Freedom, Books, Flowers & The Moon

Jesmyn Ward’s most recent novel Sing, Unburied Sing won the National Book Award in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year. In this bonus episode, Jesmyn Ward talks to Roz Dineen about fiction, her characters, living through Hurricane Katrina, and the enormous burden of empathy. This continues a conversation started earlier in the year - and included in the podcast of April 26 - when Jesmyn discussed The Fire This Time, a collection of essays she had edited about racial politics and experience in America.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We explore the complex, brutal, swaggering history of pearls and those who found, traded and wore them, with Kathryn Hughes. Sam Byers talks about the self-authored creation that was Michael Jackson and the public's response to him.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Philip Roth, who died last week aged eighty-five, has left behind a vast literary canon and a complicated legacy. But is there more to this great American novelist than just sordid sex? Ben Markovits shares his thoughts; TLS Features editor, Roz Dineen interviews Man Booker international prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, and her translator, Jennifer Croft; Eric Ormsby explores the significance of context when translating the seemingly immutable text of the Qur’an.BooksFlights by Olga TokarczukThe Koran in English - A biography by Bruce B. Lawrence The Qur'an - A historical-critical introduction by Nicolai Sinai The Sanaa Palimpsest - The transmission of the Qur'a n in the first centuries by Asma Hilali   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re joined by the novelist Margaret Drabble, whose books have for decades chronicled the difficult path to selfhood, particularly for women, and the actor and writer Robert Webb, whose recent memoir How Not To Be a Boy, focuses on how notions of masculinity shape identity. Recorded in front of a live audience at Bath Festival.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The world is being slowly poisoned, the environment destroyed. Why don’t we care about such an apocalypse more? Clare Saxby joins us to discuss; Mary Beard considers the cultural legacy of Caligula, that most reviled of all emperors, via a revisionist work of fiction told from the perspective of the emperor's exiled sister; as Arsène Wenger's twenty-two year tenure as Arsenal manager draws to a close, the TLS's History editor and Arsenal fan David Horspool shares his thoughts on football's modern myth-makingBooks  Mourning Nature: Hope at the heart of ecological loss and grief, edited by Ashlee and Karen Landman CunsoloWalking on Lava: Selected works for uncivilised times, edited by Charlotte Du Cann, Dougald Hine, Nick Hunt and Paul KingsnorthEnergy Humanities: An anthology, edited by Imre Szeman and Dominic BoyerCaligula by Simon Turney  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lucy Dallas is joined by Madeline Miller to discuss her new book, Circe.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Stig Abell and Lucy DallasReal-life millennial Samuel Earle pops in to consider the status of young people in an unequal society, keeping avocado references to a minimum; Ruth Scurr analyses the role of mothers in life and literature; and Madeline Miller talks about inhabiting the role of Circe.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In popular science books, including 'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' and 'Reality Is Not What It Seems', the Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli has studied the phenomena – namely time and space – that structure our very existence. In doing so, he has become something of a phenomenon himself, praised for his charm, clarity and humour – things we might not immediately associate with the field of quantum gravity. Here, the TLS's Samuel Graydon asks him about his new book The Order of Time  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How do we account for Richard Nixon's stubborn unpopularity? Sure, he was a liar and a crook, but that has not stopped the rehabilitation of many a politician – as a new biography appears Barton Swaim joins us to discuss; why is it that certain ailments suffered by women are so scarcely discussed or resolved? Leonore Tiefer considers endometriosis and a "legacy of disinterest";  “The world is far more complicated than what we see”, says the theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, putting it mildly. Reality “is mind-blowing” – here, he discusses the structure of time with the TLS's Samuel GraydonBooksRichard Nixon: The Life by John A. FarrellThe Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli Ask Me About My Uterus: A quest to make doctors believe in women's pain by Abby Norman  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Martin Rowson, cartoonist for the Guardian and elsewhere, joins us to discuss caricature as political hit-job; the TLS's Arts editor Lucy Dallas considers the jolly japes and scrapes of the Beano, as that publication marks its eightieth year; and our Features editor Rozalind Dineen goes to meet Jesmyn Ward, a writer described in our pages as “an important new voice of the American South – one developing, perhaps, into the twenty-first-century’s answer to William Faulkner”BooksThe Communist Manifesto: A Graphic Novel, adapted by Martin RowsonThe Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Stig Abell and Lucy Dallas. Lionel Shriver castigates the arrogant British for snootiness over American English; David Coward tells the story of Simon Leys, "the man who did for Mao" and who called Sartre a "windbag"; and Kate Bingham reads her poem "This hair".  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Are we hard-wired to feel other people’s pain? And if so, is it necessarily a good thing? Andrew Scull has reviewed three new books on empathy and joins us to tell us more; Charles Dickens's love of all things theatrical – in life as in art – is no secret. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst considers fifty years' worth of Dickens adaptations for the stage (and film)BooksThe Empathy Instinct by Peter BazalgetteAgainst Empathy: The case for rational compassion by Paul BloomThe Invention of Humanity: Equality and cultural difference in world history by Siep Stuurman  Dickensian Dramas: Plays from Charles Dickens (Volume One, edited by Jacky Bratton; Volume Two, edited by Jim Davis   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Who are the most exciting novelists from the British Isles currently working? In a spirit of mischief, the TLS asked 200 notable names in the publishing industry (editors, agents, publishers and writers) to nominate those at the top of their literary game. The critic Alex Clark and TLS fiction editor Toby Lichtig join us in the studio to pick through the results  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The political philosopher John Gray discusses the failures of liberalism; as the TLS publishes its 6,000th issue, Ruth Scurr delves into the back issues to explore how the paper has changed, and how it reflects literary culture more broadly; the TLS's poetry editor Alan Jenkins reads two of his favourite poems from the past century: D. J. Enright 's "The Laughing Hyena, by Hokusai" and "In Your Mind" by Carol Ann Duffy  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Literary prizes come in more shapes and sizes than ever before: we have prizes that echo the Man Booker, and prizes that set out not to be the Man Booker; we have prizes for first novels, second novels, crime novels that don’t feature violence against women, and, more satirically, a prize for “bad sex in fiction”. Why do we need so many? Do we need them at all? And how do prizes work not only for writers but for those people who do all the reading (and sometimes arguing): the judges? The TLS's Michael Caines chairs a lively discussion between Toby Lichtig, the fiction editor of the TLS, and Alex Clark, a critic and regular prize judge/chair. This live event was a collaboration with BookMachine.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Science reporter Jennie Erin Smith joins us to discuss our desire, or evolutionary compulsion, to delve into the minds of other animals, from cows and penguins to the dismally misunderstood hyena; the TLS's George Berridge shares new insights into the work of Cormac McCarthy and the various (failed) attempts at adapting his novels; much has been said about how literary blogs killed off 'proper', print criticism. Jennifer Howard explains why the picture is far more complicated, and positive, than that  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Miranda Seymour reveals the peculiar circumstances surrounding the marriage of Lord Byron's daughter and his super-fan, William King; just how seriously should we be taking the Virtual Reality revolution? Tom Rachman cautiously probes the frontier of what is possible; Death Row attorney Clive Stafford Smith shares the story of Billy Neal Moore, a tale of murder, hope and Mother Theresa; and finally, before the winner of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for small presses is revealed, the TLS's Fiction editor Toby Lichtig meets Neil Griffiths, the prize's founder, to find out more  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dale Salwak, the editor of a new collection of essays, tells us why he wanted to probe this most complicated of relationships, while Judy Carver, the daughter of William Golding – he of Lord of the Flies – sheds light on her father’s difficult relationship with his mother; Charlotte Shane introduces us to Marjorie Hillis, who, in the 1930s, taught American women how to "live alone and like it"; finally, TLS editor Catharine Morris considers the difficult genesis of Latvian literature  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Baddiel – comedian and, as per his Twitter profile, Jew – joins us to discuss whether Jewishness is inherently funny; as Italians prepare to elect their next prime minister (an unenviable choice between undesirables and impossibles), Tim Parks – author, translator, and resident of Italy – talks us through the excessively complicated mess that is Italy  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Just how odd was Isaac Newton? Quite, it turns out, because as well as being one of history’s greatest mathematicians, he was also an alchemist and a millenarian, happily wallowing in conspiracy theories – Oliver Moody joins us to tell us more; did the Cold War ever end? Not as straightforward a question as you might think – the historian David Motadel considers a controversial new book; and finally, Thea Lenarduzzi discusses Greta Gerwig and her Oscar-nominated film Lady Bird    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.