Third Person Limited: A Books Podcast

3PL Podcasts LLC
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Books
  • Updated Biweekly

Third Person Limited is a podcast about books and culture with Nathan Pensky and Mason Stockstill, two writers living in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. We both work in academia, so we are therefore both tired, but in, like, a droll, entertaining way. Our opinions are numerous and wonderful to behold. Each of our chats will focus on a specific book, author, or cultural trend. Talk will be wide-ranging, with other topics likely to include literary gossip, the importance of Michael Mann’s film Heat to modern culture, snack discourse, family news, philosophy of mind, confessional poetry, very funny jokes, and also much less funny jokes. Episodes will often include interviews with working writers both well-known and up-and-coming. We encourage you to listen to this podcast when jogging or cleaning your apartment. Visit our site at thirdpersonlimited.com

  1. 5d ago

    George Pelecanos and The Odyssey

    Crime fiction legend George Pelecanos sat down with us to talk about his latest novel, The Blue Flame, and his approach toward writing for the page and the screen. George’s attention to realism and reflecting the world as it is makes him one of the greats in this genre (even though he killed off so many characters on The Wire). Then: How dare an expert on The Odyssey (8th Century BCE) have opinions about The Odyssey (2026) that don’t align with those of fans of The Odyssey (2026). We critique the critics criticizing a critic. The Blue Flame is out now.   Works cited this episode:   Hard Revolution, George Pelecanos Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett Yojimbo, dir. Akira Kurosawa A Fistful of Dollars, dir. Sergio Leone Miller’s Crossing, dir. The Coen Brothers Last Man Standing, dir. Walter Hill The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett “Honaloochie Bookie,” Mott the Hoople “Cleaning up,” S1E12, The Wire, created by David Simon “Middle Ground,” S3E11, The Wire, created by David Simon Treme, created by David Simon Creed, dir. Ryan Coogler The Odyssey, Homer The Odyssey, dir. Christopher Nolan “An Uncomplicated Man,” Emily Wilson, London Review of Books “Kicking up Cosmic Dust,” A.O. Scott, New York Times O Brother, Where Art Thou, dir. The Coen Brothers Jurassic Park, dir. Steven Spielberg Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates Predator Badlands, dir. Dan Trachtenberg Interview with the Vampire, dir. Neil Jordan Circe, Madeline Miller The Epic of Gilgamesh Interstellar, dir. Christopher Nolan

  2. Sep 1

    Mike Vago Talks Books as Movies

    It’s a books-to-movies summer blockbuster episode! We’re joined by author and (former?) podcaster Mike Vago to talk about what works when translating literature to film, and what falls flat. You will not be surprised to learn that we think this process is pretty successful when Steven Spielberg is the director. Then, Nate must grapple with the reality that his book was, in fact, published earlier this year, forever changing our relationship with Shakespeare, Descartes, and early modern philosophy.   Mike’s book The Planets are Very, Very, Very Far Away is on Amazon, and his podcast Why is This Not a Movie? can still be streamed almost anywhere.   Nate’s book Cartesian Theaters, Shakespearean Minds is out now     Adaptation, dir. Spike Jonze Jaws, Peter Benchley Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry Inside Out, dir. Ronnie Del Carmen and Pete Docter Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton Jurassic Park, dir. Steven Spielberg One Battle After Another, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson Magnolia, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson Frankenstein, dir. Guillermo del Toro Hamnet, dir. Chloe Zhao Train Dreams, dir. Clint Bentley Project Hail Mary, dir. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Wuthering Heights, dir. Emerald Fennell The Housemaid, dir. Paul Feig Godfather Part II, dir. Francis Ford Coppola Earthquake, dir. Mark Robson If Books Could Kill He’s Just Not That Into You, dir. Ken Kwapis What to Expect When You’re Expecting, dir. Kirk Jones The Miniature Book of Miniature Golf, Mike Vago The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera Beloved, Toni Morrison Hamlet, William Shakespeare Ulee’s Gold, dir. Victor Nuñez “Much Apu About Nothing,” The Simpsons The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean Ghost World, dir. Terry Zwigoff Ulysses, James Joyce Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, dir. Mel Stuart The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde Casablanca, dir. Michael Curtiz The Shining, dir. Stanley Kubrick Star Wars, created by George Lucas The Chronicles of Prydain, Lloyd Alexander “Brush with Greatness,” The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare, Clare Asquith The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

  3. Aug 10

    The Maltese Falcon (Summer of Dashiell Hammett)

    It's the big one here: Sam Spade and The Maltese Falcon. With this classic, Hammett pushed himself and the boundaries of the hardboiled genre he'd already mastered to create a gem of a novel that still resonates today, nearly 100 years after its publication. The inimitable cast of stylized characters swim against an undercurrent of noir cynicism that finally defeats them all. Plus, a statue of a bird.   Works cited this episode: The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett The Glass Key, Dashiell Hammett Reservoir Dogs, dir. Quentin Tarantino The Maltese Falcon, dir. John Huston Satan Met a Lady, dir. William Dieterle The Black Bird, dir. David Giler Return of the Maltese Falcon,  Monsieur Spade, AMC networks The Big Sleep, dir. Howard Hawks The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler The Da Vinci Code, dir. Ron Howard "The Big Knockover," Dashiell Hammett "$106,000 Blood Money," Dashiell Hammett "This King Business," Dashiell Hammett

  4. Jul 21

    T.C. Boyle and the Black Eyed Peas

    We welcomed legendary novelist and short story writer T.C. Boyle to the show, to discuss his latest novel, No Way Home. T.C. also shared some very depressing thoughts about environmental catastrophe, which he has chronicled extensively in his fiction, and some less depressing thoughts about his approach to the craft of writing.  Then, Nathan explains why he doesn't like the Black Eyed Peas, but isn't mad about it, either. Maybe we should all aspire to such equanimity. Works cited this episode: Already Dead, Denis Johnson A Friend of the Earth, T.C. Boyle The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle Blue Skies, T.C. Boyle The Terranauts, T.C. Boyle “After the Plague,” T.C. Boyle October Light, John Gardner “Let’s Get It Started,” The Black Eyed Peas A Court of Thorn and Roses, Sarah J. Maas The Sea, John Banville Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson

  5. Jun 29

    The Summer of Dashiell Hammett Begins!

    We launch the Summer of Dashiell Hammett with our deep dive on the Continental Op, the unnamed private investigator who starred in 28 stories and two novels. The San Francisco-based Op delivered a hardboiled fist to the drawing rooms, tea parties, and other twee scenarios that constituted detective fiction before his advent, changing the face of the genre forever. We also dug into Angel Down, the most recent Pulitzer winner for fiction, and found this story of a celestial being who is dragged through the muck of World War I’s trenches compelling in spite of the gimmick that Nate didn’t like. Works cited this episode:   Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett The Dain Curse, Dashiell Hammett “This King Business,” Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle “The Tenth Clew,” Dashiell Hammett Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche Truth and Method, Hans-Georg Gadamer Angel Down, Daniel Kraus Herscht 07769, László Krasznahorkai House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace Angels in America, Tony Kushner Dracula, Bram Stoker Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen ttyl, Lauren Myracle Ulysses, James Joyce The Odyssey, Homer O Brother Where Art Thou, dir. Ethan and Joel Coen

  6. Jun 16

    Willy Vlautin and Dashiell Hammett

    We were excited to have novelist and musician Willy Vlautin join us for a discussion about his career in both fields and his newest novel, The Left and the Lucky, which John Mulaney called “electric.” Willy covered his influences, why it was great to learn that some random lady hates him, and the interplay between his career as a songwriter and writer of fiction.   Then, what’s it like to read everything a single author wrote over just one summer? For us, of course, this means tackling crime fiction master Dashiell Hammett’s entire output. Hammett might not be on the New York Times’ “Best Summer Reads” list, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t curl up on a beach towel with his highly polished stories of violence, irony, and bootleg whiskey.   Works cited this episode:   Don’t Skip Out on Me, Willy Vlautin "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Joyce Carol Oates The Night Always Comes, Willy Vlautin Lean on Pete, Willy Vlautin Northline, Willy Vlautin A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin The Deverry Cycle, Katharine Kerr The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan The Sopranos, created by David Chase The Millennium trilogy, Stieg Larsson The Space Trilogy, C.S. Lewis The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien iCarly, created by Dan Scheider Executive Orders, Tom Clancy Dombey and Sons, Charles Dickens Great Expectations, Charles Dickens Jazz, Toni Morrison Sula, Toni Morrison The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett Spade and Archer, Joe Gores The Bourne Identity, Robert Ludlum

  7. Jun 1

    Episode 24: Deals with the Devil (with Ed Simon) and Firing Holden Caulfield

    We’re going to Hell with literary man-about-town Ed Simon, founder of the Pittsburgh Review of Books (with which our podcast is affiliated) and author of Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain. Ed helps us figure out why the legend of Faust still feels fresh in our world today, where nobody ever makes short-sighted deals that turn out badly in the end.   Then, we put Catcher in the Rye on trial. Does it deserve its vaunted position in the high school curriculum? And what do we want high schoolers reading, anyway, you big phony?   Ed Simon has several books out now.   Works cited this episode:   “Hypergraphia: On Prolific Writers and the Persistent Need to Produce,” Ed Simon, LitHub “The New Fabio is Claude,” The New York Times The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe “Bart Sells His Soul,” The Simpsons Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker Morphology of the Folk Tale, Vladimir Propp “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” Charlie Daniels Band “Theophilus,” The Book of Drama, Hrotsvitha On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy D. Snyder “High School English and the Making of American Readers,” Alexander Manshel, American Literary History The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger “Texts Most Frequently Taught in U.S. Secondary Classrooms are Nearly Identical to List from Decades Ago,” National Council of Teachers of English Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald The Crucible, Arthur Miller Macbeth, William Shakespeare Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Night, Elie Wiesel Hamlet, William Shakespeare Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury Frankenstein, Mary Shelley King Dork, Frank Portman The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain Tom Brown’s School Days, Thomas Hughes The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton 1984, George Orwell Brave New World, Aldous Huxley Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare

  8. May 19

    Episode 23: Alice Martin and Is Exposition Gendered?

    Women everywhere have an indescribable urge to get up and go west. That would be weird if it was real; in the hands of Alice Martin, author of the novel Westward Women, it’s not only weird but an incredible conceit for a thoughtful work of literary fiction that’s among the best books we’ve read this year. We were lucky to get Alice as a guest. This was followed by some deep thoughts about exposition in fiction, such as “what is it” and “is it for girls?” Turns out it’s for everyone, but there may be some expectations about how manly men writers don’t do much of it, because it’s not masculine to tell people what you’re thinking, I guess? Westward Women is out now.   Works Cited this episode:   A New Home, Who’ll Follow? Caroline Kirkland On the Calculation of Volume, Solvej Balle Bunny, Mona Awad The Husbands, Holly Gramazio Once and Again, Rebecca Serle The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway The Orchard Keeper, Cormac McCarthy Brighton Rock, Graham Greene One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov The Housemaid, Freida McFadden Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins Legends of the Fall, dir. Edward Zwick

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About

Third Person Limited is a podcast about books and culture with Nathan Pensky and Mason Stockstill, two writers living in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. We both work in academia, so we are therefore both tired, but in, like, a droll, entertaining way. Our opinions are numerous and wonderful to behold. Each of our chats will focus on a specific book, author, or cultural trend. Talk will be wide-ranging, with other topics likely to include literary gossip, the importance of Michael Mann’s film Heat to modern culture, snack discourse, family news, philosophy of mind, confessional poetry, very funny jokes, and also much less funny jokes. Episodes will often include interviews with working writers both well-known and up-and-coming. We encourage you to listen to this podcast when jogging or cleaning your apartment. Visit our site at thirdpersonlimited.com

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