The LRB Podcast

Akihito, who abdicated in April, was a paradoxical figure: a hereditary monarch, the son of the wartime emperor, Hirohito, strictly barred from political utterance, who even so stood out against the historical revisionism of the nationalist right. Richard Lloyd Parry considers the former emperor’s part in the intellectual and political debate over Japan’s wartime record, and its history of apology...

Given what we know about the future of the planet, is having children a matter of consumer choice, of political conviction, or something an authority will eventually decide for us? Meehan Crist explores the debate about the ethics of childbearing in the age of climate crisis. She addresses the relationship between BP and the British Museum, the implications of culture-washing, and the logic of cul...

The line between making a fiction and telling a lie has been blurry at least since Homer, and liars – from Odysseus and Iago to Austen’s Wickham and beyond – have often played central parts within fictions. This lecture will aim to tell some (though not all) of the truth about the relationship between lies and fiction from Homer to Ian McEwan, and will ask if fiction has responded adequately to th...

Alan Bennett reads his Diary for 2019, with a few little extra bits. Read more by Alan Bennett in the LRB: lrb.me/bennettpod Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the last of a series of events marking the LRB's 40th anniversary, Jeremy Harding and Adam Shatz talk to Nikita Lalwani about their work for the paper, with a focus on North Africa and the Middle East. Due to some problems with the audio recording, this is a slightly abridged version of the event. Read more Jeremy Harding in the LRB: lrb.me/jhardingpod Read more Adam Shatz in the LRB: lrb.me/sh...

As part of a series of events marking the LRB's 40th anniversary, Nell Dunn and Tessa Hadley talk to Joanna Biggs, one of the LRB's editors, about fictional representations of women’s everyday lives. Read more in the LRB from: Tessa Hadley Nell Dunn Joanna Biggs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As part of our series of events marking the 40th anniversary of the LRB, longtime contributors Rosemary Hill and Iain Sinclair talked to the LRB’s digital editor, Sam Kinchin-Smith, about London, through the lens of pieces they've written for the paper. Read more by Rosemary Hill in the LRB: lrb.me/hillpod Read more by Iain Sincliar in the LRB: lrb.me/sinclairpod Sign up to the LRB's newsletter: l...

As part of our series of events marking the LRB's 40th anniversary, Katrina Forrester and William Davies discuss political crisis, and in particular the crisis of liberalism, through the lens of pieces they've written for the paper. Read more by Katrina Forrester in the LRB: https://lrb.me/forresterpod Read more by William Davies in the LRB: https://lrb.me/daviespod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the London Review of Books, and mark the publication of The London Review of Books: An Incomplete History, the LRB’s editor, Mary-Kay Wilmers, along with Alan Bennett, Andrew O’Hagan, John Lanchester and Sheng Yun, talk to LRB publisher Nicholas Spice about the history and character of the paper.   The London Review of Books: An Incomplete History is available...

Bee Wilson on eating out in late Victorian London. Read more by Bee Wilson in the LRB: https://lrb.me/beewilsonpod Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Wood recalls his time at the college, with David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and others. Read more by James Wood in the LRB: https://lrb.me/jameswoodpod Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew O'Hagan goes to the fashion designer's memorial at the Grand Palais in Paris. Read more by Andrew O'Hagan in the LRB: https://lrb.me/ohaganpod Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary Wellesley looks inside the cell of a medieval anchorite, and considers why so many women shut themselves away to devote themselves to prayer and contemplation, and what their lives were like. Read Mary Wellesley in the LRB: lrb.me/wellesleypod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

‘Instead of shaking all over, I read the newspapers. I listened to the radio. I had my lunch.’ Colm Tóibín reads his account of being treated for cancer. Read more by Colm Tóibín in the LRB archive: lrb.me/colmtoibinpod Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...

Alan Bennett puts on a new play and finds himself on someone’s arm, in his 2018 diary. Read more by Alan Bennett in the LRB: https://lrb.me/bennettpod Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rosemary Hill explores frock consciousness in life and literature in her LRB Winter Lecture, delivered at the British Museum. Read more by Rosemary Hill in the LRB: https://lrb.me/hillpod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: https://lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Linda Colley argues that the prospect of Brexit makes history more important than ever in her LRB Winter Lecture, delivered at the British Museum. Read more by Linda Colley in the LRB: https://lrb.me/colleypod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: https://lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anne Enright delivers her Winter Lecture on the corruptions of the Adam and Eve story in her LRB Winter Lecture, delivered at the British Museum. Read more by Anne Enright in the LRB: https://lrb.me/enrightpod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: https://lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Toby Jones reads John Lanchester’s ghost story. Read more from John Lanchester in the LRB: https://lrb.me/lanchesterpod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: https://lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan Bennett finds his métier at last in 2017. Read more by Alan Bennett in the LRB: https://lrb.me/bennettpod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: https://lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the latest instalment of the LRB podcast, recorded in Seoul, Richard Lloyd Parry talks to the Korean-American novelist Krys Lee about Christianity, plastic surgery and mutual incomprehension in the Korean borderlands. Read more by Richard Lloyd Parry in the LRB; https://lrb.me/lloydparrypod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Jane Campbell reads a story about dispossession in paradise. Sign up to the LRB newsletter: lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lucy Prebble describes meeting Harvey Weinstein. Sign up to the LRB newsletter: lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second part of their conversation, Olivier Roy and Adam Shatz discuss the deculturation of Islam, and why it has led to the radicalisation of so many second-generation immigrants and converts. Read more by Adam Shatz in the LRB: lrb.me/shatzpod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg...

In the first of two podcasts, Olivier Roy tells Adam Shatz about his experiences with the Gauche prolétarienne in the 1960s and his early travels in Afghanistan. Read more by Adam Shatz in the LRB: lrb.me/shatzpod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: https://lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices