Best Doris Jones Podcasts (2024)

1
Political Poems: 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' by Walt Whitman 33:32

5d ago33:32

33:32

Whitman wrote several poetic responses to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He came to detest his most famous, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’, and in ‘When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd’ Lincoln is not imagined in presidential terms but contained within a love elegy that attempts to unite his death with the 600,000 deaths of the civil war and r…

1
Among the Ancients II: Plautus and Terence 14:27

4d ago14:27

14:27

In episode seven, we turn to some of the earliest surviving examples of Roman literature: the raucous, bawdy and sometimes bewildering world of Roman comedy. Plautus and Terence, who would go on to set the tone for centuries of playwrights (and school curricula), came from the margins of Roman society, writing primarily for plebeians and upsetting …

1
242 - The Murder of Randy Church 1:16:13

1d ago1:16:13

1:16:13

Twenty-three year old Randy Church was a bright, talented and driven student attending Montana State University. Majoring in electrical engineering, Randy was excited for what opportunities the future would afford. Living off campus in Bozeman at the time, Randy picked up a part time job at a local Pizza Hut. He quickly was promoted to the position…

1
Medieval LOLs: Solomon and Marcolf 49:33

3m ago49:33

49:33

The foul-mouthed, mean-spirited peasant Marcolf was one of the most well-known literary characters in late medieval Europe. He appears in many poetic works from the 9th century onwards, but it’s in this dialogue with Solomon, printed in Antwerp in 1492, that we find him at his irreverent and scatological best as they engage in a battle of proverbia…

1
Human Conditions: ‘The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing 12:44

3d ago12:44

12:44

Pankaj Mishra joins Adam Shatz to discuss The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing’s formally brilliant and startlingly frank 1962 novel. In her portrait of ‘free women’ – unmarried, creatively ambitious, politically engaged – Lessing wrestles with the breakdown of Stalinism, settler colonialism and traditional gender roles. Pankaj and Adam explore the l…

1
On Satire: 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' by Laurence Sterne 14:53

9d ago14:53

14:53

'Tristram Shandy' was such a hit in its day that you could buy tea trays, watch cases and cushions decorated with its most famous characters and scenes. If much of the satire covered in this series so far has featured succinct and damning portrayals of recognisable city types, Sterne’s comic masterpiece seems to offer the opposite: a sprawling and …

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

1M 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

26d 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

1M 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
241 - The Disappearance of Amber Barker 1:13:06

27d ago1:13:06

1:13:06

Ten year old Amber Barker was riding her bike home from a friend's house. It wasn't a long distance, just over half a mile through neighborhood roads she was highly familiar with. Unfortunately, she never arrived. Within hours, the Oklahoma City Police Department descended upon the neighborhood and began searching. The next day they were joined by …

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

2M 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

2M 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
Political Poems: 'The Masque of Anarchy' by Percy Bysshe Shelley 35:31

2M 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

2M 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

2M 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
240 - Latricia White and Lee & Chance Wackerhagen 1:24:57

2M ago1:24:57

1:24:57

Two days after Christmas of 1993, thirty-eight year old nurse and mother of two, Latricia White failed to show up for work. Hours later, her father went to her home and was devastated to find her lifeless body lying in bed. It would later be determined she had been shot multiple times in the head as she slept. Investigators soon learned of Lee Wack…

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

3M 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

3M 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
Medieval LOLs: Fabliaux 34:45

3M 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

4M 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
239 - The Murder of John Harden 1:22:39

3M ago1:22:39

1:22:39

Use promo code "Trace" to save 10% on your pass today at CrimeCon.com On a warm spring night in March of 1975, thirty-two year old John Harden completed an emergency call for a client and returned home. Less than an hour later, he'd be shot dead in his driveway. After finishing his shower, John glanced out the window and saw his work truck engulfed…

1
On Satire: The Earl of Rochester 13:14

4M 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

4M 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
238 - The Vanishing of Lola Katherine Fry 1:27:24

4M ago1:27:24

1:27:24

Use promo code "Trace" to save 10% at CrimeCon.com On November 13th, 1993, twenty-eight year old Lola Katherine Fry attended a party at a northeastside Indianapolis apartment owned by a friend. She has never been seen again and more than thirty years later the mystery of her disappearance haunts family and friends. Reported missing, the Indiana Sta…

1
Among the Ancients II: Herodotus 10:30

4M 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
Italy's brilliant campaign, Ireland get the job done and is that it for Peter O'Mahony in a green shirt? 55:51

5M ago55:51

55:51

Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill is once again joined in the House of Rugby studio by Lindsay Peat and James Downey as they look back on the weekend’s Six Nations action and particularly Ireland’s title win! They look at Italy’s brilliance in Cardiff, Ireland getting the job done against Scotland, and France coming to fruition against England. Will Ital…

1
Medieval LOLs: Old English Riddles 41:58

5M 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
Ireland's poor decision making, more discipline issues and Rob Kearney interview 54:51

4M ago54:51

54:51

Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill is joined in the House of Rugby studio by Lindsay Peat and Johne Murphy as they look back on the weekend’s Six Nations and Ireland’s defeat to England. They look at the dying minutes of the game and Conor Murray’s decision to box-kick and whether it was the right or wrong decision. They discuss England’s approach to the …

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

5M 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
Ulster's new era, changing Irish attitudes, Jones' blitz defence and Hugo Keenan interview 58:38

5M ago58:38

58:38

Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill is joined in the House of Rugby studio by Lindsay Peat and Pat McCarry as they look back on a weekend of URC rugby and ahead to Ireland's Six Nations clash against England this week. They look at Ulster's start to life without Dan McFarland at the helm, and why it's looking positive so far. They look at Irish attitudes t…

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

5M 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

5M 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
What Ireland need to fix to be the most dominant Six Nations team ever 53:46

5M ago53:46

53:46

Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill is joined by Lindsay Peat and Johne Murphy as they look back on Ireland’s 31-7 win over Wales in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday. They look at some of the sloppy Ireland play, some good Welsh defending and what Ireland will be looking to improve on over the next few weeks. They dive into Ireland’s scrum and how they’re imp…

1
Among the Ancients II: Aesop 10:26

5M 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
237 - The Disappearance of Cathy Moulton 1:31:17

5M ago1:31:17

1:31:17

Use promo code TRACE to save 10% on your pass at CrimeCon.com On Friday, September 24th, 1971, sixteen year old Cathy Moulton disappeared while walking home in downtown Portland, Maine. Despite the desperate pleas of her family, local law enforcement treated the case as that of a runaway and did almost no investigation whatsoever. For more than twe…

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

6M 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
Ireland hammer Italy, underrated Hugo Keenan and silly Scottish mistakes 50:26

5M ago50:26

50:26

Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill is joined in studio by Lindsay Peat and Pat McCarry as they look back on Ireland's win over Italy in the Six Nations. They look at Ireland's sloppiness in the first half and why Andy Farrell won't be happy with some aspects of their play. They look at some of the key positions and whether or not Ireland will look to make…

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

6M 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
Ireland's huge French win, Big Joe McCarthy and Crowley steps up 44:52

6M ago44:52

44:52

Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill is joined in studio by Lindsay Peat and James Downey as they look back on Ireland's win over France in the Six Nations. They chat Big Joe McCarthy's performance and why he brings a new element to Ireland's team. They analysis Jack Crowley's showing as he stepped in Johnny Sexton's shoes and did so relatively seamlessly. …

1
236 - The Disappearance of Bill Dwayne Shipley 1:11:17

6M ago1:11:17

1:11:17

Use promo code TRACE to save 10% on your pass at CrimeCon.com Forty-seven year old Bill Dwayne Shipley was making final preparations for a multi-state trip for work. Operating as a contract painter, Bill would leave his home in Goldsby, Oklahoma, heading east into Arkansas, north into Missouri, west into Kansas and finally back home. It was set to …

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

6M 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

6M 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
The Six Nations Preview | Sexton-less Selections, English potential and why leadership groups work 50:42

6M ago50:42

50:42

Leinster player Will Connors joins Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill and Lindsay Peat in the House of Rugby studio as we look ahead to the Six Nations. They chat with Will about Leinster’s season so far, his effectiveness with the chop-tackle and what Jacques Nienabar has brought to the province. They preview the Six Nations tournament, running through t…

1
Among the Ancients II: Hesiod 12:00

6M 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
UPDATE - Justin Turner & Dexter Stefonek 55:25

6M ago55:25

55:25

In today's special update episode we cover breaking news revolving around two infamous cases. First we look into the announcement that the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office has officially charged Victor Lee Turner and Megan Turner with the 1989 murder of five year old Justin Turner whose body was found inside of a camper on his father and stepmother…

1
Inconsistent Irish in Europe, Peter O'Mahony's future and Ireland's Six Nations campaign 41:47

6M ago41:47

41:47

Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill is joined by Lindsay Peat and James Downey as they look back on the Champions Cup and ahead to the Six Nations. They chat Ulster's dreadful defeat against Harlequins, Connacht's big win against Bristol and Munster's game management in another bad defeat for them against Northampton. They look ahead to the Six Nations whi…

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

7M 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
Ireland's Six Nations squad, Andy Farrell to the Lions and Caelan Doris interview 57:54

6M ago57:54

57:54

Former Ireland and Leinster player Dan Leavy joins Maire Treasa in studio alongside Pat McCarry as they look back on the weekend of Champions Cup rugby. They discuss Andy Farrell's move into the Lions job and what that will mean for Ireland. They predict the Six Nations squad ahead of it being announced on Wednesday. Plus, we bring you a chat with …

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