Today’s episode of the Hardcore Literature Podcast is a long one. A long one for a short book with a huge impact. We’re reviewing, analysing, discussing, and drawing modern day parallels with George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945). This podcast takes it’s time getting into the book itself, but it’s all relevant. The first 40 minutes of […]
The Q&A Show: Answering Your Questions About Books, Reading & Literature
Thank you to everyone who has emailed in and asked such great, nuanced questions about books, reading, and literature. I just had to do a Q&A show – first one! – because these were some really interesting questions. Feel free to check out the timestamps below the audio player to jump to whatever questions interests […]
The First Episode of the Nobel Prize Book Club Challenge: The Works of Peter Handke
I’m so excited to kick off the first month of the Nobel Prize Book Club Challenge. This first episode is about the controversial winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature, Peter Handke. The Works of Peter Handke: Nobel Prize Reading Challenge And what a great show. Check out the show notes and timestamps below […]
The Yukio Mishima Podcast (The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Book Review)
Today’s podcast is one of my favourite of all time. We’re reviewing Yukio Mishima’s (1925-1970) great, yet controversial, book: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1963). This podcast contains mature themes and topics that some listeners might find upsetting, such as ritualistic suicide, mental illness, and right-wing politics. The show also contains light […]
The Differences Between Men and Women (Nietzsche Podcast)
Today we’re talking about the differences between men and women, focusing primarily on women, by virtue of two great books of philosophy: Human, All Too Human and Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche. Trigger warning: Nietzsche has been charged with being a complete misogynist. I took a risk with offending my prime audience with this one […]
What Book Would You Choose for the Next Podcast?
I’d really appreciate if you help me choose the next book for the Hardcore Literature Podcast. We’ve had some really interesting episodes lately: Aristotle Ovid Jung Chekhov And I think the following choices are quite enticing. You’ll notice I’ve thrown some manga in there too. I’d like us to chat about some mainstream works along […]
How to Read Deeply (Podcast)
We’re talking about book reading challenges, how to choose your books, making time for reading, rereading, reading synoptically connecting it to everything else you’ve read), and more. Show Timestamps: 3:55 – quantity shouldn’t be the measure of success 5:40 – on reading diversely 7:00 – against the gatekeepers of the literary world 12:00 – are […]
How to Talk to Your Shadow: Practical Tips from Jungian Psychology (Podcast)
Today’s episode of Hardcore Literature is all about how to talk to and befriend your shadow. We all have a dark side lurking within. But how do you access it? And how do you access you inner king, warrior, lover, magician, or trickster? How do you analyse your dreams and improve your life? These questions, […]
The Psychological Significance of the Classic Myths: Ovid’s Daedalus and Icarus (Podcast)
Today we’re kicking off a new series called ‘The Psychological Significance of the Classic Myths’, starting with the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. We’re about to deep dive into the greatest stories ever told in human history, extract their gold, their wisdom, and make the poetic practical. Over the course […]
Aristotle’s Virtues: Ambition and Good Temper (Podcast)
Today’s Hardcore Literature episode is about Aristotle’s ethics and the virtues of ambition and good temper. We’re talking about honour, how to cultivate the right ambition, snowflake syndrome, the four common types of anger, how to challenge your unconscious underlying beliefs about the world, and much more. And I’m giving away three copies of Aristotle’s Nicomachean […]