The TLS Podcast

With Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – We're joined in the studio by Sam Leith, Literary editor of the Spectator and self-professed rhetoric geek, discusses the problem of fake news in a post-truth world, with recourse to Aristotle and economic theory; we're running an extract, in this week's summer double issue, from My Absolute Darling, the new American novel everyone seems to be talking about – we'll discuss the dark material at its centre with the author himself, Gabriel Tallent; "Walid Jumblatt has the air of quiet dignity which befits a retired warlord with nearly half a million Twitter followers", so begins Alev Scott's essay on her experiences among the Druze of Lebanon, one of the country's eighteen recognised minorities. Alev joins us to describe an enlightening and troubling encounter. The podcast will take a break and return on August 31; keep up with the TLS at the-tls.co.uk

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With Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – Novelist Neel Mukherjee discusses the vexed state of Modern India and the legacy of Partition 70 years on; Frances Wilson considers a problematic clutch of books that look to describe a "sisterhood" of female writers from Jane Austen to Virginia Woolf and beyond

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With Lucy Dallas and Toby Lichtig. The TLS critic David Collard explores the idiosyncratic worlds of Ian Nairn – architectural critic, psychogeographer, “a cross between Anthony Burgess and Tony Hancock” – and describes Nairn’s influence on a generation of authors, including Simon Okotie, whose new novel he’s also reviewed in this week’s TLS. The paper's biography editor Catharine Morris tells the story of Tuco, the African grey parrot, and his influence on the life and work of the novelist Brian Brett. Lisa Hilton explains why the Marquis de Sade is a progressive moral satirist and a “rotten pornographer”.

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With Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – Former US Government consultant Edward Luttwak explains how the rising cost of cars in the US lies behind Donald Trump's election, and why the Democrats' sustained failure to address the problem may lead to consecutive terms for The Donald and his progeny; Humans are, more or less, logical and rational beings, aren't they? Cecilia Heyes, Senior Research Fellow in Theoretical Life Sciences and Professor of Psychology, discusses the irrationality of human thought and why it's easier to reason together; Michael Hoffman, the German-born poet, translator and, most recently 2018 Man Booker International judge, reads his new translation of a poem by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, "Female, 33"

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With Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – We're joined in the studio by Claire Harman, author of Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen conquered the world, to discuss the life and legacy of this perhaps most-loved of all authors: what makes her so special, so alive in the modern world? And will there be no end to (stranger and stranger) adaptations of her work?

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With Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi: Politicians – Theresa May foremost among them – always begin their obfuscations and delusional self-justifications by pretending to offer clarity. Journalist James O'Brien joins us to discuss the past thirty-odd days in the world of Prime Minister May, from the flunked general election to the travesty of Grenfell Tower, in a quest for that most elusive of things – a clear and concrete plan; TLS Visual Arts editor Anna Vaux brings us a preview of Tate Modern's new exhibition, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, an examination of the role of black artists in the Civil Rights movement; historian Roy Foster considers the fraught new relationship between the Conservative Party and the Irish Democratic Unionist Party, finding parallels, and missed warnings, dating back more than 100 years

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With Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi: David Bromwich dips into the newly published letters, spanning 1920–8, of Robert Frost, the farmer-cum-teacher-cum-giant of American poetry who believed that a master writer should 'invade' younger writers 'to show them how much more they contain than they can write down'; 'Conversations around race and racism tend not to happen as much in Britain as in America', says Bernardine Evaristo in a discussion of the state of race relations in Britain and the importance of a provocative new book, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race Book by Reni Eddo-Lodge

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With Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – 'Few people are aware that every week the White House indulges in Terror Tuesday, where the US President personally approves people for death without any legal process at all' – so says Clive Stafford Smith, who joins us in the studio to chart the global proliferation of modern state-led assassination and the moral, legal and human 'collateral damage'; Lamorna Ash, fresh from a week's research aboard the Cornish deep-sea trawler Crystal Sea, offers insights into the distinct rhythms, language and politics of Britain's beleaguered fishing industry

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Every year we ask a selection of TLS contributors what they'll be reading with those extra hours of daylight. In this episode, we're joined by Fiction editor Toby Lichtig and Arts editor Lucy Dallas to pick through the results and discuss our own selections. Plus, an exclusive interview with 2017 Man Booker International-winner, the Israeli novelist David Grossman, and translator Jessica Cohen

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With Stig Abell and Lucy Dallas. We discuss the election that nobody won and (almost) nobody predicted; varnishing day at the Royal Academy's summer exhibition; and the dubious merits of 1967's Summer of Love.

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