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Mystery Prevails: Lara Levitan

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Release Date: 09/17/2025

A Visit to the Bookstore: Annie Clymer show art A Visit to the Bookstore: Annie Clymer

Plain Reading

We’re joined by owner of Annie Clymer, who tells us all about running a bookstore, giving old titles another chance, and the weird workings of memory. Intro and outro music: “” courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Trapani, libreria del Corso [cropped].  image courtesy HaguardDuNord and . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on , , and —and show your support at ! Richard Ayoade Ceren Beilin Ceren Beilin Ceren Beilin Eula Biss Brian Blanchfield ...

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Mystery Prevails: Lara Levitan show art Mystery Prevails: Lara Levitan

Plain Reading

Writer joins us to talk about sticking to your craft, other authors’ influence, and keeping the mystery alive. Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Theda Bara, still from Madame Mystery [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on , , and —and show your support at ! Wes Anderson Wes Anderson Annie Baker Jen Beagin Jen Beagin Jen Beagin Hans Blumenberg Mark Frost / David Lynch Nick Hunt Miranda July...

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In Search of Another Greece: JC Boyle show art In Search of Another Greece: JC Boyle

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Classicist and reader extraordinaire JC Boyle tells us about the Greeks, Ezra Pound, Thomas Bernhard, lending out your books, and so much more! Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy [cropped]. Wm. S. Kimball & Co., 1889. CC0 1.0 image courtesy and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on , , and —and show your support at ! V. C. Andrews Aristophanes Honoré de Balzac Roland...

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Finding the Mean: Tim Mather show art Finding the Mean: Tim Mather

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tells us about bringing Aristotle into contemporary life, and about keeping a famous family tree alive. Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Jabril ibn Bukhtishu. Aristotle instructing Alexander the Great [cropped]. image courtesy . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on , , and —and show your support at !   Wes Anderson Aristotle Robert Caro Anton Chekhov "" Winston Churchill "" John Cotton / Richard Mather Sebastian De Grazia ...

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Exploration and Rediscovery: Caroline Turner show art Exploration and Rediscovery: Caroline Turner

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Biologist Caroline Turner joins us to talk about the challenges and rewards of reading outside your own culture. Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: World map produced in Amsterdam, 1689 [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on , , and —and show your support at ! J. J. Abrams / Jeffrey Liebfer / Damon Lindelof Svetlana Alexievich Svetlana Alexievich Jokha Alharthi Poul Anderson "" Isaac Asimov ...

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Nature and the Strange: Matt Stansberry show art Nature and the Strange: Matt Stansberry

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Nature writer and podcaster tells us about the challenges of conservation and management—and the supernatural goings-on that come with it. Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: The Squonk, illustrated by Coert Du Bois and William T. Cox [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on , , and —and show your support at !   A. R. Ammons Rudolfo Anaya Ted Andrews John Baglow Frank Black "" James Cameron ...

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Some of Them Wrote It Down: George Schmidt show art Some of Them Wrote It Down: George Schmidt

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Chaplain, podcaster, and religion scholar joins us to talk William Blake, the support found in reading, and Star Wars galore! Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Manny Warman, Columbia University Bicentennial panel exhibition on banned books [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Columbia University Archives and . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on , , and —and show your support at !   Saul D. Alinsky Richard Attenborough James...

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Stories Wherever You Find Them: Vahid Friedrich show art Stories Wherever You Find Them: Vahid Friedrich

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Vahid Friedrich, advisor to financial advisors, is talking to us about storytelling—in sci-fi, video games, religion, and more! Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Cover of Science Fiction Quarterly, Nov. 1952 [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on , , and —and show your support at !                                  ...

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Language and Attention: Donato Loia show art Language and Attention: Donato Loia

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Art historian and writer joins us today to talk about the interplay of language, music, art and more! Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Three Girls in Yellow Straw Hats [cropped], August Macke. Public domain image courtesy . Ryan Adams Dore Ashton Ingmar Bergman David Brooks John D'Agata James Elkins James Elkins James Elkins Granta Peter Heehs Karl Ove Knausgaard Karl Ove Knausgaard Donato Loia Barry Lopez Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche Lisa Robertson "" Lisa Robertson Leslie Stevens Henry David...

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Life-Changing Books: Wendy Hustwit show art Life-Changing Books: Wendy Hustwit

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We’re talking to fundraising and development maven Wendy Hustwit about the books that changed your life, where to find recommendations, and reading versus application. Intro and outro music: "" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Poster for the 1918 film Tengerparti álom [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy . Margaret Atwood Jean M. Auel Simone de Beauvoir Judy Blume Charlotte Brontë Emily Brontë Heather Cox Richardson Robert Day Brian De Palma Nawal El Saadawi George Eliot Natalie Goldberg Natalie Goldberg Nikole Hannah-Jones Liam Heneghan ...

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More Episodes

Writer Lara Levitan joins us to talk about sticking to your craft, other authors’ influence, and keeping the mystery alive.

Intro and outro music: "Your Love Hip Hop" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay.

Episode artwork: Theda Bara, still from Madame Mystery [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on LibraryThing, Goodreads, and Mastodon—and show your support at Liberapay!

Wes Anderson
Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson
The French Dispatch

Annie Baker
Janet Planet

Jen Beagin
Big Swiss

Jen Beagin
Pretend I'm Dead

Jen Beagin
Vacuum in the Dark

Hans Blumenberg
Paradigms for a Metaphorology

Svetlana Boym

Mark Frost / David Lynch
Twin Peaks

G. W. F. Hegel

Nick Hunt
Where the Wild Winds Are: Walking Europe's Winds from the Pennines to Provence

Miranda July
All Fours

Adam Kelly
New Sincerity: American Fiction in the Neoliberal Age

Abbas Kiarostami

Lara Levitan
The Secret Sugar Daddies

Madame Pamita
Baba Yaga's Book of Witchcraft: Slavic Magic from the Witch of the Woods

Simon Morley, ed.
The Sublime

Kornél Mundruczó
White God

Orhan Pamuk
The Black Book

Orhan Pamuk
Snow

Rainer Maria Rilke
"Archaic Torso of Apollo"

Rainer Maria Rilke
Duino Elegies

Salman Rushdie

Christoph Rüter
Hans Blumenberg—The Invisible Philosopher

George Saunders
Story Club with George Saunders

Lowell Sheppard
Chasing the Cherry Blossom: A Spiritual Journey Through Japan

Peter Sloterdijk
Critique of Cynical Reason

Peter Sloterdijk
You Must Change Your Life

David Foster Wallace 
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

David Foster Wallace 
The Pale King

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Rachel Yoder
Nightbitch