London Review Bookshop Podcasts

The flaneur – an almost invariably male idler dawdling through city streets with no apparent purpose in mind – is familiar to us from the works of Baudelaire, Benjamin and Edmund White. In a glorious blend of memoir, cultural history and psychogeography, Lauren Elkin investigates the little-considered female equivalent, from George Sand to Agnes Varda and Sophie Calle, leading us through the streets of London, Tokyo, Venice, New York and, of course, Paris. Lauren Elkin, a contributing editor at the White Review, discussed the phenomenon of the flaneuse, and her own walking life with Brian Dillon.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this podcast George Monbiot and John Lanchester discuss Monbiot’s latest book 'How Did We Get into this Mess?' (Verso) and assess the state we are now in: the devastation of the natural world, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do.  One of the most vocal and eloquent critics of the current consensus, Monbiot makes a persuasive case for change in our everyday lives, our politics and economics, the ways we treat each other and the natural world.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his latest book White Sands (Canongate) inveterate traveller, novelist and essayist Geoff Dyer investigates, through ten journeys to places as distant from one another as Mexico, Beijing, French Polynesia and LA, the mystery of why we travel. Geoff Dyer's unique blend of humour and intellectual heft was on dazzling display in this evening of conversation with Gareth Evans, curator of film at the Whitechapel Gallery.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Psychoanalyst Darian Leader was at the shop to present his latest book 'Hands: What We Do with Them and Why' (Hamish Hamilton), in conversation with the novelist and essayist Tom McCarthy. Hands, in Leader's analysis, both as things in themselves and as metaphors, figures of speech and elements in folklore, are a fundamental constituent of humanity's distinctive nature.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the latest Verso podcast in collaboration with the London Review Bookshop, Esther Leslie, Marina Warner and Michael Rosen join Gareth Evans to discuss Walter Benjamin's experimentation with form and media, his concept of storytelling and the communicability of experience, and the themes that run throughout Benjamin’s creative and critical writing.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this podcast, listen to Maggie Nelson in conversation with author Olivia Laing in the bookshop.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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In this podcast listen to a discussion chaired by Tariq Ali, celebrating the life and work of historian and sociologist Benedict Anderson, who died in December last year shortly after completing his memoir, 'A Life Beyond Boundaries' (Verso). Tariq Ali is in conversation with Laleh Khalili and T.J. Clark. Interdisciplinary and always innovative, Anderson’s many books, most notably 'Imagined Communities', brought about a fundamental shift in the way we think about the history of nationalism, nationhood and globalisation.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What does it mean to be middle class or working class? How does class affect us? Lynsey Hanley and Dawn Foster came to the bookshop to discuss Hanley's latest book, *Respectable* (Allen Lane), which argues that class remains resolutely with us, as strongly as it did fifty years ago, and with it the idea of aspiration, of social mobility, which received wisdom tells us is an unequivocally positive phenomenon, for individuals and for society as a whole.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Seymour Hersh has been a towering presence in American journalism for nearly 50 years. In 1970 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his articles exposing the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. In 2015 his 10,000 word article 'The Killing of Osama Bin Laden' proved so popular that it crashed the London Review of Books's website. In between, he has written articles on Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Israel and countless other topics, their common thread being their refusal to take government explanations and denials at face value. Hersh talked about his work with LRB contributing editor Adam Shatz, and in particular about his new book The Killing of Osama Bin Laden (Verso).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Britain's best-known classicist Mary Beard in discussion about her latest book, *[SPQR][1]* (Profile), in our special off-site event at Senate House. Natalie Haynes wrote in the *Observer* of Beard, 'She is never less than a vastly engaging tour guide around some of the best-known parts of the Roman story, debunking its myths with ease.' This podcast is her in conversation with James Davidson, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Warwick University and a regular contributor to the *LRB*.    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rupert Shortt in discussion with Dr Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, on Shortt's new book *God is No Thing*. Even though parts of the Western world now appear almost totally secularised, Christianity remains the most potent worldview on earth alongside Islam. In *God is No Thing* Rupert Shortt argues that Christianity is a much more coherent, progressive body of belief — philosophically, scientifically and culturally — than often supposed by its critics. Alert to the menace posed by religious fundamentalism, as well as to secularist blind spots, he shows how a self-critical faith is of huge consequence to wider human flourishing and offers an erudite and eloquent argument for the importance of Christian values in modern life. Rupert Shortt is religion editor of the Times Literary Supplement and a former Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. His books include *God's Advocates: Christian Thinkers in Conversation*, *Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack*, and *Rowan's Rule: The Biography o

James Macdonald Lockhart's first book *[Raptor][1]*, (HarperCollins) documents a series of journeys in search of each of Britain's breeding birds of prey, from Scotland's mighty eagles to the tiny merlin. In this podcast Lockhart, an associate editor of and regular contributor to *Archipelago* magazine, is in conversation about this exciting project with [Tim Dee][2], BBC Radio producer, dedicated birdwatcher and author of *[The Running Sky][3]* and *[Four Fields][4]*. [1]: /on-our-shelves/book/9780007459872/raptor-a-journey-through-birds [2]: /profiles/tim-dee [3]: /on-our-shelves/book/9780099516491/running-sky-a-bird-watching-life [4]: /on-our-shelves/book/9780099541370/four-fields  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When asked about the meaning of the late string quartets Beethoven famously remarked 'Oh those are not for you, they are for a later age.' Has that later age arrived? In a talk illustrated by musical excerpts both recorded and live, the leader of the Takács Quartet Edward Dusinberre discusses the significance and challenge of these extraordinary pieces of music with editor-in-chief of *Gramophone* James Jolly. **Presented in association with *Gramophone* and EFG International.**  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In Lean Out (Repeater Books) writer, journalist and LRB contributor Dawn Foster takes issue with the corporate-style feminism outlined in Sheryl Sandberg's influential bestseller Lean In. Does this trickle-down feminism offer any material gain for women collectively, or is it merely window-dressing PR for the corporations who caused the financial crash? She concludes that leaning out of the corporate model is a more effective way of securing change than leaning in. Foster was joined by Zoe Williams, Guardian journalist and author of Get It Together (Cornerstone).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gregor Hens discussed his new book Nicotine with Will Self. Written with the passion of an obsessive, Nicotine addresses a life of addiction, from the epiphany of the first drag to the perennial last last cigarette. Reflecting on his experiences as a smoker from a young age, Gregor Hens investigates the irreversible effects of nicotine on thought and patterns of behaviours. He extends the conversation with other smokers to meditations on Mark Twain and Italo Svevo, the nature of habit, the validity of hypnosis, and the most insignificant city in the United States, where he lived for far too long. With comic insight and meticulous precision, Hens deconstructs every facet of the dependency and offers a brilliant disquisition on the psychopathology of addiction.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Marina Warner wears many hats, as cultural critic, mythographer, historian and essayist, but one of her best-fitting hats is her writer of short fiction hat. Her latest volume is *Fly Away Home* (Salt). Helen Simpson may have fewer hats, but is nonetheless one of the finest writers of short stories in the language. Her latest collection is Cockfosters* (Cape). Marina Warner and Helen Simpson came to the shop and read from and talked about their work. In this podcast they debate the status of short fiction in the literary canon.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A new novel from Edna O'Brien is without question a major literary event, and *The Little Red Chairs* (Faber) is her first for a decade. A hunted war criminal from the Balkans takes refuge in an isolated village on Ireland's West coast, masquerading as a faith healer, and exercises a fatal attraction over its inhabitants. At this event in the Bookshop, O'Brien talked about the novel with *LRB* mainstay Andrew O'Hagan.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ten years after the publication of his highly acclaimed and prize-winning 1599 James Shapiro moves the Shakespeare story on to 1606, the year of *King Lear*, *Macbeth* and *Antony and Cleopatra*. At the shop talking about *1606* (Faber) with Shapiro was Charles Nicholl, author of *The Reckoning*, *The Lodger* and *Traces Remain*.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Claire-Louise Bennett and Joanna Walsh met at the London Review Bookshop to read from and discuss their new books, Pond (Fitzcarraldo Editions) and Hotel (Bloomsbury). The discussion was chaired by Katherine Angel, author of Unmastered: A Book on Desire, Most Difficult to Tell (Penguin).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.