Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsOpening Radio and Podcast...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsFetching podcast shows and categories...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsFetching podcast episodes...
Close Reads is a book-club podcast for the incurable reader. Featuring David Kern, Tim McIntosh and Heidi White, alongside a couple of other occasional guests, we read Great Books and talk a...
You have questions, we did our best to answer them. Thanks for tuning in to this series on Steinbeck’s classic novel and happy listening! Th...
So about that ending . . . We discuss (from a variety of angles). Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this w...
This week’s episode is dedicated entirely to the lengthy chapter 26 so we have a chance to discuss poor Casy’s complicated arc and the Chris...
Is ma emerging as Steinbeck’s new protagonist? Does the “grapes of wrath” chapter work? And what of the book’s evolving view of religion? We...
Welcome to another episode of our new series on classic short stories! This month, it’s Tolkien’s beloved story about creativity, hope, and...
Does Casy redeem himself with his heroic action? Does this this book live too much in the realm of artifice? Does this book, like East of Ed...
Is Steinbeck an American Dickens? Does this book have a villain/antagonist? What role do each of the tertiary characters play? And does Stei...
It’s time to really discuss it: Do Steinbeck’s interstitial, alternating chapters work? We dig in—with differences of opinion. Plus we discu...
Welcome to the beginning of a new series as we dive into John Steinbeck’s classic novel. In this episode we discuss Steinbeck’s unique use o...
Welcome to the conclusion of our series on Niall William’s novel, as we do our best to answer your questions! This is a public episode. If y...
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Niall Williams’ novel! This we discuss whether the novel has a “happy” ending, its final verdict on wh...
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Niall Williams’ novel, This Is Happiness . This week we discuss some audience comments, the book’s exa...
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Niall Williams’ lovely novel. This week we discuss what this book has to say about happiness, the them...
Welcome to the start of a new series! Over the next several weeks we’ll be digging into Irish writer, Niall Williams pastoral novel, This Is...
As always, we conclude our series on Edith Wharton’s classic novel by answering your questions. There were a lot of good ones and we did our...
Welcome back to our series on Edith Wharton’s very complex (and wonderful) novel. This week, in discussing the ending, we find ourselves at,...
Welcome back to our ongoing series about The Age of Innocence ! This week we’re discussing when a thought becomes a sin in this book, whethe...
Welcome back to our series on Edith Wharton’s excellent novel. This week we talk about the way the two main female characters have emerged,...
Welcome to our first series of the new year, as we jump into Edith Wharton’s novel of the Gilded Age, The Age of Innocence. This we discuss...
Welcome to our longest episode of the year, during which we discuss our favorite reading experiences of the year, share our individual top f...
You had questions, we had answers, so join us for the final conversation about Shakespeare’s classic comedy! We talk about Margaret’s culpab...
For your errand-running, long drive, baking, cleaning, or lounging listening, we present a Christmas mailbag in which we answer your questio...
Welcome back to our series on Much Abo About Nothing ! This week we're discussing Hero's role in the story, which characters have a positive...
In this week’s conversation about Shakespeare classic comedy, we discuss the famous “kill Claudio” demand from Beatrice: How it opens up the...
Welcome back to another conversation about Shakespeare’s delightful comedy. This week we discuss the differences between “noting” and invest...
Welcome back to another conversation about Shakespeare’s wonderful comedy. The best bit: this week we’re joined by the one-and-only Tim McIn...
Welcome to a new series on one of Shakespeare’s most delightful and brilliant plays! In this episode, which is about act one, we discuss why...
It’s Q&A time. You’ve got questions; we have answers. So join in as we conclude our conversation on Hemingway’s classic novel. Happy listeni...
Is A Farewell to Arms pure tragedy? Is there any hope in the denouement? What should we do with Hemingway’s alternate endings? These and man...
Sean calls this the happy section of the book, so in this episode we discuss the book’s conception of happiness, engage in a close reading o...
After an unfortunate delay, we’re back with further conversation about Hemingway’s twentieth century classic. This week we discuss the harro...
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Hemingway’s classical novel. This week we discuss the turn the book takes in book two, the nature of H...
Welcome to our new series on Ernest Hemingway’s modern classic. For this first episode we chatted about Heidi’s deep love of the book, the s...
This week is one part Q&A about The Princess and the Goblin, one part ask-us-anything. That means we’re discussing George McDonald’s plot de...
This week we discuss the delightful conclusion to George McDonald’s classic children’s novel, how it compares to classic fairy tales, why bo...
Over the next few weeks we’ll be discussing George Macdonald’s delightful nineteenth century children’s story, The Princess and the Goblin ....
It’s that time of year! You’ve probably seen the posts revealing the books we’ll be discussing on the show in 2026 , but now you can tune in...
You had plenty of great questions; we did our best to answer them. So join in as we conclude our series on Emily Bronte’s classic novel. Hap...
We’ve come to the end of Emily Bronte’s novel and so we’re here to discuss, well, how it ends. Up first: Sean’s opinion. Then we discuss the...
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation about Emily Bronte’s novel! This week we discuss whether it’s too melodramatic, Heathcliff’s malevo...
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Emily Bronte’s novel! This week we’re discussing the degree to which the book is a love story, the str...
Ten years ago, on the first ever episode of Close Reads, we discussed “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” the famous story by Flannery O’Connor. L...
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Emily Bronte’s classic novel. This week we discuss the roots of the characters’ various issues, Cathy’...
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Emily Bronte’s classic novel. This week we’re discussing whether the book includes either a protagonis...
Welcome to a new series! As we kick off our conversations on Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights , we discuss the genius of the Bronte sisters,...
As always, you had plenty of great questions about our current book and on this episode we did our best to answer a bunch of them. Thanks fo...
It’s a bit late, but better late than never, right? Apologies for the delay! The upload speeds weren’t great in the English countryside. All...
Welcome back to our series on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, in which we discuss his best novelistic skills, including his ability to deal in...
Welcome to a new series of episodes on another wonderful book. It’s our first re-read here on Close Reads and it’s timely, too, since The Gr...
We’re in between books so we answered as many of your questions as we could—which is to say, this is one of those wide-ranging episodes on a...