Podcast

Kate DiCamillo

Host Christopher Beha, Guest Kate DiCamillo on December 6, 2022

All ages show: the celebrated children’s book author discusses the art of writing for younger and older audiences Read More

Casanova

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Clare Bucknell on November 29, 2022

The thoughtful prick: the man, the myth, and the mythmaking Read More

Nabokov’s Berlin

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Ryan Ruby on November 8, 2022

A happy eternal recurrence: on the author’s relationship to fatherhood and time Read More

Sarah Smarsh on the Midterms

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Sarah Smarsh on November 2, 2022

A view from outside the Beltway of what’s at stake this election Read More

Animal Rights

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Elizabeth Barber, Matt Johnson on October 3, 2022

The heart of the heartland: on the methods and laws factory farms would rather we didn’t know about Read More

The Right to Not Be Pregnant

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Charlotte Shane on September 26, 2022

Reframing and strengthening fundamental pro-choice arguments Read More

Louise Bourgeois

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Claire-Louise Bennett on September 16, 2022

On the artist, her life and work, and the experience of seeing Read More

What Happened to Cecil Rhodes’s Nose?

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Hedley Twidle on September 8, 2022

On problematic statues and new approaches to writing about lingering historical trauma Read More

Addiction, Recovery, and Experimental Brain Surgery

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Zachary Siegel on August 30, 2022

New ways of thinking about substance abuse, treatment, and sobriety Read More

Christopher Hitchens

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Christian Lorentzen, Maureen Tkacik, Luke Savage on August 23, 2022

Examining the commentator’s pre-internet celebrity, writing, and legacy Read More

Guardians of Memory

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Fred Bahnson, Father Columba Stewart on August 11, 2022

Working as though everything depended on you: the delicate, dangerous task of preserving religious manuscripts in conflict zones Read More

Empire Burlesque

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Daniel Bessner on August 5, 2022

Living through the twilight of American global power Read More

Tree Sleuths

by Lauren Markham, Host Violet Lucca, on July 22, 2022

Flat-pack forensics: how scientists are dissembling black market lumber Read More

The Victim Cloud

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Hannah Zeavin on July 8, 2022

The greatest scam in history might be the stigma against those who’ve been defrauded Read More

Army of Shadows

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Seth Harp on June 30, 2022

Over there: breaking through myths about the Ukrainian foreign legion Read More

Ottessa Moshfegh on Lapvona

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Ottessa Moshfegh on June 17, 2022

It takes a village: the author discusses her latest novel Read More

The Matter of War

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Nicole Tung on May 16, 2022

On the front lines in Ukraine Read More

Down the Hatch

by David Hill, Host Violet Lucca, on May 10, 2022

On the past and future of the carnival, one of America’s great institutions Read More

In the Land of Living Skies

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Suzannah Showler on May 3, 2022

Why it’s important to live in the dark Read More

Ghosting the Machine

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Sam Lipsyte on April 19, 2022

In the uncanny valley of the dolls: Sam Lipsyte investigates digisexuality in Las Vegas Read More

Who Killed Louis Le Prince?

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Nat Segnit on April 11, 2022

Ghost in the machine: on the origins of cinema Read More

Notes on the State of Jefferson

Host Violet Lucca, Guest James Pogue on March 29, 2022

Range wars: a secessionist movement reveals the cracks in American democracy Read More

I Multiplied Myself

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Benjamin Kunkel on March 21, 2022

Better living through avoiding it entirely: on the life and work of Fernando Pessoa Read More

Night Shifts

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Michael W. Clune on March 15, 2022

Perchance to dream engineer: on new research into our sleeping minds Read More

The Eros Monster

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Agnes Callard on March 7, 2022

The thrilling, all-consuming, irrational, and outright awful experience of bad romance Read More

Bright Flight

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Vanessa Gregory on February 28, 2022

Illuminations: on fireflies, natural systems, and the complex field of complexity science Read More

Your Own Devices

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson on February 23, 2022

Does your phone really belong to you if you can’t repair it? Read More

Voice Lessons

Host Violet Lucca, Guest T. M. Luhrmann on February 15, 2022

Gaining a better understanding of elite athletes’ inner monologue, and of our own mental landscape Read More

National Treasure

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Dan Piepenbring on February 7, 2022

On the explosive talent of Nicolas Cage Read More

Separate and Unequal

Host Violet Lucca, Guest Adolph Reed Jr. on February 1, 2022

The past is always present: examining quotidian life under Jim Crow to reveal its structures Read More

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