エピソード

  • Episode 60: Isaac Bashevis Singer

    Episode 60: Isaac Bashevis Singer
    2026/05/28
    In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of Isaac Bashevis Singer. An immigrant to the United States, Singer was an esteemed essayist, short story writer, novelist, translator, and children’s book author. As a young man in Poland, Singer initially pursued rabbinical studies, but the pull of literature was too strong. He worked as a journalist while honing his storytelling skills. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1935, Singer contributed to the Jewish Daily Forward, a Yiddish-language newspaper which published much of his fiction. The events of World War II heightened the poignancy of Singer’s work. He wrote in Yiddish [...]
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    59 分
  • Episode 59: Henry David Thoreau

    Episode 59: Henry David Thoreau
    2026/05/18
    In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of Henry David Thoreau. An essayist and poet, Thoreau lived a provocative life in which he endeavored to escape the limitations of human society by exploring the wider, wilder natural world. He was a naturalist, land surveyor, pencil maker, abolitionist, and student of Indigenous American culture and artifacts whose varied experiences informed his writing. His most famous work, 1854’s Walden, describes his attempt to live out the Transcendentalist philosophy in a cabin in the woods, trying to, “live deep and suck out the marrow of life.” Thoreau’s writing inspires respect for [...]
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    56 分
  • Episode 57: Sholem Asch

    Episode 57: Sholem Asch
    2026/03/19
    In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of Sholem Asch. Born in Poland to an Orthodox Jewish family, Asch was a novelist, playwright, and essayist acclaimed by both critics and readers alike. He was one of the first Yiddish writers to attract a wide readership in translation and was one of the best-known Jewish public figures of his time, a global icon. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB Asch became a U.S. citizen in 1920. His writings included bestsellers in English translation, such as his Christological trilogy: The Nazarene, The Apostle, and Mary. He was also a prominent figure in [...]
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    54 分
  • Episode 58: Tupac Shakur

    Episode 58: Tupac Shakur
    2026/04/16
    In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of poet, actor, and rapper Tupac Shakur. Quoting from his official website: “Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996 at the age of just twenty-five, he continues to be one of the most misunderstood, complicated, and prolific figures in modern history. Shakur’s message has continued to resonate throughout the world as his loyal and adoring fan base continues to treasure the timeless messages that he incorporated into his poetry and his [...]
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    58 分
  • Episode 55: Gertrude Stein

    Episode 55: Gertrude Stein
    2025/10/06
    In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of Gertrude Stein. A poet, novelist, and essayist, Stein was a towering literary figure in her time. She moved to Paris in 1902 with her partner Alice B. Toklas, where they would spend the remainder of their lives. Together they held regular salons in their apartment that became the stuff of legend, hosting the likes of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and more. Stein’s fame as a mentor to other writers often obscures her own accomplishments. Her writing was experimental, both in language and in form. She [...]
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    49 分
  • Episode 54: James Weldon Johnson

    Episode 54: James Weldon Johnson
    2025/08/29
    In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of James Weldon Johnson. A leader of the Harlem Renaissance, he wrote fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. He also wrote lyrics for many songs, including “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” popularly regarded as the Black National Anthem. Johnson raised public awareness of lynching and fought Jim Crow laws through his activist work with the NAACP, of which he was President during the 1920s. He was also a lawyer, diplomat, newspaperman, opera libretto translator, and creative literature professor at Fisk University. Johnson celebrated the artistry and diversity of African-American culture—most of it overlooked, [...]
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    41 分
  • Episode 53: Nguyễn Quí Đức

    Episode 53: Nguyễn Quí Đức
    2025/06/06
    In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of Nguyễn Quí Đức. Born in Da Lat, Vietnam in 1958, Đức arrived in the United States at 17 as a refugee of the Vietnam War. He would go on to become a journalist, translator, writer, and radio producer, working for the BBC in London, KALW-FM in San Francisco, and for NPR. He was the host of Pacific Time, KQED-FM Public Radio’s national program on Asian and Asian American life. In addition to his journalistic work, Đức also published the hugely influential family memoir Where the Ashes Are: The Odyssey of [...]
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    53 分
  • Episode 51: Flannery O'Connor

    Episode 51: Flannery O'Connor
    2025/04/04
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Flannery O’Connor. Born in Georgia in 1925, O’Connor wrote prolifically before her early death at age 39 due to lupus. She routinely wrote every morning until noon, and spent her afternoons and evenings tending to her domestic birds or entertaining visitors. Informed by the community surrounding her Georgia hometown and her Catholic faith, O’Connor’s short fiction is rich with complex antiheroes and ironic moral turns. “I write,” she said, “because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” O’Connor will be featured in the American Writers [...]
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    34 分