Kate, Medaya, and Eric look back at a year that many of us can't wait to put behind us. Against the background of the pandemic and the politics, the hosts review the books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and quirky new hobbies that helped them get through this year in their annual best of round-up.

Eric, Kate, and Medaya talk with Kiese about the struggle to buy his work back from the original publisher in order to revise and republish them, an experience that highlights the imbalance of power in the industry and the commodification of a writer’s work. The gang also chats about how the intervening years, including the Trump presidency now coming to a close, shaped his revisions. 

Also, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, author of Likes, returns to recommend Theory, a novel by Dionne Brand.

Medaya and Eric are joined by Alex Ross, the New Yorker's longtime music critic and author of Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadows of Music. Wagner's wide reaching influence across centuries, thinkers and artists reaches far beyond the realm of music. As they explore the complexity of his impact, the conversation wrestles with the stain of anti-Semitism, in Wagner’s thought and the Nazis embrace of his work, on his legacy. 

Also Tom Zoellner, author of The National Road: Dispatches From a Changing America, returns to recommend John Gunther's 1947 classic Inside USA.

This week co-hosts Kate and Medaya are joined by author Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, whose latest book is the collection of short stories Likes. Sarah discusses the magic of childhood, the difficulties of family life in the current political climate, and ways to see the quotidian in new and unexpected ways.

Also, Richard Seymour, author of The Twittering Machine, returns to recommend Benjamin Taylor's Here We Are, My Friendship with Philip Roth.

Co-hosts Kate and Eric speak with filmmaker Alexander Nanau about his stunning new documentary Collective about corruption in the Romanian Hospital system, government, and the broader society.  Alexander discusses the terrifying story at the heart of the film, the state of politics in his home country, and how he produced the film.  If a tale like Collective might have seemed from a far off land, or a bygone Eastern Bloc era; the Trumpian mismanagement of the ongoing pandemic - with shortages of PPE's and the unnecessary deaths of thousands of essential workers - delivers the film's unbearable tragedy right to our doorstep.

Also, Bryan Washington, author of Memorial, returns to recommend Rachel Khong's novel Goodbye Vitamin

We’re joined by Tom Zoellner, award-winning author and the LA Review of Books Politics Editor. Tom and the co-hosts talk about the election, the tenor of the online political debate, and the future of patriotism. We also discuss Tom’s new book, The National Road: Dispatches from a Changing America, a collection of essays from Tom’s travels throughout the country.

Also, former LARB intern Jenna Beales returns to recommend Starting Point 1979-1996, a collection of essays by Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary animator and co-founder of Studio Ghibli.

This week's show opens with Kate, Eric, and Medaya sharing their thoughts on the morning after Election Day. At the time, Joe Biden seemed to have a pathway to victory; but the trauma of the previous evening when, for a few hours, Trump seemed destined to repeat his improbable feat from four years earlier. The conversation revolves around a shared sense of incredulity that Trump's outrageous, nightmarish Presidency could be embraced by half the country; which leads to the observation that Bryan Washington's Memorial is a perfect book for this moment. Indeed, when Washington joins the show to discuss his new novel, Memorial, the conversation focuses upon the necessity of building bridges between people who can seem so far apart. Certainly, a poignant theme for our time.

This week, we have filmmaker Garrett Bradley discussing her new documentary Time, which follows a larger-than-life matriarch, fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. Bradley discusses the idea of time in her film — time served, the slowness of justice and the accumulation of grief and joy. Later in the episode, we have one of the founding members of the Guerrilla Girls, alias Kathe Kollwitz, on to discuss the legendary Guerrilla Girl movement, misogyny and racism in the arts, the battles ahead and the battles won.

Richard Seymour, author of The Twittering Machine,  joins Eric and Kate to discuss the “social industry" — online platforms that monetize and manipulate our need to share our lives online. Seymour moves beyond the negative effects social media has on us as individuals and as a community, bringing into view a bigger picture: the social, economic, and political perils that are now at our fingertips.

Also, Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies, returns to recommend Saul Bellow's Ravelstein

A special episode, featuring Alain Mabanckou, author of "Black Moses," our latest pick for LARB’s members-only Book Club. Mabanckou is an award-winning Francophone novelist who was born in Congo-Brazzaville in 1966 and grew up in a time of political upheaval and repression. Mabanckou joins LARB editors to discuss his novel, his childhood, and his experience of religious schooling and revolution. He also discusses his relationship with the French language, his move to the US, and his thoughts on contemporary American politics.

Also, former LARB intern and writer Yi Wei returns to recommend Emily Jungmin Yoon's collection of poems, A Cruelty Special to Our Species.