August 2, 1915. The poem appears in print for the first time this week, from Kentucky to Pennsylvania to Vermont. Every reader is transported to that same leafy path: “two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost becomes an immediate hit and will go on to become one of the most popular and well-known poems in American history. For ... Show More
Mar 2
Stalin Is Dead! | Сталин мертв!
March 5, 1953. The Premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, is on his deathbed, and he’s turning blue. At the end of his life, Stalin is surrounded by his closest advisors, but these comrades aren’t hoping for his quick recovery. For days, they’ve been sneaking away from their ... Show More
36m 52s
Jun 2023
Cormac McCarthy, The Road, and Carrying the Fire
<p>Once a year, I read <a href="https://amzn.to/3cV0jYK" target="_blank"><i>The Road</i> </a>by Cormac McCarthy. It’s a cathartic annual ritual for me. What is it about this novel that has such an impact on my soul and those of other readers? Who is the man who wrote it, and what ... Show More
52m 18s
Dec 2021
Cormac McCarthy, The Road, and Carrying the Fire
<p>Once a year, I read <a href="https://amzn.to/3cV0jYK" target="_blank"><i>The Road</i> </a>by Cormac McCarthy. It's a cathartic annual ritual for me. What is it about this novel that has such an impact on my soul and those of other readers? Who is the man who wrote it, and what ... Show More
52m 8s
Jul 2023
Take A Walk On The Wild Side
This week, AE Stallings, the new Oxford professor of poetry, on the lives of poets; and Ann Kennedy Smith considers the different faces of Cornwall.'Sleeping on islands: A life in poetry', by Andrew Motion'The American poet laureate: A history of US poetry and the state', by Amy ... Show More
1h 1m
May 2019
Talking with the Soul: A Dialogue about Life and Death
In this Ancient Egyptian poem, a man talks with his own soul about whether it is better to live or die. Read by Barbara Ewing. Translated by Richard Bruce Parkinson. The poem is known from a single copy, c. 1800 BC, whose beginning is lost. It is a dialogue between a man and his ... Show More
15m 38s