Latest Threepercent Podcast Episodes
TMR 16.9: "Repetition" [2666]
Three Percent Podcast - December 03, 2021 16:08 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsBrian's back to talk about dead baby jokes, repetition, the power of reading, snuff films, matriarchal lineage, and much more. Chad didn't sleep before this episode, which explains some of the wackiness. This week's music is "World Gone Deaf" by Bill Baird. If you'd prefer to watch the conve...
TMR 16.7: "The Next Dead Woman" [2666]
Three Percent Podcast - November 19, 2021 21:00 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsChad, Brian, and Katie dive into "The Part About the Crimes," talking about the fact that the Penitent gets more detective time than all of the murdered women, about the seer, about ventriloquism, about Lalo Cura, and about the existence of Ciudad Juárez in 2666. This week's music is "Highlig...
TMR 16.6: "Fire, Walk With Me" [2666]
Three Percent Podcast - November 16, 2021 02:22 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsAfter Chad, Katie, and Brian finish recapping the end of "The Part About Fate"—including the Twin Peaks reference, representations of violence, the apocryphal Robert Rodriguez porno, blindness and impaired sight, and much more—they're joined by Dr. Andrew Martino, a massive Bolaño fan who raises...
TMR 16.5: "DANGER MONEY FOOD STARS USEFULNESS" [2666]
Three Percent Podcast - November 05, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsIn the first chunk of this week's episode, Brian, Chad, and Katie break down the first half of "The Part About Fate" and look specifically at Kessler's speech in the diner, the areas of exploitative capitalism, femicide and how it's everywhere, the idea of a system that kills, and much more. (Th...
TMR 16.4: "Ramon Llull and His Fantastic Machine" [2666]
Three Percent Podcast - October 29, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsThis two-part episode opens with Katie, Brian, and Chad talking about madness, the pursuit of knowledge, what great authors "struggle against," and much more. Then, Chad and Katie are joined by Emily Hall (The Longcut) to discuss the art works on the covers of the three-volume edition of 2666, a...
TMR 16.3: "El Cerdo" [2666]
Three Percent Podcast - October 22, 2021 19:30 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsOne of the brainiest TMRs to date, this episode talks a lot about doubles and mirrors in 2666, religious iconography, coincidence vs. fate, disappearances and vanishing, the creeping horror found in this novel, the abyss and the void, musicals, and much more. Brian, Chad, and Katie cover the ent...
TMR 16.2: "Can Anyone Solve the Riddle?" [2666]
Three Percent Podcast - October 15, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsThis week's episode opens with 'Professor Post" poking a bit of fun at academics, then dives headfirst into the first 75 pages of 2666. Brian, Katie, and Chad talk about the representation of Liz Norton, of the voids that exist in 2666, the religious experience of becoming obsessed with an autho...
TMR 16.1: "Roberto Bolaño Overview" [2666]
Three Percent Podcast - October 08, 2021 14:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsSeason 16 is here! At long last, Bolaño's 2666 takes center stage, and Chad and Brian are joined by translator and Bolaño enthusiast, Katie Whittemore. In this opening episode, they discuss the myth-making of Bolaño's biography, they talk about sudden fame, the grind of the artist, and of the wa...
TMR 15.15: "The End" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - July 22, 2021 16:25 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsChad and Brian recap the wild end to Vernon Subutex, debate whether it was predictable or not, whether Despentes earned it or not, and what to make of the proto-history chapter that rounds out the trilogy. And, in classic TMR fashion, the episode ends abruptly when Chad's wifi suddenly dies. (Te...
TMR 15.14: "And Then Evil Showed Its Face" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - July 12, 2021 17:50 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsCovering what's probably the most disturbing section of Vernon Subutex, this is an intense, fairly dark episode of the Two Month Review. They discuss how the most evil character is a manager/agent, about how men are everywhere, ready to ruin things, and much more. On the upside, Chad and Brian r...
TMR 15.13: "Gangland Shooting" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - July 02, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsChad almost had to do this episode solo, but all of you were spared that catastrophe by Kaija Straumanis and David Smith (whose delay makes for some funny moments). The talk about what you would do for $100 million dollars, what most terrifies them, fear in general, Max as Lex Luthor, and much m...
TMR 15.11: "Everyone's Been Talking to Me About You" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - June 18, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsFollowing up on last week's catastrophic technical difficulties, Brian recaps some of his conversation with Frank Wynne before he and Chad dive into volume three of Despentes's Vernon Subutex. They talk about hippies, Dan Deacon, cults, Cultish, Vernon's purity, and much more. This week's musi...
TMR 15.8: "You Shouldn't Have Hurt My Mother" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - June 07, 2021 19:26 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsChad and Brian get into some fun and vengeful parts of Vernon Subutex 2 this week, talking about Gaëll, the proliferation of diereses in this section, getting revenge, Vernon's magical music, and more. This week's music is "The Modern World" by The Jam. If you'd prefer to watch the conversat...
TMR 15.8: "Bourgeois Shitdick!" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - June 01, 2021 20:30 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsKaija Straumanis pinch hits this week to talk about Céleste, about spray painting insults, the best forms of revenge, how to upend a system, and whether of not a good dad can be an alcoholic. This episode is a great prelude to one of the major plot points of the trilogy, so listen to this and ge...
Three Percent #186: Italian Science Fiction
Three Percent Podcast - June 01, 2021 15:41 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsIn this special episode, Chad talks with Rachel Cordasco about a new Three Percent project focusing on translators as curators. Over the course of the next month, we'll be posting a number of different types of posts—excerpts, profiles, readings, shorter podcasts, movie clips—using the five work...
TMR 15.7: "You Don't Look Your Best" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - May 21, 2021 19:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsDerek Maine returns for his second appearance this season to talk about Alex Bleach's tapes, Vodka Satana's death, how the system is rigged, horrible men, the complications of passing judgement, Motörhead, mushroom powder, and much more. This is a pretty key episode, as the trilogy veers into de...
Three Percent #185: More Granta!
Three Percent Podcast - May 20, 2021 00:31 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsVeronica Esposito joined Chad and Valerie Miles to continue talking about Granta's second list of "Best Young Spanish-language Novelists." They talk about some of the recent Spanish reviews—and criticisms—of the list, about writing the periphery, about science-fiction and the differences between...
TMR 15.6: "Looking for Subutex" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - May 17, 2021 15:16 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsChad and Brian go it alone this week to talk about whether this is one book or three (or three "seasons" of one book), or how Xavier and Patrice are both awful people but in entirely different ways, the breadth of characterization in Despentes's writing, all the jokes you can make knowing "Subut...
TMR 15.5: "I Am a Hobo Perched on a Hill" [Vernon Subutex]
Three Percent Podcast - May 10, 2021 19:26 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsTranslator Frank Wynne joins Chad and Brian to talk about slang, about yummy mummies, about why Vernon's pseudonym is so weird, and much much more. This is an episode as much about translating and reading as it is about the book proper, and is definitely worth listening to. This week's music i...
Three Percent #184: Valerie Miles on Granta's Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists 2
Three Percent Podcast - May 06, 2021 13:47 - 40 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsTo kick off a month of features on the new Granta "Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists" issue, Chad talked with editor/translator Valerie Miles about the process of selecting these 25 authors amid a pandemic, about the shifts in demographics between the first list (from 2010) and this one, ...
TMR 15.4: "Marxist Hells Angel" [VERNON SUBUTEX]
Three Percent Podcast - May 03, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsTranslator Katie Whittemore (Four by Four, The Communist's Daughter, World's Best Mother, Last Words on Earth) joins Chad and Brian to talk about the horrible actions of Patrice, and whether he could be redeemed, about childbirth, about Aïcha and Hyena, and about Disney. Funny and cutting, this...
TMR 15.3: "Vodka Satana" [VERNON SUBUTEX]
Three Percent Podcast - April 26, 2021 14:35 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsCaitlin Luce Baker of Island Books joins Chad and Brian to talk about a very nicely framed section of Vernon Subutex. We get introduced to Aïcha, who has, through Pamela Kant, just found out that her mom was a porn star before her death. (And had a fling with Alex Bleach.) We also get to see how...
TMR 15.2: "Yummy Mummy or MILF" [VERNON SUBUTEX]
Three Percent Podcast - April 16, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsEmma Ramadan—translator of Despentes's Pretty Things and Anne Garreta (among many others), and recent winner of the PEN Translation Prize—joins Brian and Chad to talk about how cool Despentes is, and how much slang she uses in her work. They also discuss the conflict that will drive the plot (La...
TMR 15.1: "Alexandre Bleach Is Dead" [VERNON SUBUTEX]
Three Percent Podcast - April 09, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsThe fifteenth iteration of the Two Month Review kicks off in a big way, giving a quick overview of Virginie Despentes's life and work for Brian, and then launching into the wonderful world Despentes constructs filled with characters who are past their prime, who are flawed and don't hide their w...
TMR 14.11: "Hey . . . You Listening?" [J R]
Three Percent Podcast - March 01, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsThe final episode of the season! First off, Chad and Brian wrap things up, and preview season 15 (Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy, coming in April!), then Nick Sullivan talks to Chad about recording the audiobook, how he got into that business in the first place, the challenges of re...
TMR 14.10: "Hoppin' with Flavor!"
Three Percent Podcast - February 19, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsKaija Straumanis joins Chad and Brian this week to talk about toxic masculinity, the genius of the J R audiobook, Bach, "up yours, up mine," connections to Pynchon, shit & money & the American Dream, and the implosion of J R's paper empire. This week's music is "Deadlines (Hostile)" by Car Sea...
TMR 14.9: "J R Shipping Corp"
Three Percent Podcast - February 13, 2021 16:19 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsThis week, Sam Rutter and Nick During join Chad for a long, sprawling discussion of J R, of the interesting quote Joy Williams attributes to Gaddis instead of Gibbs, of Gibbs's knowledge of financial doings, of how great Rhoda is as a character, and so so much more. This is the longest episode t...
TMR 14.8: "$$$$$$$$" [J R]
Three Percent Podcast - February 05, 2021 18:49 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsChad and Brian talk about church parking lots, relationship entropy, millionaires, corporate logos ("Just Rite"), the uneasy alliance of art and commerce, and much more on this week's episode. This week's music is "Highlights of 100" by Kiwi Jr. If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you...
TMR 14.7: "Alsaka" [J R]
Three Percent Podcast - February 05, 2021 18:48 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsDan O'Brien (The House in Scarsdale, A Story that Happens) joins the podcast this week to talk about J R from a playwriting perspective. Lots of interesting insights in this episode, about theater, about the relationship between art and commerce in the book, and about GameStop. This week's mu...
TMR 14.6: "A Strolling Game of Pocket Billiards" [J R]
Three Percent Podcast - January 22, 2021 20:30 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsChad and Brian go it alone this week, and prove that even the most claustrophobic sections (trigger warning for anyone who grew up with hoarders) of J R are also riotously funny. They also don't understand money or business, but no one else in the book seems to either . . . There's also a lot of...
Related Threepercent Topics