The LRB Podcast

Neal Ascherson has worked as a journalist for more than six decades, reporting from Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, its successor states and elsewhere. He has also written more than a hundred pieces for the London Review of Books, from its seventh issue (in February 1980) to its most recent. In this episode of the LRB podcast, Ascherson talks to Thomas Jones about his recent piece on the journalist Claud Cockburn and about his own life and career, from his time as propaganda secretary for the Uganda National Congress to the moment he witnessed preparations for the kidnapping of Mikhail Gorbachev in Crimea but ‘missed the scoop of a lifetime’.Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/aschersonpodListen to Neal Ascherson deliver the 2012 LRB Winter Lecture: https://lrb.me/aschersonwlSubscribe to Close Readings for 2025: https://lrb.me/audioOr give your loved ones a Close Readings subscription: https://lrb.me/audiogifts

This week on the LRB Podcast, a free episode from one of our Close Readings series. For their final conversation Among the Ancients, Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones turn to the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Said by Machiavelli to be the last of the ‘five good emperors’ who ruled Rome for most of the second century CE, Marcus oversaw devastating wars on the frontiers, a deadly plague and economic turmoil. The writings known in English as The Meditations, and in Latin as ‘to himself’, were composed in Greek in the last decade of Marcus’ life. They reveal his preoccupation with illness, growing old, death and posthumous reputation, as he urges himself not to be troubled by such transient things.To listen to more Among the Ancients and all other Close Readings series in full, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsOr purchase a gift subscription: https://lrb.me/audiogiftsFurther reading in the LRB:Mary Beard: Was he quite ordinary?https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v31/n14/mary-beard/was-he-quite-ordinaryEmily Wilson: I have gorgeous hairhttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n11/emily-wilson/i-have-gorgeous-hairShadi Bartsch: Dying to Make a Pointhttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n22/shadi-bartsch/dying-to-make-a-pointM.F. Burnyeat: Excuses for Madnesshttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v24/n20/m.f.-burnyeat/excuses-for-madness

Wynne Godley was by turns a professional oboist, a fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, an economist at the Treasury and a director of the Royal Opera House. Yet at thirty he found himself ‘living through an artificial self’ and turned to psychoanalysis for help.Masud Khan was a protégé of D.W. Winnicott and the darling of British psychoanalysis. He was also much else besides. In this unforgettable piece from 2001, Godley describes his baffling and disastrous sessions with Khan.Read by Duncan Wilkins.Find the original piece and further reading at the episode page: https://lrb.me/godleypodGive your loved one a Close Readings subscription or audiobook for Christmas: https://lrb.me/audiogifts

Ghassan Abu-Sittah and Muhammad Shehada join Adam Shatz to describe what life was like in Gaza in the months and years leading up to the Hamas attack on Israel last October, and to discuss the experiences of Gazans during Israel’s subsequent – and ongoing – devastation of the territory.More in the LRB:Adam Shatz: Israel's Descenthttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n12/adam-shatz/israel-s-descentPankaj Mishra: The Shoah after Gazahttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n06/pankaj-mishra/the-shoah-after-gazaAlso available to watch: https://youtu.be/_w3Pe00I_RoAudio Gifts from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiogifts

As Elvis’s only child, Lisa Marie Presley was burdened from birth with extraordinary, largely unwanted fame. Before her death in 2023, she spent years as tabloid fodder, less for her sporadic music career than for her highly publicised relationships with Michael Jackson, Nicolas Cage and Scientology.In a recent review of her posthumous memoir, Jessica Olin celebrates Lisa Marie’s resilience and charisma in the face of ruthless publicity. Jessica joins Tom to discuss Lisa Marie’s ambivalent relationship with fame, and how a new generation are encountering the Presley family saga through her daughter, Riley Keough.Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/lisamariepodSponsored Links:Find out more about ACE Cultural Tours: https://aceculturaltours.co.ukTo learn more about financial support for professional writers, visit the Royal Literary Fund here: https://www.rlf.org.uk/Audio Gifts from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiogifts

William Davies joins Tom to assess the efforts of the new Labour government in tackling the UK's many economic challenges. They consider whether Rachel Reeves’s first budget, with its substantial tax rises, can do anything more than arrest the decline of the public finances, and what Keir Starmer hopes to achieve with his public overtures to the likes of Google and BlackRock. Will their technocratic style of government be able to survive the pressures of populist politics, or is their long-term thinking simply too long-term to bring election-winning improvements to people’s everyday lives?Read William Davies's piece: https://lrb.me/davies4622podAudio Gifts from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiogifts

James Meek talks to Tom about his latest report from Ukraine, where he spent time in Kharkiv and Kupiansk in the east of the country. In Kharkiv, he found a population living in fear not only of the Russian glide bombs falling daily on the city, but also of the increasingly ruthless activity of the Ukrainian military recruitment office, desperate to secure fresh troops to resist Russia's advances. James and Tom discuss the current state of the conflict, what a Trump presidency might mean for US policy and whether Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles could make any difference to the progress of the war.Read James's latest report from Ukraine:https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n22/james-meek/nobody-wants-to-hear-thisSponsored Link:Get 10% off creative writing courses at NCW Academy in 2025 with code LRB10:https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/academy/Audio Gifts from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiogifts

Adam Shatz is joined by Jamelle Bouie and Deborah Friedell to pick through the results and implications of Trump’s victory. The US has a booming economy of high wages and nearly full employment, yet economic discontent, particularly around inflation, has been one of the more popular explanations for the election result. As well as considering the importance of inflation, Jamelle and Deborah look at what went wrong with the Harris campaign’s big bet on abortion rights, why Republican-voting women say they feel safer under Trump and why the Democrats’ insistence that democracy was on the ballot failed to resonate with many voters.Read Adam Tooze on the Democrats' defeat in the LRB:https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n22/adam-tooze/the-democrats-defeatRead Deborah Friedell on J.D. Vancehttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n20/deborah-friedell/short-cutsAudio Gifts from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiogifts

When Gregor Mendel published the results of his experiments on pea plants in 1866 he initiated a fierce debate about the nature of heredity and genetic determinism that continues today. The battle lines were drawn in England in the late 19th century by William Bateson, who believed in fixed genetic inheritance, and W.F.R. Weldon, who argued that Mendel’s experiments revealed far more variation than Bateson and his supporters acknowledged. In this episode Lorraine Daston joins Tom to chart the development of these arguments, described in a new book by Gregory Radick, through scientific and cultural discourse over the past 150 years, and consider why the history of science has a tendency to track such controversies in antagonistic terms, often to the detriment of the science itself.Read Lorraine's piece: https://lrb.me/dastonpodSponsored links:Use the code ’LRB’ to get £100 off Serious Readers lights here: https://www.seriousreaders.com/lrbClose ReadingsSing up to the LRB's Close Readings podcast:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/crpod