I stopped by First Things to record a podcast on Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. Julia Yost and I discuss the moral universe of the book series (and the HBO show based on it), with some digressions into the neoconservatism of dragons and the way Westeros's decadent elite parallel those in power in our world. Brace yourselves, Demographic Winter is Coming. Listen to the episode here: #FirstThings #Television #Literature #Fantasy #Podcast

"I used “Maryland, My Maryland” as an opening number for a production of Julius Caesar I directed earlier this summer (with the lyrics modified to “Roman land, my Roman land”). It seemed to fit the impetuous idealism of Caesar’s killers and the pride of those reactionary aristocrats in their homeland. Some members of my cast were surprised when I explained the song’s real history. They had assumed from its lyrics it was a song of the American Revolution. Weren’t the first lin