The TLS Podcast

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.

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.

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.

Robert Macfarlane joins us to discuss our "peculiar times", the memory of ice, and the world beneath out feet; Margie Orford brings our attention to South Africa at a crucial moment in its history, twenty-five years since the first democratic election and as another makes its mark; Nicola Shulman offers a new theory about race in Disney's original Dumbo, from 1941Underland: A deep time journey by Robert MacfarlaneThe Café de Move-on Blues: In search of the new South Africa by Christopher Hope Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Avengers: Endgame is released, Roz Kaveney sweeps us through the shifting cast of superheroes and, latterly, heroines that populate the Marvel Universe, considers the evolving politics of the comic-book film, and answers the question on (some) people's lips: "but why...?"; Imogen Russell Williams's introduces some of the best writing on LGBTQ themes for children and young adultsAvengers: Endgame Spiderman: Into the SpiderverseJulian Is a Mermaid by Jessica LoveAalfred and Aalbert by Morag Hood Death in the Spotlight by Robin Stevens Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by L. C. RosenProud: Stories, poetry and art on the theme of pride, compiled by Juno Dawson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ruth Scurr on the master biographer Robert A. Caro, whose subjects include Robert Moses, Lyndon B. Johnson and, now, himself; Dmitri Levitin talks us through Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, an eccentric and often inaccurate guide to early thinkers; Why bother with literary criticism? Whither this generation's Lionel Trilling? Michael LaPointe joins us to discussWorking: Researching, interviewing, writing by Robert A. CaroAmerican Audacity: In defense of literary daring by William GiraldiHater: On the virtues of utter disagreeability by John SemleyLives of the Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laertius, translated by Pamela Mensch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The novelist discusses his new book Machines Like Me with the TLS's fiction editor Toby Lichtig Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There is only one author to whom the TLS devotes an issue every year: William Shakespeare. Michael Caines talks us through the latest theories, research and reviews; Ian McEwan discusses his new novel, Machines Like Me  ‘Still a giddy neighbour’ – Shakespeare’s parish in the 1590s, by Geoffrey Marsh, the TLSThe Bible on the Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of interpretation in Renaissance England, edited by Thomas Fulton and Kristen PooleBelieving in Shakespeare: Studies in longing, by Claire McEachernReligious Conversion in Early Modern English Drama, by Lieke StellingWhat Blest Genius?: The Jubilee that made Shakespeare, by Andrew McConnell StottShakespeare’s Rise to Cultural Prominence: Politics, print and alteration, 1642–1700, by Emma DepledgeShakespeare: The theatre of our world, by Peter ConradMachines Like Me by Ian McEwan (Cape) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shauneen Lambe on ephibiphobia, fear of the teenager, and why we get youth justice wrong; Alice Bloch considers new possibilities at the frontiers of sex and robotics; George Berridge explains why now is the time to take out shares in the novelist Max Porter Why Children Follow Rules: Legal socialization and the development of legitimacy by Tom R. Tyler and Rick TrinknerJames GarbarinoMiller’s Children: Why giving teenage killers a second chance matters for all of us by James GarbarinoTurned On: Science, sex and robots by Kate DevlinGrief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, adapted by Enda Walsh (Barbican Theatre, before heading to New York)Lanny by Max Porter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.