LARB Radio Hour

The Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour is a weekly show featuring interviews, readings and discussions about all things literary. Hosted by LARB Editors-at-Large Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman.

LARB Radio Hour is a arts podcast hosted by Los Angeles Review of Books, with 100 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Los Angeles Review of Books hosts LARB Radio Hour, a arts show with 100 episodes published.

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  LARB Radio Hour

  Trauma!

  Oct 2, 202648 min

  In this special chat episode, Medaya Ocher, Eric Newman, and Kate Wolf use Catherine Liu's new book Traumatized to dive into the political uses and pitfalls of trauma. Liu argues that the elite professional class has fully absorbed the trauma narrative; the story of an individual's suffering and recovery courses through the culture on social and mass media not as a tool for liberation, but as a means of keeping the status quo. In turning our gaze away from class struggle, the discourse of trauma on the mainstream left has largely remained deaf to questions of economic equality. Medaya, Eric, and Kate walk through Liu's argument, debating everything from the sins of Betty Frieidan and Oprah Winfrey to true crime and celebrity documentaries. Have we all become too traumatized to effectively resist in the present?

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  LARB Radio Hour

  Samuel Stein's "A Right to Housing?"

  Sep 25, 20261h 3m

  The writer and housing policy advocate Samuel Stein joins Kate Wolf to speak about his new book, A Right to Housing? It lays out how housing could indeed become a human right, accessible to all, through things like the decommodification of the real estate market, the construction of—and conversion to—more social housing, federal regulation, and continued tenant organizing. The second half of the book, meanwhile, contends with just how distant many of these steps seem in the present, and even throughout history. Stein talks about the oversimplification of YIMBY versus NIMBY, the fix against public housing from its inception, how cities are contending (or not) with climate change, and the small victories that keep activists going in the face of an uncertain future.

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  LARB Radio Hour

  Astra Taylor and Naomi Klein's "End Times Fascism"

  Sep 18, 20261h 2m

  Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher speak to Astra Taylor and Naomi Klein about their new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World . A remarkably up to date analysis of our present moment of "messianic" wars in the Middle East and Silicon Valley's go-for broke investment in AI and space travel, the book looks at the shared narrative that unites a coalition of evangelical Christians, tech bros, the Trump administration and right-wing governments across the world. In all of these factions, Klein and Taylor identify a core belief: the apocalypse is actually desirable. Rather than try to solve the very real threats of our time, fallout would be beneficial for the powerful, who could take shelter in their bunkers, or on their islands, or on Mars. Taylor and Klein, however, find hope in the already growing movement against AI data centers, the weakening support of Trump's base, and the mayoral run of Zohran Mamadani, whose joyful campaign they call the antithesis of fascism.

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  LARB Radio Hour

  Izabella Scott's "The Bed Trick"

  Sep 17, 20261h 3m

  Eric Newman and Medaya Ocher are joined by writer Izabella Scott. Scott is the author of the new book The Bed Trick: Sex and Deception on Trial . Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, Granta, London Review of Books, and on BBC Radio 4's Free Thinking . She was formerly co-editor of The White Review. The Bed Trick recounts the true story of a 2015 trial in the UK, in which a woman accused her best friend of tricking her into a long-term romantic and sexual relationship. Scott talks about the astonishing trial, the laws around "rape by deception," and how to navigate writing nonfiction from dueling points of view.

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  LARB Radio Hour

  Izabella Scott's "The Bed Trick"

  Sep 11, 20261h 3m

  Eric Newman and Medaya Ocher are joined by writer Izabella Scott. Scott is the author of the new book The Bed Trick: Sex and Deception on Trial . Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, Granta, London Review of Books, and on BBC Radio 4's Free Thinking . She was formerly co-editor of The White Review. The Bed Trick recounts the true story of a 2015 trial in the UK, in which a woman accused her best friend of tricking her into a long-term romantic and sexual relationship. Scott talks about the astonishing trial, the laws around "rape by deception," and how to navigate writing nonfiction from dueling points of view.

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