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  • Episode 123: James Crews on Writing Prompts

    “I believe that telling our story, even the story of a moment, the story of an emotion, is one of the most healing things we can do,” says James Crews, poet, teacher and speaker. His new book, Unlocking the Heart: Writing for Courage, Mindfulness and Self-Compassion blends poetry, essays and writing prompts to help readers tell their own stories. We speak about this unusual blending of genres, writing as a healing practice, and how to write titles and first lines that draw people in. 

    James Crews is the editor of several bestselling books, including The Path to Kindness and How to Love the World, which has over 100,000 copies in print. He has been featured in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Christian Science Monitor, and on NPR’s Morning Edition. The author of four prize-winning books of poetry and of the book Kindness Will Save the World, James also speaks and leads workshops on kindness, mindfulness, and writing for self-compassion. He lives with his husband on forty rocky acres in the woods of Southern Vermont. AND The Wonder of Small Things just won the New England Book Award for Poetry! He also hosts a monthly writing community and sends out a weekly newsletter.

    To purchase signed books and join his newsletter: https://linktr.ee/jcrewsjr

    More on James Crews: https://www.jamescrews.net/

    For info on his monthly writing community: https://www.themonthlypause.com/



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe
    36 min
  • 51: John le Carré: Secrets & Lies
    ‘David at his worst was a liar but John le Carré at his best was a truth teller.’ These were the intriguing words with which his biographer Adam Sisman concluded the conversation when he joined the Slightly Foxed Podcast team at the kitchen table to discuss the life and work of the writer who was born David Cornwell but who is better known to the world as John le Carré.

    Graham Greene, whom le Carré greatly admired, once said that ‘an unhappy childhood is an asset for a writer’, and this young David had in spades. He was only 5 when he and his older brother were abandoned by their mother, to be brought up by their father, a domineering, larger-than-life conman, wife-beater and sexual tyrant, whose overwhelming personality would haunt David for the rest of his life and was the inspiration for his novel A Perfect Spy.

    These ‘hugless’ childhood years, as David called them, were ones of stark contrasts. At one moment the family would be living like princes, the next bailiffs were in the house and their father might even be in jail. The boys were taught early on to lie convincingly in order to bail their father out, so the scene was set for the kind of double life that David would later lead when he worked for the secret service, and for the shadowy worlds of violence and betrayal that he created in his novels. It also produced a man who sought out danger, both in doing his meticulous research, and in his multiple affairs with women, a subject Adam explored in a second biography, The Secret Life of John Le Carré, published after le Carré’s death.

    Adam speaks fascinatingly about his often tense relationship with this complex, brilliant and seductively charming man whose great Cold War novels such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, with their brilliant dialogue and scene-setting and their unforgettable central character George Smiley, are felt by many to far transcend the genre of spy fiction.

    To finish, there’s the usual round-up of reading recommendations including a personal and passionate account of Putin’s Russia through the eyes of a BBC journalist, Goodbye to Russia by Sarah Rainsford, and A Voyage around the Queen by Craig Brown, an exceptionally researched and hilarious biography of sorts of our late Queen Elizabeth II.

    For episode show notes, please see the Slightly Foxed website.
    Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major by Bach
    Hosted by Rosie Goldsmith
    Produced by Philippa Goodrich
    52 min
  • The Guermantes Way/ Le côté de Guermantes.

    Hosts Emma Claussen and Hannah Weaver enter the glamorous and bleak world of fin-de-siècle Paris through the ironic gaze of the narrator. With new access to the chicest salons, their witty denizens, and their gauche intruders, the narrator finds himself a spectator at the drama of social interaction – even as his beloved grandmother grows sick and dies. We talk about the advent of new technology (the telephone) and hot debates (the Dreyfus affair). As he enters the world of salons, the narrator uncovers the relativity of truth and the hypocrisy of society through the lens of the Affair, the signal anti-semitic scandal of the time. The architecture of the novel emerges alongside the narrator’s growing social acumen. Plus, we ponder the question, “Where would you like to live?” Join us as we search for lost time and remember things Proust.

    55 min
  • Episode #213 ... Deleuze Interprets Nietzsche (Difference, Joy, Affirmation)

    Today we talk about Deleuze's interpretation of Nietzsche's work. We talk about difference taken to radical new levels. The image of thought from the history of philosophy. Nietzsche framed as the enemy to the dialectic. Active vs Reactive forces. Deleuze's thoughts on art as a vehicle for the creation of the new instead of our typical approach via acquiring more information. Hope you love it! Be well. :)


    Sponsors:

    Better Help: https://www.BetterHelp.com/PHILTHIS

    AG1: https://www.DrinkAg1.com/philo

    Mando: https://www.ShopMando.com use promo code: PT


    Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 


    Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 


    Social:

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

    X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow


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    38 min
  • Joshua Cohen Reads “My Camp”

    Joshua Cohen reads his story “My Camp,” from the October 21st, 2024, issue of the magazine. Cohen’s books include the novels “Witz,” “Moving Kings,” and “The Netanyahus,” which won the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize.

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    0 min
  • Pam Ayres

    Get ready for a really wonderful edition of Rosebud, with the poet and performer Pam Ayres. Pam makes Gyles laugh and cry with the stories from her fascinating life. Pam paints vivid pictures of her childhood, growing up in relative poverty in a big family in an insular village in rural Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). All the family's food was grown in the back garden, there was no hot water, the family shared beds and the toilet was a bucket. She tells Gyles about the games she played, the first boyfriend she had, and about her first job. She tells Gyles about the joining the RAF, and how, through that, she began performing, and eventually got posted to Singapore. And she tells Gyles about being discovered and winning Opportunity Knocks. Pam's is a truly unique life, and in this interview she paints a compelling picture of a forgotten time. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this. With huge thanks to Pam for this wonderful conversation.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

    1 hr 17 min
  • Episode #212 ... Nietzsche and Critchley on the tragic perspective. (Amor Fati pt. 2)

    Today we begin by talking about Nietzsche's concept of life-affirmation. Contrasting it with the renunciative, rational traditions of Western thought. The episode then delves into Greek tragedy through the lens of Simon Critchley's work; making a case for how these ancient plays offer a life-affirming perspective by embracing the ambiguity of human existence.


    Sponsors:

    MUD/WTR: https://www.mudwtr.com/PTS

    Better Help: https://www.BetterHelp.com/PHILTHIS

    Nord VPN: https://nordvpn.com/philothis 


    Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 


    Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 


    Social:

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

    X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow



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    39 min
  • In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower / À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs

    In the second episode of Proust Curious, hosts Emma Claussen and Hannah Weaver slog through the narrator’s first love on the Champs-Élysées and emerge onto the dazzling shore of Normandy, where he travels with his grandmother. We notice that Proust begins to introduce concepts critical to the project: the ongoing tussle between habit and novelty, the social kaleidoscope, the subject matter of art, and the essential perspectivalism of all human relations. We dissect a passage about toenails, classical statuary, and living nymphs. Plus, we’ll answer the question: “What is your favorite virtue?” Join us as we search for lost time and remember things Proust.

    Produced by Michael Goldsmith in partnership with Public Books; visit publicbooks.org for transcripts and more information.

    Resources:

    • Proust Questionnaire
    • In Search of Lost Time (trans. Moncrieff, Kilmartin, and Mayor; rev. Enright)
    • Emma and Hannah discuss this volume further
    • Logo image
    • Madame de Sévigné (seventeenth-century French author)
    • Céline Sciamma (dir.) Bande de filles (‘Girlhood’)
    • Rubens, Marie de’ Medici Cycle
    52 min
  • On the State of the (Book)World, with Lauren Groff and Neel Mukherjee (live in Edinburgh)

    For this special episode, recorded live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Adam Biles was joined by novelists Lauren Groff and Neel Mukherjee for a wide-ranging discussion that takes the temperature (and the pulse!) of the book industry, from bookshops, to publishers, to prizes, to festivals... Enjoy!


    Buy The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-shakespeare-and-company-book-of-interviews


    Buy The Vaster Wilds: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-vaster-wilds-3


    Buy Choice: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/choice-2


    *


    Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New York Times–bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and

    Furies, Matrix, and The Vaster Wilds, and the celebrated short story collections Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. She has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice Award, France’s Grand Prix de l’Héroïne, and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.


    Neel Mukherjee won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for best fiction in 2010 for his debut novel A Life Apart. His second novel, The Lives of Others, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award, and won the Encore Award. His novel, A State of Freedom, was a New York Times '100 Notable Books of the Year' and heralded as 'Stunning ... a marvel of a book, shocking and beautiful, and it proves that Mukherjee is one of the most original and talented authors working today' (NPR). Choice, a novel as triptych, is his latest book.


    Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel of sorts to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england


    Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w


    Get bonus content on Patreon

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    1 hr 2 min
  • Episode #211 ... Nietzsche returns with a hammer!

    Today we talk about Nietzsche's views on the decay of western society. We talk about his problems with Socrates. The genealogy of Egalitarianism that has led to our modern societies, and how to contextualize his concept of the Ubermensch within modern culture. Hope you enjoy it! :)



    Sponsors:

    Lumen: https://www.lumen.me/PT

    AG1: https://www.DrinkAg1.com/philo

    Better Help: https://www.BetterHelp.com/PHILTHIS


    Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 


    Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 


    Social:

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

    X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow




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    41 min