Inside the Issue | “I Don’t Do Innocents: A Radio Play in One Act” by Anne Carson
A special production of Anne Carson’s “I Don’t Do Innocents," which first appeared in issue no. 253 (Fall 2025). Produced by Complicité for...
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The Paris Review
An audio odyssey behind the scenes at the world's most legendary literary magazine. A phantasmagoric blend of stories, archival tape, and interviews with the likes of James Baldwin, Ernest H...
Episodes
20 of 49 episodes
Inside the Issue | "My Life, By Barbara Rosenberg," by Jordy Rosenberg
Jordy Rosenberg reads his story “My Life, by Barbara Rosenberg,” from issue no. 253 (Fall 2025), told from the perspective of Barbara, a mot...
Personals | “I Got Snipped”
Joseph Earl Thomas reads his essay “I Got Snipped: Notes after a Vasectomy,” about the best sexual decision he ever made. This episode was p...
Personals | "Two Strip Clubs, Paris and New Hampshire"
Lisa Carver reads an essay about visiting two strip clubs with her French husband: first the Moulin Rouge, then a dive bar in Bedford, New H...
Personals | “Wax and Gold and Gold," by Mihret Sibhat
Mihret Sibhat reads her essay “Wax and Gold and Gold,” about a friendship she formed with a prostitute in Addis Ababa while attempting to te...
Personals | “What I Want to Say About Owning a Truck,” by J. D. Daniels
“When people see your truck, they tend to see what you can do for them,” J. D. Daniels writes in his essay about a black Nissan hardbody pic...
Personals | “The Smoker,” by Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh reads her essay “The Smoker,” about renovating a house soaked in nicotine—and a haunting encounter with its former owner. T...
Trailer: The Paris Review presents "Personals," a new audio series
“Personals” is a new audio series from The Paris Review, featuring writers reading first-person essays. Featuring essays from Ottessa Moshfe...
S4E12 | Concerning the Future of Souls, by Joy Williams
The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Joy Williams reads entries from “Concerning the Future of Souls” (issue no. 247, Spring...
S4E11 | Trial Run
In Zach Williams’s “Trial Run” (issue no. 239, Spring 2022), an employee is subjected to two coworkers’ conspiracy theories when their offic...
S4E10 | Foley’s Pond
“We were thirteen and conspiratorial and what was said is now out of reach.” Jim Fletcher reads Peter Orner’s “Foley’s Pond” (issue no. 202,...
S4E9 | “The Victim” by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
The legendary actor George Takei reads one of the oldest stories in the Review ’s archive. Published by the magazine in 1957, “ The Victim ”...
S4E8 | The Walk Book
Sean Thor Conroe shares entries from “The Walk Book”—his meticulous, funny travelogue about his 2014 attempt to walk across the United State...
S4E7 | Olga Tokarczuk’s Divine Cosmos
The Nobel Prize–winning Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk discusses the souls of animals, discovering feminism, and her home in the village of Kr...
S4E6 | About Ed
“We needed erotic touch to tell us what we were.” Robert Glück reads from About Ed , a memoir about his relationship with his former partner...
S4E5 | Scenes from an Open Marriage
“Nothing reifies a romance like proximate disaster.” Seated at her kitchen table, Jean Garnett reads her essay “ Scenes from an Open Marriag...
S4E4 | Bob Ross Paints Your Portrait
“The only colors we’re going to use will be blacker than most blacks. Mm-kay.” Terrance Hayes reads his poem, “ Bob Ross Paints Your Portrai...
S4E3 | The I is Made of Paper
The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Sharon Olds discusses sex, religion, and writing poems that "women were definitely not supposed to write,” i...
S4E2 | The Same IKEA Bed
A stealth poetry reading inside a bustling IKEA. Poet Maggie Millner reads her own poem (Issue no. 239, Spring 2022), as well as two more fr...
S4E1 | “This is Everything There Will Ever Be” by Rivers Solomon
Actor, producer, and screenwriter Lena Waithe reads Rivers Solomon’s “ This Is Everything There Will Ever Be ,” which was published in issue...