Actor Quincy Tyler Bernstine revisits one of the most unsettling scandals of the nineties with her reading of Lucille Clifton’s poem “lorena”; Jason Alexander brings Philip Roth’s early story “The Conversion of the Jews” to vivid life; and poet Brenda Shaughnessy contemplates “All Possible Pain.”Lucille Clifton, “lorena” from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 1996 by Lucille Clifton. Used with permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of BOA Editions, Ltd., boaeditions.org.

S2E2 | Making Light (with Philip Roth, Jason Alexander, Lucille Clifton, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Brenda Shaughnessy)

The Paris Review Podcast returns with a new season, featuring the best interviews, fiction, essays, and poetry from America’s most legendary literary quarterly, brought to life in sound. Join us for intimate conversations with Sharon Olds and Olga Tokarczuk; fiction by Rivers Solomon, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and Zach Williams; poems by Terrance Hayes and Maggie Millner; nonfiction by Robert Glück, Jean Garnett, and Sean Thor Conroe; and performances by George Takei, Lena Waithe, and many others. Catch up on earlier seasons, and listen to the trailer for Season 4 now.

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The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Joy Williams reads entries from “Concerning the Future of Souls” (issue no. 247, Spring 2024), a collection of stories following Azrael, the angel of death and transporter of souls.

This episode was produced by John DeLore and Helena de Groot, and was mixed and sound-designed by John DeLore. Our theme song this season is “Shadow,” composed and performed by Ernst Reijseger.

Additional Links:

https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/8252/concerning-the-future-of-souls-joy-williams

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S4E12 | Concerning the Future of Souls, by Joy Williams

In Zach Williams’s “Trial Run” (issue no. 239, Spring 2022), an employee is subjected to two coworkers’ conspiracy theories when their office is targeted by an anonymous white supremacist hacker. The story is read by Michael Chernus, Danny Mastrogiorgio, and Gabriel Marin.

This episode was produced by John DeLore and Helena de Groot, and was mixed and sound-designed by John DeLore. Our theme song this season is “Shadow,” composed and performed by Ernst Reijseger.

Additional Links: 

www.theparisreview.org/fiction/7873/trial-run-zach-williams

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S4E11 | Trial Run

“We were thirteen and conspiratorial and what was said is now out of reach.” Jim Fletcher reads Peter Orner’s “Foley’s Pond” (issue no. 202, Fall 2012), a quietly devastating short story about the effects of a tragic accident on a boy and his community.

This episode was produced by John DeLore and Helena de Groot, and was mixed and sound-designed by John DeLore. Our theme song this season is “Shadow,” composed and performed by Ernst Reijseger.

Additional Links:

https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/6173/foleys-pond-peter-orner

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S4E10 | Foley’s Pond

The legendary actor George Takei reads one of the oldest stories in the Review’s archive. Published by the magazine in 1957, “The Victim” is Ivan Morris’s English translation of the Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki’s 1910 literary debut.

This episode was produced by John DeLore and Helena de Groot, and was mixed and sound-designed by John DeLore. Our theme song this season is “Shadow,” composed and performed by Ernst Reijseger.

Additional Links:

theparisreview.org/fiction/4872/the-victim-junichiro-tanizaki

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The Japanese American Museum: https://www.janm.org/

S4E9 | “The Victim” by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

Sean Thor Conroe shares entries from “The Walk Book”—his meticulous, funny travelogue about his 2014 attempt to walk across the United States—including some rain-soaked field recordings.


This episode was produced by Helena de Groot and John DeLore, and was sound-designed by Helena de Groot. Our theme song this season is “Shadow,” composed and performed by Ernst Reijseger.

Additional Links:

theparisreview.org/letters-essays/8039/the-walk-book-sean-thor-conroe

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S2E2 | Making Light (with Philip Roth, Jason Alexander, Lucille Clifton, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Brenda Shaughnessy)

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