In the first of our summer readings, Terry Castle reads her 2005 piece about her “on-again, off-again, semi-friendship” with Susan Sontag. She remembers Sontag as a “great comic character”: a high-minded hobnobber, a moralist and a gossip, seductive and snobbish and a catalytic force for modern feminism.
Read more Terry Castle in the LRB: lrb.me/castlepod
Le ... Show More
Sep 6
The Romantic History of the Bayeux Tapestry
The story of why, and how, an arrow ended up in Harold's eye in the Bayeux Tapestry is tied to the politics of the early 19th century, to Napoleon's ambitions and Britain's national pride, and the work of two antiquaries, Anne and Charles Stothard, who travelled to northern Franc ... Show More
59m 54s
Aug 30
Travel with Close Readings: ‘Invisible Cities’ by Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino’s novella Invisible Cities is a hypnagogic reimagining of Marco Polo’s time in the court of Kublai Khan. Polo describes 55 impossible places – cities made of plumbing, free-floating, overwhelmed by rubbish, buried underground – that reveal something true about every ... Show More
1h 37m
Sep 2021
Fran Lebowitz, Parent Blame, Heiresses
She's been described as the funniest woman in America. We talk to Fran Lebowitz, the American writer, social commentator, humorist, and New York legend. She shares her opinion on everything from gender, Covid and marriage. We hear from our political correspondent at Holyrood abou ... Show More
57m 47s
<p><strong>THE SUMMER BONANZA BEGINS. podmothers sephy & wing enter the chat:</strong> spiralling on 'female friendships', cultivating real relationships, acquaintances & 'catch ups' & loneliness. ✷</p><br><p>see more ✷ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/@sephyandwing" r ... Show More
<p>Gugu Mbatha-Raw ("The Morning Show," "Misbehaviour") reads an essay about a friendship between two people who meet in a pub in Notting Hill.</p>
<p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts and ... Show More
