Unlimited Opinions - Philosophy, Theology, Linguistics, & More
Philosophy Podcasts
Welcome to Unlimited Opinions! Have you ever wanted to listen to a lawyer and his son discuss philosophy, mythology, theology, politics and more? No? Well, Mark and Adam Bishop are here to discuss it all the same! From philosophy to mythology to politics, they discuss it all with rants and tangents galore! Now in Season 12, they're discussing The Closing of the American Mind, breaking down Allan Bloom's discussion of the failures of American education! There will also be more than the average amount of references to linguistics, 80s movies, and J.R.R. Tolkien. If any of that sounds vaguely interesting, then this is the podcast for you! Episodes are uploaded every Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. CST.
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Location:
United States
Genres:
Philosophy Podcasts
Description:
Welcome to Unlimited Opinions! Have you ever wanted to listen to a lawyer and his son discuss philosophy, mythology, theology, politics and more? No? Well, Mark and Adam Bishop are here to discuss it all the same! From philosophy to mythology to politics, they discuss it all with rants and tangents galore! Now in Season 12, they're discussing The Closing of the American Mind, breaking down Allan Bloom's discussion of the failures of American education! There will also be more than the average amount of references to linguistics, 80s movies, and J.R.R. Tolkien. If any of that sounds vaguely interesting, then this is the podcast for you! Episodes are uploaded every Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. CST. Follow us on X! @UlmtdOpinions
Language:
English
Email:
adamfbishop@gmail.com
Episodes
S12 E18: Season Finale: The Student and the University, Part 2
10/28/2025
In the end, what does Allan Bloom recommend in The Closing of the American Mind? Not much, as it turns out. After an excellent diagnosis of the problems facing American higher education, Bloom ends on a pessimistic note, stating that no reforms can fix the problems in the university. Is this true? Find out as we discuss our thoughts on Bloom's work and ideas on how to fix the university!
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Duration:01:01:59
S12 E17: The Student and the University, Part 1
10/21/2025
Where have Allan Bloom's descriptions of the modern university gotten us? Where have all of these philosophical trends ended up? Join us as we discuss the first half of the last chapter of The Closing of the American Mind, examining what the fight for the university looked like in 1987, and how that fight has changed (or larger remained the same) for us today.
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Duration:00:54:16
S12 E16: The Sixties
10/15/2025
Why did all university professors and administrators capitulate to the insane mobs of student radicals in the sixties? Find out as we continue discussing Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, discussing how the 1960s carried along the most damaging threads in prior educational history, ultimately ripping out the foundations of what education ought to be.
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Duration:00:58:11
S12 E15: Swift's Doubts & Rousseau's Radicalization and the German University
10/7/2025
What does Gulliver's Travels have to do with the development of the modern education system? Why does classical scholarship see renewed interests in periods of philosophical interest? Why spend 70 pages on one chapter detailing various components of philosophic history before getting to your point on education? Find out as we continue discussing Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind!
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Duration:00:43:56
S12 E14: The Philosophic Experience & The Enlightenment Transformation
9/30/2025
Was Socrates really all that great? What does he have to say about education, anyway? Find out as we discuss Socrates' impact on the idea and purpose of philosophy, as well as the reasons for our modern society favoring nameless globalist scientists as the architects of civilization!
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Duration:00:41:47
S12 E13: Tocqueville on Democratic Intellectual Life & The Relation between Thought and Civil Society
9/23/2025
Can education actually exist without tradition? In the equalizing system of democracy, is education ever really valuable? Should we just give up on the whole idea of a university altogether? Join us for this and more as we continue discussing Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind!
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Duration:01:05:06
S12 E12: Our Ignorance
9/16/2025
How do we recover Western Civilization from its current state? How do we get people to recognize that there is more to our foundations than we realize, and that America is more than just the past century? Allan Bloom's answer: raising the important questions. Join us for this and more, as we discuss how to create a Turning Point in American history.
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Duration:00:48:47
S12 E11: The Nietzscheanization of the Left or Vice Versa
9/9/2025
Marxism is boring now. So says Allan Bloom. Join us as we discuss the omnipresence of Marxism among the Left, and why the philosophy of the class struggle may not be exactly the crux of the Left, but a desecration of the dignity and depth of man.
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Duration:00:33:02
S12 E10: Values
9/2/2025
What happens to a culture when rationalism takes precedence over belief in anything eternal? Exactly what we've seen over the past 70 years, of course! Join us as we discuss Allan Bloom's thoughts on values, the issues of cultural relativism, and what the future holds for societies with unstable foundations.
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Duration:00:50:13
S12 E9: Culture
8/26/2025
What exactly is culture? Is it just the food, clothing, and habits of a people, or is it something more? Does human nature really exist, or should we just be studying the differences between cultures to investigate humanity? Is culture downstream of politics, and what does this mean for the Cracker Barrel rebrand? Find out as we continue discussing Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind!
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Duration:00:44:04
S12 E8: The Self and Creativity
8/19/2025
What is man, really? Do we have a purpose, or should we just listen to our desires and shape the world the way we want it to be? Are the ends of things real, or just fictitious imaginations based on our desires? Find out as we continue to discuss Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind!
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Duration:00:33:41
S12 E7: Two Revolutions and Two States of Nature
8/5/2025
What differentiates America from France? Is it our value of life and stability in our Revolution, or is it a distinction between the bourgeois of America and the deeper thinkers of the Continent? Join us as we discuss this and more in this episode of Unlimited Opinions!
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Duration:00:33:00
S12 E6: The German Connection
7/29/2025
Where does modern American nihilism stem from? According to Allan Bloom, ultimately from Nietzsche! Join us as we discuss the impact of German thinking on modern American life, talking about the issues with value relativism and self-actualization, and many other such concepts.
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Duration:00:40:47
S12 E5: Relationships, Part 2 - Separateness, Divorce, Love, and Eros
7/22/2025
Why has modern society failed to recognize the purpose of marriage? Or, for that matter, the purpose of love, life, and relationships as a whole? Find out as we discuss more of Allan Bloom's thoughts on relationships, examining the complete independence of the modern student, the increased prevalence of divorce, and the lack of love.
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Duration:01:07:03
S12 E4: Relationships, Part 1 - Self-Centeredness, Equality, Race, and Sex
7/15/2025
Does American society support the same kinds of relationships that it did in generations past? Find out in this episode, as we continue discussing Saul Bellow's The Closing of the American Mind, in which we examine the rise of self-centeredness, the doctrine of absolute equality, the deterioration of race relations, and the problems with modern ideas of sex.
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Duration:01:03:24
S12 E3: Books and Music
7/1/2025
Do young people even read anymore? What's up with their obsession with music? Such questions are not as boring as they sound, as Allan Bloom describes in the next chapters of The Closing of the American Mind! Join us as we discuss the importance of literature and good music on the formation of the soul and the coherence of political society!
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Duration:00:44:00
S12 E2: The Clean Slate
6/24/2025
Do Americans have a national book? What is America's defining ideology? Is it structured by the Constitution and the Bible, or something else entirely? Such are the questions that Allan Bloom raises in The Closing of the American Mind, and that we discuss in this episode of Unlimited Opinions!
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Duration:00:42:27
S12 E1: Foreword, Preface, and Introduction to "The Closing of the American Mind"
6/17/2025
What is the purpose of education? What is the truth? What is man? Find out in this season of Unlimited Opinions, as we read Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students. In this episode, we discuss Saul Bellow's Foreword, as well as Bloom's Preface and Introduction, as the authors lay out the "new virtues" of relativism, openness, and freedom as the basis of our failing education system.
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Duration:00:59:35
S11 E8: Season Finale: J.R.R. Tolkien - Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford
6/3/2025
Join us as for the finale of Season 11, as we discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford, given in 1959 as he retired from the University. We break down his attitude towards the modern state of research-focused education, the problems in separating Language from Literature, and why Tolkien's essays matter more and more today.
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Duration:00:45:54
S11 E7: J.R.R. Tolkien - A Secret Vice
5/27/2025
How weird is it to make your own language? Find out as we discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's "A Secret Vice", in which he describes his own evolution in making languages, the beauty in such a hobby, and language itself being an art form.
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Duration:00:38:27