Podcast appearances and mentions of Parul Sehgal

His earlier episodes on this show have been huge hits, and as he completes a trilogy of books, he returns to complete a trilogy of episodes. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 408 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about writing, noticing, painting, travelling, trees, and unfulfilled train journeys. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Amitava Kumar on Instagram, Substack, Twitter, Amazon, Vassar, Granta and his own website. 2. The Green Book: An Observer's Notebook -- Amitava Kumar. 3. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Amitava Kumar Finds His Kashmiri Rain -- Episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal — Amitava Kumar. 6. The Yellow Book: A Traveller's Diary — Amitava Kumar. 7. My Beloved Life: A Novel -- Amitava Kumar. 8. A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 9. The Trees — Philip Larkin. 10. Before the Storm -- Amitava Kumar. 11. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 12. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 13. A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth. 14. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. ‘Indian languages carry the legacy of caste' — Chandra Bhan Prasad interviewed by Sheela Bhatt. 16. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Stage.in. 18. Laapataa Ladies -- Kiran Rao. 19. Kanthapura -- Raja Rao. 20. All About H Hatterr -- GV Desani. 21. From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada -- Sudha Bharadwaj. 22. India is Broken -- Ashoka Mody. 23. Being Mortal -- Atul Gawande. 24. Earwitness to Place -- Bernie Krause interviewed by Erin Robinsong. 25. All That Breathes -- Shaunak Sen. 26. Frog: 1 Poetry: 0 -- Amitava Kumar. 27. The Heat Will Kill You First -- Jeff Goodell. 28. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Artist's Way -- Julia Cameron. 30. An excerpt from Wittgenstein's diary — Parul Sehgal on Twitter. 31. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Ludwig Wittgenstein. 32. Burdock -- Janet Malcolm. 33. Hermit in Paris — Italo Calvino. 34. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 35. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) — Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall. 36. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 37. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 38. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 39. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 40. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Bhavni Bhavai -- Ketan Mehta. 42. All We Imagine as Light -- Payal Kapadia. 43. Secondhand Time -- Svetlana Alexievich. 44. Amitava Kumar's post with Danish Husain's postcard. 45. Fire Weather -- John Vaillant. 46. Ill Nature -- Joy Williams. 47. Hawk -- Joy Williams. This episode is sponsored by Rang De, a platform that enables individuals to invest in farmers, rural entrepreneurs and artisans. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Gulmohar' by Simahina.

Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River since 1967, after the third Arab-Israeli war, and ever since Israelis have settled on more and more of this contested land. Violence by armed settlers against their Palestinian neighbors has increased dramatically in recent years, as a far-right government came to dominate Israeli politics. Unless things change, the American journalist Nathan Thrall tells David Remnick, the future for Palestinians is “not unlike that of the Native Americans.” Thrall won a Pulitzer Prize for his book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama,” which uses one isolated incident—a road accident in the West Bank—to illustrate the ways in which life under occupation has become nearly unlivable for Palestinians. On July 19th, the United Nations' International Court of Justice issued an advisory ruling that the occupation violates international law. While the world's attention is focussed on the devastating war in Gaza, and the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the occupation of the West Bank remains a fundamental challenge for any peaceful resolution. Remnick also speaks with Palestinian lawyer and author Raja Shehadeh, a longtime advocate for peace with Israel who lives in Ramallah. Palestinians “are, in a sense, living under a different law than the law of the settlements. And so the settlers are going to be part of Israel, and the laws of Israel apply to them—and that's annexation—but not to us. There will be two communities living side by side, each subject to different laws, and that's entirely apartheid.” Shehadeh's new book is titled, “What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?” He argues that, as much as a concern for their security, many Israelis refuse to contemplate a two-state solution because recognizing Palestinians' claims to nationhood challenges Israel's national story.   Although Thrall believes that any false hope about an end to the conflict is damaging, he acknowledges that U.S. sanctions on violent settlers is a meaningful step, and Shehadeh sees the I.C.J.'s ruling as a new degree of global pressure. “That could bring about the end of the era of impunity of Israel,” Shehadeh believes. “And that can make a big difference.” Plus, for the fiftieth anniversary of Philippe Petit's famous high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the old World Trade Center—a quarter mile up in the air—The New Yorker's Parul Sehgal reads an excerpt from Gwen Kinkead's Profile of Petit titled “Alone and in Control.”  

Zadie Smith, joined by Parul Sehgal, sparkles with humor and insight in this conversation about her latest novel, The Fraud.

On this week's show, the hosts begin by dissecting The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth chapter in the Apes franchise. Set “many generations” in the future, the latest installment (directed by Wes Ball and starring Owen Teague) is an undeniably well-crafted summer blockbuster – but does it achieve the level of complexity and thought its predecessors did? (Read Dana's review for Slate for further analysis.) Then, it's onto John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA, a six-part live Netflix special that aired during the streaming giant's comedy festival. The conceit is thus: Netflix is a Joke attracts the best comedians in the world to LA, John Mulaney interviews them. But the final product is much stranger than that description, both a rejection and reinvention of the tired late-night talk show format, in which Mulaney interviews celebrities and non-celebrities, airs sketches, and delivers long monologues on the character of LA. Is Everybody's in LA chaotic and sloppy, or a ragged delight? Our panel discusses. Finally, the trio is joined by Slate's music critic, Carl Wilson, to eulogize the legendary musician and “producing engineer” (his preferred title) Steve Albini. Known for recording albums with Joanna Newsom, Nirvana, and the Pixies, among others, Albini considered himself a documentarian of sound and a technical expert, and brought his punk-rock ethic to everything he did. Read Steve Albini's essay, “The Problem with Music” and his letter to Nirvana. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses cultural arbitrage with Slate's music critic, Carl Wilson, inspired by W. David Marx's essay for The Atlantic, “The Diminishing Returns of Having Good Taste.”  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Dana: “Who's Afraid of Judith Butler?” – a profile of the philosopher and gender theorist by Parul Sehgal for The New Yorker. Julia: “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter. Stephen: The delightful, catchy, and exuberant (with a tincture of melancholy) music of New Zealand band, Yumi Zuma. (Check out Steve's playlist here.)  Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong.  Hosts Dana Stephens, Julia Turner, Stephen Metcalf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's show, the hosts begin by dissecting The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth chapter in the Apes franchise. Set “many generations” in the future, the latest installment (directed by Wes Ball and starring Owen Teague) is an undeniably well-crafted summer blockbuster – but does it achieve the level of complexity and thought its predecessors did? (Read Dana's review for Slate for further analysis.) Then, it's onto John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA, a six-part live Netflix special that aired during the streaming giant's comedy festival. The conceit is thus: Netflix is a Joke attracts the best comedians in the world to LA, John Mulaney interviews them. But the final product is much stranger than that description, both a rejection and reinvention of the tired late-night talk show format, in which Mulaney interviews celebrities and non-celebrities, airs sketches, and delivers long monologues on the character of LA. Is Everybody's in LA chaotic and sloppy, or a ragged delight? Our panel discusses. Finally, the trio is joined by Slate's music critic, Carl Wilson, to eulogize the legendary musician and “producing engineer” (his preferred title) Steve Albini. Known for recording albums with Joanna Newsom, Nirvana, and the Pixies, among others, Albini considered himself a documentarian of sound and a technical expert, and brought his punk-rock ethic to everything he did. Read Steve Albini's essay, “The Problem with Music” and his letter to Nirvana. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses cultural arbitrage with Slate's music critic, Carl Wilson, inspired by W. David Marx's essay for The Atlantic, “The Diminishing Returns of Having Good Taste.”  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Dana: “Who's Afraid of Judith Butler?” – a profile of the philosopher and gender theorist by Parul Sehgal for The New Yorker. Julia: “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter. Stephen: The delightful, catchy, and exuberant (with a tincture of melancholy) music of New Zealand band, Yumi Zuma. (Check out Steve's playlist here.)  Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong.  Hosts Dana Stephens, Julia Turner, Stephen Metcalf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many news platforms today still at times refer to the struggles of life in 2023 as residual pandemic trauma — directly influenced by the painful events beginning in 2020. Is it really fair and accurate to connect today's behavior and attitudes to a three-year-old ‘trauma'?There's no doubt the pandemic caused pain and suffering, and trauma, for millions of people directly affected. But as everyday life finds a post-pandemic new normal, is it helpful to our personal and collective healing and rebalance to see ourselves as traumatized? Or has trauma become a convenient rationale and strategy to avoid fully facing unsettling aspects of our changing reality?The pandemic is one example of how trauma can become what some people describe as a culture and identity — a myth we hold onto to explain and excuse our behavior, where every struggle is attributed to trauma. We explore the nature and outcomes of this all-encompassing focus on trauma in this Portals conversation between Aviv Shahar and Alexander Beiner, author, podcaster, and co-founder of Rebel Wisdom, a highly regarded platform for new ideas in this time of change.Alexander traces his journey to Rebel Wisdom and reflects on the extraordinary phenomenon of its rapid growth as a global community. The conversation then takes a deeper look at the trauma myth.Among their insights:The distinction between a healthy, constructive self-introspection, and one that is narcissistic and destructive, is important because they sound similar but have very different outcomes.There's something healthy about starting with a baseline that life involves suffering, rather than a modern Western consumerist notion of life as the pursuit of happiness.Cognitive flexibility builds on the understanding of brain plasticity; you can create new synaptic connections and circuitries through learning — exposing yourself to new experiences.We reframe resilience from bouncing back to bouncing forward; not reestablishing the old balance.If the story we tell ourselves is that we're inherently fragile, the culture we create prevents the innovation and risk taking needed to come through the mental crisis we're facing.It's a time of great overlapping crises; in Greek crisis means decision point — we must make huge decisions about who we are and the kind of society we want to create.The universe now needs more of the human coming online, not in buildings and churches made of stone, but on the inside, which means turning on the interior lights.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “As well as for me personally, a lot of the countercultural, psychedelic, countercultural visionary kind of thinking that I was used to, which really gave a message that we can change systems, it is possible. And it's a question of overcoming what was known as the prosaic fallacy, which is this idea that we simply can't imagine a different way of doing things, that doesn't mean that a different way of doing things isn't possible. So that was a big influence as well.” (Alexander) “So it was actually quite a long process I went on and the instigating factor of me wanting to write something about it, or actually originally make a film about it, was a piece I read by Parul Sehgal, who's a literary critic, it was in the New Yorker. And her piece is called ‘The Case Against the Trauma Plot'. And I thought, uh, huh, interesting. What she's arguing is effectively that a lot of writers of modern stories are using trauma to explain their characters.” (Alexander)“So I gathered a circle of friends, psychologists, practitioners, and we spent two years working on the project of resilience and the five key ideas we qualified. And then it became a tool that I've been using for the last 15 years now, with all the teams I've worked with.” (Alexander) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv's LinkedIn Aviv's TwitterAviv's Website

The writer Sheila Heti is known for unusual approaches, but her latest work is decidedly experimental. Heti “is one of the most interesting novelists working today,” according to The New Yorker critic Parul Sehgal. “She is ruthlessly contemporary. By which I mean, she's not interested in writing a novel as a nostalgic exercise. She's constantly trying to figure out  new places fiction can go. New ways that we're using language, new ways that our minds are evolving.” To write her new book, “Alphabetical Diaries,” Heti combed through a decade's worth of her own diaries, then alphabetized the sentences; in the first chapter, every sentence in the narrative begins with the letter “A,” and so on. “It's fun to find writing that shouldn't be in a novel, and to figure out, can it do the same things that we want writing in novels to do,” she shares, “which is [to] move us, and tell us something new about the world and about ourselves.” In other words, she's not interested in experimentalism for its own sake. “I always want to write a straight realist novel,” she says. “Something proper, like the books that I love most. . . . It doesn't happen, because I think I don't notice the same things that those writers I love notice. I'm impatient with certain things that they were patient with.” 

In this (mostly) spoiler-free* episode, Neha and Shruti reflect on the experience of reading books from around the world. We zoom out and talk on a broad level about narrative voice, villainy, disability representation and its portrayal in literature, and post-colonial writing. We also do a deep dive into trauma narratives - why are they so popular nowadays? What stories are being promoted, and how does this limit the stories being told by authors of color?We had so much to say on these topics, that we just couldn't get to all of it in the episode! We decided to continue the discussion in our upcoming email newsletter - subscribe for free to join the conversation. You can also connect with us on Instagram, or email us at thenovelteapod@gmail.com.*We mention some minor plot points for The Murmur of Bees, Fruit of the Drunken Tree, and Pachinko (10:26-12:05), but we don't think these spoil the story in a significant way. Still, if you prefer to read books without any prior knowledge, make sure to check out these books before you listen to this episode!Links:The Case Against the Trauma Plot by Parul Sehgal in the New YorkerBooks mentioned:Illness as Metaphor by Susan SontagTess of D'Urbervilles by Thomas HardyThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne BronteI'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdyRegarding the Pain of Others by Susan SontagLetters to a Writer of Color edited by Deepa Anappara and Taymour SoomroLike Water for Chocolate by Laura EsquivelSea Monsters by Chloe AridjisThe Bone People by Keri HulmeCry, the Beloved Country by Alan PatonBeasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this last and somewhat longer episode of The Writer and the Critic for 2023, your hosts Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, begin by discussing the television adaptation of Slow Horses as well as the new Mike Flanagan series, The Fall of the House of Usher. No prizes for guessing which one Kirstyn did not like and which one she adored. The books up for discussion this month are After the Forest by Kell Woods [13:35] and I am Homeless if This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moor [54:20]. This review by Parul Sehgal of I Am Homeless if This is Not My Home in The New Yorker is highly recommended if you are able to access it. If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:21:55 for final remarks. Next episode will be February 2024 and the two books on the slab will be: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

Zadie Smith, joined by Parul Sehgal, sparkles with humor and insight in this conversation about her latest novel, The Fraud.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is an unlikely literary star. A botanist by training—a specialist in moss—she spent much of her career at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. But, when she was well established in her academic work, having “done the things you need to do to get tenure,” she launched into a different kind of writing; her new style sought to bridge the divide between Western science and Indigenous teachings she had learned, as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, about the connections between people, the land, plants, and animals. The result was “Braiding Sweetgrass,” a series of essays about the natural world and our relationship to it. The book was published by Milkweed Editions, a small literary press, and it grew only by word of mouth. Several years later, it landed on the Times best-seller list, and has remained there for more than three years; fans have described reading the essays as a spiritual experience. Kimmerer herself was recently recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship. Parul Sehgal, who writes about literature for The New Yorker, went to visit Kimmerer on the land she writes about so movingly, to talk about the book's origin and its impact on its tenth anniversary. “I wanted to see what would happen if you imbue science with values,” Kimmerer told her. She is an environmentalist, but not an activist per se; her ambition for her work is actually larger. “So much of the environmental movement to me is grounded in fear,” she explains. “And we have a lot to be afraid about—let's not ignore that—but what I really wanted to do was to help people really love the land again. Because I think that's why we are where we are: that we haven't loved the land enough.”

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This week, Slate writer and editor Dan Kois fills in for Julia. The panel begins by breaking down Joy Ride, Adele Lim's raunchy first feature about four Chinese-American friends. Then, the panel dives into the second season of the reality show Claim to Fame. Finally, they examine the commodification of storytelling, inspired by Parul Sehgal's essay “The Tyranny of the Tale” for The New Yorker.  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses pickleball, America's fastest growing sport.  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Dana: “They Don't Want Us and We Don't Need Them” – David Roth on the drama surrounding GQ's David Zaslav story and the depressing state of media for Defector.  Dan: Patrick deWitt novels – Specifically, the Canadian novelist's latest, The Librarianist.  Stephen: Diary of a Foreigner in Paris – Curzio Malaparte recounts his return to postwar Europe and his complex relationship with fascism.  Outro music: “Backwards” by Staffan Carlen Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Kat Hong.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows. You'll also be supporting the work we do here on the Culture Gabfest. Sign up now at Slate.com/cultureplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Slate writer and editor Dan Kois fills in for Julia. The panel begins by breaking down Joy Ride, Adele Lim's raunchy first feature about four Chinese-American friends. Then, the panel dives into the second season of the reality show Claim to Fame. Finally, they examine the commodification of storytelling, inspired by Parul Sehgal's essay “The Tyranny of the Tale” for The New Yorker.  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses pickleball, America's fastest growing sport.  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Dana: “They Don't Want Us and We Don't Need Them” – David Roth on the drama surrounding GQ's David Zaslav story and the depressing state of media for Defector.  Dan: Patrick deWitt novels – Specifically, the Canadian novelist's latest, The Librarianist.  Stephen: Diary of a Foreigner in Paris – Curzio Malaparte recounts his return to postwar Europe and his complex relationship with fascism.  Outro music: “Backwards” by Staffan Carlen Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Kat Hong.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows. You'll also be supporting the work we do here on the Culture Gabfest. Sign up now at Slate.com/cultureplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The war in Ukraine may seem distant -- but it affects us all in a million unseen ways. Ajay Shah joins Amit Varma in episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen to deliver an in-depth masterclass on exactly what is going on. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 3. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 4. Rising to the China Challenge -- Gautam Bambawale, Vijay Kelkar, Raghunath Mashelkar, Ganesh Natarajan, Ajit Ranade and Ajay Shah. 5. Russia, Ukraine, Foreign Policy — Episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai). 6. Conflict in Ukraine: A timeline (2014 - present) -- Nigel Walker for House of Commons Library. 7. RUSI's commentary on Ukraine. 8. Rand Corporation's archive on the war. 9. Understanding the Russo-Ukranian War: A Guide From War on the Rocks. 10. Foreign Affairs articles on Ukraine, Russia and China. 11. Maps that update every day from Deep State and War Mapper. 12. YouTubers to follow on this subject: Perun, Timothy Snyder, Anders Puck Nielsen, The Telegraph, Silicon Curtain and William Spaniel. 13. Wind and solar power generated more electricity in the EU last year than gas did. Here's how -- Stefan Ellerbeck. 14. Economic stress in Russia -- Ajay Shah. 15. More ammo: Improving resilience against extreme surges in demand -- Ajay Shah. 16. Downstream from the Ukraine war -- Gautam Bambawale and Ajay Shah. 17. Bloodlands -- Timothy Snyder. 18. Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine -- Anne Applebaum. 19. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 -- Anne Applebaum. 20. On Tyranny -- Timothy Snyder. 21. What is Populism? -- Jan-Werner Müller. 22. Tyranny in the Post-Truth Universe (2017) -- Amit Varma. 23. Why Both Modi and Trump are Textbook Populists (2017) -- Amit Varma. 24. The End of History? — Francis Fukuyama's essay. 25. The End of History and the Last Man — Francis Fukuyama's book. 26. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 27. Arthur Koestler and Boris Pasternak on Amazon. 28. Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (2005) -- Vladimir Putin. 29. Requiem -- Anna Akhmatova. 30. Russian court orders closure of country's oldest human rights group -- Andrew Roth on the ban of Memorial. 31. The Resource Curse. 32. Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Vasily Grossman. 33. Dersu Uzala -- Akira Kurosawa. 34. Servant of the People -- The show in which Volodymyr Zelenskyy starts as the president of Ukraine. 35. Volodymyr Zelenskyy plays the piano with his penis. 36. How Corruption Destroys Armies - Theft, Graft, and Russian failure in Ukraine -- Perun. 37. An excerpt from Wittgenstein's diary -- Parul Sehgal on Twitter. 38. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus -- Ludwig Wittgenstein. 39. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton M Christensen. 40. National Security Strategy of Japan. 41. Suspicious deaths of Russian businesspeople (2022–2023). 42. ‘Stop the war.' 44 Top Russian Players Publish Open Letter To Putin — Sam Copeland. 43. Alexander Grischuk's emotional press conference after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Watch from 4:20.) 44. India must detach from Russia -- Renuka Sane. 45. Helping India Replace Russia in the Value Arms Market -- Vasabjit Banerjee and Benjamin Tkach. 46. After Ukraine, Where Will India Buy its Weapons? --  Vasabjit Banerjee and Benjamin Tkach. 47. For Whom the Bell Tolls -- Ernest Hemingway. 48. For Whom the Bell Tolls -- John Donne. 49. Night of the Long Knives. 50. Anton Geraschenko's tweet after the Wagner backdown. 51. Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller. 52. Max Seddon's tweet about Yevgeny Prigozhin. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘War' by Simahina.

Deepti Kapoor describes New Delhi, the setting of her novel “Age of Vice” as “extremely beautiful, but also violent. . . . It's a place where you think you're gonna get cheated and robbed until someone does something incredibly kind and breaks your heart.” The highly anticipated book, published simultaneously in twenty countries this month, is part crime thriller, part family saga centered on a reckless playboy who wants to break away from his mob family; a young man working as a servant to him; and a naïve young journalist. Kapoor, who spent a decade as a journalist herself, tells Parul Sehgal that she wrote the book while living abroad—needing the distance from her country in order to see it more clearly.

Welche Geschichten erzählt die Gegenwartsliteratur? In der letzten Podcast-Folge des Jahres ziehen wir Bilanz und diskutieren mit Marie Schmidt und Carlos Spoerhase narrative Trends und Konjunkturen, die sich in jüngerer Zeit abgezeichnet haben: Welche Kritik gibt es am Trauma-Plot? Kennt die neuere Literatur noch klassische Liebesgeschichten? Wollen Leser:innen von Belletristik nur gefälliges Entertainment in Form altbekannter Stile und Motive? Und ist der Bedarf an autofiktionaler Literatur irgendwann gedeckt?Marie Schmidt ist Literaturkritikerin bei der Süddeutschen ZeitungCarlos Spoerhase ist Literaturwissenschaftler in München.In der Januar-Folge sprechen wir mit Aaron Lahl über Ethnopsychoanalyse.Literatur: Annie Ernaux, Der junge Mann. Aus dem Französischen von Sonja Finck, Suhrkamp, im Erscheinen.Benoîte Groult, Salz auf unserer Haut, Knaur 2017.Christian Kracht, Eurotrash, Kiepenheuer & Witsch 2021.Hanya Yanagihara, Ein wenig Leben, Hanser Berlin 2015.Helen DeWitt, The English Understand Wool, New Directions 2022.Hervé Le Tellier, Die Anomalie, Rowohlt 2021.Honoré de Balzac, Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen, aus dem Französischen von Rudolf von Bitter, Hanser 2022.Laureate J. M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello, Viking Press 2003.Lea Ypi, Frei. Erwachsenwerden am Ende der Geschichte, aus dem Englischen von Eva Bonné, Suhrkamp 2022.Leif Randt, Allegro Pastell, Kiepenheuer & Witsch 2020.Martin Kordić, Jahre mit Martha, S.Fischer 2022.Moritz Baßler, Populärer Realismus, Vom International Style gegenwärtigen Erzählens, C.H. Beck 2022.Natasha Brown, Assembly, Penguin Books 2021.Parul Sehgal, The Case Against the Trauma Plot, in: The New Yorker (2022); 10, online unter https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/03/the-case-against-the-trauma-plot (18.12.2022).Sebastian Fitzek, Mimik, Droemer 2022.Thea Sternheim, Tagebücher 1903–1971, herausgegeben und ausgewählt von Thomas Ehrsam und Regula Wyss, Wallstein Verlag 2011.Virgina Woolf, On Being Ill, in: The Criterion (1926), January.Kontakt: podcast@his-online.de Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arthur Less is a novelist—a “minor American novelist,” to be precise. He's a man whose biggest talent seems to be taking a problem and making it five times worse. And he's the hero of Andrew Sean Greer's novel “Less,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, an especially rare feat for a comic novel.   Andrew Sean Greer is now out with a sequel, “Less Is Lost,” which takes Arthur on a road trip across the U.S. He talks with the staff writer Parul Sehgal.  Plus, for thirty years, the poet Ellen Bass has taken the same walk almost every day, on West Cliff Drive, a road along the ocean in Santa Cruz, California. Friends and family have teased her for being stuck in her ways, so she wrote the poem “Ode to Repetition,” about taking the same walk, listening to the same songs, and doing the same daily tasks, as life marches toward its end. (This segment originally aired May 26, 2017.)

For the next few months, we're sharing some of our favorite conversations from the podcast's archives. This week's segments first appeared in 2017 and 2019, respectively.Jann Wenner, the co-founder and longtime editor of Rolling Stone magazine, has a new memoir out — but it's not the first book to tell his life story: In 2017, the journalist Joe Hagan published a biography, “Sticky Fingers,” that Wenner authorized and then repudiated after it included unflattering details. Hagan was a guest on the podcast in 2017, and explained his approach to the book's most noteworthy revelations: “I made a decision, really at the outset, that I was going to be honest with him and always be frank with him,” he told Pamela Paul and John Williams. “And if I came across difficult material, I was just going to address it with him. So in that way, it kind of let some of the pressure off. And by the end, we reached a point where I really tried to present him with the most radioactive material and make him aware of what I knew, so he wouldn't be surprised.”Also this week, we revisit a 2019 conversation among Williams and The Times's staff book critics Dwight Garner, Jennifer Szalai and Parul Sehgal about their list ranking the 50 best memoirs of the past 50 years. No. 1: “Fierce Attachments,” by Vivian Gornick.We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

The Case Against the Trauma Plot by Parul Sehgal: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/03/the-case-against-the-trauma-plotSubscribe to CJ Reads: https://www.youtube.com/c/CJReadsEmail: thebarandthebookcase@gmail.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebarandthebookcase/Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/64819771-jaylenStorygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/thebarandthebookcaseTikTok: tiktok.com/@thebarandthebookcase?

"Fatal Attraction" came out in 1987 when Wesley was 11, and it made a permanent impression on the way he thinks about certain aspects of lust and suspense. With Jenna away on book leave, he welcomed Parul Sehgal, a staff writer at The New Yorker, to the show. Both Wesley and Parul watched “Fatal Attraction” over and over as preteens, and they've rewatched it multiple times in the years since. As they break down the most powerful scenes, they are reminded of the loss of high-stakes sex onscreen today. They discuss why the erotic thriller genre disappeared — and what they could gain from seeing more genuine, grown-up sex in movies.

Emily has Ben read an Anton Chekhov short story about a sad lady's sad day and discuss occasion for story. Why is this the day that you tune into your character's life? How can we as writers make a story feel complete? On the way, Ben and Emily get derailed by a difference of opinion sparked by George Saunders's analysis of the story. Should you consider the reader's interpretation and anticipate the reader's reaction to your story as you're writing? Ben says no. Emily says absolutely yes. Tune in for the pros and cons! Read a different translation of “In the Cart” by Anton Chekhov Buy George Saunders's writing craft book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (and his short story collection Tenth of December) Catch up on the viral writer conversation of Parul Sehgal's “The Case Against the Trauma Plot” Other recommendations from this week: Out to Lunch, a jazz album by Eric Dolphy Owed, a poetry collection by Joshua Bennett Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss Jan. 6, with guest Jamelle Bouie and what to make of omicron's impact on schools, and the Theranos case. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Matt Levine for Bloomberg: “Slaying the Blood Unicorn” Wall Street Journal: Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes: History of the WSJ Investigation  Emily Bazelon for the New York Times Magazine: “I Write About the Law. But Could I Really Help Free a Prisoner?” Ruddy Roye Photography Walker Evans Anastasia Taylor-Lind Sally Mann Larry Fink Photography Edward Hopper: Night Shadows, 1921 Alexander Calder: Finny Fish Wolfgang Laib: Wax Room Caravaggio: The Conversion of Saint Paul Here's this week's chatter: Emily: Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen; Parul Sehgal for the New Yorker: “The Case Against the Trauma Plot” John: Window-Swap.com David: Fight Club; Free Guy; City Cast Listener chatter from Cynthia Weiner: Corryn Wetzel for Smithsonian Magazine: “Ten Hilarious Winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards” For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, David, and Jamelle discuss the famous works of art they would most like to possess.  Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss Jan. 6, with guest Jamelle Bouie and what to make of omicron's impact on schools, and the Theranos case. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Matt Levine for Bloomberg: “Slaying the Blood Unicorn” Wall Street Journal: Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes: History of the WSJ Investigation  Emily Bazelon for the New York Times Magazine: “I Write About the Law. But Could I Really Help Free a Prisoner?” Ruddy Roye Photography Walker Evans Anastasia Taylor-Lind Sally Mann Larry Fink Photography Edward Hopper: Night Shadows, 1921 Alexander Calder: Finny Fish Wolfgang Laib: Wax Room Caravaggio: The Conversion of Saint Paul Here's this week's chatter: Emily: Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen; Parul Sehgal for the New Yorker: “The Case Against the Trauma Plot” John: Window-Swap.com David: Fight Club; Free Guy; City Cast Listener chatter from Cynthia Weiner: Corryn Wetzel for Smithsonian Magazine: “Ten Hilarious Winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards” For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, David, and Jamelle discuss the famous works of art they would most like to possess.  Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss Jan. 6, with guest Jamelle Bouie and what to make of omicron's impact on schools, and the Theranos case. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Matt Levine for Bloomberg: “Slaying the Blood Unicorn” Wall Street Journal: Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes: History of the WSJ Investigation  Emily Bazelon for the New York Times Magazine: “I Write About the Law. But Could I Really Help Free a Prisoner?” Ruddy Roye Photography Walker Evans Anastasia Taylor-Lind Sally Mann Larry Fink Photography Edward Hopper: Night Shadows, 1921 Alexander Calder: Finny Fish Wolfgang Laib: Wax Room Caravaggio: The Conversion of Saint Paul Here's this week's chatter: Emily: Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen; Parul Sehgal for the New Yorker: “The Case Against the Trauma Plot” John: Window-Swap.com David: Fight Club; Free Guy; City Cast Listener chatter from Cynthia Weiner: Corryn Wetzel for Smithsonian Magazine: “Ten Hilarious Winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards” For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, David, and Jamelle discuss the famous works of art they would most like to possess.  Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss Jan. 6, with guest Jamelle Bouie and what to make of omicron's impact on schools, and the Theranos case. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Matt Levine for Bloomberg: “Slaying the Blood Unicorn” Wall Street Journal: Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes: History of the WSJ Investigation  Emily Bazelon for the New York Times Magazine: “I Write About the Law. But Could I Really Help Free a Prisoner?” Ruddy Roye Photography Walker Evans Anastasia Taylor-Lind Sally Mann Larry Fink Photography Edward Hopper: Night Shadows, 1921 Alexander Calder: Finny Fish Wolfgang Laib: Wax Room Caravaggio: The Conversion of Saint Paul Here's this week's chatter: Emily: Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen; Parul Sehgal for the New Yorker: “The Case Against the Trauma Plot” John: Window-Swap.com David: Fight Club; Free Guy; City Cast Listener chatter from Cynthia Weiner: Corryn Wetzel for Smithsonian Magazine: “Ten Hilarious Winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards” For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, David, and Jamelle discuss the famous works of art they would most like to possess.  Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the panel begins by breaking down just what makes HBO's pandemic series Station Eleven so successful with Slate's senior managing producer of podcasts and co-host of Slate's Working podcast, June Thomas. Next, the panel appreciates the legacy that writer Joan Didion left behind. Finally, the panel rehashes the 2021 edition of Slate's Movie Club (including Dana's list of the year's best films) while discussing the future of film. In Slate Plus, the panel responds to Parul Sehgal's article “The Case Against the Trauma Plot” in the New Yorker. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements Dana: The magical work of Swedish stop-motion animator Niki Lindroth von Bahr. Four of her animated shorts can be found on the Criterion Channel, but you can find one—The Burden—on Amazon Prime. Julia: A recipe for Italian rainbow cookies adapted by Bon Appétit from Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone (of popular eateries Carbone and Torrisi Italian Specialties). Steve: First, his monster music playlist of mellow deep cuts, which includes work from Rickie Lee Jones' great ‘81 album Pirates, particularly the song “Living It Up.” Second: Susan Tallman's criticism for the New York Review of Books as a whole, but particularly  her recent review of Jasper Johns titled “The House That Johns Built,” inspired by a Johns catalog titled Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror. Podcast production by Asha Saluja. Production assistance by Nadira Goffe. Outro music is Freak Out! by Zorro. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the panel begins by breaking down just what makes HBO's pandemic series Station Eleven so successful with Slate's senior managing producer of podcasts and co-host of Slate's Working podcast, June Thomas. Next, the panel appreciates the legacy that writer Joan Didion left behind. Finally, the panel rehashes the 2021 edition of Slate's Movie Club (including Dana's list of the year's best films) while discussing the future of film. In Slate Plus, the panel responds to Parul Sehgal's article “The Case Against the Trauma Plot” in the New Yorker. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements Dana: The magical work of Swedish stop-motion animator Niki Lindroth von Bahr. Four of her animated shorts can be found on the Criterion Channel, but you can find one—The Burden—on Amazon Prime. Julia: A recipe for Italian rainbow cookies adapted by Bon Appétit from Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone (of popular eateries Carbone and Torrisi Italian Specialties). Steve: First, his monster music playlist of mellow deep cuts, which includes work from Rickie Lee Jones' great ‘81 album Pirates, particularly the song “Living It Up.” Second: Susan Tallman's criticism for the New York Review of Books as a whole, but particularly  her recent review of Jasper Johns titled “The House That Johns Built,” inspired by a Johns catalog titled Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror. Podcast production by Asha Saluja. Production assistance by Nadira Goffe. Outro music is Freak Out! by Zorro. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the panel begins by breaking down just what makes HBO's pandemic series Station Eleven so successful with Slate's senior managing producer of podcasts and co-host of Slate's Working podcast, June Thomas. Next, the panel appreciates the legacy that writer Joan Didion left behind. Finally, the panel rehashes the 2021 edition of Slate's Movie Club (including Dana's list of the year's best films) while discussing the future of film. In Slate Plus, the panel responds to Parul Sehgal's article “The Case Against the Trauma Plot” in the New Yorker. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements Dana: The magical work of Swedish stop-motion animator Niki Lindroth von Bahr. Four of her animated shorts can be found on the Criterion Channel, but you can find one—The Burden—on Amazon Prime. Julia: A recipe for Italian rainbow cookies adapted by Bon Appétit from Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone (of popular eateries Carbone and Torrisi Italian Specialties). Steve: First, his monster music playlist of mellow deep cuts, which includes work from Rickie Lee Jones' great ‘81 album Pirates, particularly the song “Living It Up.” Second: Susan Tallman's criticism for the New York Review of Books as a whole, but particularly  her recent review of Jasper Johns titled “The House That Johns Built,” inspired by a Johns catalog titled Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror. Podcast production by Asha Saluja. Production assistance by Nadira Goffe. Outro music is Freak Out! by Zorro. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Parul Sehgal, a former a book critic for The New York Times, is now a staff writer at The New Yorker. “My job is I think to be honest with the reader and to keep surfacing new ways for me and for other people to think about books. New vocabularies of pleasure and disgust.” Show notes: parulsehgal.com @parul_sehgal Sehgal's New York Times archive “Mothers of Invention: A Group of Authors Finds New Narrative Possibilities in Parenthood” (Bookforum • 2015) “In Letters to the World, a New Wave of Memoirs Draws on the Intimate” (New York Times • 2019) “#MeToo Is All Too Real. But to Better Understand it, Turn to Fiction.” (New York Times • 2019) Jia Tolentino on Longform “Peter Luger Used to Sizzle. Now It Sputters.” (Pete Wells • New York Times • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Belt and Roadkill: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LQBJ5N3 paperback https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LGNP95Z Belt and Roadkill Is Tale of UN Corruption By China With Dark Comedy, Series Launched Literary Reflection, Book NEW YORK CITY, Nov 12 – What is a novel? How long should it be? How corrupt is the United Nations? What is the line between real world injustice and fiction, black comedy? A just published novella, "Belt and Roadkill," raises these questions. The corruption of the UN, its documented domination by China as evidenced by two recent real-world bribery prosecutions in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, are the soil or message of the text. But the meta questions about what is a novel(la) is raised by its form and length. (It is available, first on Kindle, here). Earlier this month Parul Sehgal in The New Yorker bemoaned the democratization of literature, or content, by Amazon and Kindle Direct Publishing. But who are the gatekeepers? Who should they be? The author of Belt and Roadkill, years ago, was on the threshold of elite / elitist publishing, summoned to a venerable firm on Union Square in Manhattan and told that if only the actual names of Citigroup's predatory lenders could be dropped, it might be possible to move forward. But aren't public figures open to satire, without danger of libel lawsuits? Aren't those Predatory Benders who foreclose on thousands of homes just targets, like those at the UN who cover up hundreds of rapes by peacekeepers, and ten thousand Haitians killed by cholera, as only two examples? Belt and Roadkill does not mention Haiti, even once. It does, however, name-check Cameroon and Western Sahara, Huawei and the January 6, 2021 insurrection, breach or protest, whatever your politics.

Episode 86 Notes and Links to Mark Athitakis' Work            On Episode 86 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Mark Athitakis, and the two talk about Mark's varied reading, his various writing and editing jobs, his role as book critic and literary reviewer, ideas of the critic as objective chronicler, and his work that highlights underappreciated writers and Midwestern writers.              Mark Athitakis is a writer, editor, critic, blogger, reporter, essayist, white-paper-ist. He has written short and long pieces for publications like The New York Times and Washington Post, published two books, and provided editorial assistance from basic proofreading to deeper guidance on book-length projects. He has taught, consulted, and generally helped people tell their stories better. His particular expertise is in association/nonprofit content and literary criticism, but he delivers professional work in a variety of contexts.   October 4, 2021 Review in USA Today of Jonathan Franzen's Crossroads September 13, 2021 Review in The Los Angeles Times of Rabih Alameddine's The Wrong End of the Telescope -“This Refugee Novel Knows it Can't Change the World”    Authory.com Page for Mark-links to 300+ past publications   Buy The New Midwest at Bookshop.org   At about 2:00, Mark discusses his multifaceted career and the different types of writing he does as a “white paper-ist” At about 4:25, Mark talks about his childhood, as a child of immigrants from Crete, Greece, and the ways in which language and reading and immigrant tradition affected his later expertise with writing  At about 7:30, Mark talks about his early reading and having his “head turned sideways” by writers like Nelson Algren and Harry Mark Petrakis who wrote about place, and immigrant communities such as he knew growing up in Chicago; he also references Paul Fussell's Class and its impact on him At about 13:30, Mark talks about more recent reading that has informed his love of literature and his own writing, including William Faulkner, Phillip Roth, Marilyn Robisnon, and admired critics like Parul Sehgal, Patricia Lockwood, Laura Miller, Leslie Jamison, and Elizabeth Nelson At about 18:20, Mark responds to Pete's question about moments in which he felt that his work resonated, and he talks about “really [taking] to it” when he began doing portraits of artists like Brian Wilson At about 21:00, Mark talks about the importance of the alt-weekly in nurturing young writers, and the declining impact of these alt-weeklies At about 22:25, Pete asks Mark about editing others' work, especially with writing as a supposed solitary activity; Mark talks about his recent role as a writer-in-residence at the public library and what he learned from it At about 26:40, Pete wonders about objectivity when it comes to criticism  At about 30:05, Pete inquires into if and how reading as a critic affects Mark's reading for pleasure; he also asks Mark about the philosophy of “bashing” and negative reviews At about 36:25, Mark responds to the Pete's musings about the “democratization of reviews” and how this affects him At about 38:00, Pete and Mark discuss Jonathan Franzen and his role as “controversial”; Pete cites parts of Mark's recent positive review of Franzen's Crossroads At about 42:15, Pete asks Mark about the portrait he wrote for the LA Times about Rabih Alameddine and if Mark sees a need to be an evangelist or activist with a book like this one At about 49:30, Pete and Mark discuss The New Midwest, Mark's book, and Mark talks about the genesis and aim of the book, with Belt Magazine providing impetus At about 54:00, Mark discusses his desire to avoid putting Chicago and Midwestern literature in opposition to other literary scenes in his book, but instead to celebrate the Midwestern scene At about 57:00, Mark salutes Marilynne Robinson in citing her as a true Midwest writer and underappreciated student and chronicler of the region At about 59:30, the two discuss David Foster Wallace's work as Pete asks Mark if he is a “Midwest writer” and Mark's thoughts about his work At about 1:03:20, Mark reads a piece of his that he deems a bit different from his usual-a piece from The Washington Post about “quarantine reading”; Pete and Mark discuss the article's ideas At about 1:08:00, Mark gives his contact information         You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.  This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for the next episode, a conversation with Natalia Sylvester, YA author extraordinaire. She has written, among other books, the award-winning Running, and her upcoming book is Breathe and Count Back from Ten, comes out in May 2022. The episode will air on October 22.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 8, 2021 is: scion • SYE-un • noun A scion is an heir or descendant of a wealthy or influential family. // As scions of the celebrity family, the siblings have options when choosing their career paths. See the entry > Examples: "Walker was the beloved, indulged scion of a wealthy East Coast family, the son of the first curator of the National Gallery and a descendant of Thomas More, the author of the 15th-century satire 'Utopia.'" — Parul Sehgal, The New York Times, 1 Aug. 2021 Did you know? Scion comes from Anglo-French cioun, meaning "offspring" or "new growth of a plant." When it first sprouted in English, it referred to a plant's shoot; the word was then applied to portions of a plant that have been grafted. The figurative meaning, "descendant," blossomed later, with particular reference to those who were descendants of notable families.

Acclaimed Slate books and culture columnist Laura Miller joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the ins and outs of being a critic. Miller discusses a recent piece about diversity and representation in audiobook narration. She also talks about reading for pleasure versus work, and why, when she's not reviewing, she often finds herself listening to authors. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub's Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction's YouTube Channel, and don't miss our brand-new website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope. Selected readings: Laura Miller The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia “The People Who Voice Audiobooks with Diverse Characters are Squirming Right Now,” Slate “Enough With Literature as Self-Improvement!” Salon.com “The Dark History Behind the Year's Bestselling Debut Novel,” Slate Others: “The Good Lieutenant by Whitney Terrell review – the Bush wars' best novel” by Charles Finch, The Guardian “Greetings From Polysyllabia” by Nandini Lal, Washington Post Wonderworks by Angus Fletcher Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of AmericanChildren's Literature by Leonard Marcus “Toil and Trouble” by Caleb Crain, New York Times Book Review “The Hideous Unknown of H.P. Lovecraft” by Charles Baxter, The New York Review “Reply to Charles Baxter's ‘The Hideous Unknown of H. P. Lovecraft'” by S.T. Joshi “What Muriel Park Saw” by Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker “Philip Roth's Revenge Fantasy,” by Laura Marsh, New Republic Judith Shulevitz, New York Times Zadie Smith Dwight Garner, New York Times Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review of Books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The actress and thriller writer Catherine Steadman visits the podcast this week to talk about “The Disappearing Act,” her new suspense novel about the absurdities of Hollywood. Steadman was drawn to the idea of setting a story during pilot season, when actors from all over the world descend on Los Angeles once a year and compete for lead roles in new TV series.“It's a sort of competitive world where friendships are made really quickly, and people will find their nemesis — someone who looks just like them who keeps snatching away parts from them,” she says. “It's a very strange atmosphere but it's very fun. It's kind of like the Vegas of the acting world. You go there, you cash your chips and you have a roll on the table and see what happens. There's all these strangers with the same desires and goals, in the same environment, and they really are up against each other. It's kind of a ‘Hunger Games' situation.”Michael Dobbs visits the podcast to talk about his new book, “King Richard,” which finds fresh things to say about President Richard Nixon and Watergate. Dobbs discusses writing about a story that's been told many times, all in the shadow of perhaps the best-known Watergate book, “All the President's Men,” by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.“That's the story of two reporters pursing this scandal into the White House and trying to figure out what was going on in the White House,” Dobbs says. “And now 50 years later — because we have access to these extraordinary materials, particularly Nixon's own tape-recorded conversations — one can tell the story from the inside rather than the outside. We're never again going to get such an intimate look at a president facing an existential crisis, as it's possible to get with Richard Nixon.”Also on this week's episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history as it celebrates its 125th anniversary, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world, and Parul Sehgal and Jennifer Szalai talk about books they've recently reviewed. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed by the Times's critics this week:“Wayward” by Dana Spiotta“Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History” by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta

Amanda and Jenn discuss books set in Polynesia and Ireland, aristocratic mysteries, and more in this week's episode of Get Booked. Follow the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Feedback Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (rec'd by Elizabeth) Questions 1. This is an oddly specific request. I recently read Girl at War and Ask Again, Yes. I really enjoyed the concept of two childhood friends, a boy and a girl, having to be separated for some specific, dare I say tragic, reason and then reunited later in life where they have to address the reason for their separation and decide what they mean to each other now that so much time has passed. Do you know of any other novel that involves a plot line like this? -Emily 2. Hi Jenn and Amanda, I'm super fascinated with Polynesia and I would love to read more that's set on one of the islands in the Pacific. I loved Euphoria and The People in the Trees, which is how I found out that I want more. Can you recommend any books set in historic or contemporary Polynesia that aren't told exclusively from a white colonial perspective? Made-up islands or peoples are fine, too. I prefer fiction, narrative non-fiction is OK, no memoirs please. Love the podcast and thanks in advance! -Cat 3. I love your podcast. It's so much fun and you have given me so many great reads. I have 2 requests if that is not too greedy. I am getting close to retirement and was hoping you could recommend some books about women transitioning into this time of life. As much as I am looking forward to this phase of life, it is somewhat daunting. I'm interested in the transition process and finding meaning as one moves into another way of being in the world. Fiction or Nonfiction is fine. A memoir would be great. I am not a huge fan of Romance but if you could suggest a couple that are character driven and involve a spicy, slightly overweight, post menopausal woman that would be freaking awesome. Again, just love your show.  Thanks, -Joan 4. I stumbled on this delightful mystery series (Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen) a few weeks ago, and I've read them all now!  I tried her other mystery series, but they lack the whimsy and fun of Georgiana and her aristocratic problems. Do you have another mystery series that is as smart and fun as this?  If so, please share. I need more, and so do my friends to whom I have introduced these books. Please answer by email, even if you don't get it on your podcast. There is no rush except that all this at-home time has really upped my reading time.  So I'm always looking for a next read…. Thank you for this service and for your fun podcast. -Susan 5. I am looking for recommendations for fiction set in parts of history that had major societal change. The Enlightenment interests me particularly, but any social revolution would be great! Bonus points if the book has female perspectives. Happy reading, -Michelle 6. Hey Get Booked ladies! Love your show!

Francis Spufford’s new novel, “Light Perpetual,” is rooted in a real event: the rocket attack on a Woolworth’s in London, killing 168 people, toward the end of World War II. Spufford fictionalizes the tragedy and invents five children who survive it, trailing them through the ensuing decades to discover all they might have done and seen if they had lived. On this week’s podcast, Spufford says that he settled on this real-life incident for intentionally arbitrary reasons.“The ordinariness is kind of the point,” he says. “I wanted something that was terrible but not exceptional. Something which was one tree in a wartime forest of bad things happening, which I could select out and then follow out the long-term consequences of through time.”Egill Bjarnason visits the podcast to talk about “How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island.”“The title is maybe the opposite of humble,” he says, “but I went into this project wanting to write about the history of Iceland. I have always found that really compelling, because unlike other European nations, we can tell our history almost from the beginning. But I figured that people who don’t have high stakes in that story may not be so interested. So I wanted to tell the history of Iceland through our impact on the outside world, by looking at where we have shaped events in some way or another.”Also on this week’s episode, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history as it celebrates its 125th anniversary this year; and Dwight Garner and Parul Sehgal talk about books they’ve recently reviewed. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week’s “What We’re Reading”:“A Ghost in the Throat” by Doireann Ni Ghriofa“Languages of Truth” by Salman Rushdie

In 2018, Michael Lewis published “The Fifth Risk,” which argued, in short, that the federal government was underprepared for a variety of disaster scenarios. Guess what his new book is about? Lewis visits the podcast this week to discuss “The Premonition,” which recounts the initial response to the coronavirus pandemic.“It wasn’t just Trump,” Lewis says. “Trump made everything worse. But there had ben changes in the American government, and changes in particular at the C.D.C., that made them less and less capable of actually controlling disease and more and more like a fine academic institution that came in after the battle and tried to assess what had happened; but not equipped for actual battlefield command. The book doesn’t get to the pandemic until Page 160. The back story tells you how the story is going to play out.”The historian Annette Gordon-Reed visits the podcast to talk about her new book, “On Juneteenth,” which combines history about slavery in Texas with more personal, essayistic writing about her own family and childhood.“This is a departure for me, but it is actually the kind of writing that I always thought that I would be doing when I was growing up, dreaming about being a writer,” Gordon-Reed says. “I’ve always been a great admirer of James Baldwin, and Gore Vidal’s essays I thought were wonderful, better than the novels, and that’s the kind of thing that I wanted to do. So it was sort of a dream come true for me to be able to take this form and talk about some things that were very important to me.”Also on this week’s episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history during this year of its 125th anniversary; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Parul Sehgal and John Williams talk about the latest in literary criticism. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed by the critics this week:“The Secret to Superhuman Strength” by Alison Bechdel“Jackpot” by Michael Mechanic

Blake Bailey’s long-awaited biography of Philip Roth has generated renewed conversation about the life and work of the towering American novelist who died at 85 in 2018. Bailey visits the podcast this week to take part in that conversation himself.“Most of Philip’s life was spent in this little cottage in the woods of Connecticut, standing at a desk and living inside his head 12 hours a day,” Bailey says. “This is not unique to Philip. This is a phenomenon that I experienced vis-à-vis my other subjects, too. They don’t see people very clearly. They sort of see themselves projected out, they see what they want to see. And Philip needed to understand that — though I was very fond of him, I was — I had a job to do. So our relationship was constantly teetering on the cusp between professional and friendship, and that could be an awkward dynamic. But for the most part I was extremely fond of Philip.”Julia Sweig visits the podcast to discuss her new book, “Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight.”“I wanted to write a book about women and power,” Sweig says. “And to be truthful, I didn’t have a subject when I got into this, and discovered that Lady Bird had kept this immense record of her time in the White House. And of course, Lady Bird Johnson is married to the American president of the 20th century perhaps most associated with the word ‘power.’ So the doors, once they opened, just showed a huge opportunity to discover somebody who I thought I had some feel for, but really did not.”Also on this week’s episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history during this year of its 125th anniversary; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Dwight Garner and Parul Sehgal talk about books they’ve recently reviewed. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed by The Times’s critics this week:“Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said” by Timothy Brennan“Francis Bacon: Revelations” by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan

A.O. Scott, The Times’s co-chief film critic, returns to the Book Review’s podcast this week to discuss the work of Tillie Olsen, the latest subject in his essay series The Americans, about writers who give a sense of the country’s complex identity. Olsen, who died in 2007 at 94, was known best as the author of “Tell Me a Riddle,” a collection of three short stories and a novella published in 1961. She also wrote rigorous depictions of working-class families, conveying the costs of living for burdened mothers, wives and daughters.“I think people should read her now for a few different reasons,” Scott says. “I was really drawn to this idea of the difficulty of writing, and the ways that our other responsibilities and the fatigue of living can make it hard to write. I think I related to this very much in this year. One of the themes in her stories is tiredness, is just the physical and mental fatigue of being alive and how hard that can make it to create anything.”Wendy Lower visits the podcast to discuss “The Ravine: A Family, a Photograph, a Holocaust Massacre Revealed.” In the book, Lower, a historian of the Holocaust, considers a photograph taken in October 1941 that shows several men shooting a woman who holds the hand of a small boy.“Most people think that we know all there is to know about the Holocaust,” Lower says, “and this is an important example of how these records are just being declassified now from various countries that were involved in the Holocaust or occupied by the Nazis.”Also on this week’s episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history during this year of its 125th anniversary; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Parul Sehgal and Jennifer Szalai talk about books they’ve recently reviewed. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed by The Times’s critics this week:“100 Boyfriends” by Brontez Purnell“Until Justice Be Done” by Kate Masur

One night in the summer of 2014, two teenage girls living in a remote village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh went missing. Hours later, they were found dead and hanging from a tree in a mango orchard. A media frenzy ensued that propelled the case to the front pages of national newspapers and prime time cable news. It was quickly decided that this was another clear-cut case of rape and murder in India’s heartland.  A haunting new book, The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing, by the author Sonia Faleiro reveals that the truth, however, is far murkier.  Sonia is Milan’s guest on the podcast this week and the two discuss the origins of The Good Girls, the notion of honor in contemporary Indian society, the pervasiveness of caste in the Hindi heartland, the troubled state of policing, and the battle Indian girls face even before leaving their homes.  Parul Sehgal of the New York Times has this to say about The Good Girls: “‘The Good Girls’ is transfixing; it has the pacing and mood of a whodunit, but no clear reveal; Faleiro does not indict the cruelty or malice of any individual, nor any particular system. She indicts something even more common, and in its own way far more pernicious: a culture of indifference that allowed for the neglect of the girls in life and in death.” Episode notes:Parul Sehgal, “A Double Tragedy in India and the Search for Elusive Answers,” New York Times.Rafia Zakaria, “Death in the Mango Orchard,” The Baffler

When Simon Winchester takes on a big subject, he takes on a big subject. His new book, “Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World,” travels through centuries and to places like Ukraine, New Zealand, Scotland, the United States and elsewhere. On this week’s podcast, he talks about the history of private land ownership and a few of the many aspects of this history that caught his attention.“The whole notion of trespass I find absolutely fascinating,” Winchester says. “There is this pervasive feeling — it’s not uniquely American, but it is powerfully American — that once you own it, you put up posted signs, you put up barbed wire, you put up fences, to keep people off. Because one of the five ‘bundle of rights,’ lawyers call it — when you buy land, you get these rights — is that you have an absolute right of law to exclude other people from your land. In Sweden, in Norway, in Denmark, you can’t do that.” The journalist Amelia Pang visits the podcast to talk about her new book, “Made in China,” in which she investigates the brutal system of forced labor that undergirds China’s booming export industry. She tells the story of one average American woman who bought a cheap Halloween decoration during a clearance sale after the holiday one year.“She didn’t really need it,” Pang says. “It actually sat in her storage for about two years before she remembered to open it. And so she was very shocked to find this SOS message written by the prisoner who had made this product when she finally opened it. It just goes to show the trivialness of a lot of the products that are made in these camps. In my book, I try to go into: Do we as Americans actually need so much of this stuff? And how much is our shopping habits and consumer culture contributing to factors that compel Chinese factories to outsource work to labor camps?”Also on this week’s episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history during this year of its 125th anniversary; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Dwight Garner and Parul Sehgal talk about books they’ve recently reviewed and how they approach reading the classics. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed by Times critics this week:“My Year Abroad” by Chang-rae Lee“Gay Bar” by Jeremy Atherton Lin

James Comey’s “Saving Justice,” arrives three years after his first book, “A Higher Loyalty.” Joe Klein reviews it for us, and visits the podcast this week to discuss, among other subjects, how the new book is different from the first.“It doesn’t differ very much at all, actually,” Klein says, “except for one thing: He rehearses all of the confrontations he had with Donald Trump in both books, but in the second book he places that in the context of the need for truth and transparency in government, which I think is a valuable thing. The book is a repetition of the first book, but it’s not an insignificant repetition because of the context that he’s now placed it in.”Elisabeth Egan, an editor at the Book Review, is on the podcast to discuss the latest selection for our monthly column Group Text: “A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself,” by Peter Ho Davies.“What I found especially compelling about this book in this moment, when we’re all still kind of confined to our houses,” Egan says, “is that it was very reassuring to read about parental worry in a moment when we’re all flying blind. But you have this worry with a lot of funny lines and funny observations about parenthood.”Also on this week’s episode, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Parul Sehgal and Jennifer Szalai talk about books they’ve recently reviewed. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed by the Times’s critics this week:“Kill Switch” by Adam Jentleson“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 30, 2020 is: truculent • TRUCK-yuh-lunt • adjective 1 : aggressively self-assertive : belligerent 2 : scathingly harsh : vitriolic 3 : feeling or displaying ferocity : cruel, savage 4 : deadly, destructive Examples: Warren's truculent demeanor made him unpleasant to work with, particularly as deadlines approached. "We encounter the novel not as a relic, encrusted with renown and analysis, much revered and much handled, but in all its freshness and truculent refusal of fiction's tropes." — Parul Sehgal, The New York Times, 16 June 2020 Did you know? Truculent derives from truculentus, a form of the Latin adjective trux, meaning "savage." It has been used in English since the 16th century to describe people or things that are cruel and ferocious, such as tyrannical leaders, and has also come to mean "deadly or destructive" (as in "a truculent disease"). In current use, however, it has lost much of its etymological fierceness. It now frequently serves to describe speech or writing that is notably harsh (as in "truculent criticism") or a person who is notably self-assertive and surly ("a truculent schoolboy"). Some usage commentators have criticized these extended uses because they do not match the savagery of the word's original sense, but they are well-established and perfectly standard.

Parul Sehgal is a book critic at The New York Times. She was previously a columnist and senior editor at The New York Times Book Review. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Slate, Bookforum, The New Yorker, Tin House, and The Literary Review, among other publications, and she was awarded the Nona Balakian Award from the National Book Critics Circle for her criticism. She has been a featured speaker at TED and teaches at Columbia University and the Center for the Humanities at CUNY. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dwight Garner, Parul Sehgal and Jennifer Szalai on the top books of 2019.

Wesley Morris, Parul Sehgal and Dwight Garner talk about Morrison’s career, and Sarah M. Broom talks about her debut memoir, “The Yellow House.”

An evening of discussion and poetry readings with poets Kayo Chingonyi, Bhanu Kapil, Ilya Kaminsky and New York Times book critic Parul Sehgal. This lively event brings together eminent poets, critics and editors for a public panel discussion on diversity and the current state of poetry reviewing culture in the UK and the US, followed by poetry readings from Kayo Chingonyi and Bhanu Kapil. The panel event featured a transatlantic discussion of race and poetry reviewing with Ilya Kaminsky, Kayo Chingonyi and Parul Sehgal, chaired by Sandeep Parmar and introduced by Sarah Howe. This event also launched the 2019 report on ‘The State of Poetry and Poetry Criticism’ compiled by Dave Coates and supported by Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics and the University of Liverpool’s Centre for New and International Writing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Satire can be the last, best way to critique difficult topics, and Ryan Chapman's blistering novel, RIOTS I HAVE KNOWN, takes on, among other things, incarceration, literature's standing in the culture, and intellectual pretension. He and James talk novellas, using contemporary cultural references, writing to a melody, and publishing a book after working in the field. Plus, literary advocate, legend, and Ryan's editor, Ira Silverberg.   - Ryan Chapman: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Ryan-Chapman/140796679 Buy RIOTS I HAVE KNOWN: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781501197307 Ryan and James discuss:  Joseph Heller  Mark Leyner  Martin Amis  Don DeLillo  Thomas Pynchon  AO Scott Wesley Morris  BREAKING BAD  Philip Roth  Roberto Bolano  Horacio Castellanos Moya  New Directions Books Poopy Atherton  University of Iowa  WG Sebald  THE CRYING OF LOT 49 by Thomas Pynchon  Kanye West  A$AP Rocky  DRAM  JURASSIC PARK  Steve Martin  Michel Foucault  "Pardon Edward Snowden" by Joseph O'Neill Tin House Summer Workshop  Joy Williams  Guy Debord  Andy Dufresne  THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION  Frank Darabont  THE VIRGIN SUICIDES by Jeffrey Eugenides  THE LOSER by Thomas Bernhard  TRAINSPOTTING by Irvine Welsh  THE BEACH by Alex Garland  THE GODFATHER  THE GODFATHER by Mario Puzo  Eric Andre  TOO MANY COOKS  Toni Morrison  Ira Silverberg  THE NEW YORK TIMES  Marya Spence  Daniel Torday  DEAR CYBORGS by Eugene Lim  - Ira Silverberg: https://twitter.com/silverbergira?lang=en Ira and James discuss:   Sam Lipsyte  FSG Macmillan Publishers  BOMB Magazine  Marya Spence  Simon & Schuster  Mark Twain  OZ  SCRUBS  NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs  THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW  BOOKFORUM  LITHUB  THE MILLIONS  Parul Sehgal  HIGH RISK: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FORBIDDEN WRITINGS  PUSH by Sapphire  Knopf Kathy Acker  Grove Press Dennis Cooper  Ben Lerner  Coffee House Press  Three Lives & Co.  Melville House  SOHO  Emily St. John Mandel  Katherine Faucett  THE ARGONAUTS by Maggie Nelson  Leslie Jamison  Graywolf Press  Little, Brown and Company  Random House  Andrew Wiley  Overlook Press  Allen Ginsberg  Marguerite Duras  Alain Robbe-Grillet  Samuel Beckett  Eugene Ionesco  Barney Rosset  JT LeRoy  NEA  Cave Canem: The Retreat  Whiting Awards  LAMBDA Literary  NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS  PARIS REVIEW  Ann Kjellberg  BOOK POST  AWP  Poetry Society of American  Academy of American poets  AIR TRAFFIC by Gregory Pardlow  ON EARTH WE'RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS by Ocean Vuong  Cathy Park Hong  Poem-A-Day  Alex Dimitrov Four Way Books  Copper Canyon Press  - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Parul Sehgal of the New York Times Book Review called Deborah Eisenberg “a writer of legendary exactitude, and slowness." Her new collection of six stories, “Your Duck Is My Duck,” is the first book of new writing she has released since 2006. “She is always worth the wait," Sehgal continued. “The new book is cannily constructed, and so instantly absorbing that it feels like an abduction. The stories themselves are simple and calmly recounted — a writer is taken up by wealthy patrons and bears witness to their disastrous marriage, a man attends his uncle’s funeral, another takes up a dog-walking gig. But the sentences are wild, full of breakneck swerves; leaps in time, space and point of view; all kinds of syntactic fireworks.” In Monday’s installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Deborah Eisenberg discusses “Your Duck Is My Duck” and the rest of her formidable career.

This week and next, we’re doing something different. After witnessing an awful instance of anti-Asian racism at a movie theater, we couldn’t stop thinking about how this type of racism is rampant in American culture, both on the screen and off. At first, we wanted to talk about it. But then, we realized that we needed to listen.For the next two episodes, we hand the microphones over to our Asian-American colleagues, friends and listeners to hear about their experiences with racism. From Pablo Torre (of ESPN) to Emily Yoshida (of Vulture) to Parul Sehgal (of The Times) and more, we hear about childhood traumas, politicization, pop culture and hierarchies of oppression as they relate to Asian-American identity. The ideas are varied and complicated, conflicting and nuanced — which makes sense for a hugely diverse community that makes up almost 6 percent of the American population. We’ll bring you the second part of this two-part series next week.

Parul Sehgal is a book critic at the New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the daily life of a book reviewer, looking hard at the novels of very bad men, and the current state of cultural criticism. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Parul Sehgal is a book critic at the New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the daily life of a book reviewer, looking hard at the novels of very bad men, and the current state of cultural criticism. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katy Waldman, Parul Sehgal, and Laura Bennett discuss Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. This episode is Katy's last episode as host of the Audio Book Club, but watch this space for more about the future of the show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katy Waldman, Parul Sehgal, and Laura Bennett discuss Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. This episode is Katy's last episode as host of the Audio Book Club, but watch this space for more about the future of the show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slate critic, Katy Waldman, is joined by Parul Sehgal of the New York Times Book Review and culture critic, Meghan O'Rourke, to discuss Rebecca Traister's All the Single Ladies. Next month, Slate's Audio Book Club will discuss The Girls by Emma Cline. Read the book and join us for a conversation in August! Slate's Audio Book Club is brought to you by Audible.com, with more than 180,000 audiobooks and spoken-word audio products. Get a free 30-day trial and a free audiobook at Audible.com/AudioBookClub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slate critic, Katy Waldman, is joined by Parul Sehgal of the New York Times Book Review and culture critic, Meghan O'Rourke, to discuss Rebecca Traister's All the Single Ladies. Next month, Slate's Audio Book Club will discuss The Girls by Emma Cline. Read the book and join us for a conversation in August! Slate's Audio Book Club is brought to you by Audible.com, with more than 180,000 audiobooks and spoken-word audio products. Get a free 30-day trial and a free audiobook at Audible.com/AudioBookClub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Moira Weigel discusses new biographies of Helen Gurley Brown; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Juliet Nicolson talks about “A House Full of Daughters”; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal on what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Jessi Klein discusses her new essay collection; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Antonio García Martinez talks about “Chaos Monkeys”; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal on what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Ian Frazier talks about “Hogs Wild”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Barry Friedman discusses two new books about law enforcement; and John Williams, Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal on what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Sam Tanenhaus talks about new political books; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Calvin Trillin discusses “Jackson, 1964”; listeners share some of their favorite summer reading memories; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal on what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Susan Faludi discusses her new memoir, “In the Darkroom”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; James Lee McDonough talks about his new biography of William Tecumseh Sherman; listeners share some of their favorite summer reading memories; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal on what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Joshua Kendall talks about “First Dads”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Judith Warner discusses “The End of American Childhood”; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Noah Hawley talks about “Before the Fall”; Andrew Solomon discusses “Far and Away”; Marjorie Ingall on the season’s new Y.A. novels; and Parul Sehgal and Gregory Cowles talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Adam Hochschild talks about Svetlana Alexievich’s “Secondhand Time”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Stephanie Danler discusses her debut novel, “Sweetbitter”; Jojo Moyes talks about the film adaptation of her novel “Me Before You”; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses his new history of the Romanovs; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Laura Miller talks about new audiobooks of childhood favorites; and Parul Sehgal and Gregory Cowles discuss what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses his new history of the Romanovs; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Laura Miller talks about new audiobooks of childhood favorites; and Parul Sehgal and Gregory Cowles discuss what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

Siddhartha Mukherjee talks about “The Gene”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Jennifer Szalai discusses two books about taste; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal talk about what people are reading.

This week, Matti Friedman discusses “Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Judith Shulevitz talks about Angela Duckworth’s “Grit”; Sherman Alexie and Yuyi Morales discuss “Thunder Boy Jr.”; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal discuss what people are reading.

Thomas Frank talks about “Listen, Liberal”; Lydia Millet discusses her new novel, “Sweet Lamb of Heaven”; and Parul Sehgal and Gregory Cowles talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Michael Kinsley discusses “Old Age”; Alexandra Alter has news from the literary world; Eric Fair talks about “Consequence”; Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel; and Gregory Cowles and Parul Sehgal talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

Critics Katy Waldman, Parul Sehgal, and Meghan O'Rourke discuss Paul Kalanithi's bestselling memoir, When Breath Becomes Air. Join us next month to discuss A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers. Slate's Audio Book Club is brought to you by Fun Home, winner of five Tony Awards including Best Musical. The Associated Press calls this groundbreaking production, “The best of what Broadway can do.” Get tickets at FunHomeBroadway.com. And by Audible.com, with more than 180,000 audiobooks and spoken-word audio products. Get a free 30-day trial and a free audiobook at AudiblePodcast.com/ABC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Critics Katy Waldman, Parul Sehgal, and Meghan O'Rourke discuss Paul Kalanithi's bestselling memoir, When Breath Becomes Air. Join us next month to discuss A Hologram for the King by Dave Egger's. Slate's Audio Book Club is brought to you by Fun Home, winner of five Tony Awards including Best Musical. The Associated Press calls this groundbreaking production, “The best of what Broadway can do.” Get tickets at FunHomeBroadway.com. And by Audible.com, with more than 180,000 audiobooks and spoken-word audio products. Get a free 30-day trial and a free audiobook at AudiblePodcast.com/ABC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Maria Russo discusses Jean Stein’s “West of Eden,” A. O. Scott talks about “Better Living Through Criticism” and Parul Sehgal has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

Slate critic, Katy Waldman, is joined by Parul Sehgal of the New York Times Book Review and culture critic, Meghan O'Rourke, to discuss Jonathan Franzen's Dickensian novel – Purity.   Next month, Slate's Audio Book Club will discuss A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin. Read the book and join us for a conversation in February!   Slate's Audio Book Club is brought to you by Audible.com, with more than 180,000 audiobooks and spoken-word audio products. Get a free 30-day trial and a free audiobook at AudiblePodcast.com/ABC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Parul Sehgal and Gregory Cowles discuss the year in poetry; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; George Saunders talks about children’s books; and Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Scott Anderson discusses “Doomed to Succeed”; Alexandra Alter has news from the literary world; Roger Lowenstein talks about “America’s Bank”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Parul Sehgal, filling in for Pamela Paul, is the host.

This week, Richard McGuire talks about “Here”; John Williams has news from the literary world and feedback from readers; Simon Parkin discusses two new books about gaming; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Parul Sehgal, filling in for Pamela Paul, is the host.

This week, Steve Silberman talks about “NeuroTribes” and autism; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Elisabeth Egan discusses “A Window Opens”; questions from readers; Maria Russo talks about the season’s children’s books; and Parul Sehgal has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Alan Riding discusses two new books about Shakespeare’s women characters and his personal life; Parul Sehgal and John Williams have news from the literary world; Michelle Orange talks about five new essay collections; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Vicki Constantine Croke discusses Heather Macdonald’s “H Is for Hawk”; Parul Sehgal has news from the literary world; John Williams talks about Nick Hornby’s “Funny Girl”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

Slate critics Katy Waldman, David Haglund, and Parul Sehgal discuss the first in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan trilogy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Phillip Lopate discusses Charles D’Ambrosio’s “Loitering”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Sven Beckert talks about “Empire of Cotton”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Parul Sehgal is the host, filling in for Pamela Paul.

This week, Suki Kim talks about “Without You, There Is No Us”; Parul Sehgal and John Williams have news from the literary world; Meghan Daum discusses “The Unspeakable”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

Slate critics Dan Kois, Parul Sehgal, and Katy Waldman discuss Cheryl Strayed's memoir. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slate's Dan Kois and David Haglund talk with New York Times Book Review editor Parul Sehgal about Book 1 of Karl Ove Knausgaard's 6-volume autobiographical epic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices