The TLS Podcast

TLS editors discuss some memorable arts events from the past twelve months; plus, food and drink in literature and a preview of the TLS's Christmas double issue, including how to do German food, M. F. K. Fisher, French food slang, pub stories, and a deconstruction of the traditional British Christmas dinner  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucy Atkins charts our changing relationship with Orcinus orca, from "demon dolphin" to cuddly icon; Ruth Scurr on the lives and unlikely friendship of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn BooksOrca: How we came to know and love the ocean’s greatest predator by Jason M. ColbyJohn Evelyn: A life of domesticity by John Dixon Hunt The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn by Margaret Willes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Caines on the little-known romantic William Gilbert, a “man of fine genius” (according to William Wordsworth) who had “unfortunately received a few rays of supernatural light through a crack in his upper story”; Daniel Beer tells the tale of the Gulag at Solovki, a converted monastery known as “the Paris of the Northern concentration camps”, a place of brutality but also of resistant culture and ideas; finally, Laurence Scott considers the cultural history of shoeshining, from Dickens to Police Squad BooksWilliam Gilbert and Esoteric Romanticism by Paul CheshireIntellectual Life and Literature at Solovki, 1923–1930: The Paris of the northern concentration camps by Andrea Gullotta Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forty years since the controversial Spanish constitution of 1978, Rupert Shortt, Hispanic editor at the TLS, discusses the painful evolution of democracy in Spain; Siobhan Magee considers our problematic relationship with farmed animals, namely dairy cows, and crops, such as palm oil; Dwight Garner, a literary critic at the New York Times, offers glimpses into his commonplace book, in which four decades of favourite quotations converse with each otherBooksThe Cow with Ear Tag #1389 by Kathryn GillespiePalma Africana by Michael Taussig Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A handful of TLS editors gather for the yearly process of picking through contributors' Books of the Year selections, and nominate their own books to remember; Serhii Plokhy, the winner of this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for 'Chernobyl: The history of a nuclear catastrophe', speaks to the TLS's History editor David HorspoolSelected booksThe Western Wind by Samantha HarveyCharles de Gaulle: A certain idea of France by Julian JacksonNormal People by Sally RooneyMurmur by Will EavesCirce by Madeline MillerTalking To Women by Nell DunnGhost Wall by Sarah MossThe Collected Letters of Flann O’Brien, edited by Maebh LongGrant by Ron Chernow  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mary Beard joins us to answer the question: Is it accurate to call Donald Trump a fascist?, while the TLS's fiction and politics editor Toby Lichtig discusses how the President is presented, in books and on film; and Julia Bell looks back on her Oxford entrance interview - with no fondness - and wonders: "Was it a trap or a test?"BooksFear: Trump in the White House by Bob WoodwardThe Fifth Risk by Michael LewisNobody hates Trump more than Trump by David Shields  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, the TLS's History editor David Horspool talks us through books, exhibitions and events that commemorate cataclysmic slaughter and scars that endure to this day; it’s easy to think of privacy invasion as a peculiarly modern phenomenon, but it has its own history dating back to the American Civil War – Sarah Igo tells us more; finally, the food writer Bee Wilson discusses two new cookbooks that capture a “fresh mood of experiment in the kitchen”Works discussedPandora’s Box: A history of the First World War, by Jörn Leonhard (translated by Patrick Camiller)Robert Graves: From Great War poet to ‘Good-Bye to All That’, 1895–1929 by Jean Moorcroft WilsonMaking a New World (across the Imperial War Museum, London, and the Imperial War Museum North)Plus reviews and original pieces published in the TLS, including “What did Tommy read: The complex mental worlds of soldiers on the Western Front” by Bill Bell – go to the-TLS.co.uk for detailsSight Smell Touch Taste Sound:  A new way to cook by Sybil KapoorLateral Cooking by Niki Segnit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Mike Leigh's film of the Peterloo massacre of 1819 is released, Clare Pettitt revisits the history; Marina Benjamin offers a personal and literary account of the threshold between sleep and wakefulness; following the publication of a second volume of Sylvia Plath's letters, Hannah Sullivan looks for fresh insights into the poet's work, life and death; finally, Sam Riviere reads his new poem, "Sushi Tuesday"Works discussedPeterloo, directed by Mike LeighInsomnia by Marina BenjaminThe Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume I (1940-1956) and Volume II (1956-1963), edited by Peter K. Steinberg and Karen V. Kukil Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are authors, reviewers and publicists wasting their time on book coverage? The contemporary conversation about books and ideas goes way beyond traditional features and interviews. Book groups, academic seminars, Amazon user reviews, Goodreads, the press, radio, podcasts, and sometimes even TV: the form, tone and quality of coverage has infinite variety. But how much does any of it help the books business – if it can be measured at all? Do authors, reviewers, and publicists feel their efforts are worthwhile? Michael Caines, an editor at the TLS, chairs an eclectic panel for a crucial conversation about the conversation around books. (This a live recording of an event, in collaboration with BookMachine, which took place on October 3, 2018, at the Driver, Kings Cross, London) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elaine Showalter on a history of obscenity and censorship and the largely futile efforts of a US Postal Inspector; Ladee Hubbard on five years of Black Lives Matter and the myth of an egalitarian, post-racial America; Kassia St Clair on women, weaving and the rewriting of historyBooksLust on Trial: Censorship and the rise of obscenity in the age of Anthony Comstock by Amy Werbel The Fire This Time: A new generation speaks about race, edited by Jesmyn WardMy Brother Moochie: Regaining dignity in the face of crime, poverty and racism in the American South by Isaac J. Bailey  The Golden Thread: How fabric changed history by Kassia St Clair   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.