Best Bulgakov Podcasts (2025)

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113 - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (2 of 2) 1:07:06

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9d ago1:07:06

1:07:06

Murder, faith, redemption, justice, morality, and a reckoning with one's beliefs about the world! This is The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. In this episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast, we (Nathan Sharp and David Southard) discuss the second half of the novel, looking at the novel's interplay of belief systems and reality, mora…

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On and Off-Screen Imaginaries with Tiffany Sia 1:28:16

2M ago1:28:16

1:28:16

On and Off-Screen Imaginaries (Primary Information, 2024) is a collection of six essays by filmaker, artist and writer Tiffany Sia. Sia joins us to discuss how media depictions of political practice and identity are produced, negotiated, memorialized, and transformed through censorship, surveillance, diaspora, and time. On and Off-Screen Imaginarie…

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112 - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1 of 2) 1:22:55

3M ago1:22:55

1:22:55

In this episode of The Books of Some Substance podcast, Nathan and David get into the first half of Fyodor Dostoevsky's masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov (Books 1-6; Parts 1 and 2). From the novel's dense, philosophical style and its stark contrast to modern life, to deep dives into themes like love, free will, human suffering, redemption, and th…

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Full Circle: A Life In Rebellion, by Ben Morea + 1000 Voices Collective, w/ Ariel Uesseler and Sabu Kohso 1:21:31

3M ago1:21:31

1:21:31

Ben Morea is primarily known for his central involvement with the print magazine Black Mask and the militant anarchist group Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker. Both were active in New York City in the late 1960’s. In the 1970’s, Morea went underground and lived for forty years in the Southern Rockies, immersing himself in ceremonial practice with i…

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RELAUNCH: The Unseen Book Club returns! 16:57

3M ago16:57

16:57

The Unseen Book Club returns! Max and Dan do some light bibliomancy, reflect on the past and cast our gazes to the horizon and discuss the future of the show. Buzzsprout Instagram Music by Ex-Official Art by Eli MackBy The Unseen Book Club

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111 - Light Years by James Salter 1:06:02

7M ago1:06:02

1:06:02

In this episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast, hosts Nathan Sharp and David Southard reunite with our old friend Eric Heiman (whose life and experiences connect closely to the novel on this episode) to discuss the intricate and poignant novel Light Years by James Salter. We get into the unique lyrical and unadorned narrative style of the b…

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110 - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1:21:57

8M ago1:21:57

1:21:57

Exploring 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Join hosts David Southard and Nathan Sharp in the Books of Some Substance podcast as they kick off Season 3 with an in-depth discussion on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's seminal Latin American novel, '100 Years of Solitude.' This episode covers the novel's ambitious narrative, magical r…

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Season 3 Books Announcement 13:40

10M ago13:40

13:40

Season Three: Family The Books of Some Substance Podcast's third season is underway! David and Nathan are here to announce the season's theme of family and introduce the lineup of books they'll be reading and discussing. The season opens with '100 Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, followed by 'Light Years' by James Salter, 'The Brothers…

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108 - Control, Revisited: Six Novels of Power, Freedom, and Surrender 1:26:17

12M ago1:26:17

1:26:17

In this episode, David and Nathan look back over season two, tracing the connections, marking the distinctions, and reframing their understanding/awareness of how control works in each and every book discussed this season. Revisiting: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. …

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107 - Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller 1:18:12

1y ago1:18:12

1:18:12

In this episode, David and Nathan delve into Henry Miller's controversial and groundbreaking novel "Tropic of Cancer." Published in 1934, this semi-autobiographical work was banned in the US and the UK upon its release due to its explicit content. Despite—and perhaps in part because of—its ban, "Tropic of Cancer" has endured as a provocative and es…

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106 - The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles 1:03:07

1+ y ago1:03:07

1:03:07

Come explore existential despair, the hell of isolation, and the mad dash into oblivion with Nathan and David. On this episode, your hosts have an in-depth discussion on Paul Bowles' 1949 novel The Sheltering Sky - a novel of stark prose and philosophical depth that follows Port and Kit Moresby, an American couple traveling in post-WWII North Afric…

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105 - Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann 1:09:17

1+ y ago1:09:17

1:09:17

Welcome to our episode on the novel Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann. David and Nathan wind their conversation through the disorienting pages of this incredible novel. We explore its unique form and style, ponder its structure, and discuss how these creative decisions add to the overarching sense of strangeness and mystery that permeates the narrative. …

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104 - Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee 56:50

2y ago56:50

56:50

Nathan and David continue their exploration of control with Waiting for Barbarians, a 1980 novel by South African writer J.M. Coetzee. Empire! Torture! Manipulation! Control! Quite the book, and quite the episode.

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103 - Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (2/2) 1:08:20

2y ago1:08:20

1:08:20

Our second episode on Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, and again David is joined by Seth from W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List. Seth is here to nimbly unravel some of the meaning of this insane and insanely good novel, and he does an excellent job. But no matter what they tend to get lost along the way, as any analysis of the book will be "not a disenta…

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Event Factory by Renee Gladman 1:17:22

2y ago1:17:22

1:17:22

Event Factory is the first in a cycle of novellas by Renee Gladman. An unnamed linguist-traveler arrives in the city-state of Ravicka, whose inhabitants speak a uniquely place-based, relational, and physically gestural language. The narrator is on a quest for meaning, understanding, and connection, but everything, even the buildings themselves, eva…

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102 - Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1/2) 1:21:02

2y ago1:21:02

1:21:02

In our first of two episodes on Thomas Pynchon's 1973 masterpiece Gravity's Rainbow, David is joined, once again, by Seth from W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List to talk about one of his favorite ways to approach the novel. Seth brings an invaluable depth of knowledge and research to this episode, examining the novel as being primarily about America in the "l…

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101: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector 45:55

2y ago45:55

45:55

Welcome all and sundry to the first episode of Season 2: Control. Join us, David and Nathan, as we start this new season dancing to the beautifully strange rhythms of Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star. In between quoting and praising this novella, we discuss narrative techniques, metaphysical implications, symbolic deaths, co-existing interp…

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Publishing The Commune, w/ Mitch Anzuoni of Inpatient Press 29:28

2y ago29:28

29:28

Mitch Anzuoni of Inpatient Press on discovering Marios Chakkas and finding a translator who would do justice to Chakkas’ unique voice. Review of The Commune in Jacobin Magazine Mikis Theodorakis' obituary in Monthly Review Buzzsprout Instagram Music by Ex-Official Art by Eli Mack

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The Commune by Marios Chakkas, w/ translator Chloe Tsolakoglou 1:23:41

2y ago1:23:41

1:23:41

Marios Chakkas wrote The Commune in 1972 shortly before his death of cancer at the age of 41. Chakkas was a prolific Greek writer who lived through decades of hope, aspiration, repression and ultimately defeat for the country’s Left. A unique and unclassifiable novella, The Commune charts the state of Chakkas’ psyche through a dense sequence of mem…

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Season 2 Books Announcement 2:39

2y ago2:39

2:39

With the 100th episode behind us, and with Nick off exploring the world of dance music, David and Nathan have decided to try some new things. We're going into video (as you can see). We're going seasonal. And we will have a new website, logo, slogan, and much more coming soon. Each new episode will come out on the first Wednesday of every month. Se…

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Al treilea război mondial? Interviu cu Freddy Fuchs (colonel în rezervă al armatei israeliene) 34:33

2y ago34:33

34:33

Suntem la finele anului 2023 și Orientul Mijlociu este un butoi de pulbere. În 7 octombrie, Hamas a atacat fără milă statul Israel și a omorât 1400 de civili inocenți, între care și copii, adolescenți sau bătrâni. Teroriștii meritau să primească o replică, însă bombardarea unor obiective din Gaza a produs și victime colaterale. Peste trei mii de pa…

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100 - End of an Era 1:17:38

2y ago1:17:38

1:17:38

On this, our 100th episode, we answered some of your questions from our B.O.S.S. voicemail. Sadly we could not get to them all, but we talked about memory, books worth reading a 1,000 times, and childhood books. Sadly, we also said farewell to our founding father, Nick, who started this whole wild ride of a podcast and book club. He'll be out there…

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Special Announcement 2:53

2+ y ago2:53

2:53

Our 100th episode is coming up. And we want you to call in and leave us a message, ask us a question, read a quote, file a complaint, suggest a book, or leave a cool noise (like a ghost or a fart or a ghost fart or something like that...). This episode will also, sadly, be Nick's final episode. Our founding father and the first heavy reader is hang…

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99 - László Krasznahorkai's Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming (Guest: Derek Maine) 59:27

2+ y ago59:27

59:27

On this episode, David is joined by reader and writer Derek Maine to discuss Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming by everyone's favorite pessimistic, long-winded, Hungraian doom master László Krasznahorkai. By everyone, we mean ours. He's a favorite here at BOSS. And we are happy to be joined by Derek Maine, author of CHARACTERS, published by Expat Press i…

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Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko 1:40:29

2+ y ago1:40:29

1:40:29

Leslie Marmon Silko, Laguna Pueblo author and prominent figure in the first of wave of the Native American Renaissance, spent ten year crafting Almanac of the Dead, published in 1991. Almanac is a sprawling, prophetic, epic novel populated by coke smugglers, arms dealers, sex workers, homeless veterans, scheming businessmen, corrupt politicians, an…

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Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie 1:27:28

2+ y ago1:27:28

1:27:28

Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, by French historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, is a landmark work of social history first published in 1974. Le Roy Ladurie reconstructs the lives, relationships, and theological worldview of everyday people in the small village of Montaillou in the Pyrenees mountains at the beginning of the fourteenth century.…

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98 - Jon Fosse's Melancholy I-II 41:42

2+ y ago41:42

41:42

David, Eric, and Nick read Jon Fosse's Melancholy I-II, a mid-90s Norwegian novel in two parts that explores the connections between art, death, and the divine. Also discussed in this episode: what exactly is "the divine." For fans of cyclic long sentences and also cyclic short sentences, Melancholy I-II is perhaps a slightly lesser known Fosse wor…

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97 - Franza Kafka's Diaries (Guest: Ross Benjamin) 1:05:34

2+ y ago1:05:34

1:05:34

David is joined by Ross Benjamin, translator of Franz Kafka's Diaries in its most authentic form to date. Listen in as they discuss Benjamin's start in the field of translation, his love for Kafka's craftsmanship and humor, and why a new edition of Kafka's diaries needed to be released. Benjamin's translation is available now via Schocken Books and…

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The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov 1:53:35

2+ y ago1:53:35

1:53:35

Writer and translator Bela Shayevich joins the Unseen Book Club to talk about Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard. Bulgakov is primarily known in the West for his novel The Master and Margarita, but his most successful work in his lifetime was The Days of the Turbins, a wildly successful play about a family of White Guard officers in the besieged ci…

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96 - Marcel Proust's Time Regained (In Search of Lost Time #6) 1:09:36

2+ y ago1:09:36

1:09:36

We have (finally) found the lost time! It was inside us all along! Listen in as Nathan, David, and Nick complete their tour through Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, concluding with a discussion on the final volume, Time Regained. Topics include: memory, the purpose of art, and . . . BDSM? In the event that you anticipate going through withdr…

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The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier 59:09

2+ y ago59:09

59:09

The Kingdom of this World, written by French-born Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier in 1949, is a cosmologically immersive novel of Haitian society and its ruptures during the Haitian Revolution. Carpentier sought to evoke the texture of 18th century Haiti through exploration of what he termed lo real maravilloso, or the marvelous real. Through the eye…

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95 - Henri Lefebvre's The Missing Pieces (Guest: Tom Comitta) 58:03

2+ y ago58:03

58:03

In this episode Nick is joined by Tom Comitta, aficionado of citational fiction and author of The Nature Book, newly released and available now from Coffee House Press. Tom selected Henri Lefebvre's The Missing Pieces as the work of focus for today's discussion, so listen in as we talk through the history of authors remixing words, Lefebvre's abili…

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Danton's Death by Georg Büchner 1:34:58

3y ago1:34:58

1:34:58

Sasha Warren of the Unsound Mind blog returns to the Unseen Book Club to talk with about the life and work of revolutionary, proto-communist German playwright Georg Büchner (1813 - 1837). Büchner’s sparse writings were influential in the development of German modernist literature and socialism, mixing Hegelian materialism with biting satire and int…

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94 - Anton Chekhov's Difficult People (Guest: Bob Blaisdell) 50:06

3y ago50:06

50:06

In this episode Nick is joined by Bob Blaisdell, Professor of English at the City University of New York's Kingsborough College and author of a new work on Anton Chekhov titled Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius. Listen in as they talk in depth about the story Difficult People, as well as Blaisdell's approach to digging int…

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El Apando by José Revueltas 1:15:25

3y ago1:15:25

1:15:25

José Revueltas, revolutionary communist and writer, wrote El Apando (The Hole) while incarcerated in the bowels of El Palacio de Lecumberri for his participation in the Mexico City student movement of 1968. It is a stark, gritty, and haunting prison novel that pits the petty violence and depravities of incarcerated addicts against the immobilizing …

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93 - Marcel Proust's The Captive & The Fugitive (In Search of Lost Time #5) 1:04:09

3y ago1:04:09

1:04:09

David, Nathan, and Nick continue on their expedition for misplaced minutes, this time tackling Marcel Proust's fifth installment, The Captive & The Fugitive. Topics this time around include: the endless cycle of the narrator's obsession and apathy toward Albertine; the errors and inconsistencies of this posthumously published work (and whether that…

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Make the Golf Course a Public Sex Forest with Jimmy Cooper and Lyn Corelle 1:31:38

3y ago1:31:38

1:31:38

Make the Golf a Public Sex Forest is an eponymously themed and self-published anthology of queer smut curated and edited by Jimmy Cooper and Lyn Corelle. In summer 2021, an anonymous manifesto declared war on the Hiawatha Golf Course in Minneapolis, enrolling regional queer history to catalyze a reclamation of autonomous public spaces: Places to be…

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92 - Han Kang's The Vegetarian 36:41

3y ago36:41

36:41

David, Eric, and Nick dive into The Vegetarian, a 2007 novel by Han Kang that, after its English translation, won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. This compact work will appeal to anyone interested in tightly architected narrative structures, complex questions of individual agency, and visceral scenes situated right next to moments of quiet…

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Mezzanine with Mitch Anzuoni and Peter Christian 1:34:27

3y ago1:34:27

1:34:27

In a break from our usual format, we interview Mitch Anzuoni and Peter Christian of Inpatient Interactive about their video game Mezzanine, a MYST-style point-and-click puzzle game of techno terror and occult mystery. The game relies heavily on textual exploration. The plot emerges from pages of richly composed and frequently hilarious magazine art…

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The Tricking Hour and My Pleasure by Irene Silt 1:13:33

3y ago1:13:33

1:13:33

We talk to poet and writer Irene Silt about their two new books published by Deluge Books in October 2022. The essays in The Tricking Hour (2018-2019) and the poems in My Pleasure (2019-2021) are expansive, and broadly concerned with sex work, anti-work feeling, and the cultivation of capacity through intimacy and experience. They contain profound …

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Episode 18.1 Translating Marx’s Capital into Spanish 11:13

3y ago11:13

11:13

In episode 18, we talked about Raquel Salas Rivera’s use of key lines from Marx’s Capital in Lo Terciario/The Tertiary. Later, Max did some research and wrote more about the Spanish translation/critical edition of Capital that Salas Rivera quotes (and re-translates) in his poems, a collaborative work by Pedro Scarón and Siglo XXI Editores Argentina…

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91 - Marcel Proust's Sodom and Gomorrah (In Search of Lost Time #4) 45:47

3y ago45:47

45:47

Nathan, David, and Nick tackle Sodom and Gomorrah, the fourth volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. They discuss how groundbreaking it was at the time to so openly write about homosexuality, the noticeable increase in the narrator's presence in the book's happenings, and the increased level of action in play (at least in comparison to p…

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Lo Terciario/The Tertiary by Raquel Salas Rivera 55:10

3y ago55:10

55:10

Lo Terciario/The Tertiary, a book of auto-translated poems by Raquel Salas Rivera (based in Puerto Rico and Philadelphia), interrogates the intimacies of familial bonds, gender, and colonization through a unique deployment of key concepts from Marx. “Formal” exposition of Marxian conceptions of debt, circulation, and the value form entangle moments…

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Minneapolis Book Event Recap 23:32

3y ago23:32

23:32

The Unseen Book Club recaps the Minneapolis Everything for Everyone reading event from back in August, for which Dan and Sasha facilitated a tabletop role-play inspired activity. We talk about game design, collective imagination, and the suburbs. Sasha’s madness blog can be found here. Buzzsprout Instagram Music by Ex-Official Art by Eli Mack…

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90 - Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 (Guest: Seth of WASTE Mailing List) 56:58

3y ago56:58

56:58

Seth — aficionado of difficult fiction and driving force behind WASTE Mailing List — joins the podcast this episode to chat with David about the endless gifts to be found within the endless layers of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. Pynchon-lite it is not! Encompassing both the absurd and the prophetic, this early work by the reclusive author…

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89 - Marcel Proust's The Guermantes Way (In Search of Lost Time #3) 1:08:43

3+ y ago1:08:43

1:08:43

David, Nathan, and Nick continue their journey through Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, this time discussing the third volume, The Guermantes Way. While this one might very well be "a middle book" — and by proximity, this episode "a middle episode" — there is continued brilliance to be enjoyed (if one can make it through the marathon salon s…

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88 - Alexander Theroux's Fables (Guest: George Salis) 49:08

3+ y ago49:08

49:08

Writer, interviewer, and heavy reader George Salis returns to the podcast, this time to discuss Alexander Theroux's Fables with David. The two tackle a list of maximalist topics: deep cuts of vocabulary (real and invented), the forever ongoing inclusions of edits and additions that make a work expand even after being published, and, well, lists the…

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87 - Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle 36:28

3+ y ago36:28

36:28

David, Eric, and Nick seek out some mid-summer spookiness in Shirley Jackson's acclaimed We Have Always Lived in the Castle and instead find a compact work that is much more complicated than the horror themes, accessible sentences, and vaguely young adult-ish book cover (thanks Penguin Classics) lead one to believe. Cheers to Jackson for walking th…

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Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune 2052-2072 with authors M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi 1:32:47

3+ y ago1:32:47

1:32:47

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune 2052-2072, co-authored by Eman Abdelhadi and M.E. O’Brien, is a series of fictional interviews with future revolutionaries. Through tumultuous decades of ecological, economic and political crises, people worldwide discover and build the commune form. Everything for Everyone is at once…

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Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño 1:06:53

3+ y ago1:06:53

1:06:53

In which Max and Dan tackle a work by Roberto Bolaño, one of the truly great novelists of the late 20th century. Nazi Literature in the Americas, originally published in 1996 and translated to English in 2008, is a biographical encyclopedia: a ficitonal canon of pan-American right-wing avant-garde writers. Despite the simple premise, ‘Nazi Literatu…