Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses by James Joyce

Recorded for Bloomsday 2026. If you're in Paris and it's still June 16th, join us between 2pm and 5pm at Shakespeare and Company, 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, Paris.

Find the film here: 

https://vimeo.com/408613317

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7xAM_eXuuk

Adam Biles and Lex Paulson reunite after an eighteen-month hiatus for a live commentary on the 1967 Joseph Strick film adaptation of Ulysses. They discuss Joyce's real-life role launching Dublin's first cinema, the film's scandalous festival history (Cannes brawl, Irish ban, New Zealand sex-segregated screenings), and Milo O'Shea's towering performance as Leopold Bloom. Along the way: Circe's Monty Python energy, the "Me Too" moment, and why Joyce (thanks to Nora) remains decades ahead of us all.

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For the second part of this year’s Bloomcast Holiday Special, Alice, Lex, and Adam get help from Claire-Louise Bennett and Foad Dizadji-Bahmani to explore how it challenges conventional ideas of narrative, language, and meaning. As always, our Bloomcasters invite listeners into a spirited and thought-provoking conversation that bridges literary analysis, philosophical inquiry, and personal reflections…before topping of the conversation with a game so contrived it would make Blazes Boylan blush.

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Alice McCrum is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Princeton University. Before starting her graduate work, Alice lived in Paris, where she taught at the Sorbonne, studied public policy at Sciences Po-Paris, and directed cultural programming at the American Library in Paris. 

Lex Paulson is Director of Executive Programs at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy and human rights at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.

Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, was published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and will be published in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian. A collection of his conversations with writers, The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews, was published by Canongate in October 2023

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Happy Joycension Day!

For this year’s Bloomcast Holiday Special, Alice, Lex, and Adam reunited for a lively discussion of Watt by Samuel Beckett, asking: How does Beckett’s minimalist, disintegrative style compare to James Joyce’s expansive, celebratory storytelling? What makes this novel so uniquely absurd and profound? And why does Watt feel both so playful and deeply unsettling? Is Watt a meticulously structured puzzle or an exercise in unraveling structure itself? What does Watt tell us about Beckett’s influence on modern literature?

Setting this enigmatic work against the context of Beckett’s wartime experiences, they also explore how it challenges conventional ideas of narrative, language, and meaning. What is Watt’s lasting impact on readers and thinkers alike? As always, our Bloomcasters invite listeners into a spirited and thought-provoking conversation that bridges literary analysis, philosophical inquiry, and personal reflections…before topping of the conversation with a game so contrived it would make Blazes Boylan blush.

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Alice McCrum is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Princeton University. Before starting her graduate work, Alice lived in Paris, where she taught at the Sorbonne, studied public policy at Sciences Po-Paris, and directed cultural programming at the American Library in Paris. 

Lex Paulson is Director of Executive Programs at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy and human rights at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.

Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, was published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and will be published in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian. A collection of his conversations with writers, The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews, was published by Canongate in October 2023

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special episode, the Bloomcasters take on their trickiest task yet : criticizing one of their own. 

Adam Biles’ “Beasts of England”, a canny and hilarious sequel to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, has received rave reviews and is already heading into translation in France and India -- but is it really any good?

Bloomcasters Alice and Lex take the reins, pushing Adam into the darkest corners of his fascination with farmyards and political arcana. How does one pen a sequel to a classic? What can satire show us about our dysfunctional age that no other genre can? Which pig is Boris Johnson, and does it matter in the least?

The gloves are off the trotters, and the true beasts are revealed. We hope you enjoy it.

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Alice McCrum is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Princeton University. Before starting her graduate work, Alice lived in Paris, where she taught at the Sorbonne, studied public policy at Sciences Po-Paris, and directed cultural programming at the American Library in Paris. 

Lex Paulson is Director of Executive Programs at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy and human rights at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.

Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, was published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and will be published in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian. A collection of his conversations with writers, The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews, was published by Canongate in October 2023

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Bloomcasters reconvene on January 6th, “Joycension Day”, to discuss The Dead : the final piece in Joyce’s Dubliners, described by T. S. Eliot as "one of the greatest short stories ever written". 

Leaning heavily as always on the wisdom of honorary Bloomcasters Declan Kiberd and Colm Toibin, they cover orchestrated dinner parties, ego death, the circularity of human life, the music of words, and much more.

Carrying forth a Bloomcast tradition, they also play a festive game, populating competing dinner parties with characters from Dubliners and Ulysses.

Happy New Year (and Joycension Day)!

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Mentioned in the podcast:

‘The Dead’, by James Joyce: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dubliners/The_Dead

Prof. Declan Kiberd, ‘Dubliners: The First 100 Years,’ at the James Joyce Center (2014):

https://youtu.be/A5qhK7LH6co?si=1zFc7EH7AOpuL1mq

Dubliners, with an introduction by Colm Toibin (Canongate): https://canongate.co.uk/books/1488-dubliners/

London Review of Books. ‘Arruginated’, by Colm Toibin: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n17/colm-toibin/arruginated

John Huston’s 1987 film adaptation of ‘The Dead’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkos62UPwVk

“The Lass of Aughrim,” from the Huston film:

https://youtu.be/I1CP5Lz2iHE?si=yfxE-koZ3PVngWIc

Annie Baker’s Infinite Life: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/infinite-life/ 

Circles by Ralph Waldo Emerson: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2944/2944-h/2944-h.htm#link2H_4_0010  

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Alice McCrum is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Princeton University. Before starting her graduate work, Alice lived in Paris, where she taught at the Sorbonne, studied public policy at Sciences Po-Paris, and directed cultural programming at the American Library in Paris. 

Lex Paulson is Director of Executive Programs at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy and human rights at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.

Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, was published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and will be published in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian. A collection of his conversations with writers, The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews, was published by Canongate in October 2023

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A few weeks back we had our dear friend, Bloomsday MC, and eminent Bloomcaster Prof. Lex Paulson as a guest in the library to give a talk on Cicero, drawing on his book Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, recently published by Cambridge University Press.

Anyone who has listened to Bloomcast will know that Lex is not just a great speaker, but also a great thinker, and this talk is both an exquisite example of his work, and an insight into some of the ideas that shaped his particular and insightful approach to James Joyce’s masterwork.

We were so pleased to have Lex with us that evening, and are delighted to be able to release this talk on Bloomsday. Enjoy!

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This December—six months after saying goodbye—Bloomcast is back for a Holiday Special! Join Alice, Lex and Adam as they answer your questions, play games, tease each other, drink (tea, whiskey, Gimber) and leap off Forty Foot and into Ulysses one more (one last?) time…

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Bloomcast is a ten-part plunge into James Joyce's Ulysses presented by Adam Biles, Alice McCrum, and Lex Paulson, live from Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Join them as they muddle through this radical, sublime, and often misunderstood novel first published one hundred years ago, in 1922. 

Please share your thoughts on the book and anything you’d like to hear us discuss: [email protected]

A student of environmental policy at Sciences Po-Paris, Alice McCrum runs programming at the American Library in Paris. 

In between fits of Joycean nerdery, Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco. An adopted Parisian, he teaches at Sciences Po-Paris and writes on the past and future of democracy.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, Paris. He is the author of the novel Feeding Time, available in French as Défense de nourrir les vieux.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Bloomcast, a ten-part plunge into James Joyce's Ulysses presented by Adam Biles, Alice McCrum, and Lex Paulson, live from Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Join them as they muddle through this radical, sublime, and often misunderstood novel first published one hundred years ago, in 1922. 

In this (almost) final episode, recorded live on Bloomsday at the American Library in Paris, Alice, Lex and Adam reflect on their Joycean odyssey and answer such frivolous questions as “If you had to live in one of the episodes for eternity, which would it be?” and “Which line from the book would you like tattooed on your forearm?”

We will record one final episode dedicated to listener questions. If you have anything you’d like us to reflect upon, please send your questions to: [email protected]

A student of environmental policy at Sciences Po-Paris, Alice McCrum runs programming at the American Library in Paris. 

In between fits of Joycean nerdery, Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco. An adopted Parisian, he teaches at Sciences Po-Paris and writes on the past and future of democracy.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, Paris. He is the author of the novel Feeding Time, available in French as Défense de nourrir les vieux.

Photo by Silvia Regonelli

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What did James Joyce’s Ulysses do to literature, and how has literature reacted since? What is its role in the contemporary literary landscape? In celebration of the book’s centennial and in anticipation of Bloomsday, novelist and scholar Colm Tóibín spoke to Alice McCrum on May 27, 2022 at the American Library in Paris with a live audience both in person and on Zoom about the history, publication, and legacy of the book to which, in the words of T.S. Eliot, “we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape.”

Colm Tóibín is a novelist, essayist, and critic. He is the author of many works, including The Blackwater Lightship (1996), shortlisted for the Booker Prize; The Master (2004), awarded the 2006 International Dublin Literary Award and the 2004 Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year, and Brooklyn (2009), awarded the Costa Novel Award. Tóibín received the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 and the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2021.

A student of environmental policy at Sciences Po-Paris, Alice McCrum runs programming at the American Library in Paris. 

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Looking for our author interview podcast? Listen here: https://podfollow.com/shakespeare-and-company

SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR EARLY EPISODES AND BONUS FEATURES

All episodes of our Ulysses podcast are free and available to everyone. However, if you want to be the first to hear the recordings, by subscribing, you can now get early access to recordings of complete sections.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/channel/shakespeare-and-company/id6442697026

Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/sandco

In addition a subscription gets you access to regular bonus episodes of our author interview podcast. All money raised goes to supporting “Friends of Shakespeare and Company” the bookshop’s non-profit.

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Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com

Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses

Find out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/home

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Find out more about him here: https://www.adambiles.net

Buy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-time

Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco.

Original music & sound design by Alex Freiman.

Hear more from Alex Freiman here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1

Follow Alex Freiman on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alex.guitarfreiman/

Featuring Flora Hibberd on vocals.

Hear more of Flora Hibberd here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EFG7rqfVfdyaXiRZbRkpS

Visit Flora Hibberd's website: This is my website:florahibberd.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/florahibberd/ 

Music production by Adrien Chicot.

Hear more from Adrien Chicot here: https://bbact.lnk.to/utco90/

Follow Adrien Chicot on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/adrienchicot/

Photo of Colm Tóibín by Brigitte Lacombe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pages 927 - 933 │ Penelope, part XIII │ Read by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney is an Irish novelist. She is the author of Conversations with Friends, Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You.

Buy Beautiful World, Where Are You: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780571365432/beautiful-world-where-are-you

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Looking for our author interview podcast? Listen here: https://podfollow.com/shakespeare-and-company

SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR EARLY EPISODES AND BONUS FEATURES

All episodes of our Ulysses podcast are free and available to everyone. However, if you want to be the first to hear the recordings, by subscribing, you can now get early access to recordings of complete sections.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/channel/shakespeare-and-company/id6442697026

Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/sandco

In addition a subscription gets you access to regular bonus episodes of our author interview podcast. All money raised goes to supporting “Friends of Shakespeare and Company” the bookshop’s non-profit.

*

Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com

Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses

Find out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/home

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Find out more about him here: https://www.adambiles.net

Buy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-time

Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco.

Original music & sound design by Alex Freiman.

Hear more from Alex Freiman here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1

Follow Alex Freiman on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alex.guitarfreiman/

Featuring Flora Hibberd on vocals.

Hear more of Flora Hibberd here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EFG7rqfVfdyaXiRZbRkpS

Visit Flora Hibberd's website: This is my website:florahibberd.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/florahibberd/ 

Music production by Adrien Chicot.

Hear more from Adrien Chicot here: https://bbact.lnk.to/utco90/

Follow Adrien Chicot on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/adrienchicot/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.