The TLS Podcast

It’s the centenary of the birth of Iris Murdoch, the novelist-philosopher who dominated the literary pages for much of the twentieth century. Where do we stand on her now? Michael Caines and Frances Wilson discuss; This was the week that the US women’s football team won the World Cup. Devoney Looser, the roller derby queen of academia, enjoys “a brief opportunity to revel in America’s better strengths”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do the kids – in these times of identity politics – still read Updike? The answer is “probably not”. But should they? Claire Lowdon makes the case; Toby Lichtig discusses Chelsea Manning, the US Army data analyst turned whistle-blower, and a new documentary on her life; Eric Rauchway considers the prevalence of pro-Nazi feeling and policy in 1940s America and beyond Novels 1959–1965: The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, The Centaur, Of the Farm, by John Updike (Library of America)XY Chelsea, directed by Tim Travers HawkinsHitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s supporters in the United States, by Bradley HartThe Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a village caught in between, by Michael Dobbs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thea Lenarduzzi on the cultural history of gesture and body language; What is Chaucer to us today? When did he become known as the "Father of English poetry", and what did he get up to when he was not writing rude and memorable poetry? Julia Boffey explains; the Stonewall uprising in New York is remembered as a pivotal moment in LGBTQ rights – fifty years on, Hugh Ryan revisits the history Books Dictionary of Gestures: Expressive comportments and movements in use around the world by François CaradecSilent History: Body language and nonverbal identity, 1860–1914, by Peter K. AnderssonThe Stonewall Riots: A documentary history, edited by Marc SteinThe Stonewall Reader, edited by the New York Public LibraryPride: Photographs after Stonewall by Fred W. McDarrahLove and Resistance: Out of the closet into the Stonewall era, edited by Jason Baumann Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TLS contributors – including David Baddiel, Mary Beard, Paul Muldoon and Elizabeth Lowry – give their seasonal reading recommendations; TLS editors wreak havoc and suggest their own. (Visit the-tls.co.uk to read the summer books feature in full.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A "new" ending to a Nabokov novel and the unregarded first volume of Vasily Grossman's epic, the "Soviet War and Peace"; Rebecca Reich guides us through these and the question of whether the West is paranoid about Russia or vice versa; Laura Freeman joins us to talk about dinner with the Durrells and pond life sandwiches.BooksStalingrad: A novel by Vasily GrossmanVasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra PopoffPlots against Russia by Eliot BorensteinThe Russia Anxiety by Mark B. SmithDining with the Durrells by David Shimwell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If capitalism is broken, can it be fixed? And can it save the environment? Joseph E. Stiglitz discusses; as we mark seventy-five years since the D-Day landings, William Boyd considers a brilliant new "worm's-eye view" of historical events; a decade after leaving academia for the "wilderness of writing", Stephen Marche returns to report on the troubled field of the humanitiesThe Future of Capitalism: Facing the new anxieties by Paul CollierCapitalism: The future of an illusion by Fred L. BlockMoney and Government: A challenge to mainstream economics by Robert SkidelskyNormandy ’44: D-Day and the battle for France by James Holland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anna Katharina Schaffner on the cultural history of fat and fat phobia; the TLS's travel editor Catharine Morris on why Paris will always be disappointing, the solitude of open spaces, and the problem with "Victor" the archetypal travel writer; an extract from the 2019 Man Booker International prize-winning Celestial Bodies by Jokha al-Harthi, read by the novel's translator Marilyn Booth BooksFat: A cultural history of the stuff of life by Christopher E. ForthThe Truth About Fat by Anthony WarnerFearing the Black Body: The racial origins of fat phobia by Sabrina StringsWe’ll Never Have Paris, edited by Andrew GallixThe Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel EhrlichHeida: A shepherd at the edge of the world by Steinunn Sigurðardóttir and Heiða Ásgeirsdóttír, translated by Philip RoughtonWhere the Hornbeam Grows: A journey in search of a garden by Beth LynchThe Cambridge History of Travel Writing, edited by Nandini Das and Tim YoungsCelestial Bodies by Jokha al-Harthi, translated by Marilyn Booth Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Omani novelist Jokha al-Harthi and the translator Marilyn Booth won this year's Man Booker International prize for fiction in translation, for the novel Celestial Bodies, an account of three sisters living in the village of al-Awafi in an Oman on the brink of change. A couple of days after the announcement, at Waterstones book shop in Piccadilly, the winners spoke to the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak about the novel, Arabic culture and modernisation, translation, and women’s wisdom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark the bicentenary of Queen Victoria's birth, the TLS's history editor David Horspool guides us through all manner of Victorian matters, including the Widow of Windsor's mastery of soft power, how different things might have been had she been born a boy, how the Victorians amused themselves, and the Rebecca Riots; we also have a symposium in this week's paper, asking writers and thinkers – including Steven Pinker and Bernardine Evaristo – to tell us about the important books from their childhoods. To discuss this – and to share our own youthful reading – we're joined in the studio by a [insert collective noun here] of TLS editors Go to www.the-tls.co.uk/ to read a selection of articles from our Victorian special issue, and much more.Our symposium was prompted by an initiative – Books To Inspire – launched by Hay Festival Wales, aiming to compile a crowd-sourced list of titles to inspire the next generation. Find out more at hayfestival.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The comedian and writer Helen Lederer joins us to discuss gender and comedy and the new Comedy Women In Print Prize; Lucy Dallas considers a clutch of novels in which animals might offer a little respite from human company; the TLS’s philosophy editor Tim Crane guides us through the riches of this week’s philosophy issue, including how the advent of biological immortality might augur “the greatest inequality experienced in all human history” and what happened when Michel Foucault took LSD in Death Valley To Leave with the Reindeer by Olivia Rosenthal, translated by Sophie LewisAnimalia by Jean-Baptiste del Amo, translated by Frank WynneThe Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini, translated by Michael F. Moore“The last mortals: why we are especially unfortunate to die, when our near-descendants could be immortal", by Regini Rini – see this week’s TLS (in print and online)Foucault in California: A true story, wherein the great French philosopher drops acid in the Valley of Death by Simeon Wade Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.