Best Emily Ludwig Podcasts (2025)

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Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Essence of Christianity' by Ludwig Feuerbach 10:29

3d ago10:29

10:29

In The Essence of Christianity (1841) Feuerbach works through the theological crisis of his age to articulate the central, radical idea of 19th-century atheism: that the religion of God is really the religion of humanity. In this episode, Jonathan and James discuss the ways in which the book applies this thought to various aspects of Christian doct…

1
Novel Approaches: ‘Mansfield Park’ by Jane Austen 31:53

9d ago31:53

31:53

On one level, Mansfield Park is a fairytale transposed to the 19th century: Fanny Price is the archetypal poor relation who, through her virtuousness, wins a wealthy husband. But Jane Austen’s 1814 novel is also a shrewd study of speculation, ‘improvement’ and the transformative power of money. In the first episode of Novel Approaches, Colin Burrow…

1
Love and Death: Milton's 'Lycidas' 12:31

17d ago12:31

12:31

Milton wrote ‘Lycidas’ in 1637, at the age of 29, to commemorate the drowning of the poet Edward King. As well as a great pastoral elegy, it is a denunciation of the ecclesiastical condition of England and a rehearsal for Milton’s later role as a writer of national epic. In the first episode of their new series, Seamus and Mark discuss the politica…

1
Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ 14:41

25d ago14:41

14:41

The Thousand and One Nights is an ‘infinite text’: it has no fixed shape or length, no known author and is transformed with each new translation. In this first episode of Fiction and the Fantastic, Marina Warner and Anna Della Subin explore two particularly mysterious stories in the context of the wider mysteries and pleasures of the Nights. ‘The P…

1
Conversations in Philosophy: 'Fear and Trembling' by Søren Kierkegaard 12:24

1M ago12:24

12:24

The series begins with Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling (1843), an exploration of faith through the story of Abraham and Isaac. Like most of Kierkegaard’s published work, Fear and Trembling appeared under a pseudonym, Johannes de Silentio, and its playful relationship to the reader doesn’t stop there. Described as a ‘dialectical lyric’ on the…

1
Introducing ‘Novel Approaches’ 7:57

1M ago7:57

7:57

Clare Bucknell and Thomas Jones introduce their new Close Readings series, Novel Approaches. Joined by a variety of contemporary novelists and critics, they'll be exploring a dozen 19th-century British novels from Mansfield Park to New Grub Street, paying particular (though not exclusive) attention to the themes of money and property. The first epi…

1
Introducing ‘Love and Death’ 5:13

1M ago5:13

5:13

Mark Ford and Seamus Perry introduce Love and Death, a new Close Readings series on elegy from the Renaissance to the present day. They discuss why the elegy can be a particularly energising form for poets engaging with their craft and the poetic tradition, and how elegy serves an important role in public grieving, remembering and healing. The firs…

1
Introducing ‘Fiction and the Fantastic’ 8:06

1M ago8:06

8:06

Marina Warner is joined by Anna Della Subin to introduce Fiction and the Fantastic, a new Close Readings series running through 2025. Marina describes the scope of the series, in which she will also be joined by Adam Thirlwell and Chloe Aridjis. Together, Anna Della and Marina discuss the ways the fiction of wonder and astonishment can challenge so…

1
Introducing 'Conversations in Philosophy' 8:35

1M ago8:35

8:35

James Wood and Jonathan Rée introduce their new Close Readings series, Conversations in Philosophy, running throughout 2025. They explain the title of the series and why they'll be challenging a hundred years of academic convention by reuniting the worlds of literature and philosophy. The first episode will come out on Monday 6 January, on Kierkega…

1
Political Poems: ‘Little Gidding’ by T.S. Eliot 10:51

1M ago10:51

10:51

In the final episode of Political Poems, Mark and Seamus discuss ‘Little Gidding’, the fourth poem of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Emerging out of Eliot’s experiences of the Blitz, ‘Little Gidding’ presents us with an apocalyptic vision of purifying fire. Suggesting that humanity can survive warfare only through renewed spiritual unity, Eliot finds …

1
Among the Ancients II: Marcus Aurelius 59:50

1M ago59:50

59:50

For their final conversation Among the Ancients, Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones turn to the contradictions of the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Said by Machiavelli to be the last of the ‘five good emperors’ who ruled Rome for most of the second century CE, Marcus oversaw devastating wars on the frontiers, a deadly plague and e…

1
Medieval LOLs: Gwerful Mechain’s ‘Ode to the Vagina’ 10:45

2M ago10:45

10:45

For the final episode of their series in search of the medieval sense of humour Irina and Mary look at one of the most remarkable women authors of the Middle Ages, Gwerful Mechain, who lived in Powys in the 15th century. Mechain was part of a lively literary coterie in northeast Wales and in her poem Cywydd y Cedor (‘Ode to the Vagina’) she challen…

1
Coming next year on Close Readings 1:57

2M ago1:57

1:57

As our Close Readings series come to an end this year, you’re probably wondering what’s coming in 2025. We’re delighted to announce there’ll be four new series starting in January: ‘Conversations in Philosophy’ with Jonathan Rée and James Wood Jonathan and James challenge a hundred years of academic convention by reuniting the worlds of philosophy …

1
Human Conditions: ‘Sister Outsider’ by Audre Lorde 13:39

2M ago13:39

13:39

In the final episode of Human Conditions, Brent and Adam turn to Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider, a collection of prose with exceptional relevance to contemporary grassroots politics. Like Du Bois, Césaire and Baraka, Lorde’s work defies genre: as she argues in this collection, ‘poetry is not a luxury’ but an essential tool for liberation. Throughout…

1
On Satire: 'A Far Cry from Kensington' by Muriel Spark 16:29

2M ago16:29

16:29

In the final episode of their series, Colin and Clare arrive at Muriel Spark, who would never have considered herself a satirist though her writing was as bitingly satirical as any 20th-century novelist's. A Far Cry from Kensington has a deceptively simple plot: Agnes Hawkins, working for a publisher in London in the 1950s, insults Hector Bartlett,…

1
Political Poems: ‘Station Island’ by Seamus Heaney 12:21

2M ago12:21

12:21

As an undergraduate, Seamus Heaney visited Station Island several times, an ancient pilgrimage site traditionally associated with St Patrick and purgatory. Decades later, Heaney worked through competing calls for political engagement and his long-lapsed Catholicism in ‘Station Island’, a poem he described as an ‘exorcism’. A dreamlike reworking of …

1
Among the Ancients II: Apuleius 11:12

3M ago11:12

11:12

Apuleius’ ‘Metamorphoses’, better known as ‘The Golden Ass’, is the only ancient Roman novel to have survived in its entirety. Following the story of Lucius, forced to suffer as a donkey until the goddess Isis intervenes, the novel includes frenetic wordplay, filthy humour and the earliest known version of the Psyche and Cupid myth. In this episode…

1
Medieval LOLs: 'Tales of Count Lucanor' by Juan Manuel 14:12

3M ago14:12

14:12

If you’re looking for advice on sustaining a marriage, or robbing a grave, or performing liver surgery, then a series of self-help stories by a 14th-century Spanish prince is a good place to start. Tales of Count Lucanor, written between 1328 and 1335 by Prince Juan Manuel of Villena, is one of the earliest works of Castilian prose. The tales follo…

1
Human Conditions: ‘Black Music’ by Amiri Baraka 17:12

3M ago17:12

17:12

In 'Black Music', a collection of essays, liner notes and interviews from 1959 to 1967, Amiri Baraka captures the ferment, energy and excitement of the avant-garde jazz scene. Published while he still went by LeRoi Jones, it provides a composite picture of Baraka’s evolving thought, aesthetic values and literary experimentation. In this episode, Br…

1
On Satire: 'A Handful of Dust' by Evelyn Waugh 16:08

3M ago16:08

16:08

In 1946 Evelyn Waugh declared that 20th-century society – ‘the century of the common man’, as he put it – was so degenerate that satire was no longer possible. But before reaching that conclusion he had written several novels taking aim at his ‘crazy, sterile generation’ with a sparkling, acerbic and increasingly reactionary wit. In this episode, C…

1
Inside a HAUNTED Manor on HALLOWEEN Night! | Emily Hartley and Charlie Lennox 35:03

3M ago35:03

35:03

In the tiny, sleepy town of Gibbon, Nebraska, a Halloween party was being held. At the party, Emily Hartley–a hometown girl, recently returned from college–met Charlie Lennox, a handsome young man from Chicago. Charlie had inherited Blackthorn Manor, an old, dilapidated mansion in which a ghost was rumored to dwell. Together, Emily and Charlie expl…

1
Political Poems: 'The Prelude' (books 9 and 10) by William Wordsworth 11:39

3M ago11:39

11:39

Wordsworth was not unusual among Romantic poets for his enthusiastic support of the French Revolution, but he stands apart from his contemporaries for actually being there to see it for himself (‘Thou wert there,’ Coleridge wrote). This episode looks at Wordsworth’s retrospective account of his 1791 visit to France, described in books 9 and 10 of T…

1
Among the Ancients II: Juvenal 14:05

4M ago14:05

14:05

In this episode, we tackle Juvenal, whose sixteen satires influenced libertines, neoclassicists and early Christian moralists alike. Conservative to a fault, Juvenal’s Satires rails against the rapid expansion and transformation of Roman society in the early principate. But where his contemporary Tacitus handled the same material with restraint, Ju…

1
Medieval LOLs: Boccaccio’s ‘Decameron’, Part Two 14:44

4M ago14:44

14:44

Mary and Irina resume their discussion of Boccaccio’s Decameron, focusing on three stories of female agency, deception and desire. Alibech, an aspiring hermitess, is tricked into indulging her powerful sexual urges; Petronella combines business and pleasure at the expense of her husband and lover; while Lydia demonstrates her devotion by killing ha…

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Human Conditions: ‘Discourse on Colonialism’ by Aimé Césaire 13:02

4M ago13:02

13:02

Brent Hayes Edwards talks to Adam about Aimé Césaire's 1950 essay Discourse on Colonialism, a groundbreaking work of 20th-century anti-colonial thought and a precursor to the writings of Césaire's protégé, Frantz Fanon. Césaire was Martinique’s most influential poet and one of its most prominent politicians as a deputy in the French National Assemb…

1
“Love is fed by the IMAGINATION, by which we become WISER than we know, BETTER than we feel, NOBLER than we are” | Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas 45:01

4M ago45:01

45:01

While imprisoned in Reading Gaol for the crime of gross indecency, Oscar Wilde wrote a letter to his friend and lover, Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas (1897). If you have a love letter that you’d like me to read right here on this podcast for all the world to hear, or a tale of romance you want to be told, send it to me via email at [email protected]…

1
On Satire: 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde 14:37

4M ago14:37

14:37

By the end of 1895 Oscar Wilde’s life was in ruins as he sat in Reading Gaol facing public disgrace, bankruptcy and, two years later, exile. Just ten months earlier the premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest at St James’s Theatre in London had been greeted rapturously by both the audience and critics. In this episode Colin and Clare consider w…

1
“What I DESIRE is impossible, for what I desire is YOU” | Rafiq Ahmed and Radha Menon 35:32

4M ago35:32

35:32

The love story of Rafiq Ahmed and Radha Menon (1965) “If my family finds out what I’ve been up to, they’ll never forgive me. I’ll be disowned!” If you have a love letter that you’d like me to read right here on this podcast for all the world to hear, or a tale of romance you want to be told, send it to me via email at [email protected]. If you’…

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Political Poems: 'Autumn Journal' by Louis MacNeice 12:55

4M ago12:55

12:55

In his long 1938 poem, Louis MacNeice took many of the ideals shared by other young writers of his time – a desire for relevance, responsiveness and, above all, honesty – and applied them in a way that has few equivalents in English poetry. This diary-style work, written from August to December 1938, reflects with ‘documentary vividness’, as Ian Ha…

1
“My SOUL quivers to the vibration of your STRINGS” | Alejandro Moreno and Yelitza Rodriguez 38:28

4M ago38:28

38:28

The love story of Alejandro Moreno and Yelitza Rodriguez (2024) “There is only one audience for whom I wish to play, and she is right here”. If you have a love letter that you’d like me to read right here on this podcast for all the world to hear, send it to me via email at [email protected]. If you’re struggling to find the words with which to…

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Among the Ancients II: Tacitus 12:51

5M ago12:51

12:51

The Annals, Tacitus’ study of the emperors from Tiberius to Nero, covers some of the most vivid and ruthless episodes in Roman history. A masterclass in political intrigue (and how not to do it), the Annals features mutiny, senatorial backstabbing, wars on the imperial frontiers, political purges and enormous egos. Emily and Tom explore the many am…

1
Medieval LOLs: Boccaccio's 'Decameron', Part One 45:47

5M ago45:47

45:47

In the preface to the Decameron Boccaccio describes Florentine society laid waste by bubonic plague in the mid-14th century. But before he gets to that he has a confession for the reader: he has been hurt by love, a love ‘more fervent than any other love’, and intends his work as a guide to life and love for young women in particular. In the first …

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Human Conditions: ‘The Souls of Black Folk’ by W.E.B. Du Bois 13:43

5M ago13:43

13:43

Brent Hayes Edwards and Adam discuss the ‘ur-text of Black political philosophy’, W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. Spanning autobiography, history, biography, fiction, music criticism and political science, its fourteen essays set the tone for Black literature, political debate and scholarly production for the course of the 20th century. S…

1
“As long as I’ve lived, I’ve YEARNED to love” | Erik Svensson and Katya Ivanova 41:57

5M ago41:57

41:57

A story of the romance between Erik Svensson and Katya Ivanova (AD 823): Erik Svensson, a young Viking from Sweden, joined his warlord father on a mission to cross the Baltic Sea and invade the mainland of Russia. While there, he met and fell in love with Katya Ivanova, a beautiful daughter of the enemy. If you have a love letter that you’d like me…

1
“Even before I rise, my thoughts rush to you, my IMMORTAL BELOVED!” | Ludwig van Beethoven to Antonie Brentano 37:39

5M ago37:39

37:39

Ludwig van Beethoven’s billet-doux to Antonie Brentano (1812): “I must live either wholly with you, or not at all”. If you have a love letter that you’d like me to read right here on this podcast for all the world to hear, send it to me via email at [email protected]. If you’re struggling to find the words with which to sweep your beloved off h…

1
On Satire: Byron's 'Don Juan' 17:54

5M ago17:54

17:54

Few poets have had the courage (or inclination) to rhyme ‘Plato’ with ‘potato’, ‘intellectual’ with ‘hen-peck’d you all’ or ‘Acropolis’ with ‘Constantinople is’. Byron does all of these in Don Juan, his 16,000-line unfinished mock epic that presents itself as a grand satire on human vanity in the tradition of Cervantes, Swift and the Stoics, and re…

1
Two Athletes fall in LOVE at the Paris OLYMPICS | Rafael Pérez and Renée Trumbull 31:25

5M ago31:25

31:25

A story of the romance between Rafael Pérez and Renée Trumbull (2024). Renée Trumbull, a Canadian gymnast, and Rafael Pérez, a Spanish swimmer, qualified to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. One bright July morning, while walking through the Olympic Village, they met. Over the course of the next few weeks together at the Games, they fel…

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Political Poems: 'Goblin Market' by Christina Rossetti, feat. Shirley Henderson and Felicity Jones 57:22

5M ago57:22

57:22

‘Goblin Market’ was the title poem of Christina Rossetti’s first collection, published in 1862, and while she disclaimed any allegorical purpose in it, modern readers have found it hard to resist political interpretations. The poem’s most obvious preoccupation seems to be the Victorian notion of the ‘fallen woman’. When she wrote it Rossetti was wo…

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"Our love is FORBIDDEN, but it can’t be helped" | Kenji Matsumoto and Li Mei 26:01

5M ago26:01

26:01

The love story of Kenji Matsumoto and Li Mei (1937): Kenji Matsumoto, a young soldier conscripted to the JAPANESE imperial army, was taken from his university and stationed outside Yan’an. While patrolling the countryside, he met a beautiful CHINESE peasant girl by the name of Li Mei. Between them, under the cover of darkness, a forbidden love was …

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“I’ll forget your NAME the day I forget the FOOD I live on” | Michelangelo to Tommaso de Cavalieri 28:58

6M ago28:58

28:58

Michelangelo’s billet-doux to Tommaso de Cavalieri (1533): “Perhaps you said this to try me, or to rekindle a greater flame in me, if it were possible. Whichever it is, I know for sure that I’ll forget your name the day I forget the food I live on; in fact, I could sooner forget my food, which nourishes only the body, than your name, which nourishe…

1
Among the Ancients II: Lucan 13:17

6M ago13:17

13:17

In his prodigious, prolific and very short career, Lucan was at turns championed, disavowed and finally forced into suicide at 25 by the emperor Nero. His only surviving work is Civil War, an account of the bloody and chaotic power struggle between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. In their first episode on Latin literature’s so-called ‘Silver Ag…

1
“It was the flame of LUST rather than the feeling of LOVE” | Peter Abèlard and Heloïse 29:10

6M ago29:10

29:10

A touching exchange of billets-doux between Heloïse and Peter Abèlard (12th century). “Every wife, every young girl desired you in your absence and was on fire in your presence; queens and great ladies envied me my joys and my bed”. If you have a love letter that you’d like me to read right here ON AIR for all the world to hear, send it to me via e…

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“I should LOVE her FOREVER, were it only for that” | Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway 29:08

6M ago29:08

29:08

A beautiful billet-doux sent from Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway (1786). “Friendship is precious not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and, thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine”. If you have a love letter that you’d like me to read right here ON AIR for all the world to hear, send it to …

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“My only LUCID moments were DREAMS of you" | Hector Berlioz to Harriet Smithson 24:30

6M ago24:30

24:30

A beautiful love story, written by Hector Berlioz for Harriet Smithson (1865). “A plan began to take shape in my mind: Harriet Smithson should hear of me! She should know that I also was an artist!” If you have a love letter that you’d like me to read right here ON AIR for all the world to hear, send it to me via email at [email protected]. If …

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Welcome to Billet Doux 1:01

6M ago1:01

1:01

Welcome to Billet Doux, a show about literature and love. On this show, dear friend–than which you’ll not find another lovelier, nor sweeter–we’ll read some of the most arrestingly beautiful love letters ever to have been penned. Letters written by, to take just a few noteworthy examples: Michelangelo, Beethoven, Elizabeth Taylor, F. Scott Fitzgera…

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Medieval LOLs: 'Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle' 40:48

6M ago40:48

40:48

The character of Gawain, one of King Arthur’s leading knights, recurs throughout medieval literature, but the way he’s presented underwent a curious development during the period, moving closer and closer to an impossible and perhaps comical ideal of chivalric perfection. In 'Sir Gawain and the Greene Knight', his most well-known incarnation, Gawai…

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Human Conditions: ‘Hope against Hope’ by Nadezhda Mandelstam 14:12

6M ago14:12

14:12

After reciting an unflattering poem about Stalin to a small group of friends, Osip Mandelstam was betrayed to the police and endured five years in exile before dying in transit to the gulag. His wife, Nadezhda, spent the rest of her life dodging arrest, advocating for Osip’s work and writing what came to be known as Hope against Hope. Hope against …

1
On Satire: Jane Austen's 'Emma' 14:51

6M ago14:51

14:51

What kind of satirist was Jane Austen? Her earliest writings follow firmly in the footsteps of Tristram Shandy in their deployment of heightened sentiment as a tool for satirising romantic novelistic conventions. But her mature fiction goes far beyond this, taking the fashion for passionate sensibility and confronting it with moneyed realism to dep…

1
Political Poems: 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' by Walt Whitman 10:35

6M ago10:35

10:35

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…

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Among the Ancients II: Plautus and Terence 14:27

7M 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 …

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