Podcast Episodes

Aflame

We’re with writer-world’s exotic traveller and truth-teller Pico Iyer. He’s been the Dalai Lama’s friend from boyhood, and our friend, too, in years now of reading and talk. In his new book, Aflame,…

Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago

From Boston to Bethlehem

We’re here with a capsule of memory from late last year. It was a spark of generosity in Liz Walker’s story that lit up the Christmas season for lots of us, and maybe the path ahead. She’s been a pa…

Published on 9 months ago

A Geopolitical Check-Up

We’re with the one-off diplomat, strategist, and historian Chas Freeman.

Chas Freeman.

Call this “Curious Citizen Meets the Most Knowledgeable Straight-Talker Anywhere Near the U.S. Government.” …

Published on 9 months, 1 week ago

Blyth is Back

We’re with the celebrated Scots-accented people’s economist—celebrated above all when he’s home with the locals in his own old pub in Dundee, settling all the arguments there are around money and po…

Published on 9 months, 4 weeks ago

Not Your Standard Book Chat

We’re with the Nobel Prize novelist from Turkey, Orhan Pamuk. It’s not your standard book chat: closer to head-butting than conversation, as you’ll hear. But it’s polite enough and nobody gets hurt.…

Published on 10 months ago

The Roy Haynes Century

We’re saluting one man’s century in American music. Roy Haynes was the jazz drummer from Boston who shaped the bebop sound in Harlem 80 years ago. He got nicknamed Snap Crackle for his own crisp, ly…

Published on 10 months, 1 week ago

Joshua Cohen’s Camp

We’re with the writer’s writer Joshua Cohen—beyond category, but ever ahead of the game. He’s a realist, a fantasist, a satirist, New Jersey-born and at home in Israel.

Joshua Cohen.

It’s his ima…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

United States of Fear

Fintan O’Toole has made a brilliant career watching Ireland (his home country) transform itself—its Catholic culture, its vanishing population, its frail economy—into something very modern and profo…

Published on 11 months ago

Amber’s America: Love and Outrage

In the long weekend of solemn suspense before our presidential election in 2024, our guest is Amber. I met Amber on a call-in radio show almost 30 years ago, and we’ve been talking ever since. I cal…

Published on 11 months, 1 week ago

Playground

Richard Powers may just be the bravest big novelist out there. His new book is titled Playground, in which AI plays with the natural world. The question is whether and how the digital transformation…

Published on 11 months, 2 weeks ago