Friend of the show Connor Salter joins me to talk about his new book, The Other Inklings, a book of interviews with current Inklings scholars about C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and other figures connected with their circle(s). Among other things, we discuss:

• 3:44 About the book
• 4:39 How the book came to be
• 9:58 Why these scholars & figures?
• 14:28 Tolkien's English Catholicism
• 17:20 George MacDonald & Chesterton as influences
• 21:29 Why so much focus on William Lindsay Gresham?
• 24:59 Gresham, Joy Davidman & Dianetics
• 28:20 Surprising finds: Charles Williams & moral failure
• 30:06 Separating the art from the artist
• 35:47 Most formative scholar: Joe Ricke
• 37:32 Owen Barfield & anthroposophy
• 46:01 Barfield's "evolution of consciousness"
• 48:55 The Victorian Occult Revival
• 53:47 Outro & book plug
• 56:08 Deleted Scenes

In other news--I have a Substack, now, where I talk about a wide variety of things. Feel free to subscribe.

As always, if you like the show, please rate it on iTunes. And feel free to drop me a line anytime at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you.

Chris talks with Jonathan Geltner and Eric Geddes about Owen Barfield's fairy tale, The Silver Trumpet--which has the distinction of being the first fairy tale written by an Inkling.

Among other things, we discuss:

1. Introduction (2:46) — The book, its context, and the new illustrated edition
2. The Coat of Arms & the Faust Epigraph (10:41) — "Two souls dwell in my breast"
3. The Twin Princesses (9:45) — Violetta, Gamboy, and the enchantment of Ms. Thompson
4. The Silver Trumpet (21:46) — Prince Courtesy arrives; the trumpet's effect on both sisters
5. Gamboy's Plot (34:43) — Revolution, the toad costume, and the death of Queen Violetta
6. Prince Peerio & Princess Lily (43:09) — The second generation; falling in love with a portrait
7. Overcoming the Toad (48:37) — Ms. Thompson's wisdom; Barfield's Goethean view of nature
8. The Resolution (57:08) — Lily kisses the toad; the doppelganger reunited
9. Music & Re-enchantment (1:04:49) — The five fiddlers scene
10. Romance as a Self-Aware Genre (55:30) — Irony, editorial intrusion, and the storyteller's social occasion
11. Why This Book, Why Now? (1:11:28) — *The Silver Trumpet* as the imaginative complement to *Poetic Diction*
12. Closing Thoughts (1:27:17)

Next: The Other Inklings with Connor Salter!

Chris chats with Liz Zenger, program manager of The Inklings Project, which provides resources for professors, teachers, and other groups developing Inklings-related courses.

Also, by way of update, this just in from Liz herself:

This is currently live for 6-12 teachers! Goes along with your second to last question of the podcast :-)

Call for Proposals

Inklings Project Fellowship for 6-12 Teachers

Applications can be submitted via this link until Aug 1, 2026.

For the first time in its history, the Inklings Project, under the University of Notre Dame's McGrath Institute for Church Life, is opening its fellowship to middle school and high school educators. Previous cohorts have drawn from college and university faculty; this new two-year cohort, beginning in Fall 2026, will be made up of those who educate in grades 6–12. Middle and high school is when many readers first encounter C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien—and where an educator’s love for these authors can ripple outward to students, parents, and an entire school community.

View the Call for Proposals or visit www.inklingsproject.org/apply for more information on the fellowship and application requirements. Applications can be submitted via this link until August 1, 2026.

Among other things, we discuss:

1. What The Inklings Project is (~0:53) — Liz explains the initiative: supporting faculty to create Inklings courses, providing grants, and building fellowship through a cohort model.

2. The Wade Center at Wheaton College (~4:10) — The in-person annual gathering for fellows, housing original manuscripts, Tolkien's desk, Lewis's wardrobe, etc.

3. Diverse faculty backgrounds (~6:30) — How professors from biology, business, public relations, and other non-literary fields are teaching Inklings courses, and why that breadth matters.

4. The origin story of the project (~10:20) — Liz traces it from a CS Lewis course she took as a freshman at Brown, to founding a student society, to pitching the idea to Notre Dame's McGrath Institute.

5. The challenge of reading loads & expanding to high schools (~17:30) — How professors handle the sheer volume of Inklings material, and the project's potential future cohort for high school and homeschool teachers.

Next Week: At long last, The Silver Trumpet!