The Book Club

By The Spectator

Literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented weekly by Sam Leith.

Hosted on Acast. See

... more

4.5

7979 ratings

Download on the App Store

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

FAQs about The Book Club:

How many episodes does The Book Club have?

The podcast currently has 474 episodes available.

The Book Club episodes:

June 22, 2022 Philip Mansel: King of the World
In this week’s Book Club podcast, my guest is the historian Philip Mansel. We talk about his new biography King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV. He tells me what really drove the great megalomaniac, whether he was a feminist avant la lettre, how his depredations in the Rhineland anticipated Putin’s in Ukraine – and why, if he hadn’t revoked the Edict of Nantes, the first man on the moon might have been speaking French.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
45min
June 15, 2022 Andrea Elliott: Invisible Child
In this week's Book Club podcast I'm joined by the New York Times's Andrea Elliott, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her book Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in New York City. She tells me how she came to spend seven years reporting on a single, homeless family in Brooklyn, how she negotiated her duty to observe rather than participate – and what their telenovela-like experiences tell us about American history.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
40min
June 08, 2022 China Miéville: A Spectre, Haunting: On The Communist Manifesto
In this week’s Book Club podcast, I’m joined by the writer China Miéville to talk about his new book A Spectre, Haunting: On The Communist Manifesto. China makes the case for why this 1848 document deserves our attention in the 21st century, why even its critics would benefit from reading it more closely and sympathetically, and why - in his view - the gamble of a revolutionary abolition of capitalism is not only possible, but well worth taking.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
50min
June 01, 2022 Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony: Noise
My guests in this week's Book Club podcast are Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony, co-authors (with Cass R Sunstein) of Noise: A Flaw In Human Judgment. Augmenting the work on psychological bias that won Prof Kahneman a Nobel Prize, this investigation exposes a more invisible and often more impactful way in which human judgments go awry: the random-seeming variability which statisticians call noise. They tell me how it affects everything from business to academic life and the judicial system; and how we can detect it and minimise it. The answers to those questions, it turns out, are very hard for human beings (especially French ones) to accept...
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
39min
May 25, 2022 William Leith: Finding My Father
My guest in the Book Club podcast this week is my namesake (but no relation) William Leith – whose new book The Cut That Wouldn't Heal: Finding My Father describes the death of his father and the way it caused him to revisit and re-evaluate his childhood. We talk about the perils and possibilities of autobiography, the difficulty of looking death in the face, and an awkward moment with Karl Ove Knausgaard.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
55min
May 18, 2022 Wendy K. Pirsig: On Quality
In this week's Book Club podcast, I'm talking to Wendy K Pirsig – widow of Robert M Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the bestselling book of philosophy of all time. Wendy tells me about her late husband's big idea – the 'Metaphysics of Quality', as set out in a new collection of his writings, On Quality, which she has edited – how fame (and bereavement) changed him, and how he sought to undo years of dualism in the western philosophical tradition by recourse to eastern teachings and, of course, the odd monkey-wrench.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
31min
May 11, 2022 Caroline Frost: Carry On Regardless
In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Caroline Frost, author of the new Carry On Regardless: Getting to the Bottom of Britain's Favourite Comedy Films. She tells me what those movies tell us about British social history, makes the case for their feminism, argues that their special magic belongs to a British sensibility that no longer exists – and explains why it took twenty or more attempts to get Barbara Windsor out of her bra.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
43min
May 04, 2022 Simon Kuper: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK
My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the writer Simon Kuper, whose new book – Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK – argues that to understand the social and psychological dynamics of our present government, you need to understand the Oxford University of the 1980s, where so many of those now in power first met. He argues that the PM's love of winging it was nurtured in the tutorial culture of his Balliol days, that the dynamics of Tory leadership contests are throwbacks to the Oxford Union, and that Brexit – the grand project of this generation – was at root a jobs-protection scheme for the old-fashioned ruling class. Can that be the whole story? He tells me why he thinks we need to decommission the UK's rhetoric industry and learn to be more like Germany.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
47min
April 27, 2022 Stephen Dodd: Beautiful Star – Yukio Mishima
In this week's Book Club podcast, our subject is the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima - whose novel Beautiful Star is being published in English for the first time this month. My guest is its translator Stephen Dodd, who explains the novel's peculiar mixture of profound seriousness and humour, and its mixture of high literary seriousness with, well, flying saucers. He tells me about Mishima's sheltered life and shocking death, his place in Japanese literary culture, and the way the hydrogen bomb hangs over this remarkable and strange novel.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
39min
April 20, 2022 Gideon Rachman: The Age of the Strongman
My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the FT’s foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman. In his new book The Age of the Strongman, he takes a global look at the rise of personality-cult autocrats. He tells me what they have in common, what’s new about this generation of strongman leaders - and why his book places Boris Johnson in a cast including Putin, Orban, Bolsonaro and Duterte.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
46min

FAQs about The Book Club:

How many episodes does The Book Club have?

The podcast currently has 474 episodes available.

More shows like The Book Club

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

314 Listeners

Arts & Ideas by BBC Radio 4

Arts & Ideas

303 Listeners

Backlisted by Backlisted

Backlisted

585 Listeners

London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

London Review Bookshop Podcast

134 Listeners

Start the Week by BBC Radio 4

Start the Week

159 Listeners

Bookclub by BBC Radio 4

Bookclub

241 Listeners

Best of the Spectator by The Spectator

Best of the Spectator

186 Listeners

Coffee House Shots by The Spectator

Coffee House Shots

183 Listeners

Americano by The Spectator

Americano

267 Listeners

The TLS Podcast by The TLS

The TLS Podcast

181 Listeners

Holy Smoke by The Spectator

Holy Smoke

131 Listeners

The Waterstones Podcast by Waterstones

The Waterstones Podcast

43 Listeners

The Edition by The Spectator

The Edition

52 Listeners

Women With Balls by The Spectator

Women With Balls

20 Listeners

Table Talk by The Spectator

Table Talk

11 Listeners

Close Readings by London Review of Books

Close Readings

93 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

347 Listeners

Take Four Books by BBC Radio 4

Take Four Books

6 Listeners

A Good Read by BBC Radio 4

A Good Read

44 Listeners