Three Percent Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Our series on the National Endowment for the Arts continues by talking with three organizations and publishers about both the specific impact of the May 2nd “termination/withdrawal” emails, and the broader impact the shuttering of the NEA could have on the literary arts in the long term.

Featured on this episode are: Michael Holtmann of the Center for the Art of Translation, Adam Levy of Transit Books, and, Mary Gannon of the Community for Literary Magazines and Presses.

Part One of this series is available here and is a scripted presentation on the history of the NEA and various attacks it has suffered over the years. (Possibly the most professional Three Percent Podcast episode ever?)

The music for both these episodes is the Matmos version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which deconstructs John Philip Sousa’s patriotic march.

If you want to support Open Letter’s publications and all related activities—such as this podcast, reading tours, etc.—consider contributing to Deep Vellum Publishing, the nonprofit organization subsidizing and supporting OL’s operations.

You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.

And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk!

This is part one of a two part series (for now) on the National Endowment for the Arts and the, by now, much reported on letters that NEA grantees received on May 2nd, 2025 terminating or withdrawing their approved funding.

In this scripted episode, Chad goes over much of the history of the founding of the NEA, its core mission, the “Culture Wars” in the 1990s, trying to articulate how things are different today, and essentially providing a primer on what the NEA is, what nonprofit publishing is, and what the termination of this funds and possible dissolution of the agency might mean.

Again, and for the first time, this is a scripted podcast loaded with information for anyone curious about this particular government organization—much more professional than the usual episode. That said, he’s joined by Kaija Straumanis (The River, High Tide), Tom Flynn (Paratext Publicity), and Brian Wood (Joytime Killbox) to comment on this history and reflect on where we are now with arts in America.

Stay tuned for part two, which will be a conversation with three organizations impacted by this letters and how this will impact both their orgs—and the field of literary as a whole.

The music for these episodes is the Matmos version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which deconstructs John Philip Sousa’s patriotic march.

If you want to support Open Letter’s publications and all related activities—such as this podcast, reading tours, etc.—consider contributing to Deep Vellum Publishing, the nonprofit organization subsidizing OL’s operations.

You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.

And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk!

[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.]

"Grifters Gonna Grift" merchandise coming soon! This episode exposes just how useful footnotes can be as we transition from dusk to darkness, with the confidence-men being replaced by the Cosmopolitan. Under Discussion: The WWE, how nothing ever changes, the New Adam, land ownership, stripping people of their "humanity," cognative fallacies, peace pipes, and more.

This week's music is "The Ballad of the Costa Concordia" by Car Seat Headrest.

Next episode will cover Chapters 27-38 of The Confidence-Man. You can find the full reading schedule here.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Chad and Brian get into some fun and vengeful parts of Vernon Subutex 2 this week, talking about Gaëll, the proliferation of diereses in this section, getting revenge, Vernon's magical music, and more.

This week's music is "The Modern World" by The Jam.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can join us on Thursday, June 10th, ask questions, make comments, and correct inaccurate statements. Here's where you can find the complete reading schedule.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions.

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

Kaija Straumanis pinch hits this week to talk about Céleste, about spray painting insults, the best forms of revenge, how to upend a system, and whether of not a good dad can be an alcoholic. This episode is a great prelude to one of the major plot points of the trilogy, so listen to this and get ready for next week . . .

This week's music is "They'll Never" by Stef Chura.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can join us on Thursday, June 3rd, ask questions, make comments, and correct inaccurate statements. Here's where you can find the complete reading schedule.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions.

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

The large image associated with this post is copyrighted by Ittmust.

In this special episode, Chad talks with Rachel Cordasco about a new Three Percent project focusing on translators as curators. Over the course of the next month, we'll be posting a number of different types of posts—excerpts, profiles, readings, shorter podcasts, movie clips—using the five works of Italian science fiction Rachel selected as the starting point. 

In case it gets lost in the podcast, here are the five books in Rachel Cordasco's "Italian Science-Fiction Collection":

Cancerqueen by Tommaso Landolfi (tr Raymond Rosenthal)(1971)
Storie naturali (1966, as by Damiano Malabaila) and Vizio di forma  (1971)

• selections from both in The Sixth Day and Other Tales (tr Raymond Rosenthal, 1990)
• full translations of these & all Levi titles in Complete Works of Primo Levi (2015), w/ the two collections above tr Jenny McPhee

Nexhuman by Francesco Verso (tr Sally McCorry) (2015)
Creative Surgery by Clelia Farris (tr Rachel Cordasco and Jennifer Delare) (2020)
Bug by Giacomo Sartori (tr Frederika Randall) (2021)

Stay tuned for more information about these titles and other related books. 

This episode's music is "Motherboard" by Daft Punk.

If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and other places. Or you can always subscribe by adding our feed directly into your favorite podcast app: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss

Derek Maine returns for his second appearance this season to talk about Alex Bleach's tapes, Vodka Satana's death, how the system is rigged, horrible men, the complications of passing judgement, Motörhead, mushroom powder, and much more. This is a pretty key episode, as the trilogy veers into detective novel territory, and the conflict with Dopalet becomes more well defined.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can join us on Thursday, May 20th, ask questions, make comments, and correct inaccurate statements. Here's where you can find the complete reading schedule.

This week's music is "Eat the Rich" by Motörhead.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions.

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester

Veronica Esposito joined Chad and Valerie Miles to continue talking about Granta's second list of "Best Young Spanish-language Novelists." They talk about some of the recent Spanish reviews—and criticisms—of the list, about writing the periphery, about science-fiction and the differences between the 2010 list and the 2020 one, and much more. 

Upcoming Granta events include one on May 20th at 5pm ET on Zoom, sponsored by the Brooklyn Public Library, and a Hay Festival event on June 4th. The Brazos Bookstore event on Women in Translation that Veronica is moderating will take place on July 8th, and stay tuned to Granta Español for more!

This episode's music is "Long in the Tooth" by Budos Band. 

If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and other places. Or you can always subscribe by adding our feed directly into your favorite podcast app: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss

Chad and Brian go it alone this week to talk about whether this is one book or three (or three "seasons" of one book), or how Xavier and Patrice are both awful people but in entirely different ways, the breadth of characterization in Despentes's writing, all the jokes you can make knowing "Subutex" is Methadone, how to properly store gasoline in plastic bags, and much more.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can join us on Thursday, May 20th, ask questions, make comments, and correct inaccurate statements. Here's where you can find the complete reading schedule.

This week's music is "Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster" by Thee Oh Sees. If you want to see/listen to/contribute to the Vernon Subutex playlist on Spotify that Kate Sherrod set up, just follow the link below and enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/75Q4WIt3ueJdCvadjEaCbc?si=jnn5RNyuR_2Ro4A5w0PV7g

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions.

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

Translator Frank Wynne joins Chad and Brian to talk about slang, about yummy mummies, about why Vernon's pseudonym is so weird, and much much more. This is an episode as much about translating and reading as it is about the book proper, and is definitely worth listening to.

This week's music is "Waiting Room" by Fugazi.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can join us next week when we discuss the beginning of Volume 2, and ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements. Here's where you can find the complete reading schedule.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions.

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.