Probably best not to listen to this episode while you’re in a theatre. Shannon Campe and John discuss Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1605-ish).

John McCoy with Shannon Campe

From the Folger Shakespeare Library

Featuring baby Ian McKellen and baby Judi Dench!

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The podcasts that the world calls immoral are podcasts that show the world its own shame. Tamar Avishai and John discuss Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1831).

John McCoy with Tamar Avishai

Art history for the masses

The Art Institute of Chicago’s entry

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Those smale foweles maken melodye got nothin’ on us: Kathy Campbell and John discuss Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (c. 1400).

John McCoy with Kathy Campbell

With commentary, Middle English, and Modern English translations.

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The original Farewell to Arms. Nathan Alderman discusses Beowulf (c. 1000).

John McCoy with Nathan Alderman

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Gilgamesh, a king, at Uruk. It’s not just a Star Trek meme. Gregory Fried talks ritual sex, heavenly bulls, and sneaky snakes in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

John McCoy with Gregory Fried

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Gregor’s mother warned him about days like this. Jason Snell discusses Franz Kafka’s inescapable novella, The Metamorphosis (1915).

John McCoy with Jason Snell

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Audrey Lazaro discusses Mellville’s 1853 story, “Bartleby the Scrivener,” one of the top three bits of scrivener fiction ever.

John McCoy with Audrey Lazaro

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No, I won’t make a Bangles joke. Erin Gambrill discusses Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Egypt Game (1967).

John McCoy with Erin Gambrill

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Bambi’s not so cute in this gritty new reboot. Glenn Fleishman discusses Felix Salten’s 1923 parable about what goes on in the woods. Also we talk a lot about copyright.

John McCoy with Glenn Fleishman

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Climb ev’ry mountain—except these mountains, they’re nuts. Phil Gonzales discusses H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness,” written in 1931 and published in 1936.

John McCoy with Phil Gonzales

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