
288 episodes

The LRB Podcast London Review of Books
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- Society & Culture
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4.3 • 210 Ratings
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The LRB Podcast brings you weekly conversations from Europe’s leading magazine of culture and ideas. Hosted by Thomas Jones and Malin Hay, with guest episodes from the LRB's US editor Adam Shatz, Meehan Crist, Rosemary Hill and more.
Find the LRB's new Close Readings podcast in on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or search 'LRB Close Readings' wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Patricia Lockwood on Meeting the Pope
In June, the pope invited dozens of artists to Rome for the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museum’s contemporary art collection. Patricia Lockwood, the author of Priestdaddy and a contributing editor at the LRB, was one of them. She tells Tom more about the surreal experience and why irony, in the words of Pope Francis, is ‘a marvellous virtue’.
Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/popepod
Read John Lanchester’s pick from the archive: lrb.me/lanchesterpick
Subscribe to the LRB here: lrb.me/now
Find out about the Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum here:
https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colour-revolution-victorian-art-fashion-design
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. -
What was Orwell for?
George Orwell wasn’t afraid to speak against totalitarianism – but what was he for? Colin Burrow joins Tom to unpick the cultural conservatism and crackling violence underpinning Orwell’s writing, to reassess his vision of socialism and to figure out why teenagers love him so much.
If you want to join Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell for their series on satire next year, and receive all the books under discussion, access to online seminars and the rest of the Close Readings audio, you can sign up to Close Readings Plus here: https://lrb.me/plus
Or just sign up to the Close Readings podcast subscription:
In Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/orwellapple
In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/orwellsc
Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/orwellpod
Find out about the Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum here:
https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colour-revolution-victorian-art-fashion-design
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. -
Next Year on Close Readings: Among the Ancients II
For the final introduction to next year’s full Close Readings programme, Emily Wilson, celebrated classicist and translator of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, returns for a second season of Among the Ancients, to take on another twelve vital works of Greek and Roman literature with the LRB’s Thomas Jones, loosely themed around ‘truth and lies’ – from Aesop’s Fables to Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations.
Authors covered: Hesiod, Aesop, Herodotus, Pindar, Plato, Lucian, Plautus, Terence, Lucan, Tacitus, Juvenal, Apuleius, Marcus Aurelius.
First episode released on 24 January 2024, then on the 24th of each month for the rest of the year.
How to Listen
Close Readings subscription
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Close Readings Plus
In addition to the episodes, receive all the books under discussion; access to webinars with Emily, Tom and special guests including Amia Srinivasan; and shownotes and further reading from the LRB archive.
On sale here from 22 November: lrb.me/plus
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. -
Next Year on Close Readings: Human Conditions
In the second of three introductions to our full Close Readings programme for 2024, Adam Shatz presents his series, Human Conditions, in which he’ll be talking separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary thought of the 20th century.
Judith, Pankaj and Brent will each discuss four texts over four episodes, as they uncover the inner life of the 20th century through works that have sought to find freedom in different ways and remake the world around them. They explore, among other things, the development of arguments against racism and colonialism, the experience of artistic expression in oppressive conditions and how language has been used in politically substantive ways.
Authors covered: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, V. S. Naipaul, Ashis Nandy, Doris Lessing, Nadezhda Mandelstam, W. E. B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde.
First episode released on 14 January 2024, then on the fourteenth of each month for the rest of the year.
How to Listen
Close Readings subscription
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Close Readings Plus
In addition to the episodes, receive all the books under discussion; access to webinars with Adam and his guests; and shownotes and further reading from the LRB archive.
On sale here from 22 November: lrb.me/plus
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. -
Next Year on Close Readings: On Satire
In the first of three introductions to our full 2024 Close Readings programme, starting in January, Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell present their series, On Satire. Over twelve episodes, Colin and Clare will attempt to chart a stable course through some of the most unruly, vulgar, incoherent, savage and outright hilarious works in English literature, as they ask what satire is, what it’s for and why we seem to like it so much.
Authors covered: Erasmus, John Donne, Ben Jonson, Earl of Rochester, John Gay, Alexander Pope, Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark.
Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell are both fellows of All Souls College, Oxford, and regular contributors to the LRB.
First episode released on 4 January 2024, then on the fourth of each month for the rest of the year.
How to Listen
Close Readings subscription
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Close Readings Plus
In addition to the episodes, receive all the books under discussion; access to webinars with Colin, Clare and special guests including Lucy Prebble and Katherine Rundell; and shownotes and further reading from the LRB archive.
On sale here from 22 November: lrb.me/plus
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. -
The Infected Blood Scandal
In the 1970s and '80s, thousands of haemophiliacs in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through blood products known to be contaminated. In a recent piece, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithewaite outlines the magnitude of the scandal, exacerbated by carelessness, corporate greed and, in one instance, deliberate human experimentation. She joins Malin to discuss the findings and what they mean for survivors. They are joined by Tom Crewe, who reckoned with the Aids crisis in his 2018 article ‘Here was a plague’.
Find Florence and Tom’s articles on the episode page: lrb.me/bloodinquirypod
Read Colm Tóibín's pick from the LRB archive: lrb.me/colmpod
Subscribe to the LRB here: lrb.me/now
Find out about the Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum here:
https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colour-revolution-victorian-art-fashion-design
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Customer Reviews
Close Readings series is outstandingly good
The Close Readings series with Mark Ford & Seamus Perry, discussing the work of one poet each time is outstandingly good & insightful. I have learned so much. A huge resource. Other episodes are generally good too, but the Close Readings are outstanding.
Vocal fry: aaaaaaaaaagh!
The David Foster Wallace episode is disappointingly poor. I don’t say that from a position of reverence — I’m an abuse survivor myself — but because it’s lacking any real content or serious critical analysis and largely consists of unintelligent waffle and silly giggling. The final straw is the hideous vocal fry affected by the American contributor. This ugly U.S. trend cannot die soon enough for me — it renders those who adopt it unlistenable.
Content is good…
Most of the discussions professionally recorded (post Covid) are good but the app doesn’t update. I’ve tried everything.