Shows / The TLS Podcast
The TLS Podcast
A weekly podcast on books and culture from the TLS.
Editors and writers join Lucy Dallas and Alex Clark to talk through the week’s issue.
To read more, welcome to the TLS.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
The TLS PodcastScare Stories
This week, Lily Herd introduces us to the concept of Fascist Yoga; and Mark Storey on America’s ghosts. ‘Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of…
The TLS PodcastEscape Artists
This week, Margaret Drabble enjoys an enthralling biography of an adventure writer and his entourage; and Thea Lenarduzzi on the gothic mystery at the heart of…
The TLS PodcastDramatic licence
This week, Mary Beard grapples with a noisy new version of Euripides at the National Theatre; and Norma Clarke on the mysterious world of Helen DeWitt's new…
The TLS PodcastWhat Ho!
This week, Tim Lake explains why Bertie Wooster is not half the dimwit we think he is; and fiction editor Toby Lichtig introduces the novels to look out for…
The TLS PodcastNot All Heroes Wear Capes
This week, Nicola Shulman is entranced by the life of a naturalist; and Larry Wolff enjoys a night at the opera - with added superheroes. 'A year with Gilbert…
The TLS PodcastAll Rise
This week, Richard Sennett delivers a powerful warning to universities to defend their freedom; and Helena Kelly on the revolutionary world that shaped Jane…
The TLS PodcastEpic moves
This week, AE Stallings immerses herself in Daniel Mendelsohn's new translation of Homer's Odyssey; and Dinah Birch is intrigued by an ambitious novel twenty…
The TLS PodcastSuch stuff as dreams are made on
This week, James Shapiro celebrates New York's love affair with Shakespeare; Mark Nayler goes on the hunt for monsters; and Lily Herd introduces this issue's…
The TLS PodcastCode-breakers
This week, Professor Jonathan Bate on a tiny Elizabethan portrait with an illuminating history; and novelist Gwendoline Riley assesses the mysterious life and…
The TLS PodcastLet's Get Lost
This week, the winner of this year's TLS Ackerley Prize, Jeff Young, discusses his spellbinding memoir; and Toby Lichtig talks to the Australian novelist…
The TLS PodcastIn vino veritas
This week, George Berridge instructs Lucy and Alex on the noble art of oenophilia; and Lucy takes in a trio of musicals. 'Who's Afraid of Romanée-Conti: A…
The TLS PodcastA Force of Nature
Alex Clark celebrates the life and work of Edna O'Brien with filmmaker Sinéad O'Shea and novelists Eimear McBride and Jan Carson at this year's Belfast Book…
The TLS PodcastFeather weight
This week, a special interview with farmer and writer James Rebanks about a life-changing stay on the Norwegian coast. 'The Place of Tides', by James Rebanks…
The TLS PodcastBlowing in the wind
This week, Emile Chabal braces himself against the barrelling force of the Mistral; and Kathryn Hughes is exhilarated by memories of dancing to Dickens in the…
The TLS PodcastHedging Your Bets
This week, Norma Clarke explores the ancient arts of hedge-laying, thatching, hay-cutting and wood-turning; and highlights from this week's issue. 'Words from…
The TLS PodcastAcross the Pond
This week, Alicia Rix charts Henry James's return to an unrecognisable homeland; and David Horspool on a Victorian conman and a contemporary swimmer. 'Henry…
The TLS PodcastLetters from America
This week, Michael LaPointe celebrates a century of The Great Gatsby; and Miranda France on an epistolary novel by Natalia Ginzburg. 'The Cambridge Centennial…
The TLS PodcastHORSE TRADING
This week, Nicola Shulman is staggered by Sarah Vine's account of Westminster rivalry; and James Clackson on the irresistible rise of Indo-European. 'How not…
The TLS PodcastDON'T STOP...
... thinking about tomorrow. This week, Michael Caines on a musical inspired by a classic album; and Toby Lichtig talks to Mike Berners-Lee about the future of…
The TLS PodcastSeasons in the Sun
This week, what TLS contributors are reading this summer; and Catherine Taylor on a trio of novels highlighting the growing pains of adolescence. 'Back in the…
The TLS PodcastIt All Adds Up
This week, Sara Lodge counts the ways that mathematics influenced writers from Byron to Trollope; and Russell Williams on the transformative power of rites and…
The TLS PodcastMaking Hay
This week, a special podcast from the Hay Festival ranges from the ancient world to the 16th-century, taking in the art of criticism, the centrality of…
The TLS PodcastUnearthed Treasures
This week, Magna Carta experts David Carpenter and Nicholas Vincent tell us how they discovered a rare original of the document; and Michael Caines on a…
The TLS PodcastVagabond Hearts
This week, Eimear McBride is captivated by the life and work of Joyce's biographer; and Mark Nayler is hot on the trail of the wolf who walked alone…
The TLS PodcastDays to Remember
This week, Vanessa Curtis celebrates a century of Mrs Dalloway; and Claire Lowdon on the capacious diaries of Helen Garner. 'Mrs Dalloway', by Virginia Woolf…
The TLS PodcastBig Cheese, Big Apple
This week, Nicola Shulman salutes the memoirs of an old-school editor and socialite; and Rebecca Fraser on an unexpectedly peaceful transition of power in…
The TLS PodcastOn our travels
This week, Toby Lichtig travels to Oslo to interview Nobel laureate Jon Fosse; meanwhile, Natasha Lehrer heads to Zurich for a compelling new play by Deborah…
The TLS PodcastRenaissance Men
This week, David Gallagher remembers Peruvian Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa; and Laurent Binet whisks us to 16th-century Florence to explore the world of…
The TLS PodcastBe not afraid of greatness!
This week, Peter Holland treads the boards in Elizabethan London in search of Shakespeare before the Globe; and Muriel Zagha on a captivating tale of…
The TLS PodcastPsychopomp and circumstance
This week, Margaret Drabble explores how Dickens drew on his love of the macabre and grotesque to create literary magic; and Norma Clarke takes a tour around…
The TLS PodcastLife is a Cabaret
Caroline Moorehead salutes the energetic brilliance of singer Josephine Baker; and Aaron Peck on the past, present and future of the avant-garde. 'Fearless and…
The TLS PodcastInto The Wild
This week, we're joined by Harriet Baker, winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award; and Helen Scales tunes into the sonic marvels beneath the…
The TLS PodcastBreaking Ground
This week, novelist Damon Galgut remembers the ground-breaking South African playwright Athol Fugard; and Michael Caines on two very different approaches to…
The TLS PodcastMaking Waves
This week, Larry Wolff immerses himself in a bold operatic vision of Melville's classic; and Travis Elborough on a boosterish attempt to rescue Croydon from…
The TLS PodcastOnce Upon a Time
This week, Toby Lichtig chats to Sam Leith about formative literature at Jewish Book Week; and David Horspool meets Sue Prideaux, winner of this year's Pol…
The TLS PodcastHidden Realms
This week, Michael Caines interviews the men behind the Royal Shakespeare Company's thrilling new production of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II; and Nat Segnit…
The TLS PodcastHubris and Nemesis
This week, Edith Hall finds herself mesmerised, entranced and perplexed by Sophocles; and Barnaby Phillips on a bizarre imperial incursion in 19th-century…
The TLS PodcastElegant Variations
This week, we're joined by Eimear McBride as she publishes a compelling new novel; and Anne Fuchs celebrates WG Sebald's illuminating and idiosyncratic essays…
The TLS PodcastClose Encounters
This week, Kevin Brazil on the revealing tour d'horizontal of a great writer; and Keith Miller goes down a rabbit-hole in search of Richard Ayoade. 'The Loves…
The TLS PodcastHis Back Pages
This week, Toby Lichtig assesses the latest recreation of Bob Dylan, man and myth; and David Gallagher on an academic and spy who inspired the work of Javier…
The TLS PodcastTales of the City
This week, Boris Dralyuk on a compelling portrait of the Black Sea port of Odesa, past and present; and Russell Williams is put in mind of the rumpled TV…
The TLS PodcastPicture This
This week, Vanessa Curtis is entranced by the candour of the Bloomsbury set's photograph albums; and Emma Greensmith on the mythical creatures that fascinated…
The TLS PodcastKeeping The Pot Boiling
This week, JS Barnes trembles in his boots before the latest incarnation of a classic vampire tale; and Mary C Flannery on the practical magic of the medieval…
The TLS PodcastHappy New Year!
This week, Alex Clark and Lucy Dallas look forward to 2025's most tempting reading, plan a Jane Austen road trip and resolve to sit up straight. Produced by…
The TLS PodcastGlad to Exist
This week, Simone Gubler ponders the contents of a dog's mind; and Tristram Fane Saunders praises the poet Wendy Cope's strengths and subtleties. 'The…
The TLS PodcastRevolutionary Roads
This week, Catriona Seth goes in search of the mysterious last queen of France; and Maria Margaronis is entranced by the stage adaptation of a children's…
The TLS PodcastOn the Shoulders of Giants
This week, novelist and playwright Caryl Phillips remembers his friendship with the magnificent James Baldwin; and Robert Potts on the ingenious return of…
The TLS PodcastFriends, Romans... Rhinoceroses?
This week, Mary Beard squares up to the gorefest of Gladiator II; and Alan Hollinghurst in conversation at the Cambridge Literary Festival. 'Gladiator II'…
The TLS PodcastCoup de Foudre
This week, Lauren Elkin on a Nobel Prize-winner's obsession with images; and Judith Flanders assesses bold claims about the origins of contemporary English…
The TLS PodcastWatch This Space
This week, Toby Lichtig talks to the new Booker Prize-winner Samantha Harvey about her voyage to the stars; and TLS contributors choose their books of the…
The TLS PodcastGood at Games
This week, Norma Clarke explores the world of 18th-century chameleon Mary Robinson; and Devoney Looser on a soccer player's passion for Virginia Woolf. 'Mary…
The TLS PodcastLetter from the Capitol
This week, Mary Beard reports on the American election from her billet on Pennysylvania Avenue; plus Regina Rini opens a can of temporal worms in a quest to…
The TLS PodcastDouble Vision
In a special interview, Lucy Dallas meets artist William Kentridge to explore his new set of films. 'Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot', by William Kentridge…
The TLS PodcastHome Truths
This week, Oonagh Devitt Tremblay is intrigued by the multiple voices in Sarah Moss's new memoir; and Lucy Dallas speaks to artist William Kentridge. 'My Good…
The TLS PodcastFrom Seoul to Stockholm
This week, Yoojin Grace Wuertz celebrates this year’s Nobel Laureate in literature, South Korea’s Han Kang; and David Morley reads his new poem, and discusses…
The TLS PodcastCherchez La Femme
This week, Lisa Hilton on the truth behind life as a 'grand horizontale'; and Juliette Bretan explores why Virginia Woolf served up boeuf en daube in To the…
The TLS PodcastTaking flight
This week, Larry Wolff admires an opera propelled by drone warfare; and Edward Carey describes how a love of theatre inspired his new novel. 'Grounded', by…
The TLS PodcastTuning In
This week, we start with Donna Summer and finish with a Scotch Woodcock, as Milo Nesbitt goes in search of the future of music, and Roger Domeneghetti sings…
The TLS PodcastAutumn Leaves
This week, Toby Lichtig previews the season’s fictional highlights; and Ann Manov on Sally Rooney’s latest gambit. ‘Creation Lake’, by Rachel Kushner…
The TLS PodcastTypecast
This week, typographer Tom Cook on the fonts of all knowledge; and Graham Daseler explores Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler's firecracker relationship…