Meeting of the Minds

Over coffee with my friends this week we continued our conversation on conversation. After a few minutes of muddling we remembered the television series that Steve Allen created in the 70s: Meeting of the Minds. Steve 'invited' thinkers from previous eras to get together to discuss and argue aspects of  today's culture 

Steve was by no means the first person to do this. Reading the following words of Niccolò Machiavelli I can easily see him going into his upstairs study, closing the door, and 'entering the ancient courts of rulers':

"When evening comes, I go back home, and go to my study. On the threshold, I take off my work clothes, covered in mud and filth, and I put on the clothes an ambassador would wear. Decently dressed, I enter the ancient courts of rulers who have long since died. There, I am warmly welcomed, and I feed on the only food I find nourishing and was born to savour. I am not ashamed to talk to them and ask them to explain their actions and they, out of kindness, answer me. Four hours go by without my feeling any anxiety. I forget every worry. I am no longer afraid of poverty or frightened of death. I live entirely through them." 

This strategy is also used in the Great Books of the Western World. Mortimer Adler, one of the major collaborators in publishing this collection, sees these books as an invitation to continue the Great Conversation 

The Meeting Of Minds were televised on PBS from 1977-1981. There were 24 episodes, 8 of which are available on YouTube.  The scripts of 22 of the episodes are available to us in the Sacramento Area through Hoopla.

MEETING OF THE MINDS EPISODES

Episode	DATE	TITLE (Links to IMBD)	(Links to YouTube)	Hoopla
S1, Ep1	1/10/1977	President Theodore Roosevelt, Queen Cleopatra, theologian Thomas Aquinas, and American revolutionary Thomas Paine Part 1	Show #01	Volume i
S1, Ep2	1/17/1977	President Theodore Roosevelt, Queen Cleopatra, theologian Thomas Aquinas, and American revolutionary Thomas Paine: Part 2	Show #02	Volume i
S1, Ep3	1/24/1977	President Ulysses S. Grant, Queen Marie Antoinette, Sir Thomas More, and Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto: Part 1	Show #03	Volume ii
S1, Ep4	1/31/1977	President Ulysses S. Grant, Queen Marie Antoinette, Sir Thomas More, and Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto: Part 2	Show #04	Volume ii
S1, Ep5	2/7/1977	English naturalist Charles Darwin, American poet Emily Dickinson, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, and feared conqueror Attila the Hun.: Part 1	Show #05	Volume iii
S1, Ep6	2/14/1977	English naturalist Charles Darwin, American poet Emily Dickinson, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, and feared conqueror Attila the Hun.: Part 2	Show #06	Volume iii
S2, Ep1	3/6/1978	German theologian Martin Luther, French philosopher and writer Voltaire, Greek philosopher Plato, and social reformer and nurse Florence Nightingale.: Part 1	Show #09	Volume v
S2, Ep2	3/13/1978	German theologian Martin Luther, French philosopher and writer Voltaire, Greek philosopher Plato, and social reformer and nurse Florence Nightingale.: Part 2	Show #10	Volume v
S2, Ep3	3/20/1978	American social reformer Frederick Douglass, formidable Chinese Empress Tz'u-his, Italian criminologist Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria, and French libertine Marquis de Sade.: Part 1	Show #07	Volume iv
S2, Ep4	3/27/1978	American social reformer Frederick Douglass, formidable Chinese Empress Tz'u-his, Italian criminologist Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria, and French libertine Marquis de Sade.: Part 2	Show #08	Volume iv
S2, Ep5	4/3/1978	English philosopher and Renaissance man Sir Francis Bacon, women' s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony, Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, and Greek philosopher Socrates: Part 1	Show #11	Volume vi
S2, Ep6	4/10/1978	English philosopher and Renaissance man Sir Francis Bacon, women' s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony, Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, and Greek philosopher Socrates: Part 2	Show #12	Volume vi
S3, Ep1	5/26/1979	theologian St. Augustine of Hippo, Byzantine Empress Theodora, American President Thomas Jefferson, and British philosopher Lord Bertrand Russell: Part 1	Show #13	Volume vii
S3, Ep2	6/2/1979	theologian St. Augustine of Hippo, Byzantine Empress Theodora, American President Thomas Jefferson, and British philosopher Lord Bertrand Russell: Part 2	Show #14	Volume vii
Unknown	6/2/1979	Greek philosopher Aristotle, Italian diplomat and author Niccolo Machiavelli, English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Chinese statesman Sun Yat-Sen: Part 1	Show #15	Volume viii
		Greek philosopher Aristotle, Italian diplomat and author Niccolo Machiavelli, English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Chinese statesman Sun Yat-Sen: Part 2	Show #16	Volume viii
S3, Ep3	6/9/1979	Shakespeare on Love (featuring the Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Hamlet, Romeo, Othello, and the Ghost of Hamlet's Father): Part 1	Show #17	Volume ix
S3, Ep4	6/6/1979	Shakespeare on Love (featuring the Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Hamlet, Romeo, Othello, and the Ghost of Hamlet's Father): Part 2	Show #18	Volume ix
S4, Ep1	3/29/1981	Scottish economist Adam Smith, birth control activist Margaret Sanger, and Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi: Part 1	Show #19	Volume x
S4, Ep2	4/5/1981	Scottish economist Adam Smith, birth control activist Margaret Sanger, and Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi: Part 2	Show #20	Volume x
S4, Ep3	4/12/1981	Leonardo da Vinci/William Blake/Niccolo Paganini: Part 1	Show #21
S4, Ep4	4/19/1981	Leonardo da Vinci/William Blake/Niccolo Paganini: Part 2	Show #22
S4, Ep5	4/26/1981	Oliver Cromwell, the only ruler of England who was neither a king nor a queen, Daniel O'Connell- "The great Irish Liberator"- and Catherine the Great, empress of Russia for thirty years: Part 1	Show #23	Volume xii
S4, Ep6	5/3/1981	Oliver Cromwell, the only ruler of England who was neither a king nor a queen, Daniel O'Connell- "The great Irish Liberator"- and Catherine the Great, empress of Russia for thirty years: Part 2	Show #24	Volume xii

MEETING OF MINDS COMPLETE SCRIPTS
Date	TITLE	Shows
1978	Meeting of minds : the complete scripts, with illustrations, of the amazingly successful PBS-TV series (Volume I)	Shows 1-6
1979	Meeting of minds : the complete scripts, with illustrations, of the amazingly successful PBS-TV series (Second Series)	Shows 7-12
1989	Meeting of minds : the complete scripts, with illustrations, of the amazingly successful PBS-TV series (Volume III)	Shows 13-18
1989	Meeting of minds : the complete scripts, with illustrations, of the amazingly successful PBS-TV series (Volume IV)	Shows 19-24

As an aside, the history of television is available through over 3,000 interviews of directors, screenwriters, and actors who have made that history: Television Academy Foundation Interviews.