Mendel & Noah discuss Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul, Trump appointments, who wrote Shakespeare, the meaning of Jesus, and more.

Mendel and Noah sit down with n+1 co-founder, Tablet columnist, and all around gentleman scholar Marco Roth.

In the first half, we discuss what was cool in old New York, what it means to be a writer on Substack vs. an “old-fashioned” writer, Marco’s apprenticeship with Derrida, and the early days of n+1.

In the second half, we discuss n+1 in its later “institutional era,” the famous n+1 takedown of James Wood, why founding editors left (or were made to leave) n+1, shifting standards after October 7th, and more.

Become a paid subscriber to listen to the full podcast and watch the full video version (below the paywall).

Erratum: the Alice Gregory piece Noah mentioned appeared in the New Yorker, not n+1.

Buy Marco’s book here.

Last week, the great American novelist and essayist Gary Indiana died. I got to know Gary around 2017 when I contacted him to see about reissuing his first two novels, Horse Crazy and Gone Tomorrow, both of which had long been out of print. It was a pleasure overseeing that project, and beginning work on a new collection of Gary’s essays, which would co…

Mars Review Podcast #5

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* Analysis of the Eric Adams situation

* Is Kanyeezy a genius though?

* Etymology of  “Lucifer”

* Robert Coover: In Memoriam.

* Why are postmodernists so sadomasochistic? It’s because of Nazis

* Genet, Cocteau, and Jünger walk into a bar

* May ‘68 is about the return heterosexuality

* How de Motherlant went blind

* Mendel & Noah big guests on the docket

* The body counts of 20th century novelists

* Living under the military regime of New York State

* Noah tells a story about meeting a Nabokov fanatic at the chess club who quizzes him about Lolita 

* Mendel tells a story about attending services at a Coptic Church

* Noah gets negged by a Rabbi

* Noah theorizes the genesis of one of his obsessional neuroses

* Pascal’s Radical Irgunism 

* Lessing v. Wincklemann

Mendel and Noah are going to make this MRB podcast a regular thing. People seem to be downloading it at a pretty good rate. So why not?

In this episode, I asked why Tel Aviv was being bombed. It’s a long answer, you’ll have to listen to the whole episode to find out. We also discussed the return of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Graves ancient Goddess worship, Pascal, and more. We also recap the MRB White Party and discuss Trump’s surprise appearance at a Greenwich Village dive bar.

Music by Thomas Amedeo

The other day I was on a long drive with my friend Mendel Uminer and I asked him to explain the Israel-Palestine conflict to me. He began by explaining to me the theories of the 18th century German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder. Several centuries of history and several hours of our drive later, I realized I had just heard a perspective that wasn’t being offered anywhere else. So I asked Mendel to come to my apartment and say it all again into a microphone. This conversation is the result of that request. We chatted a bit about literature and theories of the novel first. Skip to the 21:00 mark if you want to miss all that.If you enjoyed this, or want me to do more podcasts, let me know. I’m not against it, I suppose.Music by Thomas Amedeo

Music by Thomas Amedeo

Varun and Carlos Dengler discuss college, Carlos’s reading at the MRB3 launch, why Freddie deBoer loves the ‘90s, accidental transhumanism, Carlos’s review of Kelefa Sanneh’s Major Labels in MRB1, Last Ape Standing, MRB and associated communities as a respite from social media, how artists “widen the aperture,” I and Thou, why we need more clubs, why Carlos doesn’t believe in bad art, his fears after leaving the music industry, The Artist’s Way, learning from trees, slyly embedding a suggestion for Noah within the conversation, the devil (Carlos’s dog), how to recognize your calling, Carlos’s ideological migration, Bill Clinton’s autobiography, plagiarizing Varun in real time, learning from a voluntary loss of status.

Because Carlos was involved, the audio is good this time. We hope you enjoy.

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Music by Thomas Amedeo