Transatlantic Bookmarks

Welcome to Transatlantic Bookmarks , a weekly podcast for people who enjoy big ideas and good company. From opposite sides of the Atlantic, European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston use books to uncover the questions at their heart and bring them into today's conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, and politics. This isn't a book review show. It's a conversation about the world, with literature as our guide. New episodes every Saturday.

Transatlantic Bookmarks is a society podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 13 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.

Unknown Host hosts Transatlantic Bookmarks, a society show with 13 episodes published.

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  Episode #14

  Am I a Psychopath?

  Aug 15, 20261h 14m

  A sports medicine journal has a term, "beautiful suffering," for what elite athletes experience during 24-plus-hour endurance events. This week Sue takes the lead with a question she's been sitting with since watching runners collapse in freezing rain at the 2018 Boston Marathon: are elite athletes wired differently, or is toughness something the rest of us can actually learn? The conversation moves through Corey Richards' memoir of surviving an avalanche and an undiagnosed mental illness, Steve Magness's case against the old "grit and bear it" model of toughness, Ksenija's years coaching football players and elite athletes through NLP and pattern interrupts, and why the answer to "is this person a psychopath" might just be "no, they've found a very efficient way to feel alive.” BOOKS MENTIONED: (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases) The Color of Everything by Corey Richards: https://amzn.to/4zlpZqA Do Hard Things by Steve Magness: https://amzn.to/3SExh8h Wild by Cheryl Strayed: https://amzn.to/461OdbM Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: https://amzn.to/4xCnw9p Mindset by Carol Dweck: https://amzn.to/4g3SEYc The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu: https://amzn.to/460DXR9 A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler: https://amzn.to/4x45nla Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ EXPLORE OUR HOSTS' WORK & READING LISTS • Read Ksenija's Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications • Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ ️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS A brand new weekly literary podcast hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston. From opposite sides of the Atlantic, we bring you thoughtful, relaxed, and witty conversations about contemporary fiction, classic literature, award shortlists, and the human questions hiding inside the books we read. New episodes are released every week. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 00:57 The Mindset of Elite Athletes 12:13 Debunking the Toughness Myth 16:11 Can the Mindset of Elite Athletes Be Taught? 19:45 Association and Dissociation 26:57 Pattern Interrupt 32:43 Achieving Flow 39:59 The Advantage of Personalized Approach 45:51 The Astonishing Power of the Mind 51:21 The Psychology of Basic Human Needs 01:02:49 When The Mindset Isn't There 01:08:16 The Dedication Conundrum 01:09:31 Recommendations

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  Episode #12

  A Beast With Great Skin

  Aug 8, 20261h 10m

  Hybristophilia is the clinical term for falling for dangerous men, and it's why serial killers on death row get marriage proposals by the hundreds. Romance publishing figured out how to sell that same instinct as fiction nearly a century ago. Ksenija and Sue (and a new guest co-host) trace the "dark romance" trope from Wuthering Heights through Twilight to BookTok, testing the three big arguments in defense of the genre, the double-edged misogyny debate, and why the fantasy of the man who's dangerous to everyone but you keeps resurfacing every generation, dressed as something new. Books Mentioned Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë Twilight by Stephenie Meyer The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Beauty and the Beast (traditional fairy tale) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ Read Ksenija's Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines. New episodes every Saturday. CHAPTERS 00:00 Hybristophilia and the Dark Romance Controversy 01:06 A Surprise Co-Host and the Mailman Conundrum 06:47 From Wuthering Heights to Twilight: A Dark Romance History 12:35 Three Arguments in Defense of Dark Romance 23:04 Fiction as Coping: Does the Genre Actually Harm Readers? 29:13 The Misogyny Argument, Cutting Both Ways 38:58 Tropes Hollywood and Publishing Can't Quit 41:58 Why Women Are Drawn to Dangerous Men 49:07 Masculine and Feminine Energy, Tony Robbins and Polarity 1:04:27 What We're Reading: Book Recommendations

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  Episode #11

  Saints Were the Original Influencers

  Aug 1, 20261h 12m

  A viral tradwife thriller sends its heroine back to the actual 1850s life she was selling online. A 13th-century Belgian saint's miracles go "viral" long before the internet exists. Ksenija and Sue put the two side by side to ask why we build women up in public just to watch them fall, and whether the church controlling a saint's story is really so different from an algorithm controlling a creator's reach. Books Mentioned Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards Canon by Paige Lewis Whistler by Ann Patchett Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ Read Ksenija's Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines. New episodes every Saturday. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 01:14 The Trad Wife Fantasy 09:41 Where Yesteryear Goes Wrong 13:46 Dumping Non-Fiction and Reading Bad Books 19:04 Ksenija's Positive Social Media Experience 24:14 Losing Authenticity Online 30:05 Canticle: Miracles, Relics, and the Business of Sainthood 48:55 Freedom, Aging, and Who Gets to Be Free in Public 01:02:44 Our Podcasting Adventure 01:09:12 Reading Recommendations

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  Episode #10

  Nobody Complained About Diane Kruger

  Jul 25, 20261 hour

  Christopher Nolan's Odyssey cast Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, and the internet exploded over "historical accuracy." Nobody said a word when Diane Kruger played the same role in 2004. Sue and Ksenija dig into the double standard, and into what cultural appropriation actually means, using the Nyong'o/Kruger casting controversy and Montenegro's own non-racial experience of cultural erasure to ask what's really being protected when people invoke the term. Is this about race, about power and ownership, or is "appropriation" just doing too much work as a single word for very different problems? Also discussed: the Snow White backlash, Hamilton's colorblind casting, and why our idea of "universal beauty" so often defaults to whiteness. Books Mentioned • Circe by Madeline Miller • Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller • The Color of Everything by Cory Richards • D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/ Read Ksenija’s Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_ ️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines. New episodes every Saturday. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:34 Casting Controversy: Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy 07:28 The casting of Nolan's Odyssey 17:40 The Inaccuracy of Beauty Standards 26:11 Reimagining Historical Figures: Hamilton 30:56 The Snow White Controversy 33:49 Inclusivity in Beauty Standards 40:38 Cultural Appropriation: Definitions and Perspectives 55:23 Book Recommendations and Personal Growth

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  Episode #9

  What Happens When Women Stop Caring

  Jul 18, 20261h 9m

  It starts with a novel about a woman who steals from her employer, marries into money, and eventually disappears on her own kids. It ends with a hard, unresolved argument about loyalty, guilt, and who actually holds women to impossible standards. Are women each other's worst enemy? Not men, not the patriarchy in the abstract, but women, tearing down other women who speak up, judging mothers who walk away, staying silent when it would cost them something to defend each other. Also: book recs, the "human doing" trap, a Paraguayan Senator's lame excuse for attacking the great Kylian Mbappe, and why nobody should be tipping 20% in Montenegro. 💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substa ... 📚 Read Ksenija’s Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substa ... 📚 Ksenija on Goodreads: / 6449766.ksenija_popovi_ 🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines. New episodes every Saturday. 👉🏻 CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 03:30 Tipping Culture 10:23 Expectations of Loyalty and Compliance 15:02 The Impact of Aging on Women 21:57 Compliance vs. Performance and the Human Doing 29:07 Mothers Abandoning Children 43:20 Class Distinctions, Politics, and Morality 50:03 Living Up to the Public Image on Social Media 53:37 Coopting Feminism to Justify Abhorrent Behavior: the Case of the Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla 59:35 Trump's Intervention in the World Cup 01:03:22 Book Recommendations

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