Podcast
The Intellectual
Hosted by The Syllabus / Listen Notes · EN
A curated playlist of the best new podcasts on arts & culture. Powered by The Syllabus. (To see the articles, books, reports and videos that are also part of The Intellectual, check out our site: the-syllabus.com)
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Abbas Akhavan – Season 9, Episode 5
5d ago01:12:48Tap to summarizePodcast: Momus: The Podcast (LS 35 · TOP 3% what is this?)Episode: Abbas Akhavan – Season 9, Episode 5Pub date: 2026-05-27Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThis episode features Abbas Akhavan, a Tehran-born artist based between Montreal and Berlin, who is representing Canada at this year’s Venice Biennale. In a conversation recorded a few days before the opening, Akhavan discusses art as an ethics of encounter, the limits of language and representation, and the challenge of engaging non-human life without collapsing it into symbol or metaphor. Reflecting on institutional pressure, artistic refusal, and the importance of maintaining balance within one’s practice, he describes art as “a rehearsal, not re-enactment.” Framed by a reading from Charles Siebert’s 2016 New York Times Magazine feature “What Does a Parrot Know About PTSD?,” the conversation explores trauma, presence, and the possibility of holding intimacy without possession. Host Sky Goodden also reflects on attending a strike organized by the Art Not Genocide Alliance during the Biennale’s preview week, during which the Canadian Pavilion was one of many that closed in solidarity. Momus: The Podcast is edited by Jacob Irish, with production assistance from Chris Andrews.Thanks to this episode’s sponsors, Coach House Books and Esker Foundation, for supporting our work.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Momus, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Conquistadors and Culture Wars
5d ago01:04:06Tap to summarizePodcast: The Sobremesa Podcast (LS 35 · TOP 3% what is this?)Episode: Conquistadors and Culture WarsPub date: 2026-05-28Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationLast month Madrid’s right wing regional premier Isabel Ayuso took it upon herself to travel to Mexico on an official visit so as to lecture the Mexican public about their own history - as she participated in a homage to the conquistador Hernan Cortes. Proving once again her reputation as a Trumpian figure within the mainstream conservative Popular Party, she even went as far as to insist on her return to Madrid that “Mexico did not exist until the Spanish arrived.” She and much of Spanish right have form on this. In 2021 as Pope Francis apologised for the Catholic Church’s role in the conquest of the Americas, she responded: “It surprises me that a Spanish-speaking Catholic would speak that way about a legacy like ours, which was precisely to bring Spanish—and, through the missions, Catholicism, and thus civilization and freedom—to the American continent,”Today on Sobremesa podcast we talk about Spain’s other memory war, that is: The Spanish right’s revisionist crusade to revindicate the supposed civilizational mission associated with the conquest of the Americas. To do so I am joined by the historian Juan José Ponce Vázquez, of The University of Alabama.Please remember if you like what we are producing, consider making a donation to our buy me a coffee page:https://buymeacoffee.com/thesobremeyThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Sobremesa Podcast, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Nayantara Srinivasan, "The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
2w ago00:51:07Tap to summarizePodcast: New Books in Business, Management, and MarketingEpisode: Nayantara Srinivasan, "The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)Pub date: 2026-05-17Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThe Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India (Cambridge UP, 2025) explores the landscape of anglophone trade bookselling in India, aiming to identify some key factors that have influenced the changing place of the brick-and-mortar bookstore over the last decade. The discussion focuses on a specific time period identified as a significant turning point, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic led to a series of developments in the field of Indian publishing: a newly emerging body of public discourse within the industry, highlighting the persistent marginalisation faced by brick-and-mortar bookstores; the temporary weakening of Amazon's near-monopoly; and bookstores' growing use of online platforms for sales, publicity, and activism. Drawing upon a range of primary sources and case studies, this Element explores how these developments altered what John B. Thompson calls 'the logic of the field' of contemporary Indian bookselling, transforming the brick-and-mortar bookstore into a newly revitalised space with possibilities for further expansion, growth, and diversity. Nayantara Srinivasan is a PhD researcher at the University of Münster. Her research examines debut literary fiction in contemporary American publishing. She has previously worked in publishing. Karishma Koshal is a PhD researcher at the University of Exeter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New Books Network, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
The slow cancellation of the future: A Mark Fisher primer
3w ago01:35:01Tap to summarizePodcast: The Culture Journalist (LS 38 · TOP 2% what is this?)Episode: The slow cancellation of the future: A Mark Fisher primerPub date: 2026-05-08Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationCUJO is a podcast about culture in the age of platforms. Episodes drop every other week, but if you want the full experience, we recommend signing up for a paid subscription. Paid subscribers also get access to our CUJOPLEX Discord and The Weather Report, a monthly episode series where we take stock of where the cultural winds are blowing and tell you what’s rained into our brains.We are making a film about Mark Fisher. Or at least, that’s what artists Sophie Mellor and Simon Poulter say we are doing by interviewing them about We Are Making a Film About Mark Fisher, an experimental documentary about the late British intellectual Mark Fisher that is currently making its way in decentralized fashion through cities across the globe. (You can set up a screening in your town if you want). They made the film with the help of over 70 pro bono collaborators and produced it entirely via Instagram, with no budget, studio, or institutional support. We’ve never seen anything quite like it.Fisher was a political and cultural theorist, music critic, and philosopher who first gained notoriety blogging under the alias K-punk in the early 2000s, before becoming known for penning some of this century’s most clear-eyed and affecting analyses of capitalism, popular culture, and our collective political future (or lack thereof). That includes his wildly influential 2009 book Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, which explores the idea that capitalism has become so dominant we struggle to even imagine alternatives. Fisher has been a big influence on us, so we decided to invited Sophie and Simon on the show to tell us about the film and offer us a little primer on his ideas. We dig in to concepts that were central to Fisher’s work, including hauntology, hyperstition, and capitalist realism; why his work seems to be having a moment right now, especially among Gen Z; and how it reflected both the utopian promise of the internet and its eventual descent into today’s commoditized, culture-war nightmare. We also discuss how Fisher’s working-class background and refusal to accept hierarchies between fields like critical theory and music blogging shaped his unique perspective on the world—and how this “decapitalized film,” and the larger art project of which it is part, doubles as an invitation to gather offline and imagine new artistic and political futures together.Follow the project on Instagram, or attend a screening near youCheck out more of Sophie and Simon’s work at Close and RemoteListen to our Hauntology retrospective with Simon Reynolds, Fisher’s friend and contemporary This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com/subscribeThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Culture Journalist, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
The 1990s Golden Era of Black Sitcoms
3w ago01:02:18Tap to summarizePodcast: After Words (LS 46 · TOP 1% what is this?)Episode: The 1990s Golden Era of Black SitcomsPub date: 2026-05-03Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationPBS Newshour co-anchor Geoff Bennett talks about the history of Black comedy in America and its impact on culture and politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from C-SPAN, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Science Fiction and the Far Right
May 900:59:58Tap to summarizePodcast: KPFA - Against the Grain (LS 48 · TOP 1% what is this?)Episode: Science Fiction and the Far RightPub date: 2026-04-27Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationFiction that imagines alternate futures is often associated with the left — with writers like Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin. But the tropes of science fiction are well-suited to the right and, as Jordan Carroll illustrates, far right authors and aficionados have populated the ranks of speculative fiction since its inception, like ardent science fiction fan and neo-Nazi party founder James Madole. Carroll discusses the right’s ongoing fight to claim the future. Jordan S. Carroll, Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right University of Minnesota Press, 2024 Photo by Robynne O on Unsplash The post Science Fiction and the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KPFA, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Dadaism
May 200:50:58Tap to summarizePodcast: In Our Time (LS 74 · TOP 0.01% what is this?)Episode: DadaismPub date: 2026-04-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationMisha Glenny and guests discuss the provocative artistic phenomenon that first startled audiences in 1916 in Zurich. There, at the Cabaret Voltaire at the Holländische Meierei on the Spiegelgasse, Emmy Hennings and Hugo Ball and others gathered on a small stage, sometimes dressed in cardboard, often performing nonsense poems. This was the start of Dada, a spirit more than a movement which spread to other cities in Europe during the war. In part the Dadas (as they called themselves) were protesting against the inevitability of constant wars on the continent and in part this was an artistic experiment around the absurd; they were creating poems, songs, costumes and art that made no obvious sense, just as the war around them made no sense to the artists, designers and poets at the Cabaret Voltaire.With Dawn Ades Emeritus Professor of Art History and Theory at the University of EssexRuth Hemus Professor of French and Visual Culture at Royal Holloway, University of LondonAndStephen Forcer Professor of French at the University of GlasgowProduced by Martha OwenReading list:Dawn Ades (ed.), The Dada Reader: A Critical Anthology (Tate Publishing, 2006)Hugo Ball (trans. Ann Raimes and ed. John Elderfield), Flight out of Time: A Dada Diary (first published 1927; University of California Press, 1996)Stephen Forcer, Dada as Text, Thought and Theory (Legenda, 2015)Ruth Hemus, Dada's Women (Yale University Press, 2009)David Hopkins, Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2004)Jed Rasula, Destruction was my Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century (Basic Books, 2015)In Our Time is a BBC Studios ProductionSpanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC Radio 4, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Comyns, Murdoch, du Maurier, and the Gothic Podcast
Apr 2600:53:17Tap to summarizePodcast: The Iris Murdoch Society podcast (LS 33 · TOP 5% what is this?)Episode: Comyns, Murdoch, du Maurier, and the Gothic PodcastPub date: 2026-04-04Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode Miles discusses the mid-twentieth century gothic novel with a particular focus on Daphne du Maurier, Barbara Comyns and, of course, Iris Murdoch. An enduring subject of fascination, the gothic novel has undergone substantial change over the course of its history and the rise of the mid-century gothic – and how it interacts with other forms of fiction writing at this time – is one we know you’ll be interested in. Joining Miles to discuss the mid-century female gothic is Avril Horner. Avril is Professor Emeritus of English at Kingston University and is the author of numerous books on the Gothic – most recently Women and the Gothic – with Sue Zlosnik (2016) – and the author of Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence (Manchester University Press, 2024) and of the forthcoming Rebecca: Biography of a Novel (MUP: 2026). Murdoch aficionados will know her as the co-editor of Iris Murdoch and Morality and Iris Murdoch: Texts and Contexts both from Palgrave – and the co-editor of Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch 1934-1995 from Chatto and Windus (2015). Long-time listeners of the podcast will remember that Avril was one of my guests on ‘Iris Murdoch for Beginners’ so who better to be today’s guest as we discuss mid-twentieth century Gothic fiction and put Murdoch into conversation with both Daphne du Maurier and Barbara Comyns.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Iris Murdoch Society, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
How deeply was the British Crown involved in the transatlantic slave trade? With author of The Crown’s Silence, Brooke Newman
Apr 2600:47:57Tap to summarizePodcast: Intelligence Squared (LS 60 · TOP 0.1% what is this?)Episode: How deeply was the British Crown involved in the transatlantic slave trade? With author of The Crown’s Silence, Brooke NewmanPub date: 2026-03-29Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationHow deeply was the British Crown involved in the transatlantic slave trade? New research by historian Brooke Newman argues that, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, until well into the 19th century, the Crown and its navy helped expand, finance and protect the trade in enslaved African people. In this episode, Newman joins historian and broadcaster Helen Carr to examine how the monarchy’s links to slavery complicate Britain’s national story about abolition and its colonial past. Drawing on her new book, The Crown’s Silence, she explores the evidence, considers how the subject of reparations has become caught up in the culture wars, and reflects on what a formal apology from King Charles III could mean. Brooke Newman is an Associate Professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of Slavery and the British Monarchy is out now. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Intelligence Squared, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Why Did The Salem Witch Trials Happen? (with Stacy Schiff)
Apr 501:07:33Tap to summarizePodcast: Ivory Tower Boiler Room (LS 29 · TOP 10% what is this?)Episode: Why Did The Salem Witch Trials Happen? (with Stacy Schiff)Pub date: 2026-03-22Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationWatch this episode ad-free by joining the ITBR Patreon! patreon.com/ivorytowerboilerroom-----Re-release time! I'm visiting Salem, Massachusetts for the Society for the Study of the American Gothic and figured this would be a great episode to put out again to a fresh audience!From its European roots, the gender differences in witchcraft accusation and persecution, along with reparations for those affected, are just a few topics we get into in this conversation! ----Andrew and guest co-host, Gail Crowther are joined by Stacy Schiff, author of The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra. Stacy discusses why the Salem Witch Trials happened and why they are so relevant in today's social and political climate. To read more about Stacy Schiff, check out her website! https://www.stacyschiff.com/-----Follow ITBR on IG @ivorytowerboilerroom and TikTok @dr.andrewrimbyBe sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch video episodes of the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@ivorytowerboilerroomThanks to our following sponsors! To subscribe to The Gay and Lesbian Review visit glreview.org. Click Subscribe and enter promo code ITBRChoice to get a free issue with a subscription purchase. Follow them on IG @theglreview and TikTok @g_and_lrHead to Broadview Press, an independent academic publisher, for all your humanities related books. Use code ivorytower for 20% off your broadviewpress.com order. Follow them on IG @broadviewpress.Thanks to the ITBR team! Dr. Andrew Rimby (Host and Director), Mary DiPipi (Chief Contributor), and Sean Penta (Intern)The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Andrew Rimby , which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →