Transatlantic Bookmarks

Ksenija Popović & Sue Graham Johnston
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Society & Culture

Welcome to Transatlantic Bookmarks, a weekly podcast for people who enjoy big ideas and good company. From opposite sides of the Atlantic, European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston use books to uncover the questions at their heart and bring them into today's conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, and politics. This isn't a book review show. It's a conversation about the world, with literature as our guide. New episodes every Saturday.

  1. 4h ago

    Do We Owe Our Parents More Than a Weekly Call?

    Do adult children owe their parents daily contact, hands-on care, and the chance to stay in the homes they love, or is that expectation unfair to the lives their children are trying to build? In this episode of Transatlantic Bookmarks, Ksenija Popovic and Sue Graham Johnston use Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread to debate one of the most emotionally difficult questions in family life: what do we owe the people who loved us first? Ksenija cannot understand a family that would move an elderly father out of the home he has lived in for decades, or a grown child who calls their mother only once a week. Sue argues that love does not necessarily mean living together, calling every day, or putting an adult child’s career and family life on hold. Between them: the Balkan and Mediterranean idea of intergenerational obligation, the American ideal of independence, aging parents, dementia, inherited homes, guilt, care, and the things families leave behind. 📚 BOOKS MENTIONED: (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler: https://amzn.to/4zzJImGYesteryear by Caro Claire Burke: https://amzn.to/4xRP8YbPachinko by Min Jin Lee: https://amzn.to/4gkO2NBAmerican Hagwon by Min Jin Lee: https://amzn.to/4cSZOhcI'll Take the Fire by Leïla Slimani: https://amzn.to/4zve3CILife of M by Rachel Cusk: https://amzn.to/3U5WAR7Partita by Barbara Kingsolver: https://amzn.to/4c1rVdXDemon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: https://amzn.to/4gdH8JSThe Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver: https://amzn.to/4hLh6QUWhistler by Ann Patchett: https://amzn.to/4gm21maHeather by Caitlin Mullen: https://amzn.to/4wAdEfHFathers Before Sons by Ksenija Popovic: https://amzn.to/4wDloNK 💌 OUR SUBSTACK AND SHOW NOTES: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ 📚 READ KSENIJA’S NOVELS: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications 👉🏻 CHAPTERS 00:00 Teaser 01:05 Intergenerational Relations 07:19 Cultural Expectations and Responsibilities Towards Elders 26:00 The Ugly Side of Strong Intergenerational Connection 30:14 Balancing Independence and Family Obligations 33:53 Is the Relationship with our Elders Transactional? 38:27 The Future of Multi-Generational Living 41:42 What Do We Owe the People Who Loved Us First? 57:56 What We're Reading

    Do We Owe Our Parents More Than a Weekly Call?

  2. Aug 15

    Am I a Psychopath?

    A sports medicine journal has a term, "beautiful suffering," for what elite athletes experience during 24-plus-hour endurance events. This week Sue takes the lead with a question she's been sitting with since watching runners collapse in freezing rain at the 2018 Boston Marathon: are elite athletes wired differently, or is toughness something the rest of us can actually learn? The conversation moves through Corey Richards' memoir of surviving an avalanche and an undiagnosed mental illness, Steve Magness's case against the old "grit and bear it" model of toughness, Ksenija's years coaching football players and elite athletes through NLP and pattern interrupts, and why the answer to "is this person a psychopath" might just be "no, they've found a very efficient way to feel alive.” 📚 BOOKS MENTIONED: (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) The Color of Everything by Corey Richards: https://amzn.to/4zlpZqADo Hard Things by Steve Magness: https://amzn.to/3SExh8hWild by Cheryl Strayed: https://amzn.to/461OdbMFlow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: https://amzn.to/4xCnw9pMindset by Carol Dweck: https://amzn.to/4g3SEYcThe Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu: https://amzn.to/460DXR9A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler: https://amzn.to/4x45nla 💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ 📚 EXPLORE OUR HOSTS' WORK & READING LISTS • Read Ksenija's Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications • Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ 🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS A brand new weekly literary podcast hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston. From opposite sides of the Atlantic, we bring you thoughtful, relaxed, and witty conversations about contemporary fiction, classic literature, award shortlists, and the human questions hiding inside the books we read. New episodes are released every week. 👉🏻 CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 00:57 The Mindset of Elite Athletes 12:13 Debunking the Toughness Myth 16:11 Can the Mindset of Elite Athletes Be Taught? 19:45 Association and Dissociation 26:57 Pattern Interrupt 32:43 Achieving Flow 39:59 The Advantage of Personalized Approach 45:51 The Astonishing Power of the Mind 51:21 The Psychology of Basic Human Needs 01:02:49 When The Mindset Isn't There 01:08:16 The Dedication Conundrum 01:09:31 Recommendations

    Am I a Psychopath?

  3. Aug 8

    A Beast With Great Skin

    Hybristophilia is the clinical term for falling for dangerous men, and it's why serial killers on death row get marriage proposals by the hundreds. Romance publishing figured out how to sell that same instinct as fiction nearly a century ago. Ksenija and Sue (and a new guest co-host) trace the "dark romance" trope from Wuthering Heights through Twilight to BookTok, testing the three big arguments in defense of the genre, the double-edged misogyny debate, and why the fantasy of the man who's dangerous to everyone but you keeps resurfacing every generation, dressed as something new. 📚 Books Mentioned (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë: https://amzn.to/4gbQLJ1Twilight by Stephenie Meyer: https://amzn.to/4geauYLThe Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux: https://amzn.to/4qlGmPZJane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: https://amzn.to/3RVlHW9Beauty and the Beast by Madame de Villeneuve's: https://amzn.to/4gyXHkYRebecca by Daphne du Maurier: https://amzn.to/4ge5YcGOutlander by Diana Gabaldon: https://amzn.to/4g0wasDProject Hail Mary by Andy Weir: https://amzn.to/3UiYs93Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry: https://amzn.to/3UiYqOtA Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness: https://amzn.to/4xGfbBAA Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler: https://amzn.to/4x45nlaThe Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: https://amzn.to/4zkVpNM 💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ 📚 Read Ksenija's Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications 📚 Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ 👉 CHAPTERS 00:00 Hybristophilia and the Dark Romance Controversy 01:06 A Surprise Co-Host and the Mailman Conundrum 06:47 From Wuthering Heights to Twilight: A Dark Romance History 12:35 Three Arguments in Defense of Dark Romance 23:04 Fiction as Coping: Does the Genre Actually Harm Readers? 29:13 The Misogyny Argument, Cutting Both Ways 38:58 Tropes Hollywood and Publishing Can't Quit 41:58 Why Women Are Drawn to Dangerous Men 49:07 Masculine and Feminine Energy, Tony Robbins and Polarity 1:04:27 What We're Reading: Book Recommendations

    A Beast With Great Skin

  4. Aug 1

    Saints Were the Original Influencers

    A viral tradwife thriller sends its heroine back to the actual 1850s life she was selling online. A 13th-century Belgian saint's miracles go "viral" long before the internet exists. Ksenija and Sue put the two side by side to ask why we build women up in public just to watch them fall, and whether the church controlling a saint's story is really so different from an algorithm controlling a creator's reach. 📚 Books Mentioned (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke: https://amzn.to/3UfhtJxCanticle by Janet Rich Edwards: https://amzn.to/4iaWL7yCanon by Paige Lewis: https://amzn.to/4xCofYbWhistler by Ann Patchett: https://amzn.to/4guFaWZ 💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ 📚 Read Ksenija's Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications 📚 Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ 🎙 ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines. New episodes every Saturday. 👉 CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 01:14 The Trad Wife Fantasy 09:41 Where Yesteryear Goes Wrong 13:46 Dumping Non-Fiction and Reading Bad Books 19:04 Ksenija's Positive Social Media Experience 24:14 Losing Authenticity Online 30:05 Canticle: Miracles, Relics, and the Business of Sainthood 48:55 Freedom, Aging, and Who Gets to Be Free in Public 01:02:44 Our Podcasting Adventure 01:09:12 Reading Recommendations

  5. Jul 25

    Nobody Complained About Diane Kruger

    Christopher Nolan's Odyssey cast Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, and the internet exploded over "historical accuracy." Nobody said a word when Diane Kruger played the same role in 2004. Sue and Ksenija dig into the double standard, and into what cultural appropriation actually means, using the Nyong'o/Kruger casting controversy and Montenegro's own non-racial experience of cultural erasure to ask what's really being protected when people invoke the term. Is this about race, about power and ownership, or is "appropriation" just doing too much work as a single word for very different problems? Also discussed: the Snow White backlash, Hamilton's colorblind casting, and why our idea of "universal beauty" so often defaults to whiteness. 📚 Books Mentioned (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) • Circe by Madeline Miller: https://amzn.to/464g1MK • Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: https://amzn.to/4hBwhMq • The Color of Everything by Cory Richards: https://amzn.to/4bPQtqb • D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire: https://amzn.to/4x5iHpo 💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ 📚 Read Ksenija’s Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications 📚 Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ 🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines. New episodes every Saturday. 👉🏻 CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:34 Casting Controversy: Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy 07:28 The casting of Nolan's Odyssey 17:40 The Inaccuracy of Beauty Standards 26:11 Reimagining Historical Figures: Hamilton 30:56 The Snow White Controversy 33:49 Inclusivity in Beauty Standards 40:38 Cultural Appropriation: Definitions and Perspectives 55:23 Book Recommendations and Personal Growth

    Nobody Complained About Diane Kruger

  6. Jul 18

    What Happens When Women Stop Caring

    It starts with a novel about a woman who steals from her employer, marries into money, and eventually disappears on her own kids. It ends with a hard, unresolved argument about loyalty, guilt, and who actually holds women to impossible standards. 📚 BOOKS MENTIONED: (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson: https://amzn.to/4geI40U • The Misfortune of Marion Palm by Emily Culliton: https://amzn.to/3RSbJox • Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke: https://amzn.to/4zlirnB • Land by Maggie O'Farrell: https://amzn.to/4qhziDV • Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell: https://amzn.to/4g0RWwm • The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon: https://amzn.to/4x1gSts • West with the Night by Beryl Markham: https://amzn.to/4bPB88W • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: https://amzn.to/4garzCS • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: https://amzn.to/4zlFaA1 • Fathers Before Sons by Ksenija Popović: https://amzn.to/4gbRoST 💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substa... 📚 Read Ksenija’s Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substa... 👉🏻 CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 03:30 Tipping Culture 10:23 Expectations of Loyalty and Compliance 15:02 The Impact of Aging on Women 21:57 Compliance vs. Performance and the Human Doing 29:07 Mothers Abandoning Children 43:20 Class Distinctions, Politics, and Morality 50:03 Living Up to the Public Image on Social Media 53:37 Coopting Feminism to Justify Abhorrent Behavior: the Case of the Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla 59:35 Trump's Intervention in the World Cup 01:03:22 Book Recommendations

    What Happens When Women Stop Caring

  7. Jul 11

    Books for Your Summer Escape

    Looking for the perfect book this summer? 📚 SOME OF THE BOOKS MENTIONED: (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) • Dial A for Aunties: https://amzn.to/4x1yTIl • Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block: https://amzn.to/3S6QaAE • Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers: https://amzn.to/3S8HIRo • Outlander: https://amzn.to/4gy85JJ • Funny Story: https://amzn.to/4gzy6s0 • Great Big Beautiful Life: https://amzn.to/4bUfgcG • Malibu Rising: https://amzn.to/4wt0CQO • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: https://amzn.to/4i88mEn • Daisy Jones & The Six: https://amzn.to/3RVvueS • Damascus Station: https://amzn.to/45NCCxf • The Persian: https://amzn.to/4g8VcEx • Red Notice: https://amzn.to/4xNHLRP • I Found You: https://amzn.to/467gtty • Flags on the Bayou: https://amzn.to/468Fy7r • Anxious People: https://amzn.to/4x1kziX • The Ten Thousand Doors of January: https://amzn.to/4x3P87H • The Correspondent: https://amzn.to/3U2rOse • The Calamity Club: https://amzn.to/4fYF4GW • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: https://amzn.to/3TYnRF4 • The Solitude of Prime Numbers: https://amzn.to/3UAzAK0 • The Shadow of the Wind: https://amzn.to/4x1zda1 • Four Thousand Weeks: https://amzn.to/4bP3jF3 • The 12 Week Year: https://amzn.to/4hU0uGL • Atomic Habits: https://amzn.to/4wyJxFg • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: https://amzn.to/4gzyA1i • Awaken the Giant Within: https://amzn.to/4x3PlaZ

    Books for Your Summer Escape

  8. Jul 4

    What Makes a Country Worth Loving?

    What makes a country worth loving? Is patriotism about flags, freedom, democracy, or the people who hold a nation together behind the scenes? In this episode of Transatlantic Bookmarks, we celebrate America’s 249th Independence Day by moving beyond the headlines to ask a bigger question: What makes a country worth fighting for, protecting, or simply loving? We discuss patriotism, democracy, American history, the Fourth of July, Michael Lewis’s Who Is Government?, Hamilton, Lonesome Dove, nationalism, citizenship, NATO, the European Union, Montenegro, and what literature can teach us about civic life. Whether you’re interested in books, politics, history, literary fiction, democracy, public service, patriotism, or thoughtful long-form conversations, we hope you’ll join us. 📚 BOOKS MENTIONED (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) • Who Is Government? edited by Michael Lewis: https://amzn.to/4qnxg5g • South and West by Joan Didion: https://amzn.to/464jbQA • Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry: https://amzn.to/4wAMkxL • Steep Trails by John Muir: https://amzn.to/4hU0Tcf • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: https://amzn.to/4zlkMyQ • Moneyball by Michael Lewis: https://amzn.to/4cKcgzN • Flash Boys by Michael Lewis: https://amzn.to/4bRAbgx • Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto: https://amzn.to/460G1bR • Ms. Mabel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto: https://amzn.to/4xcViCg • The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell: https://amzn.to/4bLCBgE • Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-Zi: https://amzn.to/4zlGliV 💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ 📚 Read Ksenija’s Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications 📚 Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ 👉🏻 CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:42 Happy Fourth of July 03:31 What We’re Reading 08:09 American Democracy and Independence 13:17 The Price of Independence in the Balkans 24:05 Unsung Heroes in Government 34:41 What Is Patriotism Today? 51:34 Post-9/11 America and Post-Bataclan Paris 54:57 Can One Person Make a Difference? 01:04:12 Alexander Hamilton and the Founding Fathers 01:14:19 Book Recommendations

    What Makes a Country Worth Loving?
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Welcome to Transatlantic Bookmarks, a weekly podcast for people who enjoy big ideas and good company. From opposite sides of the Atlantic, European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston use books to uncover the questions at their heart and bring them into today's conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, and politics. This isn't a book review show. It's a conversation about the world, with literature as our guide. New episodes every Saturday.

Information

  • Creator
    Ksenija Popović & Sue Graham Johnston
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Ksenija Popović & Sue Graham Johnston
  • Show Website
    Transatlantic Bookmarks