The LRB Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

This week, a chapter from a new LRB audiobook, Becoming a Philosopher: Spinoza to Sartre by Jonathan Rée. This collection of ten biographical pieces, read by Rée, describes the lives of some of most influential thinkers of the past four hundred years and the radical and sometimes bizarre ideas that emerged from them. The audiobook also includes an introductory conversation between Rée and Thomas Jones, host of the LRB Podcast. In this free chapter, Rée looks at the life of Jean-Paul Sartre up to the publication of his first major philosophical work, Being and Nothingness, in 1943.

Podcast listeners can get 20% off using the code POD20 at checkout.

Buy the audiobook here and listen in your preferred podcast app: https://lrb.me/audio

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The great auk was a flightless, populous and reportedly delicious bird, once found widely across the rocky outcrops of the North Atlantic. By the 1860s it was extinct, its decline sharpened by specimen collectors and at least one volcanic eruption. Human-driven extinction was ‘almost unthinkable’ until the auk’s disappearance, Liam Shaw writes. He joins Tom to discuss when, where and why the great auk died out.

Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/aukspod

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Michael Wood talks to Malin Hay about the recent list from Sight and Sound of the ‘greatest films of all time’ (in which he voted), and what considerations could, or should, go into compiling such a chart. They also discuss Wood’s most recent review for the LRB, of Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, and whether there is such a thing as a Christmas movie.

Find more from Michael Wood in the LRB on the episode page: https://lrb.me/greatestfilmpod

Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod

Get in touch! Email us at [email protected]

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Alan Bennett reads his 2022 diary (with some extra bits), in which he buys his dad a violin, goes to Venice with a goat, and tries to make the queen laugh.

Listen without ads, and find more from Alan Bennett, on the LRB website: https://lrb.me/2022diarypod

Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod

Get in touch! Email us at [email protected]

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Thomas B. Edsall, a columnist for the New York Times, talks to Adam Shatz about the landscape of US politics following the recent elections. They consider some of the historic causes for the apparent polarisation of today’s electorate, and look ahead to the vote in 2024. Will Biden be a credible candidate for re-election? And what would a Trump or DeSantis (or even a Youngkin) candidacy mean for both the Republican and Democratic parties?

Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod

Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b

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Listen to a sample from the first episode of our twelve-part Close Readings series, Among the Ancients, with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones, which we'll be re-running from January next year. With a new episode each month, Among the Ancients will consider some of the greatest works of Ancient Greek and Roman literature, from Homer to Horace. In this sample Emily and Tom discuss the Iliad.

Sign up to all our Close Readings series here: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod

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Roald Dahl's key skill, as Colin Burrow puts it, 'was his ability to repress nastiness while keeping it visible'. 

Following his review of a new biography, Burrow talks to Tom Jones about Dahl’s limitations, his successes, and his 'marvellous medicine' approach to fiction.

Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/dahl

Sign up to our Close Readings subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod

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Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley return with a new twelve-part Close Readings series, Medieval Beginnings, exploring the strange and wonderful literary landscape of the Middle Ages. Starting in January 2023, the series will consider well-known works such as Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as well as many lesser-known texts, from across the European continent, that have all helped to lay the foundations of English literature. Listen to a sample here from their first episode, on Beowulf.

Sign up to our Close Readings subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod

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Jane Stanford, the co-founder of Stanford University, was murdered with strychnine in 1905. Her killer was never discovered – until now (perhaps). James Lasdun talks to Malin Hay about a new book by Richard White that investigates the story and looks into the extraordinary history of the Stanford family.

Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/stanfordpod

Sign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod

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