Shows
To The Best Of Our KnowledgePlaying with WordsSometime in the last couple of years, America’s collective morning routine shifted. We used to start the day with coffee. Now it’s coffee and Wordle. Or Spelling Bee. Or both, plus the crossword. We’re living in a golden age of word games – which is fun, and one way to get just a tiny bit of relief when the world feels out of control. Original Air Date: November 09, 2024Interviews In This Hour: Getting into the puzzle mindset — Welcome to my crossworldGuests: A. J. Jacobs, Anna ShechtmanNever wa...
2025-08-0251 min
Ways of KnowingMedia Objects 01: ExtensionsWriting is an extension of our voice, cars of our legs, guns of our fists, telephones of our ears, televisions of our eyes…Marshall McLuhan considered all media to be technology that extended the human body. The arrival of a medium like writing can completely reorder social relations because it has the power to “shape and control the scale and form of human association and action.” McLuhan’s idea of extensions is arguably the beginning of modern media theory, but it is not without its limitations.
Media Objects is produced in collaboration with Media Studies at Cornell University. With support from the...
2025-02-0632 min
UnravellingIn Conversation: Redefining eating disorder language, treatment and recoveryStart the New Year with a special thought-provoking episode of Unravelling. Hosts Kurt White and Mary Wilson are joined by Brattleboro Retreat postdoctoral psychology fellow Mary Iellamo to revisit a compelling panel from the Brattleboro Literary Festival. Moderated by Iellamo, this conversation brings together authors Anna Shechtman (The Riddles of the Sphinx) and Emmeline Clein (Dead Weight), who were each featured individually in the previous two episodes of Unravelling (episodes 13 and 14).With clips from the panel, this episode delves into the cultural narratives surrounding eating disorders, unpacking the paradoxes of connection and competition in recovery. It also...
2025-01-0149 minUnravellingThe riddles within: Crosswords, anorexia, and feminist historyIn this episode of Unravelling, Kurt White sits down with Anna Shechtman, author and renowned crossword creator, at the Brattleboro Literary Festival to discuss her book, The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle.At age 15, Anna began crafting crossword puzzles while navigating the complexities of disordered eating—two practices tied by perfectionism, control, and language. Kurt and Anna explore the paradoxes of anorexia: the illusion of control amidst chaos, the pursuit of gratification without pleasure, and society’s celebration of self-discipline at the cost of self-destruction.Anna reflects on how...
2024-12-1840 min
Ordinary Unhappiness58: Wild Analysis: The Idea of You feat. Anna Shechtman TeaserSubscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby, Patrick, and Dan are joined by writer, academic, and cruciverbalist Anna Shechtman (author of the recent book The Riddles of The Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle) to unpack the dense knots of overdetermination and fantasy that make up the recent rom-com "The Idea of You" (2024). It's a world where Anne Hathaway is a 40-year old divorced mom in mid-life crisis, Nicholas Galitzine is a 24-year heartthrob boy band pop star, and their...
2024-06-2902 min
Ordinary Unhappiness57: “Do More Crosswords!” The Sexual Politics of Language feat. Anna ShechtmanAbby and Patrick welcome writer, academic, and cruciverbalist Anna Shechtman, author of The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle, a book that’s part personal memoir, part cultural history, and part meditation on what it means to care about meaning in the first place. In typically overdetermined fashion, the three talk about the complex interweaving of language, sexual difference, and the vicissitudes of our appetites for food, clues, accomplishments, “solutions,” and more. Along the way, they unpack the écriture feminine of Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva’s idea of the semiotic, Luce Irigaray’s...
2024-06-221h 30
Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa MariaCrosswords w/ Anna ShechtmanIn this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara is joined by writer, crossword writer and Cornell University assistant professor in the Department of Literatures in English, Anna Schechtman. They discuss her newly released book, The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. Follow Anna: @annashechtman
2024-05-201h 20
LA Review of BooksAnna Shechtman's "The Riddles of the Sphinx"Scholar and writer Anna Shechtman joins Medaya Ocher to discuss her book The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. Shechtman is an accomplished cruciverbalist, constructing a bimonthly crossword at The New Yorker; she is the former Humanities and Film Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, where she is now an editor-at-large. Her book is a history of how women shaped the crossword puzzle, only to be pushed out of the puzzling industry. It’s also a memoir of Shechtman's own start with crossword constructing and the simultaneous development of her eating disorder. Ri...
2024-05-0341 min
LARB Radio HourAnna Shechtman's "The Riddles of the Sphinx"Scholar and writer Anna Shechtman joins Medaya Ocher to discuss her book The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. Shechtman is an accomplished cruciverbalist, constructing a bimonthly crossword at The New Yorker; she is the former Humanities and Film Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, where she is now an editor-at-large. Her book is a history of how women shaped the crossword puzzle, only to be pushed out of the puzzling industry. It's also a memoir of Shechtman's own start with crossword constructing and the simultaneous development of her eating disorder...
2024-05-0341 min
KQED's ForumAnna Shechtman Decodes the Crossword Puzzle in 'Riddle of the Sphinx'Can you think of a seven-letter word for “complex character?” If your mind flows to “Oedipus,” you’re probably comfortable among the wonderful, nerdy world of crossword puzzle fanatics. Anna Shechtman has been making crosswords since she was 15, drawn to the idea that through riddles and puns a puzzle constructor can access “something foundational about language — a quasi mathematical code that could be rearranged and manipulated through brain power alone.” We talk to Shechtman, who now creates puzzles for the New Yorker, about the art, politics and history of crossword making. Her new book is “The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting...
2024-04-0455 min
ThresholdsMeghan O'RourkeJordan chats with Meghan O'Rourke (The Invisible Kingdom) about hiding from herself, the death of her father, and the challenges of writing a book without knowing where it will go. MENTIONED:The Riddles of the Sphinx by Anna ShechtmanWalking and Talking (1996, written & directed by Nicole Holofcener)"The Teens Have Made Nirvana Preppy" by Sarah StankorbMeghan O’Rourke is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness and The Long Goodbye, as well as the poetry collections Sun In Days, Once, and Halflife. Her writing has a...
2024-03-0848 min
Get Hooked On Your Day With A Breakthrough Full Audiobook.The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle by Anna ShechtmanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/689503to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
Author: Anna Shechtman
Narrator: Anna Shechtman
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hours 18 minutes
Release date: March 5, 2024
Genres: Memoirs
Publisher's Summary:
Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age ninete...
2024-03-058h 18Feel A Full Audiobook That Is Simply Soul-Stirring.The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle by Anna ShechtmanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/689503to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
Author: Anna Shechtman
Narrator: Anna Shechtman
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hours 18 minutes
Release date: March 5, 2024
Genres: World
Publisher's Summary:
Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age ninete...
2024-03-058h 18Experience Into A Ground-Breaking Full Audiobook While Cooking.The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle by Anna ShechtmanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/689503to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
Author: Anna Shechtman
Narrator: Anna Shechtman
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hours 18 minutes
Release date: March 5, 2024
Genres: Social Science
Publisher's Summary:
Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nin...
2024-03-058h 18Download Latest Full Audiobooks in History, WorldThe Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle by Anna ShechtmanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/689503to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
Author: Anna Shechtman
Narrator: Anna Shechtman
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hours 18 minutes
Release date: March 5, 2024
Genres: World
Publisher's Summary:
Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age ninete...
2024-03-058h 18
Indulge In Into A Eye-Opening Full Audiobook At Home.The Riddles of the Sphinx by Anna ShechtmanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/29774to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx
Author: Anna Shechtman
Narrator: Anna Shechtman
Format: mp3
Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
Release date: 03-05-24
Ratings: 5 out of 5 stars, 2 ratings
Genres: Women
Publisher's Summary:
The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nineteen, and later, spearheaded the The New Yorker’s popular crossword section. Working with a medium often criticized as exclusionary, elitist, and out-of-touch, Anna is one of very few women in the field of puzzle making, where she strives to make the everyday divers...
2024-03-058h 18Access Essential Full Audiobooks in Non-Fiction, Social ScienceThe Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle by Anna ShechtmanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/689503to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
Author: Anna Shechtman
Narrator: Anna Shechtman
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hours 18 minutes
Release date: March 5, 2024
Genres: Social Science
Publisher's Summary:
Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nin...
2024-03-058h 18
New Free Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, MemoirsThe Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle by Anna ShechtmanPlease visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/689503 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle Author: Anna Shechtman Narrator: Anna Shechtman Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 18 minutes Release date: March 5, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nin...
2024-03-0505 minDownload New Full Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, MemoirsThe Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle by Anna ShechtmanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/689503to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
Author: Anna Shechtman
Narrator: Anna Shechtman
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hours 18 minutes
Release date: March 5, 2024
Genres: Memoirs
Publisher's Summary:
Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age ninete...
2024-03-058h 18Fuel Your Mind With A Full Audiobook That Is Simply Edge-Of-Your-Seat.The Riddles of the Sphinx by Anna ShechtmanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/29774to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Riddles of the Sphinx
Author: Anna Shechtman
Narrator: Anna Shechtman
Format: mp3
Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
Release date: 03-05-24
Ratings: 5 out of 5 stars, 2 ratings
Genres: Women
Publisher's Summary:
The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nineteen, and later, spearheaded the The New Yorker’s popular crossword section. Working with a medium often criticized as exclusionary, elitist, and out-of-touch, Anna is one of very few women in the field of puzzle making, where she strives to make the everyday divers...
2024-03-058h 18
Slate ConversationsWorking: How to Make a “Fair” Crossword PuzzleThis week, host June Thomas talks to Anna Shechtman, a crossword puzzle creator whose new book is called The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. In the interview, Anna talks about her experience writing crossword puzzles as a teenager and then going on to work with New York Times puzzle maker Will Shortz. She also discusses the subjectivity of “common knowledge” and recalls debates with Shortz about which words and phrases were puzzle-worthy. After the interview, June and co-host Ronald Young Jr. talk more about crosswords and the ever...
2024-03-0349 min
Slate CareersWorking: How to Make a “Fair” Crossword PuzzleThis week, host June Thomas talks to Anna Shechtman, a crossword puzzle creator whose new book is called The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. In the interview, Anna talks about her experience writing crossword puzzles as a teenager and then going on to work with New York Times puzzle maker Will Shortz. She also discusses the subjectivity of “common knowledge” and recalls debates with Shortz about which words and phrases were puzzle-worthy. After the interview, June and co-host Ronald Young Jr. talk more about crosswords and the ever...
2024-03-0349 min
Slate BooksWorking: How to Make a “Fair” Crossword PuzzleThis week, host June Thomas talks to Anna Shechtman, a crossword puzzle creator whose new book is called The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. In the interview, Anna talks about her experience writing crossword puzzles as a teenager and then going on to work with New York Times puzzle maker Will Shortz. She also discusses the subjectivity of “common knowledge” and recalls debates with Shortz about which words and phrases were puzzle-worthy. After the interview, June and co-host Ronald Young Jr. talk more about crosswords and the ever...
2024-03-0349 min
WorkingHow to Make a “Fair” Crossword PuzzleThis week, host June Thomas talks to Anna Shechtman, a crossword puzzle creator whose new book is called The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. In the interview, Anna talks about her experience writing crossword puzzles as a teenager and then going on to work with New York Times puzzle maker Will Shortz. She also discusses the subjectivity of “common knowledge” and recalls debates with Shortz about which words and phrases were puzzle-worthy. After the interview, June and co-host Ronald Young Jr. talk more about crosswords and the ever...
2024-03-0349 min
The American VandaliLiberalism, The Morning Show, & The Sheeny Blandness of AppleTV+ with Anna Shechtman & Michael SzalayOur series on corporate allegory continues with an extended discussion of Apple TV+, both its film and television offerings, as well as the relationship between such "content" and the corporation's primary business: selling iPhones and other hardware. Among the specific works discussed are "Severance," "Killers Of The Flower Moon," "Lessons In Chemistry," "Fingernails," "Gutsy," "The Foundation," "Silo," "Ted Lasso," "The Last Thing He Told Me," and, most extensively, "The Morning Show."
Theme Song: "This Year" by The Steel Wheels
For more about this episode, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/AppleTV or subscribe to Matt Seybold's newsletter at TheAmericanVandal.Substack.com
2024-01-221h 12
Labor, Leisure, LoveSubverting the Male Gaze with MashaThis episode I interview Masha, an astrologer and writer with an opinion about LOVE! We discuss the male gaze, love astrology, crossword puzzles, the 5 love languages, and how we feeling seen and heard by others.
You can find Masha on Instagram
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You can find your host on Instagram, too!
Support the Pod
Sources:
harpercollins.com/products/the-riddles-of-the-sphinx-anna-shechtman?variant=41070704099362
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Shortz
https://medium.com/blunt-therapy/the-bigot-who-wrote-the-5-love-languages-hates-you-e2f65771a1...
2023-12-0547 min
The ConversationWomen who puzzleMillions of people around the world love doing puzzles, and since the pandemic they’ve become even more popular. From complex sudoku grids to cryptic clues in crosswords, and recent viral sensations like Wordle, we have long been intrigued by them and make time to pursue them in our daily or weekly routines.But, for some, puzzles are much more than a pastime. What’s it like to solve sudoku competitively or create crosswords for a living? And can puzzles be a space for feminist expression? Kim Chakanetsa speaks to two women to find out.Tant...
2022-04-1127 min
The Outlook Podcast ArchiveSolving the puzzle: Crosswords, anorexia, and meAnna Shechtman began writing crossword puzzles as a teenager - but developed an eating disorder around the same time. She became one of the youngest crossword creators to publish a puzzle in the New York Times newspaper and now writes crosswords for the New Yorker magazine, but during her recovery she sometimes feared that her illness and her love of creating crosswords were inextricably linked. She tells Emily Webb about the art of cruciverbalism, 'crossworld', and why the creation of crossword clues is a political act. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.comPresenter...
2022-01-2522 minLA Review of BooksFilm Now Panel: Justin Chang, J D Connor, Gil Robertson, Cathy Schulman, Anna ShechtmanThis week's podcast is the audio from the Film Now panel held in late 2016 & moderated by LARB's Anna Shechtman. The panelists were LA Times film critic Justin Chang, USC Professor and film scholar J D Connor, Cathy Schulman, the head of the organization Women In Film, and Gil Robertson, President of the African American Film Critics Association - and the event featured a wide-ranging consideration of the state of Cinema in the middle of the second decade of the 21st century, with particular focus on questions of diversity and distribution as well as the best films of 2016.
2017-02-2350 minLA Review of BooksBest Foreign Films of 2016; Awards Season; Tom Lutz on TC Boyle & DH LawrenceLARB's resident film critic Anna Shechtman joins fellow cinephiles Medaya Ocher & Kate Wolf to talk about their favorite foreign films of 2016; focusing on Pedro Almodovar's change of pace, Julieta; Paul Veerhoeven's Elle starring fiercely sublime Isabelle Huppert; and The Handmaiden, a genre-bending and visually stunning tale of Victorian Korea by Park Chan-Wook. Also, Tom Lutz recommends TC Boyle's The Terranauts (with its surprising Trump Administration tie-in); and praises DH Lawrence's Terra Incognita.
2017-01-2737 min
Culture GabfestThe Culturefest: Migrating Buns EditionSlate critics Stephen Metcalf, Julia Turner, and Dana Stevens discuss Richard Linklater's new movie Boyhood, whether E!'s plastic surgery reality show Botched actually has a moral universe, and whether Tinder is as female-friendly as it bills itself to be with outgoing intern Anna Shechtman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2014-07-1650 min