LARB's Philosophy & Critical Theory editor Arne De Boever interviews Judith Butler about her 2015 CalArts lecture series, Demonstrating Precarity: Demonstrating Precarity: Vulnerability, Embodiment, and Resistance. A video version of this interview can be found at http://lareviewofbooks.org/av/

Tom McCarthy's new experimental novel "Satin Island" celebrates the role of the anthropologist over the novelist; John McPhee's latest essay in The New Yorker questions the extent to which authors should use cultural references in their work; author Meghan Daum discusses a great book she just finished, Bernard Cooper's "My Avant-Garde Education"; Tom Lutz talks about finding a lost city in Honduras and the dilemma that the archaeologists now face.

Tom Lutz is back this week and joins Laurie and Seth to discuss schmaltz (sentimental art, not rendered chicken fat), and whether it is necessary in our cultural diet. Also they debate the merits of Laura Poitras' Academy Award-winning documentary "Citizen Four", and Judith Freeman talks about a great book she just read, Rachel Cusk's "Outline."

Colin Marshall talks with Cynthia Kadohata, author of novels for young readers like the Newbery Medal-winning Kira-Kira, the National Book Award-winning The Thing About Luck, and the new Half a World Away. She has also written for adults with such novels In the Heart of the Valley of Love, a grim but hopeful vision of Los Angeles' future.

Colin Marshall talks with Cynthia Kadohata, author of novels for young readers like the Newbery Medal-winning Kira-Kira, the National Book Award-winning The Thing About Luck, and the new Half a World Away. She has also written for adults with such novels In the Heart of the Valley of Love, a grim but hopeful vision of Los Angeles' future.

Composer Jake Heggie talks with LARB's Stephen Rohde about his opera, Dead Man Walking, and its treatment, musically and dramatically, of the death penalty.

Composer Jake Heggie talks with LARB's Stephen Rohde about his opera, Dead Man Walking, and its treatment, musically and dramatically, of the death penalty.

Cultural historian Leo Braudy joins Laurie Winer and Seth Greenland to discuss ISIS videos and the history of propaganda. Also the trio discuss a recent article, "What's Wrong with Public Intellectuals?" in The Chronicle of Higher Education; Michael Tolkin extols the virtues of his favorite book, The Professor's House by Willa Cather; another tale from the road from Literary Death Match founder Adrian Todd Zuniga.

Cultural historian Leo Braudy joins Laurie Winer and Seth Greenland to discuss ISIS videos and the history of propaganda. Also the trio discuss a recent article, "What's Wrong with Public Intellectuals?" in The Chronicle of Higher Education; Michael Tolkin extols the virtues of his favorite book, The Professor's House by Willa Cather; another tale from the road from Literary Death Match founder Adrian Todd Zuniga.

LARB's Philosophy and Critical Theory editor Arne De Bouever speaks with Michael Marder, Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Basque Country. He is the author of the recent books The Philosopher's Plant and Pyropolitics.