Podcasts by Lit Century
Hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols choose one book for each year of the twentieth century (Nella Larsen's Passing, 1936, Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, 1966; Mohandas Gandhi's Indian Home Rule, 1909) and talk about it in its historical and literary context. Join the hosts and their special guests to find out what the 20th century was all about.
Further podcasts by Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols
Podcast on the topic Bücher
All episodes
Songs for Drella from 2023-04-04T08:00
Writer and musician Leeore Schnairsohn and host Catherine Nichols discuss Songs for Drella, the album Lou Reed and John Cale released in 1990 about their friend, mentor and manager Andy Warhol. The...
ListenThe Death of the Heart from 2023-02-28T09:00
Author Lucy Ferriss and host Catherine Nichols discuss Elizabeth Bowen's 1938 novel The Death of the Heart. They discuss the unique narrator—16-year-old Portia, almost unimaginably innocent and stu...
ListenThe Unwomanly Face of War from 2023-01-31T09:00
Host Catherine Nichols discusses Svetlana Alexeivich's 1985 oral history The Unwomanly Face of War with author Megan Buskey. The conversation covers the ways World War II is remembered in Russia ve...
ListenA Chess Story from 2022-12-06T09:00
In this episode, guest Leeore Schnairsohn joins Isaac Butler and Catherine Nichols to talk about Stefan Zweig's 1943 novella A Chess Story. They talk about the features of the story that seem to be...
ListenThe Golden Compass from 2022-10-18T08:00
Book scout Kelly Farber joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss Philip Pullman's 1995 novel The Golden Compass, the first of the His Dark Materials trilogy. They discuss the appeal of Pullman's ima...
ListenParade's End from 2022-08-30T08:00
Writer Brian Hall joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss Ford Madox Ford's 1928 quartet of novels, Parade's End, focusing particularly on the first book, Some Do Not.... Their conversation covers ...
ListenMrs Dalloway from 2022-08-09T09:00
In this episode, writers Andrea Pitzer (Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World) and Matthew Hunte join host Catherine Nichols to discuss Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway. They disc...
ListenSex and the Single Girl from 2022-07-12T08:00
Host Catherine Nichols discusses Helen Gurley Brown's 1962 Sex and the Single Girl with guests Briallen Hopper and Samantha Allen, both contributors to the 2022 collection Sex and the Single Woman:...
ListenThe Man Who Loved Children from 2022-05-31T08:00
In this episode, film critic K. Austin Collins and John Lingan (Homeplace, A Song for Everyone: The Story of Creedence Clearwater Revival) join host Catherine Nichols to talk about Christina Stead’...
ListenGood Morning, Midnight from 2022-04-26T08:00
In this episode, writers Sandra Lim and Brian Hall join host Catherine Nichols to discuss Jean Rhys's 1939 novel, Good Morning, Midnight. The novel is about a grieving, impoverished woman wandering...
ListenLove in a Fallen City from 2021-12-14T09:00
In this episode, writer and photographer Adalena Kavanagh and editor Jaime Chu join host Catherine Nichols to discuss Eileen Chang's 1943 novel Love In a Fallen City. Set in Shanghai and Hong Kong ...
ListenPitchin' Man: Satchel Paige's Own Story from 2021-11-30T09:00
In this episode, writer Luke Epplin joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss Leroy "Satchel" Paige's 1948 memoir Pitchin' Man: Satchel Paige's Own Story, written with sportswriter Hal Lebovitz. Paig...
ListenThe Hound of the Baskervilles from 2021-11-23T09:00
In this episode writers Alex Higley and Willie Fitzgerald join host Catherine Nichols to talk about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1901 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. The conversation includes disc...
ListenCivilization and Its Discontents from 2021-11-16T09:00
Writer Jessica Gross joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss Freud's 1930 book Civilization and Its Discontents, in which Freud writes about the difficulty of living as an individual in society, an...
ListenMock Orange and Louise Gluck from 2021-11-02T09:00
In this episode, guest K. Austin Collins joins hosts Elisa Gabbert and Catherine Nichols to talk about Louise Gluck's 1985 poem "Mock Orange" and through it, her work in general. Some topics are th...
ListenStrangers on a Train from 2021-10-26T08:00
In this episode, writers Mike Meginnis and David Burr Gerrard join host Catherine Nichols to discuss Patricia Highsmith's 1950 novel Strangers on a Train. In the novel, two characters, Guy and Brun...
ListenThe Sound Tape from 2021-10-19T08:00
In this episode, writers Alex Higley and Willie Fitzgerald join host Catherine Nichols to discuss three short stories by Wright Morris: "The Sound Tape," "The Character of the Lover," and "The Cat ...
ListenThe Great Gatsby from 2021-10-12T08:00
In this episode, hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman talk about F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. Why is modernity (and the swimming pool) always deadly in twentieth century ...
ListenFriend of My Youth from 2021-10-05T08:00
In this episode writers Alex Higley and Willie Fitzgerald join host Catherine Nichols to discuss two stories from Alice Munro's 1991 short story collection Friend of My Youth. The first is the titl...
ListenRemember Me from 2021-09-21T08:00
Hosts Elisa Gabbert and Catherine Nichols discuss Christopher Pike's hit 1989 novel Remember Me and his less-known Fall Into Darkness (1990). Remember Me's ghostly protagonist explores an idiosyncr...
ListenThe Emigrants from 2021-07-07T09:00
Hosts Elisa Gabbert, Isaac Butler, and Catherine Nichols discuss W. G. Sebald's 1992 novel, The Emigrants, a hybrid fiction/nonfiction work made up of four long narratives about four people who emi...
ListenThe General of the Dead Army from 2021-06-29T08:00
In this episode, critic K. Austin Collins joins hosts Catherine Nichols and Isaac Butler to discuss Albanian author Ismail Kadare's 1971 novel The General of the Dead Army. In this novel, an Italia...
ListenThe World I Live In from 2021-06-22T04:00
`In this episode, writer, actor, and performance artist M. Leona Godin joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss Helen Keller's 1908 book The World I Live In. Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an American...
ListenThe Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea from 2021-06-15T08:00
Hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols discuss Yukio Mishima's 1963 novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, a disturbing, sui generis book about a young boy watching the developing re...
ListenA Structure for DNA from 2021-06-08T08:00
In this episode, geneticist Maria Naylor joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss James Watson and Francis Crick's 1953 paper "A Structure for DNA," for which they won the Nobel Prize (with many ref...
ListenThe Wine-Dark Sea from 2021-05-25T08:00
In this episode, novelist and poet Kathleen Rooney joins hosts Catherine Nichols and Elisa Gabbert to discuss Robert Aickman's 1988 collection of stories The Wine-Dark Sea, with particular focus on...
ListenValley of the Dolls from 2021-05-18T08:00
In this episode co-hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman discuss Jacqueline Susann's 1966 mega-bestseller Valley of the Dolls, looking at how it treats women's bodies, sexuality, success, and g...
ListenSuperman Comes to the Supermarket from 2021-05-11T08:00
In this episode, novelist Miranda Popkey joins hosts Catherine Nichols and Isaac Butler to discuss Norman Mailer's 1960 essay, "Superman Comes to the Supermarket," a landmark work in the history of...
ListenThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock from 2021-05-04T08:00
In this episode, writer and critic Elisa Gabbert joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss T.S. Eliot's 1915 poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," a poem about aging, limitations and disillusio...
ListenThe Surrealist Manifesto from 2021-04-27T08:00
In this episode, co-hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman discuss André Breton's First Surrealist Manifesto from 1924. Why were the demands of the surrealists such a lasting influence on twenti...
ListenThe Chaneysville Incident from 2021-04-20T08:00
In this episode, writer Matthew Hunte joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss David Bradley's 1981 novel The Chaneysville Incident, a historical novel based on a legend of thirteen runaway slaves w...
ListenExcellent Women from 2021-04-13T08:00
In this episode V V Ganeshananthan joins host Catherine Nichols to discuss Barbara Pym's novel Excellent Women, a comedy of manners about an unmarried woman living in the very small world of 1950s ...
ListenThe Women of Brewster Place II from 2021-04-06T08:00
In this episode, author Tyrese L. Coleman joins hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman again to continue their discussion of Gloria Naylor’s book of linked short stories, The Women of Brewster P...
ListenThe Women of Brewster Place I from 2021-03-30T08:00
In this episode, author Tyrese L. Coleman joins hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman to discuss Gloria Naylor's book of linked short stories, The Women of Brewster Place (1982). This book is a...
ListenWhat Is It Like to Be a Bat? from 2021-03-23T08:00
In this episode, hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols discuss Thomas Nagel's 1974 essay "What Is It Like To Be a Bat?" How did materialism, for centuries the tool of radical thinkers, become t...
ListenThe End of Vandalism from 2021-03-16T08:00
In this episode, Adalena Kavanagh joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss Tom Drury's 1994 novel The End of Vandalism, a quietly hilarious and profound novel about a love triangl...
ListenThe Unconsoled from 2021-03-09T09:00
In this episode, author J. Robert Lennon joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss Kazuo Ishiguro's novel-in-the-form-of-an-extended-dream, The Unconsoled (1995). Why is this novel...
ListenChekhov's Short Stories from 2021-03-02T09:00
In this episode, hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman talk about the short stories of Anton Chekhov, particularly "Lady With a Little Dog" and "Ward No. 6." What do these stories tell us about...
ListenThe Cherry Orchard #1 from 2021-02-23T09:00
In this episode, hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman discuss "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov, and particularly what it has to say about slavery, upper-class revolutionary types, and the...
ListenTen Book Retrospective #2 from 2021-02-16T09:00
The second part of a discussion between co-hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols about the first ten books discussed on Lit Century. How did suffering come to be seen as cool in the twentieth c...
ListenTen Book Retrospective from 2021-02-09T09:00
Co-hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols look back on the first ten books on Lit Century and what they tell us about the mindset of the 20th century. Why was the 20th century so obsessed with w...
ListenThe Designated Mourner from 2021-02-02T09:00
In this episode, writer, actor and director John Cotter joins hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman to discuss Wallace Shawn's 1996 play "The Designated Mourner," about the fate of intellectual...
ListenFlowers in the Attic #2 from 2021-01-26T09:00
In this episode, Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman continue their discussion of V. C. Andrews's Flowers in the Attic (1979) and the story behind the story—particularly the ableism Andrews encount...
ListenFlowers in the Attic #1 from 2021-01-19T09:00
In this episode, Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman talk about V. C. Andrews's Flowers in the Attic (1979), focusing on how the book is an allegory for the treatment of people with disabilities; A...
ListenThe Haunting of Hill House #2 from 2021-01-12T13:56
In this episode, author and editor Benjamin Dreyer joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss the all-time great haunted house novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. B...
ListenThe Haunting of Hill House #1 from 2021-01-05T09:00
In this episode, author and editor Benjamin Dreyer joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss the all-time great haunted house novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. B...
ListenBlues for Mister Charlie #2 from 2020-12-29T09:00
Isaac Butler joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss James Baldwin's play "Blues for Mister Charlie" (1964), written to address the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till, In this e...
ListenBlues for Mister Charlie #1 from 2020-12-22T09:00
In this episode, Isaac Butler joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss James' Baldwin's play "Blues for Mister Charlie" (1964). It was written to address the lynching of 14-year-o...
ListenKristin Lavransdatter #2 from 2020-12-08T09:00
In the second episode about Kristin Lavransdatter, the trilogy of historical novels that won Sigrid Undset the Nobel Prize, the hosts discuss the provincial politics of the early Nobel Prize with T...
ListenThe Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy from 2020-12-01T13:27:47
Welcome to Lit Century: 100 Years, 100 Books. Combining literary analysis with an in-depth look at historical context, hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols choose one book for each year of the...
ListenFrog and Toad Are Friends from 2020-11-24T13:14:39
In this episode, co-hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols invite guest Ellen Tarlow to discuss Arnold Lobel's classic Frog and Toad series, beginning with Frog and Toad Are Friends from 1970. A...
ListenCheaper by the Dozen #2 with April Holm from 2020-11-17T09:00
In this week's episode, historian April Holm talks with co-hosts Nichols and Newman about Cheaper by the Dozen, a 1948 bestseller whose air of wholesome family fun has gradually shifted it into the...
ListenCheaper by the Dozen #1 from 2020-11-10T09:00
In this week's episode, historian April Holm talks with co-hosts Nichols and Newman about Cheaper by the Dozen, a 1948 bestseller whose air of wholesome family fun has gradually shifted it into the...
ListenPassing #2 from 2020-11-03T13:29
In today's episode, Nichols and Newman discuss Nella Larsen's 1929 Harlem Renaissance classic Passing (1929) with novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge, focusing on the history and cultural significance of Bl...
ListenPassing #1 from 2020-10-27T08:00
In today's episode, Nichols and Newman discuss Nella Larsen's 1929 Harlem Renaissance classic Passing (1929) with guest Megan Abbott, focusing on its groundbreaking treatment of gender and sexualit...
ListenNightwood #2 from 2020-10-20T08:00
Hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman discuss the novel Nightwood, focusing in this episode on the extraordinary life and career of its author, Djuna Barnes, who lived among the most extreme pe...
ListenNightwood #1 from 2020-10-13T08:06
Hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols discuss the Modernist classic Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, focusing on its treatment of eugenics and LGBT issues. For those who want to know more: here's som...
ListenNightwood #1 from 2020-10-13T08:06
Hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols discuss the Modernist classic Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, focusing on its treatment of eugenics and LGBT issues. For those who want to know more: here's som...
ListenNightwood #1 from 2020-10-13T08:06
Hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols discuss the Modernist classic Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, focusing on its treatment of eugenics and LGBT issues. For those who want to know more: here's som...
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