Laura Miller
Year of Great Books
About The Brothers KaramazovJohn Dickerson joins Slate’s Year of Great Books to discuss what Dostoevsky’s novel teaches us about the limits of reason in a changing world.
Year of Great Books
Introducing The Brothers KaramazovOur final Year of Great Books selection is a philosophical novel, a family drama, a murder mystery, and a love story. It’s also an immortal masterpiece.
Culture Gabfest
The Culture Gabfest Reacts to Brangelina’s BreakupHear their unedited reaction from the moment the story broke.
Year of Great Books
About Barchester TowersEverything Slate’s Year of Great Books learned from Anthony Trollope’s workplace comedy.
Year of Great Books
What’s It Like to Be an Audiobook Narrator?Simon Vance talks to Year of Great Books about narrating female characters, why he uses accents, and the many voices of Barchester Towers.
Year of Great Books
Growing Up My ÁntoniaThe writer and radio host Kurt Andersen talks about reading Willa Cather under the epic prairie skies of his native Nebraska.
Year of Great Books
Introducing My ÁntoniaOur next selection for a Year of Great Books is an aching portrait of unrequited longing and the untamed West.
Culture Gabfest
Who Are the Hamilton Haters?The Culture Gabfest discusses the cultural significance of the musical’s backlash.
Year of Great Books
Between Upstairs and DownstairsTo understand Jane Eyre, you have to understand the precarious status of the Victorian governess.
Year of Great Books
Understanding Tristram ShandyLaurence Sterne’s novel mocks “expert authorities.” Here’s what two of them had to say to our book club.
Year of Great Books
Introducing Jane EyreOur next selection for A Year of Great Books is a novel of identity in the guise of a love story.
Year of Great Books
Tristram Shandy Was a Runaway Best-Seller. What Did That Mean in 1760?For one thing authors still had to suck up to famous actors.
Year of Great Books
The Long-Standing (and Kind of Trolly) Divide Between Dostoevsky People and Tolstoy PeopleElif Batuman joins Slate’s Year of Great Books to discuss what makes Russian literature so distinctive.
Culture Gabfest
Donald Trump Shouldn’t Have Been on The Tonight ShowPoliticians are on late-night TV all the time, but Trump should have been the exception.
Year of Great Books
Introducing Borges’ FiccionesOur next selection for A Year of Great Books is both metaphysical and pulpy.
Year of Great Books
Trollope’s Worthless Young MenThe Victorian novelist brilliantly captured the dithering of twentysomethings in love.
Year of Great Books
Introducing Barchester TowersOur next selection for A Year of Great Books is an intensely enjoyable workplace comedy from 19th-century England.
Year of Great Books
The Virgil of NebraskaWhat Willa Cather’s style shows us about memory, and how we should think about her lesbianism.
Culture Gabfest
Technology Ate My Humanities HomeworkThe Culture Gabfest discusses pros and cons of the digital humanities.
Year of Great Books
Growing Up BrontëThe productive, creative childhood of the Brontë sisters and how it influenced Jane Eyre.
Year of Great Books
About Jane EyreEverything Slate’s Year of Great Books learned about love, identity, and feminism from Charlotte Brontë’s realist masterwork.
Culture Gabfest
How Would We Reinvent Mount Rushmore?The Culture Gabfest replaces presidents with artists in this Slate Plus bonus segment.
Year of Great Books
Year of Great Books: About Tristram Shandy Read what Will and Laura learned from reading Laurence Sterne’s digressive masterpiece.
Year of Great Books
About Tristram ShandyEverything we learned about humor, satire, and leading a good life from Laurence Sterne’s digressive masterpiece.
Year of Great Books
Literature’s Greatest MansplainerThe women in Tristram Shandy barely get a word in edgewise. It’s still a great feminist novel.