During the Cold War, hearings led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy soon turned into a witch hunt, as paranoia and political opportunism destroyed the careers (and lives) of actors, directors, singers, filmmakers, writers, and prominent scientists who were accused of disloyalty, subversion, and treason. But even as the accusers cited poems, plays, novels, and song lyrics to bolster their attack, literature mounted a counteroffensive, striking back at the powerful in what Marjorie Garber has termed...
Jun 08, 2026•57 min•Ep. 808
When we first started this podcast in 2015, we began with a simple premise: "We are human beings, and human beings tell stories." But how has that happened? What has that meant for humanity? And to what extent has technology transformed our relationship with stories? In today's episode, Jacke talks to MIT technology pioneer Kevin Ashton about his new book, The Story of Stories: The Million-Year History of a Uniquely Human Art , which traces the history of human storytelling through eight great r...
Jun 04, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 807
By the middle of the twentieth century, Robert Frost was widely regarded as America's most popular poet, beloved for the simple, sincere verses that took readers on journeys through the wooded roads of rural New England, accompanied by Frost's wry observations and hardscrabble truths. Just a few years after Frost's death, a scathing biography by Lawrance Thompson painted a different picture of the man, which led critic Helen Vendler to ask, in her review of the biography, whether it was possible...
Jun 01, 2026•53 min•Ep. 806
In preparation for next week's conversation with Adam Plunkett, author of a new major biography of Robert Frost (1874-1963), we revisit an earlier episode about the widely anthologized (and often misunderstood) New England poet. In this episode, which first aired in 2017 as Episode 93, Jacke dives into a curious but compelling story from the years just before World War I, when a struggling Frost hastily packed up his family and moved to London in search of a friend. Although Frost’s efforts to i...
May 28, 2026•55 min•Ep. 805
It's Memorial Day in the United States, a day devoted to remembering the soldiers who have died in service. Together, the society grieves, mourns, and attempts to unite. Similarly, communities can come together through actions like loving; giving; marrying; conversing; acting and doing; and speaking to one another. But what happens when individuals are blocked from the processes that bring a community together? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Sarah Beckwith about her book Shakespeare and ...
May 25, 2026•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 804
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 c...
May 21, 2026•51 min•Ep. 803
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...
May 18, 2026•46 min•Ep. 802
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...
May 14, 2026•34 min
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...
May 11, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 800
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...
May 10, 2026•57 min
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 historyoflite...
May 07, 2026•49 min•Ep. 799
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 sh...
May 06, 2026•51 min
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/d...
May 04, 2026•41 min•Ep. 798
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 Literature ...
Apr 30, 2026•53 min•Ep. 797
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 Po...
Apr 27, 2026•48 min•Ep. 796
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 P...
Apr 23, 2026•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 795
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 Che...
Apr 20, 2026•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 794
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 ...
Apr 16, 2026•48 min•Ep. 793
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 is...
Apr 13, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 792
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 insp...
Apr 09, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 791
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 , ...
Apr 06, 2026•58 min•Ep. 790
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 d...
Apr 02, 2026•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 789
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...
Mar 30, 2026•52 min•Ep. 788
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...
Mar 26, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 787
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 fi...
Mar 23, 2026•57 min•Ep. 786
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 Ja...
Mar 19, 2026•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 785
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 Gabr...
Mar 16, 2026•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 784
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...
Mar 12, 2026•56 min•Ep. 783
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...
Mar 09, 2026•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 782
"And one man in his time plays many parts," wrote Shakespeare in As You Like It , "[h]is acts being seven ages." We all know the feeling of passing from one phase to the next. But what happens when something dramatic mashes these acts together? In this episode, Jacke talks to New York Times bestselling author (and HOL superguest) Laurie Frankel about her novel Enormous Wings , in which a woman who should be enjoying her golden years is suddenly forced to contemplate a return to an earlier stage ...
Mar 05, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 781
