On episode 213, we welcome Edward Simon to discuss the mythological history of the tale of Faust and Mephistopheles, god and the devil in theology, whether both figures can represent internal struggles between right and wrong, why so many identify with Faust’s decisions, whether the story implies that willful ignorance is just as evil as maliciousness, how Faust was redeemed in Goethe’s telling, whether denial of his dark side contributed to Faust obsessively pursuing power and pleasure, the mischaracterization of the seven deadly sins as extreme prohibitions, modern cautions about Faustian bargains, and how Viktor Frankl’s emphasis on meaning can be a check on our hedonistic temptations.

Ed Simon is the executive director of Belt Media Collaborative and editor in chief of literary journal Belt Magazine. A staff writer for LitHub, his essays and criticism have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Paris Review Daily, the New Republic, the Washington Post, and Aeon. His new book, available July 9th, is called Devil's Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain.

| Ed Simon |

► Website | https://edsimon.org

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► Devil’s Contract 1 | bit.ly/PenguinRandomHouse1

► Devil’s Contract 2 | https://amzn.to/3UuFl8p

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