Podcasts about when we cease

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Best podcasts about when we cease

Latest podcast episodes about when we cease

The World Unpacked
How Will AI Export Policies Redefine U.S. Global Influence?

The World Unpacked

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 30, 2025 62:10


China's new AI model, DeepSeek, has rattled markets and raised questions about the global AI race. Meanwhile, just before leaving office, the Biden administration introduced the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion—an ambitious new rule that could reshape how—and who—gets access to advanced AI technologies from the U.S. It is designed to regulate AI exports, strengthen partnerships with allies, and restrict adversaries' access to advanced AI chips and models.But with the Trump administration now in power, will this framework survive? The stakes are high: AI chips fuel cutting-edge technologies, and whoever controls them holds the keys to the future of advanced AI systems.In this episode, Sophia Besch and Technology and International Affairs Fellow Sam Winter-Levy explore what Biden's new AI framework aims to achieve, how DeepSeek might challenge U.S. AI dominance, and what we might expect from the Trump administration's with respect to AI exports. Will Washington double down on AI restrictions, or will Trump scrap Biden's framework in favor of a new approach? And with China rapidly advancing, can the U.S. maintain its technological edge?Notes:Sam Winter-Levy, "The AI Export Dilemma: Three Competing Visions for U.S. Strategy," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, December 13, 2024.Sam Winter-Levy, "With Its Latest Rule, the U.S. Tries to Govern AI's Global Spread,"  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January 13, 2025.Matt Sheehan and Sam Winter-Levy, "Chips, China, and a Lot of Money: The Factors Driving the DeepSeek AI Turmoil," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January 28, 2025.Leopold Aschenbrenner, "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," June 2024.Jeffrey Ding, Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition, Princeton University Press (2024).Benjamín Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the World, Pushkin Press and New York Review of Books (2021).

Disintegrator
21. LIFE (w/ Blaise Agüera y Arcas)

Disintegrator

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2024 62:39


Blaise Agüera y Arcas is one of most important people in AI, and apart from his leadership position as CTO of Technology & Society at Google, he has one of those resumes or affiliations lists that seems to span a lot of very fundamental things. He's amazing; the thoughtfulness and generosity with which he communicates on this episode gently embraced our brains while lazering them to mush. We hope you have the same experience. References include:Blaise's own books Who Are We Now?, Ubi Sunt, and the upcoming What Is Intelligence?He references James C. Scott's Seeing Like a State, which we strongly recommend, Benjamin Peters' How Not to Network a Nation, and Red Plenty by Francis Spufford.Strong recommendation also to Benjamin Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World.Roberto references Luciana Parisi's Abstract Sex (our favorite book!) and the work of Lynn Margulis with respect to biology and reproduction.Blaise references James E. Lovelock's project “Daisyworld” with respect to the Gaia hypothesis.He also references the Active Inference thesis, e.g. that of Karl J. Friston, and the work of Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercer on reason.The cellular automata work referenced here involves the Von Neumann cellular automaton and the Wolfram neural cellular automaton.Wish us a happy 1 year anniversary of the pod!

Concavity Show
Episode 81 - Benjamín Labatut, Author of The MANIAC and When We Cease to Understand the World

Concavity Show

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 20, 2024 62:31


We're delighted to present our conversation with the remarkable Benjamín Labatut for Episode 81, in which we primarily discuss his 2023 non-fiction novel The MANIAC, its primary figure John von Neumann, the madness and magic of fiction, and the limits and future of science and the human mind.    Run, don't walk to buy Benjamín's two English-language books:  When We Cease to Understand the World  The MANIAC   Extra special thanks to Cameron Waller of Penguin Random House Canada (@cameronsbookshelf) for (a) putting us onto Benjamín's work in a personal way, and (b) making this conversation with Benjamín possible.    Contact Dave & Matt:  Email - concavityshow@gmail.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

Mapping the Zone: A Thomas Pynchon discussion podcast

If you like what we're doing and want to support the show, please consider making a donation on Ko-Fi. Funds we receive will be used to upgrade equipment, pay hosting fees, and help make the show better.https://ko-fi.com/mappingthezoneIf you enjoyed our discussion, please check out the following media that relates to these chapters:Music: Mitch Hedberg - Mitch All Together, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart - Bob Newhart, Riot Grrrl musicBooks/Authors: The Shock Doctrine (2007) and No Logo (1999) by Naomi Klein, https://www.jsasoc.com/docs/Sep1101.pdf (Global Consciousness Project analysis), When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín LabatutAs always, thanks so much for listening!Email: ⁠mappingthezonepod@gmail.com⁠Twitter: https://twitter.com/pynchonpodInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/mappingthezonepodcast/

Mannlegi þátturinn
Dagur Heyrnar, vegavinkill og Huldar lesandinn

Mannlegi þátturinn

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2024 53:57


Yfirvöld hafa áhyggjur af sífellt óhollara hljóðumhverfi fyrir börn, í skólum, að leik og í frístundum. Ástæða er til að skoða stöðu mála og fræða börn, ungmenni, kennara og aðstandendur um mikilvægi góðrar hljóðvistar og heyrnarverndar. Í gær var alþjóðlegur dagur Heyrnar og í síðustu viku var undirritaður þríhliða samstarfssamningur um innleiðingu fjarnáms í heyrnarfræði fyrir íslenska háskólanema. Heyrnar- og talmeinastöð Íslands, Háskólinn í Örebro í Svíþjóð og Háskólinn á Akureyri hafa gert með sér samning sem gerir kleift að bjóða upp á háskólanám í heyrnarfræðum í fyrsta sinn hér á landi. Kristján Sverrisson forstöðumaður Heyrnar- og talmeinastöðvarinnar kom í þáttinn í dag. Við fengum svo vinkil í dag frá Guðjóni Helga Ólafssyni. Í þetta sinn lagði hann vinkilinn við áhugaverða vegagerð, til dæmis vegi og brýr á Skeiðarársandi og hinn stórmerkilega „Plankaveg" vestur í Kaliforníu. Guðjón minnti svo hlustendur á að fara að öllu með gát hvar sem þeir ferðast. Lesandi vikunnar í þetta sinn var Huldar Breiðfjörð, rithöfundur og handritshöfundur og greinarformaður í ritlist við Háskóla Íslands. Við forvitnuðumst um hvað hann er að gera þessa dagana og svo fengum við auðvitað að vita hvaða bækur hann hefur lesið undanfarið og hvaða bækur og höfundar hafa haft mest áhrif á hann í gegnum tíðina. Huldar sagði frá eftirfarandi bókum og höfundum: When We Cease to Understand the World e. Benjamin Lapatut Endurminningar Annie Ernaux GoatMan e. Thomas Thwaites og svo höfundunum, Þórbergi Þórðarsyni, Brett Easton Ellis og Douglas Coupland. Tónlist í þættinum: Ljósvíkingur / Egill Ólafsson (Gunnar Þórðarsson-Ólafur Haukur Símonarson) Ég heyri svo vel / Olga Guðrún Árnadóttir (Ólafur Haukur Símonarsson) In the year 2525 / Zager and Evans UMSJÓN: GUNNAR HANSSON OG GUÐRÚN GUNNARSDÓTTIR

Economist Podcasts
Babbage: Science book club

Economist Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2023 42:23


Books are the original medium for communicating science to the masses. In a holiday special, producer Kunal Patel asks Babbage's family of correspondents about the books that have inspired them in their careers as science journalists.Host: Alok Jha, The Economist's science and technology editor. Contributors: Rachel Dobbs, The Economist's climate correspondent; Kenneth Cukier, our deputy executive editor; The Economist's Emilie Steinmark; Geoff Carr, our senior editor for science and technology; and Abby Bertics, The Economist's science correspondent. Reading list: “The Periodic Table” by Primo Levi; “When We Cease to Understand the World” by Benjamín Labatut; “A Theory of Everyone” by Michael Muthukrishna; “Madame Curie” by Ève Curie; “Sociobiology” by E. O. Wilson; “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins; “Why Fish Don't Exist” by Lulu Miller; and “How Far the Light Reaches” by Sabrina Imbler.Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+. If you're already a subscriber to The Economist, you'll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Babbage from Economist Radio
Babbage: Science book club

Babbage from Economist Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2023 42:23


Books are the original medium for communicating science to the masses. In a holiday special, producer Kunal Patel asks Babbage's family of correspondents about the books that have inspired them in their careers as science journalists.Host: Alok Jha, The Economist's science and technology editor. Contributors: Rachel Dobbs, The Economist's climate correspondent; Kenneth Cukier, our deputy executive editor; The Economist's Emilie Steinmark; Geoff Carr, our senior editor for science and technology; and Abby Bertics, The Economist's science correspondent. Reading list: “The Periodic Table” by Primo Levi; “When We Cease to Understand the World” by Benjamín Labatut; “A Theory of Everyone” by Michael Muthukrishna; “Madame Curie” by Ève Curie; “Sociobiology” by E. O. Wilson; “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins; “Why Fish Don't Exist” by Lulu Miller; and “How Far the Light Reaches” by Sabrina Imbler.Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+. If you're already a subscriber to The Economist, you'll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Poured Over
Poured Over Double Shot: Jonathan Lethem and Benjamín Labatut

Poured Over

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2023 95:13


Jonathan Lethem's Brooklyn Crime Novel brings readers to New York in the 70s and the cast of characters it contains. Lethem joins us to talk about creating something different than he'd done before, writing memory and nostalgia, the joy of bookselling and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. The Maniac by Benjamín Labatut defies genre with an examination and exploration of science and humanity from the Manhattan Project to the advent of A.I. Labatut joins us to talk about the dark art of writing, the mystery and mythology of existence, the importance of story and more with guest host, Jenna Seery.  We end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Jamie and Marc.    This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Miwa Messer and Jenna Seery and mixed by Harry Liang.            Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).       Featured Books (Episode):  Brooklyn Crime Novel by Jonathan Lethem  The Maniac by Benjamín Labatut  The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem  Desperate Characters by Paula Fox  Another Country by James Baldwin  Steelwork by Gilbert Sorrentino   Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.  When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  Underworld by Don DeLillo  The New Life by Tom Crewe 

Bookstore Explorer
Episode 32: Bookshop.org

Bookstore Explorer

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2023 38:46


This week's guest is Andy Hunter, founder and CEO of Bookshop.org, an online bookstore with an explicit mission to help promote and financially support the brick-and-mortar independent bookselling community. It is a platform that provides independent bookstores with an easy way to promote their stock and book lovers an alternative to purchase the books they love online without driving sales to Amazon. Books We Talk About: The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.Finally! A Book Club You'll LoveLIT Society is the hilarious weekly show that'll make you fall in love again with reading!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify The Legacy Wealth Code PodcastThe secrets of real estate investing, tax strategies, and building a legacy!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Sermons from Grace Cathedral
The Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, ThD

Sermons from Grace Cathedral

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 11, 2022 15:42


“Rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost” (Lk. 15). Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 Psalm 14 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Luke 15:1-10 Mark Johnson and George Lakoff's Metaphors We Live By is one of my favorite books. These authors point out that simple unexamined metaphors lie behind the very structure of our thought. The idea of “argument as war” is an example. We talk about winning an argument, an indefensible position, being right on target, shooting down an assumption, etc. We could imagine another culture regarding argument as being more like a kind of dance.[i] Today Jesus addresses two primal understandings of religion that deeply influenced the people of his society and our own. The first is the idea of a spiritual quest, a search for God. The second idea is that of church as a community of saints set apart from the world. Jesus upsets assumptions that lie so deep in our consciousness that we simply assume that this is just what life in God means. The spiritual quest. On December 24, 1915 Albert Einstein was drinking tea in his Berlin apartment when he received a crumpled, muddy, blood-stained letter from the trenches of World War I. It contained a message from the great genius and astronomer Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916). Let me quote the letter's final words. “As you see, the war treated me kindly enough, in spite of heavy gunfire, to allow me to get away from it all and take this walk in the land of your ideas.”[ii] The letter astounded Einstein not simply because one of the most respected scientists in Germany was commanding an artillery unit on the Russian front, or because of the author's fear of a coming catastrophe. In tiny print on the back page, only legible through the use of a magnifying glass, Schwarzschild had sent him the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity. Schwarzschild's approach worked well on a normal star which you might imagine as being like a bowling ball sitting on your bed and gently compressing the space around it. The problem arises when a large star exhausts its fuel and collapses. That star would keep compressing until the force of gravity grew to be so great that space would become infinitely curved and closed in on itself. The result would be, “an inescapable abyss permanently cut off from the rest of the universe.” Out of a sense of duty and perhaps also to show that a faithful Jew could be a good German, Schwarzschild volunteered to serve in the war. During a mustard gas attack he helped two of his men put on masks. Slow to put on his own, this exposure may have been what initiated an autoimmune disorder that painfully covered his body with sores and killed him months later. At first Schwarzschild dismissed his discovery as a kind of mathematical anomaly, but over time it began to really frighten him. In his last letter from Russia to his wife he wrote that this idea, “has an irrepressible force and darkens all my thoughts. It is a void without form or dimension, a shadow I can't see, but one that I can feel with the entirety of my soul.” A young man named Richard Courant stayed up talking with Schwarzschild on the night before he died. Schwarzschild told him that this concentration of mass would distort space and causality.[iii] The true horror was that since light would never escape from it, this singularity was unknowable, utterly unchanging, entirely isolated from everything else. Schwarzschild was one of the first people to contemplate the meaning of a black hole.[iv] But all of us are quite capable of imagining a place completely cut off from God. In fact most of us have been there. Isolation can feel terrifying. Perhaps you feel misunderstood, or set apart by a secret, or by experiences that makes you different from the people around you. Maybe you believe that something that you did in the past simply cannot be forgiven or that you have been harmed and cannot be healed. Perhaps just the busyness of your life, or the loneliness of it, makes real connection with another person impossible. Or maybe you just feel that you are missing something that others have, that you are cut off from God. The religious leaders of Jesus' time see him sharing meals with deplorable, notoriously immoral people, with prostitutes and the tax collectors who collaborate with the Roman army. They often point out that these people haven't really changed or repented. They wonder if Jesus is incurably naïve. They argue that someone who was from God would have the wisdom to realize how bad these people really are. In response Jesus tells three stories. One is about a wealthy shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to find one in the wilderness. “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices” (Lk. 15). Another is about a woman sweeping the whole house to find a coin and concludes saying, “There is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents.” The last is the story of the Prodigal Son. In other words Jesus takes our dominant metaphor of a spiritual quest and turns it on its head. Religion is not about seeking God. It is about God's persistence in finding us. It is about overcoming separation and the joy of reunion. As a young management consultant one of my closest friends in our Santa Monica office was a young engineer named Walid Iskandar. Walid had grown up in Lebanon during the 1970's. He was a deeply sincere, thoughtful and fun person with a kind of mischievous smile that I can still see in my mind's eye. In college I played rugby with a young freshman who was still trying to figure out the game. His name was Mark Bingham. What these two friends of mine share in common is that they both lost their lives twenty one years ago today when terrorists hijacked their airplanes. In my imagination they are perpetually young. In their last moments, despite the confusion and fear, I believe that God was with them. In 2018 twelve boys on a soccer team with their coach found themselves trapped deep below the earth in a labyrinthine network of flooded caves in Thailand. As the monsoon season progressed it seemed impossible to nearly everyone in the world that they would be saved. Cave divers from England talked about not being able to see their hands in front of their masks, of wriggling through impossibly narrow spaces again and again unsure of the way out. I will never forget that image of the diver emerging from the water and the amazement on the boys' faces that they had been found. This joy at being discovered lies at the heart of faith. The second idea that Jesus overturns is that the church exists as a community of holy people set apart from the world. You see this in the conviction that you must first think, say, or do something before you can be acceptable to God. A few weeks ago a very close friend went to the funeral of her father. At the end of the service, the very last words that the pastor spoke went something like this. “Pat was a great husband, father, lawyer and community leader. But until Pat found Jesus and accepted him in his heart, he was a sinner. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus are we cleansed from sin. No matter how hard you might try to be good, until you have accepted Jesus you are a sinner.” Jesus completely overturns this picture of how to be in God. It's not that you become good and then God helps you. Instead, God helps us so that we can be healed. The critics of Jesus feel offended by his connection to the people who break the rules. And Jesus tells them, “these are exactly the people I came to help. God's love is abundant and overflowing. God will always persist in finding those who are lost.” The point is that God's love and mercy always comes before anything else. We do not first accept Jesus in our heart and then become free from sin. The church is not a community of former sinners, but of actively sinning sinners. God does not reward us for living well or believing something, God makes living well and faith itself possible by loving us back to life. Today we celebrate Congregation Sunday and our calling as a unique people of God. There is no other community quite like this one and I love who we are. But let me be perfectly clear, we have not stopped screwing up. And yet we are loved by God anyway. Although we continue to slip up, we keep encountering God's grace. This makes us a joyful community of people who against all odds God has found in the way that God is finding all people. Let me close with a poem by Denise Levertov about this peace that passes all understanding. It's called “The Avowal.” “As swimmers dare / to lie face to the sky / and water bears them, / as hawks rest upon air / and air sustains them, / so would I learn to attain / freefall, and float / into Creator Spirit's deep embrace, / knowing no effort earns / that all-surrounding grace.”[v] In the face of isolation, everyday cruelty and sudden death what metaphor are we going to live by? Will we choose to see our life as a spiritual quest or as the experience of being found by God? Are we the holy ones or lost souls grateful every day to be found by God. My friends rejoice with me. [i] George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) 3-7. [ii] Benjamín Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the World tr. Adrian Nathan West (New York: The New York Review of Books, 2020) 34ff. See also “Karl Schwarzschild” on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Schwarzschild [iii] A hypothetical traveler capable of surviving a journey into a black hole would receive light and information from the future. [iv] And the frightening question asked by this dying man was that if such a thing exists in nature, could there be something like this in the human psyche. Could a concentration of human will cause millions to be exploited so that the laws of human relations no longer held? Schwarzschild feared that this was already happening in Germany. [v] Denise Levertov, “The Avowal.” https://allpoetry.com/The-Avowal

Book Spider
S4 Ep16: Benjamin Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World

Book Spider

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2022 57:56


This week we're dissecting a book which mixes fiction and nonfiction in ways which are enigmatic, compelling, and -- to some readers -- morally suspicious. Benjamin Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World follows the fictionalized biographies of several scientists and mathematicians as they discover the principles which become quantum mechanics. This odd genre hybrid is admirable, gripping, and only partially satisfying, despite great critical acclaim.

The Spiracle Podcast
Writing Toward the Unknowable: Leigh Wilson in conversation with Benjamín Labatut

The Spiracle Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2022 24:57


Our curator speaks to the celebrated author of When We Cease to Understand the World in a discussion which spans the book's restless genre hybridity, the tensions between truth and fiction, myth and science, and the electrifying endeavour of attempting to write beyond the bounds of human rationality.

Storybound
S5. Ep 14: Benjamín Labatut reads an excerpt from "When We Cease to Understand the World"

Storybound

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2022 58:41


Benjamín Labatut reads an excerpt from "When We Cease to Understand the World," backed by an original Storybound remix with sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer. Benjamín Labatut is a Chilean author born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 1980 who spent his childhood in The Hague, Buenos Aires and Lima, before settling in Chile. His first book of short stories, "Antarctica" starts here, won the 2009 Caza de Letras Prize in Mexico, and the Santiago Municipal Prize, in Chile. His second book, "After the Light," consists of a series of scientific, philosophical and historical notes on the void, written after a deep personal crisis. "When We Cease to Understand the World" was published in September 2021. ​Support Storybound by supporting our sponsors: Norton: "Fencing with the King" and "The Family Chao" are available wherever books are sold. Acorn.tv is the largest commercial free British streaming service with hundreds of exclusive shows from around the world. Try acorn.tv for free for 30 days by going to acorn.tv and using promo code Storybound. Storyworth: Save $10 on your first purchase at Storyworth.com/Storybound Storybound is hosted by Jude Brewer and brought to you by The Podglomerate and Lit Hub Radio. Let us know what you think of the show on Instagram and Twitter @storyboundpod. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.  Since you're listening to Storybound, you might enjoy reading, writing, and storytelling. We'd like to suggest you also try the History of Literature or Book Dreams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emerging Form
Episode 67 – Inspiration from other genres

Emerging Form

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2022


Need inspiration? Look to other arts. This practice, known as ekphrasis–the art of making art inspired by other art, can “fill the well” and create a rich field of ideas to play with. In this episode, Rosemerry offers a provocative list of specific ways one might engage with another work of art and gives examples from her recent poems responding to the paintings of Vincent van Gogh and the music of our previous guest Kayleen Asbo (episode 27, Creative Communities). And Christie talks about novels she’s read this year by Emily St. John, Anthony Doerr and others that are teaching her new ways to engage audiences around the pandemic, the destruction of the natural world, and how to live in a broken world. Kayleen AsboLove Letters to Vincent Salon with Kayleen and Rosemerry“In the Wheat Field with Crows” by Rosemerry“Wheat Field with Crows” by Vincent Van Gogh“Almond Blossom” by Rosemerry“Almond Blossom” by Vincent Van GoghNovels Christie recently read and lovedEmily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility, Station ElevenBenjamín Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the WorldAnthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo LandRichard Powers, The Overstory and BewildermentLily King, Euphoria This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe

New Books in Human Rights
Peer Schouten, "Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

New Books in Human Rights

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2022 54:33


Peer Schouten, of the Danish Institute for International Studies, has written a breathtaking book. Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa (Cambridge, 2022). Schouten mapped more than 1000 roadblocks in both the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In so doing, he illuminates the relationship between road blocks and what he calls “frictions of terrain” (p 262). These frictions demonstrate how rebels, locals and state security forces interact in the making, or unmaking, of state authority and legitimacy. Looking at roadblocks as a kind of infrastructural empire that existed before the Europeans first arrived in Africa, Schouten develops a new framework to understand the ways in which supply chain capitalism thrives in places of non-conventional logistical capacity, to reframe how state theory fails to capture the nature of statehood and local authority in Central Africa. Schouten calls out governments, the UN and other international actors, to highlight how control of roadblocks translates into control over mineral, territory or people. No analysis of the drivers of conflict anywhere in the world is complete without consideration of Peer Schouten's groundbreaking book, Roadblock Politics. At the end of the interview, Schouten recommends two books: Mintz's (1986) Sweetness of Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History and Labatut's (2021) When We Cease to Understand the World. Thomson recommends the CBC podcast Nothing is Foreign. Susan Thomson is an Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University. I like to interview pretenure scholars about their research. I am particularly keen on their method and methodology, as well as the process of producing academic knowledge about African places and people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unexplainable
When reality broke

Unexplainable

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2022 26:38


In the 1920s, the scientist Werner Heisenberg came up with a wild idea that broke reality as Western science knew it. And it's still unsettling to think about. Benjamin Labatut's recent book, When We Cease to Understand the World, makes readers feel the aftershocks of the revelation, asking, "What's real?" We're thrilled that Unexplainable has been nominated for a Webby Award in the science & education category! It's for our episode called The mysteries of endometriosis. You can help us out by voting here in the Individual Episodes category. Voting is open through Thursday, April 21. Thank you!  For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable It's a great place to view show transcripts and read more about the topics on our show. Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email. Support Unexplainable by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So Many Damn Books
179: Sasha Fletcher (BE HERE TO LOVE ME AT THE END OF THE WORLD) & Benjamín Labatut's WHEN WE CEASE TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD

So Many Damn Books

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2022 63:27


Sasha Fletcher physically drops in to the Damn Library. In the flesh. Christopher and Sasha are actually in the same room, chatting over cocktails. This is great, because Sasha's novel Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World is a very fun book to discuss without any zoom lag, and the conversation ranges from the Medicis to the purposes of art to the agony of first drafts. Plus, Sasha brings along When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, which elucidates the beauty and savagery of math and physics. Giddy up! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

跳岛FM
97 越过道德的边境:“三观不正”的小说该怎么读?

跳岛FM

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2022 81:20


《洛丽塔》以恋童癖为主角,《罪与罚》聚焦杀人犯的内心世界,《包法利夫人》和《安娜·卡列尼娜》的女主人公“婚内出轨”……当我们回顾经典文学作品时,发现背德者比比皆是。道德败坏的人应该成为作家书写的对象吗?当我们发现作者拒绝给出惩恶扬善的结局,反而为背德者辩护,这种“三观不正”的故事,还值不值得阅读?在道德审查式阅读愈加流行的今天,身为读者,我们该如何理解文学中的善与恶,又该如何面对那些我们一度崇敬,却被不断爆出“黑历史”的作家?一个道德败坏的人,真的可以写出好作品吗? 本期跳岛,我们请来了云南师范大学的张秋子老师(豆瓣上的“安提戈涅”),她最近刚刚出版了一本文学评论集《万千微尘纷坠心田》,其中多处谈及文学在处理善恶时的混沌。同为老师,张秋子和跳岛的主播肖一之在节目中分享了自己教学过程中的发现:文学的魅力之一,或许正在于它的模糊给阐释预留了充足的空间。当我们带着自己的生命体验走进文本,走进真实和虚构之间的迂回和裂隙,回过头反观纷乱的现实世界时,或许能多一丝审慎、多一份共情。秋子老师曾在新书中写道:“阅读文学作品如果一定要追问‘效用',那么大概有两个:督促人成为人,以及推迟判断。“ 或许,“推迟判断”就是文学在这个时代给我们的道德指令。 【本期嘉宾】 张秋子,云南昆明人,南开大学比较文学与世界文学博士,现为云南师范大学文学院教师。(豆瓣ID:安提戈涅) 【本期主持】 肖一之,文学研究者,上海外国语大学英语学院讲师。 钟娜,中英双语写作者,译者。译有《聊天记录》《正常人》(豆瓣ID:阿枣) 【时间轴】 1:41 做“接地气”的读者:读不懂也是一种重要的体验 11:52 拉金的春和托尔斯泰的冬:体会文学的温度,尝试生命化的阅读 21:16 人生经不起蹉跎,我们来得及向年轻时“错怪”的作品道歉吗? 28:01 从古典时代到维多利亚时期:谈谈文学与道德的张力 38:18 出轨文学与反英雄叙事:为什么文学要写“恶”? 48:45 在处理善恶这件事上,好作品该像好面包一样“松弛” 59:07 文学并非神谕,总要接受局限的视域与不完美的作者 72:46 保持开放:经典被抛弃才是文学的常态 【节目中提到的人物和作品】 《一门网课,我看到了大学生背后的残酷真相丨谷雨》张秋子 书籍和文章 《呼啸山庄》[英] 艾米莉·勃朗特 《文学的读法》[英] 特里·伊格尔顿 《感知·理知·自我认知》陈嘉映 《苔蕾丝·德斯盖鲁》[法] 弗朗索瓦·莫里亚克 《春》[英] 菲利普·拉金 《主与仆》《安娜·卡列尼娜》《复活》《战争与和平》[俄]列夫·托尔斯泰 《白鲸》[美] 赫尔曼·梅尔维尔 《浮世画家》[英] 石黑一雄 《霍华德庄园》[英] 爱德华·福斯特 《德伯家的苔丝》[英] 托马斯·哈代 《性史》[法] 米歇尔·福柯 《西方正典:伟大作家和不朽作品》[美] 哈罗德·布鲁姆 《房思琪的初恋乐园》林奕含 《失乐园》[英] 约翰·弥尔顿 《论现代小说》[英] 伍尔夫 《罪与罚》[俄] 陀思妥耶夫斯基 《十又二分之一历史》[英] 朱利安·巴恩斯 《当我们不再了解世界》(_When We Cease to Understand the World_)[智利] 本杰明·拉巴图 《玩笑》[法] 米兰·昆德拉 电影 《驾驶我的车》(2021),导演滨口龙介 《小丑》(Joker, 2019),导演托德·菲利普斯 《燃烧》(2018),改编自日本小说家村上春树的短篇小说《烧仓房》,导演李沧东 人物 阿兰·罗伯-格里耶 (1922-2008), 法国作家和电影制片人。代表作《嫉妒》《幽会的房子》 约瑟夫·布罗茨基 (1940-1996),苏联出生的美籍犹太裔诗人、散文家,1987年获诺贝尔文学奖。代表作《我坐在窗前》 威廉·萨克雷 (1811-1863),英国小说家。代表作《名利场》 乔治·艾略特 (1819-1880),英国小说家。代表作《弗洛斯河上的磨坊》《朱巴尔传奇诗集》 卡尔·波普尔 (1902-1994),出生于奥地利,犹太人,获誉为20世纪最伟大的哲学家之一 燕卜荪 (1906-1984),英国著名文学批评家和诗人。代表作《朦胧的七种类型》 【本期推荐作品】 《普通读者》[英]弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫 著 刘炳善 译 百年之前,人们如何解读被我们如今所熟知的文学经典?在《普通读者》里,伍尔夫以书评人的身份,用平等的姿态向读者们介绍了西方经典的文学作品和她的阅读体验。 《何为良好生活》陈嘉映 著 在本书中,陈嘉映老师探讨了伦理学中的几个议题。他朴实而接地气的表达方式让我们不断反思如何更好地说话,如何让语言文字发挥传递与沟通的中介作用。 【出品人】蔡欣 【主理人】猫弟 【节目编辑】何润哲 桑瑜 【后期制作】AURA.pote 【音乐】 片头 上海复兴方案 - Queen of Sports 片尾 上海复兴方案 - Spring in a Small Town 【视觉设计】孙晓曦 陈景婧

The Book Club Review
Bookshelf: from prizewinning literature to beachy bestsellers

The Book Club Review

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2022 43:49


Join us as we discuss Benjamin Labatut's Booker International shortlisted novel When We Cease to Understand the World, 2020 Baillie Gifford prizewinner One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown and 2021 Costa biography prizewinner Fall: A Life of Robert Maxwell by John Preston, The Outlander by Gil Adams, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab and The Sanitorium by Sarah Pearse. Did we love them? Did we loathe them? Listen in to find out. Booklist When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamín Labatut One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown Fall: A Life of Robert Maxwell by John Preston The Outlander by Gil Adams The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab The Sanitorium by Sarah Pearse Notes Get Back film trailer Carpool Karaoke with Sir Paul McCartney Join the bookish conversation with us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. Do subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. You can support us by rating and reviewing the show, and most importantly by telling your friends. Please share on social media and help us reach new listeners. Full show notes and our complete episode archive at our website thebookclubreview.co.uk. Sign up for our bi-weekly-ish newsletter. Drop us a line and let us know what you are reading. We always love to hear from you.

Feeling Bookish
This Moment of Rapid Change - Episode No. 44

Feeling Bookish

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2022 70:37


We're in a moment of rapid, disorientating change: the fourth industrial revolution, Web 3.0, machine learning, unregulated capitalism, climate change--the list is long and challenging. Roman and Rob share some of their recent readings/investigations and how it's helping them think about technology, economics, and art in a world that seems to change by the week. They talk about George Dyson's "Darwin Among the Machines," Michael J. Sandel's "The Tyranny of Merit," and Benjamin's Labatut's "When We Cease to Understand the World," among other books. Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

The Writer and the Critic
Episode 87: When We Cease to Understand the World | A Ghost in the Throat

The Writer and the Critic

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2022 84:26


On this first episode of The Writer and the Critic for 2022, your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, begin with an exciting announcement: Kirstyn will have some actual books being published this year! She's a writer again! Huzzah! Ahem. The books up for discussion this month are When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut [6:08] and A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofal [52:35]. If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:18:15 for final remarks including a discussion about just what we mean when we say "novel" and why we might need to find some new words to describe long-form fiction. Some helpful links for things mentioned in this episode: Burnt Sugar and the Never Afters series by Kirstyn McDermott available from Brain Jar Press You Tube: Doireann Ní Ghríofa introduces A Ghost in the Throat Next month, the two books up on the slab will be: The Wych Elm by Tana French My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

All Of It
The Best and Most Anticipated Translated Literature

All Of It

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2022 14:02


Some of the best books from 2021 were works of translated literature, whether it was the memoir The Copenhagen Trilogy or Karl Ove Knausgaard's latest. And there are lots of exciting translated works coming up 2022. Corinne Segal, a senior editor at Literary Hub and a big fan of translated literature, joins us for a Review/Preview to recommend the best of 2021 and upcoming translated books.Corinne's Picks: Published in 2021The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency, Tove Ditlevsen (tr. from Danish by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman)An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures, Clarice Lispector (tr. from Portuguese by Stefan Tobler) Slipping, Mohamed Kheir (tr. from Arabic by Robin Moger) Cowboy Graves, Roberto Bolaño (tr. from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer) Imminence, Mariana Dimópulos (tr. from Spanish by Alice Whitmore) The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories, Mariana Enriquez (tr. from Spanish by Megan McDowell) In the Eye of the Wild, Nastassja Martin (tr. from French by Sophie R. Lewis) When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamín Labatut (tr. from Spanish by Adrian Nathan West)Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri (tr. from Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri)Upcoming in 2022The Books of Jacob, Olga Tokarczuk (tr. from Polish by Jennifer Croft) The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century, Olga Ravn (tr. from Danish by Martin Aitken) All the Lovers in the Night, Mieko Kawakami (tr. from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd) Portrait of an Unknown Lady, María Gainza (tr. from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead) A Very Old Man: Stories, Italo Svevo (tr. from Italian by Frederika Randall)Chilean Poet, Alejandro Zambra (tr. from Spanish by Megan McDowell) Yoga, Emmanuel Carrère (tr. from French by John Lambert)

Reading Envy
Reading Envy 236: Best Reads of 2021

Reading Envy

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 28, 2021


Jenny asked previous podcast guests to chat about their top reads of the year, whether or not they were published in 2021. Jenny also chimes in with her own obscure categories. Please enjoy hearing from Tina, Tom, Lindy, Trish, Andrew, Kim, Jeff, Elizabeth, Audrey, Scott, Robin, Mina, Emily, Chris, Nadine, and Ross. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 236: Best Reads of 2021 Subscribe to the podcast via this link: FeedburnerOr subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: SubscribeOr listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Or listen via StitcherOr listen through Spotify Or listen through Google Podcasts Books discussed:(duplicates removed) Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram x. Kendo and Keisha N. BlaineBroken Horses written and read by Brandi CarlileSeveral People are Typing by Calvin KasulkeWhen the Light of the World was Subdued edited by Joy HarjoBraiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall KimmererThe Murderbot Diaries series by Martha WellsXeni by Rebekah WeatherspoonAct Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia HibbertThe Love Hypothesis by Ali HazelwoodAmerican Dreamer by Adriana Herrera, narrated by Sean ChristenFight Night by Miriam ToewsNervous Conditions trilogy by Tsitsi Dangarembga The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deeshaw Philyaw, read by Janina EdwardsExhalation: Stories by Ted ChiangSeasonal Quartet by Ali SmithHow to Be Both by Ali SmithMaddAddam trilogy by Margaret AtwoodBarkskins by Annie ProulxSigns for Lost Children by Sarah Moss Tidal Zone by Sarah MossLadivine by Marie Ndiaye To Cook a Bear by Mikael NiemiKindred by Octavia ButlerThe Heart's Invisible Furies by John BoyneThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. SchwabMexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-GarciaSummer Sons by Lee Mandelo 
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Hidden Wyndham: Life, Love, Letters by Amy BinnsChasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David GrinspoonDune by Frank HerbertOne Long River of Song by Bryan DoyleInk Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa RaymondRazorblade Tears by S.A. CosbyBlacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby Sparrow Envy by J. Drew LanhamHome is not a Country by Safia ElhilloMoon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig RiceCutting for Stone by Abraham VergheseWretchedness by Andrzej TichyThe Twilight Zone by Nona FernandezPeach Blossom Paradise by Ge FeiThe Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree JeffersSummer Brother by Jaap Robben; translateld by David DohertyNjal's Saga by AnonymousBrood by Jackie PollenNobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End: A Memoir by Lizi LevineNancy by Bruno Lloret; translated by Ellen JonesShadow King by Maaza MengisteShuggie Bain by Douglas StuartThe Overstory by Richard PowersCloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony DoerrCity of Brass by S.A. ChakrabortyThe Actual Star by Monica ByrneBewilderment by Richard PowersThe Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky ChambersA Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers  O Beautiful by Jung YunWhile Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams, narrated by Adenrele OjoShelter by Jung YunMy Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth RussellLove and Saffron
 by Kim FayShadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo MartinezThe Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi VoThe Seed Keeper by Diane WilsonOpen Water by Caleb Azumah NelsonGreat Circle by Maggie ShipsteadTelephone by Percival EverettWhen We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut; translated by Adrian West; read by Adam Barr To Calais in Ordinary Time by James MeekThe Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire by William DalrympleA Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska, translated by Christina E. KramerMud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania by Margo Rejmer, translated by Antonio Lloyd-JonesSovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan by Erika Flatland, translated by Kari DicksonRelated episodes: Episode 046 - Books for Your Kitty Party (The Best of 2015) with Libby Young and many other guestsEpisode 075 - After the Year We've Had (Best of 2016)Episode 105 - Best Reads of 2017 Episode 139 - Stocking Stuffer (Best Reads of 2018) Episode 176 - Best of 2019Episode 209 - Best Reads of 2020Episode 210 - Reading Goals 2021Stalk me online:Jenny at GoodreadsJenny on TwitterJenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

love amazon spotify world books song home reading heart moon signs psalm bear empire stone fiction saga letters stitcher dune chosen google podcasts galaxy google play literature cutting anonymous shelter immigrant reads pluto twilight zone kramer love songs kazakhstan novels tunein dubois cosby brass nonfiction goodreads telephone fight night stacey abrams schwab bookshop margaret atwood frank herbert kindred uzbekistan benjam brood typing ordinary time secret lives kyrgyzstan saffron stalk andy weir octavia butler tajikistan turkmenistan brandi carlile rebecca hall open water great circle robin wall kimmerer ted chiang lost children project hail mary richard powers feedburner kendo braiding sweetgrass joy harjo addie larue ali hazelwood chakraborty ali smith anthony doerr subdued invisible life becky chambers shadow king mexican gothic pillage bewilderment martha wells john boyne talia hibbert overstory love hypothesis african america american dreamers william dalrymple church ladies miriam toews reading goals shuggie bain annie proulx abraham verghese alan stern wild built tsitsi dangarembga maaza mengiste sarah moss waubgeshig rice labatut marie ndiaye crusted snow rebekah weatherspoon diane wilson adriana herrera ibram razorblade tears david grinspoon nghi vo eve brown maddaddam caleb azumah nelson invisible furies safia elhillo blacktop wasteland broken horses ellen jones mikael niemi seed keeper xeni kate elizabeth russell my dark vanessa barkskins adam barr when we cease james meek monica byrne njal ground within while justice sleeps hugo martinez kim fay litsy david doherty epic first mission jung yun chasing new horizons inside patrice vecchione reading envy reading envy podcast
BookLab
BookLab 029: Hawking Hawking, The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy, and When We Cease to Understand the World

BookLab

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2021 57:09


Featured book: Hawking Hawking, by Charles Seife. Charles Seife's new biography of Stephen Hawking takes an unflinching look at the good and bad sides of the famous physicist. And on the nightstand: The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy, by Arik Kershenbaum; and When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamin Labatut.

Burned By Books
Benjamin Labatut, "When We Cease to Understand the World" (NYRB, 2021)

Burned By Books

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2021 74:05


An interview with Benjamín Labatut, author of When We Cease to Understand the World (2021), a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. Benjamin and I cover an enormous amount of ground in our wide-ranging interview: we touch on Heisenberg's uncertainty principal as a way of his writing; the failure of our societies to make room for overlapping, sometimes contradictory histories; his distaste for genre categories; the inevitable loss involved in translation; Chile's frightening presidential election; and much much more. I know that you will be as enthralled and challenged and delighted by Benjamín's capacious mind.  Benjamín Recommends: Juan Forn, Los Viernes Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony Pascal Quignard, The Last Kingdom Elliot Weinberger, An Elemental Thing J.A. Baker, The Peregrine Georg Buchner, Lenz Frantisek Vlacil, Marketa Lazarova (film) Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in Literature
Benjamin Labatut, "When We Cease to Understand the World" (NYRB, 2021)

New Books in Literature

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2021 74:05


An interview with Benjamín Labatut, author of When We Cease to Understand the World (2021), a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. Benjamin and I cover an enormous amount of ground in our wide-ranging interview: we touch on Heisenberg's uncertainty principal as a way of his writing; the failure of our societies to make room for overlapping, sometimes contradictory histories; his distaste for genre categories; the inevitable loss involved in translation; Chile's frightening presidential election; and much much more. I know that you will be as enthralled and challenged and delighted by Benjamín's capacious mind.  Benjamín Recommends: Juan Forn, Los Viernes Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony Pascal Quignard, The Last Kingdom Elliot Weinberger, An Elemental Thing J.A. Baker, The Peregrine Georg Buchner, Lenz Frantisek Vlacil, Marketa Lazarova (film) Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
Benjamin Labatut, "When We Cease to Understand the World" (NYRB, 2021)

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2021 74:05


An interview with Benjamín Labatut, author of When We Cease to Understand the World (2021), a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. Benjamin and I cover an enormous amount of ground in our wide-ranging interview: we touch on Heisenberg's uncertainty principal as a way of his writing; the failure of our societies to make room for overlapping, sometimes contradictory histories; his distaste for genre categories; the inevitable loss involved in translation; Chile's frightening presidential election; and much much more. I know that you will be as enthralled and challenged and delighted by Benjamín's capacious mind.  Benjamín Recommends: Juan Forn, Los Viernes Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony Pascal Quignard, The Last Kingdom Elliot Weinberger, An Elemental Thing J.A. Baker, The Peregrine Georg Buchner, Lenz Frantisek Vlacil, Marketa Lazarova (film) Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

New Books in Science
Benjamin Labatut, "When We Cease to Understand the World" (NYRB, 2021)

New Books in Science

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2021 74:05


An interview with Benjamín Labatut, author of When We Cease to Understand the World (2021), a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. Benjamin and I cover an enormous amount of ground in our wide-ranging interview: we touch on Heisenberg's uncertainty principal as a way of his writing; the failure of our societies to make room for overlapping, sometimes contradictory histories; his distaste for genre categories; the inevitable loss involved in translation; Chile's frightening presidential election; and much much more. I know that you will be as enthralled and challenged and delighted by Benjamín's capacious mind.  Benjamín Recommends: Juan Forn, Los Viernes Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony Pascal Quignard, The Last Kingdom Elliot Weinberger, An Elemental Thing J.A. Baker, The Peregrine Georg Buchner, Lenz Frantisek Vlacil, Marketa Lazarova (film) Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

New Books Network
Benjamin Labatut, "When We Cease to Understand the World" (NYRB, 2021)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2021 74:05


An interview with Benjamín Labatut, author of When We Cease to Understand the World (2021), a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. Benjamin and I cover an enormous amount of ground in our wide-ranging interview: we touch on Heisenberg's uncertainty principal as a way of his writing; the failure of our societies to make room for overlapping, sometimes contradictory histories; his distaste for genre categories; the inevitable loss involved in translation; Chile's frightening presidential election; and much much more. I know that you will be as enthralled and challenged and delighted by Benjamín's capacious mind.  Benjamín Recommends: Juan Forn, Los Viernes Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony Pascal Quignard, The Last Kingdom Elliot Weinberger, An Elemental Thing J.A. Baker, The Peregrine Georg Buchner, Lenz Frantisek Vlacil, Marketa Lazarova (film) Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Writer and the Critic
Episode 86: Little Eve | Light Perpetual

The Writer and the Critic

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2021 80:35


On this final episode of The Writer and the Critic for 2021, your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond discuss birthdays, Halloween and Jewish Stuff before moving on to wax lyrical about this month's books: Little Eve by Catriona Ward [6:35] and Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford [36:35]. If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:16:45 for final remarks. Next episode - in February 2022! - the two books up on the slab will be: When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!  

The Book Review
One Factory and the Bigger Story It Tells

The Book Review

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2021 73:51


In “American Made,” Farah Stockman writes about the downfall of manufacturing employment in the United States by focusing on the lives of workers at one Indianapolis factory that was relocated to Mexico. Stockman, a member of The New York Times editorial board, talks about the book on this week's podcast.“I really think we've seen unions in a death spiral,” she says. “And part of the reason is globalization. You had so many people who fought for these manufacturing jobs to be good-paying jobs, and decent jobs that you could raise a family on. They didn't used to be, but they were after the labor movement had a long struggle and a long fight. And as soon as we start seeing pensions and health care and decent wages, and as soon as Blacks and women start getting that stuff, now factories can move away. They can go to other countries. And it really undercut unions' ability to demand things and to strike. And you saw a lot less appetite among workers for asking for stuff like that, because now everybody just has to beg those factories to stay.”Benjamín Labatut visits the podcast to discuss his book “When We Cease to Understand the World,” a combination of fact and fiction about some of the most ground-shifting discoveries in physics. Labatut explains why he gave himself license to imagine the lives and thoughts of some of the scientists featured — Einstein, Schrödinger and Heisenberg among them.“What I'm trying to do is for people to understand just how mad these ideas seemed at the time to the very people who discovered them,” Labatut says. “And I had to use these characters for people to get a sense of how brutal the beauty was that these men were seeing for the first time.”Also on this week's episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history as it celebrates its 125th anniversary; Elizabeth Harris has news from the publishing world; and Gal Beckerman and Lauren Christensen talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“Dirty Work” by Eyal Press“Invisible Child” by Andrea Elliott“Beautiful World, Where Are You” by Sally Rooney

Reading Envy
Reading Envy 228: Full of Secrets with Audrey Morris

Reading Envy

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2021


Audrey Morris, one of the people I chat with most in Instagram about books and baking, joins me to talk books. She also shares about some award lists that have her looking forward to the next few months.Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 228: Full of Secrets Subscribe to the podcast via this link: FeedburnerOr subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: SubscribeOr listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Or listen via StitcherOr listen through Spotify Or listen through Google Podcasts Books discussed:    Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan VreelandA Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska, translated by Christina E. KramerIn the Lateness of the World by Carolyn ForchéThe Woman from Uruguay by Pedro Mairal, translated by Jennifer CroftThat Time of Year by Marie Ndiaye, translated by Jordan StumpOther mentions:Barkskins by Annie ProulxReadalong informationThe Eighth Life by Nino HaratischviliPachinko by Min Jin LeeLife After Life by Kate AtkinsonWretchedness by Andrzej TichyThe Yellow House by Sarah M. BroomDishoom by Shamil ThakrarThe Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin AitkenWhen We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan WestIn Memory of Memory by Maria StepanovaConsent by Annabel LyonSummer Brother by Jaap RobbenGirl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy ChevalierCatch the Rabbit by Lana BastasicWhat You Have Heard is True by Carolyn ForchéDeaf Republic by Ilya KaminskyThe Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro MairalCensus by Jesse BallThe Essex Serpent by Sarah PerryCutting for Stone by Abraham VargheseBeyond Babylon by Igiaba ScegoAdua by Igiaba ScegoThe Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila HarrisSorrow by Claribel AlegriaHomesick by Jennifer CroftLight Perpetual by Francis SpuffordRelated episodes: Episode 088 - Author Head Space with Sara MooreEpisode 112 - Reset Button with Eleanor ThoeleEpisode 195 - Muchness with NadineEpisode 207 - Innocent and Ruthless with Tricia DeeganEpisode 212 - Subtly Fascinating with VinnyStalk me online:Audrey is @dreesreads on InstagramAudrey at GoodreadsJenny at GoodreadsJenny on TwitterJenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.