In 1886, the twenty-six-year-old Anton Chekhov was practicing medicine, supporting his family, falling in and out love, writing pieces for newspapers at a furious pace - and gradually becoming one of the greatest short story writers the world has ever seen. In this episode, Jacke talks to Bob Blaisdell, author of Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a L ... Show More
Mar 23
786 Cherokee Novelist and Poet John Rollin Ridge (with Travis Franks)
A member of the Cherokee nation, John Rollin Ridge (1827-1867) lived a dramatic life full of contradictions. He also became the first Native American to publish a novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: the Celebrated California Bandit, a Gold Rush-era adventure story ... Show More
57m 7s
Mar 19
785 Literature in an Age of Anti-Immigration Sentiment (with Daniel Olivas) | My Last Book with Janet Todd
Daniel A. Olivas, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, is a fiction writer, poet, playwright, book critic, and attorney. In this episode, Jacke talks to Daniel about his lifelong devotion to literature and its ability to humanize the targets of anti-immigration sentiment. In the i ... Show More
1h 18m
Dec 2023
Kadare, Gospodinov, Kafka and Dickens
The Palace of Dreams is a novel from 1981 that is ostensibly set in the 19th century Ottoman empire, but the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare cleverly smuggles in thinly veiled criticism of the totalitarian state presided over by Enver Hoxha. The book was duly banned shortly after p ... Show More
45m 7s
Oct 2023
The Landlady by Fyodor Dostoyevsky ~ Full Audiobook [drama]
The Landlady by Fyodor Dostoyevsky audiobook. Genre: drama In The Landlady, Fyodor Dostoyevsky draws listeners into the foggy courtyards and cramped rooms of St Petersburg, where a lonely young intellectual, Vasily Ordynov, searches for cheap lodging and a quiet place to work. He ... Show More
4h 20m
Feb 2024
Significant Others: A Sneak Peek at the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal
<p>It’s been said that history is written by the person at the typewriter. But who did the person who made history depend on? Often, it’s impossible to find out. But once in a while, we get lucky, and the story was not only recorded, it’s really good.<br />Well that’s what this p ... Show More
7m 21s
Nov 2023
Elisa Gabbert on Sylvia Plath ("Lady Lazarus")
What a searching, stimulating conversation this was. Elisa Gabbert joins the podcast to talk about a poem she and I have both long loved, Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus."Elisa is a poet, critic, and essayist—and the author of several books. Her recent titles include Normal Distance ... Show More
1h 42m
Feb 2024
A Very Victorian Scandal
In 1874, the most famous preacher in America, Henry Ward Beecher, was publicly accused of adultery. The story became one of the greatest sex scandals of the 19th century, and led to a shocking trial, in which Beecher’s accuser, Theodore Tilton, sued Beecher for ruining his marria ... Show More
1 h