The LRB Podcast

Clair Wills talks to Tom about Netherne psychiatric hospital, where her mother and grandparents worked, and which became a national centre for art therapy. Wills asks how asylums such as Netherne – ‘total institutions’ as Erving Goffman described them – became normalised, and considers the role of art in revealing people’s experiences of them. They also discuss Wills’s related piece about the scandal of the Irish Mother and Baby Homes, published in the LRB in May.Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/willspodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20bMusic by Kieran Brunt / Produced by Anthony Wilks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom talks to Charles Nicholl about the craze in the 1590s for plays representing real-life murder on the London stage, from the first known example, Arden of Faversham, to the genre's influence on Hamlet, Macbeth and, perhaps, the death of Christopher Marlowe.Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/truecrimepodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20bMusic by Kieran Brunt / Produced by Anthony Wilks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rosemary Hill talks to Tom about the painter John Craxton: why he wasn’t a romantic, why he wasn’t interested in being famous, and his relationship with Lucian Freud, who very much was. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom talks to Colin Burrow about a new book by Christopher Ricks, regarded by some as the greatest living literary critic. They also look back at his previous studies of, among others, Milton, T.S. Eliot and Bob Dylan, and consider the rewards and limitations of the Ricks critical method, characterised by close verbal analysis.Find related articles on episode page: https://lrb.me/rickspodLRB AudioDiscover audiobooks, Close Readings and more from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiolrbpodGet in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.ukMusic by Kieran Brunt / Episode produced by Eliane Glaser / Series Producer: Anthony Wilks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Runciman talks to Thomas Jones about Silicon Valley’s best known investor-provocateur, his prescience, his mistakes, and why, despite his ultra-libertarian ideology, he owes so much to the state.Listen without ads, and find further reading, on our website: https://lrb.me/thielpodLRB AudioDiscover audiobooks, Close Readings and more from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiolrbpodGet in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.ukMusic by Kieran Brunt / Episode produced by Eliane Glaser / Series Producer: Anthony Wilks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dominic West reads Patrick Leigh Fermor's piece about the olive harvest on the Mani peninsula, written in the 1950s but first published in 2021 in the LRB.Read it here: https://lrb.me/leighfermorpodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://lrb.me/travel Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daniel Soar talks to Thomas Jones about the sixth taste, variously translated as ‘mouthfulness’, ‘thickness’ and ‘lingeringness’, apparently discovered by the Japanese company Ajinomoto, and its origins in the twisty and opaque story of MSG in North America.Read Daniel Soar's piece here: https://lrb.me/kokumipodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lydia Davis reads her essay on Arles, recorded for the Trilling Lecture at Columbia University in 2019.Read the piece here: https://lrb.me/lydiadavisarlespodSubscribe to the LRB and get a 79% discount: https://lrb.me/travel Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Colm Tóibín reads his diary from November 2020, about visiting Venice during the pandemic.Read the piece here: https://lrb.me/aloneinvenicepodSubscribe to the LRB and save 79% on the cover price: https://lrb.me/travel Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first of four summer readings visiting different places in Europe, Rosemary Hill explores the history of London's West End.Read the piece here: https://lrb.me/hillwestendpodSubscribe to the LRB and save 79% off the cover price: https://lrb.me/travel Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.