Episodes

As far back as Aristotle, plots have been viewed as essential components of long-form narratives. So what happened when Modern novelists like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and Djuna Barnes began turning away ...

James MacManus was a foreign correspondent for The Guardian during a golden era of covering wars in faroff places. In this episode, Jacke talks to James about his career as a journalist, his transition to becoming the managin...

Philosopher, poet, playwright, science fiction writer, scientist, and celebrity Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) was a public and publishing sensation. In this episode, Jacke talks to biographer Francesca Peacock about her new ...

Superguest Mike Palindrome joins Jacke for a reading and discussion of D.H. Lawrence's short story "Tickets, Please" (1918), a "war of the sexes" modernist story in which some innocent flirtation turns to revenge and violence...

Jacke talks to author Michelle P. Brown about her new book, Bede and the Theory of Everything , which investigates the life and world of Bede (c. 673-735), the foremost scholar of the Middle Ages and the "father of English …

The evidence is clear: Henry David Thoreau was an industrious person who worked hard throughout his life. And yet, he's often viewed as a kind of dreamy layabout who dropped out of society so he could sit by his pond …

Happy New Year! Jacke kicks off 2024 with two of his favorite subjects: Books and Travel. First, Bethanne Patrick stops by to talk about the new season of Missing Pages , the Signal Award-winning, Webby Award-nominated, and c...

Nicholas Dames ( The Chapter: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century ) started his latest project with a seemingly simple question: Why do books have chapters? In this episode, as we turn from one year...

What books to buy for others? What books to read? In this guest episode from FT Weekend's Life and Art podcast, members of the Financial Times books team answer listener questions and share their personal recommendations from...

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a...FRAUD!? In this episode, Jacke dives into the dispute over one of the most famous Christmas poems of all time, "A Visit …

Zelda and Scott, Henry and June and Anaïs, Jean-Paul and Simone, Vladimir and Vera... the names that ring out from the 1930s are those of some of the most famous artists and intellectuals of the twentieth century. Everyone wh...

Shakespeare helped to make the Fool a common literary character. But what about the real-life fools who served in actual courts? Who were they and what kind of lives did they lead? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Peter...

Books are often viewed as the pinnacle of civilization; war, on the other hand, is where civilization breaks down. What happens when these two forces encounter one another? In this episode, Jacke talks to esteemed literary hi...

After taking a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #269 ("Wild Nights - wild nights!"), Jacke talks to novelist Anne Enright about growing up in Ireland, her writing career, and her new book The Wren, The Wren . PLUS Dublin litera...

Jacke reads "Odour of Chrysanthemums," D.H. Lawrence's story about a woman waiting for her husband, a coal miner, to come home. Then Mike Palindrome, the President of the Literature Supporters Club, stops by to discuss his tr...

After discussing Emily Dickinson's Poem #259 ("A Clock stopped -"), Jacke talks to author David Sterling Brown about his new book Shakespeare's White Others . PLUS novelist Shilpi Suneja ( House of Caravans ) selects the last...

Jacke talks to bestselling author Katharine Howe (editor of The Penguin Book of Pirates ) about her new novel, A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pirates, Written by Herself . PLUS an analysis of Emily Dickin...

Jacke talks to British academic librarian Christopher de Hamel about his passion for medieval manuscripts and his new book The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts . PLUS Maaheen Ahmed,...

Jacke celebrates autumn with a look at Shakespeare's Sonnet #73 ("That time of year thou mayst in me behold"), then welcomes novelist Laurie Frankel ( Family Family , One Two Three ) for a Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving discus...

Your wish is our command! Jacke talks to listener-nominated "dream guest" Dr. Jessica Kirzane about her work with Yiddish literature, including her recent translations of early twentieth-century writer Miriam Karpilove, Diary...

Jacke talks to Adrian Edwards, the lead curator of the British Library's Printed Heritage Collections, about the new book Shakespeare's First Folio: 400th Anniversary Facsimile Edition: Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, His...

It was an era known as the Golden Age of Rome, when the republic-turned-empire became the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist-turned-historian Tom Holland...

Jacke talks to scholar and biographer Lara Vetter ( H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) ) about the life and works of modernist poet and avant-garde woman Hilda Doolittle, better known by her nom de plume H.D. Help support the show at pat...

Jacke talks to "serial biographer" Carl Rollyson ( The Last Days of Sylvia Plath , The Life of William Faulkner ) about his new book, Sylvia Plath: Day by Day: Volume 1: 1932-1955 , which draws upon Plath's diaries and …