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The Book Club

The Book Club

By: The Spectator
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About this listen

 Literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented weekly by Sam Leith.The Spectator Art Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Carl Zimmer: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe

    Carl Zimmer: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe
    Jun 25 2025
    My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is science writer Carl Zimmer, whose new book Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe explores the invisible world of the aerobiome – the trillions of microbes and particles we inhale every day. He tells me how Louis Pasteur's glacier experiments kicked off a forgotten scientific journey; how Cold War fears turned airborne research into a bioweapons race; and why the COVID-19 pandemic exposed a century-long misunderstanding about how diseases spread through the air.
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    44 mins
  • William Dalrymple: The Golden Road

    William Dalrymple: The Golden Road
    Jun 18 2025
    My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is the historian William Dalrymple, whose bestselling account of ancient India’s cultural and economic influence, The Golden Road, is newly out in paperback. He tells me why the ‘Silk Road’ is a myth, how Arabic numerals are really Indian – and how he responds to being Narendra Modi’s new favourite author.
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    49 mins
  • Lucy Mangan: How Reading Shapes Our Lives

    Lucy Mangan: How Reading Shapes Our Lives
    Jun 11 2025
    In this week’s Book Club podcast I am joined by Lucy Mangan, author of Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives. She tells me what teenagers did before they had Young Adult books to read, the bizarre demise of the author of Goodnight Moon, and the wisdom of forsaking the busy world for an armchair and a good book.
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    34 mins
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Great interview with James Ellroy, the demon dog of L.A. hard boiled crime fiction.

Great interview.

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