Scott Neumeister, PhD

Profile

Join date: Mar 12, 2024

About

Scott Neumeister is a literary scholar, author, TEDx speaker, and mythic pathfinder from Tampa, Florida, where he earned his PhD in English from the University of South Florida in 2018. His specialization in multiethnic American literature and mythology comes after careers as an information technology systems engineer and a teacher of English and mythology at the middle school and college levels. Scott coauthored Let Love Lead: On a Course to Freedom with Gary L. Lemons and Susie Hoeller, and he has served as a facilitator for the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s Myth and Meaning book club at Literati.

Posts (13)

Jan 19, 2026 ∙ 7 min

The Sound of Soaring: Maverick and the Music of Flight

I plunged the throttle of the Cessna 172 forward so I could gain altitude. As a solo student pilot, I had just attempted to land my plane but had come in “too hot,” impacting the runway so hard that it bounced back into the air. Rather than try to force the landing, I decided to execute a “go-around”—a re-ascent to come back for another attempt. Instantly my engine began to sputter. While I was gaining some altitude, it was not nearly enough to properly and safely perform the maneuvers

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Dec 29, 2025 ∙ 6 min

When the Sky Calls: Reclaiming the Magical Child Within

In December of 1977, eleven days before Christmas, Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) debuted on the big screen. Released in the season traditionally tied to the appearance of an otherworldly “magical child,” this film is more than a sci-fi masterpiece about humanity’s first direct contact with extraterrestrial life; it profoundly explores wonder, transformation, and the rediscovery of childlike awe in a jaded world.

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Nov 24, 2025 ∙ 6 min

The Cold War Prophet: Jack Ryan and the Senex-Puer Alchemy in The Hunt for Red October

“Jack! Boy! Get yourself in here!” Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) heartily greets Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) as they meet in the admiral’s office. After some banter, Greer continues, “What’s important enough to get you on a plane in the middle of the night?” These lines occur minutes into the beginning of John McTiernan’s The Hunt for Red October (1990), a taut thriller about a renegade Russian nuclear submarine, set in the Cold War era.

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