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.

To kick off a month of features on the new Granta "Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists" issue, Chad talked with editor/translator Valerie Miles about the process of selecting these 25 authors amid a pandemic, about the shifts in demographics between the first list (from 2010) and this one, about voice and the importance of translators, and much more. Stay tuned all month for coverage of all the authors included in this issue along with bonus podcasts, videos, and the like. 

You can read the entirety of Valerie's introduction to this issue here. And tune in on May 6th at 1:30 ET to this event sponsored by Harvard to hear Valerie talk with Mateo García Elizondo, Dainerys Machado Vento, and Michel Nieva, all of whom are featured on the list.

This episode's music is "A Plate in My Honor" by Ron Gallo.

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

Translator Katie Whittemore (Four by Four, The Communist's Daughter, World's Best Mother, Last Words on Earth) joins Chad and Brian to talk about the horrible actions of Patrice, and whether he could be redeemed, about childbirth, about Aïcha and Hyena, and about Disney. Funny and cutting, this episode explores the book's tensions and MacGuffin, the narrative arcs being set up for the various characters, and why character studies can be so fulfilling to read.

Katie also was given the honor of choosing the book for the sixteenth season of the TMR, kicking off in September. Tune in if you want to find out what we'll be reading post-trilogy.

Please ignore all of the technical difficulties, but definitely get in touch if you'd like to rent Katie's writer's space outside of Valencia, Spain.

This week's music is "100%" by Sonic Youth.

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 all of volume one with Frank Wynne 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.

Caitlin Luce Baker of Island Books joins Chad and Brian to talk about a very nicely framed section of Vernon Subutex. We get introduced to Aïcha, who has, through Pamela Kant, just found out that her mom was a porn star before her death. (And had a fling with Alex Bleach.) We also get to see how the Hyena works (kind of), and leave off with her and Aïcha on a trip to Barcelona together.

This week's music is "Here Come the Munchies" by Kid Loco.

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 pages 216-271 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.

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

Chad and Kaija go it alone this week, talking about some of the more uncomfortable parts of the book to read in 2024, the Goneril story and the "evil touch," how almost every beat in this novel has a counterpart, the wonderful authorial intrusion discussing the "consistency" of characters, and, with glee in their hearts, the Herb-Doctor.

This week's music is "Is This What I Have Missed?" by Jerome Blazé.

Next episode will cover Chapters 20-26 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.

Emma Ramadan—translator of Despentes's Pretty Things and Anne Garreta (among many others), and recent winner of the PEN Translation Prize—joins Brian and Chad to talk about how cool Despentes is, and how much slang she uses in her work. They also discuss the conflict that will drive the plot (Laurent Dopalet vs. Bleach's tapes), inventing fake identities on the Internet (hi, Doug Feldick!), and, not bury the lead, which is preferable: yummy mummy or MILF. Also a bit of music talk, and a lot of laughs.

This week's music is "Manipulator" by Ty Seagall.

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 pages 147-215 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. And buy books from Riffraff!!

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.

The fifteenth iteration of the Two Month Review kicks off in a big way, giving a quick overview of Virginie Despentes's life and work for Brian, and then launching into the wonderful world Despentes constructs filled with characters who are past their prime, who are flawed and don't hide their warts. The subtle ways in which Despentes criticizes society, the separation between horrible thoughts and authorial intent, and the humor found in here all discussed at length. It's a fun way to kick off the new season!

This week's music is "Pretend We're Dead" by L7.

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 pages 84-146 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.

The final episode of the season! First off, Chad and Brian wrap things up, and preview season 15 (Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy, coming in April!), then Nick Sullivan talks to Chad about recording the audiobook, how he got into that business in the first place, the challenges of recording a book like this, and much much more.

This week's music is "In America" by Ezra Furman.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. (This episode is really fun to watch because Chad's camera shorted out . . . ) You can join us next week for the final episode with a special final guest where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

Kaija Straumanis joins Chad and Brian this week to talk about toxic masculinity, the genius of the J R audiobook, Bach, "up yours, up mine," connections to Pynchon, shit & money & the American Dream, and the implosion of J R's paper empire.

This week's music is "Deadlines (Hostile)" by Car Seat Headrest.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. (This episode is really fun to watch because Chad's camera shorted out . . . ) You can join us next week for the final episode with a special final guest where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

This week, Sam Rutter and Nick During join Chad for a long, sprawling discussion of J R, of the interesting quote Joy Williams attributes to Gaddis instead of Gibbs, of Gibbs's knowledge of financial doings, of how great Rhoda is as a character, and so so much more. This is the longest episode to date, but also one of the most fun.

This week's music is "Don't Get Hit By a Car" by Cheekface.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. (This episode is really fun to watch because Chad's camera shorted out . . . ) You can watch the next episode on Wednesday, February 17th where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

Chad and Brian talk about church parking lots, relationship entropy, millionaires, corporate logos ("Just Rite"), the uneasy alliance of art and commerce, and much more on this week's episode.

This week's music is "Highlights of 100" by Kiwi Jr.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the next episode on Wednesday, February 3rd where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

Dan O'Brien (The House in Scarsdale, A Story that Happens) joins the podcast this week to talk about J R from a playwriting perspective. Lots of interesting insights in this episode, about theater, about the relationship between art and commerce in the book, and about GameStop.

This week's music is "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe" by Okkervil River.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the next episode on Wednesday, February 3rd where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

Chad and Brian go it alone this week, and prove that even the most claustrophobic sections (trigger warning for anyone who grew up with hoarders) of J R are also riotously funny. They also don't understand money or business, but no one else in the book seems to either . . . There's also a lot of talk about Gibbs's footwear issues.

This week's music is "Laugh Track" by Ben Hopkins, one of the greatest songs of 2020.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the next episode on Wednesday, January 27th where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

Rodrigo Fresan (The Dreamed Part) joins Chad and Brian to talk about one of his favorite authors and books. There's good banter, some insight into J R, tell a (false) story about Fire the Bastards!, and generally try and entertain you. 

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the next episode on Wednesday, January 20th where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

The year-long Best Translated Book Award retrospective kicks off with this episode featuring the very first winner of the BTBA: Guantanamo by Dorothea Dieckmann, translated from the German by Tim Mohr and published by Soft Skull. There are three discussions on this episode: Chad W. Post and Patrick Smith talk about the formation of the BTBA and how the first year worked, then Patrick and Tim Mohr discuss Guantanamo, and finally Chad and Richard Nash talk about publishing ca. 2007. 

Music featured on this episode (all from albums released in 2007) includes "Paper Planes," "1234," "All My Friends," and "The Crystal Cat."

This series will continue biweekly through the end of the year, covering all twenty-five winning BTBA books (poetry and fiction) culminating in a Best of the BTBA award chosen by YOU, the listeners and fans, at the end of 2021. Stay tuned to Three Percent for additional posts, interviews, analysis of translation trends, and more. 

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

Not the happiest day in which to record a podcast, but Chad, Brian, and Kaija speak their fears and then dive into Melville's Confidence-Man, talking about grifters, the value of footnotes, and just how modern and amazing Melville's prose is. They guess at who the "confidence man" might be, the burnt over district of western New York, Mormons, and a lot more.

This week's music is "All Bets Are Off" by Japandroids.

Next episode will cover Chapters 10-19 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.

Ryan Chapman (Riots I Have Known) joins Chad and Brian to crap on Jonathan Franzen's "famous" "essay" about Gaddis, "Mr. Difficult." They also talk about the casual sexism present in so many of the male characters, the parallels and reversals connecting various scenes, just how funny and readable this book is, and the relationships between kids and adults in J R. 

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the next episode on Wednesday, January 13th where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

Vince Francone made his TMR debut on this episode about one of the funniest sections of J R to date. They talk about the dirty photos, how the book isn't as challenging as its reputation indicates, the maybe incest scene, shitting in a piano, 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 watch the next episode on Wednesday, January 6th where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

AND, be sure to order Vince's books, The Soft Lunacy and Like a Dog: A Memoir.

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

First time Gaddis reader Elizabeth DeMeo from Tin House joins Chad and Brian to talk about J R's field trip to the New York Stock Exchange where his class buys a share of Diamond Cable stock. In addition to recapping this somewhat chaotic segment—just imagine twelve sixth graders loose in NYC—they talk about Gaddis's style, what he had to say about the process of writing a book, the Rick Moody introduction to the Dalkey edition, ideas about what exactly makes this book "difficult," and much more.

This week's music is "Money, Money, Money" by ABBA.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the next episode on Wednesday, December 30th where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

The first new Three Percent Podcast since May! This is an episode all about sound and curation—in books, in music. It's unlike all the previous episodes, featuring three readings and two interviews. 

Here are all the songs featured on this episode:

Without Me

Americana

The Pull of You

Impossible Weight

Living in America

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, Mauro Javier Cardenas (Aphasia), and NYRB publisher Edwin Frank kick off season 14 by talking about entropy, Gaddis's humor, how best to approach reading this book (fast and out of control), the little plot hints that are left to figure out, the lack of interiority in J R and how he develops characters and voice, and much more. It's a great time, a good introduction for anyone approaching the novel for the first time, and includes some random publishing gossip and a lament for proofreaders.

This week's music is "Entropy" by El Ten Eleven.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the next episode on Wednesday, December 23rd where you'll also have the opportunity to 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.

This is a bonus episode in which Chad and Brian talk about three different essays on Ada, two boring ones by academic males, and an incredible chapter from Azar Nafisi's That Other World. There is good banter, a lot of jokes, and a true appreciation for this novel. Plus, Chad throws down a very unpopular hot take at the end while teeing up next season's book.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the kick off of Season 14 on Wednesday, December 16th at 3pm where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements.

And be sure to get in touch if you'd like to be a guest on Season 14 featuring  J R by William Gaddis.

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.

After a bit of business banter about publishing mergers and the future of books, Chad and Brian break down the final two parts of Ada, or Ardor, debating the purpose of the book as a whole, whether the ending "works," the unreliable unreliableness of Van Veen, and much more. On next week's episode, they'll talk about three essays on Ada: "Nabokov's Ada and the Texture of Time" by Dwight A. Yates, "Nabokov's Ada as Science Fiction" by Roy Arthur Swanson, and the "Heaven and Hell" chapter from Azar Nafisi's That Other World.

This week's music is "Spring by Summer Fall" by Blonde Redhead.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 12 live on Wednesday, December 2nd at 3pm where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements.

And be sure to get in touch if you'd like to be a guest on Season 14 featuring  J R by William Gaddis.

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.

As Chad and Brian finish part III of Ada, or Ardor, they talk about Ada and Van's reunion, the passage of time within this book, moustaches, who knows what about whom, and much more.

This week's music is "Endless Night" by Holy Motors.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 11 live on Friday, November 27th at 3pm where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements.

And be sure to get in touch if you'd like to be a guest on this season (or the next, which is on J R by William Gaddis), or if you have any critical articles on Ada that you think we should read.

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.

Following a long discussion about what actually happens on this podcast (spoiler: definitely not critical analysis), Chad and Brian dive into Part III of Ada, or Ardor, asking what the point of whole book is, what type of fragmented postmodernism Nabokov is playing with, the passage of time and action in this novel, and the varied responses to Ada's cinematic appearance. There's also a couple deaths, a lot of talk about the philosophy of time, and a number of goofy jokes.

This week's music is "Bamboo" by Monster Rally.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 10 live next Wednesday where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements.

And be sure to get in touch if you'd like to be a guest on this season (or the next, which is on J R by William Gaddis), or if you have any critical articles on Ada that you think we should read.

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.

In a rather subdued (re: election night hangover) episode, Chad and Brian discuss the relationship between cinema and writing, photos and memory, and what seems to be Nabokov's relationship to movies as art. They also talk about the screwball comedy nature of Van and Ada being found out, discuss the way in which part II differs from part I, learn a bit about Ada's engagement, and head into part III, with grand hopes for how Nabokov's book will turn out.\

This week's music is "Twin Cinema" by The New Pornographers. (It should not have taken eight episodes to realize how fitting this song is for this season.)

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 9 live next Wednesday where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements.

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.

After referencing Joytime Killbox on hundreds of TMR episodes, we finally break it down with the author himself! Conversation includes ideas about short stories and how they function, the nature of endings, and how Brian has grown as a writer since this collection first came out, while also examining the intent behind a number of the stories, and how they work.

This week's music is "All My Friends" by Broken Social Scene.

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.

Starting next week we'll kick of Season 24, which will include both Confidence-Man by Hermann Melville and then Melvill by Rodrigo Fresán. Full reading schedule available here.

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

From the International House of Prostitutes to the reunion of Ada and Van, this week's episode is quite a trip. Chad and Brian talk about dreams, John Garner, Martin Amis on "obscure" and "difficult" novels, how to actually pronounce Van, and much more.

This week's music is "Money" by Widowspeak.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 8 live next Wednesday where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements.

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.

Chad and Brian wrap up Part One of Ada, or Ardor—which features a duel, multiple deaths, an existential diatribe, and canes—and move onto Part Two, which is very Pynchon-esque. They get to dive into Van's "philosophical novel," ideas of time, questions about Terra, and much more. This episode is as fun and wild as the book itself!

This week's music is "Riding Solo" from the Spanish indie rock band Hinds.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 7 live next Wednesday where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements.

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.

A family dinner, a picnic in the woods—what could be more innocent? Well, in Ada, or Ardor, everything is tinged with a baseline feeling of "kind of creepy," especially the "passionate pump-joy exertions." Chad and Brian break it all down, talking about Demon, unraveling Nabokovian puns, finding subtle hints about Van's true parentage, and, at the end, unveiling Season 14's book.

This week's music is Will Butler's "Close My Eyes."

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 6 live next Wednesday where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statements.

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.

Things shift in Ada, or Ardor this week, with Van's second trip to Ardis being much darker, much more perverse and troubling than the first, "more innocent" summer with Ada. There's also another couple hints about Terra, and the possiblity of Ada having another lover . . . And, as is par for the course, some amazing writing from Nabokov.

This week's music is "Reset" by Rich Aucoin, another protest anthem of sorts from his new America album. (With another great, powerful video.)

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 5 live next Wednesday where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statments.

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.

Rodrigo Fresán (The Invented Part, The Dreamed Part, Bottom of the Sky) joins Chad and Brian to talk about the only Nabokov book he hasn't read. In addition to talking about all the reasons to love Nabokov, about how this book is the one where he actually seems to be measuring himself against the all time greats, they talk about strange science-fiction books, publishers as characters (and superheroes), the layers of (unreliable) narration surrounding the text, and beautiful writing about socially unacceptable things.

This week's music is "Nabokov's Wandering Eye" from an album called Poklapocalypse. Nothing could be more fitting.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 3 live next Wednesday where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statments.

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.

Chad and Brian try their best to unpack the first three chapters of Vladimir Nabokov's Ada, or Ardor, in an attempt to find some solid footing for this sci-fi (?), ambitious, reference-laded masterwork of one of the greatest writers of our times. Lots of questions about where we are (Terra or Anti-Terra?); mirrors; the relationship between text, footnotes, and parenthetical comments; the L disaster and "thank Log"; Nabokovian verbs; Anna Karenina and Wuthering Heights; and much more. It's a fun way to kick off this season, encapsulating the joy and confusion of reading a Nabokov book for the first time.

There are a surprising amount of songs with "Nabokov" in the title. Not sure if any of them are actually good, but here's "Nabokov's Butterfly" by Hailey Wojcik.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch episode 2 live next Wednesday where you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, or correct inaccurate statments.

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.

Carmen Boullosa joined Chad and Brian this week to talk about The Book of Anna, memories of watching baseball, why she (today) supports Karenin and thinks Anna K made a mistake with Vronsky, the origin and structure of the novel, her system of having a book in the queue before the previous one is published, and much more. 

And, at the very end, the book for Season 13—coming Wednesday, September 9th—is revealed! More information about the actual schedule will be available next week.

This week's music lacks an Anna reference, but is maybe an allusion to Anna and Vronksy . . . It's "Be as Good as You Want to Be" by Boat.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. Next week we'll discuss part four, “Finale” (pgs 162-End) with Carmen Boullosa herself. You can watch it live next Wednesday, August 19th.

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 and Words Without Borders co-founder Samantha Schnee joined Chad and Brian this week to talk about Anna's "opium-fueled" fairy tale that was referenced in passing in Anna Karenina, and a centerpiece of Boullosa's "sequel." A lively conversation about language, various Tolstoy translations, the book's origin, ways to interpret the fairy tale, and much more.

This week's musical Anna reference comes from Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea."

And again, if you want to help pick from the four finalists for season 13 (Zone, Vernon Subutex, Ada, or Ardor, Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming), fill out this survey. Thanks in advance!

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. Next week we'll discuss part four, “Finale” (pgs 162-End) with Carmen Boullosa herself. You can watch it live next Wednesday, August 19th.

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.

After talking a bit about Women in Translation Month and the voting process for choosing the Season 13 title, Chad and Brian get into the twisty nature of Part III of The Book of Anna, in which Anna's portrait is given to the tsar, and Leo Tolstoy appears in the dreams of two characters, both to berate them and make a case for revolution. This part ends with a bit of a tease, as next week we finally get to hear from Anna Karenina herself in the form of her opium inspired book.

This week's Anna song is "Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!" by Sunset Rubdown.

And again, if you want to help pick from the four finalists for season 13 (Zone, Vernon Subutex, Ada, or Ardor, Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming), fill out this survey. Thanks in advance!

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. Next week we'll discuss part four, “The Book of Anna” (pgs 127-161). You can watch it live next Wednesday, August 12th.

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.

This week's episode is one of the more political ones to date, as Chad and Brian talk about Russia's "Bloody Sunday," comparing the Tsar's actions to Trump and what's going on in Portland. (They also sigh loudly over his most recent attempt to stoke racial and class anger.) They talk about the pacing and balance between these first two parts of the novel, the ways in which this section are almost anti-Tolstoy in nature, the relationship between power and history, and Chad's obsession with Baudrillard and illusion. (See this post.)

This week's Anna song is "Anna Begins" by Counting Crows.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. Next week we'll discuss part three, “Karenina's Portrait” (pgs 99-126). You can watch it live next Wednesday, August 5th.

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.

This week, Lori Feathers joins Chad to talk about "Involutions of the Seashell," a Substack project dedicated to reading and talking about Marguerite Young's Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. They discuss the nature of the Substack, anecdotes about Young, how to get people engaged with such an intimidating work, reading fast and slow, and much more.

You can also hear more from Lori on the "Across the Pond" podcast (Apple, Spotify).

The music on this episode is "Circles" by Colourmusic.

If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Spotify, and other places. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Twitter/X for more info about upcoming episodes and guests.

The final part of season 12 kicks off with Chad and Brian discussing the first part of Carmen Boullosa's The Book of Anna, translated from the Spanish by Samantha Schnee and published by Coffee House. Chad gives a brief recap of Leo Tolstoy's novella, Anna Karenina, then they discuss how and what type of sequel this is, get into the two different storylines—revolution and Anna's children—and end with a discussion of the metafictional elements and the way in which this book plays off of Nabokov's Bend Sinister.

This week's Anna song is "Anna" by Will Butler. (The video for which stars Emma Stone.)

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. Next week we'll discuss part two, “Bloody Sunday” (pgs 74-98). You can watch it live next Wednesday, July 29nd.

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.

Katie Whittemore joins on this episode to refute a list of crazy fan theories about Four by Four, and to talk about the difficulties of translating a book in which there's really no where to hide. Chad also shares some new, bad, jacket copy, and makes a pitch for one of Katie's next books to come out: World's Best Mother by Nuria Labari. Very fun, loose, enjoyable episode putting to bed a book that is, ultimately, quite unnerving.

This week's musical four-by-four reference is from Malibu Ken in his appropriately creepy "Acid King."

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. Next week we'll move on to The Book of Anna by Carmen Boullosa and Samantha Schnee. Get your copy today! We'll discuss part one, “Anna’s Sergei and Anya’s City” (pgs 1-73), next Wednesday, July 22nd, and you can watch live here.

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. And you can get 20% off Four by Four by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

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

ALTA executive director and Arabic translator (Minor Detail), Lissie Jaquette joined Chad and Brian to talk about Bedragare's breakdown and all the events in the second half of his journal. They also wonder what the "mystery" of the novel is, and talk about various (possibly nutty) theories about who killed Lux and Ledesma. All of this sets up next week's episode in which—according to Chad—the real will be explained . . .

It's amazing how much questionable music there is that includes a reference to a "4x4." This week's is a little ditty by Hardy that includes this lyric, "Them good old boys been feeling macho / In that quatro wheel drive." Hell yeah!

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. The next broadcast will be on July 15th. We'll be talking about the final section of Four by Four, which is available in bookstores everywhere. (And as an audiobook via Tantor Media!)

After next week's episode, we'll move on to The Book of Anna by Carmen Boullosa and Samantha Schnee. Get your copy today!

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. And you can get 20% off Four by Four by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

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