This week's LARB Podcast is a master class in 21st Century power relations, as Ryan Holiday discusses his sensational new book Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue with co-hosts Eric Newman and Kate Wolf. Befitting our time, this one episode has more salacious subterfuge than your favorite serial podcast: sex tapes, the blogosphere, rival visions of LGBTQ liberation, free speech wars, the crisis of journalism, and, in the end, the overwhelming force of an oligarch's money. To top it off, Ryan didn't merely have a front row seat, he was a player in the game.

Also, to celebrate Mother's Day we asked three of our favorite Moms to recommend books. Heidi Newman chose Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck, Dr, Elena Ocher tapped Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, while Kate Wolf selected Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth.