Patrick Radden Keefe on ‘Empire of Pain’
Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book, “Empire of Pain,” is a history of the Sacklers, the family behind Purdue Pharma, the creator of the powerful painkiller OxyContin, which became the root of the opioid ...
23 Apr 20211h 2min
Celebrating Our 15th Anniversary
We’ve been in celebration mode all week as the Book Review’s podcast turns 15 years old. Pamela Paul shared 15 of her favorite episodes since she began hosting in 2013. We chose 10 other memorable con...
16 Apr 20211h 16min
Blake Bailey on Writing His Life of Philip Roth
Blake Bailey’s long-awaited biography of Philip Roth has generated renewed conversation about the life and work of the towering American novelist who died at 85 in 2018. Bailey visits the podcast this...
9 Apr 20211h 1min
Carl Zimmer on Defining Life
In his new book, “Life’s Edge,” Carl Zimmer asks the modest questions: What is life? How did it begin? And by what criteria can we define things as “living”? On this week’s podcast, Zimmer, a science ...
2 Apr 202157min
Tillie Olsen and the Barriers to Creativity
A.O. Scott, The Times’s co-chief film critic, returns to the Book Review’s podcast this week to discuss the work of Tillie Olsen, the latest subject in his essay series The Americans, about writers wh...
26 Mar 20211h 3min
Four Decades of Downs and Ups in New York City
There’s nothing wrong with your eyes: The title of Thomas Dyja’s new book is “New York, New York, New York.” (The triplicate is inspired by the urbanist Holly Whyte’s answer when he was asked to name ...
19 Mar 202152min
Imbolo Mbue on Writing Her Second Novel
Imbolo Mbue first began writing her new novel, “How Beautiful We Were,” in 2002. The book concerns the impact of an American oil company’s presence on a fictional African village. She eventually put t...
12 Mar 20211h 3min
Kazuo Ishiguro and Friendship With Machines
Kazuo Ishigruo’s eighth novel, “Klara and the Sun,” is his first since he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. It’s narrated by Klara, an Artificial Friend — a humanoid machine who acts as a co...
5 Mar 20211h 10min
