Podcasts

Packer, award-winning staff writer for The New Yorker, explores the full range of ideas and emotions stirred up by our most controversial foreign-policy venture since Vietnam.

Butler, one of the world's great science fiction writers, explores the limits of "otherness" in her new novel-the story of a young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion.

Two great writers celebrate the novel—from the 1,000 year-old Tale of Genji to Zadie Smith’s recent bestseller White Teeth; from classics to little-known gems.

While he can remember the plot of every book he's ever read, the hero of Eco's raucous new novel no longer knows his own name.

In a career spanning five decades, W.S. Merwin, lauded poet, translator, and environmental activist, has become one of the most widely read poets in America.

The author of the prophetic national bestseller \"Blowback,\" offers a vivid look at the new caste of professional warriors who have infiltrated multiple branches of government, for whom the manipulation of the military budget is of vital interest. In conversation with journalist WARREN OLNEY (\"To…

A psychologist on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission asks, "What does it mean when we discover than the incarnation of evil is as frighteningly human as we are?" In Conversation with Louise Steinman

An in-depth look at the impact of Vietnam on post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy by a distinguished Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

In this recording from ALOUD's early years, Ursula K. Le Guin reads and discusses her 2000 science fiction novel The Telling, the first follow-up to the Hainish Cycle since 1974's The Dispossessed. The work explores themes of memory and forgetting in the context of political and religious conflicts…

This podcast, taken from the ALOUD archive, is a discussion from 2000's \"Words In the World\" series; a curated series of artists whose stories, essays, poems, novels, and films illuminated a global culture in crisis and celebration, extending their imaginations into the vast territory of the heart…

Robert Pinsky answers the question, "What Shall We Teach the Young?," touching on art and poetry.This program was presented by ALOUD's The Big Questions Series.

This podcast, taken from the ALOUD archive, is a discussion from 1999's \"The Big Questions\" series. A celebration of writing, reading, and public debate, \"The Big Questions\" features visionary thinkers in the arts, sciences, and humanities who are asking new questions, challenging accepted…