Episodes

It's hard to imagine now, but the United States government wasn't always hostile or indifferent to the arts. In fact, from 1935 to 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal Government responded to the Great Depression by staging over a thousand theatrical productions in 29 states that were seen by thirty million (or nearly one in four) Americans, two thirds of whom had never seen a play before. How did Roosevelt's administration come to hire over twelve thousand struggling artists, in...

Medieval manuscripts are so wondrously beautiful they deserve comparison with the world's finest works of art. But what was behind the production of these manuscripts? We might think of rows of monks, patiently toiling away in a hushed chamber - but that would be to ignore the actual conditions of book production. Sara Charles (The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages) takes Jacke into the dirty, smelly, boring, and back-breaking world of an actual medieval scriptorium. PLUS Dan...

Yes, he's the father of English poetry, and yes, he's perhaps best known today for bawdy tales like the Wife of Bath. But who was Geoffrey Chaucer? How did he navigate life during one of the most turbulent periods of English history? And how did he become known as "the merry bard"? In this episode, Jacke talks to biographer Mary Flannery about her new book, Geoffrey Chaucer: Unveiling the Merry Bard. Additional listening suggestions: 523 Geoffrey Chaucer (with Marion Turner) 496 The Wi...

Bibliophiles everywhere know the sweet feeling of getting lost in a book. And like all good literary snobs, we tend to think that full immersion requires a distraction-free relationship between reader and text. But was it always so? After examining early modern French literature, Geoffrey Turnovsky (Reading Typographically: Immersed in Print in Early Modern France) thinks that the answer might not be so simple. In this episode, Jacke and Geoffrey discuss the stereotypes and myths centering aroun...

For fifty years, Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann (1875-1955) lived his life as Germany's preeminent novelist and one of Europe's most respected intellectuals. In this episode, Jacke examines the truth behind the public image, as the author of Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain, and Mario and the Magician dealt with artistic triumphs, bitter defeats, repressed sexual desires, family turmoil, relentless tragedies, political dangers, exile to America, and ultimately, an uneasy literar...

We asked, you answered! In response to a listener recommendation, we revisit a conversation from 2017 in which Mike and Jacke discuss Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and Eleanor Coppola's Hearts of Darkness. PLUS novelist Fred Waitzkin (Searching for Bobby Fisher, Anything Is Good) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Enjoy this? Try these from our archive: 110 Heart of Darkness - Then and Now 619 Fred Waitzkin on...

Who was Emily Dickinson? We think we know her, or at least one side of her, from her poems. But what was she like when she wasn't writing poetry? What was she like with her friends and family? In this episode, we talk to editor Cristanne Miller about her book The Letters of Emily Dickinson, which presents all 1,304 of Dickinson's extant letters. Enjoyed this episode? You might like to try some of these episodes: 120 The Astonishing Emily Dickinson 418 "Because I Could Not Stop for Deat...

Dealing with reality can be difficult enough, but when the nature of that reality is completely overturned - as it is in a case like the climate crisis - people are left with a feeling of intense uncertainty. What does this mean for us? How do we cope? How, in other words, do we psychologically absorb a revelation that threatens to overwhelm everything we believe about ourselves and our place in the universe? In this episode, Jacke talks to Allen MacDuffie about his new book Climate of Denial: D...

For more than two thousand years, the Bible has been an essential part of the world's conception of humanity and its relationship to God. But although it is in some sense timeless and eternal - literally the word of God - the Bible has always meant different things to different people, as individual communities have regarded this sacred book through their own language and culture. In this episode, Jacke talks to Biblical scholar Bruce Gordon about his new book The Bible: A Global History, which ...

Discussions of Ernest Hemingway tend to focus on the peaks of his career, which are typically centered around his most famous novels. But Hemingway was busy in between those novels too, writing articles, short stories, and letters to friends and professional acquaintances. In this episode, Jacke talks to Sandra Spanier, general editor of the monumental Hemingway Letters project, about the lesser known (but eventful) period in Hemingway's life and career covered in The Letters of Ernest Hemingway...

For almost sixty years, Norman Mailer was a fixture on the American literary scene, seemingly as well known for his feuds and personal exploits as he was for his prize-winning novels and groundbreaking journalism. But what was the man really like? As the Library of America commemorates the life and career of Norman Mailer with an edition of his early masterpiece The Naked and the Dead, Jacke talks to the editor of that book, J. Michael Lennon, who was intimately associated with Mailer as both fr...

Recently, we talked to novelist Jodi Picoult about her contention that many of the works commonly attributed to Shakespeare were actually written by a woman named Emilia Bassano (a.k.a. Aemilia Lanyer). But even as that compelling theory awaits definitive proof, we already know of several women - Shakespeare's contemporaries - who overcame obstacles and wrote their way through a male-dominated literary world. In this episode, Jacke talks to scholar Ramie Targoff (Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women...

Was Shakespeare gay? Will Tosh, head of research at Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London, says that question has an easy answer - but more importantly, when it comes to understanding Shakespeare's sexuality, it isn't really the right question to ask. In this episode, Jacke talks to Will about his book Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare, which puts Shakespeare's artistry in the context of Elizabethan England's attitudes toward sex, intimacy, and identity. PLUS Jacke g...

For thousands of years, desperate writers have struggled with the condition known as writer's block. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist Kate Feiffer about her book Morning Pages, in which a playwright on a tight deadline tries Julia Cameron's trick of starting her day with some stream-of-consciousness writing - with results that threaten to be more hilarious than productive. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature P...

Is it really true? Did the Elizabethan poet Emilia Bassano (sometimes known as Aemelia Lanyer) actually write Shakespeare's works? A bestselling novelist thinks so - and she's turned her research-based theories into an entertaining and thought-provoking work of fiction. In this episode, Jacke talks to Jodi Picoult about her new book BY ANY OTHER NAME, which tells the story of a modern-day playwright who discovers her ancestor Emilia Bassano's tantalizing connection to Shakespeare and the works t...

It's one of the most famous and admired short stories that Ernest Hemingway ever wrote - and also one of the most controversial. In this episode, Hemingway expert Mark Cirino (host of the One True Podcast) joins Jacke for a discussion of "Hills Like White Elephants," in which a terse exchange between two lovers in a remote Spanish train station reveals a profound moral and existential crisis. (NOTE: Never read the story? Or maybe it's been a while? Fear not! The episode also contains a reading o...

As fans of literature, we all know how powerful and effective storytelling can be. But can we harness that power to help us communicate in our daily lives? In this episode, Jacke talks to Matt Abrahams (Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot) about the lessons we can learn from literature - and how we can leverage an understanding of storytelling structure to help us succeed both personally and professionally. PLUS Mike Palindrome joins Jacke for a disc...

Since the publication of Little Women in 1868, millions of readers have gotten to know (and love) Louisa May Alcott through her fiction. But in her own day, Alcott was well known as an essayist who wrote on a wide range of subjects, including her father's failed utopian commune and her experience as a Civil War army nurse. In this episode, Jacke talks to Alcott biographer and editor Liz Rosenberg (Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: A Life of Louisa May Alcott) about her new book, A St...

Theater is by nature ephemeral: even the greatest of performances are fleeting, thrilling a single audience before disappearing into history. But what if you could travel through time and space to be present at any production? Where would you go, and what would you see? In this episode, friend of the podcast Laurie Frankel (Family, Family) helps Jacke choose the ten best performances they wish they'd seen. PLUS theater expert James Shapiro stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will...

The Hakkenden, or Eight Dogs is one of the classics of Japanese literature. In this episode, Jacke talks to translator Glynne Walley about this massive - and massively popular and influential - nineteenth-century novel about eight warriors who band together to defend a princess's clan. PLUS Jacke takes a look at the years when the Olympics awarded medals to artists as well as athletes - including the surprising winner of the first Olympic gold medal in literature. Help support the show at ...

Lesbians have been around for thousands of years (at least!), but their voices have often fallen victim to censorship, oppression, and ostracization. In this episode, Jacke talks to author Amelia Possanza, whose new book Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir in Archives describes Possanza's research into seven love stories for the ages. What can these lesbians from the past, who persisted against numerous obstacles, teach us about love, care, and community? PLUS Jacke takes a look at Emily Dickinson's fa...

For Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy was "the greatest of all novelists," and her argument was simple: "[W]hat else can we call the author of War and Peace?" In this episode, Jacke takes a look at Tolstoy's original plans for the novel; the unusual nature of the book, which Henry James called a "loose, baggy monster"; the contributions of Tolstoy's wife Sophia; the reception at the time (and ever since); how Tolstoy was both right and wrong about what the book ultimately accomplished; and more. ...

What was the deal with the Victorians and their obsession with reanimating corpses? How did writers like Mary Shelley, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, Bram Stoker, and others breathe life into the undead - and why did they do it? We can attribute their efforts to the present's desire to remake the past in its own image - but what does that mean exactly? In this episode, Jacke talks to Professor Renée Fox about her book The Necromantics: Reanimation, the Historical Imagination, and ...

Novelist Fred Waitzkin (Searching for Bobby Fischer) stops by to discuss Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, and his new novel Anything Is Good, which tells the story of a childhood friend who was a genius - and who ended up living among the unhoused for years. PLUS Michael Blanding (In Shakespeare's Shadow: A Rogue Scholar's Quest to Reveal the True Source Behind the World's Greatest Plays) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Help support the show at patreon.com/l...