Podcast Episodes

Alexandre Dumas

Episode 244

Jacke takes a look at the astonishing story of Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, whose own father (who w…

5 years, 10 months ago

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Keeping Secrets! Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, and the CIA (with Lara Prescott)

Episode 257

Author Lara Prescott joins Jacke to talk about her novel The Secrets We Kept, which is based on the incredible but true story of the CIA's efforts to…

5 years, 11 months ago

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William Faulkner | Dry September

Episode 242

The fourth part of a three-part episode run! Jacke takes the advice of a listener and adds William Faulkner's "Dry September" (1931) to the Baldwin-F…

5 years, 11 months ago

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Literary Battle Royal 2 - The Cold War (U.S. vs. U.S.S.R.)

Episode 241

Sputnik! Cuba! Glasnost and perestroika! In this follow-up to the very popular England vs. France literary battle royal, Jacke and Mike choose up sid…

5 years, 11 months ago

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More Thoreau | Experiencing Nature (with Nina Shengold)

Episode 282

"We can never get enough of nature," wrote Henry David Thoreau in 1854. "I suppose that what in other men is religion is in me love of nature." A cen…

5 years, 11 months ago

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The Seven Deadly Sins

Episode 238

As with Santa's reindeer or Snow White's seven dwarves, we all know the phrase "Seven Deadly Sins" even if we struggle to remember the exact list. Bu…

5 years, 11 months ago

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Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (with Amanda Stern)

Episode 237

In the autumn of 1902, a young man attending a German military school wrote to the poet Rainer Maria Rilke to ask him for some advice. Rilke responde…

5 years, 11 months ago

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Alice Munro | The Love of a Good Woman 3

Episode 236

What does it mean to be good? What does it mean to love and be loved? What sacrifices do we make in order to bring about happiness? And how can we do…

5 years, 11 months ago

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Alice Munro | The Love of a Good Woman 2

Episode 235

Think about your life: Have you always gotten what you wanted? Have you LET yourself be happy? Have you kept secrets - from others, or even yourself?…

5 years, 11 months ago

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Alice Munro | The Love of a Good Woman

Episode 234

"She is our Chekhov," said Cynthia Ozick, "and she is going to outlast most of her contemporaries." Ozick was talking about the great Alice Munro, th…

6 years ago

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