The Literary Life Podcast

Welcome back to The Literary Life Podcast and our series on Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. This week Angelina and Thomas are discussing Acts 1 and 2 and will try to do that by talking about the story as a whole, not simply focussing on the characters. They talk about the roles of the anti-romantic and the ultra-romantic couples, as well as the place of poetic verse and plain verse...

Welcome to The Literary Life Podcast and our first book series of 2025, covering Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Our hosts, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks begin by sharing their commonplace quotes, then lead into a little biographical background on William Shakespeare and the way in which he wrote his plays. They also talk a little about Elizabethan period drama as a whole, as w...

On The Literary Life Podcast this week, due to unforeseen interruptions to the recording schedule, we are bringing you another episode from the vault. We hope you will enjoy this replay of The Literary Life of Thomas Banks! Cindy begins the interview asking Thomas about his family background and the influence of his parents on his own reading life. He shares about many of the books he loved in chi...

On The Literary Life podcast today, we bring you another episode from our podcast archive in which our hosts look back on their reading lives of 2022. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas each share a commonplace quote, then they each share a little about how they approach reading in a way that fits with the demands of their busy lives. Each of our hosts talks about their literary surprises, their most outs...

On this week's episode of The Literary Life podcast, we bring you an episode from our vault in which Angelina, Cindy and Thomas share a wrap up of their 2021 year in reading--their favorite books of the year, their most hated books read, and how they each did with covering the categories of the #LitLife192021 Reading Challenge. They also talk a little about how they will be approaching their readi...

Welcome to our year end wrap-up episode here on The Literary Life podcast! Today Angelina and Thomas are rejoined by Cindy Rollins to chat about all the books they've been reading throughout 2024. They start out sharing some overall thoughts about what each of their year in reading looked like, then share some highlights from this year in books. They also share some of their least favorite reads o...

This week on The Literary Life podcast, Angelina and Thomas wrap up our series on An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. In sharing thoughts on Act 4, Angelina and Thomas consider whether Wilde's satire works well here at the end, as well as expanding more on the ideas of "the angel in the house" and women's suffrage during this time period. Today they are also joined by Atlee Northmore to discuss film...

Welcome to this special preview episode of The Literary Life Podcast! In this episode, our hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks share the books and topics you can look forward to in the upcoming 2025 season of the podcast. This episode was recorded live with the Patreon supporters for our December All Fellows Eve. In addition to giving a taste of what to expect in the coming year, they also lo...

We are back on The Literary Life podcast this week with a continuation of our series on An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. Today Angelina and Thomas cover Acts 2 and 3 of the play, including some more background on this literary period, starting off with some background of the comedy of manners and satire. They discuss a wide range of topics touching on the ideas in this play, as well as covering th...

Welcome back to The Literary Life Podcast and a new series on Oscar Wilde's play An Ideal Husband . This week hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks will give an introduction to Oscar Wilde and the time period in which he wrote this play, then discuss Act 1. They discuss the cultural pendulum swing that happened in the Late Victorian period into the Edwardian era, as well as the Aesthetic Moveme...

This week on The Literary Life Podcast we are pleased to bring you a conversation hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks had with Dr. Jason Baxter, author of the new book Why Literature Matters from Cassiodorus Press. You can find out more about Dr. Baxter and his other books at JasonMBaxter.com . Together they discuss how this book came about and the importance of knowing who your audience is....

Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast! Due to a scheduling conflict, this week we are re-airing a previous episode with Dr. Jason Baxter, author of the new book Why Literature Matters from Cassiodorus Press. Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks sit down for a special conversation with Jason Baxter. Jason is a speaker, writer, and college professor who writes primarily on medieval...

Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast and the wrap up of our series on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner . Today Angelina and Thomas cover the second half of the poem, beginning with some more discussion about the Romantic poets and what they were trying to do through their work. They talk at some length about the importance of imagination and fantasy in response to the foc...

On today's episode of The Literary Life, Angelina and Thomas discuss the first half of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner . They review some of the ideas covered last week, particularly Romanticism and the harkening back to the medieval tradition in contrast to the Neo-Classicism that preceded this period. Thomas sets up the plot with an explanation of the "frame tale," then rea...

On The Literary Life podcast this week, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks begin their newest series, this time discussing Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner . First, Thomas and Angelina speak to the question of different editions of this poem, then they dive into the background on Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and the lyrical ballads. They discuss the artistic and cultural mom...

Today's episode of The Literary Life podcast is one in our "Best of The Literary Life" series. This week's remix is a conversation from 2019 between Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins in which they discuss Dorothy L. Sayers' essay  " Are Women Human? "  They explore the ideas that Sayers wrestles with in the essay, including: the Victorian view of women, the significance of the industrial revolut...

Today on The Literary Life podcast, hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks wrap up their series on Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers. To begin the conversation, Thomas shares his reaction on finishing this book. Angelina then dives into her discoveries of Alice in Wonderland references throughout all of Sayers' detective books. They talk about how the cricket game relates to the whole s...

Today's episode of The Literary Life podcast picks up our series on Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers with a discussion of chapters 12-16. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina and Thomas begin by talking about whether Sayers is "too accomplished" to be writing detective stories and the decline and resurgence of the genre. Angelina makes more connections between the medieval ro...

1On The Literary Life podcast this week, we continue our series on Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers, covering chapters 6-11. Angelina and Thomas begin the discussion talking about authors and their own thoughts on their best books versus those which readers seem to like best. Angelina shares some of the things she has learned about the drug trade in the early 20th century and in relation...

Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast and the beginning of our series on Dorothy L. Sayers' classic detective novel, Murder Must Advertise . Beginning with the Golden Age of the detective novel and the backdrop of World War I, Angelina and Thomas give some historical background to provide a setting for this novel. Angelina also shares some biographical information about Dorothy Sayers and her...

On this week's episode of The Literary Life podcast, we are excited to bring you a new conversation with hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks and their guest Dr. Jason Baxter. They open the discussion with some thoughts on why Dante has had renewed popularity in recent days. Jason talks about the big questions that poets seek to answer, and what some of the obstacles modern readers might have...

Today on The Literary Life Podcast, we bring you another episode from the vault, this time to prepare you for our upcoming discussion of Dorothy L. Sayers' detective novel Murder Must Advertise . In this conversation, Angelina and Cindy talk all things related to the detective novel. Why do we love detective fiction so much? What are the qualities of a good detective novel? What is the history of...

Welcome to another remix episode of The Literary Life podcast with this popular "Literary Life of…" interview episode with Angelina, Cindy and their guest Jone Rose. Jone is a "super-fan" of the podcast and is a homeschool mom living in North Carolina. Today Angelina starts off the interview asking about Jone's childhood reading life and school experience. Jone shares how her own adult literary ed...

Welcome back to The Literary Life Podcast with Angelina Stanford, Thomas Banks, and Cindy Rollins. Thomas starts the conversation with some general thoughts on the biography as a branch of literature and as an art form. He also mentions some types of biography he does not care to read at all. Cindy brings up the tension between white-washing historical figures and dragging out every piece of their...

This week on The Literary Life Podcast, we continue our remix of a past discussion of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If you missed last week's episode, you will want to go back and catch Part 1. Angelina kicks of the book chat with a look at the format of the story and how it keeps us in suspense. Thomas brings up the idea of forbidden knowledge found in this...