Shows
Among the Ancients IIMarcus AureliusFor their final conversation Among the Ancients, Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones turn to the contradictions of the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Said by Machiavelli to be the last of the ‘five good emperors’ who ruled Rome for most of the second century CE, Marcus oversaw devastating wars on the frontiers, a deadly plague and economic turmoil. The writings known in English as The Meditations, and in Latin as ‘to himself’, were composed in Greek in the last decade of Marcus’ life. They reveal the emperor’s preoccupations with illness, growing old, death and posthumous reputation, as he urges h...2024-12-2459 min
Among the Ancients IIApuleiusApuleius’ ‘Metamorphoses’, better known as ‘The Golden Ass’, is the only ancient Roman novel to have survived in its entirety. Following the story of Lucius, forced to suffer as a donkey until the goddess Isis intervenes, the novel includes frenetic wordplay, filthy humour and the earliest known version of the Psyche and Cupid myth. In this episode, Tom and Emily discuss Apuleius’ anarchic mix of the high and low brow, and his incisive depiction of the lives of impoverished and enslaved people.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full and to our other C...2024-11-2411 min
Among the Ancients IIApuleiusApuleius’ ‘Metamorphoses’, better known as ‘The Golden Ass’, is the only ancient Roman novel to have survived in its entirety. Following the story of Lucius, forced to suffer as a donkey until the goddess Isis intervenes, the novel includes frenetic wordplay, filthy humour and the earliest known version of the Psyche and Cupid myth. In this episode, Tom and Emily discuss Apuleius’ anarchic mix of the high and low brow, and his incisive depiction of the lives of impoverished and enslaved people.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full and to our other C...2024-11-2411 min
Among the Ancients IIJuvenalIn this episode, we tackle Juvenal, whose sixteen satires influenced libertines, neoclassicists and early Christian moralists alike. Conservative to a fault, Juvenal’s Satires rails against the rapid expansion and transformation of Roman society in the early principate. But where his contemporary Tacitus handled the same material with restraint, Juvenal’s work explodes with vivid and vicious depictions of urban life, including immigration, sexual mores and eating habits. Emily and Tom explore the idiosyncrasies of Juvenal’s verse and its handling in Peter Green’s translation, and how best to parse his over-the-top hostility to everyone and everything.Non...2024-10-2414 min
Among the Ancients IITacitusThe Annals, Tacitus’ study of the emperors from Tiberius to Nero, covers some of the most vivid and ruthless episodes in Roman history. A masterclass in political intrigue (and how not to do it), the Annals features mutiny, senatorial backstabbing, wars on the imperial frontiers, political purges and enormous egos. Emily and Tom explore the many ambiguities that make the Annals rewarding, as well as difficult, reading and discuss Tacitus’ knotty style and approach to history.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full and to our other Close Readings series, sign up:2024-09-2412 min
Among the Ancients IILucanIn his prodigious, prolific and very short career, Lucan was at turns championed, disavowed and finally forced into suicide at 25 by the emperor Nero. His only surviving work is Civil War, an account of the bloody and chaotic power struggle between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. In their first episode on Latin literature’s so-called ‘Silver Age’, Tom and Emily dive into this brutal and unforgiving epic poem. They explore Lucan’s slippery relationship to power, his rhetorical virtuosity and the influence of Stoicism on his worldview.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract form this episode...2024-08-2413 min
ISSR 's "In Conversation" PodcastISSR 2023 Summer Conference Speaker Series - Lord Rowan WilliamsSend us a textThe International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) is pleased to share the plenary talks from the 2023 Summer Conference on Artificial and Spiritual Intelligence. Concluding a major research grant, generously funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation titled Understanding Spiritual Intelligence, the project aimed to understand spiritual intelligence by using AI to contribute constructively to the study of religion. The project explored five lines of enquiry: modelled the deployment of attention in spiritual practices, retrieved and developed Margaret Masterman’s work on religious language, used computational modelling to specify how spiritual rea...2024-08-1443 minISSR 's "In Conversation" PodcastISSR 2023 Summer Conference Speaker Series - Iain McGilchristSend us a textThe International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) is pleased to share the plenary talks from the 2023 Summer Conference on Artificial and Spiritual Intelligence. Concluding a major research grant, generously funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation titled Understanding Spiritual Intelligence, the project aimed to understand spiritual intelligence by using AI to contribute constructively to the study of religion. The project explored five lines of enquiry: modelled the deployment of attention in spiritual practices, retrieved and developed Margaret Masterman’s work on religious language, used computational modelling to specify how spiritual rea...2024-08-1458 min
The FadeEpisode 16 - A Light FadeSend us a textIn this mini-episode (a light Fade) we sat down with multi-hyphenated artists, Thomas Meloncon, Curtis Von and Errol Anthony Wilks to discuss the state of black theatre. You won't want to miss this short, but topical discussion. Catch a Light FADE!!Visit fadetoblackfest.com for more information of the 2025 Fade To Black Arts Fest.2024-08-0412 min
Among the Ancients IIPlautus and TerenceIn episode seven, we turn to some of the earliest surviving examples of Roman literature: the raucous, bawdy and sometimes bewildering world of Roman comedy. Plautus and Terence, who would go on to set the tone for centuries of playwrights (and school curricula), came from the margins of Roman society, writing primarily for plebeians and upsetting the conventions they simultaneously established. Plautus’ ‘Menaechmi’ is full of coinages, punning and madcap doubling. Terence’s troubling ‘Hecyra’ tells a much darker story of Roman sexual mores while destabilizing misogynistic stereotypes. Emily and Tom discuss how best to navigate these very early and enormous...2024-07-2414 min
Among the Ancients IILucianThe broad theme of this series, truth and lies, was a favourite subject of Lucian of Samosata, the last of our Greek-language authors. A cosmopolitan and highly cultured Syrian subject of the Roman Empire in the second century CE, Lucian wrote in the classical Greek of fifth-century Athens. His razor-sharp satire was a model for Erasmus, Voltaire and Swift. Emily and Tom share some of their favourite excerpts from ‘A True History’ and other works – with trips to the moon, boundary-pushing religious scepticism and wildly improbable but not technically untrue readings of Homer – and discuss why they still read as fresh...2024-06-2414 min
Modern-ish Poets: Series 2LIVE! T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'On the centenary of the publication of Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ in book form, Mark and Seamus finish the second series of Modern-ish Poets by considering how revolutionary the poem was, the numerous meanings that have been drawn out of it, and its lasting influence.To listen to series one of Modern-ish Poets and all our other Close Readings series, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsFurther reading on Eliot in the LRB:Frank Kermode: https...2024-06-101h 08Modern-ish Poets: Series 2Frank O'Hara and John AshberySeamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the lives and works of Frank O’Hara and John Ashbery, close friends and leading lights of the New York School, who sought to create an anti-academic, hedonistic poetry, freeing themselves from the puritan American tradition.To listen to series one of Modern-ish Poets and all our other Close Readings series, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsSeries one of Modern-ish Poets looks at Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Thomas Ha...2024-06-091h 00Modern-ish Poets: Series 2Charlotte MewSeamus Perry and Mark Ford look at the life and work of Charlotte Mew, who brought the Victorian art of dramatic monologue into the 20th century, and whose difficult experiences are often refracted through her damaged and marginalised characters.To listen to series one of Modern-ish Poets and all our other Close Readings series, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsFurther reading on Mew in the LRB:Matthew Bevis: https://lrb.me/bevismewpodPenelope Fitzgerald: h...2024-06-0847 minModern-ish Poets: Series 2W.B. YeatsSeamus Perry and Mark Ford continue their series with a look at the life and work of W.B. Yeats, from his early quest for a mythological Irish culture, to his shift towards the Modernist experiment, and preoccupation with the ‘murderousness of the world’.To listen to series one of Modern-ish Poets and all our other Close Readings series, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsSeries one of Modern-ish Poets looks at Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop...2024-06-071h 01Modern-ish Poets: Series 2Emily DickinsonSeamus Perry, Mark Ford and Joanne O’Leary discuss the life and work of Emily Dickinson—her dashes, death instinct and obliquity.To listen to this series ad free and to series one of Modern-ish Poets, and all our other Close Readings series in full, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsSeries one of Modern-ish Poets looks at Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Thomas Hardy, Stevie Smith, A. E. Housman, Wallace Stevens, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney and...2024-06-061h 02Modern-ish Poets: Series 2Derek WalcottSeamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the life and work of the Saint Lucian Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, the island poet and playwright surrounded by an oceanic consciousness, whose writing recognises at once the terrible gulfs between peoples and our common predicament.To listen to this series ad free and to series one of Modern-ish Poets, and all our other Close Readings series in full, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsSeries one of Modern-ish Poets looks at P...2024-06-0556 minModern-ish Poets: Series 2Louis MacNeiceSeamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the life and work of Louis MacNeice, the Irish poet of psychic divisions and authoritative fretfulness, in the fourth episode of series two of Modern-ish Poets.To listen to this series ad free and to series one of Modern-ish Poets, and all our other Close Readings series in full, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsSeries one of Modern-ish Poets looks at Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Thomas Hardy, Stevie...2024-06-0456 minModern-ish Poets: Series 2Adrienne RichIn the third episode of their second series of Modern-ish Poets, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford turn to the life and work of Adrienne Rich, in whose poems the personal becomes not only political, but epic.To listen to this series ad free and to series one of Modern-ish Poets, and all our other Close Readings series in full, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsSeries one of Modern-ish Poets looks at Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth...2024-06-0355 minModern-ish Poets: Series 2Robert FrostSeamus Perry and Mark Ford look at the life and work of Robert Frost, the great American poet of fences and dark woods. They discuss Frost’s difficult early life as an occasional poultry farmer and teacher, his arrival in England in 1912 amid the flowering of Georgian poetry, and his emergence as the first 20th-century professional poet, whose version of the American wilderness myth, full of mischief and foreboding, took him to packed concert halls and a presidential inauguration.To listen to this series ad free and to series one of Modern-ish Poets, and all our other Cl...2024-06-0256 minModern-ish Poets: Series 2Gerard Manley HopkinsIn the first episode of their second series of Modern-ish Poets, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford take on Gerard Manley Hopkins: Victorian literature’s only anti-modern proto-modernist queer-ecologist Jesuit priest.To listen to this series ad free and to series one of Modern-ish Poets, and all our other Close Readings series in full, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsSeries one of Modern-ish Poets looks at Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Thomas Hardy, Stevie Smith, A. E...2024-06-011h 02
Among the Ancients IIPlato's 'Symposium'Plato’s 'Symposium', his philosophical dialogue on love, or eros, was probably written around 380 BCE, but it’s set in 416, during the uneasy truce between Athens and Sparta in the middle of the Peloponnesian War. A symposium was a drinking party, though Socrates and his friends, having had a heavy evening the night before, decide to go easy on the wine and instead take turns making speeches in praise of love – at least until Alcibiades turns up, very late and very drunk. In this episode of Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom discuss the dialogue’s philosophical ideas, historical context...2024-05-2411 min
The FadeEpisode 9 - Errol Anthony WilksSend us a textA brand new episode of The Fade has dropped! This episode's guest, Errol Anthony Wilks. This actor, writer, director and producer joins us to discuss his journey in the arts, his knowledge of the business and his involvement in the Fade To Black Arts Festival in June 2025.Join us for this riveting dicsussion with this acting and Navy Veteran!Visit fadetoblackfest.com for more information of the 2025 Fade To Black Arts Fest.2024-04-2840 min
Among the Ancients IIPindar and BacchylidesIn the fifth episode of Among the Ancients II we turn to Greek lyric, focusing on Pindar’s victory odes, considered a benchmark for the sublime since antiquity, and the vivid, narrative-driven dithyrambs of Bacchylides. Through close reading, Emily and Tom tease out allusions, lexical flourishes and formal experimentation, and explain the highly contextual nature of these tightly choreographed, public-facing poems. They illustrate how precarious work could be for a praise poet in a world driven by competition – striking the right note to please your patron, guarantee the next gig, and stay on good terms with the gods.2024-04-2411 min
Get Up! Mornings With Erica CampbellFULL SHOW | Anthony Brown Back Again, Bridge Collapses in Baltimore, Does Sugar Go on Grits and MoreErica continues her journey on The One hallelujah Tour. Gospel writer, producer and artist, Anthony Brown was our guest host again today and it was a blast! Does sugar go on grits? Sybil Wilks stopped by live to report on that horrific bridge collapse at the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. GRIFF shares his Joys and Concerns about his taste buds. Cheryl Jackson shares the latest on Homeland Security raiding Diddy's homes on Trending Topics. Join the entire Get Up Crew Mon. - Fri., we will be Faith Walking, Love Talking and Joy Living on Get Up Mornings...2024-03-261h 00
Among the Ancients IIHerodotusSome of the most compelling stories of the Classical world come from Herodotus‘ 'Histories', an account of the Persian Wars and a thousand things besides. Emily and Tom chart a course through Herodotus‘ history-as-epic, discussing how best to understand his approach to history, ethnography and myth. Exploring a work full of surprising, dramatic and frequently funny digressions, this episode illustrates the artfulness and deep structure underpinning the 'Histories', and, despite his obvious Greek bias, Herodotus‘ genuine interest in and respect for cultural difference. Non-subscriber will only hear extracts from the rest of this series. To listen in full...2024-03-2410 min
Among the Ancients IIAesopSupposedly an enslaved man from sixth-century Samos, Aesop might not have ever really existed, but the fables attributed to him remain some of the most widely read examples of classical literature. A fascinating window into the ‘low’ culture of ancient Greece, the Fables and the figure of Aesop appear in the work of authors as diverse as Aristophanes, Plato and Phaedrus, serving new purposes in new contexts. Emily and Tom discuss how Aesop’s fables as we know them came to be, make sense of their moral contradictions and unpack some of the fables that are most opaque to modern...2024-02-2410 min
Brother from AnotherJustin Fields unfollows Bears; Wilks got bad deal with 49ers; New face of NBAMike Smith and Michael Holley discuss Justin Fields unfollowing the Bears and what team he should play for if the Bears decide to move on from him. Holley and Smith revisit Holley’s correct prediction that Steve Wilks would be fired by the 49ers, and they analyze the impact of denying Black coaches from good coaching opportunities. Vincent Goodwill joins the show to talk about George Karl and Carmelo Anthony’s beef, how to fix the All-Star game, and finding a new face of the NBA after LeBron James and Stephen Curry retire. 0:00 Justin Fields unfollows Bears27:19 ...2024-02-211h 40
TWO:38A Faithful God - Bro Anthony WilksBro Wilks reminding us how faithful God is to each of us.2024-02-1939 min
49ers Camelot Podcast with Marc Adams49ers fire Steve WilksMarc Adams (49ers Camelot) and Anthony Robertson (49ers Cutback) get together for another episode of “The Red and Bold Show” to discuss the 49ers firing of defensive coordinator, Steve Wilks, as well as the gut-wrenching Super Bowl loss. - What went wrong?- Misses opportunities- Biggest mistakes- Looking ahead to 2024Please like and subscribe to the 49ers Camelot Show, and the 49ers Cutback Podcast. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/49ers-camelot-podcast-with-marc-adams/donations2024-02-1546 min49ers Camelot Podcast with Marc Adams49ers fire defensive coordinator Steve WilksMarc Adams (49ers Camelot) and Anthony Robertson (49ers Cutback) get together for another episode of “The Red and Bold Show” to discuss the #49ers firing of defensive coordinator, Steve Wilks, as well as the gut-wrenching Super Bowl loss. - What went wrong?- Misses opportunities- Biggest mistakes- Looking ahead to 2024Please like and subscribe to the 49ers Camelot Show, and the 49ers Cutback Podcast. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/49ers-camelot-podcast-with-marc-adams/donations2024-02-1546 min
Among the Ancients IIHesiodEmily Wilson and Thomas Jones kick off their second season of Among the Ancients with a return to the eighth century BCE, exploring the poems of Homer’s near contemporary, Hesiod, the first western writer to craft a poetic persona. In Works and Days, brilliantly translated by A.E. Stallings, Hesiod weaves his personality into a narrative that encompasses everything from brotherly bickering to cosmic warfare. Emily and Tom unpack this wildly entertaining window into Ancient Greek life, and discuss how Stallings’s translation highlights the humour and linguistic flavour of the original text.This episode is f...2024-01-2454 min
Locked On Sports AtlantaAtlanta Football Party with Jarvis & Aaron: Would Anthony Weaver Make Sense?The Atlanta Falcons completed virtual interviews of Mike McDonald, Brian Callahan, Steve Wilks, Ejiro Evero and Anthony Weaver. On this special edition of the Atlanta Football Party, Jarvis Davis and Aaron Freeman talked about the most intriguing candidate out of that first group. Secondly, with so many conversations about who the Falcons will hire as their next head coach, the guys discussed what the mindset should be when it comes to who will be under center for this team. Jarvis and Aaron talked about what they’ve heard so far from Rich McKay and Arthur Blank being the main rea...2024-01-1532 min
Locked On Falcons - Daily Podcast On The Atlanta FalconsAtlanta Football Party with Jarvis & Aaron: Would Anthony Weaver Make Sense?The Atlanta Falcons completed virtual interviews of Mike McDonald, Brian Callahan, Steve Wilks, Ejiro Evero and Anthony Weaver. On this special edition of the Atlanta Football Party, Jarvis Davis and Aaron Freeman talked about the most intriguing candidate out of that first group. Secondly, with so many conversations about who the Falcons will hire as their next head coach, the guys discussed what the mindset should be when it comes to who will be under center for this team. Jarvis and Aaron talked about what they’ve heard so far from Rich McKay and Arthur Blank being the main rea...2024-01-1532 min
Among the Ancients IIIntroducing Among the Ancients IIEmily Wilson, celebrated classicist and translator of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, is back to take on another twelve vital works of Greek and Roman literature with the LRB’s Thomas Jones, loosely themed around truth and lies – from from Aesop’s Fables to Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations.Non-subscribers will only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full and to our other Close Readings series, sign up:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsEmily Wils...2024-01-0111 min
Among the AncientsSenecaFor the final episode in Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom look at Seneca, whose life is relatively well known to us. A child of the established Roman Empire, born around the same time as Jesus, Seneca had turbulent relationships with the emperors of his time: exiled by Caligula, he returned to tutor the young Nero, but was eventually forced to commit suicide after being accused of a treasonous plot. For a long time, Seneca the Philosopher was often assumed to be a different person from Seneca the Tragedian, as they seemed such different writers. As a philosopher, he is...2023-12-1411 min
Medieval BeginningsThe Travels of Sir John MandevilleFor the final episode of Medieval Beginnings, Mary and Irina look at by far the most popular text (in its time) of all that have featured in the series: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. The fictional traveller’s fantastical descriptions of different places, peoples and animals across the Holy Land and Asia are almost certainly drawn mainly from other textual sources, rather than direct experience by the unknown author, and yet the work was often used as a source of reference as well as entertainment or prurient interest. Many of the writer’s observations of different political and religi...2023-12-0411 minAmong the AncientsOvidOvid was perhaps the most prolific poet of Ancient Rome, certainly in the amount of his poetry which has survived (around 30,000 lines). This episode focuses on his 15-book epic, the Metamorphoses, a patchwork of hundreds of stories of transformation, including numerous retellings of famous myths from Apollo and Daphne to the Trojan War.In this episode from Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom consider the poem’s depictions of trauma, redemption and the transformation of gender roles, and the formal practices which shape the poetry, such as declamatio and suasoria. They also ask how Ovid’s writing in the t...2023-11-1411 minMedieval BeginningsThe Digby Mary Magdalene PlayFor sheer scale and spectacle, surely few plays of any period can match The Digby Play of Mary Magdalene. Boasting at least fifty speaking parts, with multiple locations, scaffolds and pyrotechnics, including an ascent into heaven, this wildly ambitious piece of late Medieval theatre mixes traditional hagiographic drama with magical adventure, romance and broad comedy. For audiences of the time this was not just entertainment, but a profound social and religious experience which, despite its fantastical elements and radical departure from the gospel stories, reflected important moments in their daily lives. Irina and Mary try to make sense of th...2023-11-0411 minAmong the AncientsHoraceEmily and Tom follow Virgil with one of his contemporaries, Horace, whose poetry played an important political role in the early years of Augustan Rome and has had an enormous influence on subsequent European lyric verse. They consider the original meanings of some of Horace’s famous phrases – carpe diem, in medias res, nunc est bibendum – and look at the ways his often complex poetics interrogate the art and value of poetry itself.Non-subscribers can only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, su...2023-10-1409 minMedieval BeginningsMiddle English LyricsFrom the first recorded instance of the word ‘fart’ in English, to nuanced vignettes of sexual power dynamics, the numerous Middle English lyrics that have survived down the centuries, often scribbled in the margins of more ‘serious’ texts, offer a vivid snapshot of everyday medieval life. In the tenth episode of Medieval Beginings, Irina and Mary analyse several of these short, fleeting verses, probably set to music, and consider their possible origins and purpose, their delicious ambiguity, and their equivocal relationship to the sacred manuscripts in which they've been found.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from thi...2023-10-0411 minAmong the AncientsVirgilIn the ninth episode of Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom arrive at Virgil, focusing on his 12-book epic the Aeneid, which describes the wanderings of the Trojan prince Aeneas after the fall of Troy. They discuss the political background to Virgil’s life, which saw the fall of the Roman Republic, and the complex, ambiguous space his poetry inhabits, blending the mythical and historical, the geographical and imaginary, while interrogating the costs of empire and triumph in his own time.Non-subscribers can only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full...2023-09-1412 minMedieval BeginningsChaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde'Chaucer’s 14th century tale of ‘double sorrow’, Troilus and Criseyde, set during the siege of Troy, is the subject of Irina and Mary’s ninth episode of Medieval Beginnings. Based largely on Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato, Chaucer’s novelistic long poem displays a psychological realism that would make Henry James envious, and, with the matchmaker-uncle Pandarus, introduces a character of startling and often perplexing opacity.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full and to our other Close Readings series, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts at the top of this...2023-09-0411 minISSR 's "In Conversation" PodcastISSR In Conversation - SI Special 2/4 - "Spiritual Conversations with Companion Machines"Send us a textWelcome back to ISSR’s In Conversation, a discussion series where ISSR Fellows discuss topics on and related to their work and the happenings in the academic field of science and religion. If you enjoy this content and want to see or hear more, please consider hitting the like button and subscribing to our channel. Your support helps us keep content like this coming. This is also available on YouTube, so do consider subscribing to our YouTube channel if you enjoy listening while on the go. You can access our YouTube channel here: ht...2023-08-241h 32Among the AncientsLucretiusIn their eighth episode Emily and Tom look at a contemporary of Catullus, Lucretius, and the only poem we have from him, De rerum natura (The Nature of Things), which sets out ideas about how to live one’s life based on the Epicurean philosophical tradition, embracing friends, gardens, materialism and moderation.Non-subscribers can only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings...2023-08-1410 minMedieval BeginningsSir Gawain and the Green KnightIrina and Mary jump to the 14th century for an introspective Arthurian romance about a knight trying to live up to his perfect reputation. The mysterious and intricate Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is perhaps best understood as a series of games within games, in which our hero, a recurring character throughout medieval literature, is never sure what adventure he’s playing.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full and to our other Close Readings series, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts at the top of this fe...2023-08-0411 minAmong the AncientsCatullusFor the second half of their Among the Ancients series, Emily and Tom move to Ancient Rome, starting with the late Republican poet Catullus. Described by Tennyson, somewhat misleadingly, as ‘the tenderest of Roman poets’, Catullus combined a self-conscious technical virtuosity with a broad emotional range and a taste for paradox, often using obscene diction to skirt across the boundaries of gender and aesthetics.Non-subscribers can only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://appl...2023-07-1411 minMedieval BeginningsHavelok the DaneIrina and Mary continue their run of Romances with the Middle English Havelok the Dane, a double Cinderella story of sex, fishing and surprisingly graphic violence, written at the end of the 13th century and set in a pre-Conquest, legendary English past.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full and to our other Close Readings series, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts at the top of this feed, or here: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsIrina Dumitrescu is...2023-07-0410 minAmong the AncientsAristophanesIn their sixth episode of Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom discuss the comedies of Aristophanes, in particular Clouds and Lysistrata. How did an Aristophanes comedy differ from a satyr play? Was he a conservative or a radical? And what happened to comedy after Aristophanes?Non-subscribers can only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsFurther reading in the...2023-06-1411 min
New Books in CommunicationsLife at the London Review of BooksAnthony Wilks discusses his career heading up audio-visual projects for the London Review of Books. He tells the story of his winding career, in addition to some great musings about the future of the greater book world.Anthony Wilks is head of audio and video at the London Review of Books.Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications2023-06-0444 minMedieval BeginningsLe Roman de SilenceFor the sixth episode in their Medieval Beginnings series, Mary and Irina go full Romance with one of the most elaborate and surprising narrative poems in medieval literature, Le Roman de Silence, a complex, 13th-century Old French tale about gender, power and transformation.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full and to our other Close Readings series, sign up here:Directly in Apple Podcasts at the top of this feed, or here: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsIrina Dumitrescu...2023-06-0409 min
New Books in JournalismLife at the London Review of BooksAnthony Wilks discusses his career heading up audio-visual projects for the London Review of Books. He tells the story of his winding career, in addition to some great musings about the future of the greater book world.Anthony Wilks is head of audio and video at the London Review of Books.Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/journalism2023-06-0442 min
Scholarly CommunicationLife at the London Review of BooksAnthony Wilks discusses his career heading up audio-visual projects for the London Review of Books. He tells the story of his winding career, in addition to some great musings about the future of the greater book world.Anthony Wilks is head of audio and video at the London Review of Books.Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices2023-06-0444 minAmong the AncientsEuripidesEuripides was the youngest of the fifth-century Athenian tragedians, and is often described as the most radical. But how daring was he? How far did he push the boundaries of dramatic form? Focusing on Medea and Hippolytus, Emily and Tom discuss the ways Euripides sought to shock his audiences, make them laugh, and explore their anxieties in a time of cultural change.Non-subscribers can only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co...2023-05-1411 minMedieval BeginningsThe Lais of Marie de FranceIf a Middle Ages full of castles, jousts, hawking, illicit love affairs and playful singing in the meadows is what you’re looking for, then look no further than the Lais of Marie de France. These 12th century love stories, written in Anglo-Norman by a writer who was unusually keen to make her name known, describe noble stories of passion, devotion, betrayal, self-sacrifice and magical transformations played out in enchanted woodlands and richly-draped chambers.Irina and Mary discuss Marie’s various portrayals of love, her luscious powers of description, and the frequent deployment of animals in her stori...2023-05-0412 min
The LRB PodcastSisters Come SecondIn his introduction to our twelfth collection of LRB archive pieces, Sisters Come Second, Colm Tóibín writes that most siblings dream of being only children. Malin Hay explores this idea with Colm and Andrew O’Hagan, both younger sons in big families. Their conversation considers the examples of the brothers Mann, Yeats, James and Windsor, and why, as Czesław Miłosz observed, when there’s a writer in the family, that family is finished.You can buy Sisters Come Second from the LRB Store for just £5.99: lrb.me/siblingsFind further reading on the episod...2023-04-1845 minAmong the AncientsSophoclesIn the fourth episode of Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom ask: what was it like to go to the theatre in Athens in 468 BC? And how far do modern ideas about tragedy, derived from Aristotle, apply to Sophocles’ plays? They then look in more detail at Oedipus Tyrannos and Antigone and what the plays have to say about agency and knowledge, and consider issues particular to Sophocles’ time, including civic responsibility and the role of immigrants in Athenian society.Non-subscribers can only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and...2023-04-1412 minMedieval BeginningsThe Ancrene WisseIn their fourth episode, Mary and Irina climb inside a tiny cell to explore the Ancrene Wisse, a guidebook written in the early 13th century, originally intended for three anchoresses, but which enjoyed a much wider audience (there was even a copy in Henry VIII’s library).The women addressed by the text lived lives of extraordinary restriction, permanently enclosed in small anchorholds in order to devote themselves to prayer and contemplation. The Ancrene Wisse is a striking literary artefact, a piece of learned and often beautiful writing, but one which elaborates a broad and detailed conception of...2023-04-0411 minAmong the AncientsSapphoIn the third episode of Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom move from epic to lyric, with the poems of Sappho, or what remains of them. They consider what we know, and don’t know, about her life, and how her poetry challenges the heroic tradition, both in its subversion of Homeric ideas of war and nostos, and in its playful use of language.Non-subscribers can only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: htt...2023-03-1411 min