Podcast Episodes
Back to Search718 Jim - The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn's Comrade (with Shelley Fisher Fishkin) | Mark Twain's Dreams
Episode 718
In this episode, Jacke talks to eminent Twain scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain and African-American Voices) about her new …
10 months, 1 week ago
717 Einstein and Kafka (with Ken Krimstein) | Dr Johnson Helps a Friend (and Changes the Course of Literary History) | My Last Book with Fernando Pessoa Expert Bartholomew Ryan
Episode 717
It's an action-packed day at the History of Literature! First, Jacke recounts the story of Dr. Johnson racing to the aid of his friend, the playwrigh…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
716 Icelandic Folk Legends (with Dagrun Osk Jonsdottir) | John le Carre at the Bodleian
Episode 716
Since the first permanent settlers landed there more than a thousand years ago, Iceland has been perhaps the most unique and enchanting place in all …
10 months, 2 weeks ago
715 How Did George Eliot and the Victorians Respond to Climate Collapse? (with Nathan Hensley) | People at Museums Are Losing Their Brains! | My Last Book with Stephen Browning and Simon Thomas
Episode 715
What does it feel like to live helplessly in a world that is coming undone? If you're alive in 2025, you are probably very familiar with this feeling…
10 months, 3 weeks ago
714 The Real Charles Dickens (with Stephen Browning and Simon Thomas) | Dickens and the Theatre
Episode 714
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) led one of the most colorful and interesting lives of any author. But while many of us are familiar with his unforgettabl…
10 months, 3 weeks ago
713 The Odyssey (with Daniel Mendelsohn) | The History of Literature Podcast Tour!
Episode 713
Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest surviving works of literature - and yet, somehow, it can also feel like one of the newest. The inventive narrati…
10 months, 4 weeks ago
712 Shakespeare's Greatest Love (with David Medina) | New Play About Shakespeare's Collaboration with Marlowe
Episode 712
He might be the greatest writer about love that the world has ever known. But as is so often the case with Shakespeare, the biographical record raise…
11 months ago
711 How Does Literature Handle Atrocities? (with Bruce Robbins) | My Last Book with Hemingway Expert Alex Vernon | Who Will Come to Jacke and Emma's Party?
Episode 711
For millennia, literature has represented humanity at its finest. Over the same period of time, human beings have been committing the worst acts of m…
11 months ago
710 Weird and Wonderful Stories from Ancient Greece and Rome (with Paul Chrystal) | A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT | Two Listeners Follow Their Dream (And Create Something Amazing)
Episode 710
It's another action-packed episode! First, Jacke relays the story of a long-time listener who worked some mundane jobs before becoming an artistic bo…
11 months, 1 week ago
709 Black American Humor (with Damon Young) | The Greatest American Joke Ever Told?
Episode 709
DAMON YOUNG (What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays) is a Pittsburgh writer and humorist. In this episode, Jacke talks to Damo…
11 months, 2 weeks ago