The TLS Podcast

Are we entering a new age for LSD, full of medical potential? Can it shed its heavily tie-dyed cultural baggage? And who has written the finest prose about psychedelics? Toby Lichtig joins us to discuss; Eri Hotta (re)introduces us to Natsume Sōseki, "the greatest novelist of modern Japan"; Kate Chisholm considers the chequered history of Virago, founded in 1973 as a "feminist press", plus 40 years of Modern Classics, a series conceived to challenge the established male dominated literary canon and rescue and rehabilitate forgotten works by women Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Stig Abell and Roz Dineen. Steven Nadler drops in to tell us all we need to know about the much-misunderstood Descartes; and En Liang Khong visits the Foundling museum to see an installation about how to commemorate loss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emily Brontë, celebrated author of Wuthering Heights, discusses her life and iconic work. Topics include the enduring legacy of Wuthering Heights, sympathy for Heathcliff, the role of books, Savile Row magic tricks, the journey of tailor Tommy Nutter, and the iconic fashion style of George.

“How much do you make things happen or let them happen to you?” “Can women be happy alone?” – questions such as these form the basis of a series of interviews with women, from heiresses to factory workers, conducted in the 1960s by the British writer Nell Dunn; as a reissue of Talking To Women appears Kate Webb introduces us to this seminal feminist text. And Patricia J. Williams discusses the role and lingering influence of the  Progressive Era's 'American Plan' to stamp out immorality through policies including compulsory STD tests and government-endorsed sterilizationBooksTalking To Women by Nell DunnFixing the Poor: Eugenic sterilization and child welfare in the twentieth century by Molly Ladd-Taylor The Trials of Nina McCall: Sex, surveillance, and the decades-long government plan to imprison 'promiscuous' women by  Scott W. Stern  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Leith, the books editor of the Spectator, and Stig Abell discuss their mutual appreciation of the crime novels of Lee Child. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re joined in the studio by TLS editors for arts, features and fiction, respectively, Lucy Dallas, Roz Dineen and Toby Lichtig, to pick through a selection of TLS writers’ summer reading choices – from reworked Classical myths to Deadpool comics – before offering a taste of our own, including books by Sally Rooney, Bruno Latour and an account of witchcraft and agrarian cults in early modern Italy. Go to the-TLS.co.uk to read our summer books feature in full. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year marks half a century since the establishment of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The TLS’s Fiction editor Toby Lichtig joins us to debate the point of literary prizes and discuss the most under- (or over-) rated winners; Joan C. Williams, the author of last year’s White Working Class: Overcoming class cluelessness in America, considers the political consequences of class divides in the US and BritainBooksThe White Working Class: What everyone needs to know by Justin GestMaking Sense of the Alt-Right by George Hawley Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Winton discusses his new novel, The Shepherd's Hut, with the TLS's Fiction editor Toby Lichtig. Go to the-tls.co.uk to read an exclusive extract from the novel.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Critic and novelist Margaret Drabble joins us to review the life and work of Muriel Spark, whose centenary we mark this year; Samuel Graydon discusses a new exhibition on J. R. R. Tolkien, including drawings and doodles, language trees and fan mail; the TLS's History editor David Horspool introduces a selection of new work on the medieval periodWorks discussedThe Centenary Edition of the Novels of Muriel Spark, edited by Alan TaylorTolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth, an exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, with accompanying book by Catherine McIlwaine‘Finding Henry – Why England’s most powerful medieval monarch should be better remembered’ by Claudia Gold, in this week’s TLSMedieval Bodies: Life, death and art in the Middle Ages by Jack HartnellSea of Caliphs: The Mediterranean in the medieval Islamic world by Christophe Picard, translated by Nicholas ElliottThe Oxford English Literary History, Volume 1: 1000–1350: Conquest and Transformation by Laura Ashe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're joined by Arkady Ostrovsky to discuss Russia’s long history of using sport as a proxy for war and invasion; E. J. Iannelli draws our attention to the rise and (perhaps...) fall of the automobile in the US, and the distinctly American phenomenon of the car as teenage male rite of passageBooksMachines of Youth: America’s car obsession by Gary S. Cross  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.