Walking With Dante - Podcast Rankings and reviews

This podcast is an absolute godsend for anyone wanting to understand Dante’s masterwork better. The episodes are engaging and bite-sized, and the host does a phenomenal job diving deep and bringing his medievalist expertise to bear on the text while always keeping it wonderfully enterable and delightful. I listen to a lot of different podcasts but this one has become my favorite. If you’re interested in the Divine Comedy, I couldn’t recommend it more highly!

Reading Dante humbles me—the breadth of philosophy, myth, and Christian theology at his command is staggering. To begin to comprehend the Divine Comedy requires a deep dive, and I’m grateful to Mark Scarbrough for both his enthusiasm and his endurance for exploring each canto in such detail. Mark’s warm delivery and tone also make even the densest passages approachable. After beginning my journey with Inferno, I’ve finally caught up to the latter parts of Purgatory and find myself eagerly anticipating each new episode! It’s well worth the time and stands as a rich companion to the many commentaries on Dante’s poem—one I’m glad to have alongside me on the journey.

WOW! Prior to starting this podcast, I’d only ever read Inferno as a senior in high school for my English class. It’s been… a few years since then, but I desperately wanted to get back into the world of The Divine Comedy. (I was really hoping for a Dante class in grad school, but to no avail!)

When I first started “Walking with Dante,” I decided to only listen when I was actually walking. That lasted all of about 5 episodes. Now, I’m listening any chance I can.

Mark is a wonderful podcast host, in addition to being able to take all of the complexities and historical know-hows about Comedy and make it accessible without sacrificing the poem’s integrity. (Which doesn’t seem like an easy feat, but Mark does it flawlessly! He truly found that Aristotelian Mean.)

And finally, BIG thank you to Mark - tackling The Divine Comedy without a trusty guide in my ear was DAUNTING!! “Walking with Dante” saved me from being lost in the Dark Wood.

I just finished listening through all the INFERNO episodes and cannot believe the depth of Mark Scarbrough’s insight and knowledge. I’m going to devour the PURGATORIO episodes to try and get caught up in time to do PARADISO in real time with you all — thank you so much, Mark! What a treasure!