LARB Radio Hour

Los Angeles Review of Books
  • 5.0 (3)
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  • Updated Weekly

The Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour is a weekly show featuring interviews, readings and discussions about all things literary. Hosted by LARB Editors-at-Large Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman.

  1. 1d ago

    Forever Young

    Medaya Ocher, Kate Wolf, and Eric Newman come together for a special episode about aging. In the past decade, medical miracles and technological innovations have given us the chance to cheat or at least elude death longer. But what social and cultural changes are necessary to sustain a world in which many of us are living to be older than before? What is the difference between growing older and aging, and how do we mark those differences? When, if ever, is a good time to die?

    45 min

  2. Jun 26

    Harriet Clark's "The Hill"

    Harriet Clark joins Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher to speak about her debut novel, The Hill, which mirrors Clark's own life story. It follows a young girl named Suzanna whose mother is a political radical and was incarcerated for a bank robbery gone wrong when her daughter was only a year old. Suzanna is eight as the novel opens and is being raised by her grandparents. But after the death of her grandfather, her grandmother, a former radical herself, refuses to bring her to visit her mother, and she must find other ways to see her. The book charts Suzanna's intertwined desire to both remain near her mother for the rest of her life while also honoring her autonomy, her family history, and her own future.

    51 min

  3. Jun 19

    Carlos Barragán's "The Yahoo Boys"

    Eric Newman and Medaya Ocher are joined by journalist Carlos Barragán, whose new book is called The Yahoo Boys: Love, Deception, and the Real Lives of Nigeria's Romance Scammers. After his own mother is targeted by a scammer pretending to be an American soldier, reporter and researcher Barragán made his way down to Lagos, Nigeria to investigate the so-called "Yahoo Boys," young men who catfish millions out of lonely victims. Barragán immerses himself in the group, exploring how scamming has been shaped by the global economy, how it has become a local industry and how these young men are finding agency, experiencing loss, and navigating their lives online and off.

    47 min

  4. Jun 12

    Barry Walters' "Mighty Real"

    Eric Newman and Kate Wolf speak to journalist and music critic Barry Walters about Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music 1969-2000. Spanning three decades of pop, disco, rock, funk, folk, and much more, Mighty Real looks at the power of popular music to challenge sexual norms and gender categories in ways both coded and overt. Covering headliners such as David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Motown, Nirvana and Judas Priest, to more obscure players like Lavender Country and the lesbian label, Olivia Records, Walters shows how queerness is encoded in the very DNA of some of our most beloved songs and albums. Mighty Real also testifies to how music both reflects the reality of gay culture and, subversively, brings it into the mainstream.

    50 min

  5. Jun 5

    Kimberlé Crenshaw's "Backtalker: an American Memoir"

    Eric Newman interviews Kimberlé Crenshaw about her memoir Backtalker: An American Memoir. One of the most influential legal scholars of the past half century, Crenshaw is widely known for developing the analytical framework of intersectionality and pioneering the field of critical race theory. In Backtalker, she reflects on the personal experiences, intellectual influences, and era-defining cultural events that shaped her thinking about prejudice, power, and the law. In this conversation, Crenshaw talks about her family, traces the conflicts and inequalities that continue to define public life and the law in the United States, and considers how we might face the racial, sexual, and gendered retrenchment in the present.

    1h 18m

  6. May 29

    Andrew Durbin's "The Wonderful World that Almost Was"

    Kate Wolf and Eric Newman speak with Andrew Durbin about his new biography, The Wonderful World that Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek. A joint portrait of two influential yet under-sung American artists, the book follows Thek and Hujar's romance and deep friendship as it  parallels their artistic formation. Both New York natives, the two men met in the 1950s, became lovers in the early 1960s, and sustained a complicated relationship until they succumbed to AIDS in the late 1980s. Uncompromising about their work, they have received growing critical interest in recent years: Hujar for his photographs of downtown artists and intellectuals and Thek for his sculptures and installations. But the core of Durbin's book traces a shaky period where each struggled to move forward as an artist while also experiencing aesthetic breakthroughs, travel, and sexual liberation.

    53 min

  7. May 22

    Nose Jobs and Reality TV

    A double header show on beauty, class, surgical intervention, media manipulation, and assimilation American style. First Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher speak with debut novelist Sarah Wang about her book, New Skin, a mother-daughter story rendered in the hallucinatory glare of Los Angeles and its unrepentant standard for perfection. It follows Linli Feng, who returns home to the San Gabriel Valley to help her mother, Fanny, after yet another botched plastic surgery. Linli ends up trapped, supporting Fanny as she accepts a role on the reality show, America's Beauty Extreme. Next Kate Wolf is joined by MJ Corey to discuss the real-life reality empire of America's most famous family. Corey's book, Dekonstructing the Kardashians: A New Media Manifesto unpacks almost two decades of the Kardashian clan via postmodern theory, examining how they have transformed not only television and the internet, but American culture at large.

    1h 12m

  8. May 15

    On Honesty

    In this special episode, Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman discuss the "honesty crisis" facing contemporary culture. Using a recent book by the philosopher Christian Miller for reference, the hosts examine the internet as an engine for dishonesty, fueling everything from deepfakes to infidelity, AI cheating, political manipulation, and influencer peddling. Is dishonesty just part of the human condition, and perhaps even the social contract? What would a culture of radical honesty — or radical transparency — look like, and is that what we want?

    49 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

The Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour is a weekly show featuring interviews, readings and discussions about all things literary. Hosted by LARB Editors-at-Large Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman.

Information

  • Creator
    Los Angeles Review of Books
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    99
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    LARB Radio Hour

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