Best Dmitry Samarov Podcasts (2025)

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Episode 652 - Dmitry Samarov 1:12:22

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5d ago1:12:22

1:12:22

It's been a year since his last episode, so what's artist Dmitry Samarov been up to? Plenty! We talk about his new project of redesigning and illustrating public domain books, why he started off with the White Whale itself, and why Babbitt! was next in line, what the common themes are among the six books he's illustrated since this project began, a…

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Starting a Religion, One Split Personality at a Time: Sisters (1972) featuring John Patrick Higgins 1:25:59

3d ago1:25:59

1:25:59

Inquisitive journalist Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor, fashion model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder), violently murder a man. Panicking, she calls the police. But when the detective arrives at the scene and finds nothing amiss, Grace is forced to take matters into her own hands. Her first move is to recru…

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Episode 653 - David Leopold 1:52:28

4h ago1:52:28

1:52:28

Curator and archivist David Leopold rejoins the show for a wide-ranging talk centered on the amazing new HIRSCHFELD'S SONDHEIM: A Poster Book (Abrams ComicArts). We talk about David's decades as Hirschfeld's archivist, Sondheim's love of Hirschfeld's work, the process of making his first book of Hirschfeld's art that focuses on a single creator, th…

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Episode 651 - AMA 1:59:51

13d ago1:59:51

1:59:51

No guest this week, so it's time for our first Ask Me Anything (AMA) episode since 2019! Past guests and pals peppered me with questions about the podcast, my reading habits, menswear aesthetics, mental health, comics, hair care, keeping a journal, work/life balance or lack thereof, the one episode I think people are sleeping on, Star Trek vs. Star…

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Episode 650 - Dan Goldman 1:42:05

22d ago1:42:05

1:42:05

With RED LIGHT PROPERTIES: Unfinished Business (Kinjin Storylab), writer/cartoonist Dan Goldman brings us a wildly entertaining graphic novel of midlife, the afterlife, and the south Florida real estate market. We talk about how the concept for RLP grabbed hold of him 20+ years back & never let go, why the story had to take place in/around Miami, h…

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Nothing In Life Is Ever That Serious: Daughters of Darkness (1971) 1:24:11

1M ago1:24:11

1:24:11

Newlyweds stop at a posh French hotel on their way to England. They meet a beautiful red-lipped woman whom the hotel owner swears had been there 40 years ago, even though she hasn't aged. She introduces herself as Countess of Bathory and folks begin to wonder. To check out more information about That Horrorcast, take a look at our website: ⁠⁠https:…

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Episode 649 - David Levithan and Jens Lekman 1:07:51

28d ago1:07:51

1:07:51

With SONGS FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S WEDDINGS (Abrams Press), writer David Levithan and singer-songwriter Jens Lekman bring the collaborative alchemy, as 20 years of fandom/friendship lead to this wonderful novel about a Swedish singer-songwriter — J — who finds a side-career playing original songs at people's weddings. We talk about the power of a great …

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Episode 648 - Sacha Mardou 1:11:41

1M ago1:11:41

1:11:41

With PAST TENSE: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself In Therapy (Avery), cartoonist Sacha Mardou brings us a phenomenal graphic memoir about the midlife process of overcoming lifelong traumas and anxiety. We talk about her decision to to make her therapy process (& sessions) public, first as online comics and then as a Past Tense, the benefits…

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June Skinner Sawyers 1:14:23

1M ago1:14:23

1:14:23

A talk with writer/indexer/editor June Skinner Sawyers about her many interests in the literary racket.By Dmitry Samarov

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Episode 647 - Oliver Radclyffe 1:34:47

2M ago1:34:47

1:34:47

With his phenomenal debut memoir, FRIGHTEN THE HORSES (Roxane Gay Books/Grove Atlantic), Oliver Radclyffe takes us on a journey into trans-selfhood. We talk about the gap between a trans narrator and a cis-het reader, the importance of trans visibility, how his understanding of masculinity and being male have changed, and how he faced down the risk…

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Episode 646 - Eulogy 30:44

2M ago30:44

30:44

No conversation this week, unless you count me talking to myself. This episode, I share some thoughts and memories about my father, following his death last week at the age of 88 — or 87, depending on who he was lying to — along with the eulogy I gave at his funeral. • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe, Patreon, o…

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Slasher Lit Bro: Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) 1:24:32

2M ago1:24:32

1:24:32

A crime writer forces his hypnotised assistant to commit grisly killings to provide him with story material. The ingenious murders baffle the detectives at Scotland Yard. To check out more information about That Horrorcast, take a look at our website: ⁠⁠https://thathorrorcast.com⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/horrorpod666⁠⁠ Art and other work do…

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Alexander Sorondo 1:15:20

2M ago1:15:20

1:15:20

A talk with writer Alexander Sorondo about his epic William T. Vollmann profile, the even longer new Mark Danielewski one, Substack, Miami, and more.By Dmitry Samarov

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Episode 645 - Rachel Cockerell 1:13:52

3M ago1:13:52

1:13:52

How did Russian Jews wind up migrating to Galveston, Texas in the early 1900s? How did the image of America as melting pot come into existence? How did a family memoir evolve into a forgotten history of Zionism? Find out during my conversation with Rachel Cockerell about her amazing new book, MELTING POINT: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Prom…

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"Harriet the Spy" (with Kerri Sullivan) 44:58

2M ago44:58

44:58

On the latest episode of Framed and Bound, host Tobias Carroll and guest Kerri Sullivan revisit the 1996 film Harriet the Spy. Subjects discussed in this episode: how to tell when a movie set in NYC was not shot in NYC; a Kids in the Hall connection; the number of Tony Award winners involved with this film; Diane Duane's novels about wizards; the c…

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Episode 644 - Paul Karasik 1:25:21

3M ago1:25:21

1:25:21

Thirty-plus years in the making, the graphic adaptation of Paul Auster's THE NEW YORK TRILOGY (Pantheon) is here at last! Paul Karasik rejoins the show from Yaddo Artists Retreat to talk about the process of adapting Auster's postmodern crime novels into comics, how he collaborated with David Mazzucchelli (CITY OF GLASS) and Lorenzo Mattotti (GHOST…

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Krystle Ratticus 1:41:44

3M ago1:41:44

1:41:44

A talk with Krystle Ratticus about zines, art, writing, Chicago, and the rest of it.By Dmitry Samarov

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Episode 643 - Kate Maruyama 1:15:32

3M ago1:15:32

1:15:32

One of my fave guest/friends, Kate Maruyama, rejoins the show to celebrate her wonderful new novel, ALTERATIONS (Running Wild Press)! We talk about the book's long gestation/publishing history, Kate's love of old Hollywood & costume design, closeted movie stars and how she told the story of a gay relationship in the '30s & '40s, and how it felt to …

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Episode 642 - David Denby 1:37:45

3M ago1:37:45

1:37:45

With his fantastic new book, EMINENT JEWS (Holt), writer and critic David Denby explores the impact on American culture of Jews Unbound through profiles of Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. We talk about how he selected his four subjects, how each of them came of age in an environment that Jews hadn't experienced in m…

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Episode 641 - Peter Stothard 1:07:35

3M ago1:07:35

1:07:35

Can we find the poet in their poems? With HORACE: Poet on a Volcano (Yale University Press), Peter Stothard explores how the life of the great Roman poet unfolds though his art and the histories. We talk about why he wrote this biography through a critical study of Horace's poems (and why that's been a controversial approach), how Horace embodied t…

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It Worked In The Movie: The Return of the Living Dead (1985) 1:14:53

4M ago1:14:53

1:14:53

When foreman Frank (James Karen) shows new employee Freddy (Thom Mathews) a secret military experiment in a supply warehouse, the two klutzes accidentally release a gas that reanimates corpses into flesh-eating zombies. As the epidemic spreads throughout Louisville, Ky., and the creatures satisfy their hunger in gory and outlandish ways, Frank and …

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Episode 640 - Cecile Wajsbrot 1:09:44

4M ago1:09:44

1:09:44

With her bewitching and beautiful novel NEVERMORE (Seagull Books, translated from French by Tess Lewis, who joins our conversation), Cécile Wajsbrot takes us on a tour of Chenobyl's Forbidden Zone, the High Line in NYC, Dresden, Paris, under the shadow of the Time Passes section of Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse. We talk about the challenges of…

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Episode 639 - Keiler Roberts 1:14:13

4M ago1:14:13

1:14:13

She may be able to quit cartooning (for a while), but Keiler Roberts can't quit The Virtual Memories Show! With her wonderful new book, PREPARING TO BITE (Drawn & Quarterly), Keiler returns to comics with a collection of (mostly) hilarious vignettes about domestic life, middle-age, the impact of multiple sclerosis, and having too many pets. We talk…

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Ben Tanzer 2:14:05

4M ago2:14:05

2:14:05

A talk with Chicago/New York writer Ben Tanzer about his After Hours book and a lot more.By Dmitry Samarov

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Episode 638 - Peter Kuper 1:20:23

4M ago1:20:23

1:20:23

With his new graphic novel, INSECTOPOLIS (WWNorton), Peter Kuper brings us the 400-million-year history of insects in their own words as they take a post-human tour of the New York Public Library. We talk about how Insectopolis began when he was around 4 years old and saw the 17-year cicada brood, how Peter needed a new mode of comics-making for th…

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Moby Dick book-release 1:05:46

4M ago1:05:46

1:05:46

A talk between publisher Mallory Smart and designer Dmitry Samarov on the occasion of the release of a new illustrated edition of Herman Melville's classic by Maudlin House. The event took place at Tangible Books in Chicago on May 10th, 2025.By Dmitry Samarov

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Episode 637 - Vauhini Vara 1:09:02

4M ago1:09:02

1:09:02

With SEARCHES: Selfhood in the Digital Age (Pantheon), tech writer Vauhini Vara explores how our sense of self has been co-opted, quantified, and exploited by big tech as a way of selling us more stuff or selling us to third parties. We talk about what we talk about when we talk about our Google searches (& Amazon purchases, Twitter subject prefere…

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Episode 636 - Craig Thompson 1:25:10

5M ago1:25:10

1:25:10

Artist Craig Thompson joins the show at long last to celebrate his new book, GINSENG ROOTS: A Memoir (Pantheon). We talk about how he spent ten summers of his childhood helping farm ginseng, how that herb connects rural Wisconsin with China and South Korea, how he balanced history, journalism, economics, and memoir in the pages of his book, and why…

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The Incognito Lounge by Denis Johnson 7:58

5M ago7:58

7:58

I read the title poem from a 1994 Denis Johnson collection.By Dmitry Samarov

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"Ask the Dust" (with Constance Squires) 48:01

5M ago48:01

48:01

After an unexpected break, Framed and Bound returns with a new episode focusing on writer-director Robert Towne's 2006 adaptation of John Fante's novel Ask the Dust! Joining host Tobias Carroll for this episode is Constance Squires, author of Low April Sun, available wherever books are sold. Discussed this episode: the ideal director to adapt John …

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Episode 635 - Ari Richter 1:31:18

5M ago1:31:18

1:31:18

Artist, professor and now like-it-or-not cartoonist Ari Richter joins the show to talk about his fantastic book, Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz: A Graphic Family Memoir of Trauma & Inheritance (Fantagraphics). We talk about how he he began this project in the wake of the Tree of Life massacre in 2018, how it helped him exorcise the demons of hi…

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Episode 634 - Dan Nadel 2:03:40

5M ago2:03:40

2:03:40

Author and curator Dan Nadel joins the show to celebrate the publication of his amazing new biography, CRUMB: A Cartoonist's Life (Scribner). We get into Robert Crumb's significance in American art, comics, and culture, Dan's first experience with a Crumb comic (it was an ish of American Splendor), the challenge of capturing the underground comics …

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Episode 633 - See Hear Speak 21:35

5M ago21:35

21:35

No guest? No problem! It's time for another impromptu monologue episode: this time, Gil sorts through family legacies of the genetic and Larkinesque variety, as occasioned by taking his dad for cataract surgery and getting a call from an old & previously deceased friend! Follow Gil on Bluesky and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virt…

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Episode 632 - Peter Trachtenberg 1:29:19

6M ago1:29:19

1:29:19

With his amazing new book The Twilight of Bohemia: Westbeth and the Last Artists in New York (Black Sparrow Press), Peter Trachtenberg explores the 50+ years of history for Westbeth Artists Housing in the far West Village, the role of the arts in New York City, and the ways we build & sustain community. We get into his long-term history with Westbe…

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Episode 631 - David Shields 1:37:02

6M ago1:37:02

1:37:02

Author David Shields returns to the show for a conversation about his new documentary, HOW WE GOT HERE, and the companion book, HOW WE GOT HERE: Melville plus Nietzsche divided by the square root of Allan Bloom times Žižek squared = Bannon (Sublation Media). We get into how the world moved from the death of God to the death of essence to the death …

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Nathan Knapp 1:46:40

6M ago1:46:40

1:46:40

A talk with writer Nathan Knapp. Read my review of Daybook and listen to me read its first few pages and, most importantly, buy yourself a copy!By Dmitry Samarov

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Episode 630 - Meeting Across The River 17:56

6M ago17:56

17:56

Uh-oh! Gil doesn't have a guest this week, so he recorded a monologue from a hotel room in Weehawken, NJ during a business conference for his day job! He talks mental health, oblique mythology, Charles Crumb, comics and pharma friends, the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and more! Follow Gil on Bluesky and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The …

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We Live Inside A Dream—Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) featuring Steve Gergley 1:57:49

6M ago1:57:49

1:57:49

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) is a psychological horror film directed by David Lynch, serving as a prequel to the TV series Twin Peaks. The movie explores the final days of Laura Palmer, the troubled high school student whose murder sets off the events of the show. The film is split into two parts. The first follows FBI agents investigating …

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Episode 629 - Elon Green 1:03:02

6M ago1:03:02

1:03:02

With THE MAN NOBODY KILLED: Life, Death, and Art In Michael Stewart's New York (Celadon Books), author Elon Green brings us an investigation into a terrible episode of police brutality and its aftermath in mid-'80s NYC. We talk about what drew him to the story of Michael Stewart, a 25-year-old black artist-model-DJ who died at the hands of transit …

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Daybook by Nathan Knapp 12:05

6M ago12:05

12:05

I read the first few pages of Nathan Knapp's Daybook. Read my review.By Dmitry Samarov

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Episode 628 - Vanda Krefft 1:21:17

6M ago1:21:17

1:21:17

Biographer Vanda Krefft returns to the show to celebrate her wonderful & illuminating new book: EXPECT GREAT THINGS!: How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women (Algonquin Books). We talk about the turn of the (20th) century origins of Katharine Gibbs & her school, the legacy of her executive secretarial course f…

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Episode 627 - Seth Lorinczi 1:23:11

7M ago1:23:11

1:23:11

With DEATH TRIP: A Post-Holocaust Psychedelic Memoir (Spiral Path Collective Press), Seth Lorinczi explores how trauma can be transmitted over generations, and how an ancient (& new) form of treatment can help overcome it. We talk about finding his family's story of the Holocaust, trying to understand why so much of it stayed hidden, how badly it w…