The TLS Podcast

David Baddiel – comedian and, as per his Twitter profile, Jew – joins us to discuss whether Jewishness is inherently funny; as Italians prepare to elect their next prime minister (an unenviable choice between undesirables and impossibles), Tim Parks – author, translator, and resident of Italy – talks us through the excessively complicated mess that is Italy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just how odd was Isaac Newton? Quite, it turns out, because as well as being one of history’s greatest mathematicians, he was also an alchemist and a millenarian, happily wallowing in conspiracy theories – Oliver Moody joins us to tell us more; did the Cold War ever end? Not as straightforward a question as you might think – the historian David Motadel considers a controversial new book; and finally, Thea Lenarduzzi discusses Greta Gerwig and her Oscar-nominated film Lady Bird   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special episode – a live recording of an event at Hay Festival, in Cartagena, Colombia, earlier this year – features a discussion with two novelists: Fiona Mozley, whose Booker-shortlisted novel Elmet caused a stir last year, and Lisa McInerney, an Irish writer described by the TLS as “busily combining the traditions of hardcore Irish crime writing with fast-talking foul-mouthed wit and gentle good humour”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The "ape bumfodder" of one man (Philip Larkin) is another man's treasure – Susan Irvine makes the case for the relevance of Old English literature in the modern world (and leaves us with a beautiful reading of "The Husband's Message", a poem told from the perspective of a wooden staff...); the Whiggish idea of constant societal improvement has, as its most high-profile advocate, Steven Pinker, whose 'The Better Angels of our Nature' caused a stir in 2011. Now he's back with 'Enlightenment Now', another data-heavy work of optimism – David Wootton weighs up the evidence Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi are joined in the studio by political commentator Zoe Williams to discuss the future of Corbynism, Brexit, Lexit, and British politics more broadly; and, to mark the 100th anniversary of British women’s suffrage, Emelyne Godfrey sheds light on the mosaic of approaches that led, eventually, to something worth celebrating in all its complexity Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TLS editor Michael Caines meets Gregory Norminton, the author of a collection of aphorisms, two translations of classic French books for children, two collections of short stories and four novels – including, most recently, The Devil’s Highway – that range across history, from the medieval period up to that far more horrific time known as the early 1990s Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi are joined by Kathryn Hughes, to discuss whether and where Charlotte Brontë meets Jane Eyre; Katharine Craik looks back on Shakespeare's mysterious, and 'weirdly memorable', sonnets; Kate Brown on the social-media-fuelled Ukrainian uprising of 2013, the David-and-Goliath battle that followed, and the view from 2018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Stig Abell and Lucy Dallas. We are joined by Maren Meinhardt to discuss the unrequited love, and painful experiments on frogs, of Prussian polymath Alexander von Humboldt; Ruth Scurr assesses the literary legacy of Julian Barnes; and Joyce Chaplin reveals the seething malevolence beneath American "niceness". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi are joined in the studio by Daisy Dunn to discuss the history of the written word (yes, all of it), from the Chinese invention of paper in 100 BC to the advent of a new BuzzFeed-y style guide; What was Stalin's real purpose? Lewis Siegelbaum considers Stalin's middle years in light of a new instalment of Stephen Kotkin’s epic biography. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi are joined in the studio by Marcel Theroux to discuss why a mysterious nineteenth-century Russian writer-explorer may have forged a tale about Jesus in India; the Palestinian writer Linah Alsaafin considers the (f)utility of writing about Israeli occupation, via recent efforts including Kingdom of Olives and Ash, edited by Michael Chabon and Avelet Waldman; Francesca Happé tells us what it means to be 'on the autism spectrum' and how gender affects diagnosis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.