London Review Podcasts

Gaby Wood reads her diary from the latest issue of the LRB, in which she tries to draw an albatross using a camera lucida.Read the diary and much more in a latest issue: https://lrb.me/latestlrbSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Susan Pedersen talks to Joanna Biggs about Shelagh Delaney and her landmark 1958 play, A Taste of Honey.Read Susan Pedersen on Shelagh Delaney in the LRB: https://lrb.me/delaneypodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20bThe first two clips in this episode are from the 1961 film, the third clip is from The White Bus (1967) directed by Lindsay Anderson, and the fourth clip is from a 1959 interview with Delaney for ITN.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

John Lanchester talks to Thomas Jones about Georges Simenon, whose output was so prodigious that even he didn’t know how many books he wrote.Find links to related articles and a full transcript on the podcast episode page: https://lrb.me/maigretreturnspodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sonia Gandhi and Rupert Beale, scientists at the Francis Crick Institute, talk to Thomas Jones about the ways Covid-19 can affect the nervous system, the steps required to reopen the NHS after lockdown, the state of testing, and reasons for optimism about a vaccine.Read Rupert Beale’s latest piece on the coronavirus here: How to Block SpikeSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Andrew O’Hagan talks to Thomas Jones about the friendship between Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James, and the time they spent together in Bournemouth.Find a full transcript of this episode and links to related articles here: http://lrb.me/ohaganrlspodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael Wood talks to Adam Shatz about critical theory, its origins, developments and various diversions, and where it stands today. The conversation marks the publication of the eighth volume in the LRB Collections series, The Meaninglessness of Meaning: Writing about the theory wars from the ‘London Review of Books’ by contributors including Pierre Bourdieau, Judith Butler, Richard Rorty, Lorna Sage, John Sturrock and Michael Wood.You can buy the book on the LRB Store here: lrb.me/theoryFind a full transcript and list of related articles for this episode here: https://lrb.me/theorytrucepodUse the code ‘collect8’ at checkout to buy all eight LRB collections for just £40.Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colm Tóibín talks to Thomas Jones about the breakdown of Elizabeth Hardwick’s marriage to Robert Lowell, and its literary consequences.Find the pieces mentioned in this episode here: lrb.me/toibinhardwickpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mary Wellesley talks to Joanna Biggs about islands, blessed and not so blessed, from Homer to the Fyre Festival.Read more by Mary Wellesley in the LRB:On Blessed IslesOn anchoritesOn Sir Gawain and the Green KnightSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joanna Biggs talks to Thomas Jones about the life of Simone de Beauvoir.Further reading on Beauvoir in the LRB:Joanna Biggs: https://lrb.me/biggsdebeauvoirpodMichael Rogin: https://lrb.me/rogindebeauvoirpodToril Moi: https://lrb.me/torilmoipodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lana Spawls talks to Thomas Jones about working on a paediatric ward during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the ways hospitals have changed in response to the virus.Read Lana's latest piece in the LRB: Lana Spawls: How to set up an ICUSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rupert Beale talks again to Thomas Jones about his work at the Francis Crick Institute, where he’s helping to set up a testing lab for Covid-19. He talks about the challenges of creating a scalable process, explains why a successful antibody test could be hard to achieve, and finds some reasons to be hopeful.You can find a full transcript of this episode HERE.Read more in the LRB:Rupert Beale: Wash Your HandsLana Spawls: How to set up an ICUThomas Jones: QuaresimaSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Erin Maglaque talks to Thomas Jones about the lockdown imposed by the city of Florence in January 1631 in response to a plague outbreak, the similarities with our current situation, and the differences.Maglaque wrote about the plague in Florence in a recent issue of the LRB, reviewing Florence Under Siege: Surviving Plague in an Early Modern City by John Henderson.Read her piece here: https://lrb.me/maglaquepodRead Tom's piece on Italy and the coronavirus pandemic: https://lrb.me/jonesitalypodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Following his piece for the LRB about Covid-19, Rupert Beale talks to Thomas Jones about what the novel coronavirus is, how well countries are dealing with it, and what hopes there are for stopping the contagion.Read Rupert's piece here: https://lrb.me/bealecoronaviruspodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Akihito, who abdicated in April, was a paradoxical figure: a hereditary monarch, the son of the wartime emperor, Hirohito, strictly barred from political utterance, who even so stood out against the historical revisionism of the nationalist right. Richard Lloyd Parry considers the former emperor’s part in the intellectual and political debate over Japan’s wartime record, and its history of apology – or non-apology – for its conduct in East Asia.Find more from Richard Lloyd Parry in the LRB here: lrb.me/richardlloydparrypodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Given what we know about the future of the planet, is having children a matter of consumer choice, of political conviction, or something an authority will eventually decide for us? Meehan Crist explores the debate about the ethics of childbearing in the age of climate crisis. She addresses the relationship between BP and the British Museum, the implications of culture-washing, and the logic of cultural divestment initiatives.Read more from Meehan Crist in the LRB here: lrb.me/meehancristarticlespodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The line between making a fiction and telling a lie has been blurry at least since Homer, and liars – from Odysseus and Iago to Austen’s Wickham and beyond – have often played central parts within fictions. This lecture will aim to tell some (though not all) of the truth about the relationship between lies and fiction from Homer to Ian McEwan, and will ask if fiction has responded adequately to the maggoty abundance of lies in public life at the present time.Read more by Colin Burrow in the LRB: lrb.me/colinburrowpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alan Bennett reads his Diary for 2019, with a few little extra bits.Read more by Alan Bennett in the LRB: lrb.me/bennettpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the last of a series of events marking the LRB's 40th anniversary, Jeremy Harding and Adam Shatz talk to Nikita Lalwani about their work for the paper, with a focus on North Africa and the Middle East.Due to some problems with the audio recording, this is a slightly abridged version of the event.Read more Jeremy Harding in the LRB: lrb.me/jhardingpodRead more Adam Shatz in the LRB: lrb.me/shatzpod  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As part of a series of events marking the LRB's 40th anniversary, Nell Dunn and Tessa Hadley talk to Joanna Biggs, one of the LRB's editors, about fictional representations of women’s everyday lives.Read more in the LRB from:Tessa HadleyNell DunnJoanna Biggs  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As part of our series of events marking the 40th anniversary of the LRB, longtime contributors Rosemary Hill and Iain Sinclair talked to the LRB’s digital editor, Sam Kinchin-Smith, about London, through the lens of pieces they've written for the paper.Read more by Rosemary Hill in the LRB: lrb.me/hillpodRead more by Iain Sincliar in the LRB: lrb.me/sinclairpodSign up to the LRB's newsletter: lrb.me/acast  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.