Best Marcel Proust Podcasts (2024)

We haven't got our actual podcast recorded yet but here's a taste of why you should read along. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Church of the King

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The 39 Steps 1:22:29

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7M ago1:22:29

1:22:29

An ordinary (kind of) man caught in extraordinary circumstances! A race against time to expose a dangerous spy ring! Long walks through Scotland! It's John Buchan's immortal (?), classic (?): The 39 Steps. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Church of the King

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Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH 1:39:37

8M ago1:39:37

1:39:37

Mysterious intelligent rats??? Please don't refer to our podcasters like that! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Church of the King

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The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy 1:18:34

9M ago1:18:34

1:18:34

Tolstoy is a great writer. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a novella about a middle-aged man named Ivan Ilyich. Yep, he dies. It's sad, moving, thoughtful, ironic, true to life, etc. And unlike some other Tolstoy books we could name, it's short. Worth your time. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Church of the King

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Dominic by William Steig 1:42:55

10M ago1:42:55

1:42:55

Check out the Kickstarter for our friend's non-woke children's book, The Rainbow Knight. The Bookening talks about a charming kid's book by the quirky children's author (and longtime New Yorker illustrator) William Steig. We talk about some of his early books of "symbolic pictures" too—too dark to be kid's stuff. You have been forewarned! You can c…

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Jane Austen's Emma (Redux) 2:36:54

1+ y ago2:36:54

2:36:54

"Emma" by Jane Austen is considered a great novel due to its sharp wit, complex characters, and insightful commentary on societal norms and human nature. Austen's writing is known for its irony, subtle humor, and ability to draw readers into the world of her characters. The novel also explores themes of class, romance, self-delusion, and the danger…

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Jesus' Son 1:42:54

1+ y ago1:42:54

1:42:54

A salesman who shared his liquor and steered while sleeping... A Cherokee filled with bourbon. A VW no more than a bubble of hashish fumes, captained by a college student. And a family from Marshalltown who head-onned and killed forever a man driving west out of Bethany, Missouri.. ..I rose up sopping wet from sleeping under the pouring rain, and s…

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On Martin Heidegger's "Being and Time" 52:37

1+ y ago52:37

52:37

Martin Heidegger did not like small thoughts. He was fascinated by the most expansive questions humans can ask themselves. Questions like: Why are we here at all? Why do things exist as they do? What does it mean to be in the world? Heidegger came to believe that many of the modern answers to these questions were based on old, unexamined assumption…

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On Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot 33:44

1+ y ago33:44

33:44

In Paris in 1953, one of the strangest and most popular plays of the 20th century premiered, Waiting for Godot, written by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. Since the premier, people have been trying to figure out what this play means. It’s been interpreted in countless ways, with no definitive confirmation from Beckett one way or another. Waiting f…

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On William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" 29:05

1+ y ago29:05

29:05

William Shakespeare is the greatest writer in history, and Hamlet is his greatest work. In Hamlet, Shakespeare gave us one of the first modern characters in literature. We are invited into the mind of Hamlet, to see how he thinks and acts in the face of love, grief, and revenge. It is a work of deep psychological complexity, and has inspired many w…

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Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger 1:12:30

1+ y ago1:12:30

1:12:30

Ho ho ho! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Church of the King

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On Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote" 32:21

1+ y ago32:21

32:21

Don Quixote was written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. He wrote it in two parts. Part one was published in 1605, and part two ten years later, in 1615. The story is centered around a middle aged guy named Alonso Quijano who is obsessed with stories of brave medieval knights—so obsessed that he decides to create a new persona for himself and…

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On Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" 36:05

1+ y ago36:05

36:05

The French writer Marcel Proust was fascinated by life. But he was even more interested in how we perceive life. In 1908, when he was in his late 30s, he began to write a novel that explored themes of memory, identity, and the passage of time. This project consumed him until he died in 1922. By the end, his novel came out at more than 1.2 million w…

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On Voltaire's "Candide" 27:56

1+ y ago27:56

27:56

Many people made the European Enlightenment, but probably nobody better represents the movement’s spirit than the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. He was a man of letters and strong critic of the Catholic Church. In 1759 Voltaire published one of his best known works, Candide. In this satirical fable, Voltaire used current events of the day—…

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On Gabriel García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" 31:52

2y ago31:52

31:52

In 1967, Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez published his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Because of that book, he won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1982. One Hundred Years of Solitude is a story about life, death, endings, and beginnings. It is a novel that invites its readers to think about their own past, and accept the compl…

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On James Joyce's "Ulysses" 33:42

2y ago33:42

33:42

Perhaps more than any other book, Ulysses has the reputation of being difficult—it is dense, allusive, and often hard to follow. But Joyce wasn’t trying to be challenging for its own sake, or because he sadistically wanted to punish future students assigned his book. Quite the contrary. With Ulysses, Joyce wanted to explore and convey what it is to…

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On Hans Blumenberg's "The Legitimacy of the Modern Age" 32:23

2y ago32:23

32:23

Those of us living today generally think of ourselves as modern, that we live in modern times, and that we are very different from the people of the past. But there is an important thing that we share with all humans who have come before—we ask ourselves big, hard questions about life, questions like how we should live and why the world is so full …

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On Virginia Woolf’s "Mrs Dalloway" 35:54

2y ago35:54

35:54

In the early 20th century, Europe and North America were undergoing a radical transformation. Scientific, technological, and political changes disrupted many traditional forms of life. The growth of cities opened up new freedoms and opportunities and scientists like Sigmund Freud and Ernst Mach were developing new theories about how we perceive the…

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On "Genesis" 37:51

2y ago37:51

37:51

In a podcast about books that have changed the world, I bring you the book that I think changed the world the most: The Hebrew Bible. Specifically, the first book of the Hebrew Bible: Genesis. The Book of Genesis is an account of the origins of the world, human beings, and the Jewish people. It is a foundational text for three world religions: Juda…

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On "1001 Nights" 31:12

2y ago31:12

31:12

Humans love stories. And no collection of stories is more beloved worldwide than the Middle Eastern folk tales known as One Thousand and One Nights. The original collection only contained about 40 stories. It was compiled into a manuscript sometime between the 8th century and the 14th century during the Islamic Golden Age. The stories were made pop…

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On James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time" 41:51

2y ago41:51

41:51

The writer and activist James Baldwin grew up in a majority white America that saw white American lives as standard and universal, and Black American lives as different and particular. But in his 1963 book The Fire Next Time, Baldwin showed that his life as a Black man in America was universally human. Josef Sorett is the Professor of Religion and …

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On Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" 35:59

2y ago35:59

35:59

The Victorian era is known for its class rigidity and moral strictness. In her 1847 novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë gave us a robust, layered character who pushes against cultural norms and fully embraces her complexity. She’s crabby, difficult, and gets depressed. But she’s also smart and passionate. And she claims the right to love and be loved…

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On John Rawl's "A Theory of Justice" 38:17

2y ago38:17

38:17

How do you create a fair society? Who deserves to rule? What rights do citizens have? How are those rights protected? What does it mean to act morally within society? These are the kinds of questions political philosophers furrow their brows and scratch their chins trying to answer. In 1971, an American philosopher named John Rawls introduced a new…

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On Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" 42:14

2y ago42:14

42:14

When he was in his late 30s, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri got himself into some serious political trouble and was exiled from his beloved Florence. While in exile, he wrote one of the world’s greatest literary works, the Divine Comedy. In the story, Dante, the main character, must pass through the nine circles of Hell, climb Mount Purgatory, an…

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On Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth" 34:41

2y ago34:41

34:41

In 1925, on the French occupied island of Martinique, one of the most prominent voices in post colonial theory was born, Frantz Fanon. He was born to parents of both African and French descent, and was brought up in the ways of French culture. For most of Fanon’s life, he identified with French nationality. He even fought for France in WWII. But de…

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On George Orwell's "1984" 41:13

2y ago41:13

41:13

In 1948, English author George Orwell wrote what would become one of the defining novels of the 20th century, 1984. He was writing in the years following WWII and the beginning of The Cold War. It was a tense time, full of uncertainty and the spectre of Soviet communism loomed. In 1984, Orwell introduced all kinds of terms to describe the dystopian…

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On George Eliot's "Middlemarch" 38:01

2y ago38:01

38:01

By the time we reach middle age, our lives have taken certain paths. Sometimes these paths are close to what we imagined in our youth. But more often, they’re dramatically different. We come to realize that there are larger, invisible forces that tend to have just as much a say, or more, in how our lives go as we do. In her 1871 novel Middlemarch, …

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On "The Mahābhārata" 42:35

2y ago42:35

42:35

When it comes to epic poetry, there’s a strong case to be made that the Ancient Indian story the Mahābhārata is the most epic. Clocking in at around 100,000 verses, the Mahābhārata is roughly seven times The Iliad and The Odyssey combined. This foundational Hindu text tells the story of a war between two sets of cousins who are fighting over who ge…

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On Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" 39:08

2y ago39:08

39:08

We moderns often tell ourselves a story that goes something like this: The past was barbaric, especially when it came to punishing criminals or persecuting minorities. Legal punishment used to include hanging, chopping off a head, burning at the stake, quartering, stoning, drowning, and crushing. Eventually, we tell ourselves, we learned to be more…

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On Matteo Maria Boiardo's "Orlando Innamorato" 27:52

2y ago27:52

27:52

The Italian Renaissance was an era of rebirth in the arts, sciences, engineering, anatomy, and architecture. But also for literature. One of the most influential works from this period was Matteo Maria Boiardo’s epic poem Orlando innamorato. While read by the literate upper classes, Boiardo’s incredible story of knights-errant, adventure, justice, …

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On Sigmund Freud's "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" 32:36

2y ago32:36

32:36

Sigmund Freud is probably best known as the founder of psychoanalysis. In his clinical practice, he established theories on how the human psyche develops and behaves, and his 1905 text Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is an analysis of humans’ relationship to sex. At the time, doctors and researchers were curious how “non-normative” sexualit…

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On Victor and Edith Turner's "The Forest of Symbols" 38:13

2y ago38:13

38:13

In the mid-20th century, British anthropologists Victor and Edith Turner studied the Ndembu people of present-day Zambia. They wrote about their findings in their 1967 book The Forest of Symbols. The Turners were interested in rituals and focused their studies on Ndembu rites of passage because they wanted to understand the role of symbols in socie…

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On Boethius' "The Consolation of Philosophy" 25:41

2y ago25:41

25:41

For much of his life, the Roman philosopher Boethius was exceptionally fortunate. But towards the end of his life, his luck ran out. He was accused of treason, thrown in jail, and sentenced to death. While he was awaiting execution, he began to reflect on his life and how luck had played such an important part. He wrote his thoughts in what would l…

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On H. G. Well's "The Time Machine" 37:18

2y ago37:18

37:18

When H.G. Wells was growing up in England in the 1860s, science wasn’t part of education or everyday life the way it is now. Even though the 19th century was an era of dramatic technological invention, the professionalization of science was still developing. Wells viewed science as an incredibly powerful force. He knew it could either help or hurt …

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On Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism" 45:23

2y ago45:23

45:23

Aimé Césaire was born in 1913 on the island of Martinique, which was colonized by the French in the 1600s. He received a scholarship to complete his education in Paris, and by 1935, he’d fallen in with a crowd of brilliant scholars, intellectuals, and activists through his studies. In 1944, Césaire gave a series of lectures in Haiti, inspiring his …

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On Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's "Elements of the Philosophy of Right" 38:20

2y ago38:20

38:20

The notion of freedom and how to ensure it for all has occupied the minds of many modern thinkers. In his text Elements of the Philosophy of Right, German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel explored the nature of individual freedom and how society and the government can guarantee it for all citizens. Hegel argued that protecting basic rights…

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On Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" 30:03

2y ago30:03

30:03

Sometime around 450 BC in ancient Greece, a young Thucydides went with his father to hear the historian Herodotus speak. After the lecture, Thucydides announced that writing history was his life’s calling. He later wrote History of the Peloponnesian War, a chronicle of the 27-year civil war between the Athenians and the Spartans. Thucydides believe…

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On Toni Morrison's "Beloved" 26:51

2y ago26:51

26:51

In 1987, Toni Morrison published her fourth novel, Beloved, based on the story of Margaret Garner, a woman who escaped slavery with her child. Garner and her daughter were discovered by slave catchers. Rather than have her return to slavery, Garner killed her child. In Beloved, Morrison’s character Sethe has a similar story, but years later she mee…

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On Edward Said's "Orientalism" 34:24

2y ago34:24

34:24

Beginning in the 17th century, European countries began colonizing countries east of Europe. They imposed their own ideas over local cultures and extracted free labor and resources. One way that European colonizers justified this exploitation was through an academic discipline called Orientalism. In 1978, Edward Said, a professor of literature at C…

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On "The U.S. Constitution" 43:25

2y ago43:25

43:25

The story of the Constitution of the United States began long before the American Revolutionary War. This document was influenced by centuries old English law, and the final product was the result of months of debate, arguing, and compromises from representatives of 12 states, including its essential recognition of slavery, leading to further debat…

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On John Milton's "Paradise Lost" 31:33

2y ago31:33

31:33

As a young student at Christ’s College Cambridge, John Milton announced to the world that he was going to write the greatest poem that the world has ever seen. He didn’t want to sit among the epic geniuses Homer and Virgil, he wanted to surpass them. Decades later, Milton wrote Paradise Lost, reworking and embellishing the stories of Adam and Eve’s…

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On Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Social Contract" 36:37

2y ago36:37

36:37

The 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that humans are born good, but society corrupts them. He was unimpressed with the fixation on wealth that he saw in the French society. In fact, he felt it was evidence of a self-interested, degenerate society. He endeavored to write the formula for a more civically minded society, and in 17…

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On "Grimms' Fairytales" 34:37

2y ago34:37

34:37

You probably already know the story of Snow White—as well as Little Red Riding Hood, Briar Rose, The Frog Prince, and so many others. These tales have a rich history of oral storytelling. They’ve travelled through culture, adapted and readapted in each retelling and reaching as far as the popular Disney movies that our kids watch over and over. Jac…

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All the Pretty Horses 1:32:47

2y ago1:32:47

1:32:47

All the pretty horses ... where do they all come from? All the pretty horses? Where do they all belong? Did you know Cormac McCarthy was born in Rhode Island? He had to work to sort of figure out how to become a southern western gothic writer, or whatever he is. Anyway, The Bookening talks about All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. ★ Support t…

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On Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" 29:36

2y ago29:36

29:36

When Thomas Mann published The Magic Mountain in 1924, tuberculosis had a deadly hold on Europe and the United States, killing one in seven adults in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If that wasn’t enough, Mann’s writing was interrupted by the First World War, so it took him twelve years to finish the book. Mann was a modern, experimental wr…

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On Augustine's "Confessions" 34:17

2y ago34:17

34:17

What is freedom? If we are free, why do we feel anxiety? How do I relate to the world? Saint Augustine of Hippo asked himself these questions around 400 AD as he wrote Confessions—indeed, as he lived his life. At various points in his life, Augustine was a Manichaean, a Platonist, an academic, a father, and a thief. He was on a quest for truth, an …

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On Cicero's "On Friendship" 30:13

2y ago30:13

30:13

There’s nothing better or more important in life than a good friend. For Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero, the emphasis was on “good.” Cicero lived through the assassination of Caesar, one of the most famous examples of betrayal between friends in history. But according to Cicero’s treatise On Friendship, you must be virtuous to be a good fri…

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On Franz Kafka's "The Trial" 31:06

2y ago31:06

31:06

When reading a crime novel, we usually learn the crime within the first few page turns; the trick is discovering the perpetrator. Perhaps this is what makes Franz Kafka’s 1914 book The Trial so haunting—the crime itself is never revealed. Kafka was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1883 and died in 1924, never experiencing the Nazis or Hitler’…

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