Shows
Writers at WorkRon CharlesI'm pleased to be joined today on Writers at Work by Ron Charles, the book critic best known for his reviews published in the Washington Post, his former employer. If you know Ron's work, it goes without saying that his unceremonious exit from the Post represents another blow to the relevance of books and literature in American mainstream media.
On his Substack, Ron discussed his situation with characteristic self-deprecation. "I didn't start off as a journalist," he wrote. "Some might say I didn't end up one either. 30 years ago, I gave up a perfectly respectable job teaching...
2026-02-1926 min
Keen On AmericaBooks Are Dying (Again): Bethanne Patrick on the Enshittification of the Book Biz"It truly is becoming a desert right now for book publicists." — Bethanne PatrickA couple of weeks ago, there was an "absolute bloodbath" at The Washington Post with hundreds of workers laid off and the book section totally gutted. Ron Charles, the beloved fiction editor, is gone. So is Becca Rothfeld, who described it in The New Yorker as "The Death of Book World." Today I'm talking to Keen on America's resident book expert, Bethanne Patrick of the LA Times, about what this latest bloodbath means not just for readers and writers, but also for th...
2026-02-1838 min
Library PizzaPersonal Pan Pizza: The Death of the Book World, plus Orhan PamukThis is the fifteenth episode of Library Pizza, a podcast about reading hosted by the guy writing this: Mike Meginnis. This episode quotes at some length from Becca Rothfeld's February 10 New Yorker article "The Death of Book World". It also features a reading of an excerpt from The New Life. Follow me on Bluesky here. You can and should join Disc Horse, the Library Pizza discord, at https://discord.gg/UAsDrEeWFv My thanks to Tracy Rae Bowling for the very dignified theme song, and my friend Blorb for the art.
2026-02-1231 min
In Bed With The RightEpisode 115 [PATREON PREVIEW] -- Olivia Nuzzi's American Canto with Michael HobbesTo start the year off right, Moira and Adrian were joined by Michael Hobbes to discuss Olivia Nuzzi's American Canto, the media hubbub about it, and what both artifacts say about our media environment, our elites, and about gender.Pieces we cite in the episode:Becca Rothfeld's review of the book in the Washington PostAlexandra Jacobs' review of the book in The New York Times
2026-01-0626 min
Albo poczytamBardzo polski Prezentownik 2025Bardzo polski Prezentownik 2025
Anna Karczewska solo poleca książki na prezent, ale robi to – jak zwykle – po swojemu. Zamiast prezentu dla cioci – książka dla biednych, przebodźcowanych, albo zwyczajnie wku&*%$onych. Przypominamy: prezenty na ostatnią chwilę najlepiej kupować w księgarniach kameralnych!
Dla wku&*%$onych: „Wstręt. Thomas Bernhard w San Salvadorze”, Horacio Castellanos Moya (Ossolineum)
Dla biednych: „Mieszkania warszawskie. Biografie miejsc, rzeczy i ludzi”, Jarosław Trybuś i Piotr Korduba (Osnova)
Dla przebodźcowanych: „Głosy ptaków”, Eliot Weinberger (Karakter)
Dla samotnych: „Notatniki”, Albert Camus (Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy)
Dla...
2025-12-1332 min
Big Book Podcast. O książkachNajlepsze prezenty literackie! Top 20 pod choinkę. Big Book Podcast.W tym odcinku Big Book Podcast Anna Król i Julia Rzemek prezentują listę 20 książek pod choinkę:-Błażej Brzostek "Życie codzienne kobiet w PRL"-Annie Leibovitz "Annie Leibovitz. Kobiety"-Dominika Buczak "Parasolki"-Maciej Duda "Głód"-Szczepan Twardoch "Zimne wybrzeża"-Maciej Sembieda "Gołoborze"-Wit Szostak "Wylinka"-Laszlo Krasznahorkai "A świat trwa"-Paul Murray "Żądło"-Thomas Mann "Buddenbrookowie. Upadek pewnej rodziny"-Sara Mesa "Taka miłość"-Grzegorz Piątek "Świątynia i śmietnik. Archi...
2025-12-071h 03
In Bed With The RightEpisode 107 -- Did Women Ruin Everything?In this episode, Moira walks Adrian through "The Great Feminization" -- a recent talk/essay that took the right wing by storm, and that subsequently got its author invited to discuss women ruining things in the New York Times. The essay posited that women's entry into the American workforce is to blame for ... wokeness? General societal disorder? The Decline of the West (TM)? Among the topics this episode touches on: the reasons why ideas like these are catching on at this particular moment; the reconceptualization of class distinction through (supposed) gender markers; the history of the "Great Feminization" thesis...
2025-11-181h 10
Michael and Us#665 - Cheesy MoviesIt's a Gen-X and millennial touchstone that anticipated the next generation's parasocial content. But how does MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 hold up in the present moment? We investigate via one of the show's most beloved episodes, "Space Mutiny."
JOIN US ON PATREON FOR AN EXTRA EPISODE EVERY WEEK - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus
"In her new book, Biden’s former press secretary lets Democrats have it" by Becca Rothfeld - https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/10/22/independent-karine-jean-pierre-review/
"Why Biden's White House Press Secretary is Leaving the Democratic Party" by Isaac Chotiner - https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-bidens-white-house-press-secretary-is-leaving-the-democratic-party
"Karine Jean-Pierre an...
2025-11-021h 04
De ShitshowE148 - Piep piep, daar zijn we weerStef en Jan bespreken eindelijk de onethische documentaire Unkown number. Janneke had iets moois meegemaakt op Texel. En ze zijn erg positief over een van de laatste substacks van Dieuwke Wynia. Mensen denken dat het moeilijk is met Stef bevriend te zijn. Wat denkt ze daar zelf over? Janneke zag een schaap op zijn rug liggen. Warme boodschappen 🎧Stef: Op zoek naar Marlotte, Zembla📚Jan: All things are too small, Becca Rothfeld Scoor je favoriete essentials bij Bamigo: ademend, perfecte pasvorm en ook nog eens heerlijk zacht. Gebruik de code SHIT25 voor 25% korting...
2025-10-3036 min
Just Two Dudes Reading TheoryMore Is More - Becca RothfeldJoin us this week as we read an excerpt from Becca Rothfeld's new book, All Things Are Too Small: Essays In Praise Of Excess. Enjoy!Photo by Sven Huls on Unsplash
2025-10-021h 08
The Active HerbalistEpisode 26: DandelionDandelionTaraxacum officinale Family: AsteraceaeHistory & GrowingParts Used MedicinallySupplementation FormsTaste: Root, Leaf & FlowerEnergeticsActionsOrgans & Body Systems Herb Acts UponTraditional & Current UsesWhen to Reach for Herb & In What FormDosage & PreparationContraindicationsElemental, Planetary & Dosha DiscussionCitations & Recommended Reading:1. The Healing Garden, Juliet Blankespoor2. The Dandelion, Anne Rothfeld3. The Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, Andrew Chevallier
2025-08-2833 min
The Colin McEnroe ShowThe intangibility of ‘good taste,' from literature to foodWhat does it mean to have 'good taste'? And what would it take to develop it? This hour, we talk about taste and discernment. Plus, a look at flavor and why some things taste good. GUESTS: Henry Oliver: Writes the literary Substack “The Common Reader,” and is the author of Second Act: What Late Bloomers Can Tell You About Reinventing Your Life. He is part of the Emerging Scholars Programme at the Mercatus Centre Becca Rothfeld: The Nonfiction Book Critic at The Washington Post, an editor at The Point, and a contributing editor at The Boston Review. Sh...
2025-08-0649 min
Zin van de dagMeer willen"Weg met het minimalisme. Meer seks, meer spullen en meer gedachten." - Stine deelt een levenswijsheid van filosoof en publicist Becca Rothfeld.
2025-05-2902 min
Jacobin RadioBehind the News: The State of US Empire w/ Vijay PrashadVijay Prashad, executive director of Tricontinental, discusses the state of the US empire and the state of the global working class. Becca Rothfeld, author of All Things Are Too Small, speaks up for bigness.
Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
2025-05-0653 min
On with Kara SwisherThe Best (and Most Overrated) Books of 2024Which subpar books actually warrant writing a bad review? Do best sellers usually live up to the hype? And how does our relationship with technology affect the publishing industry? Kara sits down with two of her favorite book critics, Dwight Garner of The New York Times and Becca Rothfeld of The Washington Post, to discuss the best and worst books of 2024. The trio debates standout books and notable disappointments, the craft of book reviewing, and the best way to experience a great book. They also explore the importance of best-seller lists, how concerned we should be over t...
2024-12-2358 min
Eminent AmericansThese Hollow HallsOn this episode of the podcast, I talk to Sam Kahn and Julianne Werlin about how institutions and experts produce culture and authority; how two institutions in particular, the academy and journalism, are rapidly eroding in authority, resources, and maybe influence; and how Sam, Julianne, and I are reckoning, personally and professionally, with these big shifts.Among the issues we address: Why is Sam so bullish on Substack, and why is he is planning to launch a new publication on it soon? What is it like for Julianne to teach in an English department that has lost...
2024-11-201h 18
BrainwashOmarm de chaos in je levenLiever kijken? Dat kan op Youtube.
Je huis opruimen tot je alleen het hoogstnoodzakelijke overhoudt, je hoofd leegmaken van oordelen en gedachten en alleen nog maar voorspelbare seks hebben. Doe het niet, zegt filosoof Becca Rothfeld. Weg met minimalistisch denken. Omarm de chaos en geniet van de excessen. Meer seks, meer lange films, meer gedachten.
Lees meer
NB. Deze aflevering is Engelstalig
2024-11-1025 min
Tussen dertig en doodgaanDe vreemdganger en de nieuwe vriendin.Een levensvraag die we allemaal voelen: een ex-partner die is vreemdgegaan met zijn huidige vriendin, en jouw vrienden die daarmee op de Instagram-foto staan. How to handle? Verder buigen Malou en Tatjana zich over een minimalistisch leven. Bullshit of niet? Fijne maandag!🚿🫧 De nieuwe Dove Advanced Care douchegels koop je onder andere bij KruidvatDoe mee aan ons onderzoek door deze vragenlijst in te vullen🪒✌🏽 De Philips OneBlade Intimate is onder andere verkrijgbaar bij Bol, adviesprijs: € 44,99De hele maand oktober krijg je bij Bol 10 euro korting met de code...
2024-10-2855 min
Cows in the field126. The Fly (w/ Becca Rothfeld)We get crazy with the flesh with Becca Rothfeld (The Washington Post) discussing David Cronenberg's 1986 film THE FLY. We discuss erotic transformation, de-evolution, gothic horror, mind/body interactions, Veronica's many excellent fits, inside-out baboons, and much more!
Buy All Things are Too Small!
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2024-10-1859 min
The Rabkin InterviewsEmily Watlington, 2024 Rabkin Prize winnerEmily Watlington is a critic, curator, and senior editor at Art in America. She is one of eight writers to win the 2024 Rabkin Prize. For the first time in the prize’s history, the Rabkin Foundation commissioned portraits of the winners in the spaces where they write and conducted interviews with them about their lives and ideas. Our new Executive Director, Mary Louise Schumacher, a longtime journalist, conducted this conversation with Emily. It has been gently edited for length and clarity. Mentioned in this episode:“The Pitfalls of the Something-for-Everyone Approach to the Venice Biennale” by Emil...
2024-10-0928 min
Algo que no sabíasEl minimalismo ha empobrecido nuestras almas¿Alguna vez has sentido que el minimalismo y la búsqueda constante de la simplicidad están dejando un vacío en tu vida? En este episodio, nos sumergimos en el fascinante mundo del maximalismo y su impacto en nuestra cultura, inspirados por el provocador libro de Becca Rothfeld, "All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess".
Recorramos juntos el poder liberador del maximalismo y redescubramos la alegría de vivir una vida llena hasta el borde.
Cada día Tomás Balmaceda te cuenta un dato que no te imaginabas que tu vida nec...
2024-10-0210 min
Critics at Large | The New YorkerSally Rooney’s Beautiful DeceptionsAlmost immediately after the publication of Sally Rooney’s “Normal People,” in 2018, Rooney-mania hit a fever pitch. Her work struck a cord among a generation of readers who responded to evocative descriptions of young people’s lives and relationships. Before long, Rooney had—somewhat reluctantly—been dubbed “the first great millennial author.” On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss “Intermezzo,” Rooney’s hotly anticipated fourth novel, which explores the dynamic between two brothers grieving the death of their father. The book is a sadder, more mature read than Rooney’s fans may have come to expect...
2024-09-1946 minCritics at Large | The New YorkerSally Rooney’s Beautiful DeceptionsAlmost immediately after the publication of Sally Rooney’s “Normal People,” in 2018, Rooney-mania hit a fever pitch. Her work struck a cord among a generation of readers who responded to evocative descriptions of young people’s lives and relationships. Before long, Rooney had—somewhat reluctantly—been dubbed “the first great millennial author.” On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss “Intermezzo,” Rooney’s hotly anticipated fourth novel, which explores the dynamic between two brothers grieving the death of their father. The book is a sadder, more mature read than Rooney’s fans may have come to expect...
2024-09-1946 min
Gentle ChaosAll Things are too SmallIn this week's episode, I'll dig into a debate of minimalism versus maximalism, inspired by essayist Becca Rothfeld's debut work, "All Things Are Too Small." Tune in to hear about shedding rugs, Marie Kondo and Kim Kardashians mauseleum vibe home.
2024-09-1115 min
One Bright BookEpisode #27: Summer Reading 2024Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Frances, Rebecca, and Dorian as they return from their vacations, and discuss some of their summer reading. For our next episode, we will discuss THE HOUSE IN PARIS by Elizabeth Bowen. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late September. Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books! Books Mentioned: My...
2024-09-021h 11
The Nation PodcastsWhy does Trump still have 44% of voters? Why is ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Still Number One? | Start Making SenseAs the Democrats meet to celebrate Kamala, Trump seems disoriented and unsure what to do next. Nevertheless he’s holding on to 44% of the electorate. How come? Marc Cooper has our analysis.Also: Kamala may be rising in the polls, but the Number One nonfiction bestseller in America is still “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance. Luckily for us, Becca Rothfeld has read it, so we don’t have to. She’s nonfiction book critic for the Washington Post.Our Sponsors:* Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.comAdvertising Inquiries: http...
2024-08-2137 min
Start Making Sense with Jon WienerWhy does Trump still have 44% of voters? Why is ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Still Number One?As the Democrats meet to celebrate Kamala, Trump seems disoriented and unsure what to do next. Nevertheless he’s holding on to 44% of the electorate. How come? Marc Cooper has our analysis.Also: Kamala may be rising in the polls, but the Number One nonfiction bestseller in America is still “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance. Luckily for us, Becca Rothfeld has read it, so we don’t have to. She’s nonfiction book critic for the Washington Post.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
2024-08-2137 min
Living in the USATrump in Trouble: Marc Cooper; 'Hillbilly Elegy': Becca Rothfeld; Father Greg BoyleThe Trump campaign – it's not going well right now. Marc Cooper has our analysis, and advises, rather than follow the two-or-three-point difference in polling, that we should instead look at the trend lines. Also, he reminds us that at the end of July in 1988, Michael Dukakis was leading George Bush by 14 points.It’s still August — and time for more summer beach reading. While the Democrats hold their convention in Chicago, the number one nonfiction bestseller in America is “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance. Luckily for us, Becca Rothfeld, author of “All Things Are Too Small” and the nonfic...
2024-08-2152 min
Licensed Poetics15. I Love Meaning! A Special Episode ft. LP friendsLP is going out-of-studio! In this very special episode recorded between Shanghai and the Blue Mountains, a few recurring guests and new voices share their recent reads! We talk about a book that should have remained a Twitter feed instead of being published, Derek's penchant for disappearing because he's totally fictional, and the fact that meaning is awesome and Abby loves it.
Guests in order of appearance: Cady, Marlene, Eezu, Maja, Derek, Abby
Marlene's substack https://marlenejo.substack.com/
Find everyone on LP's Insta @licensedpoetics
Buy me a coffee! https://buymeacoffee...
2024-07-0755 min
The Commonweal PodcastEp. 132 - The Glory of ‘Too Much’Egalitarianism remains one of the core tenets of most liberals and progressives. But does the idea that everyone ought to be equal in the sphere of political economy also hold true for the realm of culture? Absolutely not, argues Becca Rothfeld, nonfiction book critic at the Washington Post and author of the debut collection All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess. The modern insistence that all cultural objects are “equal” is actually a symptom of our failure to create a society in which genuine equality is present. That...
2024-06-2728 min
Current AffairsIn Praise of Excess (w/ Becca Rothfeld)Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs !Becca Rothfeld is the nonfiction book critic for the Washington Post. Her new essay collection, All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess, draws together and expands on some of her best work. It covers subjects including Marie Kondo and minimalism, the films of David Cronenberg, the novels of Sally Rooney, and the new sexual puritanism. However varied the topics, a few important themes recur, including a rejection of utilitarian minimalism and an embrace of pleasure, and a view that fulfilling "basic needs" is not enough, because...
2024-06-2638 min
Listen To The Full Audiobook Everyone Is Talking About — So Ground-Breaking!A Cage Went in Search of a Bird by Ali Smith, Tommy Orange, Naomi Alderman, Helen Oyeyemi, Keith Ridgway, Yiyun Li, Charlie Kaufman, Elif Batuman, Becca Rothfeld - introduction, Leone Ross, Joshua CohenPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/140343to listen full audiobooks.
Title: A Cage Went in Search of a Bird
Author: Ali Smith, Tommy Orange, Naomi Alderman, Helen Oyeyemi, Keith Ridgway, Yiyun Li, Charlie Kaufman, Elif Batuman, Becca Rothfeld - introduction, Leone Ross, Joshua Cohen
Narrator: Jessica Hayles, Minhee Yeo, Penelope Rawlins, Matt Reeves
Format: mp3
Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
Release date: 05-30-24
Ratings: Not rated yet
Genres: Absurdist
Publisher's Summary:
Franz Kafka is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most enigmatic geniuses of European literature. What happens when his idiosyncratic imagination meets some of the greatest literary...
2024-05-305h 14
The Cosmic Library5.5 The Short Story in the U.S.: Otherworldly Bedtime StoriesThe word “story” often comes after the word “bedtime,” and for good reason. Stories can frighten us, disturb and shock us, prompt us to change our thinking, but compared to most experiences, reading a story is tranquil. Podcasts, similarly conveying mediated encounters with other lives, are also used as sleep aids (there’s a “sleep” category in Apple Podcasts). Story podcasts, then, can demonstrate powerfully the connections between fiction and sleep. This episode—the concluding episode of The Cosmic Library’s season on the short story in the U.S.—examines those connections.Deborah Treisman says in this...
2024-05-2225 minThe Cosmic Library5.4 The Short Story in the U.S.: NYC+MFA+ATL“If my college-age self, reading White Noise, had thought I would one day be discussing word placement with Don DeLillo, I would have had a heart attack,” Deborah Treisman says in this episode. Since those days, in her role as fiction editor at The New Yorker, she has indeed discussed word placement with Don DeLillo, whose stories include “Midnight in Dostoyevsky” and “The Itch.” Treisman has helped bring that kind of story to a wide audience—it’s all part of her work at the center of one of the major institutions in the history of American fiction. In this episode, th...
2024-05-1537 minThe Cosmic Library5.3 The Short Story in the U.S.: It's WeirdAmerican short stories started out weird. Consider Nathaniel Hawthorne, as we just did in episode two this season—or, consider Edgar Allan Poe. Existential strangeness and cosmic peril pervade these nineteenth-century stories, and those moods have stayed with American short stories into the twenty-first century.Brevity can be crucial for such stories' maximal, cosmic weirdness. Justin Taylor points out here how Poe can get to extremity simply in a sentence. "What Poe brings to the table," Taylor says, "is that extreme purpleness of language, that kind of humidity, that really baroque Poe sentence, where it...
2024-05-0820 min
dewasssuuDownload [PDF] All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess By: Becca RothfeldLast Updated 2 mins ago – Here Options to Downloading or Read Book of All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess BY: Becca Rothfeld the PDF online for free on Server Amazon, Reddit, Goodreads.
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2024-05-0700 minThe Cosmic Library5.2 The Short Story in the U.S.: Wake Up with WakefieldIt’s time for a story. In this episode of our season on short stories in the United States, you'll hear Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mysterious short story “Wakefield,” read by the actor Max Gordon Moore. It’s a story from the 1830s, reflecting from the first sentence the early American interest in strange information found repeatedly in periodicals, and then it follows that strangeness to cosmic extremes.If you know Hawthorne mostly as the author of The Scarlet Letter, you're in for a surprise in this story about a guy who moves basically next door and h...
2024-05-0137 min
The GistThe Dog Days Of American PoliticsKristi Noem, the Republican Governor of South Dakota, is out defending her shooting of her dog, which has us wondering why she brought it up in the first place. Today on the show, an extended interview with Becca Rothfeld, the non-fiction book critic for the Washington Post and author of the new book, All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to...
2024-04-3036 min
Culture GabfestTaylor Swift’s Messy MaximalismOn this week’s episode, the panel is first joined by Slate’s music critic, Carl Wilson, to puzzle over The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated 11th studio album. Stuffed with 31 tracks, the two-part album is a departure from the billionaire pop star’s otherwise perfectly crafted oeuvre: it’s messy and drippy, and at times, manic and frenetic. Is this secretly a cry for help? And more importantly, when did she find the time to record this thing? Then, the three explore Fallout, a post-apocalyptic drama series adapted from the extremely popular role-playing video game of the same n...
2024-04-241h 01Slate Culture FeedTaylor Swift’s Messy MaximalismOn this week’s episode, the panel is first joined by Slate’s music critic, Carl Wilson, to puzzle over The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated 11th studio album. Stuffed with 31 tracks, the two-part album is a departure from the billionaire pop star’s otherwise perfectly crafted oeuvre: it’s messy and drippy, and at times, manic and frenetic. Is this secretly a cry for help? And more importantly, when did she find the time to record this thing? Then, the three explore Fallout, a post-apocalyptic drama series adapted from the extremely popular role-playing video game of the same n...
2024-04-241h 01Culture GabfestTaylor Swift’s Messy MaximalismOn this week’s episode, the panel is first joined by Slate’s music critic, Carl Wilson, to puzzle over The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated 11th studio album. Stuffed with 31 tracks, the two-part album is a departure from the billionaire pop star’s otherwise perfectly crafted oeuvre: it’s messy and drippy, and at times, manic and frenetic. Is this secretly a cry for help? And more importantly, when did she find the time to record this thing? Then, the three explore Fallout, a post-apocalyptic drama series adapted from the extremely popular role-playing video game of the same n...
2024-04-241h 06The Cosmic Library5.1 The Short Story in the U.S.: IntroductionThe Cosmic Library has always followed notions, tangents, and moods prompted by books that can never be neatly summarized or simply decoded. This new season is no exception. Still, there's a difference: we're prompted now by more than one major work. In season five, we're talking about short stories in the United States.You’ll hear from New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman, the novelist Tayari Jones, Washington Post critic Becca Rothfeld, the writer Justin Taylor, the Oxford scholar of short stories Andrew Kahn, and the actor Max Gordon Moore. And you’ll hear a reading of...
2024-04-2429 minSlate Culture FeedCivil War: What Is It Good For?On this week’s show, Slate culture writer (and Very, Very Good Friend of the Show, a.k.a. VVGFOP) Nadira Goffe sits in for Dana Stevens. The three begin with Civil War, writer-director Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men) dystopian travelog starring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, and Wagner Moura that imagines a burned out, bombed out America in the throes of a raging internal conflict. But who is fighting whom? Our panel discusses. Then, they examine Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, an eight-part series on Max depicting a very different civil war. Here, the exemplary sit-down stand-up comedian goes...
2024-04-171h 01Culture GabfestCivil War: What Is It Good For?On this week’s show, Slate culture writer (and Very, Very Good Friend of the Show, a.k.a. VVGFOP) Nadira Goffe sits in for Dana Stevens. The three begin with Civil War, writer-director Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men) dystopian travelog starring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, and Wagner Moura that imagines a burned out, bombed out America in the throes of a raging internal conflict. But who is fighting whom? Our panel discusses. Then, they examine Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, an eight-part series on Max depicting a very different civil war. Here, the exemplary sit-down stand-up comedian goes...
2024-04-171h 01The Cosmic LibrarySeason 5 Trailer: The Short Story in the United StatesThe trailer is here for the new season of The Cosmic Library! This five-episode season concerns a subject both smaller and vaster than any massive book, and that subject is: short stories in the United States.You’ll hear how short stories exceed their own brevity and meld with a reader’s mind; you’ll hear about the history of the short story across continents; you’ll hear how stories are edited at The New Yorker; and you’ll hear a thrilling reading of the cosmically bewildering “Wakefield,” a classic story by Nathaniel Hawthorne in which this...
2024-04-0302 min
STARGIRLEpisode 39: Lauren Oyler with Alana PockrosThis week we welcome my friend and writer/editor Alana Pockros to tackle the work and persona of Lauren Oyler. We discuss how Lauren seized authority as the millennial literary critic, how her abandonment of the “rules” makes her work difficult to engage with critically, her famous distaste for Vulnerability, the Berlin piece (...), and what it means to be both brave and mean.
Plus, in my quarterly pulse check on Culture, I declare a massive return to all things folklore: earthy spirituality, magic, psychedelics, freak folk, boho chic, metal music, and more.
Follow Alana on Twitt...
2024-04-021h 26
Keen On AmericaEpisode 2018: Becca Rothfeld's celebration of mess, appetite and sexual desireBecca Rothfeld’s much heralded new collection, All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess, challenges the American Puritan values of self-control and abstinence. Why have one meal when you can three, she asks, praising the New York City diner who orders and eats several plates of the same pasta dish. On the one hand, Rothfeld’s embrace of mess is a polemic against Marie Kondo and her fetishization of tidiness and order; on the other, it’s a challenge to the stuffiness of an American coastal intelligentsia for whom smallness and moderation have become not just moral...
2024-04-0139 min
The McGill International ReviewMIR Meets: Melissa KearneyHost Andrew Xu sits down with Melissa Kearney, the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. They discuss her recent book The Two-Parent Privilege, which examines the economic advantages that two-parent households have over one-parent households.
References
"The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind" by Melissa Kearney
"‘The Two-Parent Privilege’ gets caught in the trap of convention" by Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post
"What Relationships Would You Want if You Believed They Were Possible?" from The Ezra Klein Show
2024-03-131h 05
The DC SalonWRB x Liberties Salon 1 - Are Books Worthwhile?Chris McCaffery, of the Washington Review of Books, and Celeste Marcus, managing editor of Liberties, host a salon in which they and a group of lively invested parties ask whether or not books are worthwhile.
Speakers in order of appearance: Jerome Copulsky, Carlos Lozada, Becca Rothfeld, Mikra Namani, Laura Field, Osita Nwanevu, Nic Rowan, Ari Schulman, Steven Larkin, Zach Wehrwein, Lars Schonander, and Hannah Rowan.
2023-12-1955 min
Wisdom of CrowdsIs Masculinity in Crisis?This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveWe’re thrilled to publish the audio from our first major event in collaboration with Aspen Institute’s Philosophy & Society Initiative. P&S and Wisdom of Crowds have grown up together and are both relentlessly focused on getting down to first principle questions. Click the link below and add your email to the mailing list to find out when we’re doing more of these kinds of events.In this episode, we take on the crisis of masculinity. Damir Marusic asks o...
2023-12-0337 min
Manifesto!Episode 55: The Great Mating DebatePhil is joined by Becca Rothfeld, BD McClay, and Jon Baskin to discuss Norman Rush's 1991 novel Mating, and whether it offers a roadmap for love in the 21st century.
Becca Rothfeld is the nonfiction book critic at the Washington Post and an editor at the Point.
BD McClay is an essayist and critic who has written for publications like Lapham's Quarterly, The New Yorker, and New York Times Magazine.
Jon Baskin is Deputy Editor at Harper's and a founding editor of The Point.
The Art:
Norman Rush, Mating
https://www.penguinrandomhouse...
2023-07-121h 18
Know Your EnemyWhat's Wrong With Men?"Many men in this country are in crisis, and their ranks are swelling," Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said at the National Conservatism conference in 2021. "And that's not just a crisis for men. It's a crisis for the republic." Some version of this sentiment — that men are in trouble, adrift, or falling behind — is shared by writers and thinkers across the political spectrum. It's nearly impossible to open a magazine without finding an article about the state of manhood in America. Brookings Institution scholar Richard Reeves' 2022 book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Ma...
2023-06-061h 51The DC SalonEpisode 31 - Agnes Callard and Becca RothfeldBecca Rothfeld and Celeste Marcus pepper Agnes Callard with questions about motherhood, among them: how it changes one, whether it's possible to prepare for it, and if one's own identity is enriched or extinguished through it.
2023-04-271h 07
Time To Say Goodbye“Tár,” a film for the chattering class, with Vinson CunninghamHello from Juilliard! This week, our friend Vinson Cunningham, award-winning critic at The New Yorker, joins Tammy and Jay to discuss 2022’s wokest(?) film, “Tár.” (Spoiler alert!) [1:00] Before we get into it, we address Kyrie Irving’s request for a trade from the Brooklyn Nets… and what makes him so annoying. (We recorded before Irving’s move to the Dallas Mavericks was announced.) Plus: What does his situation say about workers’ rights, in the context of highly-compensated NBA players? [12:50] In our main segment: “Tár,” the dark portrait of a high-powered orchestra conductor’s fall from g...
2023-02-081h 21Manifesto!Episode 48: The Ultimate RevolutionJake and Phil are joined by Becca Rothfeld (https://www.beccarothfeld.com/) to discuss Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex and Sheila Heti's That Longing for a Holy Completeness (from her novel MOTHERHOOD)
Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex
http://biopolitics.kom.uni.st/Shulamith%20Firestone/The%20Dialectic%20of%20Sex_%20The%20Case%20for%20Feminist%20Revolution%20(139)/The%20Dialectic%20of%20Sex_%20The%20Case%20for%20Feminis%20-%20Shulamith%20Firestone.pdf
Sheila Heti, That Longing for a Holy Completeness
https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/that-longing-for-a-holy-completeness/
2022-11-221h 56STARGIRLEpisode 07: Sally Rooney with Mikaela DeryThis week, we are joined by my dear friend Mikaela Dery to discuss Sally Rooney, the Irish novelist. We talk about the high-brow/low-brow nature of her books, how to make malaise stylish, the power dynamics between bookish girls and jock-y dudes, and how Sally foretold young people's preoccupation with Catholicism.
Discussed:
"What's Really Driving the Sally Rooney Obsession?" Katie Roiphe in WSJ
"Normal Novels," Becca Rothfeld in The Point
Follow Mikaela on Twitter and Instagram
Coming events at McNally Jackson
2022-08-191h 20
PhilosophyPodcasts.OrgOwen Flanagan. How to do things with emotionsOwen Flanagan How to do things with emotions: The morality of anger and shame across cultures An expansive look at how culture shapes our emotions—and how we can benefit, as individuals and a society, from less anger and more shame. The world today is full of anger. Everywhere we look, we see values clashing and tempers rising, in ways that seem frenzied, aimless, and cruel. At the same time, we witness political leaders and others who lack any sense of shame, even as they display carelessness with the truth and the common good. In How to Do...
2022-04-0146 min
The MockingcastEpisode 227: Goblin ForgivenessIn which RJ, Sarah, and Dave talk goblin modes, unproductive sabbaticals, shaming complexes, and historical miracles. Also, Sarah takes a tour of a church crypt, and RJ sees yellow (and a lot of movies).
Click here to read The Guardian's piece on Goblin Mode.
Click here to read Peter Seversen's post for Mockingbird on The Gift of Leisure in a Hustling World.
Click here for Becca Rothfeld's rundown of The Shaming Industrial Complex.
Click here to read Aja Romano's column for Vox, Everyone Wants Forgiveness, But No One Is Being Forgiven.
Click here to read Rinee DiResta's piece...
2022-04-011h 10
Origins Podcast with Ryan McGranaghanSara Hendren - Healthy relationality, how we meet the built world, and the curriculum of the futureSubscribe to The Flourishing Commons - a newsletter to accompany Origins episodes and to build a community around a rich forum for exchange. Sara Hendren is a humanist in tech. This may seem like a strange statement, but it may be a perfect place to pick up Sara's trajectory. She is a brilliant designer, an affecting educator, and just might be the source of language that will transform the way you witness the world. Show Notes:critique and repair (06:55)Generous Thinking Kathleen Fitzpatrick (22:00)Epistemic humilityRelational model of change (22:50)The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle (24:40...
2022-03-221h 05
The DC SalonNineteenth Episode - Becca Rothfeld and Agnes CallardAgnes Callard and Becca Rothfeld join Celeste Marcus to discuss the movie The Night Porter.
2022-03-0348 min
What Is X?What Is Art? | Becca RothfeldHow is the aesthetic experience of art different from how we appreciate wonders of nature—a pretty flower, or a mountain vista, or a peacock's beautiful feather? In this brisk and bracing 40-minute discussion, Justin E.H. Smith is joined by critic and self-declared lover-of-art Becca Rothfeld to spar over what makes art art. They ask: Does it have to be something made by humans and for humans, or could one consider an animal or a machine an artist? Is there a stable, transhistorical definition of the term, or would what is considered “art” in one era be unrecognizable as suc...
2021-12-0141 min
The Point PodcastAfterthoughts - Issue 25: Moralism, Memory and the Political Novel, with Ryan Ruby and Becca RothfeldAfterthoughts is a discussion series from The Point where our editors talk to writers and readers about new issues of the magazine. On this episode, a recording of a Zoom event held on November 1st, Jon and Rachel talk to literary critic Ryan Ruby (author of “Resisting Oblivion” in issue 25) and critic and Point editor Becca Rothfeld (author of “Sanctimony Literature” in Liberties) for a discussion about the political novel today.The political significance of the novel was discussed with anguished urgency during the Trump years: Should writers call attention to present forms of injustice and discrimination in their...
2021-11-021h 33
The Atlantic Out LoudJonathan Franzen’s Best Book Yet - Becca Rothfeld - November 2021At last he’s put aside the pyrotechnics and gone all in on his great theme: the American family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2021-10-1915 minThe Atlantic Out LoudJonathan Franzen’s Best Book Yet - Becca Rothfeld - November 2021At last he’s put aside the pyrotechnics and gone all in on his great theme: the American family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2021-10-1915 minThe Atlantic Out LoudJonathan Franzen’s Best Book Yet - Becca Rothfeld - November 2021At last he’s put aside the pyrotechnics and gone all in on his great theme: the American family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2021-10-1915 minThe DC SalonTenth Episode - Becca RothfeldBecca Rothfeld and Celeste Marcus discuss Sanctimony Literature, the relationship between art and politics, and how to evaluate political art.
2021-06-0936 min
Sacred and Profane LoveSacred and Profane Love Episode 19: Love and Lust in LolitaAfter a long winter's nap–i.e., the end of the semester madness followed by holidays with my family–I am back to releasing new episodes of Sacred and Profane Love. I am starting the Spring semester with a discussion of Nabokov's celebrated but controversial novel, Lolita. In episode 19, titled "Love and Lust in Lolita," I speak with Becca Rothfeld, award winning essayist, literary critic, and PhD candidate in philosophy at Harvard University, about the tensions we readers are forced to navigate between the awesome beauty of Nabokov's prose and the ugly perversion that is the central focus of our at...
2021-01-111h 13
StetGarbage (feat. Becca Rothfeld)Becca Rothfeld and B.D. McClay talk cleaning, garbage, and book culture—but we repeat ourselves. Music from https://filmmusic.io: Anachronist by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3363-anachronist/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Corruption by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3555-corruption/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
2020-02-141h 03
Ipse DixitBecca Rothfeld on Consuming BeautyIn this episode, Becca Rothfeld, an essayist, literary critic, and PhD candidate in philosophy at Harvard University, discusses her essay "Having a Cake and Eating It, Too," which was published in AGNI, as well as her scholarship on aesthetic value more generally. Rothfeld begins by describing the thought of Simone Weil, and how it inspired her essay. Specifically, she reflects on Weil's desire to consume only beauty, in order to be consumed by it. Rothfeld explains how this concept of beauty as both consumed and consumer differs from the Kantian conception of beauty, and why she advocates consumption to...
2019-12-2731 min
The Atlantic Out LoudNietzsche’s Guide to Better Living - Becca Rothfeld - October 2018If philosophy can serve as therapy, it’s not by offering solace but by jolting the soul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2018-09-1814 minThe Atlantic Out LoudNietzsche’s Guide to Better Living - Becca Rothfeld - October 2018If philosophy can serve as therapy, it’s not by offering solace but by jolting the soul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2018-09-1814 minThe Atlantic Out LoudNietzsche’s Guide to Better Living - Becca Rothfeld - October 2018If philosophy can serve as therapy, it’s not by offering solace but by jolting the soul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2018-09-1814 min
The Point PodcastRather Be Reading, Episode 2: Sex PestsOn Episode 2 of Rather Be Reading, The Point podcast, we discuss the #MeToo social media campaign, shitty media men, and moral education with Becca Rothfeld and Jennifer Frey (00:54). For Charitable Reading, Jon Baskin talks to literary critic Nicholas Dames about Franco Moretti and the so-called "digital humanities bust" (27:22). Plus, we call up comedian David Heti to get his opinion on Larry David's controversial SNL monologue—and hear his latest Holocaust jokes (44:17).Editors: Jon Baskin, Anastasia Berg & Rachel WisemanGuests: Jennifer Frey, Becca Rothfeld, Nicholas Dames, David HetiRelevant Sources:- "The Fratty Wolf in Your Grandmother's Clothing" by Becca Rothfeld, in the Ba...
2017-11-1755 min