The Point Podcast Tue, 26 May 2026 01:09:12 -0400 https://soundcloud.com/thepointmag en © 2026 The Point Podcast yes e3a58084-a36b-5fa5-ab06-60f533fbf070 editors@thepointmag.com The Point Magazine episodic false Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) The Point Magazine editors@thepointmag.com https://storage.buzzsprout.com/vju9r7pxjf7k3qixmlk3jxa1j82k?.jpg The Point Podcast https://soundcloud.com/thepointmag Selected Novels | Catherine Lacey on Evan S. Connell Selected Novels | Catherine Lacey on Evan S. Connell On this episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to Catherine Lacey about Evan S. Connell’s Mrs. Bridge.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to Catherine Lacey about Evan S. Connell’s Mrs. Bridge.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-17775300 Thu, 04 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0400 2482 1 7 full false Selected Essays | Ellen Wayland-Smith on Siddhartha Mukherjee Selected Essays | Ellen Wayland-Smith on Siddhartha Mukherjee On this episode of the podcast, Jess and Zach return to Selected Essays to talk to Ellen Wayland-Smith about Siddhartha Mukherjee’s “My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion,” published in the New Yorker in 2018.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode of the podcast, Jess and Zach return to Selected Essays to talk to Ellen Wayland-Smith about Siddhartha Mukherjee’s “My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion,” published in the New Yorker in 2018.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-17625344 Thu, 07 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0400 2184 full false Selected Novels | Bruce Holsinger on Stoner Selected Novels | Bruce Holsinger on Stoner On this episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to the novelist and English professor Bruce Holsinger about John Williams’s Stoner.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to the novelist and English professor Bruce Holsinger about John Williams’s Stoner.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-17404040 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:00:00 -0400 2556 1 6 full false Selected Novels | Joanne McNeil on J.G. Ballard Selected Novels | Joanne McNeil on J.G. Ballard On this episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to the novelist and cultural critic Joanne McNeil about J.G. Ballard’s Concrete Island.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to the novelist and cultural critic Joanne McNeil about J.G. Ballard’s Concrete Island.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-17267322 Thu, 05 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0400 2811 1 5 full false Selected Novels | Jessi Jezewska Stevens on Thomas Mann Selected Novels | Jessi Jezewska Stevens on Thomas Mann On the fourth episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to the novelist and short story writer (and Point contributor) Jessi Jezewska Stevens about Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On the fourth episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to the novelist and short story writer (and Point contributor) Jessi Jezewska Stevens about Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-17065621 Thu, 01 May 2025 09:00:00 -0400 2668 1 4 full false Selected Novels | Adam Ehrlich Sachs on Gustave Flaubert Selected Novels | Adam Ehrlich Sachs on Gustave Flaubert On the third episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to the novelist Adam Ehrlich Sachs about Flaubert’s final, unfinished novel, Bouvard and Pécuchet.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On the third episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to the novelist Adam Ehrlich Sachs about Flaubert’s final, unfinished novel, Bouvard and Pécuchet.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-16857646 Thu, 27 Mar 2025 09:00:00 -0400 2982 1 3 full false Selected Novels | Clare Sestanovich on Marilynne Robinson Selected Novels | Clare Sestanovich on Marilynne Robinson On the second episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to Clare Sestanovich, writer and managing editor of the Drift, about Marilynne Robinson’s first novel, Housekeeping.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On the second episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to Clare Sestanovich, writer and managing editor of the Drift, about Marilynne Robinson’s first novel, Housekeeping.

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-16698391 Thu, 27 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0500 2837 1 2 full false The decline of Aaron Rodgers (with Leif Weatherby) The decline of Aaron Rodgers (with Leif Weatherby) On this episode of The Point podcast, Zach Fine takes a break from Selected Essays and Selected Novels to discuss another important, if less literary, topic: American football. Zach is joined by Leif Weatherby, the author of an essay just published this week in The Point about the career of Aaron Rodgers against the backdrop of U.S. empire in decline, as well as Point editors James Duesterberg and Julia Aizuss, to discuss this year’s Super Bowl, why Aaron Rodgers (and all quarterbacks) are so weird, and what drives a man into the realm of violence and conspiracy. 

Relevant reading:

]]> On this episode of The Point podcast, Zach Fine takes a break from Selected Essays and Selected Novels to discuss another important, if less literary, topic: American football. Zach is joined by Leif Weatherby, the author of an essay just published this week in The Point about the career of Aaron Rodgers against the backdrop of U.S. empire in decline, as well as Point editors James Duesterberg and Julia Aizuss, to discuss this year’s Super Bowl, why Aaron Rodgers (and all quarterbacks) are so weird, and what drives a man into the realm of violence and conspiracy. 

Relevant reading:

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-16617768 Fri, 14 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0500 3760 full false Selected Novels | Lillian Fishman on Edith Wharton Selected Novels | Lillian Fishman on Edith Wharton On this episode—our very first!—of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to novelist (and writer of our 2024 advice column, Higher Gossip) Lillian Fishman about Edith Wharton’s novel Age of Innocence. 

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode—our very first!—of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to novelist (and writer of our 2024 advice column, Higher Gossip) Lillian Fishman about Edith Wharton’s novel Age of Innocence. 

Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-16532996 Thu, 30 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0500 3624 1 1 full false Selected Essays | The n+1 Editors on the Intellectual Situation Selected Essays | The n+1 Editors on the Intellectual Situation On this bonus episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to Dayna Tortorici and Mark Krotov about their new anthology of the best of n+1’s second decade, The Intellectual Situation.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this bonus episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to Dayna Tortorici and Mark Krotov about their new anthology of the best of n+1’s second decade, The Intellectual Situation.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-15949720 Tue, 22 Oct 2024 09:00:00 -0400 3174 full false Selected Essays | George Scialabba on Michael Walzer Selected Essays | George Scialabba on Michael Walzer On this episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to George Scialabba about Michael Walzer’s "In Defense of Equality," first published in Dissent in 1973.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to George Scialabba about Michael Walzer’s "In Defense of Equality," first published in Dissent in 1973.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-15546495 Thu, 08 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0400 2213 2 11 full false Selected Essays | Emily Ogden on Elizabeth Hardwick Selected Essays | Emily Ogden on Elizabeth Hardwick On this episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to writer and literary critic Emily Ogden about Elizabeth Hardwick’s "Living in Italy: Reflections on Bernard Berenson," first published in Partisan Review in 1960.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to writer and literary critic Emily Ogden about Elizabeth Hardwick’s "Living in Italy: Reflections on Bernard Berenson," first published in Partisan Review in 1960.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-15418302 Tue, 16 Jul 2024 08:00:00 -0400 2744 2 10 full false Selected Essays | Julian Lucas on Jorge Luis Borges Selected Essays | Julian Lucas on Jorge Luis Borges On this episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to Julian Lucas about his essay “Welcome to Armageddon,” published in Cabinet in 2017, and Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Enigma of Edward FitzGerald,” which was written in 1951.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to Julian Lucas about his essay “Welcome to Armageddon,” published in Cabinet in 2017, and Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Enigma of Edward FitzGerald,” which was written in 1951.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-15263779 Tue, 18 Jun 2024 08:00:00 -0400 3086 2 9 full false Selected Essays | Greg Jackson on Hannah Arendt Selected Essays | Greg Jackson on Hannah Arendt On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Greg Jackson about
 his essay “Within the Pretense of No Pretense,” published in issue 31 of The Point, and Hannah Arendt’s “Truth and Politics,” first published in 1967 in the New Yorker.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Greg Jackson about
 his essay “Within the Pretense of No Pretense,” published in issue 31 of The Point, and Hannah Arendt’s “Truth and Politics,” first published in 1967 in the New Yorker.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here at 50% off the normal rate.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-15142597 Tue, 28 May 2024 07:00:00 -0400 2722 2 8 full false Selected Essays | Michael Clune on Thomas Nagel Selected Essays | Michael Clune on Thomas Nagel On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Michael Clune about
his essay “The Anatomy of Panic,” published in Harper's last May and  recently selected for Best American Essays, and Thomas Nagel’s “What Is it Like to Be a Bat?” first published in 1974 in the Philosophical Review.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50
at checkout for 50% off.

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Michael Clune about
his essay “The Anatomy of Panic,” published in Harper's last May and  recently selected for Best American Essays, and Thomas Nagel’s “What Is it Like to Be a Bat?” first published in 1974 in the Philosophical Review.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50
at checkout for 50% off.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-14976195 Tue, 30 Apr 2024 07:00:00 -0400 2848 2 7 full false Selected Essays | Jennifer Wilson on Viktor Shklovsky Selected Essays | Jennifer Wilson on Viktor Shklovsky On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Jennifer Wilson about
her New York Times Book Review essay, “The Love Letters That Spoke of Everything but Love,” and Viktor Shklovsky’s “Art as Device,” first published in 1917.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50
at checkout for 50% off.

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Jennifer Wilson about
her New York Times Book Review essay, “The Love Letters That Spoke of Everything but Love,” and Viktor Shklovsky’s “Art as Device,” first published in 1917.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50
at checkout for 50% off.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-14857943 Tue, 09 Apr 2024 13:00:00 -0400 2182 2 6 full false Selected Essays | Bonus Episode with Jon Baskin and Rachel Wiseman Selected Essays | Bonus Episode with Jon Baskin and Rachel Wiseman On this bonus episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to Point editors, Jon Baskin and Rachel Wiseman about two of their favorite essays—Charles Comey's “Against Honeymoons,” and Moeko Fujii’s “Let Them Misunderstand”—and what makes them quintessential Point pieces.

]]> On this bonus episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach talk to Point editors, Jon Baskin and Rachel Wiseman about two of their favorite essays—Charles Comey's “Against Honeymoons,” and Moeko Fujii’s “Let Them Misunderstand”—and what makes them quintessential Point pieces.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-14737584 Thu, 21 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0400 3168 2 5 full false Selected Essays | Apoorva Tadepalli on Maeve Brennan Selected Essays | Apoorva Tadepalli on Maeve Brennan On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Apoorva Tadepalli about Maeve Brennan’s “Lost Overtures” and her Electric Lit essay “It’s Okay to Talk to Me When I’m Trying to Read.”

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Apoorva Tadepalli about Maeve Brennan’s “Lost Overtures” and her Electric Lit essay “It’s Okay to Talk to Me When I’m Trying to Read.”

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-14713702 Tue, 19 Mar 2024 07:00:00 -0400 2142 2 4 full false Selected Essays | Sumana Roy on Joseph Brodsky Selected Essays | Sumana Roy on Joseph Brodsky On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Sumana Roy about Joseph Brodsky’s “Less Than One” and her Caravan essay “We Are All Mamata Now.”

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50 at checkout for 50% off.

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Sumana Roy about Joseph Brodsky’s “Less Than One” and her Caravan essay “We Are All Mamata Now.”

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50 at checkout for 50% off.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-14581654 Tue, 27 Feb 2024 08:00:00 -0500 2570 2 3 full false Selected Essays | Clare Bucknell on Charles Lamb Selected Essays | Clare Bucknell on Charles Lamb On the new episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach speak with Clare Bucknell about Charles Lamb’s “The Praise of Chimney-Sweepers”—surprisingly the first essay a guest has chosen that was written before 1900. In histories of the essay form, from Montaigne forward, you’ll often see Lamb’s name appear as one of the great “familiar” essayists, but he’s read relatively little today. Listen to hear Clare’s  reading of Lamb’s essay and how it shaped her thoughts on the ever-controversial Giacomo Casanova, the focus of her piece in Harper’s, “The Thoughtful Prick.”

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50 at checkout for 50% off.

]]> On the new episode of Selected Essays, Jess and Zach speak with Clare Bucknell about Charles Lamb’s “The Praise of Chimney-Sweepers”—surprisingly the first essay a guest has chosen that was written before 1900. In histories of the essay form, from Montaigne forward, you’ll often see Lamb’s name appear as one of the great “familiar” essayists, but he’s read relatively little today. Listen to hear Clare’s  reading of Lamb’s essay and how it shaped her thoughts on the ever-controversial Giacomo Casanova, the focus of her piece in Harper’s, “The Thoughtful Prick.”

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50 at checkout for 50% off.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-14450397 Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0500 2458 2 2 full false Selected Essays | Suzy Hansen on Octavio Paz Selected Essays | Suzy Hansen on Octavio Paz On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Suzy Hansen about her essay, “A Cold War Mind: American and the World,” a chapter from Suzy's book Notes on a Foreign Country, and Octavio Paz’s “The Pachucho and Other Extremes,”  the first part of his 1950 book The Labyrinth of Solitude.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50 at checkout for 50% off.

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Suzy Hansen about her essay, “A Cold War Mind: American and the World,” a chapter from Suzy's book Notes on a Foreign Country, and Octavio Paz’s “The Pachucho and Other Extremes,”  the first part of his 1950 book The Labyrinth of Solitude.

Craving more essays? Subscribe to The Point here and use the coupon code 7POD50 at checkout for 50% off.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-14318855 Tue, 16 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0500 2534 2 1 full false Selected Essays | Top 5 of Season 1 Selected Essays | Top 5 of Season 1 Jess and Zach go over their favorite moments from the first season of “Selected Essays”—listen in for the highlights and then catch up in time for Season 2.

]]> Jess and Zach go over their favorite moments from the first season of “Selected Essays”—listen in for the highlights and then catch up in time for Season 2.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-14186342 Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0500 1361 1 15 full false Selected Essays | Garth Greenwell on Martha Nussbaum Selected Essays | Garth Greenwell on Martha Nussbaum On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Garth Greenwell about his essay “A Moral Education: In Praise of Filth,” which was published in The Yale Review in 2023 and Martha Nussbaum’s "Flawed Crystals: James's The Golden Bowl and Literature as Moral Philosophy," which originally appeared in the journal New Literary History in 1983 and was later collected in her book Love's Knowledge.

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Garth Greenwell about his essay “A Moral Education: In Praise of Filth,” which was published in The Yale Review in 2023 and Martha Nussbaum’s "Flawed Crystals: James's The Golden Bowl and Literature as Moral Philosophy," which originally appeared in the journal New Literary History in 1983 and was later collected in her book Love's Knowledge.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-13876897 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:00:00 -0400 3166 1 14 full false Selected Essays | Lauren Oyler on Elif Batuman Selected Essays | Lauren Oyler on Elif Batuman On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Lauren Oyler about her essay “Desperately Seeking Sebald,” which was published in Harper’s in 2021 and Elif Batuman’s “The Murder of Leo Tolstoy,” which was also published in Harper's in 2009 and then later collected in her book The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them as “Who Killed Tolstoy?”

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Lauren Oyler about her essay “Desperately Seeking Sebald,” which was published in Harper’s in 2021 and Elif Batuman’s “The Murder of Leo Tolstoy,” which was also published in Harper's in 2009 and then later collected in her book The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them as “Who Killed Tolstoy?”

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-13701072 Tue, 03 Oct 2023 07:00:00 -0400 3072 1 13 full false Selected Essays | Ryan Ruby on Susan Sontag Selected Essays | Ryan Ruby on Susan Sontag On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Ryan Ruby joins us to discuss Susan Sontag’s “Approaching Artaud” and his own essay “Dig It Up Again,” which was written for the 100th anniversary of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and published last year by Poetry magazine.

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Ryan Ruby joins us to discuss Susan Sontag’s “Approaching Artaud” and his own essay “Dig It Up Again,” which was written for the 100th anniversary of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and published last year by Poetry magazine.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-13577221 Tue, 12 Sep 2023 11:00:00 -0400 2260 1 12 full false Selected Essays | Siri Hustvedt on Simone Weil Selected Essays | Siri Hustvedt on Simone Weil On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Siri Hustvedt joins us to discuss Simone Weil’s “Human Personality” and her own essay “Scapegoat,” which appears in her recent collection Mothers, Fathers, and Others (2021).

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Siri Hustvedt joins us to discuss Simone Weil’s “Human Personality” and her own essay “Scapegoat,” which appears in her recent collection Mothers, Fathers, and Others (2021).

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-13406850 Tue, 15 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0400 3641 1 11 full false Selected Essays | Carina del Valle Schorske on Samuel Delany Selected Essays | Carina del Valle Schorske on Samuel Delany On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Carina del Valle Schorske joins us to discuss Samuel Delany's 1996 essay “Times Square Blue” and her 2019 essay “The Ladder Up: A Restless History of Washington Heights,” which was published in the Virginia Quarterly Review.

(For more on Delany, check out this recent profile  in the New Yorker by Julian Lucas.)

]]> On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Carina del Valle Schorske joins us to discuss Samuel Delany's 1996 essay “Times Square Blue” and her 2019 essay “The Ladder Up: A Restless History of Washington Heights,” which was published in the Virginia Quarterly Review.

(For more on Delany, check out this recent profile  in the New Yorker by Julian Lucas.)

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-13325399 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 17:00:00 -0400 3147 1 10 full false Selected Essays | Leo Robson & Rosa Lyster on Martin Amis Selected Essays | Leo Robson & Rosa Lyster on Martin Amis On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Leo Robson and Rosa Lyster join us to discuss two essays by Martin Amis: “In Praise of Pritchett,” which appeared in the London Review of Books in 1980, and “The American Eagle,” an essay about Saul Bellow published in The Atlantic in 1995.

]]> On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Leo Robson and Rosa Lyster join us to discuss two essays by Martin Amis: “In Praise of Pritchett,” which appeared in the London Review of Books in 1980, and “The American Eagle,” an essay about Saul Bellow published in The Atlantic in 1995.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-13240247 Tue, 18 Jul 2023 07:00:00 -0400 3477 1 9 full false Selected Essays | Leslie Jamison on Charles D’Ambrosio Selected Essays | Leslie Jamison on Charles D’Ambrosio On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Leslie Jamison joins us to discuss Charles D’Ambrosio’s 2002 essay “Documents” and her essay “The Empathy Exams,” which appeared in The Believer in 2014 and was the title of her first collection.

]]> On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Leslie Jamison joins us to discuss Charles D’Ambrosio’s 2002 essay “Documents” and her essay “The Empathy Exams,” which appeared in The Believer in 2014 and was the title of her first collection.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-13110636 Tue, 27 Jun 2023 07:00:00 -0400 3770 1 8 full false Selected Essays | Adam Shatz on James Baldwin Selected Essays | Adam Shatz on James Baldwin On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine talk to the writer Adam Shatz about James Baldwin's essay “Alas, Poor Richard” (1961), a eulogy of sorts for Richard Wright, and Adam's new book, Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination (Verso 2023), which gathers a series of intellectual portraits of great thinkers and writers such as Wright, Claude-Levi Strauss, Chester Himes, Jacques Derrida, Fouad Ajami and Edward Said.

]]> On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine talk to the writer Adam Shatz about James Baldwin's essay “Alas, Poor Richard” (1961), a eulogy of sorts for Richard Wright, and Adam's new book, Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination (Verso 2023), which gathers a series of intellectual portraits of great thinkers and writers such as Wright, Claude-Levi Strauss, Chester Himes, Jacques Derrida, Fouad Ajami and Edward Said.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-12987837 Tue, 06 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0400 3219 1 7 full false Selected Essays | Merve Emre & Tobi Haslett on Susan Sontag (Bonus Episode!) Selected Essays | Merve Emre & Tobi Haslett on Susan Sontag (Bonus Episode!) On this bonus episode of “Selected Essays,” Merve Emre and Tobi Haslett discuss the great American essayists Elizabeth Hardwick and Susan Sontag. Merve and Tobi revisit their own essays about Hardwick and Sontag—published in The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker—and consider why it’s hard to imagine critics like them existing today. 

For more where that came from, check out Jess’s interview with Tobi Haslett from last year and Merve’s pieces for The Point. You can also order On Women, a new collection of Susan Sontag’s writings, with an introduction by Merve. 

]]> On this bonus episode of “Selected Essays,” Merve Emre and Tobi Haslett discuss the great American essayists Elizabeth Hardwick and Susan Sontag. Merve and Tobi revisit their own essays about Hardwick and Sontag—published in The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker—and consider why it’s hard to imagine critics like them existing today. 

For more where that came from, check out Jess’s interview with Tobi Haslett from last year and Merve’s pieces for The Point. You can also order On Women, a new collection of Susan Sontag’s writings, with an introduction by Merve. 

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-12906318 Wed, 24 May 2023 07:00:00 -0400 2491 1 6 full false Selected Essays | Anne Fadiman on Virginia Woolf Selected Essays | Anne Fadiman on Virginia Woolf On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine talk to the writer Anne Fadiman about Virginia Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth” (1942) and Anne’s essay from the April 2023 issue of Harper’s, “Frog”—a eulogy of sorts for the family frog, Bunky, which was partially inspired by Woolf’s meditation on a moth fluttering back and forth across a window pane. 

]]> On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine talk to the writer Anne Fadiman about Virginia Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth” (1942) and Anne’s essay from the April 2023 issue of Harper’s, “Frog”—a eulogy of sorts for the family frog, Bunky, which was partially inspired by Woolf’s meditation on a moth fluttering back and forth across a window pane. 

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-12810087 Tue, 09 May 2023 08:00:00 -0400 3282 1 5 full false Why everything is hyperpolitical now (with Anton Jäger) Why everything is hyperpolitical now (with Anton Jäger) On this episode of The Point Podcast, Jonny Thakkar talks to our resident anatomist of the global political zeitgeist: Anton Jäger, a historian of political thought at the Catholic University of Leuven. Anton joins us to discuss his essay for issue 29, “Everything Is Hyperpolitical,” an ambitious attempt at historicizing our hyperpolitical present, which he diagnoses as the culmination of a trajectory from mass politics to post-politics.

  • Hyperpolitics beyond the intuitive definition (3:20)
  • The relation between post-politics and technocracy (13:28)
  • “I think I stumbled onto it, and not in a particularly elegant way”: inventing hyperpolitics and why we need it (17:20)
  • The challenges of generalization, and how the U.S. ended up in a hyperpolitical predicament without a history of European-style mass politics (23:13)
  • Is the phenomenology of hyperpolitics just the phenomenology of social media? (38:47)
  • The division between politics and policy, and the difference between political will and political demands (47:11)
  • International relations and alternative hyperpolitical paradigms (51:22)
  • Culture as political unconscious: the benefits of the Adam Curtis approach (59:48)
]]> On this episode of The Point Podcast, Jonny Thakkar talks to our resident anatomist of the global political zeitgeist: Anton Jäger, a historian of political thought at the Catholic University of Leuven. Anton joins us to discuss his essay for issue 29, “Everything Is Hyperpolitical,” an ambitious attempt at historicizing our hyperpolitical present, which he diagnoses as the culmination of a trajectory from mass politics to post-politics.

  • Hyperpolitics beyond the intuitive definition (3:20)
  • The relation between post-politics and technocracy (13:28)
  • “I think I stumbled onto it, and not in a particularly elegant way”: inventing hyperpolitics and why we need it (17:20)
  • The challenges of generalization, and how the U.S. ended up in a hyperpolitical predicament without a history of European-style mass politics (23:13)
  • Is the phenomenology of hyperpolitics just the phenomenology of social media? (38:47)
  • The division between politics and policy, and the difference between political will and political demands (47:11)
  • International relations and alternative hyperpolitical paradigms (51:22)
  • Culture as political unconscious: the benefits of the Adam Curtis approach (59:48)
]]> Buzzsprout-12712646 Mon, 24 Apr 2023 13:00:00 -0400 4099 1 4 full false Selected Essays | Christian Lorentzen on George Trow Selected Essays | Christian Lorentzen on George Trow On this episode of The Point podcast, we’re introducing a new series called “Selected Essays”—about essays you should read but probably haven’t. Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine talk to the critic Christian Lorentzen about George Trow’s “Within the Context of No Context,” an essay that took up almost an entire issue of the New Yorker in 1980, and they revisit Christian’s cover story from the April 2019 issue of Harper’s, “Like this or Die: The Fate of the Book Review in the Age of the Algorithm”—which was partially inspired by Trow’s essay.

]]> On this episode of The Point podcast, we’re introducing a new series called “Selected Essays”—about essays you should read but probably haven’t. Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine talk to the critic Christian Lorentzen about George Trow’s “Within the Context of No Context,” an essay that took up almost an entire issue of the New Yorker in 1980, and they revisit Christian’s cover story from the April 2019 issue of Harper’s, “Like this or Die: The Fate of the Book Review in the Age of the Algorithm”—which was partially inspired by Trow’s essay.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-12624346 Tue, 11 Apr 2023 07:00:00 -0400 3557 1 3 full false Stanley Cavell's style (with Lola Seaton) Stanley Cavell's style (with Lola Seaton) On this episode of The Point podcast, Jon Baskin talks to a fellow long-suffering Cavellian: the writer and New Left Review editor Lola Seaton. Lola joins us to discuss her essay for issue 28 of The Point, “The Sound Makes All the Difference,” on her relationship to Stanley Cavell’s unmistakable and infectious—if sometimes infuriating—writing style.

Timestamps:

  • Literature as an act of communication. (5:46)
  • Cavell’s reading of King Lear and its deep insight about parental bribery (7:40)
  • How Cavell found his vocation in philosophy (13:11)
  • “Philosophy is a willingness to think undistractedly about the things people can’t help thinking about.” (18:00)
  • The “essential optimism” of Cavell’s approach to ordinary language philosophy (20:12)
  • The depth of convention (21:48)
  • Is there a tension between Cavell’s democratic aspirations and his ornate writing style? (25:08)
  • The anxiety of authenticity: “For philosophy to begin, you have to be perturbed by the question you’re taking up.” (34:17)
  • Where to start if you’re new to reading Cavell (42:56)
  • Cavell’s modernism (47:23)
  • Autofiction and autophilosophy (54:03)
  • Cavell and politics (1:03:17)

Relevant reading:

]]> On this episode of The Point podcast, Jon Baskin talks to a fellow long-suffering Cavellian: the writer and New Left Review editor Lola Seaton. Lola joins us to discuss her essay for issue 28 of The Point, “The Sound Makes All the Difference,” on her relationship to Stanley Cavell’s unmistakable and infectious—if sometimes infuriating—writing style.

Timestamps:

  • Literature as an act of communication. (5:46)
  • Cavell’s reading of King Lear and its deep insight about parental bribery (7:40)
  • How Cavell found his vocation in philosophy (13:11)
  • “Philosophy is a willingness to think undistractedly about the things people can’t help thinking about.” (18:00)
  • The “essential optimism” of Cavell’s approach to ordinary language philosophy (20:12)
  • The depth of convention (21:48)
  • Is there a tension between Cavell’s democratic aspirations and his ornate writing style? (25:08)
  • The anxiety of authenticity: “For philosophy to begin, you have to be perturbed by the question you’re taking up.” (34:17)
  • Where to start if you’re new to reading Cavell (42:56)
  • Cavell’s modernism (47:23)
  • Autofiction and autophilosophy (54:03)
  • Cavell and politics (1:03:17)

Relevant reading:

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-11834229 Wed, 07 Dec 2022 22:00:00 -0500 4035 1 2 full false National conservatism after the midterms (with James Pogue and Joey Keegin) National conservatism after the midterms (with James Pogue and Joey Keegin) The Point podcast is back after a long hiatus with an episode about the 2022 midterms. Point editors Jon Baskin and Joey Keegin are joined by the journalist and native Ohioan James Pogue to debrief two key elections—JD Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona. What will Vance's victory—and Master's defeat—mean for the National Conservative movement that has embraced them? Jon, James and Joey talk about the emerging fissures in the conservative coalition: In the fight to claim the mantle of Trumpism without Trump, will it be the NatCons or the "chaos agents" that will win out?  Where will the GOP go from here? And what lessons, if any, can Democrats take from the latest election cycle and all of this ferment on the right?

Timestamps:

  • What is national conservatism, and who are its political standard-bearers? (03:50)
  • What are we to make of the relationship between tech—typically a bastion of seasteading libertarianism—and this ultranationalist, morality-driven politics? (16:52)
  • Do voters care about the issues that are motivating Nat Con politicians, or do Vance and Masters have an elitism problem? (28:35)
  • Who will be the true inheritors of Trumpism: the Nat Cons or the MAGA “chaos agents”? (30:09)
  • What lessons, if any, can Democrats take from the midterms and, more broadly, this increasingly prevalent feeling among the American people that the liberal system as it is currently set up is no longer working for them? (38:23)

Relevant reading:

]]> The Point podcast is back after a long hiatus with an episode about the 2022 midterms. Point editors Jon Baskin and Joey Keegin are joined by the journalist and native Ohioan James Pogue to debrief two key elections—JD Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona. What will Vance's victory—and Master's defeat—mean for the National Conservative movement that has embraced them? Jon, James and Joey talk about the emerging fissures in the conservative coalition: In the fight to claim the mantle of Trumpism without Trump, will it be the NatCons or the "chaos agents" that will win out?  Where will the GOP go from here? And what lessons, if any, can Democrats take from the latest election cycle and all of this ferment on the right?

Timestamps:

  • What is national conservatism, and who are its political standard-bearers? (03:50)
  • What are we to make of the relationship between tech—typically a bastion of seasteading libertarianism—and this ultranationalist, morality-driven politics? (16:52)
  • Do voters care about the issues that are motivating Nat Con politicians, or do Vance and Masters have an elitism problem? (28:35)
  • Who will be the true inheritors of Trumpism: the Nat Cons or the MAGA “chaos agents”? (30:09)
  • What lessons, if any, can Democrats take from the midterms and, more broadly, this increasingly prevalent feeling among the American people that the liberal system as it is currently set up is no longer working for them? (38:23)

Relevant reading:

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-11743050 Tue, 22 Nov 2022 12:00:00 -0500 4247 1 1 full false Afterthoughts - Issue 25: Moralism, Memory and the Political Novel, with Ryan Ruby and Becca Rothfeld Afterthoughts - Issue 25: Moralism, Memory and the Political Novel, with Ryan Ruby and Becca Rothfeld Afterthoughts is a discussion series from The Point where our editors talk to writers and readers about new issues of the magazine. On this episode, a recording of a Zoom event held on November 1st, Jon and Rachel talk to literary critic Ryan Ruby (author of “Resisting Oblivion” in issue 25) and critic and Point editor Becca Rothfeld (author of “Sanctimony Literature” in Liberties) for a discussion about the political novel today.

The political significance of the novel was discussed with anguished urgency during the Trump years: Should writers call attention to present forms of injustice and discrimination in their fiction? Do they have a moral responsibility to speak out against oppression and abuses of power? What makes a political novel good? Now, a year after Trump was voted out of office, have we learned anything about the role the novel ought to play in turbulent times? In addition to these timely issues, the conversation also covers larger questions that have survived the Trump mind warp: about the relationship between politics and art, the ancient quarrel between philosophy and literature, and how novels memorialize the past.

]]> Afterthoughts is a discussion series from The Point where our editors talk to writers and readers about new issues of the magazine. On this episode, a recording of a Zoom event held on November 1st, Jon and Rachel talk to literary critic Ryan Ruby (author of “Resisting Oblivion” in issue 25) and critic and Point editor Becca Rothfeld (author of “Sanctimony Literature” in Liberties) for a discussion about the political novel today.

The political significance of the novel was discussed with anguished urgency during the Trump years: Should writers call attention to present forms of injustice and discrimination in their fiction? Do they have a moral responsibility to speak out against oppression and abuses of power? What makes a political novel good? Now, a year after Trump was voted out of office, have we learned anything about the role the novel ought to play in turbulent times? In addition to these timely issues, the conversation also covers larger questions that have survived the Trump mind warp: about the relationship between politics and art, the ancient quarrel between philosophy and literature, and how novels memorialize the past.

]]> The Point Magazine Buzzsprout-9477093 Tue, 02 Nov 2021 12:00:00 -0400 5594 full false Afterthoughts - Issue 24 Afterthoughts - Issue 24 The Point Magazine tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/1045205599 Sat, 08 May 2021 10:45:51 -0400 4109 false Rather Be Reading, Episode 3: Bad Desires Rather Be Reading, Episode 3: Bad Desires The Point Magazine tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/447726240 Tue, 22 May 2018 16:37:03 -0400 2713 false Rather Be Reading, Episode 2: Sex Pests Rather Be Reading, Episode 2: Sex Pests The Point Magazine tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/357291980 Fri, 17 Nov 2017 16:39:04 -0500 3344 false Rather Be Reading, Episode 1: Conservative Intellectuals Rather Be Reading, Episode 1: Conservative Intellectuals The Point Magazine tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/343390579 Thu, 21 Sep 2017 10:45:26 -0400 2109 false