Best Man Booker Prize Podcasts (2024)

1
Jessi Jezewska Stevens on Geneva, Gettysburg, Krakow, Tuscany, Siberia, Indiana; on writing for two days and editing for a year; on honeymoons; on precise descriptions and hope; on landing in JFK; and ... 43:47

16d ago43:47

43:47

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Jessi Jezewska Stev…

1
Hilary Bradt on getting lost; on the Galapagos and Inca Trail in the 1970s; on aerograms v social media; on hitch-hiking at 82; on her guidebooks to Burma, Iraq, Iran and N Korea; on public footpaths and ... 35:50

3M ago35:50

35:50

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Hilary Bradt to dis…

1
Ginanne Brownell on hearing clarinets and trombones by a Nairobi city dump; on a fairytale morphing; on big skies; on searching for a cemetery by Lake Michigan; on her next book: a global surrogacy journey ... 28:59

4M ago28:59

28:59

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Ginanne Brownell, t…

1
Nastassja Martin on her near-death encounter with a Kamchatka bear; on the boundaries between humankind and nature; on linear v spiral storytelling; on being in between worlds; on dreams, and on waking ... 49:44

6M ago49:44

49:44

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Nastassja Martin to…

1
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ on life in Lagos and Norwich; on how family pressure shapes you; on hope as something active; on walking to get out of one’s head; on random news items; and on writing a story, leaving ... 42:51

8M ago42:51

42:51

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ t…

1
Daljit Nagra on his sense of mischief; on abandoning 30 line poems; on his first language Punjabi; on listening to Miles Davis; on fully expecting to fail; on the nine-metre man and snake gods; and on ... 36:35

11M ago36:35

36:35

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Daljit Nagra to disc…

1
Khashayar J Khabushani on hyphenated identity; on Dodgers jerseys and drinking beer; on memoir v fiction; on belonging where we are born; on hopefulness and youthfulness; on the myth of LA; and on missing ... 45:01

12M ago45:01

45:01

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Khashayar J Khabush…

1
Hanne Ørstavik on love, love and more love; on travelling with her books; on openness and vulnerability as two sides of the same thing; on 16 books written as one big novel; on the power of silence in ... 47:21

12M ago47:21

47:21

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Hanne Ørstavik to d…

1
Damian Le Bas on rambunctious families; on van life; on slag heaps and rubbish tips; on lecturing kids; on the only seasons of summer and winter; on the question “where are you from?”; and on looking like ... 47:07

1y ago47:07

47:07

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Damian Le Bas to dis…

1
Sophie Ward on experimental education; on flaws and frailties and guilt; on saying “my wife”; on child acting; on the US-Vietnam War; on her superpower; on writing more about Detective Sergeant Carter; ... 39:04

1y ago39:04

39:04

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Sophie Ward to discu…

1
The Beach Read 40:27

1y ago40:27

40:27

In the final episode of the season, Marlon and Jake weigh in on their favorite vacation reads, including the ones they started but never finished. Tune in to find out which classic novels Jake took to the beach and which ones Marlon says should have been thrown in the ocean. Subscribe to our River-herd newsletter for sneak peeks of our upcoming boo…

1
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o on riding matatus in Kenya; on the community he misses most; on torture and imagination; on the fun of writing a book on toilet paper; on birds, bees and butterflies; on which book is ... 52:02

1y ago52:02

52:02

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.In this edition, I’m joined by the writer and scholar Ngũgĩ wa…

1
The Campus Novel 38:14

1y ago38:14

38:14

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times—it was school. In this episode, Marlon and Jake discuss books where school is the setting or going to school is central to the plot. They debate which authors got school right and which got school wrong, what makes an inspiring teacher, and what the closed universe of a schoolyard or college campu…

1
City Settings 45:41

1y ago45:41

45:41

In this episode, Marlon and Jake talk about cities in books. Books set in memorable cities, books set in cities you're glad you've never been to and books where the city itself is nearly a character. They talk about the specificity of London of the 19th century British novel, the New York novel, entirely fictional cities in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and …

1
Characters Behaving Badly 54:35

1+ y ago54:35

54:35

In this episode, Marlon and Jake talk about the bad characters we’re not meant to like but do and the good characters we’re meant to like but annoy us. From Dracula to Daisy Buchanan to Oliver Twist and Bambi, the good-to-evil spectrum is vast and no character is safe from commentary. Tune in to find out which classic villain the duo unanimously ha…

1
Poetry FOMO 40:34

1+ y ago40:34

40:34

This episode, Marlon and Jake discuss a new subject for the podcast: poetry! From epic poems to sonnets to the Romantics poets to contemporary (dead) poets. They ponder over why people don’t read poetry as much as prose and recite, on the spot, lines of poetry that are forever engrained in their memories. Subscribe to our River-herd newsletter for …

1
Doreen Cunningham on Arctic ice; on bullying; on community as hope; on the fact there are whales singing in the sea still, in spite of it all; on Amtrak trains; on bank loans and luck; on mothering; on ... 47:04

1+ y ago47:04

47:04

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer Doreen Cunningham t…

1
Books Assigned in School 43:34

1+ y ago43:34

43:34

Books assigned in school evoke strong feelings. You either love em’ or you hate em.’ In this episode, Marlon and Jake discuss the books they wished they were assigned in school and the ones they suffered through. Accompanying the books taught in school, there are, of course, the teachers who taught them. A teacher can make or break a book read in s…

1
Judging a Book 44:52

1+ y ago44:52

44:52

In this episode, Marlon and Jake weigh in on a question as old as books themselves—can you judge a book by its cover? Spoiler alert: the answer is yes! They discuss good books with bad covers and bad books with good covers, cover art trends (*cough* the woman facing away), books that were recommended to them, and books they read because of peer pre…

1
From TBR to Recently Read 43:55

1+ y ago43:55

43:55

Marlon and Jake are back! And they’re catching up on the dead authors they’ve read since they last spoke—some of which they praise, others they don’t. From comparing Nella Larson’s Passing to the Netflix film, to discussing unsettling stories that linger with you, they cover a lot of literary ground. They also weigh in on longstanding debates like …

1
Season Three Announcement 0:42

1+ y ago0:42

0:42

In just one week, Marlon and Jake return with an epic new season discussing the non-living luminaries they love, hate, and will never agree on. Get ready for even more hot takes, hilarious debates, and incisive commentary on dead poets, judging books by their covers, exactly what kind of student Marlon was in college, and which classic novel Jake s…

1
Kylie Moore-Gilbert on her most treasured possession in prison; on training herself to memorise everything in a room, and on recall; on solitary confinement, hope and freedom; on how it feels to be in ... 34:20

1+ y ago34:20

34:20

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I’m joined by the writer and scholar Kylie M…

1
Osman Yousefzada on writing about a community that didn’t want to be documented; on illiteracy; on being polite; on his photographic memory and eye for detail; on being on an eternal road; on the right ... 37:50

1+ y ago37:50

37:50

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Osman Yousefzada to …

1
Frances Stonor Saunders on stamp-collecting; on Alzheimer’s and collective amnesia; on folding maps the wrong way; on what you would take if you were fleeing; on subversive humour; on inanimate objects; ... 45:08

1+ y ago45:08

45:08

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Frances Stonor Saund…

1
Justin Marozzi on what makes a city great; on wanting to live in Istanbul, but not Jerusalem; on finding your bearings in time and space; on pilgrimages; on feeling like an outsider more than ever; on ... 42:17

1+ y ago42:17

42:17

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Justin Marozzi to di…

1
Roger Robinson on roadtripping around Britain's coastline; on the white light of Trinidad; on Black Joy; on what he sees looking at the sea; on moving to Marseille, or anywhere; on police knees on throats; ... 44:09

1+ y ago44:09

44:09

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Roger Robinson to di…

1
Anthony Sattin on nomadic thinking; on whether one plus one really does equal two; on the survival of the hunter-gatherer; on assabiyah; on digital nomads; on Bruce Chatwin’s unpublished writing; on telling ... 40:04

1+ y ago40:04

40:04

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Anthony Sattin to di…

1
Ariana Neumann on inherited memory; on getting angry in Spanish; on wanting to speak Czech and have a little house on the Vltava; on the migrant crisis in Venezuela; on betrayal and hope; on travelling ... 46:36

1+ y ago46:36

46:36

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Ariana Neumann to di…

1
Mother & daughter Karen Joy Fowler and Shannon Leone Fowler on historical fact, the imagination and the revision of memory; on childhood freedoms and unstructured time; on keeping a journal; on the heroics ... 49:37

2y ago49:37

49:37

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I talk to the mother and daughter pairing Ka…

1
Tim Mackintosh-Smith on the settled v the wanderer; on capital letters and capital cities; on his hometown San’a; on mesmerising language, the heft of translation and sonorous tripe; on libraries, scud ... 46:11

2y ago46:11

46:11

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Tim Mackintosh-Smith…

1
Mona Arshi on transitioning from lawyer to poet to novelist; on silence; on the energy of adolescence; on not wanting to be persuasive; on listening to birdsong and hearing Punjabi; on writing on trains; ... 37:04

2y ago37:04

37:04

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Mona Arshi to discus…

1
Winnie M Li on the author as activist; on sexual assault and consent and #metoo; on writing both perspectives — of perpetrator and victim; on the memories we can choose, and those foisted upon us; and ... 36:05

2y ago36:05

36:05

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Winnie M Li to discu…

1
Jennifer Steil on unexpected connections between places; on "in between-ness"; on friendship in Yemen; on the Jewish diaspora in Bolivia; on the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan; on living in a permanent state of ... 36:53

2y ago36:53

36:53

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Jennifer Steil to di…

1
"War Child" Emmanuel Jal on a special edition of The Wandering Book Collector, including the title track of his new album Shangah 31:07

2y ago31:07

31:07

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this special edition, I speak with Emmanuel Jal to discuss…

1
Kathryn D. Sullivan on our oceans; on an adventurous childhood; on maps and plotting journeys; on moving in microgravity; on time travel; on a ticket to Mars; on Moscow during the Cold War; and on losing ... 33:53

2y ago33:53

33:53

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Kathryn D. Sullivan …

1
Preti Taneja on finding the words; on collective grief; on Partition; on the question of home and how prison is never home; on the inevitability of political writing; on anguish; on the necessary fiction ... 30:23

2y ago30:23

30:23

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the writer Preti Taneja to disc…

1
Rebecca Mead on the to-ing and fro-ing between New York and London; on being mis/understood; on migration in your 20s v your 50s; on Trieste; on eavesdropping on buses — with TWBC 37:57

2y ago37:57

37:57

Welcome to The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the journalist and writer Rebecca Mead to discuss her lates…

1
Horatio Clare on madness, mania and healing; on migrating swallows; on keeping a diary; on being the other in othering; on "the love of many things" and Van Gogh — with TWBC 37:13

2y ago37:13

37:13

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the inimitable travel writer Ho…

1
Brigid Delaney on restlessness, on the mania around wellness, on Seneca and stoicism, on Australia's tough lockdown and where she is choosing to go first (Bali), not forgetting cockatoos — with TWBC 33:21

2+ y ago33:21

33:21

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the travel writer and columnist…

1
Geoffrey Kent on a special SAFARI edition of The Wandering Book Collector 17:25

2+ y ago17:25

17:25

Welcome to this special SAFARI edition of The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This podcast is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with Geoffrey Kent to dis…

1
Sara Wheeler on Russia and its writers of the Golden Age: Pushkin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and on language, translation, etymology and bathmats across nine time zones -- with TWBC 46:13

2+ y ago46:13

46:13

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the travel writer and biographe…

1
Kapka Kassabova on the Balkans, on growing up behind the Iron Curtain, on the inheritance of pain, on writing by water, on alchemistry, on healing -- with TWBC 36:35

2+ y ago36:35

36:35

Half-way into the first season, welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with…

1
Appetizer 2: Powerful Female Characters 41:02

2+ y ago41:02

41:02

Marlon & Jake are back to discuss the most indelible and powerful female characters—those written by dead female authors and those written by dead male authors. From Sula Peace to the Wife of Bath, Scout Finch to Janie Crawford—these two gentleman celebrate some of literature’s most ferocious, complicated, guileless, unrepentant and commanding wome…

1
Appetizer 1: Unreliable Narrators 45:25

2+ y ago45:25

45:25

Marlon & Jake are back to discuss the narrators they love but can't trust. From the delusional to the uninformed, the sociopathic to the sympathetic, they explore the characters that charm as much as they trick, begging the question: is there such a thing as a reliable narrator? So tune in to hear if Jake has warmed to Great Expectations (spoiler a…

1
Appetizers for everyone! 3:38

2+ y ago3:38

3:38

We didn't ghost you, dear listeners. Marlon had a novel to finish, which Jake had to edit. But the good news is it's officially out in the world, and so before Marlon—the very living author—takes off on his whirlwind book tour, he and Jake are back together for a brief (but delicious) reunion of discussing what they love most: DEAD AUTHORS. We'll b…

1
Maaza Mengiste on Ethiopia, on women in war, on pulling the trigger, on photography, on writing in Rome, on standing before monuments to fascism, on Project 3541 -- with TWBC 36:56

2+ y ago36:56

36:56

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the most lyrical of writers Maa…

1
Carla Power on how to deradicalise your town, on the journey back from extremism, on a childhood across Afghanistan, India, Iran and Egypt, as well as St Louis, Missouri, and on the Islamic feminist theologian ... 32:29

2+ y ago32:29

32:29

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home. In this edition, I speak with the dauntless journalist and wr…

1
Afua Hirsch on London, Senegal, Ghana, on imperial nostalgia, on the African diaspora, on plane journeys, and on choosing a name for her daughter -- with TWBC 28:06

2+ y ago28:06

28:06

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, longing and belonging, and home. In this edition, I speak with the media multi-hy…

1
Bernardine Evaristo on London, Nigeria, Brazil, the Royal Society of Literature, on travelling as a Black woman in Estonia, on the Booker, on marble bathrooms, and on Never Giving Up -- with TWBC 25:39

2+ y ago25:39

25:39

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, longing and belonging, and home. In this second edition, I speak with writer and journalist Berna…

1
Janine di Giovanni on covering conflicts in Syria, Gaza and Bosnia, on vanishing Christian communities in the Middle East, and on nesting, on loneliness, on risk, and on not going home -- with TWBC 31:00

2+ y ago31:00

31:00

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, longing and belonging, and home. In this first edition, I speak with writer and journalist Janine…

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Man Booker Prize Podcasts

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