Required Reading from Liberties

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On Required Reading we talk with writers and readers about the texts — old and new — that influence or express their worldview.

  1. 3D AGO

    Dan Sinykin - Close Reading

    Dan Sinykin and Morten Høi Jensen discuss Close Reading For The Twentieth Century, the book that Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winnant edited and which was published recently by Princeton University Press.

    36 min

  2. JAN 27

    Morten Høi Jensen and Celeste Marcus -- Mann and Soutine

    Morten Høi Jensen and Celeste Marcus discuss their respective books The Master of Contradictions: Thomas Mann and the Making of the Magic Mountain and Chaim Soutine: Genius, Obsession, and a Dramatic Life in Art.

    45 min

  3. JAN 5

    Lance Richardson - Peter Matthiessen, True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen,

    On this episode of Required Reading, Morten Høi Jensen and Lance Richardson discuss Richardson’s new biography Peter Matthiessen, True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen, exploring the author’s environmentalism, his time working for the CIA, and his fascination with the Bigfoot Legend."

    39 min

  4. 11/11/2025

    Aatish Taseer - Return to Self: Excursions in Exile

    On November 7th, 2019, the Indian government revoked Aatish Taseer's Indian citizenship. In this episode of Required Reading, MORTEN HØI JENSEN and AATISH TASEER discuss Taseer’s recent book Return to Self: Excursions in Exile, a memoir about processing that violent ejection and grappling with the shards of self which remain after statehood.

    35 min

  5. 10/15/2025

    Daniel Elkind - Dr Chizhevsky's Chandelier

    Daniel Elkind and Morten Høi Jensen discuss Elkind's new book, Dr Chizhevsky's Chandelier: The Decline of the USSR and other Heresies of the Twentieth Century.

    35 min

  6. 09/09/2025

    Oliver Moody - Baltic: The Future of Europe

    Oliver Moody and Morten Høi Jensen discuss Moody's new book and explain how the history of the Baltic sea and the countries that surround it reveal a hopeful vision for a European future.

    36 min

  7. 08/27/2025

    Luka Ivan Jukić - Central Europe: The Death of a Civilization and the Life of an Idea

    Luka Ivan Jukić and Morten Høi Jensen discuss Luka's recent book and ask and answer whether "Central Europe" even exists.

    41 min

  8. 08/18/2025

    Alissa Wilkinson: We Tell Ourselves Stories

    Alissa Wilkinson and Morten Høi Jensen discuss Wilkinson's most recent book We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine. The book is about Didion, but it's also about America in her lifetime. This episode includes talk about the Dustbowl, Hays Code, Bonnie and Clyde and the human addiction to delusion.

    40 min
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On Required Reading we talk with writers and readers about the texts — old and new — that influence or express their worldview.

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