Reading McCarthy

The host is excellent, low-key, knowledgeable and friendly. The guests are Cormacian scholars, professors and writers. All tops in the field. I wish the episodes were longer, but this podcast is probably a work of love and admiration, so we are lucky it exists.

The podcast is well produced and has a good host but could be better. For starters, listeners had better have read all of McCarthy's works before listening to individual episodes, because even if a particular episode focuses on one work, the host and his guests frequently reveal spoilers about other works. So, for example, an episode about All the Pretty Horses, the first novel in McCarthy's Border Trilogy, will contain spoilers about the other two books in the trilogy, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. This is frustrating for someone who comes to the podcast after having read one or two of McCarthy's works. Moreover, depending on the guest(s), discussions sometimes become narrowly academic and pedantic, thus missing the forest for the trees. (In my opinion the best guest has been Steven Frye, who has written several books on McCarthy and is able to discuss McCarthy's work in interesting and insightful ways without using jargon and going off on tangents that appeal only to specialists.) The podcast would better serve listeners if the host and his guests would limit discussions in episodes about individual McCarthy works to those works. It would also be nice to have episodes in which the host and/or his guests respond to listeners' questions about McCarthy and his works.

Impressive lineup of guests and great discussion on Cormac’s books.

I have recently discovered this podcast and really love it. The host is excellent— he is gracious, knowledgeable, thoughtful, humble, and a great interviewer. I have found all of the topics and guests really wonderful. I am learning so much from this podcast about a writer whose corpus I have come to respect and enjoy so much. Thank you, Prof. Yarbrough— keep up the great work!