Literary Disco
by Literary Disco
Writers talk about reading. Hosted by Tod Goldberg, Julia Pistell, and Rider Strong. Featured in USA Today, Orange County Register, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, The Spectator, Vice and countless others. A Washington Post Best Literary Podcast A Good Housekeeping Best Literary Podcast A Mashable Best Books Podcast A Bustle Best Books Podcast
Episodes
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Revisiting George Saunders
On today's episode, we revisit a recent conversation with one favorite authors on the podcast, George Saunders, whose new story collection Liberation Day is out now. This episode is brought to you by Bombas, the socks Julia and her family is ALWAYS wearing!
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Episode 204: Horror
Today, on Literary Disco, we continue our genre-based season. Each episode of this season, we're diving deep into a particular literary genre, exploring what defines it, what makes it work or not work, interviewing authors, talking to fans, scholars, whomever can help us unlock what it is that...
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Episode 203: Crime
Today, we continue our genre-based season where we dive deep into a literary genre exploring what defines it, what makes it work and not work, interviewing authors, talking to fans and scholars, whoever can unlock what makes a genre a genre. In our second episode, we find a body, a clue or two,...
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Episode 202: Fantasy
Today we launch a new format of the Disco as we begin our "Genre Season." Each episode of this season, we're going to dive deep into a particular literary genre, exploring what defines it, what makes it work or not work, interviewing authors, talking to fans, scholars, whoever can help us unlock...
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Sea Tea (Literary Disco Live!)
This is a recording of a live episode from Sea Tea Improv in Hartford, Connecticut, back in March. Julia and Rider are joined by special guests curator Mallory Howard of the Mark Twain House & Museum and librarian Gwen Glazer of the Croton Free Library -- and Tod's disembodied head joining...
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Episode 201: Where the Hell Have We Been?
Hey, guys! It's been a while. While Julia may have grown a beard, Rider still hasn't cut his hair, and Tod is still up to his old bullshit, we've been still reading books and are ready to start a new season -- with some surprises! Listen in to find out what we're going to be up to in 2022. We're...
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Episode 200: Reflections on the Disco
It's episode 200. We're going to talk about what's changed over the years, and maybe do a bookshelf revisit. Who knows?! We're getting old.
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Episode 199: Back to School
This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod head back to school with special guest Bree Rolfe, a teacher from Austin, Texas, where she helps high school students discover literature and creative writing. She is also a poet, whose collection Who's Going to Love the Dying Girl is out now. She is also a dear...
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Episode 198: Horse Girls
This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod tackle the incredibly popular, enduring, and surprisingly diverse world of the horse girl. We have read a classic of the genre, Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, and have read a new collection of essays edited by Halimah Marcus entitled Horse Girls, in...
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Episode 197: East of Eden
On this episode of Literary Disco, Julia, Rider, and Tod take on John Steinbeck's classic epic novel East of Eden, which centers on the Salinas Valley of California and tells the story of several generations of the Trask and Hamilton families.
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Episode 196: Pool Reads
On this episode of Literary Disco, while Rider's off camping, Tod and Julia talk about their philosophy of pool reads—and why they'll read books at the pool that they'd never be caught reading anywhere else.
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Episode 195: Arena
On this week's episode, Julia, Rider, and Tod read some poetry -- and discuss Lauren Shapiro's poetry collection, Arena, which was published in 2020 to rave reviews. Lauren Shapiro is the author of Easy Math (Sarabande, 2013), which was the winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize and the…
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Episode 194: Alta Magazine
Today, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss three articles from Alta Magazine, the publication based in California that focuses on news, history, literature, and culture, with a decidedly Western bent. Its founder, William Hearst III, declares it to be "a literate magazine that serves as a counterpoint…
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Episode 193: Being Mortal
On today's episode, Julia, Rider, and Tod talk about all the things human beings never want to talk about: death, pain, sickness, and more, when we discuss Atul Gawande's seminal 2014 book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Today's sponsor: This episode is supported by GreenChef.
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Episode 192: The Removed
On today's episode, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss Brandon Hobson's new novel, The Removed, that follows a Cherokee family in Oklahoma in the aftermath of their son's death at the hands of a police officer. Today's sponsor: This episode is supported by GreenChef.
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Episode 191: Spring Games 2021
This week, Julia, Tod, and Rider celebrate Literary Disco’s ninth birthday by breaking out some book games. In Judging a Book by Its Cover, Rider reads the first few lines of a book while Tod and Julia try to guess the era, genre, author, and even the book itself. In Game Two, Julia and Rider try...
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Episode 190: Crime Favorites
This week, Julia, Tod, and Rider talk about their favorite crime reads—and why we're so hooked on the genre, anyway.
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Episode 189: The Low Desert
This week, Julia, Tod, and Rider go behind the scenes of Tod’s new book, The Low Desert, out now from Counterpoint.
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Episode 188: Cruel Summer
On today's special episode, we are live from LumaCon 2021 — a comic convention brought to you by a cohort of public libraries in Sonoma County, California. Today, we discuss the graphic novel Cruel Summer by Ed Brubaker, and then a Q&A with the live audience. This episode is brought to you by...
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Episode 187: The Neighbors
Today, for the first time in a while, Julia, Rider, and Tod tackle a single short story. We solicited our listeners via social media for recommendations, and a couple of you directed us to "The Neighbors" by Shruti Swamy, which is available online at Electric Literature and is part of the...
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Episode 186: George Saunders
On today's episode, we welcome one of our favorite authors on the podcast, George Saunders, to discuss his latest book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, which takes a close look at seven Russian short stories and offers insight on reading and writing. This episode is brought to you by Amazon...
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Episode 185: The Best of the Worst Year
This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod take on the year 2020 and all its glory and misery. Each of them picks the best thing they read in 2020 for the podcast and the best thing each read on their own... if they found any time to read on their own. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Publishing,...
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Episode 184: A Christmas Story
On today's special holiday episode, Rider, Tod, and Julia discuss the work of storyteller and humorist Jean Shepherd, whose book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash formed the basis for the classic 1980 film A Christmas Story. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Publishing, publishers of…
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Episode 183: Shel Silverstein
Today, in a special parents only episode, Rider and Julia discuss the works of poet, songwriter, cartoonist, and all-around Renaissance man of children's literature, Shel Silverstein. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the Faraway Collection. Download now at...
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Episode 182: Zero Zone
A massive art installation in the New Mexico desert. A Manson-like cult leader whose followers barricade themselves inside. An artist plagued by guilt, and a lonely teenager with violent intentions. This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss Scott O'Connor's literary thriller Zero Zone—and why the...
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Episode 181: Soap Operas
Today we embrace the melodrama, the secret, the amnesia, the surprise relative, the multiple personality disorder, the rape, the recasting, the coming back from the dead, the love, the murder, and the marriages (!), as we talk about all things soap opera with special guests Natalie Zea and Travis...
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Episode 180: Comfort Lit
Today, as the election looms in America and tensions run high, Julia, Rider, and Tod talk about what they're reading that is bringing them peace, what's helping them stay calm, or at least distracting them from an incessant, terrifying news cycle. Rather than just their own ideas, they asked...
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Episode 179: Watership Down
You might remember the 1979 cartoon film adaptation? Or maybe the 1999 Canadian TV series? Or the 2018 British miniseries--or maybe the play or role-playing game? Or maybe you read the original novel Watership Down, written by Richard Adams, published in 1972. This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod...
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Episode 178: The Tradition
This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod read and discuss Jericho Brown's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, The Tradition.
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Episode 177: Hojoki
This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod read and discuss the essay "Hojoki: or, An Account of My Hut," written in the 13th century by the Japanese poet and essayist Kamo no Chōmei. about his time living in a ten-foot by ten-foot hut in the mountains.
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Episode 176: The End of Middlemarch
Today, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss book six, seven, and eight of George Eliot's Middlemarch, bringing an end to our long and oft-delayed quarantine read of this nineteenth-century masterpiece.
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Episode 175: Weather
Today, with another short break from Middlemarch, Julia, Rider, and Tod talk about Jenny Offill's latest novel Weather. They also discuss the beauty of the "bidet life" and the adjustment of fearing everything. This week's episode is sponsored by HelloFresh. Additional restrictions apply, please...
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Episode 174: Middlemarch, Book 5
The return of Literary Disco! Today, we continue our march through Middlemarch as we read the George Eliot classic and book five, The Dead Hand.
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Episode 173: Bookshelf Revisit, Summer 2020
This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod do an old-fashion bookshelf revisit where each of them take a volume for their shelves and bring it up for discussion. Julia's pick: The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel Rider's pick: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Tod's pick: Death, Immortality, and...
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Episode 172: Middlemarch, Book 4
This week is part four of our #Quarantine read of George Eliot's long and intimidating classic novel from the nineteenth century, Middlemarch.
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Choose Your Own Houdini
Today, in another departure from our Middlemarch read, we will read one of the new Choose Your Own Adventure books, which unlike the beloved books from the 80s, the new Choose Your Own Adventure novels are based on the lives of historical figures, except that they are all spies!
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Episode 171: Middlemarch, Book 3
This week is part three of our #Quarantine read of George Eliot's long and intimidating classic novel from the nineteenth century, Middlemarch.
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Quick Poems for Quarantine
On today's episode, as a quick respite from our reading of Middlemarch, Julia, Rider, and Tod each present a poem to discuss. Julia presents "The Mower" by Philip Larkin; Rider presents "No worst, there is none" by Gerard Manley Hopkins; and Tod presents "Go Make Something Old" by Matthew Zapruder.
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Episode 169: Middlemarch, Book Two
This week is part two of our #Quarantine read of George Eliot's long and intimidating classic novel from the nineteenth century, Middlemarch.
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Episode 168: Murder Most Foul
Bob Dylan released something new during the pandemic: Murder Most Foul, a seventeen-minute long song that begins with John F. Kennedy's assassination. This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss the lyrics, Dylan in general, and Dylan's surprising Nobel Prize in Literature. What a trickster...
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Episode 167: Middlemarch, Book One
Ever wondered what 900 pages of turgid prose sounds like when dropped on a desk? This week is part one of our #Quarantine read of George Eliot's long and intimidating classic novel from the nineteenth century, Middlemarch.
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Episode 166: The Baby-Sitters Club
On this special episode, Julia, Rider, and Tod explore the novel that started it all, Kristy's Great Idea by Ann M. Martin, answering the question: Where would a now twenty-something be without the mistakes and life lessons of Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, Stacey and co.?
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Episode 165: Coyote and the Shadow People
Today, we discuss a classic of Native American storytelling, a story told by generations of the Nez Perce tribe entitled "Coyote and the Shadow People."
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Episode 164: Gil Thorp
In another short episode for the Pandemic, the Literary Disco trio are tackling another form of writing they've never covered before: the comic strip. Gil Thorp comes from cartoonists Neal Rubin and Rod Whigham -- and Tod immediately regrets choosing this as his selection. Enjoy and be safe out...
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Episode 163: The Faux Pas
In today's short episode, the Literary Disco trio will tackle a form of writing we have never done before: the YouTube comedy sketch! Today we're watching "The Faux Pas," posted by the comedy duo BriTANick. Welcome to the Pandemic.
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Episode 162: Your House Will Pay
On today's episode, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss Steph Cha's 2019 novel Your House Will Pay, a book set in Los Angeles that follows two families on opposite sides of a racially charged shooting. They ask the question: is this the greatest novel about Los Angeles in the last twenty-five years?
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Episode 161: Literary Disco Is Not Listening
When was the last time you listened to someone, or someone really listened to you? This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss a new nonfiction book from Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening, about the fine art, the inherent power, and the cultural decline of listening in today's world, and question...
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Episode 160: The Overstory
On this today’s episode, we discuss The Overstory by Richard Powers, a Pulitzer Prize-winning from 2018 that centers trees in a variety of context as the focus of its storytelling. Can a book about trees actually captivate us for hundreds of pages? Today’s episode is sponsored by HelloFresh,...
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Episode 159: The Odyssey of Literary Disco
In our first episode of 2020, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss Madeline Miller’s novel Circe, which retells some of the most infamous Greek myths from the point of view of Circe, a witch who most famously appears in The Odyssey who turns Odysseus’s men into pigs. The trio discusses whether we should...
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Episode 158: Best Books of the Decade
This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod look back at the last ten years -- seven of which they've been recording this podcast -- from the books they've read on the show to their own personal favorites. Additionally, they discuss the trends they've noticed in publishing over the last decade -- and their...
About this show
Writers talk about reading. Hosted by Tod Goldberg, Julia Pistell, and Rider Strong. Featured in USA Today, Orange County Register, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, The Spectator, Vice and countless others.
A Washington Post Best Literary Podcast
A Good Housekeeping Best Literary Podcast
A Mashable Best Books Podcast
A Bustle Best Books Podcast
Hosted by
Literary Disco