The New Yorker: Fiction

Rank #1: David Sedaris Reads Miranda July. David Sedaris reads "Roy Spivey," by Miranda July.

Rank #2: David Sedaris Reads Wells Tower. David Sedaris joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss "Leopard," by Wells Tower from a 2008 issue of the magazine.

The Guardian Books podcast

Rank #1: 1947: When Now Begins and the best books of 2017 – books podcast. On this week’s show, we look at the political and social upheaval of 1947 with journalist Elisabeth Åsbrink, and consider the best books of 2017

Rank #2: Scottish crime fiction with Ann Cleeves and Chris Brookmyre – books podcast. We investigate the murky world of tartan noir, and look into this week’s headline honours, the Baileys and children’s laureate

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker

Rank #1: Kristen Roupenian Reads "Cat Person". Kristen Roupenian reads her story "Cat Person," from the December 11, 2017, issue of the magazine. Roupenian recently completed an M.F.A. and is now a Zell Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Rank #2: Sally Rooney Reads “Color and Light”. Sally Rooney reads her story “Color and Light,” from the March 18, 2019, issue of the magazine. Rooney is the author of two novels, “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People,” which was published last year and won the Costa Book Award.

The New Yorker Radio Hour

Rank #1: Maggie Haberman: Gang War in the White House. Maggie Haberman and Donald Trump go way back.  

Rank #2: James Comey Makes His Case to America. In a long career in law enforcement, the former F.B.I. Director James Comey aimed to be above politics, but in the 2016 election he stepped directly into it.  In his book, “A Higher Loyalty,” Comey makes the case to America that he handled the F.B.I. investigations into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and Donald Trump’s campaign correctly, regardless of the consequences. Even after being fired by President Trump, the former F.B.I Director says he doesn’t dislike the President; he tells David Remnick that what he feels is more akin to sympathy.  Trump “has an emptiness inside of him, and a hunger for affirmation, that I’ve never seen in an adult,” Comey says. “He lacks external reference points. Instead of making hard decisions by calling upon a religious tradition, or logic, or tradition or history, it’s all, ‘what will fill this hole?’ ” As a result, Comey says, “The President poses significant threats to the rule of law,” and he chides Congressional Republicans for going along with the President’s aberrations. “What,” he rhetorically asks Mitch McConnell and others, “are you going to tell your grandchildren?”  Nevertheless, Comey remains hopeful about the resilience of American institutions. “There isn’t a ‘deep state,’ [but] there is a deep culture,” he believes. “It is [about] the rule of law and doing it the right way,” and it serves as “a ballast” during political turmoil. David Remnick’s interview with James Comey was taped live at New York’s Town Hall on April 19, 2018.

The New Yorker: Politics and More

Rank #1: The World View of James Mattis. Dexter Filkins joins Evan Osnos to discuss Secretary of Defense James Mattis, his view of the Middle East, and what this means for U.S. foreign policy.

Rank #2: The Sackler Family, Purdue Pharma, and the Lawsuits Threatening Opioid Manufacture. Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company owned by the Sackler family, brought OxyContin to market in 1995. The Sacklers dismissed warnings that the drug was addictive and unleashed a well-funded marketing campaign to sell it to doctors. Since then, Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers have been sued thousands of times for the role they played in the opioid epidemic, and now some fifteen hundred civil cases against the company and its founders have been bundled together into a multi-district litigation that could cost the Sacklers billions of dollars. Patrick Radden Keefe joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss how the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma participated in the proliferation of opioids and what the new round of lawsuits may mean for the company’s future.

All the Books!

Rank #1: Episode #138: Our Favorite Books of 2017, Part 2. This week, Liberty and Rebecca discuss White Tears, The Wanderers, Priestdaddy, and more books. This episode was sponsored by ThirdLove and The Reckless series from Cornelia Funke. Find a list of the titles discussed on this episode in the shownotes. 

Rank #2: Episode #103: New Releases and More for April 18, 2017. This week, Liberty and Rebecca discuss Locking Up Our Own, How to Be Married, Imagine Wanting Only This, and more books. This episode was sponsored by Life After and Book Riot Insiders. Find a list of the titles discussed on this episode in the shownotes. Subscribe to Book Riot Insiders here.

World Book Club

Rank #1: Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou answers listeners questions about her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.

Rank #2: Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt Vonnegut joins an audience of World Service listeners to answer questions about his novel Slaughterhouse-Five

Books and Authors

Rank #1: Michael Ondaatje on his new novel, Warlight.. Michael Ondaatje, Nell Dunn on her book, Talking to Women and a postcard from Croatia.

Rank #2: Shirley Jackson and a literary round-up for 2016. The dark world of Shirley Jackson and a look at this year's best reads

Audio Book Club

Rank #1: Audio Book Club: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Slate editors Emily Bazelon and Hanna Rosin discuss the final book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Joining them are two Potter enthusiasts: Emily’s son Simon, 8, and Hanna’s daughter Noa, 10. They discuss death, loyalty and Snape's love for Lily.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rank #2: Slate's Audio Book Club: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Slate's Audio Book Club. Stephen Metcalf, Troy Patterson, and Katie Roiphe discuss the American classic The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Radio Atlantic

Rank #1: The Great Recession, One Decade Later. In December 2007, the U.S. marked the beginning of its longest recession since World War II. Now the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency born in the ashes of the nation's economic downturn, is under new leadership that promises big changes. Meanwhile, a tax plan speeding through Congress could have far-reaching effects on the economy, well beyond taxes. On paper, the U.S. economy looks robust. But for whom, and for how long?This week, Annie Lowrey and Alana Semuels join our hosts to look at what's happened in the decade since the Great Recession, and what's happening now. What lessons have we learned from the crisis? And which are we doomed to repeat?Links:- "The Never-Ending Foreclosure" (Alana Semuels, December 1, 2017)- "The Great Recession Is Still With Us" (Annie Lowrey, December 1, 2017)- “The GOP Targets America’s Most Loved and Hated Tax Break” (Alana Semuels, November 2, 2017)- “The U.S. Isn’t Prepared for the Next Recession” (Annie Lowrey, October 31, 2017)- “Mick Mulvaney Is Pretending Everything's Totally Normal at Work” (Gillian B. White, November 28, 2017)- “Could a Tax Fix the Gig Economy?” (Alana Semuels, November 6, 2017)- “Trump Says His Tax Plan Won't Benefit the Rich—He's Exactly Wrong” (Annie Lowrey, September 29, 2017)- "Could a Memo by Christina Romer Have Saved the Economy?" (John Hudson, February 22, 2012)- “The Fight Over the CFPB Reveals the Broken State of American Politics” (David A. Graham, November 28, 2017)- "The Shadow of the Stimulus" (Ross Douthat, February 1, 2009)- "Return of the Shopping Avenger" (Jeffrey Goldberg, December 1, 2009)- The Half Has Never Been Told  (Edward Baptist)- The Unwinding (George Packer)- "The Nutshell Studies" (Katie Mingle, 99 Percent Invisible)- "The Reason This 'Racist Soap Dispenser' Doesn't Work on Black Skin" (Max Plenke, Mic.com, September 9, 2015)Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rank #2: Is the Presidency Broken?. “We are a president-obsessed nation, so much so that we undermine the very idea of our constitutional democracy,” writes John Dickerson in his May cover story in The Atlantic. “No one man—or woman—can possibly represent the varied, competing interests of 327 million citizens.” Have we heaped so much upon the president that the job has become impossible? Is Trump testing the office in valuable ways? And if the presidency is broken, how do we fix it?Links- "The Hardest Job in the World" (John Dickerson, May 2018 Issue)- “Scott Pruitt Bypassed the White House to Give Big Raises to Favorite Aides” (Elaina Plott and Robinson Meyer, April 3, 2018)- "Letter to Joseph Hooker from Lincoln, January 26, 1863" (Library of Congress)- Educated (Tara Westover, 2018)- Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It (Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik, 2018)- Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders, 2017)- “There’s Something Funny About Tiffany Haddish” (Caity Weaver, GQ, March 26, 2018)Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bookworm

Rank #1: David Sedaris: Calypso. David Sedaris is hilarious but that’s just the obvious. He discusses the art of melancholy, and mortality, topics in his new book of humorous stories, Calypso.

Rank #2: Tommy Orange: There There. Beauty and despair woven into their history, twelve multigenerational urban Native Americans find ways to live in Tommy Orange’s There There.

The New Yorker: Poetry

Rank #1: John Ashbery Reads Charles Simic. John Ashbery reads Charles Simic and his own work, and has a discussion with the New Yorker poetry editor, Paul Muldoon.

Rank #2: Robert Pinsky Reads Elizabeth Bishop. Robert Pinsky joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Elizabeth Bishop’s “At the Fishhouses” and a poem of his own.

London Review Podcasts

Rank #1: Julian Assange. Andrew O’Hagan spent six months with Julian Assange helping him write his autobiography, though in the event Assange didn’t want the book published. O’Hagan speaks about those six months for the first time.

Rank #2: Brexit Blues. John Lanchester on the implications of the UK’s EU referendum.

Longform

Rank #1: Episode 159: Ira Glass. Ira Glass is the host and executive producer of This American Life. “You can only have so many questions about feelings, I think. At some point people are just like alright, enough with the feelings.” Thanks to MailChimp, EA SPORTS FIFA 16, Fracture, and FRONTLINE's "My Brother's Bomber for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @iraglass Out on the Wire (Jessica Abel • Broadway Books • 2015) [10:00] "1: New Beginnings" (This American Life • Nov 1995) [14:00] Serial [21:00] "75: Kindness of Strangers" (This American Life • Nov 1995) [27:00] Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host [28:00] "480: Human Sacrifice" (This American Life • Nov 2012) [30:00] "562: The Problem We All Live With" (Nikole Hannah-Jones • This American Life • July 2015) [31:00] "564: Too Soon" (This American Life • Aug 2015) [31:00] "565: Lower 9+10" (This American Life • Aug 2015) [35:00] "513: 129 Cars" (This American Life • Dec 2013) [53:00] Longform Podcast #124: Alex Blumberg [54:00] Conan's Farewell Speech

Rank #2: Episode 144: Cheryl Strayed. Cheryl Strayed is the author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. “There's a long history, of women especially, saying 'Well, I just got lucky.' I didn't just get lucky. I worked my f*****g ass off. And then I got lucky. And if I hadn't worked my ass off, I wouldn't have gotten lucky. You have to do the work. You always have to do the work.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and HP Matter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @CherylStrayed cherylstrayed.com The Complete Dear Sugar Archive Strayed on Longform [1:00] Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Knopf • 2012) [1:00] Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar (Vintage • 2012) [4:00] "Dear Sugar #44: How You Get Unstuck" (The Rumpus • July 2010) [9:00] "What Wild Has Wrought" (Nicholas Kristof • May 2015 ) [13:00] Torch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2006) [28:00] "Dear Sugar #48: Write Like a M**********r" (The Rumpus • Aug 2010) [28:00] "Write Like a M**********r" coffee mug [1:11:00] Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer • Random House • 1996) [1:13:00] "Oprah Talks to Cheryl Strayed" (O Magazine • July 2012)