Writer George Saunders on how famous short stories by writers like Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Gogol are like miniature models of the world and how they can teach us to transcend our own limitations. (R)
For many years, author George Saunders taught a writing masterclass in upstate New York, in which he introduced students to the stories of the great ... Show More
Jan 2024
Ep411 - George Saunders | The Braindead Megaphone
<p>Acclaimed author George Saunders visits Google to discuss his book "The Braindead Megaphone."</p> <p>"The Braindead Megaphone", George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction, is comprised of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are ... Show More
47m 41s
May 2025
Close Readings: Nietzsche's 'Schopenhauer as Educator'
In this extended extract from their series 'Conversations in Philosophy', part of the LRB's Close Readings podcast, Jonathan Rée and James Wood look at one of Friedrich Nietzsche's early essays, 'Schopenhauer as Educator'. For Nietzsche, Schopenhauer’s genius lay not in his ideas ... Show More
31m 43s
Mar 2025
The philosophy of geopolitics SPECIAL | Donald Trump, Homer's Odyssey, and Korean Web Novels
<p>What do Friedrich Nietzsche, the Korean War, and Homer's Odyssey have in common?</p><p>Join the team at the IAI for four articles about the history and philosophy of geopolitics, ranging from Nietzsche's impact on Russia's imperialist strategies to the importance of Ancient Gr ... Show More
43m 55s
Jan 2025
The Elusive Promise of the First Person
<p>The first person is a narrative style as old as storytelling itself—one that, at its best, allows us to experience the world through another person’s eyes. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz trace how the technique has bee ... Show More
45m 48s
Nov 2013
Albert Camus - The Outsider
One hundred years after his birth this month’s World Book Club, will be discussing Albert Camus' seminal novel The Outsider with his acclaimed biographer Oliver Todd, and Professor of French at Sheffield University, David Walker. And appropriately the programme comes from the hea ... Show More
53m 21s
Jan 2024
Ins Choi on Kim’s Convenience, why are so many films set in a dystopian future?
Ins Choi, the creator of the Netflix hit comedy series, Kim’s Convenience, talks about getting past stereotypes, keeping audiences on edge and bringing his original Korean-Canadian stage version of the show to the Park Theatre in north London.Tom Sutcliffe asks author and journal ... Show More
41m 57s
Jan 2020
227. Roz Chast and Patricia Marx (cartoons, words, ukuleles) – The Beatles stole everything from us
Thelma and Louise, Ponch and John, Pancho and Lefty, Quixote and Sancho Panza, Marx and Engels, Marx and Chast…history and literature are full of magical buddy stories. Every now and then, for reasons no one can explain, Two people come together and produce something greater, or ... Show More
45m 42s
Jan 2021
153: George Saunders (A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN) & Leo Tolstoy's MASTER AND MAN
<p>Guess who zooms in this time? It's George Saunders himself, certified MacArthur Genius, launching his new book about writing and Russian short story masters, <em>A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. </em>Christ ... Show More
1h 6m