Aristotle called Thales the Father of Natural Philosophy. At a very high level, he’s credited with shifting from mythos to logos, from a mythological explanation of the world to one based upon natural observation. Thales believed that water was the underlying principle of everything, that an immortal soul existed, and that earthquakes were caused by waves underneath a flat earth instead of by the gods.

Thales of Miletus is one of the earliest Greek philosophers (625 - 545 BC) and in this podcast episode, I look at his life, his ideas, and his impact both now and then.

Books Referenced:

* Early Greek Philosophy - Translation by Jonathan Barnes - Penguin Classics

* The First Philosophers - Translation by Robin Waterfield - Oxford World’s Classics

Last week, I talked about the life and philosophy of Heraclitus of Ephesus. A number of his surviving fragments deal with the concept of Logos, what Eva Brann calls “the order that is the cosmos.” This week, I’m taking a deeper look into what Heraclitus meant by Logos and how that might help us better understand John’s use of it in the New Testament Gospel, where he writes, “In the beginning was the Logos…”

In The Logos of Heraclitus, Eva Brann considers the fragments of Heraclitus in order to arrange a cohesive philosophy containing Logos, fire, and flux. I share what I learned from this short book and how it expanded my understanding of the Logos.

Show Notes:

* March 13, 2026 Episode about Heraclitus

* Purchase The Logos of Heraclitus by Eva Brann

For the next month or so, I’m going to highlight different early Greek Philosophers on the podcast and in my Substack articles. Last year, I started reading Plato’s dialogues and realized that I didn’t know the philosophers or their ideas that he was referencing. I stopped reading the dialogues in order to get to know these Greek Philosophers.

In this episode, I cover Heraclitus, a philosopher famous for his ideas on flux, fire, and the logos. While we don’t have his complete work On Nature, we do have fragments that provide an understanding of his main ideas. This will be a two-part episode with this first one focusing on the life and ideas of Heraclitus and the second one focusing on Heraclitus’ idea of the logos.

Here are the books I referenced for this podcast episode:

* Early Greek Philosophy - Translation by Jonathan Barnes - Penguin Classics

* Heraclitus Fragments - Translation by Brooks Haxton - Penguin Classics

* The First Philosophers - Translation by Robin Waterfield - Oxford World’s Classics

* Heraclitean Fire - Erwin Chargaff - Book 20 in 2017

* Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogene Laertius - Vol 2 of Loeb.

* Major Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins - Oxford University Press

I start each year reading straight through a different version of the Bible during January & February. This year, I selected the Intertextual Tanakh for the Five Books of Moses and the Early Prophets and used the Bibliotheca version for The Latter Prophets, The Writings, and The New Testament. In this episode, I share what stuck out this year over the 80 hours of reading through the Bible.

Here’s episode 7 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the New Testament books of the Gospels, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.

Show Notes:

Dr. Jason Staples’ Suggested Bible Reading Order (start at the 1hr 16 minute mark):

Here’s episode 6 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

Show Notes:

Purchase The Intertextual Tanakh from Landmark Booksellers.

Dr. Jason Staples’ Suggested Bible Reading Order (start at the 1hr 16 minute mark):

This special mid-week episode is a deep dive into the musical Hadestown, Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera that reimagines the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a haunting, jazz-inflected underworld. Last week, I had the joy of playing violin in the on-stage band for a series of local youth-theater performances of Hadestown, and sharing the stage with my daughter made the entire experience unforgettable.

During preparation, I became captivated by the music, the storytelling, and the rich threads of Greek mythology woven throughout Hadestown. I also discovered that the show’s writer published a book, Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown, which opens a window into the creative process behind the musical.

In this episode, I explore:

* The Greek myths at the heart of Hadestown

* The subtle ways the musical reshapes and reimagines those myths

* The connection points between this story and narratives found in the Bible

This musical moved me in a way that very few others ever have.

Audio Recordings

Original Broadway Cast Recording

Spotify / Apple Music

Live from London

Spotify / Apple Music

This one is my personal favorite but it only contains about half of the songs. Hermes is played by a female and she just absolutely kills it. I love her passion.

Talking Hadestown: Commentary & Songs

Spotify / Apple Music

This is a neat recording where Anaïs Mitchell talks about some of the songs from Hadestown.

The Book

Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell

The Band

Here’s episode 5 covering my 2026 read-through of the Bible. I talk about the ideas that have stuck out to me while reading the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, and Daniel. I also highlight some overarching themes so far from this reading.

Show Notes:

Purchase The Intertextual Tanakh from Landmark Booksellers.

Dr. Jason Staples’ Suggested Bible Reading Order (start at the 1hr 16 minute mark):