It's a Thanksgiving-week episode, which means—hey, we're thankful for you! Thanks for listening to the show, thanks for being a part of the Lit Hub community and the bookish community and the community that (hopefully?) gives a damn about leaving the world at least a little better than you found it.We're also thankful for the great arts organizations that support our communities, whether that's something pretty local like WaveFarm and WGXC and Northern Spy Reading Series in the Hudson Valley or something national like Authors Against Book Bans. Our first guest this week is from the former (it's our own Jonny Diamond reading from George Orwell as part of last week's "Fall of Freedom" programming across the country) and our second guest is from the latter (Maggie Tokuda-Hall, one of the national leaders of AABB).It's always the right time to support the organizations across the country that do good work, but it's the end-of-year giving season and if you've got the scratch to help out, you could do a lot worse than an organization like Authors Against Book Bans — so donate! And if you've got a bit left after that, become a Lit Hub member, so we don't ever have to do a full-on pledge drive episode (although maybe we will someday, for fun)...See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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November 21, 2025
A time of celebration is now upon us: the literary awards year has closed, which means that it's basically gravy from here til the end of the year. That's right, with the National Book Awards this week, we really see the end of the road for 2025 and now we can all just chill out a bit. Right? Right?? (plus a shout-out to the Goldsmiths and Cercador Prizes, two lesser-known prizes that you should all be following.)Anyway, in the spirit of celebration, James Folta and Oliver Scialdone drop in to talk about the latest Literary Bracket ("What Was Literary Twitter?", running now through next Tuesday) and to eulogize those heady days of Lit Twit. Then, Peter Coviello chats with Drew about his piece for the site "Maybe Don't Talk to the New York Times about Zohran Mamdani" and expounds on why it is we need to be much more wary of the things elite institutions are trying to sell us. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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November 14, 2025
We're heading towards the end of the year, inexorably and completely — but it ain't over yet! There's still reading time, certainly... but there's also still creativity time. Anna Hogeland drops by to talk about her recent piece, "Creating Without Inhibition: In Praise of Making Bad Art" and then Celia Mattison tells Drew all about the burgeoning trend of sheep on book covers, which she covered in her aptly titled piece: "What's With All the Sheep on Book Covers?" Plus: Ryan Chapman calls in about this year's Booker Prize winner!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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November 7, 2025
The world is ending... the world is ending... but if the world is ending, that means it hasn't ended yet. After seeing The Seat of Our Pants at The Public Theater (running thru at least the end of the month!), it's never been clearer that Thornton Wilder is America's great under-appreciated literary trickster. His keen playful writing combines magical realism, genre-busting humor, literary zip—and there are few people better suited to adapting Wilder than Ethan Lipton. He joins us this week alongside Jeremy McCarter, Wilder's literary executor, for a look into the man's genius, this play's still-vital themes, and why human art will always be the best thing about humanity.Speaking of humanity: contracts! Aron Solomon explains some of his recent piece, "Writers Beware: On the Dangerous Fine Print of Creative Contract Law" — and then Dayna Totorici of n+1 calls in to tease this year's Bookmatch quiz! (It's open now, you should do it, you should let Drew know what books you got.)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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October 31, 2025
It's Halloween! Drew's favorite holiday! And so in lieu of a proper episode this week, here's Drew reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" — hope that's a treat and not a trick!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A weekly behind-the-scenes dive into everything interesting, dynamic, strange, and wonderful happening in literary culture—featuring Lit Hub staff, columnists, and special guests! Hosted by Drew Broussard.The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub RadioMusic by Dani Lencioni of EvelynEngineering and production by Stardust House
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