Island Idylls
36 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 30 ratingsIsland Idylls riffs on books and life with Barry Menikoff. Author of Stone Mother, Brooklyn born and bred, retired Hawaii university professor, international scholar. Evangelical pastor Aaron Menikoff, author of Politics and Piety, spices this dialogue between father and son. Both chasing that elusive line in an old song, What's it all about, Alfie?
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Episodes
36 - The Gothic Lit of Flannery O’Connor
September 17, 2021 11:26 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
35 - Hemingway, Regret, and Death
August 18, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 59.3 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
34 - “Look it Up!” - A Dive Into the Dictionary
July 28, 2021 08:16 - 55 minutes - 51.2 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
33 - The Great Fitzgerald
June 16, 2021 07:00 - 52 minutes - 47.7 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
32 - God & Meaning
May 18, 2021 07:00 - 56 minutes - 51.7 MBNine Stories Catcher in the Rye Do you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
31 - J. D. Salinger & Bananafish
April 28, 2021 07:00 - 54 minutes - 49.6 MBNine Stories Catcher in the Rye Do you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
30 - Who is Irwin Shaw?
April 07, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 55.7 MBRich Man, Poor Man The Young Lions Short Stories: Five Decades IRWIN SHAW, EXTOLLED FOR SHORT STORIES, DIES by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times Obituary Do you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
29 - What is Art?
February 17, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
28 - Pale Horse, Pale Rider - Katherine Anne Porter
January 27, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 66.7 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
27 - Capote’s A Christmas Memory
January 06, 2021 08:00 - 59 minutes - 54.2 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
26 - Stevenson and the Short Story
December 16, 2020 16:01 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
25 - Introduction to the Short Story
December 02, 2020 08:00 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBEpisode 25 tackles the subject of the short story. What is it (yes, of course, it’s short)? But there’s more to it than that. In this episode Barry defines terms and gives us a crash course in some of the most important, twentieth-century, writers. In Episode 26 we’ll take a deep dive into Barry’s introduction to The Complete Short Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson. One more thing: if you missed the writers Barry talked about in this episode, here’s a guide: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864...
24 - Anna Karenina
September 16, 2020 07:00 - 1 hour - 61.3 MBAs Barry and Aaron think about season three, drop them a note at [email protected] and let them know what you think of Island Idylls. Meanwhile, listen and enjoy! 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
23 - Leo Tolstoy: Art as Mission?
September 02, 2020 20:08 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
22 - Ellison, Baldwin, and Black Lives Matter
August 12, 2020 12:08 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
21 - Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome
July 15, 2020 07:00 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
20 - The Art of Writing II
July 01, 2020 07:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
19 - Camus and the Meaning of Life
June 15, 2020 16:51 - 43 minutes - 40 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
18 - Character Matters
May 11, 2020 07:00 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected].
17 - Tender is the Night
April 22, 2020 07:00 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MBDo you have questions for us? Email us at [email protected].
16 - Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age
April 08, 2020 18:05 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MBPlease, listen in and email us your comments: [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
15 - Anatomy of a Story
March 25, 2020 09:00 - 44 minutes - 40.9 MBPlease, listen in and email us your comments: [email protected]
14 - Lawrence, Sons and Lovers
March 11, 2020 14:11 - 47 minutes - 43.2 MBQuestions, comments, or ideas? Email [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
13 - D. H. Lawrence & Pornography
February 26, 2020 11:00 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBListen and enjoy. If you have any feedback or questions, email us at [email protected] 🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
12 - Great Black Writers
January 22, 2020 17:57 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MB🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
11 - The Art of Writing
January 08, 2020 11:00 - 39 minutes - 35.9 MB🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
10 - Marriage in The Portrait
December 11, 2019 08:00 - 42 minutes - 39 MB🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
09 - Henry James, “The Master”
November 28, 2019 06:27 - 39 minutes - 36 MB🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
08 - The Art of Reading
November 06, 2019 08:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MB🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
07 - Thoreau’s Walden
October 23, 2019 14:47 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MB🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
06 - Stone Mother, Part Three
October 09, 2019 14:49 - 59 minutes - 54.2 MB🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
05 - Stone Mother, Part Two
September 25, 2019 07:00 - 53 minutes - 48.9 MB🎙️🎙️🎙️ Podcast production by FullCast
04 - Stone Mother, Part One
September 11, 2019 10:00 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBEverybody has a story, but most people don’t write them down. Barry did! In his memoir, Stone Mother, Barry shares what he remembers about his early years. A family that escaped persecution in Poland. Growing up poor. Being alone. Being Jewish. Escaping New York. In this episode, Aaron asks his father to define a memoir. Why doesn’t his memoir read like a novel? Does it matter? They move on to discuss why his family preferred not to discuss the Old Country they left behind to settle in A...
03 - Breaking Down the “System”
August 30, 2019 02:54 - 34 minutes - 32 MBBarry and Aaron dive into the deep end of the pool as they discuss Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem, “System,” found in his famous Child’s Garden of Verses. What do most people think about religion? Is it a “system” that blesses the good and punishes the bad--as the poem suggests? Barry argues Stevenson found comfort (and helped scores of others find comfort) by rejecting this system and seeing Chance as the backdrop of the universe. Resigning oneself to the unknown is the only way one will ...
02 - Introducing Barry Menikoff
August 14, 2019 20:12 - 53 minutes - 49 MBAs a newly minted PhD at the young age of 26, less than 25 years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Barry said goodbye to Madison, and found himself teaching Hawaiians just a few miles off Waikiki Beach. There are worse places to work! Today, Barry is known as a renowned Robert Louis Stevenson scholar. Thanks to his plain prose and books like Treasure Island, the Scottish writer had been primarily considered a children’s author. Barry challenged that narrative and reintroduced Stevenson to...
01 - Introducing Island Idylls
July 30, 2019 23:42 - 25 minutes - 23 MBYou’ve found Island Idylls! In this inaugural episode, Barry and Aaron get to the bottom of the title. What island are they talking about (hint: Aloha) and what exactly is an “idyll”? They explain the origin of the podcast. Long story short, it begins with a father who spent his life as an English professor and a son who loves to ask lots of questions. Barry is a literature expert, and Aaron gets him to discuss the importance of expertise in a world where the transfer of knowledge has bee...