Hi. Welcome to the Substack of the Octavian Foundation. We are a nonprofit dedicated to repairing our broken public discourse, and we are beyond excited to be here.
While we have a lot of plans for this platform (watch this space!), we are launching with a newsletter devoted to great works in every medium. A newsletter that tries to answer the question: Why the Classics?
Every week on Thursday, WTC? subscribers can look forward to great content. An interview, an essay, an archive piece, or a podcast (and more) pairing up a classic work with one of our amazing contributors.
We’re going to be starting off with a great piece from our archives: Daniel Mendelsohn on the Odyssey. We interviewed Mendelsohn about his thoughts on what Homer has to tell us about family, death, grief, and love, and why the classics are the most useful books you’ll ever read (contra the arguments of many “pragmatists”).
If you want to learn more about what Octavian does, you can visit us here. Otherwise, watch this space and your email every Thursday. We appreciate you reading. Because people like you, ultimately, are what keep works like these alive.