{"id":54655,"date":"2016-02-23T21:08:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T03:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=54655"},"modified":"2026-10-23T09:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:58:14","slug":"podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Several years&nbsp;ago we published an article about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/articles\/iron-sharpens-iron-the-power-of-master-mind-groups\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">famous &#8220;mastermind groups&#8221; from history<\/a>. One of them was a group of British scholars called The Inklings. From this group came two of the 20th century&#8217;s most famous&nbsp;English writers: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. After I first learned about the Inklings, I wanted to dig deeper into this male-only writer&#8217;s club to find out more about each individual and the group&#8217;s effect on their respective lives and&nbsp;careers.&nbsp;In&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0374154090\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0374154090&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings<\/a>,<\/em> husband and wife team Philip and Carol Zaleski profile the four most prominent members of the Inklings (Lewis and Tolkien, along with Owen Barfield and Charles Williams), how the group started, and how its dynamics changed over its 30-year history.<\/p>\n<p>In today&#8217;s podcast, I talk to Philip and Carol about the history of the Inklings and what we can learn from them about forming our own mastermind groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several years&nbsp;ago we published an article about famous &#8220;mastermind groups&#8221; from history. One of them was a group of British scholars called The Inklings. From this group came two of the 20th century&#8217;s most famous&nbsp;English writers: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. After I first learned about the Inklings, I wanted to dig deeper into this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42376,42385,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-history","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Several years&nbsp;ago we published an article about famous &#8220;mastermind groups&#8221; from history. One of them was a group of British scholars called The Inklings. From this group came two of the 20th century&#8217;s most famous&nbsp;English writers: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. After I first learned about the Inklings, I wanted to dig deeper into this [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-24T03:08:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-23T14:58:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-24T03:08:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-23T14:58:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":179,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/178.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"History\",\"Podcast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/\",\"name\":\"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group | The Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/178.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-24T03:08:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-23T14:58:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/178.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/178.png\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Art of Manliness\",\"description\":\"Men&#039;s Interest and Lifestyle\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\",\"name\":\"Brett\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/artofmanliness.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/author\\\/brett\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group | The Art of Manliness","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group | The Art of Manliness","og_description":"Several years&nbsp;ago we published an article about famous &#8220;mastermind groups&#8221; from history. One of them was a group of British scholars called The Inklings. From this group came two of the 20th century&#8217;s most famous&nbsp;English writers: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. After I first learned about the Inklings, I wanted to dig deeper into this [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/","og_site_name":"The Art of Manliness","article_publisher":"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness","article_published_time":"2016-02-24T03:08:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-23T14:58:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Brett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@artofmanliness","twitter_site":"@artofmanliness","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brett","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/"},"author":{"name":"Brett","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#\/schema\/person\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832"},"headline":"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group","datePublished":"2016-02-24T03:08:37+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-23T14:58:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/"},"wordCount":179,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178.png","articleSection":["Culture","History","Podcast"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2016","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/","url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/","name":"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group | The Art of Manliness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178.png","datePublished":"2016-02-24T03:08:37+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-23T14:58:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#\/schema\/person\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/178.png","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-178-c-s-lewis-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-inklings-mastermind-group\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Podcast #178: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and the Inklings Mastermind Group"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/","name":"The Art of Manliness","description":"Men&#039;s Interest and Lifestyle","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#\/schema\/person\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832","name":"Brett","sameAs":["http:\/\/artofmanliness.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/author\/brett\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}