The LRB Podcast

Weekly conversations drawn from the pages of the LRB, with hosts Thomas Jones, Adam Shatz and Malin Hay.

Closing Time for the Firm

Jonathan Meades and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

20 September 2022 · 35mins

Writer and filmmaker Jonathan Meades introduces and reads his review of Tina Brown's book about the royal family, The Palace Papers, from April this year.

Grief Totalitarianism

James Butler, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

13 September 2022 · 49mins

James Butler and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite talk to Tom about Britain's new monarch and Prime Minister.

Are you a hoarder?

Jon Day and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

6 September 2022 · 38mins

Jon Day talks to Tom about the history and psychology of the accumulation of objects, from Anglo-Saxon treasure to the Collyer twins of Harlem, by way of Freud, Marie Kondo and Day’s own father. When does clutter become a hoard? Are we all digital hoarders now? And should we worry about it?

Green Growth and Degrowth

Geoff Mann and James Butler, 30 October 2024

30 August 2022 · 48mins

Geoff Mann talks to James Butler about 'green growth' and 'de-growth' and how they might challenge the dominance of GDP growth in political decision making

Between Mykolaiv and Kherson

James Meek and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

17 August 2022 · 53mins

James Meek, recently returned from Mykolaiv, talks to Tom about the area of southern Ukraine that has become a crucial battleground in the war, as Russian forces seek to maintain control of the land they’ve occupied west of the Dnieper, and the Ukrainians try to push them back across the river.

Two German Frauds

John Lanchester and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

9 August 2022 · 46mins

John Lanchester talks to Tom about the recent scandals involving two DAX-listed companies, Volkswagen and Wirecard, and the ways in which they challenge the stereotypes of German business.

Four Hundred Years of Women's Football

Emma John, Natasha Chahal and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

2 August 2022 · 45mins

Emma John and Natasha Chahal join Tom to discuss England’s victory in Euro 2022, the long history of women’s football – mentioned in a poem by Philip Sidney in the 16th century, banned by the FA for half of the 20th – and what may happen next.

On Desert Island Discs

Miranda Carter and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

26 July 2022 · 39mins

Miranda Carter talks to Tom about the history of the world’s longest-running interview show, Desert Island Discs.

China's Gold Rush Migrants

Andrew Liu and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

19 July 2022 · 43mins

Andrew Liu talks to Tom about the Chinese workers who followed the gold rush to California, Australia and South Africa in the 19th century, as described in a new book by Mae Ngai, The Chinese Question.

After Johnson

James Butler and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

12 July 2022 · 49mins

James Butler joins Tom to consider the fall of Boris Johnson, the candidates hoping to replace him, and what the next few years of British politics might look like.

On Roe v. Wade

Laura Beers, Deborah Friedell and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

5 July 2022 · 48mins

Laura Beers and Deborah Friedell talk to Tom about the recent decision by the US Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson, which removed the constitutional right to abortion.

Modern-ish Poets: Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford, 30 October 2024

28 June 2022 · 1hr

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the lives and works of two poets, Frank O’Hara and John Ashbery, close friends and leading lights of the New York School, who sought to create an anti-academic poetry, hedonistic and free of the puritan American tradition, and attentive to their personal differences from mainstream experience.

Palm Oil Dependency

Bee Wilson and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

21 June 2022 · 36mins

Bee Wilson talks to Tom about palm oil, which can be found in everything from pot noodles to shaving foam.

Great Replacement Theory

Adam Shatz, Sindre Bangstad and Reza Zia-Ebrahimi, 30 October 2024

14 June 2022 · 52mins

Adam Shatz, the LRB’s US editor, talks to Sindre Bangstad and Reza Zia-Ebrahimi about the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, from its origins in the high tide of French colonial expansionism in the 19th century and propagation through writers such as Jean Raspail and Renaud Camus, to its influence on mass murderers in Norway, New Zealand and the United States.

At the Bataclan Trial

Madeleine Schwartz and Thomas Jones, 30 October 2024

7 June 2022 · 34mins

Madeleine Schwartz talks to Tom about the trial of twenty men accused of involvement in the Paris terrorist attacks of 13 November 2015, which left 130 dead.