In 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 episode page: https://lrb.me/siblingspodMusic by Kieran Brunt / Produced by Zoe Kilbourn, Anthony Wilks and Sam Kinchin-Smith Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miranda Carter joins Tom to talk about the life and historical fiction of Mary Renault, whose popular and ingenious retellings of stories from Ancient Greece have never been out of print. They discuss her eventful life, which took her from Edwardian East London to apartheid South Africa, and her meticulous classical reconstructions.Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/maryrenaultpodSubscribe to Close Readings Plus: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the run up to the local elections, and following his recent piece on the care crisis, James Butler joins Tom to discuss some of the other problems facing the UK, and what the two major parties are promising to do to alleviate (or exacerbate) them.Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/sorrystateSubscribe to Close Readings Plus: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Francis Gooding joins Tom to discuss Pirate Enlightenment, David Graeber’s posthumously published study of 17th- and 18th-century piracy. Golden Age pirates maintained surprisingly egalitarian working practices, Graeber argues, and legendary pirate republics may have been run on similar grounds. Tom and Francis talk about Graeber’s Madagascar-centred research, sift through myth and fact, and ask: was piracy a bullshit job?Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/pirateenlightenmentSubscribe to Close Readings Plus: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the future of TikTok increasingly uncertain in the US and other countries, Malin Hay talks to Tom about the app’s powerful reading-focused corner, BookTok: what it is, how it works, and the tropes which dominate its favourite genre, romance fiction. They also look at some recent emails from listeners.Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/booktokpodSign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspodGet in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Expanding on her recent Winter Lecture, Clair Wills talks to Tom about the stories people tell about abortions – stories conditioned by tradition, coerced by the courts, compelled by politics and shared in solidarity. They discuss some of the radical reframings and reimaginings of abortion in art, literature and private life.Find further reading, including the lecture, on the episode page: lrb.me/clairwillspodWatch the lecture on YouTube: lrb.me/abortionplotSubscribe to Close Readings: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the final episode of this series on climate chaos and reproductive justice, Meehan Crist speaks to the feminist scholar Jade Sasser. Jade discusses how advocates for population control harness the language of social justice, her students’ highly personal responses to climate change, and the ways scholarship on climate anxiety has neglected questions of race.Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/jadesasserpodRead the lecture that inspired this series: lrb.me/meehancristlectureSubscribe to Close Readings: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William Davies talks to Tom about his recent LRB Winter Lecture, looking at why reactions – facial expressions, gestures or emojis – have become the main currency of the digital public sphere. Ubiquitous surveillance and smartphones have made the spontaneous reaction a thing to be cultivated, collected and stored. How did we come to endow reaction with such significance, and what might an escape from the reaction economy look like?Watch the lecture here: https://youtu.be/bNCYo_mEzfQSign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspodGet in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the third episode of a four-part series exploring the intersection of climate chaos and reproductive justice, Meehan Crist speaks to historian Alison Bashford. Alison discusses the history of efforts to control population size, how population is thought about in the Anthropocene, and how suspending critique of the past can give valuable insight into the present.Find the full conversation and further reading at the episode page: lrb.me/bashfordpodSign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The screen legend and salad dressing philanthropist Paul Newman recorded hundreds of personal interviews before destroying the tapes. The surviving transcripts, worked into a recent memoir and documentary series, reveal a more complex Newman than his on-screen laconicism would suggest. Bee Wilson speaks to Malin Hay about Newman’s mystique – his passivity, his domesticity and his irresistible blue eyes.Find Bee's article and further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/paulnewmanpodSign up to our Close Readings podcast subscription: https://lrb.me/closereadingspodGet in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.