The Common Reader

Literary discussion www.commonreader.co.uk

The Common Reader is a arts podcast hosted by Henry Oliver, with 42 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Henry Oliver hosts The Common Reader, a arts show with 42 episodes published.

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  The Common Reader

  Zena Hitz: Gulliver's Travels and the Failures of Human Understanding

  Jun 2, 202650 minS0

  <p>What a lot of fun I had talking to Zena Hitz about Gulliver’s Travels. As well as discussing Swift, slavery, genocide, rationality, Christianity, and science, Zena told me that good philosophy is like a box of cake mix and that a liberal education requires you to be freed of false expertise. I also took Zena on a detour to discuss Iris Murdoch, the Catherine Project, and modern philosophy. </p><p>TRANSCRIPT</p><p>HENRY OLIVER: Today I am talking to Zena Hitz. Zena is a tutor at St. John’s College. She is a philosopher, the author of Lost...

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  The Common Reader

  Oliver Traldi: Jane Austen and the Defence of Virtue

  May 5, 20261h 14mS0

  <p>My colleague Oliver Traldi recently published an essay called ‘Jane Austen’s Virtuous Liberalism’. It’s a very nice discussion of the ways in which Austen understand the challenges of character formation.</p><p>Virtue, as Austen sees it, faces two tough challenges. First, people whose characters are not yet formed must see how to be virtuous rather than vicious. Then, the virtuous must somehow find a way to succeed in their struggles against the vicious without adopting vicious means.</p><p>In this episode, Oliver and I discussed Austen’s ideas of virtue, what that has to do with liber...

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  The Common Reader

  Laura Thompson on Agatha Christie: Shakespeare, Murder, and the Art of Simplicity

  Mar 31, 20261h 20mS0

  <p>What a delight to talk to laura thompson about Agatha Christie. Above all, this episode was fun. Laura really does know more than anyone about Agatha and we covered a lot. What did Agatha Christie read? What did she love about Shakespeare? Was she pro-hanging? Why so much more Poirot than Marple? Why was she so productive during the war? We also talked Wagner, modern art, the other Golden Age writers, nursery rhymes, TV adaptations, poshness, nostalgia, Mary Westmacott, and plenty more. </p><p>Transcript</p><p>HENRY OLIVER: Today I am talking to the very splendid Laura Thompson...

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  Ruth Scurr: The Life and Work of John Aubrey

  Mar 17, 20261h 2mS0

  <p>What a pleasure it was to talk to Ruth Scurr, author of John Aubrey: My Own Life, about the great man himself, who was born four hundred years ago this month. Aubrey is best know for his splendid Brief Lives but he preserved a huge amount of knowledge which historians still rely on. There are many things we only know because of Aubrey—things about people Hobbes and Hooke, Stonehenge, architectural history. We also talked about Janet Malcom, the genre of biography, and modern fiction.</p><p>HENRY OLIVER: Today I’m talking to Ruth Scurr. Ruth is a fell...

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  The Common Reader

  Naomi Kanakia: How Great Are the Great Books?

  Mar 3, 202653 minS0

  <p>Ahead of her new book What’s So Great About the Great Books? coming out in April, Naomi Kanakia and I talked about literature from Herodotus to Tony Tulathimutte. We touched on Chaucer, Anglo-Saxon poetry, Scott Alexander, Shakespeare, William James, Helen deWitt, Marx and Engels, Walter Scott, Les Miserables, Jhootha Sach, the Mahabharata, and more. Naomi also talked about some of her working habits and the history and future of the Great Books movement. Naomi, of course, writes Woman of Letters here on Substack.</p><p>Transcript</p><p>Henry Oliver: Today, I am talking with Naomi Kanakia. Naomi is...

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