London Review Podcasts

Roald Dahl's key skill, as Colin Burrow puts it, 'was his ability to repress nastiness while keeping it visible'.  Following his review of a new biography, Burrow talks to Tom Jones about Dahl’s limitations, his successes, and his 'marvellous medicine' approach to fiction. Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/dahl Sign up to our Close Readings subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley return with a new twelve-part Close Readings series, Medieval Beginnings, exploring the strange and wonderful literary landscape of the Middle Ages. Starting in January 2023, the series will consider well-known works such as Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as well as many lesser-known texts, from across the European continent, that have all helped to lay the foundations of English literature. Listen to a sample here from their first episode, on Beowulf. Sign up to our Close Readings subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jane Stanford, the co-founder of Stanford University, was murdered with strychnine in 1905. Her killer was never discovered – until now (perhaps). James Lasdun talks to Malin Hay about a new book by Richard White that investigates the story and looks into the extraordinary history of the Stanford family. Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/stanfordpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford return with a new twelve-part Close Readings series, The Long and Short, taking a fresh look at 19th and 20th-century literature through the lens of short stories and long poems. Starting in January 2023, the series will look at twelve writers, from Tennyson and Henry James to Elizabeth Bowen and Alice Oswald, with a new episode appearing each month. This sample is from the first episode, on Tennyson’s ‘Maud’. Sign up to our Close Readings subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katherine Rundell has been writing about endangered animals in the LRB since 2018. Her new book, The Golden Mole, gathers those essays and new pieces into a bestiary of unusual and underappreciated creatures. Katherine was joined by LRB editor Alice Spawls in a discussion touching on Elizabethan celebrity bears, Amelia Earhart’s bones, and the greatest lie we’ve ever told: that the world is ours for the taking. You can read Katherine’s work in the LRB archives: lrb.me/rundell Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Corals have held our fascination for thousands of years, but much of what we know about them has only been discovered recently. Liam Shaw talks to Tom about what corals are and how they form, and their extraordinary variety (over two thousand species have so far been described). They look at some of the milestones in our knowledge of this flower-animal, including Darwin’s account of coral atoll formation, and the importance of the oral history of Indigenous peoples around the coast of Australia in understanding the development of the Great Barrier Reef. As coral reefs now face almost total destruction from climate change, they also consider some of the fixes people have come up with to protect them, and whether it’s possible to put a monetary value on such natural phenomena. Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/coralpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The writer and human rights lawyer Raja Shehadeh talks to Adam Shatz about his recent memoir, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I, which reflects on Shehadeh’s relationship with his father, Aziz, a lawyer who, before his murder in 1985, fought numerous cases for Palestinian rights and was one of the first to advocate a two-state solution. Find pieces by Raja Shehadeh for the LRB on the episode page: https://lrb.me/shehadehpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Azadeh Moaveni talks to Tom about the demonstrations in Iran following the killingof Mahsa Amini in September. They discuss the degree to which the protesters have a shared purpose, the history and significance of the veil in Iranian state policy, the effects of government oppression in the border areas of the country, and how Iran might change after Ayatollah Khamenei. Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/iranprotestspod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sheila Fitzpatrick talks to Tom about the perils of doing archive research in the Soviet Union, how she used Moscow telephone directories to investigate Stalin’s purges, and the multiple passports and identities she’s gone through in her academic career. Find further reading in the LRB on the episode page: https://lrb.me/fitzpatrickpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following Nasa’s Dart mission, which successfully fired a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos last month, Chris Lintott talks to Tom about what asteroids can tell us about the history of our planet, how scared we should be of them, and why you should be grateful if one hits your car (so long as you aren’t inside it at the time). Find further reading, or listen ad-free, on the episode page: https://lrb.me/asteroidpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod More information about the Nine Dots Prize: https://ninedotsprize.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forrest Hylton talks to Tom about the presidential elections in Brazil, where former president Lula faces the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, in the final round of voting. They consider the history of both candidates, their supporters and campaigns, and what’s at stake in the contest. Find further reading, and listen ad-free, on the episode page: https://lrb.me/brazilpod Sign up to our Close Readings subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daniel Soar talks to Tom about Ian McEwan’s latest novel, Lessons – how it fits with his earlier fiction, the relationship between world events and private histories, and McEwan’s addiction to ‘moments of maximum thrill’. Find further reading, and listen ad-free, on the episode page: https://lrb.me/mcewanpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Claire Denis and J. Hoberman join Adam Shatz to talk about the work and legacy of Jean-Luc Godard. They discuss Godard’s early fascination with American cinema, his extraordinary run of films in the 1960s from À bout de souffle to Week-end, and subsequent periods of restless experimentation which continued to confound both audiences and critics until his death this month. Find further reading on Godard in the LRB on the episode page: https://lrb.me/godardpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer and filmmaker Jonathan Meades introduces and reads his review of Tina Brown's book about the royal family, The Palace Papers, from April this year. Read the piece here: https://lrb.me/meadespod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Britain acquires a new king and new prime minister, and ordinary people are arrested for expressing dislike of the royal family, James Butler and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite join Tom to consider whether this might be a perilous time for the monarchy, and how the Truss government will go about selling its old-fashioned Thatcherite vision in an era of increasing demands on the state. Find James's and Florence's pieces via the episode page: https://lrb.me/griefpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Title music by Kieran Brunt / Produced by Zoe Kilbourn and Anthony Wilks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jon Day talks to Tom about the history and psychology of the accumulation of objects, from Anglo-Saxon treasure to the Collyer twins of Harlem, by way of Freud, Marie Kondo and Day’s own father. When does clutter become a hoard? Are we all digital hoarders now? And should we worry about it? Read Jon Day's diary, and see the Clutter Image Rating, here: lrb.me/hoardingpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Title music by Kieran Brunt / Produced by Anthony Wilks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the 20th century, the pursuit of economic growth became central to political decision making. As the environmental consequences of this obsession have become increasingly clear, ideas of ‘green growth’ and ‘degrowth’ have emerged as ways of re-organising economies to try to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. Geoff Mann talks to James Butler about these related but often competing approaches, and whether the political structures exist for them to be implemented. Find further reading, and listen ad free, on our website: lrb.me/degrowthpod Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Title music by Kieran Brunt / Produced by Anthony Wilks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, a guest episode from the London Review Bookshop Podcast, featuring Elif Batuman talking to Merve Emre about her latest book, Either/Or. The London Review Bookshop podcast comes out every week and has hundreds of events in its archive. Find it wherever you get your podcast. Some events from the London Review Bookshop are broadcast online as well as in person, so you can watch live from anywhere in the world. On Wednesday this week, you can watch food writers Rebecca May Johnson and Jonathan Nunn. Buy tickets here: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Meek, recently returned from Mykolaiv, talks to Tom about the area of southern Ukraine that has become a crucial battleground in the war, as Russian forces seek to maintain control of the land they’ve occupied west of the Dnieper, and the Ukrainians try to push them back across the river. Read James's report from Mykolaiv here: https://lrb.me/mykolaivpod Watch the short film here: https://lrb.me/mykolaivfilmpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Lanchester talks to Tom about the recent scandals involving two DAX-listed companies, Volkswagen and Wirecard, and the ways in which they challenge the stereotypes of German business. Find further reading, and listen ad free, on our website: lrb.me/fraudpod Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Title music by Kieran Brunt / Produced by Anthony Wilks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.