Sophomore Lit

This episode has many omissions, and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate. Jacob Haller tries to make sense of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979).

Host John McCoy with Jacob Haller.

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What’s more cultivated and genteel than classical theater? David Loehr discusses Aristophanes’s Lysistrata (411 B.C.E.)

Host John McCoy with David J. Loehr.

Trailer for the 2011 Broadway musical

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Because twenty would be too few and twenty-two would be ridiculous. Shaenon K. Garrity discusses William Pène du Bois’s The Twenty-One Balloons (1947).

Host John McCoy with Shaenon K. Garrity.

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Rain Main meets Air Bud. Dan McCoy discusses stims and happy endings and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003).

Host John McCoy with Dan McCoy.

My brother’s newsletter mentioned in the episode.

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This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a bunch of monks sitting around copying stuff. Jelani Sims returns to discuss Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959).

Host John McCoy with Jelani Sims.

The Internet Archive has all episodes of the 15-part NPR Playhouse adaptation which aired in 1981.

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Stick some stamps on the top of our heads. Deborah Stanish discusses Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” (1941)

Host John McCoy with Deborah Stanish.

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The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between. Moisés Chiullán discusses Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth (1961).

[We’ve re-issued this episode to correct an audio problem.]

Host John McCoy with Moisés Chiullán.

Trailer for Chuck Jones’s adaptation.

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Podcasters: What Do They Know? Do They Know Things?? Let’s Find Out! Jason Snell talks about marine life in J.D. Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” (1948).

Host John McCoy with Jason Snell.

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Lions and tigers and bea— you know what, just lions. Jordan Morris is here to discuss Ray Bradbury’s story “the Veldt” (1950).

Host John McCoy with Jordan Morris.

From the 1983 NPR Playhouse series Bradbury 13.

Track by Combustible Edison from the album I, Swinger (1994).

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The Podcast! The Podcast! John Holt discusses the ill-fated cruise that is Joseph Conrad’s novelette Heart of Darkness (1899).

Host John McCoy with John Holt.

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