Soundings from The New York Review
101 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 4 years ago - ★★★★ - 81 ratingsInterviews, conversations, discussions, events and more from the writers and staff of The New York Review of Books
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Episodes
Pandemic Journal
April 15, 2020 19:50 - 41 minutes - 56.8 MBIn this series, New York Review contributors document the coronavirus outbreak around the world. Featuring readings by Eduardo Halfon in Paris, Anastasia Edel in Oakland, Miguel-Anxo Murado in Madrid, Ruth Margalit in Tel Aviv, Mark Gevisser in Cape Town, Elisa Gabbert in Denver, Simon Callow in London, Lauren Groff in Gainesville, Anna Badkhen in Lalibela, and Sylvia Poggioli in Rome.
President Obama and Marilynne Robinson: A Conversation—II
October 26, 2015 16:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBIn the second part of this exclusive conversation, President Obama and writer Marilynne Robinson discuss literature, politics, competition, American restlessness, teaching, and citizenship. The conversation was recorded on September 14, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa.
President Obama and Marilynne Robinson: A Conversation
October 12, 2015 16:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBIn this exclusive conversation, President Obama and author Marilynne Robinson discuss topics ranging from the problems of American democracy and the responsibilities of citizenship to the challenges of Christianity and their shared sense of the values and virtues of small-town America. The conversation was recorded on September 14, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. This is the first part of their conversation; the second part will appear on October 26.
Civil Rights & Policing
October 05, 2015 09:30 - 33 minutes - 31.2 MBA panel discussion with Laurie Robinson, co-chair of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, critic and novelist Darryl Pinckney, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. The panelists reflect on issues of race and bias in law enforcement and whether the recommendations of the White House Task Force, if implemented, can practically address and dismantle sources of conflict, deepening racial divisions, and high rates of incarceration in the US. Recorded on September 20, 2015 at ...
Literary Journalism: A Discussion
May 03, 2013 20:46 - 11 minutes - 6.75 MBIan Buruma, Joseph Lelyveld, Zoë Heller, Alma Guillermoprieto, and Andrew Delbanco discuss the future of literary journalism. This podcast was recorded on April 3, 2013 at the New York Public Library.
Michael Chabon on the Mysteries of Pittsburgh
March 15, 2013 19:08 - 19 minutes - 11.1 MBMichael Chabon reads from his piece about writing his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Chabon spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.
Daniel Mendelsohn on September 11 at the Movies
March 15, 2013 16:04 - 16 minutes - 9.46 MBDaniel Mendelsohn reads from his 2006 piece, "September 11 at the Movies," a review of United 93 by Paul Greengrass and World Trade Center by Oliver Stone. Mendelsohn spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.
Mark Danner on Reporting from the Campaign Trail
March 14, 2013 17:10 - 17 minutes - 9.92 MBMark Danner discusses his time as an editorial assistant at The New York Review and as a contributor from the campaign trail. Danner spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.
Darryl Pinckney on James Baldwin
March 13, 2013 20:04 - 12 minutes - 7.31 MBDarryl Pickney discusses his lifelong engagement with the writing of James Baldwin. Pinckney spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.
Mary Beard on Reading the Classics
March 12, 2013 21:47 - 12 minutes - 5.73 MBMary Beard discusses The New York Review’s coverage of the classics throughout its history. Beard spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.
John Banville on Hubert Butler
March 08, 2013 23:15 - 7 minutes - 3.66 MBJohn Banville discusses his 1997 review "The European Irishman," on the work of Hubert Butler. Banville spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.
Joan Didion on the Central Park Jogger
March 07, 2013 20:45 - 17 minutes - 8.15 MBJoan Didion reads from her 1991 essay "New York: Sentimental Journeys" about the Central Park jogger case. Didion spoke on February 5, 2013 at Town Hall in New York City, in a celebration of The New York Review's 50th anniversary.
Steve Coll on the Killing of Osama bin Laden
October 09, 2012 16:34 - 6 minutes - 8.35 MBSteve Coll addresses the political implications of the mission to kill Osama bin Laden and how the author of No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden sidestepped legal issues to publish his book.
Henri Cole Reads Selected Poems
May 25, 2012 20:15 - 20 minutes - 19 MBHenri Cole reads from his recent book of poems, Touch (2011), and talks about his search for what he calls the "essentialness of emotion."
Jonathan Freedland on the Royal Wedding
April 28, 2011 16:00 - 22 minutes - 51.1 MBJonathan Freedland talks with Emily Greenhouse about gilded-coach celebrity in an era of austerity, the hereditary principle, and why all bets are off when it comes to Wills and Kate.
Andrew Delbanco on Mark Twain
April 14, 2011 22:03 - 16 minutes - 37.7 MBAndrew Delbanco talks with Andrew Martin about the first volume of Mark Twain’s unabridged Autobiography and the distinctive joys and challenges of reading Twain in the twenty-first century.
Geoffrey O'Brien on Duke Ellington
March 11, 2011 19:45 - 17 minutes - 40.5 MBGeoffrey O'Brien talks with Chris Carroll about Duke Ellington's mid-career crisis and stunning comeback, revisiting his often-overlooked albums of the 1960s and 1970s.
Robert Gottlieb on Charles Dickens
August 13, 2010 15:45 - 15 minutes - 27.7 MBRobert Gottlieb speaks to Andrew Martin about Charles Dickens's troubled life, his best and worst novels, and how to read without editing.
Derek Walcott, Two Poems
July 09, 2010 19:00 - 4 minutes - 9.47 MBPoet Derek Walcott recites "Fare Well" by Walter de la Mare, and reads "The Hulls of White Yachts," from his latest collection White Egrets.
Charles Rosen Plays Chopin
July 01, 2010 15:15 - 18 minutes - 33.2 MBCharles Rosen plays the music of Frédéric Chopin and talks to Chris Carroll about the composer's surprising radicalism and the critical controversy surrounding his work, the mysterious spianato style, and whether there is a right way to play Chopin's music.
Dan Chiasson on Lydia Davis
May 19, 2010 16:15 - 19 minutes - 44.7 MBDan Chiasson reads from The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, which he reviewed in the April 29, 2010 issue of The New York Review, and talks to Gabriel Winslow-Yost about accidental greatness, lonely translators, and reading at stoplights.
Deborah Eisenberg on Skylark
April 09, 2010 04:00 - 28 minutes - 39.7 MBDeborah Eisenberg reads from Skylark, a Hungarian novel recently republished by NYRB Classics, and talks with Sasha Weiss about why it's one of the most perfect novels she's encountered.
Cathleen Schine on Gail Collins
January 21, 2010 05:00 - 15 minutes - 34.6 MBCathleen Schine speaks with Sasha Weiss about Gail Collins's book When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, and about the victories and failures of the women's movement.
Charles Wright Reads Selected Sestets and Other Poems
December 10, 2009 05:00 - 20 minutes - 11.5 MBCharles Wright reads from his recent collection, Sestets, and talks to Sasha Weiss about the importance of landscape in his work, his writing process, and how he came to experiment with the six-line form.
Andrew O'Hagan on Samuel Johnson
December 02, 2009 05:00 - 14 minutes - 8.06 MBAndrew O'Hagan talks to Sasha Weiss about Samuel Johnson's various and contradictory character, how his Rambler essays shaped our notions of literary talent and professional authorship, and why, in his tercentenary year, Johnson remains essential reading.
Joost Hiltermann on Iraq on the Edge
November 18, 2009 05:00 - 8 minutes - 4.61 MBJoost Hiltermann speaks with Nathan Thrall about the political crisis facing Iraq as it prepares for parliamentary elections in 2010 and the final withdrawal of all American troops by the end of the following year.
Chris Jordan on Midway Atoll and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
November 11, 2009 05:00 - 13 minutes - 7.74 MBPhotographer and activist Chris Jordan speaks with Eve Bowen about his recent photographs, taken at one of the world's most remote marine wildlife sanctuaries, of albatross chicks killed by plastic waste that their parents have mistaken for food.
Jerome Groopman on the Changing Medical Profession
November 04, 2009 05:00 - 17 minutes - 10.3 MBJerome Groopman speaks with Andrew Martin about how regulation of shift length, the struggle to control costs, and the rise of "evidence-based" medicine have changed how doctors learn and practice.
James Bamford on the National Security Agency
October 28, 2009 04:00James Bamford talks to Nathan Thrall about the politics behind the Bush administration's evasion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the technology and scope of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program.
Frederick Seidel Reads Selected Poems
October 21, 2009 04:00Frederick Seidel reads selections from the work he has published in the Review, as well as poems from his recent collection, Poems 1959-2009. For more on Seidel's work, read Dan Chiasson's review of that volume, or Charles Simic's blog post about the challenges Seidel's work poses for critics and readers.
Norman Manea on Herta Müller
October 19, 2009 04:00Norman Manea speaks with Hugh Eakin about Romanian-born German writer Herta Müller, the 2009 Nobel laureate in literature, and what her life and work reveal about the status of ethnic minorities in her native country. A transcription of highlights of the conversation is available at blogs.nybooks.com.
Lawrence Weschler on David Hockney
October 06, 2009 04:00Lawrence Weschler—whose audio slide show about David Hockney's iPhone drawings can be seen here—talks about Hockney's longtime interest in new technology and his recent paintings, which will be on view at PaceWildenstein this fall.
David Cole on the Lawyers Who Authorized Torture
September 23, 2009 04:00David Cole talks to Hugh Eakin about the Bush Administration lawyers who—as recently as 2007—approved illegal CIA interrogations, and why we need a full investigation of their actions.
Joyce Carol Oates on Shirley Jackson
September 16, 2009 04:00Joyce Carol Oates talks to Sasha Weiss about the writer Shirley Jackson—her place in the writing of the 1950s, the renewal of interest in her work, and how she created her tidy, wicked stories in the midst of her chaotic life.
Garry Wills on the Death of Conservatism
September 10, 2009 04:00Garry Wills speaks with Hugh Eakin about the end of the age of Buckley, the rise of right-wing radicalism, and the crisis facing the American conservative movement.
James M. McPherson on Abraham Lincoln
September 02, 2009 04:00Historian James M. McPherson talks to Charles Petersen about the career, worldwide impact, and enduring political legacy of Abraham Lincoln.
Fintan O'Toole on Flann O'Brien
August 26, 2009 04:00 - 21 minutes - 12.1 MBSasha Weiss speaks with Fintan O'Toole, columnist for the Irish Times, about the genius and misfortune of the great Irish novelist Flann O'Brien.
Freeman Dyson on Amateur Scientists and the New Age of Wonder
August 19, 2009 04:00Freeman Dyson talks to Charles Petersen about Richard Holmes's book The Age of Wonder, his own education in chemistry and poetry, and how amateur biotechnology might help solve the problem of global warming.
J.M. Coetzee Reads From Summertime
August 12, 2009 04:00J.M. Coetzee, the novelist and 2003 Nobel laureate, reads from his new novel, Summertime, forthcoming from Viking in December. Excerpts from the novel appeared in our July 16 and August 13 issues.
Michael Massing on Reinventing the News
August 05, 2009 04:00Michael Massing talks to Charles Petersen about the rise of blogs and the ascent of online journalism.
Adam Hochschild in Eastern Congo
July 29, 2009 04:00Adam Hochschild talks to Hugh Eakin about the epidemic of violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ronald Dworkin on Sotomayor and the Roberts Court
July 20, 2009 04:00Ronald Dworkin talks to Hugh Eakin about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, the growing conservatism of the Roberts Court, and the myth that judges can decide cases simply by fidelity to the law.
Timothy Snyder on the Holocaust
July 13, 2009 04:00Timothy Snyder talks to Sasha Weiss about how we can best understand the Holocaust and the mass killings under Stalin as a particularly Eastern European phenomenon.
Roger Cohen in Tehran
July 08, 2009 04:00Roger Cohen speaks to Hugh Eakin about the protests that followed Iran's June 12 election, the crackdown, and the consequences for the future of the Iranian regime.
Claire Messud Reads "Land Divers"
June 29, 2009 04:00 - 38 minutes - 22.1 MBNovelist and critic Claire Messud, author most recently of the novel The Emperor's Children, reads her new story "Land Divers," from the Review's Summer Fiction issue.
Michael Tomasky on Obama's Strategy
June 22, 2009 04:00 - 4.26 MBMichael Tomasky speaks with Hugh Eakin about public perception of the President and his policies, the thinking behind the administration's ceding of authority to Congress, and the sheer pace of Obama's Washington.
David Cole on Same-Sex Marriage
June 15, 2009 04:00David Cole talks to Michael Shae about the history of the legal battle over same-sex marriage, the changing demographics that favor nationwide support, and the legal and political tactics advocates and activists might use to ensure a just future for the institution.
Nicholas Kristof on Darfur
June 08, 2009 04:00Nicholas Kristof speaks with Sasha Weiss about his experiences reporting in Darfur, the International Criminal Court's indictment of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and what the Obama administration can do to prevent further escalation of the conflict.
Ahmed Rashid on Pakistan in Crisis
June 01, 2009 04:00Ahmed Rashid speaks with Hugh Eakin about the continuing conflict between the Pakistani government and the Taliban, the humanitarian crisis in Swat, and the violence that has spread from the border with Afghanistan to within sixty miles of the capital, Islamabad.
Helen Epstein on Prison Reform
May 25, 2009 04:00Helen Epstein talks with Eve Bowen about lawyer Sunny Schwartz's work in the San Francisco county jail system, and her program's potential for transforming the treatment of prisoners nationwide.