London Review Podcasts

In the 160s CE, Rome was struck by a devastating disease which, a new book argues, may have been the world’s first pandemic. Galen began his career treating ’the protracted plague’ with viper flesh, opium and urine, but despite his extensive documentation, we still don’t know what a modern diagnosis would be. Josephine Quinn joins Malin to discuss contemporary theories about the Antonine Plague and what ice cores and amulets can tell us about the disease’s impact. Further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/romanplaguepod LRB Audio Discover the LRB's subscription podcast, Close Readings, and audiobooks: https://lrb.me/audiopod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Wittgenstein published his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1921, he claimed to have solved all philosophical problems. One problem that hasn’t been solved though is how best to translate this notoriously difficult work. The expiry of the book’s copyright in 2021 has brought three new English translations in less than a year, each grappling with the difficulties posed by a philosopher who frequently undermined his own use of language to demonstrate the limitations of what can be represented. Adrian Moore joins Malin Hay to discuss what Wittgenstein hoped to achieve with the only work he published in his lifetime and to consider how much we should trust his assertion that everything it contains is nonsensical. Find further reading and listening on the episode page: https://lrb.me/tractatuspod LRB Audio Discover the LRB's subscription podcast, Close Readings, and audiobooks: https://lrb.me/audiopod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patrick McGuinness reads his diary from our 6th June issue about his family’s hometown of Bouillon in Belgium. He reflects on the linguistic and national barriers he crossed to return there each year; on the changes wrought on the town by the end of the industrial era; and on the ways that history and global politics can shape a locality beyond recognition. Read the diary here: https://lrb.me/mcguinnesspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s the final day of the Republican National Convention. Andrew O'Hagan and Deborah Friedell dissect Trump’s marathon acceptance speech and ask what a second term could look like. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At day three of the Republican National Convention, Andrew O'Hagan and Deborah Friedell discuss what a second Trump presidency would mean for American foreign policy. They compare notes on J.D. Vance's memoir Hillbilly Elegy, and reflect on his keynote speech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew O'Hagan and Deborah Friedell return to the Republican National Convention. They explore second day's theme, Make America Safe Again, and discuss how this convention compares to the last one Andrew attended, the RNC in 2004. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew O'Hagan and Deborah Friedell report on day one of the Republican National Convention. They react to Trump's choice of vice president and reflect on the key note speech by Sean O'Brien, the first time the head of the Teamsters' Union has ever addressed the RNC. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The worst thing you can say to anyone who works in hospitality, Mendez writes, is ‘Maybe you’ll meet someone!’ But a chance encounter while waiting tables lead to their new niche. In this episode, Mendez reads their recent piece about the art of audiobook narration and how they became the voice of Pelé. Find the original piece and further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/mendezpod Learn more about the Charleston Trust: https://www.charleston.org.uk/exhibition/anne-rothenstein/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Lanchester, Tom Crewe and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite join James Butler to dissect Keir Starmer's victory and the historic collapse of the Conservative Party. They discuss what the result tells us about the needs and frustrations of the country, the ways in which the new Labour government might achieve some of the things it’s promised and why comparisons with Harold Wilson have been so prevalent. Read Tom Crewe on fourteen years of the Tories: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n12/tom-crewe/carnival-of-self-harm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The day before the election, James Butler is joined by William Davies to talk about something everyone seems to agree on: the very poor state of the UK’s public finances. The past fourteen years of Conservative rule began with the technocratic austerity of George Osborne and ended with the return of the ‘grown-ups’, Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak, to inflict more pain. In between came the chaos of Brexit and the Truss-Kwarteng ‘mini-budget’. What will a likely Labour government pick up from this? Are we still stuck in the age of Osborne, or will something resembling the public investment strategy of Bidenomics emerge through initiatives such as the National Wealth Fund and Great British Energy, as Rachel Reeves has promised? Read Will's latest LRB piece: https://lrb.me/davieselectionpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘The world is growing more dangerous’ warns the Conservative manifesto, which puts security at the heart of its pitch. The Labour manifesto, on the other hand, doesn’t mention the world beyond the UK at all in its five ‘missions’. Are the Tories simply being honest with voters, or trying to distract from their domestic record? In this episode, James Butler is joined by Tom Stevenson and Iona Craig to discuss the challenges facing the next foreign secretary, from Gaza to the pressures of a possible Trump presidency. Labour’s current approach seems to promise ‘Blair without the Iraq War’, but how far will this allow UK foreign policy to depart from its normal attitude of subservience to the United States? Read more in the LRB: Tom Stevenson on diplomacy: https://lrb.me/stevensonelectionpod James Butler's latest election post: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/june/new-order Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For forty years, Thomas James Wise made a fortune forging copies of books that had never existed, sometimes even convincing their authors they were the real deal. Despite a damning exposé by amateur detectives in the 1930s, Wise never confessed or faced legal repercussions, and his fakes have become collectors’ pieces in their own right. Gill Partington joins Tom to explain Wise’s success and final undoing, and to discuss the value of forgeries, hoaxes and reproductions as art. Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/wisepod Find out more about the Royal Literary Fund: https://rlf.org.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the second episode of our series on the UK election, James Butler is joined by Sam Freedman to talk about the enormous challenges facing the next government. From hospital waiting lists to criminal court backlogs and even potholes, the fabric of the British state seems to be beyond repair. It’s not simply a problem of funding: poor management, a lack of scrutiny and extreme centralisation combined with the almost total destruction of local government have all played a part. James and Sam consider whether there’s anything to be done about this chronic dysfunction, and whether the next official opposition could in fact be the Liberal Democrats. Sam Freedman is co-author of the substack Comment is Freed. His book Failed State: Why Britain’s Institutions are Broken and How We Fix Them will be released in July 2024. Read more from James Butler the LRB: James Butler on the crisis in care: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n05/james-butler/this-concerns-everyone Sponsored Link Get £100 off your Serious Readers

In the first in a series of episodes on the UK general election, James Butler is joined by Ann Pettifor and Adrienne Buller to discuss climate policy and its apparent absence from the campaign so far. Several years ago the Labour Party was committed to a Green New Deal but has since backed away from that promise, while the Conservatives have decided that abandoning their own climate commitments is a vote-winner. Ann, Adrienne and James consider why political leadership and courage have disappeared on this issue, what environmental policy might look like with a Labour government, and how Chinese bicycles demonstrate the problem of international climate action. Read James's latest blog post on the election: https://lrb.me/butlersunakpod And more on climate in the LRB: Will Davies on why capitalism won't save the planet: https://lrb.me/daviesclimatepod James Butler on Andreas Malm and ecoterrorism: https://lrb.me/butlerclimatepod2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the ghetto's creation in 1516 until its dissolution at the end of the 18th century, Jews in Venice were confined to a district enclosed by canals, patrolled by guards and locked at night. Yet its residents were essential players in Venetian life, and in practice the ghetto saw far more traffic through its gates than its founders intended. Erin Maglaque joins Tom to discuss what life in the ghetto was like, and why an open-air prison could be considered relatively tolerant by the standards of early modern Europe. Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/ghettopod From the LRB Subscribe to the LRB: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/subslrbpod Close Readings podcast: ⁠https://lrb.me/crlrbpod⁠ LRB Audiobooks: ⁠https://lrb.me/audiobookslrbpod⁠ Bags, binders and more at the LRB Store: ⁠https://lrb.me/storelrbpod⁠ Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

The D-Day planners said that everything would depended the weather. They needed 'a quiet day with not more than moderate winds and seas and not too much cloud for the airmen, to be followed by three more quiet days'. But who would make the forecast? The Meteorological Office? The US Air Force? The Royal Navy? In the event, it was all three. In this diary piece published in 1994, Lawrence Hogben, a New Zealand-born meteorologist and Royal Navy officer, describes the way this forecasting by committee worked, and why they very almost chose the wrong day. Read by Stephen Dillane Find the article and further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/ddaypod Watch the short film based on this piece: https://lrb.me/ddayyt Sponsored links: Learn more about Serious Readers: www.seriousreaders.com/lrb Sign up to the LRB's Close Readings subscription: In Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

J.G. Ballard’s life and work contains many incongruities, outraging the Daily Mail and being offered a CBE (which he rejected), and variously appealing to both Spielberg and Cronenberg. In a recent piece, Edmund Gordon unpicks the contradictions and contrarianism in Ballard’s non-fiction writing, and he joins Tom to continue the dissection. They explore Ballard’s strange combination of ‘whisky and soda’ conservatism and the avant-garde, what he was trying to achieve through his fiction, and how ‘Ballardian’ Empire of the Sun really is. Sponsored links: Find out more about Pace Gallery London’s Kiki Kogelnik exhibition here: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/kiki-kogelnik-the-dance/ Learn more about Serious Readers: www.seriousreaders.com/lrb Sign up to the LRB's Close Readings subscription: In Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marilyn Nance was 23 when she photographed Festac ’77, a global celebration of Black and African art that she described as ‘the Olympics, plus a Biennial, plus Woodstock’. In his review of Nance’s book, Sean Jacobs traces a more fraught history of the festival than her photographs would suggest. Sean joins Tom to discuss what Festac meant for politicians, attendees and the proponents of négritude, third worldism and pan-Africanism. Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/festacpod Find out more about Serious Readers: https://www.seriousreaders.com/lrb Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebecca Solnit has lived in San Francisco since 1980, but the city she used to know is fast disappearing, ‘fully annexed’, as she puts it, by the tech firms from Silicon Valley. In this episode of the LRB podcast, Solnit reads her piece from the 8 February issue of the paper, both a eulogy for the city that’s been lost and a dissection of the dystopia that’s replacing it, ‘returning us’, as she puts it, ‘to a kind of feudalism’. Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/solnitpod Find out more about Coram Boy at Chichister Festival Theatre here: https://www.cft.org.uk/events/coram-boy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The recovery of history’s ‘lost’ women is often associated with the advent of feminism, but, Sophie Smith writes, women’s contributions to Western philosophy have been regularly rediscovered since at least the 14th century. She joins Tom to discuss what we can learn from the women who held their own alongside Plato, Descartes and Hume. Find Sophie’s piece and further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/sophiesmithpod Find out more about Pace Gallery’s upcoming exhibitions here: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/ Find out more about Coram Boy at Chichister Festival Theatre here: https://www.cft.org.uk/events/coram-boy LRB Audio Discover the LRB's subscription podcast, Close Readings, and audiobooks: https://lrb.me/audiopod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.