dante’s Inferno—a seven-hundred-year-old book-length poem. Dante translator Michael Palma considers its enduring appeal and what it has to say to a contemporary audience.
Produced by Brattleboro Community Television.
Shows In This Series
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Food Across Borders
Our production and consumption of food relies on a series of border crossings that we often take for granted. . . .
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From Rembrandt to Van Gogh and Beyond
Vincent Van Gogh’s art was among the first that made visible the artist’s subjective feelings, an approach later . . .
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-
The Story of Sandra Day O’Connor
Based on his bestselling biography, Evan Thomas examines the life and work of the first woman on the US Supreme Court, . . .
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-
1st Wednesdays Presents: Reeve Lindbergh - Two Lives
Author of the book, Two Lives, Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of aviator-author Charles A. and Anne morrow Lindbergh, . . .
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-
Churchill and Roosevelt: The Personal in the Partnership
UVM History Professor Emeritus Mark A. Stoler examines the important personal relationship between Britain’s prime . . .
Watch Now »
-
1st Wednesdays – “There Is Nothing Either Good or Bad, But Thinking Makes It So
Catherine A. Sanderson, Amherst College professor and author of The Positive Shift, outlines the significant . . .
Watch Now »
-
Amelia
The mysterious disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937 often overshadows her accomplishments as a pilot and author. . . .
Watch Now »
-
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson: Poet of New England with Huck Gutman. Recorded April 3, 2019.
Watch Now »
-
Arguing About Civility
Middlebury political scientist Sarah Stroup asks: What topics are suitable for public discussion? And how can we . . .
Watch Now »
-
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
UVM professor Emily Bernard discusses Ta-Nehisi Coates’s most recent reflections on race, the Obama presidency, and . . .
Watch Now »
-
American Modernism
Referencing the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others, former Head of American Paintings at . . .
Watch Now »
-
Daily Life in Prewar Nazi Germany
Focusing on the prewar experience of non-Jewish citizens, Keene State professor Paul Vincent examines how ideology and . . .
Watch Now »
-
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Producer Nicholas Ma discusses and shows clips from his recent film “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” a documentary about . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age
New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger describes America’s use of cyber warfare in its arsenal. . . .
Watch Now »
-
Factory Girls: How Women First Came to the Workplace
St. Michael's College Professor Susan Ouellette leads a discussion about the subject matter behind the book "Bread and . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Legacy of Rachel Carson
Silent Spring not only launched the environmental movement but also laid out the fundamental problems with our . . .
Watch Now »
-
Love and Marriage in the 21st Century
Dr. Polly Young-Eisendrath looks at the transformation of marriage over the past century from a traditional contract . . .
Watch Now »
-
Transatlantic Traumas: Endangering the West
"The West" has been challenged by President Trump's policies, Russian covert actions, and domestic nativist and . . .
Watch Now »
-
Einstein in a Nutshell
Einstein’s most famous contribution to science—his theory of relativity—is based on an idea so simple it can be stated . . .
Watch Now »
-
Video Games: Changing Stories and Changing Behaviors
Ann DeMarle, director of Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center, explores digital gaming, how designers and players . . .
Watch Now »
-
Building Monticello
Thomas Jefferson never knew the Monticello of today—in perfect condition, impeccably furnished. Join us as Dartmouth . . .
Watch Now »
-
Building for a Gilded Age
Middlebury College art and architecture professor emeritus Glenn Andres explores how the US asserted itself . . .
Watch Now »
-
Conversations that Change How We Live and Die
Dartmouth professor and memoirist Irene Kacandes draws our attention to passages from great literature and nonfiction . . .
Watch Now »
-
Walt Whitman and the Civil War
Whitman’s Civil War writings give us a dual portrait, first the war as “a strange, unloosen’d wondrous time,” and . . .
Watch Now »
-
America in a New, More Dangerous World
Distinguished veteran diplomat George Jaeger discusses recent rapid changes in world power relationships and the key . . .
Watch Now »
-
Teaching and Parenting in the Digital Age
Chip Donohue, PhD, will explore how technology can empower and engage children, parents, families, librarians, and . . .
Watch Now »
-
Merton, Meditation, and More: Buddhism in the West
Buddhism is well-established in the US, among Buddhists and others, such as Catholic monk and author Thomas Merton, . . .
Watch Now »
-
Gothic Magnificence
Part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesday Lecture Series, Dartmouth professor Cecilia Gaposchkin . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service
In the Pulitzer Prize's centennial year, author Roy Harris tells stories of the coveted prize awarded annually to a . . .
Watch Now »
-
Presidential Term Limits: The History of a Bad Idea
UVM professor emeritus Frank Bryan argues that America’s adoption of presidential term limits not only weakened the . . .
Watch Now »
-
Not for an Age: Shakespeare’s 400-Year Career
Middlebury College professor Timothy Billings paints a picture of Shakespeare’s life, poetry, and stagecraft over the . . .
Watch Now »
-
Roots of Latin Jazz
Using recordings and videos, world renowned recording artist, composer, and educator Ray Vega examines the . . .
Watch Now »
-
Climate of Doubt
In 2008, the presidential candidates agreed that climate change demanded urgent attention. But that national call to . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Legacy of Cesar Chavez
For many in the U.S., Cesar Chavez is considered a great leader, "arguably, the most important Latin leader in the . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Costumes of Downton Abbey
Middlebury College artist-in-residence Jule Emerson discusses the fashions worn in the popular PBS series Downton Abbey.
Watch Now »
-
Alfred Steiglitz & Camera Work
Photographer, gallerist, and magazine editor Alfred Stieglitz was a seminal figure in the history of twentieth-century . . .
Watch Now »
-
Rumi, A Soul on Fire
Dartmouth professor Nancy Jay Crumbine reads and discusses Rumi, one of the greatest and most widely read of spiritual poets.
Watch Now »
-
The Incandescent Mind: Virginia Woolf and Our Literary Foremothers
UVM lecturer Dr. Annika Ljung-Baruth traces the ways Woolf’s theoretical stance on women and writing is manifested in . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Struggle for Democracy in the Arab World
Former Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mansour Farhang examines the cultural impediments to democratic pluralism in the . . .
Watch Now »
-
Finding Higher Ground: Adaptation in the Age of Warming
Scientist and author Amy Seidl explains why the long-term nature of climate change forces us to redesign how we . . .
Watch Now »
-
Muller - Falling Water
Retired Frank Lloyd Wright foundation ED H. Nicholas Muller shares the story and controversy involved in the famous . . .
Watch Now »
-
Lake Champlain in Under an Hour
Lake Champlain has been a saltwater ocean, an Indian highway, an international battleground, a hub of commerce, and a . . .
Watch Now »
-
Truth or Dare: Writing Historical Fiction
Jay Parini, author of novels about Leo Tolstoy, Walter Benjamin, and Herman Melville, discusses how historical fiction . . .
Watch Now »
-
Words, Creativity, and Spirituality
Drawing from Emily Dickinson and Annie Dillard, Dartmouth professor Nancy Jay Crumbine examines the interconnection . . .
Watch Now »
-
What Will Follow the Arab Spring?
What can we hope for as the Middle East evolves? Former CIA Chief of Counterterrorism Haviland Smith considers whether . . .
Watch Now »
-
From Chittenden County to Baton Rouge: Vermonters, the Civil War, and the Road to Emancipation
National Park superintendent emeritus and writer Rolf Diamant discusses how profoundly the Civil War transformed . . .
Watch Now »
-
100 Years since Triangle: The Fire That Seared a Nation's Conscience
Dartmouth professor Annelise Orleck reflects on the 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Greenwich Village, . . .
Watch Now »
-
Once There Were Greek Tragedies, Then...: A Consideration of Performance in 5th century Athens
Once There Were Greek Tragedies, Then . . . UVM Classics Professor Emeritus Phillip Ambrose considers the performances . . .
Watch Now »
-
Welfare Brat
Dr. Mary Childers’s childhood in the Bronx was marred by violence, alcoholism, and neglect. Referencing her own story, . . .
Watch Now »
-
Religion and Identity in the Near East
Former president of Kenyon and Carleton Colleges and religion scholar Rob Oden considers how constructs from the . . .
Watch Now »
-
What We Learn When We Learn About History
Henry Ford famously said, “History is more or less bunk.” Author, historian, and professor Woden Teachout discusses . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Towering Inferno: Dante's Poem Discussed by Translator Michael Palma
The most frequently translated work in America today is Dante’s Inferno—a seven-hundred-year-old book-length poem. . . .
Watch Now »
-
Did Karl Marx Predict the Cuban Revolution?
The causes of the Cuban Revolution—and revolutions in general—are widely debated. Amherst College professor Javier . . .
Watch Now »
-
Courting Disaster: From the Vietnam War to 21st Century Terrorism
Retired NBC correspondent Robert Hager relates stories from 40 years on the front lines of network . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Uses (and Misuses) of the University Today
University of Chicago President Emeritus Hanna Gray considers perceptions of higher education today and developments . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Unseen Alistair Cooke
One of the preeminent journalists of the 20th century, Alistair Cooke reported extensively on the major events of his . . .
Watch Now »
-
Remaking the Landscape, 1958-1978: Interstate Highways Come to Vermont
UVM Professor Paul Bierman shows photographs, taken over two decades, detailing the arrival of the interstate to the . . .
Watch Now »
-
Rowing Against Wind and Tide: The Journals and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Author Reeve Lindbergh discusses collecting four decades of her mother's previously unpublished diaries and . . .
Watch Now »
-
Remembering Samuel de Champlain: His Legacy After 400 Years
History professor Sylvie Beaudreau considers the legacy of Samuel de Champlain, Father of New France, during this, the . . .
Watch Now »
-
Searching for Early America: Reconstructing the Early Years of the New Nation
UVM Professor Jacqueline Barbara Carr examines the Early Republic (c. 1789-1828)
Watch Now »
-
Book Clubs, Tupperware and Oprah
In the nineteenth century, reading novels was deemed a feminine pursuit. Today, the persona of Oprah perpetuates this . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Sounds of Spanglish
Used daily by millions of Americans, Spanglish - the intercourse of Spanish and English - is becoming a major cultural . . .
Watch Now »
-
Our Bodies, Ourselves: After 35 Years of Women's Health Education and Advocacy, How Far We've Come
Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS) is a nonprofit, public interest organization based in Cambridge, Mass., that develops and . . .
Watch Now »
-
The Great Camps of the Adirondacks
The Great Camps of the Adirondacks is an illustrated lecture by David Schutz, State Curator, State of Vermont. In . . .
Watch Now »
-
Looking Back at Vermont: Farm Security Administration Photographs of Vermont, 1936 - 1942
This abundantly illustrated talk examines the impact of this famous government project in Vermont. Over seven years, . . .
Watch Now »
-
Cracking the Da Vinci Code
Sometimes reading a book packed tight with erudition can feel like work, but Dan Brown's thriller presents a task that . . .
Watch Now »
-
The End of Iraq
Former Ambassador to Croatia and long-time U.S. diplomat with particular expertise on Iraq, Peter Galbraith offers his . . .
Watch Now »
-
Food Across Borders
Our production and consumption of food relies on a series of border crossings that we often take for granted. . . .
Watch Now » -
From Rembrandt to Van Gogh and Beyond
Vincent Van Gogh’s art was among the first that made visible the artist’s subjective feelings, an approach later . . .
Watch Now » -
The Story of Sandra Day O’Connor
Based on his bestselling biography, Evan Thomas examines the life and work of the first woman on the US Supreme Court, . . .
Watch Now » -
1st Wednesdays Presents: Reeve Lindbergh - Two Lives
Author of the book, Two Lives, Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of aviator-author Charles A. and Anne morrow Lindbergh, . . .
Watch Now » -
Churchill and Roosevelt: The Personal in the Partnership
UVM History Professor Emeritus Mark A. Stoler examines the important personal relationship between Britain’s prime . . .
Watch Now » -
1st Wednesdays – “There Is Nothing Either Good or Bad, But Thinking Makes It So
Catherine A. Sanderson, Amherst College professor and author of The Positive Shift, outlines the significant . . .
Watch Now » -
Amelia
The mysterious disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937 often overshadows her accomplishments as a pilot and author. . . .
Watch Now » -
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson: Poet of New England with Huck Gutman. Recorded April 3, 2019.
Watch Now » -
Arguing About Civility
Middlebury political scientist Sarah Stroup asks: What topics are suitable for public discussion? And how can we . . .
Watch Now » -
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
UVM professor Emily Bernard discusses Ta-Nehisi Coates’s most recent reflections on race, the Obama presidency, and . . .
Watch Now » -
American Modernism
Referencing the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others, former Head of American Paintings at . . .
Watch Now » -
Daily Life in Prewar Nazi Germany
Focusing on the prewar experience of non-Jewish citizens, Keene State professor Paul Vincent examines how ideology and . . .
Watch Now » -
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Producer Nicholas Ma discusses and shows clips from his recent film “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” a documentary about . . .
Watch Now » -
The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age
New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger describes America’s use of cyber warfare in its arsenal. . . .
Watch Now » -
Factory Girls: How Women First Came to the Workplace
St. Michael's College Professor Susan Ouellette leads a discussion about the subject matter behind the book "Bread and . . .
Watch Now » -
The Legacy of Rachel Carson
Silent Spring not only launched the environmental movement but also laid out the fundamental problems with our . . .
Watch Now » -
Love and Marriage in the 21st Century
Dr. Polly Young-Eisendrath looks at the transformation of marriage over the past century from a traditional contract . . .
Watch Now » -
Transatlantic Traumas: Endangering the West
"The West" has been challenged by President Trump's policies, Russian covert actions, and domestic nativist and . . .
Watch Now » -
Einstein in a Nutshell
Einstein’s most famous contribution to science—his theory of relativity—is based on an idea so simple it can be stated . . .
Watch Now » -
Video Games: Changing Stories and Changing Behaviors
Ann DeMarle, director of Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center, explores digital gaming, how designers and players . . .
Watch Now » -
Building Monticello
Thomas Jefferson never knew the Monticello of today—in perfect condition, impeccably furnished. Join us as Dartmouth . . .
Watch Now » -
Building for a Gilded Age
Middlebury College art and architecture professor emeritus Glenn Andres explores how the US asserted itself . . .
Watch Now » -
Conversations that Change How We Live and Die
Dartmouth professor and memoirist Irene Kacandes draws our attention to passages from great literature and nonfiction . . .
Watch Now » -
Walt Whitman and the Civil War
Whitman’s Civil War writings give us a dual portrait, first the war as “a strange, unloosen’d wondrous time,” and . . .
Watch Now » -
America in a New, More Dangerous World
Distinguished veteran diplomat George Jaeger discusses recent rapid changes in world power relationships and the key . . .
Watch Now » -
Teaching and Parenting in the Digital Age
Chip Donohue, PhD, will explore how technology can empower and engage children, parents, families, librarians, and . . .
Watch Now » -
Merton, Meditation, and More: Buddhism in the West
Buddhism is well-established in the US, among Buddhists and others, such as Catholic monk and author Thomas Merton, . . .
Watch Now » -
Gothic Magnificence
Part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesday Lecture Series, Dartmouth professor Cecilia Gaposchkin . . .
Watch Now » -
The Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service
In the Pulitzer Prize's centennial year, author Roy Harris tells stories of the coveted prize awarded annually to a . . .
Watch Now » -
Presidential Term Limits: The History of a Bad Idea
UVM professor emeritus Frank Bryan argues that America’s adoption of presidential term limits not only weakened the . . .
Watch Now » -
Not for an Age: Shakespeare’s 400-Year Career
Middlebury College professor Timothy Billings paints a picture of Shakespeare’s life, poetry, and stagecraft over the . . .
Watch Now » -
Roots of Latin Jazz
Using recordings and videos, world renowned recording artist, composer, and educator Ray Vega examines the . . .
Watch Now » -
Climate of Doubt
In 2008, the presidential candidates agreed that climate change demanded urgent attention. But that national call to . . .
Watch Now » -
The Legacy of Cesar Chavez
For many in the U.S., Cesar Chavez is considered a great leader, "arguably, the most important Latin leader in the . . .
Watch Now » -
The Costumes of Downton Abbey
Middlebury College artist-in-residence Jule Emerson discusses the fashions worn in the popular PBS series Downton Abbey.
Watch Now » -
Alfred Steiglitz & Camera Work
Photographer, gallerist, and magazine editor Alfred Stieglitz was a seminal figure in the history of twentieth-century . . .
Watch Now » -
Rumi, A Soul on Fire
Dartmouth professor Nancy Jay Crumbine reads and discusses Rumi, one of the greatest and most widely read of spiritual poets.
Watch Now » -
The Incandescent Mind: Virginia Woolf and Our Literary Foremothers
UVM lecturer Dr. Annika Ljung-Baruth traces the ways Woolf’s theoretical stance on women and writing is manifested in . . .
Watch Now » -
The Struggle for Democracy in the Arab World
Former Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mansour Farhang examines the cultural impediments to democratic pluralism in the . . .
Watch Now » -
Finding Higher Ground: Adaptation in the Age of Warming
Scientist and author Amy Seidl explains why the long-term nature of climate change forces us to redesign how we . . .
Watch Now » -
Muller - Falling Water
Retired Frank Lloyd Wright foundation ED H. Nicholas Muller shares the story and controversy involved in the famous . . .
Watch Now » -
Lake Champlain in Under an Hour
Lake Champlain has been a saltwater ocean, an Indian highway, an international battleground, a hub of commerce, and a . . .
Watch Now » -
Truth or Dare: Writing Historical Fiction
Jay Parini, author of novels about Leo Tolstoy, Walter Benjamin, and Herman Melville, discusses how historical fiction . . .
Watch Now » -
Words, Creativity, and Spirituality
Drawing from Emily Dickinson and Annie Dillard, Dartmouth professor Nancy Jay Crumbine examines the interconnection . . .
Watch Now » -
What Will Follow the Arab Spring?
What can we hope for as the Middle East evolves? Former CIA Chief of Counterterrorism Haviland Smith considers whether . . .
Watch Now » -
From Chittenden County to Baton Rouge: Vermonters, the Civil War, and the Road to Emancipation
National Park superintendent emeritus and writer Rolf Diamant discusses how profoundly the Civil War transformed . . .
Watch Now » -
100 Years since Triangle: The Fire That Seared a Nation's Conscience
Dartmouth professor Annelise Orleck reflects on the 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Greenwich Village, . . .
Watch Now » -
Once There Were Greek Tragedies, Then...: A Consideration of Performance in 5th century Athens
Once There Were Greek Tragedies, Then . . . UVM Classics Professor Emeritus Phillip Ambrose considers the performances . . .
Watch Now » -
Welfare Brat
Dr. Mary Childers’s childhood in the Bronx was marred by violence, alcoholism, and neglect. Referencing her own story, . . .
Watch Now » -
Religion and Identity in the Near East
Former president of Kenyon and Carleton Colleges and religion scholar Rob Oden considers how constructs from the . . .
Watch Now » -
What We Learn When We Learn About History
Henry Ford famously said, “History is more or less bunk.” Author, historian, and professor Woden Teachout discusses . . .
Watch Now » -
The Towering Inferno: Dante's Poem Discussed by Translator Michael Palma
The most frequently translated work in America today is Dante’s Inferno—a seven-hundred-year-old book-length poem. . . .
Watch Now » -
Did Karl Marx Predict the Cuban Revolution?
The causes of the Cuban Revolution—and revolutions in general—are widely debated. Amherst College professor Javier . . .
Watch Now » -
Courting Disaster: From the Vietnam War to 21st Century Terrorism
Retired NBC correspondent Robert Hager relates stories from 40 years on the front lines of network . . .
Watch Now » -
The Uses (and Misuses) of the University Today
University of Chicago President Emeritus Hanna Gray considers perceptions of higher education today and developments . . .
Watch Now » -
The Unseen Alistair Cooke
One of the preeminent journalists of the 20th century, Alistair Cooke reported extensively on the major events of his . . .
Watch Now » -
Remaking the Landscape, 1958-1978: Interstate Highways Come to Vermont
UVM Professor Paul Bierman shows photographs, taken over two decades, detailing the arrival of the interstate to the . . .
Watch Now » -
Rowing Against Wind and Tide: The Journals and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Author Reeve Lindbergh discusses collecting four decades of her mother's previously unpublished diaries and . . .
Watch Now » -
Remembering Samuel de Champlain: His Legacy After 400 Years
History professor Sylvie Beaudreau considers the legacy of Samuel de Champlain, Father of New France, during this, the . . .
Watch Now » -
Searching for Early America: Reconstructing the Early Years of the New Nation
UVM Professor Jacqueline Barbara Carr examines the Early Republic (c. 1789-1828)
Watch Now » -
Book Clubs, Tupperware and Oprah
In the nineteenth century, reading novels was deemed a feminine pursuit. Today, the persona of Oprah perpetuates this . . .
Watch Now » -
The Sounds of Spanglish
Used daily by millions of Americans, Spanglish - the intercourse of Spanish and English - is becoming a major cultural . . .
Watch Now » -
Our Bodies, Ourselves: After 35 Years of Women's Health Education and Advocacy, How Far We've Come
Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS) is a nonprofit, public interest organization based in Cambridge, Mass., that develops and . . .
Watch Now » -
The Great Camps of the Adirondacks
The Great Camps of the Adirondacks is an illustrated lecture by David Schutz, State Curator, State of Vermont. In . . .
Watch Now » -
Looking Back at Vermont: Farm Security Administration Photographs of Vermont, 1936 - 1942
This abundantly illustrated talk examines the impact of this famous government project in Vermont. Over seven years, . . .
Watch Now » -
Cracking the Da Vinci Code
Sometimes reading a book packed tight with erudition can feel like work, but Dan Brown's thriller presents a task that . . .
Watch Now » -
The End of Iraq
Former Ambassador to Croatia and long-time U.S. diplomat with particular expertise on Iraq, Peter Galbraith offers his . . .
Watch Now »