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On Beauty by Zadie Smith follows two feuding families—the liberal Belseys and the conservative Kippses—whose lives collide in a New England university town, exploring themes of race, family, politics, and love through sharp satire and witty dialogue.Kirkus Reviews calls Marriage and Other Monuments, Virginia Pye's recently published book, “A fascinating and audacious novel of family, marriage and a society in flux.” It is a #1 Amazon bestseller in New Southern FictionVirginia's essays have appeared in The New York Times, Literary Hub, Publisher's Weekly, Writer's Digest, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She has taught writing at New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, and, most recently, at GrubStreet in Boston. Virginia is Fiction Editor of the literary journal Pangyrus and serves on the board of the Women's National Book Association, Boston Chapter. Drink this week: The Zadie Smith - obvi! This recipe is from the book: Free the Tipple: Kickass Cocktails Inspired by Iconic Women - Check it out!In this EpisodeMarriage and Other Monuments by Virginia PyeStyle Weekly Best of Richmond 2026Free the Tipple: Kickass Cocktails Inspired by Iconic WomenTickets to Live Show with Meg Medina April 18th
'Your life chose you'Laurie Anderson, Master Anoushiravan Rohani, David Foster Wallace, The Andrews Sisters & Bing Crosby, Zadie Smith, Tierra Whack, David Bowie, Mathilde Santing, Joy Crooks, Girls At Our Best, Freddie McGregor & Snagga Puss
Notes and Links to Peter Orner's Work Peter Orner is the author of eight books, most recently the novel, The Gossip Columnist's Daughter, named one of the best books of 2025 by the New Yorker and the Chicago Tribune, as well as the essay collections, Still No Word from You, a finalist for the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay, and Am I Alone Here?, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His story collection Maggie Brown and Others was a New York Times Notable Book. Other books include Love and Shame and Love (Winner of the California Book Award) Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), and Esther Stories. A recipient of the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, Orner is also the editor of three books of oral history for the Voice of Witness series, and co-editor with Laura Lampton Scott of a new oral history series from McSweeney's called “Dispatches.” His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper's, the Paris Review and has been awarded four Pushcart Prizes. With Yvette Benavides, he's the co-host of the Lonely Voice Podcast on Texas Public Radio. Orner recently led short courses on James Joyce's Ulysses, and Melville's Moby-Dick for the Community of Writers/Writers' Annex. He teaches at Dartmouth College and lives in Vermont. Buy The Gossip Columnist's Daughter New York Times Review of The Gossip Columnist's Daughter Peter Orner's Website At about 2:30, Peter responds to Pete's question about the feedback he's gotten since the publication of At about 3:30, Peter expands on ideas of making Chicago concrete for his readers At about 4:40, Peter gives background on family's roots in Chicago and in Eastern Europe At about 6:25, Mike Ditka slander?! At about 7:50, Peter highlights Saul Bellow as a writer who influenced him, as well as Stuart Dybek, Betty Howland, and John Irving among others At about 10:05, Peter reflects on David Foster Wallace as an “Illinois writer” At about 12:10, Peter discusses Zadie Smith and Yiyun Li, and as impressive and chill-inducing contemporary writers At about 13:30, Peter lists some reading favorites of his university students, and he expands on how they are “blown away” by James Joyce's work At about 15:00, The two fanboy over James Joyce's “The Dead” At about 16:15, Peter reflects on Pete asking if his The Gossip Columnist's Daughter would be classified as “historical fiction” At about 17:15, Peter expands on his view of the book's epigraph from Chekhov At about 18:15, Pete cites another great epigraph and great book from Jess Walter At about 18:50, The two lay out the book's exposition, and Peter describes the book's inciting incident, a tragic death At about 20:20, The two discuss the book's beginning as in medias res At about 21:30, Peter talks about the character of Babs as inspired by grandmother, and Pete shares about his Chicago grandfather's longevity At about 22:55, Peter expands on the idea of Jed, the book's narrator, feeling that three key events in 1963 were a pivot point for the family At about 26:15, Jack Ruby and the provinciality and “small world” of Chicago At about 29:10, Pete and Peter lay out Jed's college professor setup At about 30:00, Peter explains the cause of death and theories and conspiracy theories around it At about 31:35, Peter responds to Pete's musings about the old-fashioned “imperative” headlines that At about 33:00, Some of Cookie Kupcinet's last writings are discussed At about 34:30, Peter reflects on the travails and pressures of Cookie At about 36:00, Some of the prodigious pull of Irv Kupcinet is discussed, and Pete compares Irv's work to that of Ace in Casino At about 37:55, Lou Rosenthal's reticence and kinship with Robert Todd Lincoln are discussed At about 39:00, Peter expands on a scene in which the “grieving” narrator walks by the house where his ex-wife and daughter live; he discusses the importance he places on place At about 41:40, Sidney Korshak and his historical background and Chicago connection is discussed At about 44:10, The two discuss doubts in the story about the way in which Cookie died At about 45:20, Cookie's legacy and the ways in which Jed, the narrator, gains a sort of obsession with conspiracy theories and marginalia At about 48:20, Peter talks about the book's storyline as a “family story” and using a “tiny kernel” as a “jump off” point for his book At about 49:20, Peter responds to Pete's questions about the state of the current conspiracy theories involving the Kupcinets and JFK's assassination At about 51:20, The two discuss the breakup of the friendship between the Rosenthals and Kupcinets, as Pete compares a turned-down piece of writing to the book's storyline At about 53:20, Peter reflects on the intrigue that comes with At about 55:00, Peter expands on the “Captain” moniker his grandfather have, and that he played off in his book At about 58:20, The two reflect on the memorable character of Solly At about 1:01:00, Theories involving traumas and low points and broken relationships are discussed At about 1:03:00, Pete highlights a resonant last scene 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 Pete on IG, where he is @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he is @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both the YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode. Pete is very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. His conversation with Jeff Pearlman, a recent guest, is up soon at Chicago Review. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting Pete's one-man show, DIY podcast and extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode features an exploration of formative and transformative writing for children, as Pete surveys wonderful writers on their own influences. Pete has added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show. This is a passion project, a DIY operation, and Pete would love for your help in promoting what he's 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 Episode 323 with second-time guest Luke Epplin. He is the author Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball and Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, and the Birth of Modern Basketball. The episode airs on February 13, three days after Pub Day for Moses and the Doctor. Please go to ceasefiretoday.org, and/or https://act.uscpr.org/a/letaidin to call your congresspeople and demand an end to the forced famine and destruction of Gaza and the Gazan people.
Zadie Smith wonders if she's weird. She pays attention to a lot in an age when our attention has been captured and her phone-free life can be lonely. It's been twenty-five years since Zadie Smith published her widely acclaimed novel 'White Teeth.' We talk to her about aging, attention, clubbing, why she loves Billie Eilish, and her most recent book of essays 'Dead and Alive.'
UK writer Zadie Smith became a world-wide sensation with the publication of her first novel White Teeth when she was 24. Now aged 50, she's bringing her trademark intelligence and wit to the subject of midlife.Her latest work is Dead and Alive, a new book of essays, where she writes about black British history, paintings, politics, our online lives and getting older.She also talks about up growing in North West London and where she's returned to live with her own family.Zadie will be in Australia next month as part of the All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 8th and at The Wheeler Centre in Melbourne on March 10th.Further InformationAll About Women at Sydney Opera HouseZadie Smith at The Wheeler CentreThis episode explores growing up in North West London, immigrants, black British history, the internet, smart phones, social media, the technology of the book, mid life, being 50, free university, Cambridge, diversity, academia, tap dancing, painting, politics, being a writer, non-fiction, young novelists, find success at young age.To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.
Host Jo Reed and contributor Alan Minskoff dive into three remarkable audiobooks: Zadie Smith's Dead and Alive, John Banville's Venetian Vespers, and Thomas Pynchon's long-awaited Shadow Ticket. They explore Smith's incisive essays, read by the author with clarity and authority; Venetian Vespers, with Luke Thompson navigating Banville's long, sinuous sentences; and Pynchon's noir caper, handled with virtuosic range by Edoardo Ballerini. It's a conversation filled with sharp insights into writing, narration, and what makes these audiobooks such compelling listens. Audiobooks Discussed: Dead and Alive, written and read by Zadie Smith (Penguin Audio) Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon, read by Edoardo Ballerini (Penguin Audio) Venetian Vespers by John Banville, read by Luke Thompson (Random House Audio) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Benvenuti su Bookatini 2.0 - il podcast per chi è ghiotto di libri.L'ospite di questa puntata è Suhrya, che trovate alla pagina Instagram @suhrya o sul suo blog www.suhrya.com, insieme torniamo al format Legenda - libri da leggere prima di subito, in cui elenchiamo quali saranno probabilmente le nostre prossime letture urgenti.Nell'episodio abbiamo citato i seguenti libri:"Il tempo dell'attesa"; Elizabeth Jane Howard, Fazi Editore"La Fortuna - la saga di Blackwater", Michael McDowell, Neri Pozza"Weyward", Emilia Hart, Fazi Editore"Le vite di ieri", Francesco Salvatore e Marta Mulè, Gallucci Editore"Questa strana e incontenibile stagione", Zadie Smith, Big Sur"Sotto la pioggia gentile", Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, Einaudi"Hotel Avocado", Bob Mortimer "La foresta del nord", Daniel Mason, Neri PozzaPotete contattarmi, scrivere commenti, suggerimenti, domande e condividre con me le vostre letture su questo tema contattandomi alla pagina Instagram Bookatini_podcast.Se volete sostenermi e godere di contenuti aggiuntivi, potete unirvi a 4 possibili livelli di Patreon che trovate al link: https://www.patreon.com/bookatiniLa sigla di Bookatini è scritta e suonata da Andrea Cerea
Send us a textIn this encore presentation, Kim and Amy take stock by dusting off a "New Year's" episode from 1921, sharing secrets of what makes their writing partnership work and turning to famous women writers — including Nancy Mitford, Isabelle Allende, Anais Nin and more for advice on setting (and more importantly, accomplishing) one's goals.Support the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter. Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is back in the headlines after being removed from the Adelaide Writers’ Week 2026 program in the wake of the Bondi terror attack. Festival organisers say the decision wasn’t about linking Randa or her work to the attack, but about concerns that, based on her past public statements, her appearance could be culturally insensitive at this time. Randa has strongly rejected that explanation, accusing the festival of anti-Palestinian racism, censorship, and of trying to associate her with the Bondi massacre. Dozens of high-profile authors, including Zadie Smith, Helen Garner, Hannah Ferguson and Peter Greste, have pulled out of the festival in solidarity. In this episode, we revisit Antoinette Lattouf’s conversation with Randa on The Weekend Briefing, where she spoke candidly about a similar controversy at the Bendigo Writers Festival, the personal cost of sustained public attacks, and what it’s like to keep speaking out amid public scrutiny. Follow The Briefing: TikTok: @thebriefingpodInstagram: @thebriefingpodcast YouTube: @TheBriefingPodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In the latest edition of Late Night Lit, Late Night Supervising Producer Sarah Jenks-Daly talks to playwright Bess Wohl (Broadway's Liberation) and award-winning author Zadie Smith (Dead and Alive: Essays).Plus, Seth's mom, Hilary Meyers, recommends two books for your enjoyment, as well as other selections she is looking forward to reading in the new year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Lucy Liu joins Tonya Mosley to talk about her new film ‘Rosemead,' where she stars as a terminally ill woman grappling with her teenage son's escalating mental health crisis and the impossible choices she faces to protect him. It's based on a true story. Also, writer Zadie Smith talks with Terry Gross about her new collection of essays, ‘Dead and Alive.' She reflects on aging and generational discourse. Film critic Justin Chang shares his list of the best films of the year.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Lucy Liu joins Tonya Mosley to talk about her new film ‘Rosemead,' where she stars as a terminally ill woman grappling with her teenage son's escalating mental health crisis and the impossible choices she faces to protect him. It's based on a true story. Also, writer Zadie Smith talks with Terry Gross about her new collection of essays, ‘Dead and Alive.' She reflects on aging and generational discourse. Film critic Justin Chang shares his list of the best films of the year.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Fashion icon Bella Freud on abandoning psychics, learning to trust herself and realising that what happens next is entirely up to her. Freud is a designer and creative whose clothes have adorned the likes of Zadie Smith, Kate Moss, Little Simz and…well…me. She's also a cult podcaster with her hit show, Fashion Neurosis, where guests are invited to examine what clothes mean to them. She's lived a fascinating life: the daughter of Lucian Freud, the great-granddaughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund and the sister of novelist Esther who wrote the novel Hideous Kinky about their childhood. Now in her 60s, she joins me to explore why she's always late, why she regrets never joining the circus and what it's really like carrying the weight of such an instantly recognisable family name. Plus: why she no longer goes to psychics. Bella is so smart, considered and stylish. This free-ranging conversation will make you think, laugh and feel unexpectedly hopeful about getting older. ✨ IN THIS EPISODE: 00:00 Introduction 04:04 The Power of Fashion and Design 06:47 Challenges in the Fashion Industry 11:52 The Significance of Punctuality 17:02 Childhood Memories and Their Impact 22:18 Therapy and Family Loss 26:13 Reflecting on a Peaceful Passing 27:43 Family Dynamics 30:04 The Circus Job That Never Was 32:33 Sibling Relationships and Childhood Roles 36:06 The Legacy of the Freud Name 41:23 Embracing Failures and Life Lessons 46:28 Living Authentically and Joyfully
Zadie Smith wonders if she's weird. She pays attention to a lot in an age when our attention has been captured and her phone-free life can be lonely. It's been twenty-five years since Zadie Smith published her widely acclaimed novel 'White Teeth'. She talks to Matt Galloway about aging, attention, clubbing, why she loves Billie Eilish, and her new book of essays 'Dead and Alive'.
OPINION: On Zadie Smith | Dec. 18, 2025Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribeVisit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net Follow us: Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital Check out our Podcasts: Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcherTune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein#TheManilaTimes#KeepUpWithTheTimes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Zadie Smith returns to talk with Terry Gross about her new collection of essays, 'Dead and Alive.' She reflects on the "nonsense" of generational discourse, being raised by TV, and her obsession with time.Also, Martin Johnson has an appreciation of drummer and composer Jack deJohnette, who died in October. Follow Fresh Air on instagram @nprfreshair, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter for gems from the Fresh Air archive, staff recommendations, and a peek behind the scenes.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Zadie Smith returns to talk with Terry Gross about her new collection of essays, 'Dead and Alive.' She reflects on the "nonsense" of generational discourse, being raised by TV, and her obsession with time.Also, Martin Johnson has an appreciation of drummer and composer Jack deJohnette, who died in October. Follow Fresh Air on instagram @nprfreshair, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter for gems from the Fresh Air archive, staff recommendations, and a peek behind the scenes.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
This is one of my favorite conversations in recent memory — with the writer Zadie Smith. Smith is the author of novels, including “White Teeth,” “On Beauty” and “NW,” as well as many essays and short stories. Her ability to give language to the kinds of quiet battles that live inside of ourselves is part of why she's been one of my favorite writers for years.“We absolutely need to gather in our identity groups sometimes for our freedoms, for our civil rights. There's absolutely no doubt about that. But for that role to be the thing that is you existentially all the way down — that is something that I personally believe all human beings revolt from at some level,” she told me when we spoke last September, shortly before Trump's re-election.It's ideas like these that I found interesting to revisit now, in a starkly different political climate. In this conversation, we discuss Smith's novel, “The Fraud,” which Smith wrote with Trump and populism front of mind; what populism is really channeling; why Smith refuses the “bait” of wokeness; how people have been “modified” by smartphones and social media; and more.This episode contains strong language.Mentioned:Feel Free by Zadie Smith“Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction” by Zadie SmithAmusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman“Generation Why?” by Zadie SmithBook Recommendations:The Director by Daniel KehlmannThe Rebel's Clinic by Adam ShatzThe Diaries of Virginia WoolfThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Efim Shapiro. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
Zadie Smith and Beth Ditto join Annie and Nick for the annual Sidetracked Christmas gathering, recorded at an Irish pub in North London. They share nostalgia, gossip and gifts, and decide what makes a song a Christmas song – declaring which ones are truly the greatest. Plus, Annie, Nick, Zadie and Beth choose their musical highlights of the year. Get in touch with Annie and Nick! If you're over 16 WhatsApp 079700 82700 or email sidetracked@bbc.co.uk SONGS Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You Judy Garland – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Darling Love – Winter Wonderland Labi Siffre – Bless the Telephone Pulp – Common People Lola Young – Messy Herman's Hermits - I'm Henry the VIII, I Am Dolly Parton – Hard Candy Christmas ALBUMS Blood Orange – Essex Honey Rosalía - LUX Mavis Staples – Sad And Beautiful World Pulp - More Van Morrison - Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast Marcel Dadi – Dadi's Folk Ray Conniff – We Wish You a Merry Christmas Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra - Christmas With Bert Kaempfert T.S. Eliot – The Poems of T.S. Eliot
… and they can't keep their hands off each other. That's the premise at the centre of Brandon Taylor's latest novel, Minor Black Figures. It's about a painter named Wyeth who's struggling to find his voice in New York's politically charged art scene. It only gets messier when Wyeth has the perfect meet-cute at a bar … and starts falling for someone who has already devoted himself to God. Brandon joins Mattea to talk about his Alabama roots, grappling with a crisis in faith and the impossible question of who we make art for.Liked this conversation? Keep listening:Zadie Smith never thought she'd tell this storyRumaan Alam: How would you spend a billion dollars?
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers--from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton UP, 2023), Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer's favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison's fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women--from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison's post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers. Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers. 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
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers--from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton UP, 2023), Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer's favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison's fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women--from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison's post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers. Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers--from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton UP, 2023), Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer's favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison's fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women--from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison's post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers. Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers--from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton UP, 2023), Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer's favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison's fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women--from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison's post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers. Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers.
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers--from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton UP, 2023), Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer's favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison's fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women--from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison's post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers. Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers--from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton UP, 2023), Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer's favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison's fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women--from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison's post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers. Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers--from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton UP, 2023), Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer's favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison's fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women--from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison's post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers. Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies
Nicholas Boggs's “Baldwin: A Love Story,” is many things at once. It's a comprehensive biography of James Baldwin. It's a nimble excavation of Baldwin's work, filled with astute literary analysis of his books and prose. And, most pressingly, it's an argument for a new critical framework to understand Baldwin through the lens of love. The biography is structured around Baldwin's relationships with a series of men — relationships that, as Boggs outlines, shaped Baldwin's life and writing in crucial ways. Boggs joins MJ Franklin on this week's episode to talk about his new book.Other works mentioned in this discussion:Zadie Smith's essay “Conscience and Consciousness: A Craft Talk for the People and the Person,” from her new collection “Dead and Alive”“James Baldwin: A Biography,” by David Leeming“Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood,” by James Baldwin, illustrated by Yoran Cazac, edited by Nicholas Boggs and Jennifer DeVere Brody“Goodbye Days,” by Jeff Zentner“Virginia Woolf,” by Hermione Lee Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
Holly Walker reviews Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith, published by Penguin Random House.
TGIF! This week on Everything Is Content... a viral article, chaotic reality TV and rumours of yet another celebrity face lift.First up, if you've not read Chanté Joseph's mega viral Vogue article titled Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing Now? then you've definitely seen the discourse. Julia Fox has weighed in (she says it is) and now it's our turn. We ask: what did we make of the piece, do we think this is an IRL phenomenon or strictly an online shift, and what do we think is behind it?Secondly we're back in LA LA land for a brand new series of Selling Sunset. Ruchira finished it in 3 days, Beth in 2 and we're all obsessed. We discuss the inherent toxicity of reality TV, this series' houses and whether we like seeing behind the curtain on these kind of shows.And last but not least, rumours of cosmetic surgery have been swirling around Emma Stone for the last few months and people are feeling a type of way about it. But is that fair? Can we reasonably feel disappointed when our fav female stars decide to opt out of growing older naturally or is it simply none of our business?Thank you SO much for listening this week and every week. Pleeease could you gift us a review on your podcast player app so other people can find us? We adore everyone who has already. Love O, R, B xoxoxIn partnership with Cue Podcasts.------This week Beth was not really loving Think Again by Jacqueline Wilson (though she remains a lifelong devotee and fan), Oenone was loving Zadie Smith's appearance on Adam Buxton's podcast and Ruchira was loving Rosalía's interview on Popcast and season 2 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.The New York Times - Shibboleth Vogue - Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?Substack - is having a boyfriend embarrassing now? yes and that's why we're hiding them Spotify - Call Her Daddy x Spencer Pratt Substack - I Feel Sad About Emma Stone's New Face Timestamps:15:00: Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?41:41 Selling Sunset57:37: Emma Stone's face Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jeff and Rebecca talk Zadie Smith's Dead & Alive. Check out Zero to Well-Read! Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to get the most out of your reading life. The Book Riot Podcast Patreon Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. The Book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zadie Smith talks about the art of the essay, as she publishes a non-fiction collection, Dead and Alive. Brenda Blethyn discusses her new film Dragonfly, for which she's just been nominated for Best Joint Performance at the British Independent Film Awards along with her co-star Andrea Riseborough. In the last of Front Row's interviews with the authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Samira talks to Andrew Miller about his novel The Land in Winter, set in the Big Freeze of I962-3. Film scholar Ian Christie discusses the work of the experimental British documentary filmmaker Peter Watkins, who has died at the age of 90. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Harry Graham
Adam talks with author Zadie Smith about fun, trivial things like Wordle start words, men who dress as if they're still young, and the sadness of podcasts becoming TV shows, and then not trivial things like the problems associated with empathy when it comes to politics, war and fiction writing. Plus, what is Zadie's problem with Generation X?Conversation recorded face-to-face in London on 7 October 2025 Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production supportPodcast illustration by Helen GreenListen to Adam's album 'Buckle Up' Order Adam's book 'I Love You Byeee' Sign up for the newsletter on Adam's website (scroll down on homepage)RELATED LINKSDEAD AND ALIVE by Zadie Smith - 2025 (PENGUIN)ZADIE SMITH ON FASHION NEUROSIS PODCAST WITH BELLA FREUD - 2025 (YOUTUBE)ZADIE AND DEVONTÉ HYNES ON 'HOLDING UP THE LADDER' PODCAST - 2025 (ACAST)ZADIE SMITH ON WILD CARD - 2025 (NPR)LISA THATCHER - THE BRILLIANCE OF WHITE TEETH - 2012CHARLIE KIRK WAS PRACTICING POLITICS THE RIGHT WAY by Ezra Klein - 11 September, 2025 (NY TIMES)CHARLIE KIRK REDEEMED, A POLITICAL CLASS FINDS ITS LOST CAUSE by Ta-Nehisi Coates - 2025 (VANITY FAIR)EZRA KLEIN AND TA-NEHISI COATES HASH OUT THEIR CHARLIE KIRK DISAGREEMENT - 2025 (YOUTUBE)PHILOSOPHERS DESCRIBED BY PEEP SHOW - 2025 (YOUTUBE)ZADIE SMITH ON HOW LANGUAGE UPSETS THE RIGHT - 2025 (YOUTUBE)THANK YOU VERY MUCH - ANDY KAUFMAN DOC (OFFICIAL TRAILER) - 2023 (YOUTUBE)CHRIS SMITH ON JIM CAREY AND ANDY KAUFMAN (ADAM BUXTON PODCAST BONUS) - 2017 (ADAM'S WEBSITE/SOUNDCLOUD) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's hard to believe that Zadie Smith was just 24 years old when she wrote White Teeth, the book that made her a literary star. 25 years later, Zadie is still finding new stories from her life to reflect on — and she shares many of those in her latest essay collection, Dead and Alive. The book combines art criticism with musings about technology, parenting and the writers who've inspired her. This week, Zadie joins Mattea Roach to talk about the collection, what it's like to look back on 25 years of writing … and that time she fell out of a window.Liked this conversation? Keep listening:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's triumphant return to fiction Alison Bechdel on making money and seeing Fun Home in a new light
Zadie Smith - Film reviews - Down Cemetery Road preview
Since Zadie Smith published her début novel, “White Teeth,” twenty-five years ago, she has been a bold and original voice in literature. But those who aren't familiar with Smith's work outside of fiction are missing out. As an essayist, in The New Yorker and other publications, Smith writes with great nuance about culture, technology, gentrification, politics; “There's really not a topic that wouldn't benefit from her insight,” David Remnick says. He spoke with Smith about her new collection of essays, “Dead and Alive.” “The one thing about talking about essays,” she notes, ruefully, “is you find yourself saying the same thing, but worse—without the commas.” One of the concerns in the book is the role of our devices, and social media in particular, in shaping our thoughts and our political discourse. “Everybody has a different emphasis on [Donald] Trump and what's going on. My emphasis has been on, to put it baldly, mind control. I think what's been interesting about the manipulations of a digital age is that it is absolutely natural and normal for people to be offended at the idea that they are being manipulated. None of us like to feel that way. And I think we wasted about—whatever it's been since the invention of the Iphone—trying to bat away that idea, calling it a moral panic, blaming each other, [and] talking about it as if it were an individual act of will.” In fact, she notes, “we are all being manipulated. Me, too. . . . Once we can all admit that, on the left and the right, then we can direct our attention to who's been doing this and to what advantage.” New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Since Zadie Smith published her début novel, “White Teeth,” twenty-five years ago, she has been a bold and original voice in literature. But those who aren't familiar with Smith's work outside of fiction are missing out. As an essayist, in The New Yorker and other publications, Smith writes with great nuance about culture, technology, gentrification, politics; “There's really not a topic that wouldn't benefit from her insight,” David Remnick says. He spoke with Smith about her new collection of essays, “Dead and Alive.” “The one thing about talking about essays,” she notes, ruefully, “is you find yourself saying the same thing, but worse—without the commas.” One of the concerns in the book is the role of our devices, and social media in particular, in shaping our thoughts and our political discourse. “Everybody has a different emphasis on [Donald] Trump and what's going on. My emphasis has been on, to put it baldly, mind control. I think what's been interesting about the manipulations of a digital age is that it is absolutely natural and normal for people to be offended at the idea that they are being manipulated. None of us like to feel that way. And I think we wasted about—whatever it's been since the invention of the Iphone—trying to bat away that idea, calling it a moral panic, blaming each other, [and] talking about it as if it were an individual act of will.” In fact, she notes, “we are all being manipulated. Me, too. . . . Once we can all admit that, on the left and the right, then we can direct our attention to who's been doing this and to what advantage.”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.
This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Senior Fellow Eric Columbus, Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina, and Public Service Fellow Loren Voss to talk through the week's big news in national security, including:“Visiting Concessions.” President Trump once again turned his focus to the conflict in Ukraine, announcing last week that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin would be meeting to discuss the conflict in Budapest—though it's not clear Putin has agreed. This occurred just days before a planned visit to the White House by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where Trump reportedly pressured him to make territorial concessions requested by Putin in exchange for an end to the conflict and failed to respond affirmatively to his requests for Tomahawk missiles and U.S. security commitments. Is this a real shift in the U.S. position? And what might it mean for the broader conflict?“Posse ComiSCOTUS.” After months of litigation in the lower courts, the Trump administration has finally gone to the Supreme Court regarding the legality of its domestic military deployments, seeking a stay on an injunction on its planned deployment to Chicago that was recently left in place by the Seventh Circuit. How big a decision point is this in terms of the legal authorities around domestic military deployments? And how does the Court seem poised to rule?“Material Contort.” Just weeks after designating ANTIFA a “domestic terrorism organization,” the Trump administration has brought its first set of related criminal charges, relating to a July event at a Texas immigration detention facility that left one police officer shot in the neck. The indictment includes charges under the material support for terrorism statute—but probably not the one you're thinking of. How much does the indictment stretch the usual use of these statutes? And what does it tell us about the Trump administration's anti-ANTIFA campaign?In object lessons, Loren thinks we should play more and recommends Wayside Farm for a pumpkin-picking, maize-mazing good time. Eric thinks we should get cozy more with a second-skin, chambray-shirt classic. Scott thinks we should reflect more with a majorly-meditative, lightlessly-enlightening retreat. And Nastya thinks we should read more with eloquent-essayist Zadie Smith's cultural commentary, “Feel Free.” To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Senior Fellow Eric Columbus, Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina, and Public Service Fellow Loren Voss to talk through the week's big news in national security, including:“Visiting Concessions.” President Trump once again turned his focus to the conflict in Ukraine, announcing last week that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin would be meeting to discuss the conflict in Budapest—though it's not clear Putin has agreed. This occurred just days before a planned visit to the White House by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where Trump reportedly pressured him to make territorial concessions requested by Putin in exchange for an end to the conflict and failed to respond affirmatively to his requests for Tomahawk missiles and U.S. security commitments. Is this a real shift in the U.S. position? And what might it mean for the broader conflict?“Posse ComiSCOTUS.” After months of litigation in the lower courts, the Trump administration has finally gone to the Supreme Court regarding the legality of its domestic military deployments, seeking a stay on an injunction on its planned deployment to Chicago that was recently left in place by the Seventh Circuit. How big a decision point is this in terms of the legal authorities around domestic military deployments? And how does the Court seem poised to rule?“Material Contort.” Just weeks after designating ANTIFA a “domestic terrorism organization,” the Trump administration has brought its first set of related criminal charges, relating to a July event at a Texas immigration detention facility that left one police officer shot in the neck. The indictment includes charges under the material support for terrorism statute—but probably not the one you're thinking of. How much does the indictment stretch the usual use of these statutes? And what does it tell us about the Trump administration's anti-ANTIFA campaign?In object lessons, Loren thinks we should play more and recommends Wayside Farm for a pumpkin-picking, maize-mazing good time. Eric thinks we should get cozy more with a second-skin, chambray-shirt classic. Scott thinks we should reflect more with a majorly-meditative, lightlessly-enlightening retreat. And Nastya thinks we should read more with eloquent-essayist Zadie Smith's cultural commentary, “Feel Free.” To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode, Neha and Shruti discuss Zadie Smith's debut novel, White Teeth. We talk about themes of religion, inheritance, class, history, and the need for control; we explore what those 'white teeth' in the title might mean; and finally we get into our issues with the book, and discuss the genre of Hysterical Realism.Links:Human, All Too Inhuman by James WoodHow White Teeth transcends its many flawsShelf Discovery:On Beauty by Zadie SmithHome Fire by Kamila ShamsieThe Shadow Lines by Amitav GhoshIf you would like to get additional behind-the-scenes content related to this and all of our episodes, subscribe to our free newsletter.We love to hear from listeners about the books we discuss - you can connect with us on Instagram or by emailing us at thenovelteapod@gmail.com.This episode description contains links to Bookshop.org, a website that supports independent bookstores. If you use these links we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Actor Nikki Amuka-Bird discusses her awe for Zadie Smith, the need for humour in books about difficult conversations and her relationship with playing “mean” characters. Nikki is an actor whose career spans across film, television, and stage. She was born in Nigeria and grew up in Antigua before moving to the UK to attend boarding school. She studied at LAMDA – the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art – and quickly fell in love with the craft, before beginning what would become a stellar stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Nikki has starred in a number of critically acclaimed roles in both British and international productions. She is perhaps best known for her work in television, with standout performances in Luther & the adaptation of Zadie Smith's NW, which earned her a BAFTA nomination. Nikki also appeared in the BBC adaptation of Small Island by Andrea Levy, winner of the 2004 Women's Prize for Fiction, and most recently as the lead in UKTV's I, Jack Wright. Her impressive filmography spans a wide array of roles, from starring alongside Rachel Weisz in Denial, to working with director and producer M. Night Shyamalan in Knock at the Cabin. Nikki's book choices are: ** The Colour Purple by Alice Walker ** A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson ** The Secret History by Donna Tart ** Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid ** Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season eight of the Women's Prize's BookshelfiePodcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women's Prize for Fiction is the biggest celebration of women's creativity in the world and has been running for over 30 years. Don't want to miss the rest of season eight? Listen and subscribe now! You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org - every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops. Recorded May 2025. This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.
Ben Fountain is far more than just the author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which won RTB hearts and minds (and the National Book Award) long before it became a weird Ang Lee movie. Back in 2020's lockdown, RTB asked Fountain what was consoling and engaging him. American novels, especially those about Americans abroad (Joan Didion. say) have always done something special for him. Marilynne Robinson's and James Baldwin's work make us confront the reality that's happening around us all the time, “a freaking massacre.” He carried the the (fictional but genuine) facts of Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk in his head for forty years. Allen Tate, Fugitive poet (and author most famously of the tricky post-Eliotic 1928 “Ode to the Confederate Dead“) Joan Didion, The Last Thing He Wanted (1996; “a masterpiece of tone and mood and character and profound interiority”; the movie, not so much) Joan Didion, Democracy (1984; she goes “straight after the heart of that mystery, what is America?“) Marilynne Robinson. Listeners, do you prefer her incisive nonfiction (“Poetry of Puritanism“) or the deep, torqued interiority of her first novel, Housekeeping ? Zadie Smith on the amazing, terrifying Americanness of Kara Walker Kara Walker's “A Subtlety” (also referenced in our Silvia Bottinelli episode on food art!) James Baldwin, A Letter to My Nephew (1962) James Baldwin, e.g. If Beale Street Could Talk (Ben loves those Library of America volumes…) Another Country (1962) Giovanni's Room (1956) Sewanee Review, The Corona Correspondence Chronicles of Now George Saunders “A Letter to My Students…." 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
Ben Fountain is far more than just the author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which won RTB hearts and minds (and the National Book Award) long before it became a weird Ang Lee movie. Back in 2020's lockdown, RTB asked Fountain what was consoling and engaging him. American novels, especially those about Americans abroad (Joan Didion. say) have always done something special for him. Marilynne Robinson's and James Baldwin's work make us confront the reality that's happening around us all the time, “a freaking massacre.” He carried the the (fictional but genuine) facts of Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk in his head for forty years. Allen Tate, Fugitive poet (and author most famously of the tricky post-Eliotic 1928 “Ode to the Confederate Dead“) Joan Didion, The Last Thing He Wanted (1996; “a masterpiece of tone and mood and character and profound interiority”; the movie, not so much) Joan Didion, Democracy (1984; she goes “straight after the heart of that mystery, what is America?“) Marilynne Robinson. Listeners, do you prefer her incisive nonfiction (“Poetry of Puritanism“) or the deep, torqued interiority of her first novel, Housekeeping ? Zadie Smith on the amazing, terrifying Americanness of Kara Walker Kara Walker's “A Subtlety” (also referenced in our Silvia Bottinelli episode on food art!) James Baldwin, A Letter to My Nephew (1962) James Baldwin, e.g. If Beale Street Could Talk (Ben loves those Library of America volumes…) Another Country (1962) Giovanni's Room (1956) Sewanee Review, The Corona Correspondence Chronicles of Now George Saunders “A Letter to My Students…." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As an avid reader, I'm always seeking that next great book. The one that allows me to see myself and the world more clearly, comforts me when I'm lost, or inspires me to move through my day differently. This series is my opportunity to pass these remarkable books onto you, as readers of A Mind of Her Own, both for your own enjoyment and also, as a self-serving shout-out to the universe to send me more amazing, life-changing reads. I'm excited to hear what you think, and I'm so glad you're here!Life-Changing Reads: A Series1. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker Palmer“Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening…vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear.”I read this book when I was feeling lost, searching for a life that aligned with my values and desires, and doubting myself at every step. I kept hearing this call to write, to create, but I thought it was something I should do in my “non-work” time, because it wasn't a serious activity for a physician. Parker's discussion of his own struggle to find his true vocation, through an altruistic but ultimately unsustainable career path, was a fundamental guide on my journey.2. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain“So when introverts assume the observer role, as when they write novels, or contemplate unified field theory—or fall quiet at dinner parties—they're not demonstrating a failure of will or a lack of energy. They're simple doing what they're constitutionally suited for.”I listened to this book in the car, sitting in LA traffic, during my psychiatry residency. I still remember the feeling of hearing these words, suggesting my tendency to prefer listening to talking, observing to acting, thinking to doing was not because I was lazy, overly shy or antisocial. It was what I was “constitutionally suited for.” This was a revelation.Here I am now, writing books, listening as a psychiatrist and podcast host, and taking time to think about life's great mysteries. Thank you, Susan, for your beautiful writing.3. The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, by Robert Waldinger, MD and Marc Schulz, PhD“Do I matter? Some of us have lived the majority of our lives and find ourselves looking back, others have most of our lives in front of us and are looking forward. For all of us, regardless of age, it helps to remember that this question of mattering, of leaving something for future generations and of being part of something bigger than ourselves, is not just about our personal achievements—it's about what we mean to other people. And it's never too late to start now and leave a mark.”This book, by the directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, is a powerful summary of the lives of two generations of individuals from the same families for over 80 years. It's remarkable to read their quotes as they navigate joy, loss, struggles and successes over the years. The reason I've found it so important to read and reread is its powerful reminder of the importance of our relationships in creating happiness. Not money. Not fame. Not a perfect body. Not prizes or rings or medals. It's all about the love and connection we have in our lives.Today, as I try to navigate the overwhelmingly stressful news and constant churn of social media, it grounds me in my day-to-day life to reflect on those in my closest orbit. How can I connect with them today? How do I show my love and interest in ways both silly and sincere? Even if I've been feeling disconnected, I trust that it is never too late to leave my own mark in their lives and remember the joy of having them in mine.4. How Do You Feel? One Doctor's Search for Humanity in Medicine, by Jessi Gold, MD, MS“Sometimes, the heaviest emotional burden is to bear witness or to hold space for someone else's story. To do my job well and be someone whom people can trust, I need to care. I need to be truly empathetic. I need to be raw and available.”This beautiful book, by Jessi Gold, describes so many aspects of my experience as a psychiatrist. She writes about the unique emotional toll of meeting with patients during some of their darkest moments, as they are working to overcome trauma, abuse, loss or grave illnesses. Reading this was incredibly validating. In the past, when I had finished my clinical week, I would look back and wonder, “Why can't I do more? Why didn't I see more patients? There is so much need.”Dr. Gold's book helped me to be self-compassionate, recognizing I could only be truly present if I also took care of myself. This is a message I now try to pass along to the psychiatry residents I teach. We are human, and we have limits. Thank you, Jessi, for generously sharing your life with us. Your work is so important.Listen to Dr. Gold on The Reflective Mind Podcast at https://amindofherown.substack.com/p/speaking-the-quiet-part-out-loud?r=1wdz1l5. Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up by James Hollis, Ph.D.“To engage with the summons of our souls is to step into the deepest ocean, uncertain whether we will be able to swim to some new, distant shore. And yet, until we have consented to swim beyond the familiar lights of the port left behind, we will never arrive at a newer shore.”This stunning book, by Dr. James Hollis, a Jungian scholar and prolific writer, shares his own story of midlife depression and his decision to leave the familiar to seek training in Zurich and become a Jungian analyst. He writes beautifully about his struggle to identify his own path with the guidance of Jung's theory of individuation, defined as “the lifelong project of becoming more nearly the whole person we were meant to be.” I read and re-read this book as I was struggling with my own path to meaning in midlife, and I found such comfort in his powerful belief that we all can tap into what we already know: the person we are most meant to be.You can listen to his beautiful description of his path here: https://amindofherown.substack.com/p/a-nameless-longing-when-your-soul?r=1wdz1l6. Shrill, by Lindy West (I also highly recommend the Hulu series by the same name, starring Aidy Bryant )“I am my body. When my body gets smaller, it is still me. When my body gets bigger, it is still me. There is not a thin woman inside me, awaiting excavation. I am one piece.”Thinking back on my training during medical school and beyond, I can summarize any lecture about body size with one phrase: overweight equals unhealthy. This repeated conflation means I now must consciously uncouple one from the other in my clinical work, stepping back from the broad and imprecise shorthand to consider how they are, and are not, actually related.Lindy West's book helped me significantly as I was trying to shift my thinking on this topic. Her frank depiction of life in her larger body was at times heartbreaking (especially in the doctor's office), frequently humorous (with chapter titles like “Are you there, Margaret? It's me, a person who is not a complete freak.”) and overall a powerful motivator for change. I think all health care providers should read it at least once.If this resonates, check out my interview with Dr. Mara Gordon all about the size-inclusive healthcare revolution. https://amindofherown.substack.com/p/the-size-inclusive-healthcare-revolution?utm_source=publication-search7. Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books by Ursula K. Le Guin“Fiction offers the best means of understanding people different from oneself, short of experience. Actually, fiction can be lots better than experience, because it's a manageable size, it's comprehensible, while experience just steamrollers over you and you understand what happened decades later, if ever.”I grew up in a very small town in North Dakota, just a few miles from the South Dakota border. I didn't recognize the enormity of the sky above my childhood home until I returned as an adult, head tipped back, staring upward in awe. I grew up there with a loving family and a surrounding community willing to cheer me on in events from basketball games to theater performances, but I always felt a bit out of place. Reading became my reassurance that the world was as big as the sky overhead, and I would eventually find my own path. Books also helped me recognize the importance of placing myself in another's shoes, virtual empathy-building machines that taught me about those whose lives were so incredibly different from my own.This book of Ursula K. Le Guin's essays, poems and book reviews reveals a grounded, opinionated, brilliant woman who decided to create entire worlds with stunning clarity, illuminating the challenges existing in our own. Readers and writers alike will not be sorry for taking a moment to absorb her work.If this interests you, please feel free to listen to my short essay, Books are Empathy Machines.8. Intimations by Zadie Smith“Talking to yourself can be useful. And writing means being overheard.”This book by Zadie Smith, a collection of six essays, was published in 2020, and provides a glimpse into the author's life during the early months of the Covid-19 virus. I've long been an admirer of her fiction, but this series allowed a much more intimate window into her wandering mind, trying to comprehend her place in a society turned inside out with uncertainty and fear.What does it mean to be an artist when people are being categorized as “essential workers?” Is loyalty to a place something that can outlast a feeling of unique vulnerability? How can writing provide an outlet for survival when the world is so fraught? There was comfort in her struggle to understand and in her feeling of disorientation, which I certainly shared. I emerged from her writing feeling more hopeful and far less alone.If this essay resonated, please feel free to check out this podcast episode Hope is the Best Antidote for Demoralization with Dr. James L. Griffith, MD9. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi“We grow up believing that what counts most in our lives is that which will occur in the future…[however] since what we experience is reality, as far as we are concerned, we can transform reality to the extent that we influence what happens in consciousness and thus free ourselves from the threats and blandishments of the outside world.”My summary: We are always living for tomorrow, while life only happens right now, in our moment-by-moment experience, which we have the power to shape through our attention.You have likely heard of the concept of Flow, described by Dr. Csikszentmihalyi (here is a googled pronunciation: chik sent mee hai ee) as an optimal experience when a “person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” It is often referred to as being in a “flow state,” so immersed in a particular task that you lose track of time and are able to concentrate in a prolonged and highly satisfying way. He refers to our attention our “psychic energy.” Where we give our attention is quite literally how we experience our lives. This has never been more relevant, each of us tasked with creating our own protective filters from the onslaught of demands on our limited—because we're human—attention spans.This book is a revelation, with insights about the very nature of consciousness, what it means to be happy, and how we can infuse our lives with more pleasure. Flow can emerge in a wide variety of settings, whether it's while listening to or creating music, engaging in satisfying sex or consuming delicious foods. It may also occur when we are working on a challenging problem at the office, pushing past a confusing but compelling problem in school, or out solving problems in the world beyond. I've learned so much from his writing, and have absorbed his ideas which influence many of my own.If the concept of a flow and the quest for a meaningful life is of interest, check out my interview, “What Lights You Up?' with Dr. Jordan Grumet, palliative care physician and writer.10. Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief by Pauline Boss“In the case of ambiguous loss…complicated grieving can be a normal reaction to a complicated situation—the endless searching of a battlefield by the mother of a missing soldier; a stepchild's angry outbursts when his biological parent is totally excluded; a wife's depression and withdrawal because her husband has suffered a brain injury and is no longer himself.”I've found ambiguous loss to be such a powerful and surprisingly common experience in my psychiatry practice. This idea describes the unique suffering caused by uncertainty or a lack of resolution regarding a missing loved one. This could be psychological absence of someone still in our presence, such as when our loved one is struggling with dementia or severe mental illness, or the physical absence of those we still keep very much present in our psychological lives, including missing persons with unknown whereabouts.After first reading Ambiguous Loss, I reached out to Dr. Pauline Boss, now in her 90s, to thank her for her work and speak with her about this extremely helpful framework, which had a profound effect on me. She shared the origins of the research into this topic, begun with the families of pilots declared missing in action in Vietnam and Cambodia while she was at the Center of Prisoner of War Studies in the U.S. Naval Health Research Institute in San Diego. She spoke about interviewing the wives of these missing pilots and the intense pain caused by the ambiguity surrounding their husbands' whereabouts. This ongoing, often unresolvable grief can lead to depression, isolation, and ongoing family disruption, even generations later. By giving a name to this phenomenon, however, Pauline Boss has helped countless families begin to heal from the unimaginable and move forward into a more hopeful future.11. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? A Memoir by Roz Chast“After my father died, I noticed that all the things that had driven me bats about him—his chronic worrying, his incessant chitchat, his almost suspect inability to deal with anything mechanical—now seemed trivial. The only emotion that remained was one of deep affection and gratitude that he was my dad.”This is the first graphic novel on my list, but it certainly won't be the last. I've been a fan of Roz Chast for a long time, with her quirky but poignant New Yorker cartoons. This powerful memoir highlights something I've found particularly helpful in my work and personal life: difficult truths are much more palatable if we can pair them with humor. My family has always taken this approach, particularly my father, coping with some truly heartbreaking cases in the hospital with an off-color joke about bowel movements around the family dinner table. Humor is also considered one of the most mature psychological defense mechanisms we use to cope with stress or loss in our lives, so way to go, Dad!Roz shares with us a uniquely painful time in her life, as her parents age well into their 90s, experiencing the indignities of increasingly frail bodies and waning independence. She writes with brave candor about the exhausting and expensive path an adult child must walk when her parents can no longer care for themselves, and her conflicted feelings as she watches them slowly fade. Her cartoons throughout provide much-needed moments of levity, as well as a beautiful tribute to the lives of these important people. If you or a loved one is going through this painful, but common, journey, this book could provide some true comfort, and maybe even a laugh or two.12. Congratulations, By the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness by George Saunders“Be a good and proactive and even somewhat desperate patient on your own behalf—seek out the most efficacious, anti-selfishness medicines, energetically, for the rest of your life. Find out what makes you kinder, what opens you up and brings out the most loving, generous, and unafraid version of you—and go after those things as if nothing else matters.Because, actually, nothing else does.”These words are part of a lovely convocation address George Saunders delivered to the graduating students of Syracuse University, where he is a professor of creative writing. Understandably, it resonated far beyond the campus, and speaks a truly important message for today's world.I should admit, I have a soft spot for George Saunders. I imagine I'm not alone in this. I saw him speak at a New Yorker Festival event several years ago and he did not disappoint: sharp as a tack while also being thoughtful and extremely humble. In addition, he was super funny, which made sense because he's the author of one of the most hilarious short stories I've ever read. In “Pastoralia,” two employees are assigned to a caveman diorama in a fading fun park. One of them, who takes his role incredibly seriously, frequently pretends to scan the horizon for large game and refuses to speak to his cave mate, using only grunts and body language to communicate. The other employee, a chain-smoking, mint-eating mother of a struggling adult child seems to be trying to just get through the day, breaking every rule of proper performance, much to her cave mate's dismay. The story is simply sublime.My dear friend, John, who trained with me in psychiatry residency and became one of my dearest friends, introduced me to this story, along with other memorable cultural experiences such as the show “Broad City” and referring to the bathroom as the “wazzer.” He died in 2020 after a battle with brain cancer, but his legacy lives on, especially in my plan to someday turn “Pastoralia” into a musical (his idea). After all, what better way to honor his memory? Miss you John, but thank you for all you taught me.Thanks for reading A Mind of Her Own! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and hear about upcoming episodes & book events.Find Dr. Reid on Instagram: @jenreidmd and LinkedInYou can also preorder her upcoming book, Guilt Free!Also check out Dr. Reid's regular contributions to Psychology Today: Think Like a Shrink.Seeking a mental health provider? Try Psychology TodayNational Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255Dial 988 for mental health crisis supportSAMHSA's National Helpline - 1-800-662-HELP (4357)-a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.Disclaimer:The views expressed on this podcast reflect those of the host and guests, and are not associated with any organization or academic site. Also, AI may have been used to create the transcript and notes, based only on the specific discussion of the host and guest and reviewed for accuracy.The information and other content provided on this podcast or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this website is for general information purposes only.If you or any other person has a medical concern, you should consult with your health care provider or seek other professional medical treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something that have read on this website, blog or in any linked materials. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or emergency services (911) immediately. You can also access the National Suicide Help Line at 1-800-273-8255 or call 988 for mental health emergencies. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amindofherown.substack.com
We were delighted to have the chance to speak with Adam Szetela about his new book, That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing. Adam shares what he learned from authors, agents, and editors about the effects of cancel culture in the publishing industry. His behind-the-scenes account is fascinating and sobering in equal measure.Show Notes* For more info on Adam Szetela, check out his website * Here is the official MIT Press link to Adam's book * The Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie audio clips come from her 2022 Reith Lecture on Free Speech (listen here; read the transcript here)* Matt Yglesias coined the term “The Great Awokening” in this 2019 Vox essay* “a rapid change in discourse and norms around social justice issues”: That's a quote from Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, one of the nation's foremost chroniclers of “The Great Awokening”* see Musa's 2024 book We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite * here are two Banished episodes featuring Musa: You Can't Be an Egalitarian Social Climber & Who Speaks the Language of Social Justice?* The Harper's Letter* Michael Hobbes, “Don't Fall for the ‘Cancel Culture Scam,'” HuffPo, July 10, 2020* This 2019 Zadie Smith essay from the New York Review of Books is the definitive rejoinder to the cultural critics who insist that we “should write only about people who are fundamentally ‘like us': racially, sexually, genetically, nationally, politically, personally”* On the controversy surrounding Amélie Wen Zhao's Blood Heir, see Alexandra Alter, “She Pulled Her Debut Book When Critics Found It Racist. Now She Plans to Publish,” New York Times, April 29, 2019* On the cancelation of Kosoko Jackson's book, A Place for Wolves, see Jennifer Senior, “Teen Fiction and the Perils of Cancel Culture,” New York Times, March 8, 2019* On the cancelation of a romance novel based on “criticism from readers over dialogue that some found racist or that praised Elon Musk,” see Alexandra Alter, “A Publisher Pulled a Romance Novel After Criticism From Early Readers,” New York Times, March 5, 2025* On the demographics of the people who work in the publishing industry, with an emphasis on racial diversity, see this 2022 report from Pen America, “Reading Between the Lines”* For more on literature and the culture wars, see Deborah Appleman's incisive 2022 book, Literature and the New Culture Wars: Triggers, Cancel Culture, and the Teacher's Dilemma * On the perils of teaching literature from a narrow social justice lens, see “Poverty of the Imagination,” an essay we wrote a few years back in Arc Digital* On what we keep getting wrong about the cancel culture debate, see this September 26, 2025 Banished post This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit banished.substack.com/subscribe
This week's book guest is Swing Time by Zadie Smith.Sara and Cariad are joined for the last episode of this series by the one and only Sophie Ellis-Bextor.In this episode they discuss motherhood, celebrity, white saviour complex and sexy dancing for your dad.Thank you for reading with us this series. We like reading with you! And we'll be back in October with more Weird and wonderful reads!Swing Time by Zadie Smith is available here.Follow Sara & Cariad's Weirdos Book Club on Instagram @saraandcariadsweirdosbookclub and Twitter @weirdosbookclubTickets for Sara's tour show I Am A Strange Gloop are available to buy from sarapascoe.co.uk Recorded and edited by Naomi Parnell for Plosive.Artwork by Welcome Studio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode, meet authors Zadie Smith and Nick Laird, Anne Waldman, and Fannie Flagg. Hear Zadie Smith and Nick Laird on writing a book for their children and working together in the studio, discover why poet Anne Waldman describes recording her audiobook as a “sonic investigation,” and learn what Fannie Flagg is most excited for listeners to hear. In the Wild by Zadie Smith and Nick Laird https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777195/in-the-wild-by-zadie-smith-and-nick-laird-illustrated-by-magenta-fox/audio/ Mesopotopia by Anne Waldman https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690646/mesopotopia-by-anne-waldman/audio/ Something to Look Forward To by Fannie Flagg https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/767921/something-to-look-forward-to-by-fannie-flagg/9798217159581/
The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker
Zadie Smith reads her story “The Silence,” from the July 7 & 14, 2025, issue of the magazine. Smith, a winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, among others, is the author of two short-story collections and six novels, including “NW,” “Swing Time,” and “The Fraud,” which was published in 2023. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Professor of African-American Studies, scholar of political economy and historical sociology, and author of Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States Charisse Burden-Stelly returns to Bad Faith to discuss the No Kings protests, the media backlash to the L.A. protests, the new Red Scare, and what history tells us about how to fight back. She also weighs on on why neoliberal pundits from Jake Tapper to Zadie Smith have been attacking the paradigm of "oppressed vs. oppressor," and why it may be time for the left to firmly defend "woke." Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).
Edwidge Danticat joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Two Men Arrive in a Village,” by Zadie Smith, which was published in The New Yorker in 2016. Danticat, a MacArthur Fellow and a winner of the Vilcek Prize in Literature, has published six books of fiction, including “Breath, Eyes, Memory,” “The Farming of Bones,” “Claire of the Sea Light,” and “Everything Inside.” Her memoir “Brother, I'm Dying” won the National Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, among others. She has been publishing fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker since 1999. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices