Episodes

Jacke talks to bestselling author Katharine Howe (editor of The Penguin Book of Pirates ) about her new novel, A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pirates, Written by Herself . PLUS an analysis of Emily Dickin...

Jacke talks to British academic librarian Christopher de Hamel about his passion for medieval manuscripts and his new book The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts . PLUS Maaheen Ahmed,...

Jacke celebrates autumn with a look at Shakespeare's Sonnet #73 ("That time of year thou mayst in me behold"), then welcomes novelist Laurie Frankel ( Family Family , One Two Three ) for a Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving discus...

Your wish is our command! Jacke talks to listener-nominated "dream guest" Dr. Jessica Kirzane about her work with Yiddish literature, including her recent translations of early twentieth-century writer Miriam Karpilove, Diary...

Jacke talks to Adrian Edwards, the lead curator of the British Library's Printed Heritage Collections, about the new book Shakespeare's First Folio: 400th Anniversary Facsimile Edition: Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, His...

It was an era known as the Golden Age of Rome, when the republic-turned-empire became the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist-turned-historian Tom Holland...

Jacke talks to scholar and biographer Lara Vetter ( H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) ) about the life and works of modernist poet and avant-garde woman Hilda Doolittle, better known by her nom de plume H.D. Help support the show at pat...

Jacke talks to "serial biographer" Carl Rollyson ( The Last Days of Sylvia Plath , The Life of William Faulkner ) about his new book, Sylvia Plath: Day by Day: Volume 1: 1932-1955 , which draws upon Plath's diaries and other ...

Jacke starts the show with a listener email and a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #238 ("How many times these low feet staggered - "). THEN author Myron Tuman ( The Stuttering Son in Literature and Psychology: Boys and Their F...

Who was Homer? And why, all these years later, do we still read his Iliad ? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Robin Lane Fox ( Homer and His Iliad ) about his lifelong passion for this classic ancient text. PLUS Katherin...

It's the early nineteenth century, and the moon is bright, the Hudson Valley forests are full of shadows, and a lonely schoolteacher heads home on his rickety horse. All those stories he's heard about a headless horseman are ...

Jacke takes a look at "America's first Man of Letters," Washington Irving (1783-1859), most famous for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." PLUS Joe Skinner of American Masters: Creative Spark...

How do we humans experience nature? And how might we experience nature differently from one another? In this episode, Jacke talks to writer, film producer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and educator Erin Shar...

The English novelist, playwright, and short story writer Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) lived a life as eventful as his prodigious literary output. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at Maugham's travels and travails, followin...

Born in 1820, the devout Quaker Anna Sewell was in her fifties - and terminally ill - when she decided to write a book that would change the way the public viewed and treated animals. Although her novel Black Beauty has since...

Shakespeare's plays and poetry are some of the most towering achievements in the history of humankind. What was Shakespeare the person like? How did he work? What made him laugh? In this episode, Jacke talks to Sir Stanley We...

Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! After taking a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #1 94 ("Title divine - is mine!"), Jacke talks to Cambridge University's Jess Cotton, whose biography of John Ashbery ( John Ashbery: A Critical Life ) cha...

Jacke takes a look at "A Haunted House," Virginia Woolf's modernist ghost story. PLUS Ford Madox Ford biographer Max Saunders ( Ford Madox Ford: A Critical Life ) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever ...

Jacke talks to novelist Shilpi Suneja about her childhood in India, her discovery of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children , and her new novel House of Caravans , which offers its own fresh look at Indian Independence and its ...

Jacke takes a look at the life and works of eighteenth-century novelist Charlotte Lennox, whose poetry, plays, novels, and criticism earned her the approbation of the best literary minds of her day. Best known for The Female ...

Just who was F. Scott Fitzgerald? How do we make sense of his many different sides? In this episode, Jacke talks to biographer Arthur Krystal about his new book Some Unfinished Chaos: The Lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald. PLUS Je...

Hardly anyone knows Ursula Parrott today, but not long ago she was close to being a household name. As a bestselling novelist of the Roaring Twenties and beyond, Parrott's life was filled with literature, celebrity, and scand...

Jacke talks to Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro about his new book, Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future , which looks at eight contentious periods in American history to see how...

Jacke talks to author William Egginton about his new book Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality , which uses the examples of three profound thinkers to explore the differences between reality "out there...