Shows
Lit BitsEp 12 Literature & WH Auden (Mini Lit Bit with Dinah Roe)In which are podders, Adam Smyth and James Kidd, putting their feet up after another exhausting 45 minutes of sitting on a chair and talking nonsense, are ambushed by Dinah Roe with a copy of W.H. Auden’s ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’. How will they fare in this on-the-spot close reading? It’s literary criticism, in the nude. Those of a sensitive literary critical disposition might want to look away…now.Listen out for the sound of pouring wine. And possibly Wystan H turning in his grave.About suffering Lit Bits was often wrong. But only ep...2022-05-2308 minLit BitsEp 11 Literature & Sheds (Mini Lit Bit)Sheds! Innocent abodes for gardening equipment? Laboratories of literary invention? Adam Smyth and James Kidd stroll down to the bottom of the garden to nose around.Don’t close the door.2022-05-0205 minLit BitsEp 10 Literature & Art (with Dinah Roe)Art! In which our intrepid podsters Kidd and Smyth are joined by Dinah Roe and, freshly saddled, bound off in pursuit of enlightenment on the verbal and the visual. We begin with some chatter about the Pre-Raphaelite painters who also designed books and even wrote some poems to go inside them. We ask our usual quota of big questions. Are poems like paintings? Are frames like paratexts? How large was William Morris’ beard? Frank O’Hara is read the riot act, or at least just read. How do texts interact with images, and vice versa. Are is there...2022-04-1838 minLit BitsEp 9 Literature & Computers 2.0 (Mini Lit Bit with James Kidd)Greetings from the future, pod listeners. Admire our foil suits and chrome helmets. Our touch-screen soap dispensers. Stand well back as James Kidd plugs in, turns on and downloads a hi-tech second mini-pod on literature and computers. Think Keats. Think computer speech software. Think Radiohead. Think Nicholas Roe. Just think, listeners. Just think.Astronaut food not included.Duration: 6.47.Fitter, happier and more deductive2022-04-0106 minLit BitsEp 8 Literature & Computers (Mini Lit Bit with Adam Smyth)Hail! A mini Lit Bits in which—for half of ten minutes—Adam Smyth reflects on what Shakespeare would have made of computer-simulated voice software.Bring your inky cloak and enjoy.2022-04-0105 minLit BitsEp. 7 Literature & Pop Music (with Paul Myerscough)Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by man of song Paul Myerscough. After an opening entanglement with Usher’s Climax, the podsters tap their feet to a merry farrago of (among others) Paul Morley—Kylie Minogue—Christopher Ricks—Ulysses—Bob Dylan—Keats—Shakespeare—and perhaps the greatest of them all, Andrew Ridgeley.Hear the worst cover of Run DMC - ever (now that’s what I call shit hop). Thrill to the pointiillist synthesiser. And gasp as someone admits to their love for Bon Jovi and Natasha Bedingfield. The only question is: who?Dancing shoes? We think so...2022-03-1543 minLit BitsEp. 6 Literature & Architecture (with Steve Rose)In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by Steve Rose Esq., Guardian film critic and man of buildings. Some 40 minutes of musings on books and buildings —the links and differences— not excluding with some matters concerning to: impossible buildings, the language of architecture and literature, the relationship between reading a book and walking a city, the lusty symbolism of the brick, and how to enter a building. Other questions include. What exactly is a Rem Koolhaas? What do architects and writers have in common? What happened when Adam went to an exhibition of Joe Orton and...2022-03-0141 minLit BitsEp. 5 Literature & Advertising (with Jonathan Thake)In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by advertising wiz, comedy writer, and all-round chap-about-town Jonathan Thake. Our trusty podders saddle their steeds and engage in a veritable canter through the vast wild fields of literature and advertising. Among other oddities they encounter on their questing voyage, are Ben Jonson, Pot Noodle, American Psycho, Heineken, and Andrew Motion. Profit and delight are assured.Duration: 38.05Jonathan Thake is a writer for both television and advertising. His first comedy series, The Persuasionists, told the story of a fictional advertising agency, and premiered on BBC2 in 2010. J...2022-02-1138 minLit BitsEp. 4 Literature & Film (with James Mottram)In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by film critic and author James Mottram to discuss several matters pertaining to literature and film.After some general comments, the topics touched upon include the many difficulties involved when translating prose to the cinema—the life and opinions of Thomas Hanks Esq—the strange discourse of The Empire Strikes Back (a novel in several episodes)—the peculiarities of reading a book and attending the cinema—Mr Thomas Hanks (actor)—the attractions or otherwise of becoming a screenwriter—the curious circumstances that befell Thomas Hanks—as well as more surprising...2022-02-0537 minLit BitsEp. 3 Literature & Food (with Polly Russell)In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by Polly Russell.After the introduction to the work—or bill of fare to the feast—containing as much of the background as is necessary or proper to acquaint the listener with in the beginning of this ‘podcast’—discussion turned to such topics as: who reads cookbooks for fun? TV chefs: for or againt? Poems about plums? And how many servants is ideal for the upkeep of a stately house?Containing scenes of gastronomical felicity in different degrees of life—and various other transactions. Fit for all to consu...2022-01-2338 minLit BitsEp. 2 Literature & Bad Literature (with James Byrne)In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by that traveller of Helicon and friend of Apollo, the poet James Byrne.Containing the most memorable transactions which passed in discussion of literature ripe in its badness. What is badness? Is it just a matter of taste (yeuch)? What makes a bad sentence? What separates goodness and badness? James Byrne is an award-winning poet, whose collections include Everything Broken Up Dances, White Coins, and Blood/Sugar. He has also published the pamphlets SOAPBOXES and, with Sandeep Parmar, Myth of the Savage Tribes, Myth of Civilised Nati...2022-01-1736 minLit BitsEp. 1 (Lit Bits: The Pilot) Literature & Football (with Joe Brooker)The Pilot episode. In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by the scholar's scholar, the pundit's pundit and runner-up in the Basingstoke John Lydon lookalike contest (two years running), Professor Joe Brooker.The big team asks the big questions. How is football like literature, and vice versa? What are the canonical soccer texts? Do writers make good footballers, and indeed vice versa? Did Derrida write about football (and vice versa)? And why is 'Peter Crouch is an oxymoron' the greatest poem ever chanted? Containing a portion of time somewhat longer than a demi-heure—and...2022-01-1733 minLit BitsLiterature & New Year’s ResolutionsIn which Adam Smyth and James Kidd forget old acquaintance in a Soho doorway as a December deluge rains on their parade. Undaunted, our intrepid podders make their new year resolutions. More exercise, less saturated fat, and a diet of Jeffrey Archer, EL James and Jon Bon Jovi’s epic poem about a strip club. For the sake of auld lang syne. Whatever that means.2022-01-0104 minLit BitsWhat is Lit Bits?In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd—live from London—empty a full post bag that is filled with a single question. What is Lit Bits? The curt answer is: a Bookish Podcast spiced with added guests like Hallie Rubenhold, Alex von Tunzelmann, Laurence Scott, the Doctors Joe Brooker and Dinah Roe, Steve Rose, not to mention the Right Reverend James Mottram. The meandering response takes in a Mr Romney of Massachusetts, a Mr Paul Daniels of the Magic Circle, and plunges us into the nightmarish swamp Adam Smyth’s dream imaginings. Be ye afraid. Be very afraid. A five-minu...2021-12-3004 min