Episodes

The rise of Artificial Intelligence has sent shockwaves through the literary world, with the impact being felt by both publishers and creative types. In this episode, Jacke talks to writer and entrepreneur Eric Burgess about the rise of AI, what it means for authors, and his company Credtent, which looks for areas where AI and Creativity can work together--ethically, legally, and profitably. PLUS Jacke talks to Virginia Woolf expert Mark Hussey (Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel) about his choi...

Twentieth-century French novelist Colette (1873-1954) was a strikingly modern celebrity and full of contradictions. In this episode, Jacke talks to author Kathleen Antonioli about her book Colette: A Critical Life, which tells the story of the life and legacy of literature's most artful self-creation. PLUS twenty-first-century French novelist Colombe Schneck (Swimming in Paris: A Life in Three Stories) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read. The music in this epis...

As the History of Literature Podcast Tour rolls through literary England, Jacke and Emma are revisiting some past episodes with connections to what they're seeing and doing. Today, they're in Bath, which naturally means spending some time with Jane Austen. In this episode, which first ran in April 2023, Jacke considers Austen's Persuasion, a novel of missed opportunities and second chances. Why did Harold Bloom call this "the perfect novel"? And why did Virginia Woolf say, "In Persuasion, Jane A...

It's Episode 800! Jacke celebrates the milestone by talking to Shakespeare scholar Indira Ghose about her book Shakespeare in Jest, which draws fascinating parallels between Shakespeare's humor and the things we still find funny today. PLUS Jacke tells his two favorite Shakespeare jokes. AND Nicholson Baker (Finding a Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more a...

Happy Mother's Day! Jacke takes advantage of an error to revisit a conversation with novelist Laurie Frankel about her book Enormous Wings, in which an unexpected pregnancy leads a seventy-seven-year-old woman to reflect on the meaning of motherhood. PLUS Edna Ferber's biographer (and grandniece) Julie Gilbert (Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-Selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read. The music in t...

As Jacke and Emma travel to England for the History of Literature Podcast Tour, they're revisiting some past interviews with special guests. In this episode, Jacke talks to the University of Oxford's Emma Smith about her book Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Help support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/literature⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠historyof...

Is there such a thing as a general human nature? And if so, does Shakespeare serve as a "faithful mirror" to it, as Dr. Johnson claimed? In this episode, Jacke talks to Oxford University's David Womersley about his book Thinking Through Shakespeare, which explores how Shakespeare's plays think through--and invite us to think through--deep human questions of lasting importance. PLUS Ramie Targoff (Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance) discusses her choice for the last book she w...

As Jacke and Emma get ready for the History of Literature Podcast Tour, they're revisiting some past interviews with special guests. In this episode, Jacke talks to the University of Oxford's Emma Smith about her book ⁠Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers⁠⁠⁠⁠. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Help support the show at ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/literature⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠historyofliterature.com/...

As Jacke and Emma get ready for the History of Literature Podcast Tour, they're revisiting some past interviews with special guests. In this episode, Jacke talks to the University of Oxford's Marion Turner about her book Chaucer: A European Life⁠. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Help support the show at ⁠⁠patreon.com/literature⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠historyofliterature.com/donate⁠⁠. The History of Literatur...

As Jacke and Emma get ready for the History of Literature Podcast Tour, they're revisiting some past interviews with special guests. In this episode, Jacke talks to the University of Oxford's Marion Turner about her book, The Wife of Bath: A Biography. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Help support the show at ⁠patreon.com/literature⁠ or ⁠historyofliterature.com/donate⁠. The History of Literature...

As Jacke and Emma get ready for the History of Literature Podcast Tour, they're revisiting some past interviews with special guests. In this episode, Jacke talks to Will Tosh, Director of Research at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, about his book Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare. PLUS the story of how the young Ray Bradbury was inspired by a carnival worker. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature ...

In addition to being an accomplished lawyer and a highly influential music critic, the nineteenth-century German Romantic Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822) also wrote pioneering works of crime and horror fiction, including The Sandman, Mademoiselle de Scuderi, and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which inspired Tchaikovsky's famous ballet. In this episode, Ritchie Robertson (E.T.A. Hoffmann: A Critical Life) tells Jacke about this amazing writer and his works. PLUS a letter by Chekhov...

The 1920s were a tumultuous time for Russia, as the nation careened from the aftermath of revolution to the death of Lenin, the establishment of the Soviet Union, and the slide toward Stalinist totalitarianism. Given all of that serious upheaval, what explains the public's passion for the works of an 18th-century Anglican clergyman best known for his tongue-in-cheek narratives Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey? In this episode, Jacke talks to Peter Budrin about his book Laurence Sterne a...

In this episode, Jacke talks to author Eileen Sperry about her book This Body of Death: Form and Decay in Early Modern Lyric, which examines how the lyric poetry of Shakespeare and his contemporaries shaped our understanding of what it means to be mortal. PLUS a skeleton discovered under a collapsed church floor in the Netherlands might answer a longstanding literary mystery. AND Biblical scholar Bruce Gordon discusses his choice for the last book he will ever read. The music in this episode ...

The "Forgotten Women of Literature" series continues with a look at Aemilia Bassano Lanyer (1569-1645), the first Englishwoman to publish a volume of poetry, the protofeminist Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611), which tells the story of Christ's crucifixion from a woman's perspective. In addition to her many accomplishments and incredible life story, Lanyer has tantalizingly close connections to William Shakespeare, causing Jacke (and other scholars) to examine whether she might have been the inspi...

What happens when an abnormally average man is suddenly on a path to greatness, as his picks in the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament start panning out? Will he predict a perfect bracket, capturing the billion-dollar prize? And what will this mean for the women in his life--including the Cassandra who saw it coming? In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist Natasha Joukovsky about March Madness, Greek myths, the mediocrities who roam the streets of Washington, D.C., and her new book Medium Rare, w...

In 2025, Jacke began a countdown of the top 25 greatest books of all time, as part of a series called "25 for 25." In this episode, Jacke reveals the #2 and #1 entries on the list. Then Mike Palindrome, longtime friend and President of the Literature Supporters Club, joins Jacke to discuss the books chosen, the relative merits of the list, and propose some alternatives. PLUS Cass Sunstein (How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be) stops by to dis...

Nineteenth-century art critic and polymath John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a visionary thinker and influential social commentator who revolutionized how society viewed art and its connection to life. In this episode, Jacke talks to Bob Blaisdell (editor of Ruskin on Art and Artists) about the impact that Ruskin had on the artists and writers who followed. PLUS Gertrude Stein expert Francesca Wade (Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read. T...

In his book Why Poetry, the poet Matthew Zapruder issued "an impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for its accessibility to all readers." The poet Robert Hass said, "Zapruder on poetry is pure pleasure. His prose is so direct that you have the impression, sentence by sentence, that you are being told simple things about a simple subject and by the end of each essay you come to understand that you've been on a very rich, very subtle tour of what's aesthetically ...

A member of the Cherokee nation, John Rollin Ridge (1827-1867) lived a dramatic life full of contradictions. He also became the first Native American to publish a novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: the Celebrated California Bandit, a Gold Rush-era adventure story about the man who inspired the character of Zorro. In this episode, Jacke talks to scholar Travis Franks about Ridge's life, his writing career, and some newly discovered poetry that helps illuminate this fascinating fig...

Daniel A. Olivas, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, is a fiction writer, poet, playwright, book critic, and attorney. In this episode, Jacke talks to Daniel about his lifelong devotion to literature and its ability to humanize the targets of anti-immigration sentiment. In the interview, Daniel recounts how his interest in literature led to his novel inspired by Mary Shelley, Chicano Frankenstein, and his play inspired by Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godínez: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts. PLUS Jane...

In the fourth century B.C., Plato famously posited a philosopher-king as the ideal ruler for his imagined Republic. Five hundred years later, the Roman Empire was led by Marcus Aurelius, the man often viewed as the best example of this Platonic ideal. In this episode, Jacke talks to William O. Stephens about his book Marcus Aurelius: Philosopher-King, which guides readers through the fascinating life, writings, and legacy of Rome's great emperor philosopher. The music in this episode is by Ga...

The world has a northern bias: our politics, culture, and literature all tend to view the northern viewpoint as the default position, leaving the far southern latitudes (Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and Southern Africa among others), as a faraway land full of strangeness. But what if you live in those lands? How can a strange, faraway place be home? In this episode, Jacke talks to Elleke Boehmer about her book Southern Imagining: A Literary and Cultural History of the Far Southern Hemisphe...

Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sharing ideas about sexual consent. In this episode, Jacke talks to Dr. Zoë McGee about her new book Courting Disaster: Reading Between the Lines in the Regency Novel, which compares classic novels by Jane Austen, Frances Burney, and others with historic court records to show that today's arguments about consent are not a new phenomenon. PLUS Jacke reads a letter from Chekhov in which he describes the experience of watching ...