London Review Podcasts

Hazel Carby talks to Adam Shatz about the increasing nationalisation of racial histories, and the way African-American studies in the United States have been influenced by ideas of American exceptionalism. She argues instead for a broader, global view of race and African culture.Carby explores these ideas in her review of Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents: https://lrb.me/hazelcarbypodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

James Wood talks to Thomas Jones about Beethoven, drawing on his review of three recent books on the composer. They discuss some of the apparently immovable Beethoven mythologies – the keyboard pedagogy, the heroic glower, the many appropriations of the 9th Symphony – and the blend of Viennese tradition and radical invention which characterises his music, particularly the piano sonatas, from the ethereal melodic sweetness of The Tempest to the terrifying, thumping trills of the Hammerklavier.Read James Wood's piece here: https://lrb.me/beethovenpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20bPieces and recordings featured in this episode:5th Symphony: Berlin Philharmonic / Furtwängler (1954)3rd Symphony: Berlin Philharmonic / Furtwängler (1952)Piano Sonata No. 29 (‘Hammerklavier’): Barenboim (1984)Piano Sonata No. 29 (‘Hammerklavier’): Solomon (1952)Piano Sonata No. 17 (‘The Tempest’): Gould (1960)9th Symphony: Beyreuth Festival Orchestra / Furt

John Lanchester reads his review of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes.Read the piece here: lrb.me/neanderthalspodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Diane Williams reads nine of her (very) short stories published in the LRB, the most recent, ‘Tassel Rue’, from our Christmas issue.Find these stories and more, as well as a conversation between Williams and Lara Pawson from the London Review Bookshop, on our website: https://lrb.me/dianewilliamspodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thomas Jones reads his homage to Maradona, with help from some 1980s commentators.Read the piece here: https://lrb.me/maradonapodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rupert Beale talks to Thomas Jones about the new Sars-CoV-2 vaccines, how the mRNA technology works, why social distancing still matters, and why he’s worried about Christmas. (The conversation was recorded before the publication of the AstraZeneca/Oxford trial data.)Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ange Mlinko talks to Joanne O’Leary about the work of Denise Riley, following the publication last year of Riley’s Selected Poems: 1976-2016 and her essay Time Lived, without Its Flow. They look in particular at Riley’s celebrated poem ‘A Part Song’, a long elegy for her adult son, Jacob, who died from undiagnosed cardiomyopathy in 2008. ‘A Part Song’ was published first in the LRB in 2012 and won the Forward Prize for best poem in that year, and this discussion features extracts of Riley reading from the poem.Click here for more by Ange Mlinko and Denise RileyThis episode of the LRB Podcast is supported by The Week magazine. To try your first 6 issues of The Week for free, visit theweek.co.uk/offer and enter offer code LONDONSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pooja Bhatia talks to Thomas Jones about the Haitian revolution of 1791, the world-historical debut of the movement for Black liberation. They discuss the early insurrections, the leadership of Toussaint Louverture and his complicated legacy, the post-revolutionary land reforms and their traces in modern Haiti’s mango industry, and how Bhatia managed to get an interview with former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide after his return from exile.Find more by Pooja Bhatia on Haiti in the LRB here: https://lrb.me/haitirevolutionpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Randall Kennedy and Mike Davis talk to Adam Shatz about the results of the US elections. They consider the achievement of Stacey Abrams in Georgia, why the pandemic didn’t make much difference, how Democrats failed to understand changing Latino demographics, the role of progressives in Biden’s victory, and the intransigent, exurban core of the Republican base.Find more on the US elections in the LRB on the episode page for this podcast: https://lrb.me/kennedydavispodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Patricia Lockwood talks to Joanne O’Leary about being possessed by Vladimir Nabokov, reading Lolita as a teenage girl, the diagnostic value of Bend Sinister, and her anxiety about writing after having Covid-19.Read Patricia Lockwood on Nabokov and more in the LRB: https://lrb.me/lockwoodnabokovpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Adam Shatz talks to Mike Davis about some of the underlying and long-term political shifts at play in next week’s US elections. They discuss both traditional and emerging swing voters, the obstacles to majority rule, the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett as the latest move in an ongoing civil war within the Catholic Church in the United States, the critical failure of the left to challenge the philosophy of the Reagan revolution, the death cult at the core of today’s Republican base, the importance of Bernie Sanders’s presidential run and the Black Lives Matter movement, and why, fifteen years ago, Davis predicted an age of pandemics.Find LRB pieces related to this episode here: https://lrb.me/mikedavispodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alex Abramovich talks to Thomas Jones about the history of country from Jimmie Rodgers to Lil Nas X, by way of Dolly Parton (and Eddie Van Halen), and the problems with the labels that get applied to American vernacular music.Find Alex Abramovich's piece on Ken Burns' series here: https://lrb.me/countrymusicpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To mark the publication of the latest LRB Collection of essays, about sport, David Runciman, on loan from Talking Politics, talks to Ben Markovits about Michael Jordan, home advantage, how basketball has tackled racial inequality, the difference between writing about sport in fiction and non-fiction, and why it turns out that players really are sometimes hot and sometimes not.Pre-order the LRB's collection of sports writing here: https://lrb.me/sportFind the pieces mentioned in this episode here: https://lrb.me/sportpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Emily Wilson talks to Thomas Jones about three new translations of the Oresteia. They discuss what the texts of the tragedies may tell us about the state of democracy in fifth-century Athens, the difficulties of Aeschylus’ language, why Hamilton may be the best modern analogue to Ancient Greek drama, and how Wilson came to do her own translation of the Odyssey.Find Emily Wilson's piece on Aeschylus and more here: https://lrb.me/emilywilsonpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jenny Turner talks to Joanna Biggs about the history of the Women’s Liberation Movement, the loneliness of feminist work, and the seemingly unavoidable question: How do you think your life compares to your mother’s?Find Jenny Turner’s piece and other related pieces on the episode page for this podcast: https://lrb.me/jennyturnerpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Deborah Friedell talks to Thomas Jones about the origins, and origin myths, of the National Rifle Association, how it spends its money, and why it's wary of winning.Read Deborah Friedell on the NRA here: https://lrb.me/friedellnrapodAnd you can find her other pieces for the LRB here: https://lrb.me/friedellpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Katherine Rundell reads her study of the Greenland shark, which can live for 500 years.You can find all the pieces in Katherine Rundell's series of animal studies on her author page on the LRB website: https://lrb.me/rundellpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rupert Beale talks to Thomas Jones about Covid-19 vaccine candidates, and reasons not to rush them; how worried we should be about reported cases of re-infection; possible reasons for the apparent drop in the infection fatality rate; and the prospects for reopening schools.Read more by Rupert Beale in the LRB: https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/lrb-conversations/covidologySubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Patricia Lockwood reads her diary about catching and recovering from Covid-19.Read more by Patricia Lockwood in the LRB here: https://lrb.me/lockwoodpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Adam Shatz talks to Paul Gilroy about his intellectual background and the recent anti-racist protests in the UK and US. They discuss Gilroy’s experience growing up in North London in the 1950s and 1960s, the influence of African-American culture on his understanding of racial ordering, the role of Turner’s painting The Slave Ship in the history of the ‘Black Atlantic’, the shifting use of terms such as ‘racism’ and ‘anti-blackness’, and how the imminent threats of climate change might affect racial identity.Find material related to this podcast on our website: https://lrb.me/paulgilroypodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.