Best Brent Pope Podcasts (2024)

1
Brentfast 098- Danice Cabanela - Bea Bea's 40:41

16h ago40:41

40:41

Brent sits down with actor Danice Cabanela, best known for Frasier, Call Me Kat, Adventure Beast, and Dear White People! They discuss: Being a strike captain during the SAG AFTRA actor's strike, working with other Filipino actors, shows that we identify with, acting on a famous re-boot of a show, and their Brentfast meal from Bea Bea's! Visit the B…

1
Political Poems: 'Strange Meeting' by Wilfred Owen 36:11

2h ago36:11

36:11

Wilfred Owen wrote ‘Strange Meeting’ in the early months of 1918, shortly after being treated for shell shock at Craiglockhart hospital in Edinburgh, where he had met the stridently anti-war Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon's poetry of caustic realism quickly found its way into Owen’s work, where it merged with the high romantic sublime of his other grea…

1
Among the Ancients II: Lucian 14:03

4d ago14:03

14:03

The broad theme of this series, truth and lies, was a favourite subject of Lucian of Samosata, the last of our Greek-language authors. A cosmopolitan and highly cultured Syrian subject of the Roman Empire in the second century CE, Lucian wrote in the classical Greek of fifth-century Athens. His razor-sharp satire was a model for Erasmus, Voltaire a…

1
Medieval LOLs: The Second Shepherds' Pageant 35:19

10d ago35:19

35:19

In their quest for the medieval sense of humour Mary and Irina come to The Second Shepherds’ Pageant, a 15th-century reimagining of the nativity as domestic comedy that’s less about the birth of Jesus and more about sheep rustling, taxes, the weather and the frustrations of daily life. The pageant was part of a mystery cycle, a collection of plays …

1
DESSERT with Steve Moulton from Episode 97 - Bruxie's & Republic of Pie Republic of Pue 5:19

16d ago5:19

5:19

This week, more with actor Steve Moulton! Brent and Steve talk all about Steve's appearance in the original Sharknado, including how Steve got the part, fun filming details, and how Sharknado came to be a huge success! Visit the Brentfast store: BrentfastStore.com For all the Brentfast episodes: Brentfast.com. Follow Steve Moulton on IG, @bigstevem…

1
Human Conditions: ‘The Intimate Enemy’ by Ashis Nandy 13:21

19d ago13:21

13:21

Ashis Nandy’s The Intimate Enemy is a study of the psychological toll of colonialism on both the coloniser and colonised, showing how Western conceptions of masculinity and adulthood served as tools of conquest. Using figures as disparate as Gandhi, Oscar Wilde and Aurobindo Ghosh, Nandy suggests ways in which alternative models of age and gender c…

1
On Satire: 'The Dunciad' by Alexander Pope 12:38

25d ago12:38

12:38

Nobody hated better than Alexander Pope. Despite his reputation as the quintessentially refined versifier of the early 18th century, he was also a class A, ultra-pure, surreal, visionary mega-hater, and The Dunciad is his monument to the hate he felt for almost all the other writers of his time. Written over fifteen years of burning fury, Pope’s mo…

1
Brentfast 097 - Steve Moulton- Bruxie's & Republic of Pie 40:47

26d ago40:47

40:47

Brent sits down with actor Steve Moulton, best known for I ThinkYou Should Leave, Young Rock, and Sharknado! They discuss: Being on the Turbo Team, I Think You Should Leave, filming in Australia, Young Rock, vanity plates, and their Brentfast crawl at both Bruxie's and Republic of Pie. Visit the Brentfast store: BrentfastStore.com For all the Brent…

1
Political Poems: 'The Masque of Anarchy' by Percy Bysshe Shelley 35:31

1M ago35:31

35:31

Shelley’s angry, violent poem was written in direct response to the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819, in which a demonstration in favour of parliamentary reform was attacked by local yeomanry, leaving 18 people dead and hundreds injured. The ‘masque’ it describes begins with a procession of abstract figures – Murder, Fraud, Hypocrisy – embod…

1
Among the Ancients II: Plato 11:31

1M ago11:31

11:31

Plato’s Symposium, his philosophical dialogue on love, or eros, was probably written around 380 BCE, but it’s set in 416, during the uneasy truce between Athens and Sparta in the middle of the Peloponnesian War. A symposium was a drinking party, though Socrates and his friends, having had a heavy evening the night before, decide to go easy on the w…

1
Medieval LOLs: Dame Syrith 34:50

1M ago34:50

34:50

As Mary and Irina discussed in the previous episode of Medieval LOLs, fabliaux had an enormous influence on Chaucer, but outside of his work, only one survives in Middle English. Dame Syrith, a story of lust, deception and a mustard-eating dog, is medieval humour at its silliest and most troubling. Mary and Irina explore the surprising representati…

1
Human Conditions: ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ by V.S. Naipaul 10:58

2M ago10:58

10:58

In A House for Mr Biswas, his 1961 comic masterpiece, V.S. Naipaul pays tribute to his father and the vanishing world of his Trinidadian youth. Pankaj Mishra joins Adam Shatz in their first of four episodes to discuss the novel, a pathbreaking work of postcolonial literature and a particularly powerful influence on Pankaj himself. They explore Naip…

1
On Satire: John Gay's 'The Beggar's Opera' 12:59

2M ago12:59

12:59

In The Beggar’s Opera we enter a society turned upside down, where private vices are seen as public virtues, and the best way to survive is to assume the worst of everyone. The only force that can subvert this state of affairs is romantic love – an affection, we discover, that satire finds hard to cope with. John Gay’s 1727 smash hit ‘opera’, which…

1
Political Poems: 'The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 36:15

2M ago36:15

36:15

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s deeply disturbing 1847 poem about a woman escaping slavery and killing her child was written to shock its intended white female readership to the abolitionist cause. Browning was the direct descendant of slave owners in Jamaica and a fervent anti-slavery campaigner, and her dramatic monologue presents a searing attack o…

1
Among the Ancients II: Pindar and Bacchylides 11:19

2M ago11:19

11:19

In the fifth episode of Among the Ancients II we turn to Greek lyric, focusing on Pindar’s victory odes, considered a benchmark for the sublime since antiquity, and the vivid, narrative-driven dithyrambs of Bacchylides. Through close reading, Emily and Tom tease out allusions, lexical flourishes and formal experimentation, and explain the highly co…

1
Brentfast 096 - Vincent Rodriguez III - Farm Table 50:31

2M ago50:31

50:31

Brent sits down with multi-hyphenate Vincent Rodriguez III, best known for his starring roles on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and With Love. They discuss: playing Filipino father and son on With Love, the legacy of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Gloria Calderon Kellett, playing Raiden on Mortal Kombat 1, being a dancer and a magician, and their Brentfast meal at Farm…

1
Medieval LOLs: Fabliaux 34:45

2M ago34:45

34:45

Fabliaux were short, witty tales originating in northern France between the 12th and 14th centuries, often featuring crafty characters in rustic settings and overwhelmingly concerned with money and sex. In this episode Irina and Mary look at two of these comic verses, both containing surprisingly explicit sexual language, and consider the ways in w…

1
Human Conditions: ‘The Human Condition’ by Hannah Arendt 11:49

3M ago11:49

11:49

In the fourth episode of Human Conditions, the last of the series with Judith Butler, we fittingly turn to The Human Condition (1956). Hannah Arendt defines action as the highest form of human activity: distinct from work and labour, action includes collaborative expression, collective decision-making and, crucially, initiating change. Focusing on …

1
On Satire: The Earl of Rochester 13:14

3M ago13:14

13:14

According to one contemporary, the Earl of Rochester was a man who, in life as well is in poetry, ‘could not speak with any warmth, without repeated Oaths, which, upon any sort of provocation, came almost naturally from him.’ It’s certainly hard to miss Rochester's enthusiastic use of obscenities, though their precise meanings can sometimes be obsc…

1
Political Poems: 'Easter 1916' by W.B. Yeats 33:54

3M ago33:54

33:54

Yeats’s great poem about the uprising of Irish republicans against British rule on 24 April 1916 marked a turning point in Ireland’s history and in Yeats's career. Through four stanzas Yeats enacts the transfiguration of the movement’s leaders – executed by the British shortly after the event – from ‘motley’ acquaintances to heroic martyrs, and int…

1
Among the Ancients II: Herodotus 10:30

3M ago10:30

10:30

Some of the most compelling stories of the Classical world come from Herodotus‘ Histories, an account of the Persian Wars and a thousand things besides. Emily and Tom chart a course through Herodotus‘ history-as-epic, discussing how best to understand his approach to history, ethnography and myth. Exploring a work full of surprising, dramatic and f…

1
Medieval LOLs: Old English Riddles 41:58

3M ago41:58

41:58

Riddles are an ancient and universal form, but few people seem to have enjoyed them more than English Benedictine monks. The Exeter Book, a tenth century monastic collection of Old English verse, builds on the riddle tradition in two striking ways: first, the riddles don’t come with answers; second, they are sexually suggestive. Were they intended …

1
Brentfast 095 - Jeremy Briggs - The Great White Hut 47:30

3M ago47:30

47:30

Brent sits down with comedian Jeremy Briggs, from projects like Bizaardvark! They discuss: working with Terry Crews, growing up in Reno, standup comedy as a team concept, short and long form improv, the horror film genre, Cheese Whiz in your pants, what is a tractor pull, a roller boogie club sighting, and their Brentfast at The Great White Hut. Vi…

1
Human Conditions: ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ by Frantz Fanon 12:58

4M ago12:58

12:58

Begun as a psychiatric dissertation, Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (1952) became a genre-shattering study of antiblack racism and its effect on the psyche. At turns expressionistic, confessional, clinical, sharply satirical and politically charged, the book is dazzlingly multivocal, sometimes self-contradictory but always compelling. Judit…

1
On Satire: Ben Jonson's 'Volpone' 11:51

4M ago11:51

11:51

What did English satirists do after the archbishop of Canterbury banned the printing of satires in June 1599? They turned to the stage. Within months of the crackdown, the same satirical tricks Elizabethans had read in verse could be enjoyed in theatres. At the heart of the scene was Ben Jonson, who for many centuries has maintained a reputation as…

1
Political Poems: W.H. Auden's 'Spain 1937' 42:55

4M ago42:55

42:55

In their second episode, Mark and Seamus look at W.H. Auden's ‘Spain’. Auden travelled to Spain in January 1937 to support the Republican efforts in the civil war, and composed the poem shortly after his return a few months later to raise money for Medical Aid for Spain. It became a rallying cry in the fight against fascism, but was also heavily cr…

1
Among the Ancients II: Aesop 10:26

4M ago10:26

10:26

Supposedly an enslaved man from sixth-century Samos, Aesop might not have ever really existed, but the fables attributed to him remain some of the most widely read examples of classical literature. A fascinating window into the ‘low’ culture of ancient Greece, the Fables and the figure of Aesop appear in the work of authors as diverse as Aristophan…

1
Medieval LOLs: The Colloquies of Aelfric Bata 35:28

4M ago35:28

35:28

All teachers know that the best way for students to learn a language is through swear words, and nobody knew this better than Aelfric Bata, a monk from Winchester whose Colloquies, compiled in around the year 1000, instructed pupils to swear in Latin with elaborate and vivid fluency. Mary and Irina work through some of Aelfric’s fruitier dialogues,…

1
Human Conditions: ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir 11:56

5M ago11:56

11:56

Judith Butler joins Adam Shatz to discuss a landmark in feminist thought, Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949). Dazzling in its scope, The Second Sex incorporates anthropology, psychology, historiography, mythology and biology to ask an ‘impossible’ question: what is a woman? Focusing on three key chapters, Adam and Judith navigate this dense…

1
On Satire: John Donne's Satires 12:49

5M ago12:49

12:49

In their second episode, Colin and Clare look at the dense, digressive and often dangerous satires of John Donne and other poets of the 1590s. It’s likely that Donne was the first Elizabethan author to attempt formal verse satires in the vein of the Roman satirists, and they mark not only the chronological start of his poetic career, but a foundati…

1
Political Poems: Andrew Marvell's 'An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland' 35:29

5M ago35:29

35:29

In the first episode of their new Close Readings series on political poetry, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford look at ‘An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland’ by Andrew Marvell, described by Frank Kermode as ‘braced against folly by the power and intelligence that make it possible to think it the greatest political poem in the language’. Mar…

1
Among the Ancients II: Hesiod 12:00

5M ago12:00

12:00

Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones kick off their second season of Among the Ancients with a return to the eighth century BCE, exploring the poems of Homer’s near contemporary, Hesiod, the first western writer to craft a poetic persona. In Works and Days, brilliantly translated by A.E. Stallings, Hesiod weaves his personality into a narrative that encom…

1
Medieval LOLs: Chaucer's 'Miller's Tale' 30:03

5M ago30:03

30:03

Were the Middle Ages funny? In this bonus Close Readings series running throughout this year, Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley begin their quest for the medieval sense of humour with Chaucer’s 'Miller’s Tale', a story that is surely still (almost) as funny as when it was written six hundred years ago. But who is the real butt of the joke? Mary a…

1
Brentfast 094 - Debbie Fan - Highland Cafe 39:10

6M ago39:10

39:10

Brent sits down with actor Debbie Fan from the film Joy Ride and shows like American Born Chinese and Tiny Beautiful Things! They discuss: The hilarious film Joy Ride, growing up Asian in the U.S., the importance of representation on TV, goals when running a 5K race, working with Kathryn Hahn, drinks named after celebrities, eating ube snacks, and …

1
Human Conditions: ‘Anti-Semite and Jew’ by Jean-Paul Sartre 12:06

6M ago12:06

12:06

Judith Butler joins Adam Shatz for the first episode of Human Conditions to look at Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1946 book Anti-Semite and Jew, originally published in French as Réflexions Sur La Question Juive. Sartre’s ‘portraits’ of the ‘anti-Semite’ and the ‘Jew’, as he saw them, caused controversy at the time for directly confronting anti-Jewish bigotry…

1
On Satire: What is satire? 11:56

6M ago11:56

11:56

Clare and Colin begin their twelve-part series on satire with the big question: what is satire? Where did it come from? Is it a genre, or more of a style, or an attitude? They then plunge into their first text, The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus, a prose satire from 1511 that lampoons pretty much the whole of sixteenth century life in the vo…

1
Brentfast 093 - Christmas Special with Tommy Bechtold! 8:52

6M ago8:52

8:52

It's the Brentfast Christmas special, with actor and comedian Tommy Bechtold, from the New Rockstars YouTube show, The Breakroom, and Hunters. ! They discuss: When does the Christmas season start, the joy of Hallmark and Lifetime holiday movies, Murder She Wrote, nerdy Christmas trees, our favorite seasonal movies and customs, and how many times ca…

1
The Long and Short: Elizabeth Bowen 11:27

6M ago11:27

11:27

In the final episode of The Long and Short, we turn to Elizabeth Bowen, widely considered one of the finest writers of the short story. Mark and Seamus unpack ‘the Bowen effect’ and her singularly haunting style: subtle social commentary cut through with humour, and occasionally outright romanticism. A culmination of the short fiction explored in t…

1
Among the Ancients: Seneca 11:28

7M ago11:28

11:28

For the final episode in Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom look at Seneca, whose life is relatively well known to us. A child of the established Roman Empire, born around the same time as Jesus, Seneca had turbulent relationships with the emperors of his time: exiled by Caligula, he returned to tutor the young Nero, but was eventually forced to com…

1
Medieval Beginnings: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville 11:09

7M ago11:09

11:09

For the final episode of Medieval Beginnings, Mary and Irina look at by far the most popular text (in its time) of all that have featured in the series: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. The fictional traveller’s fantastical descriptions of different places, peoples and animals across the Holy Land and Asia are almost certainly drawn mainly from …

1
The Long and Short: Alice Oswald's ‘Dart’ and ‘Memorial’ 11:50

7M ago11:50

11:50

The eleventh episode of the Long and Short brings us to the present day and the distant past, as we turn to two multivocal, monumental poems by Alice Oswald. The dazzlingly polyphonic Dart (2002) celebrates the voices of the river Dart, and the people, animals and supernatural forces entwined with it. Memorial (2011) translates and transfigures the…

1
Next Year on Close Readings: Among the Ancients II 11:41

7M ago11:41

11:41

For the final introduction to next year’s full Close Readings programme, Emily Wilson, celebrated classicist and translator of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, returns for a second season of Among the Ancients, to take on another twelve vital works of Greek and Roman literature with the LRB’s Thomas Jones, loosely themed around ‘truth and lies’ – from Ae…

1
Next Year on Close Readings: Human Conditions 25:33

8M ago25:33

25:33

In the second of three introductions to our full Close Readings programme for 2024, Adam Shatz presents his series, Human Conditions, in which he’ll be talking separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary thought of the 20th century. Judith, Pankaj and Brent will each discu…

1
Next Year on Close Readings: On Satire 14:15

8M ago14:15

14:15

In the first of three introductions to our full 2024 Close Readings programme, starting in January, Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell present their series, On Satire. Over twelve episodes, Colin and Clare will attempt to chart a stable course through some of the most unruly, vulgar, incoherent, savage and outright hilarious works in English literatur…

1
Season 2 Review 19:32

8M ago19:32

19:32

The Review Pod: Host John O'Driscoll reviews key takeaways and insights from all his great guests throughout Season 2.By John O'Driscoll

1
Among the Ancients: Ovid 11:08

8M ago11:08

11:08

Ovid was perhaps the most prolific poet of Ancient Rome, certainly in the amount of his poetry which has survived (around 30,000 lines). This episode focuses on his 15-book epic, the Metamorphoses, a patchwork of hundreds of stories of transformation, including numerous retellings of famous myths from Apollo and Daphne to the Trojan War. In this ep…

1
Medieval Beginnings: The Digby Mary Magdalene Play 11:54

8M ago11:54

11:54

For sheer scale and spectacle, surely few plays of any period can match The Digby Play of Mary Magdalene. Boasting at least fifty speaking parts, with multiple locations, scaffolds and pyrotechnics, including an ascent into heaven, this wildly ambitious piece of late Medieval theatre mixes traditional hagiographic drama with magical adventure, roma…

1
The Long and Short: Nella Larsen's 'Passing' and Langston Hughes's 'Montage of a Dream Deferred' 11:40

8M ago11:40

11:40

In the tenth episode of the series, Seamus and Mark turn to two figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Nella Larsen’s ‘Passing’ is taut, tense and tartly stylish take on the Jamesian short story, redolent with ironies and ambiguities, and feels just as relevant today. Widely considered his masterwork, Langston Hughes’s ‘Montage of a Dream Deferred’ dra…

1
Caroline Foran: You Can be Successful and Vulnerable at the Same Time 40:14

8M ago40:14

40:14

Best selling author and podcast host Caroline Foran joins us to chat about her battle with anxiety and how she’s overcome it to build a life she wants. Her podcast Owning It has been downloaded over 7.5 million times and Caroline has helped countless people battler anxiety and panic. Creators & Guests John O'Driscoll - Host Caroline Foran - Guest…

1
Among the Ancients: Horace 9:17

9M ago9:17

9:17

Emily and Tom follow Virgil with one of his contemporaries, Horace, whose poetry played an important political role in the early years of Augustan Rome and has had an enormous influence on subsequent European lyric verse. They consider the original meanings of some of Horace’s famous phrases – carpe diem, in medias res, nunc est bibendum – and look…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Brent Pope Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide