Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is a gory, nail-biting, creepy romp. But it’s also a brilliant depiction of how the world caves in upon a man who violates the law of God, and how intimate, personal relationships can change the course of history. In this episode of “Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan dives into his first Shakespeare episode (but certainly not his last) to take a look at how free will and fate overlap to make one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the West.

How you think about your founding fathers determines how you think about yourself. That’s something America is learning right now, and it’s something of which ancient civilizations were acutely aware. In this episode of “Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan tells the story of how the Trojan hero Aeneas became Ancient Rome’s central founding figure through Virgil’s “Aeneid”—and what that means for politics in Rome and America.

This. Is. Sparta!!!! “300,” the blood-soaked Zack Snyder movie adapted from Frank Miller’s graphic novel, is based on stories of the Persian War told by the first historian ever, Herodotus. But how accurate is “300” really, and does it matter? In this episode of “Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan tells the real story of the 300 at Thermopylae, and argues that “300” is a better take on the whole thing than you might expect.

One of the biggest lies we’re told is that celebrating our ancestral past is stupid, dishonest, or worse. None of that is true. “Beowulf,” the Anglo-Saxon masterpiece about England’s Germanic forefathers, is a sophisticated tale full of weirdness, complexity, and melancholy—plus, it’s an awesome romp with lots of crazy monsters and sick fights. In this episode of “Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan uncovers the poem’s greatness.

Want some self-help that actually works? Despite being complicated and somewhat intimidating, Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics” is actually a very practical book with advice you can use. In this episode of “Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan unpacks Aristotle’s profound insights in one of the most life-changing books you’ll ever read.

“Gone with the Wind” is the movie they don’t want you to see. Following HBO pulling it from streaming services and then putting it back up with a ridiculous health warning, Spencer Klavan insists on rewatching it. In this episode of “Young Heretics” Klavan proves why the movie is not just a masterwork, but a triumph of American culture in the best traditions of Western art, and a tragedy in the true sense of the word.

The Peloponnesian War was one of the most catastrophic conflicts of the ancient world—protracted, brutal, and disastrous for the Athenian hegemony that had grown over the course of the early 5th century BC. In this episode of “Young Heretics,” classical scholar and military history expert Victor Davis Hanson joins Spencer Klavan to discuss the war’s causes, tactics, and consequences.

How do you find authentic faith in a world that is falling to pieces around you? In this episode of “Young Heretics,” Spencer Klavan returns to his series on T.S. Eliot—this time with a study of “Four Quartets,” Eliot’s greatest Christian work.