London Review Podcasts

William Davies talks to Tom about his recent LRB Winter Lecture, looking at why reactions – facial expressions, gestures or emojis – have become the main currency of the digital public sphere. Ubiquitous surveillance and smartphones have made the spontaneous reaction a thing to be cultivated, collected and stored. How did we come to endow reaction with such significance, and what might an escape from the reaction economy look like?Watch the lecture here: https://youtu.be/bNCYo_mEzfQSign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspodGet in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the third episode of a four-part series exploring the intersection of climate chaos and reproductive justice, Meehan Crist speaks to historian Alison Bashford. Alison discusses the history of efforts to control population size, how population is thought about in the Anthropocene, and how suspending critique of the past can give valuable insight into the present.Find the full conversation and further reading at the episode page: lrb.me/bashfordpodAttend our Winter Lectures in person or online: lrb.me/winterlecturesSubscribe to Close Readings: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The screen legend and salad dressing philanthropist Paul Newman recorded hundreds of personal interviews before destroying the tapes. The surviving transcripts, worked into a recent memoir and documentary series, reveal a more complex Newman than his on-screen laconicism would suggest. Bee Wilson speaks to Malin Hay about Newman’s mystique – his passivity, his domesticity and his irresistible blue eyes.Find Bee's article and further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/paulnewmanpodFollow our new Close Readings podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search 'LRB Close Readings'.Get in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the second episode of a four-part series on climate chaos and reproductive justice, Meehan Crist speaks to Banu Subramaniam, the evolutionary biologist and feminist science scholar. They discuss the global persistence of Malthusian thinking, why the focus of policymakers on population often means focusing on the bodies of poor and marginalised women, and how historical anxiety about ‘invasive’ plant species has mirrored the formation of national borders and attitudes towards human migrants.Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/banusubramaniamAttend one of our Winter Lectures in person or online: lrb.me/winterlecturesFollow our new Close Readings podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search 'LRB Close Readings'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Long before Margaret Thatcher told her cabinet that The Constitution of Liberty was “what we believe”, neoliberal poster boy Friedrich Hayek had been denounced by his mentor as a socialist. Following his review of a new biography, Jonathan Rée speaks to Tom about Hayek’s celebrity and infamy, and the ways close reading reveals surprising nuance in his work.Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/hayekreeSubscribe to Close Readings: lrb.me/closereadingsGet in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first episode of a four-part series exploring the intersection of climate chaos and reproductive justice, Meehan Crist talks to activist and feminist scholar Loretta J. Ross. Ross discusses how she's worked to prevent sexual violence by talking to perpetrators, the problems with today’s call out culture, why the Clinton administration’s healthcare plan prompted the development of the reproductive justice movement in the 1990s, and how to challenge arguments that link fertility with environmental crisis.Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/lorettarossLearn more about SisterSong on their website: https://sistersong.netGet in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1939, Dorothy Thompson was on the cover of Time, the ‘First Lady of American journalism’ and a major celebrity. By 1945, she’d been widely dismissed as a crank.Deborah Friedell joins Tom to discuss Thompson’s enormous influence in interwar America, and her idiosyncratic mix of prescience and short-sightedness.See further reading on the podcast page: https://lrb.me/dorothythompsonSubscribe to Close Readings: https://lrb.me/closereadingsGet in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laleh Khalili, a former management consultant, talks to Tom about how firms such as McKinsey, Accenture and Bain go about their business, the consequences of their relentless quest for ‘efficiency’, and the role these ‘class war mercenaries’ have played in supporting various governments all over the world. Find further reading on the podcast page: https://lrb.me/mckinseypodSubscribe to Close Readings: https://lrb.me/closereadingsGet in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Wood talks to Malin Hay about the recent list from Sight and Sound of the ‘greatest films of all time’ (in which he voted), and what considerations could, or should, go into compiling such a chart. They also discuss Wood’s most recent review for the LRB, of Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, and whether there is such a thing as a Christmas movie.Find more from Michael Wood in the LRB on the episode page: https://lrb.me/greatestfilmpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20bGet in touch! Email us at podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alan Bennett reads his 2022 diary (with some extra bits), in which he buys his dad a violin, goes to Venice with a goat, and tries to make the queen laugh.Listen without ads, and find more from Alan Bennett, on the LRB website: https://lrb.me/2022diarypodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20bGet in touch! Email us at podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thomas B. Edsall, a columnist for the New York Times, talks to Adam Shatz about the landscape of US politics following the recent elections. They consider some of the historic causes for the apparent polarisation of today’s electorate, and look ahead to the vote in 2024. Will Biden be a credible candidate for re-election? And what would a Trump or DeSantis (or even a Youngkin) candidacy mean for both the Republican and Democratic parties?Sign up to the LRB's new Close Readings series here: lrb.me/closereadingsSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to a sample from the first episode of our twelve-part Close Readings series, Among the Ancients, with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones, which we'll be re-running from January next year. With a new episode each month, Among the Ancients will consider some of the greatest works of Ancient Greek and Roman literature, from Homer to Horace. In this sample Emily and Tom discuss the Iliad.Subscribers to the full series will receive copies of the books discussed in each episode and access to online seminars with Emily and Tom, and special guests Katherine Harloe and Mary Beard, throughout the year. Audio-only options are also available.Find out more here: lrb.me/ancientsFind out about all the Close Readings series here: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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/dahlSubscribe to Close Readings Plus before the end of the year: https://lrb.me/closereadings 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.In addition to the twelve episodes, released monthly, subscribers to the full programme will receive copies of all the key texts accompanying the series and access to online seminars with Irina and Mary throughout the year, with special guests including Simon Armitage. Audio-only options are also available.Subscribe to the series here: https://lrb.me/beginningsFind out about other Close Readings series here: https://lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac

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/stanfordpodSubscribe to Close Readings Plus: lrb.me/closereadingsBuy Perry Anderson's book on Powell and Proust here: lrb.me/samefuries 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’.Subscribers to the full series will receive copies of the books discussed in each episode and access to online seminars with Seamus and Mark throughout the year. Audio-only options are also available.Subscribe to the series here: https://lrb.me/longshortFind out about other Close Readings series here: https://lrb.me/closereadings 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/rundellAnd you can find a copy of The Golden Mole at the LRB Bookshop: lrb.me/goldenmole 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/coralpodBook livestream tickets for Seamus Perry and Mark Ford live here: https://lrb.me/closereadingseventBook livestream tickets for Wallace Shawn live here: https://lrb.me/shawnev

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/shehadehpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b 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/iranprotestspodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.