The Plunge with Derek Holser
The Plunge is a serial podcast, hosted by Derek Holser, and anchored by conversations about Theology, Philosophy, and Culture. The Plunge is a forum for producing extended conversations with a variety of guests that invite the listener to explore stories and their creators, thinkers and their ideas, artists and athletes, and their unique aesthetics. The Plunge endeavors to dive into deep waters safely and freely, by welcoming thinkers from various areas of human expression. Each topic will be presented with a variety of guest conversationalists, over a period of 8-12 weeks and each series is intended to be accessible and enjoyable for the curious and the studious. Welcome to the Plunge: Let’s Dive In!
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Episodes
Friday Apr 18, 2025
Friday Apr 18, 2025
Welcome to episode eleven in our twelve part series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.
Today's episode features a conversation with Landon Loftin, PhD, professor at Gravitas: A Global Extension of The Stony Brook School.
Landon and I discuss Barfield and C.S. Lewis's infamous "The Great War" and Barfield's instrumental role in helping create the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).
Landon is a deep thinker and a brilliant scholar, with helpful insights into the life and ideas of Owen Barfield and the importance of his life in the tradition of culture shapers. Along with Max Leyf, Landon is the author of What Barfield Thought: An Introduction to the Work of Owen Barfield.
https://tinyurl.com/5ee6hr3j
Connect with Derek:X: https://X.com/derekholser
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser
New Book! Lightgliders: https://a.co/d/bDvRc0Y
Friday Apr 11, 2025
Friday Apr 11, 2025
Welcome to the tenth episode in our twelve part series on Owen Barfield: The First and Last Inkling.
Today's conversation features Jeffrey Hipolito. Jeffrey is an independent scholars from Seattle.
Jeffrey and I discuss Barfield's Anthroposophical vision, his relationship with the ideas of many thinkers, his dedication to the heritage of Romanticism, and life and meaning in a world with "virtual" reality.
Jeffrey earned his PhD from the University of Washington and has published numerous articles and essays in the Oxford Handbook of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, European Romantic Review, Journal of the History of Ideas, Renaissance, Journal of the Inkling Studies.
Jeffrey is the current chairperson of the Owen Barfield Society and has written two books on Barfield:
Owen Barfield's Poetic Philosophy, Meaning and Imagination
https://tinyurl.com/bdz24hr3
and
Owen Barfield's Poetry, Drama and Fiction: Rider on Pegasus.
https://tinyurl.com/4j4d8kps
Connect with Derek: X: https://X.com/derekholser
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser
New Book! Lightgliders: https://a.co/d/bDvRc0Y
Friday Apr 04, 2025
Friday Apr 04, 2025
Welcome to episode nine in our twelve epiose series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.
Today's conversation features Stephen Dunning, PhD. We discuss Charles Williams, perception, consciousness, love, romance, and a host of philosophical insights and literary figures.
Stephen is a writer of fiction. His new series, The Perilous Times Saga, was recently published, with book one, entitled: Suzy and the Magic Turnip.
You can purchase it here: https://tinyurl.com/5yhdxc2k
Stephen received his PhD in literature from the University of Cambridge, which he attended as a Commonwealth scholar. For many years, he was an English instructor at Douglas College in New Westminster, British Columbia.
In 2007 he joined the English faculty of Trinity Western University and he taught there until 2017. Stephen is the author of The Crisis and the Quest, a Kierkegaardian reading of Charles Williams, and of many articles on modern British and Canadian literature.
He co-founded the Inklings Institute of Canad in 2013 with his colleague, Monika Hilder. Along with his continued participation in Inklings Institute events, he keeps busy writing stories for his grandchildren and their friends and he sings in a choral group.
Connect with Derek: X: https://X.com/derekholser
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser
New Book! Lightgliders: https://a.co/d/bDvRc0Y
Friday Mar 28, 2025
Friday Mar 28, 2025
Welcome to episode eight in our twelve episode series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.
Today's episode features Laura Van Dyke, PhD. Laura teaches in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. Her interests are in the environmental humanities, 20th-century British and Canadian literature, and the writings of the Inklings. She helps direct the Inklings Institute of Canada, and is a co-editor of Inklings and Culture (2020), the first essay collection to treat all seven Inklings-related authors.
In this episode, we discuss Barfield's novel Eager Spring, along with basketball, Barfield's love of dancing, the uniqueness of his novels, and the essential importance of nurturing our environment.
Connect with Derek:
X: https://X.com/derekholser
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser
New Book! Lightgliders: https://a.co/d/bDvRc0Y
Friday Mar 21, 2025
Friday Mar 21, 2025
Welcome to episode seven in our twelve episode series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.
Today's episode features Nate Hile, creator and curator of Grail Country, a popular YouTube and Substack channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@grailcountry
https://grailcountry.substack.com/
Our conversation dives into such luminaries as Kurt Cobain, Valentin Tomberg, Emil Bock, Bernardo Kastrup, Karl Polanyi, Esther Lightcap Meek and Martin Shaw, to name a few; on topics as wide-ranging as universal consciousness, the longevity of dancers, symbolism, the Tarot, Oklahoma football, baking and BBQ.
Connect with Derek: X: https://X.com/derekholser
TikTok: / derekholser
Instagram: / theplungewithderekholser
Facebook: / derekholser
New Book! Lightgliders: https://a.co/d/bDvRc0Y
Friday Mar 14, 2025
Friday Mar 14, 2025
Welcome to episode six in our twelve part series on Owen Barfield: The First and Last Inkling.
Today's episode features Owen A. Barfield, the only grandchild of Owen Barfield and the Trustee of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate. https://www.owenbarfield.org/
Our conversation covers Barfield's life experiences, his abiding friendship with Cecil Harwood and C.S. Lewis, his marriage to Maud Douie, a variety of Barfield's works, Anthroposophy, Barfield's role in guiding C.S. Lewis from atheism to theism, and the importance of finding balance in polarities: The Middle Way.
Connect with Derek: X: https://X.com/derekholser TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholserNew Book! Lightgliders: https://a.co/d/bDvRc0Y
Friday Mar 07, 2025
Friday Mar 07, 2025
Welcome to Episode Five in our Twelve Episode series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling
Today's episode features Michael Di Fuccia, director of the Cultura Fellowship at the Martin Institute (Westmont University) and Research Fellow for the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, Nottingham, UK.
Michael is certified as a spiritual director through the Anglican diocese of New England. He is the author of Owen Barfield: Philosophy, Poetry, and Theology. Michael is also a board member at Platform to Table, a community of Christian leaders sojourning together from performance based leadership to authentic connection with God, self, and others.
Connect with Michael:
https://www.platformtotable.com/
Books: https://tinyurl.com/wfmkwh9u
Connect with Derek:
X: https://x.com/derekholser
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser
New Book! Lightgliders: https://a.co/d/bDvRc0Y
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Welcome to Episode Four in our Twelve Episode series onOwen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling
In today's episode, Michael Di Fuccia, Director of the Cultura Fellowship at the Martin Institute (Westmont University) and Research Fellow for the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, Nottingham, UK.
Michael is certified as a spiritual director through the Anglican diocese of New England. He is the author of Owen Barfield: Philosophy, Poetry, and Theology
https://www.amazon.com/Owen-Barfield-Philosophy-Theology-Veritas/dp/1498238726
Michael is also a board member at Platform to Table, a community of Christian leaders sojourning together from performance based leadership to authentic connection with God, self, and others.
https://www.platformtotable.com/
I deeply appreciate Michael's friendship and guidance in my own life, and am certain you will enjoy his wisdom and grace in this episode.
Connect with Derek:X: https://x.com/derekholserTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholserInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholserFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser
Lightgliders New Book: https://a.co/d/bDvRc0Y
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Welcome to Episode Three in our 12-week series:
Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling
In today's episode, Eugene Terekhin, a philologist, philosopher, translator, and author of Eleven Hidden Gems in the Works of the Inklings: The Music of Iluvatar in the Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield as well as Forty-Four Mystical Insights into the Books J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield: Philosophy Behind the High Fantasy of the Inklings
Eugene is thoughtful, gracious and wise. He freely shares his insights on Barfield's vision and the final participation awaiting us all Beyond the Veil. We discuss differences in Russian and American culture, the nature of reality, the original influence on all the Inklings, Barfield's The Silver Trumpet as well as Saving the Appearances.
You can check out all of his books at the link below: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Eugene-Terekhin/author/B07D8D99YD?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Check out his Substack: https://eugeneterekhin.substack.com/
Also, Rishat Biryushev's beautiful music can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg6Y3hMR0hU&list=PL29ngO5FZ11_SOi0MFWq0gzaqGEYFe7ml
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Welcome to Episode Two in our 12-week series:
Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling
In today's episode, Max Leyf Treinin, a certified Rolfer and Professor of Philosophy from Anchorage, Alaska, joins me and provides tremendous insight into the work of Owen Barfield, his connection to Rudolf Steiner, the evolution of human consciousness, language, and our need for reintegration of the whole human.
Max is an exceptional thinker and communicator with a gracious spirit and a winsome soul.
His most recent book, co-written with Landon Loftin, is entitled What Barfield Thought: An Introduction to the Work of Owen Barfield.
He is the author of a number of books on Meaning, Philosophy, and Poetry. You can check out all of his books at the link below:
https://tinyurl.com/328eu9e4
Learn more about Max at "the Way of the Elbow" website: https://www.alaskarolf.com/about
Check out his posts at Substack and his website:
https://theoriapress.wordpress.com/author/maxleyf/