LARB Radio Hour

In this week’s episode, we are talking about the wildfires that have ravaged L.A. Medaya Ocher and Kate Wolf speak to author David L. Ulin about Los Angeles as a place forged in precarity and grit, as well as some of the local literature of disaster, and what it means to accept the city as somewhere catastrophe can str

In light of the recent fires in Los Angeles, we're re-airing an episode featuring a panel discussion titled "Writing Climate Futures" with David Wallace-Wells, Jenny Offill, Bharat Venkat, and Jonathan Blake. They discuss the role and efficacy of environmental writing, education, and the public discourse around climate

In this encore special episode, hosts Medaya Ocher, Kate Wolf, and Eric Newman discuss the case for and against giving up—on life, vices, dreams, creative pursuits, jobs, relationships, exercise, and work. Their conversation is inspired by Adam Phillips’s recent book On Giving Up, in which the psychoanalyst observes th

In our last episode of the year, Kate Wolf speaks with the poet, playwright, and performance artist Ariana Reines about her latest book, Wave of Blood. A hybrid text that includes poems, diary entries in verse, and various forms of public address, Wave of Blood spans the six month period between October 2023, after the

It’s time for our favorite episode of the year. Hosts Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman discuss their favorite books, movies, TV shows, music, scandals and (new category!) memories of 2024. For a full list of picks, visit lareviewofbooks.org/podcasts/larb-radio-hour/

Medaya Ocher and Kate Wolf are joined by writer Kathryn Davis, the acclaimed author of many novels, including Labrador, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, Hell, The Walking Tour, The Thin Place, Versailles, Duplex, and Silk Road, and a memoir, Aurelia Aurélia. Davis discusses her novel Versailles, originally published in 200