Three Percent Podcast

On this week's podcast, Chad and Tom dish about the idea of a Translators Union, Dalkey's Korean literature series, and the Melville House edition of the "Torture Report," as well as a mini-rant about the Serial podcast, and a mini-rave about a dear friend who's passed.

As always, you can write to us at [email protected] with complaints, suggestions, ideas for future episodes, or your own rants and raves. 

We're back! And, actually, now that Tom has a more regular schedule at Albertine we're planning on recording a new episode every other week. More great (sports) book talk! This week's episode centers around John O'Brien's BookBrunch article, "Don't Blame the Readers for Lack of Interest in Translations." It's a piece that understandably upset Tom's French employers . . .

This week's podcast covers four major topics: Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano, Michael Henry Heim and The Man Between, the upcoming ALTA Conference, and Atavist Books. And we barely talk about sports at all! But Tom does have a "rave" that includes a a particularily confusing cover.

As always, you can write to us at [email protected] with complaints, suggestions, ideas for future episodes, or your own rants and raves. 

Finally, after weeks of putting this off, here is the long anticipated podcast about Roberto Bolaño's Little Lumpen Novelita. The reason it took so long to get to this was because of Tom's new job as the Deputy Director at Albertine, the most beautiful Franco-centric bookstore in New York (and/or the whole U.S.). We talked shortly after the official launch of the store, which generated a ton of fanfare. So, in addition to talking Bolaño, we talked about Albertine, it's upcoming festival, and other aspects of Tom's new job. (Just a note of clarification--Tom is still working for New Directions as well.)

Oh, and we also talk a bit about the Royals-A's game that was going on while we were recording. And now I'm safe in saying that I'm really glad all the West Coast AL teams are out of the playoffs and am really looking forward to the ALCS with Baltimore and Kansas City. (We're planning on having Mexican author Alvaro Enrique on the podcast very soon to talk about his work, about his wife Valerie Luiselli's work, about Spanish-language literature in general, and about the Baltimore Orioles, his favorite team. Finally, we get a baseball episode!)

This week's podcast is mostly about a BBC article on Hieroglyph, a collaborative project between scientists and science-fiction writers that was inspired by the Neal Stephenson article "Innovation Starvation." Basically, this is a call to create fewer dystopian novels, and more positive sci-fi ideas that can help inspire the scientists of tomorrow. More or less. 

We also read some fan letters (email us at [email protected]), rave about Utopia and rant about film crews. 

Finally, just a reminder that we'll be discussing Roberto Bolaño's A Little Lumpen Novelita later this month, and we'd love to hear your thoughts about the book. Email us by September 24th with any questions, comments, thoughts, and we'll incorporate them into our discussion. 

In this podcast, Chad and Tom discuss Tom's recent article in Publishing Perspectives (which he wrote in response to Amazon's infamous letter to readers), along with some thoughts on why we shop at bookstores, and Julian Gough's Litcoin project. 

Also, as mentioned at the end of the podcast, Chad and Tom will be discussing Roberto Bolaño's A Little Lumpen Novelita on an episode at the end of September. If you have any thoughts, questions, or opinions about the book, Bolaño, the translation, etc., please send them to [email protected]. 

(You can also use that email to tell Chad and Tom that they suck, or to recommend other topics you'd like to hear on the show.) 

With Tom on vacation, Chad recorded a special episode of the podcast with Heather Cleary and Jason Grunebaum, both of whom have a book on the National Translation Award longlist. They talk about Sergio Chejfec's The Dark, Uday Prakash's The Girl with the Golden Parasol, air shows, the future of the American Literary Translators Association, and other non-sports related topics. (Seriously, this is a sports-free podcast.) 

As an added bonus, there's a short conversation Chad had with Uday Prakash about his collection The Walls of Delhi.

This week's podcast focuses on two main things: This article by Tim Parks about the sales of Knausgaard's books, and the sale of BookLamp to Apple for an obscene amount of money. 

On this week's podcast, Chad and Tom preview the semifinals of the World Cup of Literature (both suspect Chile will meet the US in the Championship), and then discuss The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair and a New Yorker piece about its limited U.S. success. Also, the Penguin Cup is stupid. 

In relation to the rants and raves portion of the podcast, there are videos to be watched from the Estonian sketch comedy troupe that Chad praised. 

Be sure and write us at [email protected] with any suggestions, criticisms, etc. 

On this week's podcast, Chad and Tom review the opening round of the World Cup of Literature and make some predictions, talk about the Amazon-Hachette kerfuffle, and discuss the awfulness of The American Outlaws and the awesomeness of a couple Wikipedia pages. (You have to listen to find out which ones.) 

And don't forget that we have a dedicated podcast email address now. So, send your podcast-related rants, raves, and ideas to [email protected].