Sophie Hope recently read James Agee and Walker Evans classic documentary book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. She persuaded Owen Kelly to read it too, and in this episode they examine the book from several viewpoints: as a public art project, as ethnography, as literature, and as an historical document.

Episode 88 | July 3 2026

Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly

According to Wikipedia “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men grew out of an assignment that Agee and Evans accepted in 1936 to produce a Fortune article on the conditions among sharecropper families in the American South during the Great Depression. It was the time of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs designed to help the poorest segments of the society. Agee and Evans spent eight weeks that summer researching their assignment, mainly among three white sharecropping families mired in desperate poverty. They returned with Evans's portfolio of stark images - of families with gaunt faces, adults and children huddled in bare shacks before dusty yards in the Depression-era nowhere of the deep south - and Agee's detailed notes. His piece was rejected by the editors at Fortune; but the following year the magazine gave Agee permission to publish his Alabama research in a book. The manuscript was accepted for publication by Houghton Mifflin in 1939 and appeared two years later”.

In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly discuss the book, questioning Agee’s motives and the work that results from his eight week’s with the three tenant families.

Owen Kelly suggests that a reader wanting a view of poverty during the New Deal period that seeks to change the world through its writing might learn more from the trilogy of novels written by John Dos Passos and known collectively as USA; first published in one volume in 1937.

James Agee (author) and Walker Evans (photographer), And Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (originally published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1941; Penguin Classics, 2006)

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, available to borrow from the Internet Archive

USA, available to borrow from the Internet Archive

The 42nd Parallel, the first volume of USA is also available to borrow from the Internet Archive for those wanting to try a sample first.

Christina Davidson, Let Us Now Trash Famous Authors, Atlantic (2010): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/04/let-us-now-trash-famous-authors/307994/

John Dewey, Art as Experience (1934): https://ia902908.us.archive.org/28/items/deweyjohnartasanexperience/DEWEY%20John,%20Art%20as%20an%20Experience%22.pdf

Grant Kester, Breaking and Entering: Poverty and Aesthetic Violence in Let us Now Praise Famous Men, FIELD Journal (2023) https://field-journal.com/issue-25/breaking-and-entering-poverty-and-aesthetic-violence-in-let-us-now-praise-famous-men/#_ednref35

Dale Maharidge (author), Michael Williamson (photographer), And Their Children After Them, Seven Stories Press (2020) https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/And-Their-Children-After-Them-by-Dale-Maharidge-author-Michael-Williamson-photographer/9781609809812?srsltid=AfmBOorkVujGhdZD8KFnVvxSeqnHvW9UQ5ZmD5Df7sPpc1I76aHh544o

In this month’s episode of Parallel Streams we listen to an episode of Cory Doctorow’s weekly podcast, in which he has a live (and lively) discussion with Angie Coiro about his new book The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI.

EPISODE 07 | JULY 10 | 2026

Angie Coiro | Cory Doctorow | Owen Kelly

Cory Doctorow’s website says that he “is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of dozens of books, most recently ENSHITTIFICATION: WHY EVERYTHING SUDDENLY GOT WORSE AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT (nonfiction); and the novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Born in Toronto, Canada, he lives in Los Angeles and London”.

He also works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and has a daily newsletter, a weekly podcast, and several websites.

In a recent episode of the podcast he put out a discussion he recorded at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park as part of his book tour.

That is what we are listening to today.

Cory Doctorow’s daily link blog https://pluralistic.net

Cory Doctorow’s book and podcast website https://craphound.com

The Reverse Centaur book website https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621575/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/

An hour-long excerpt from the audiobook https://craphound.com/podcast/2026/05/17/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai/

The discussion at Kepler's Books on video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/live/cWN6XBa73xA

Book review by Dorian Lynskey at The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/22/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai-by-cory-doctorow-review-the-real-price-of-artificial-intelligence

Book review by NerdyNerdyBooks on Substack https://nerdynerdybookbook.substack.com/p/book-review-the-reverse-centaurs

On episode 66 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Paulo Lameiro, a musician, educator and musicologist, based in his hometown of Leiria, Portugal.

EPISODE 66 | JULY 17 | 2026

Arlene Goldbard | Paulo Lameiro | François Matarasso

Paulo Lameiro is a portuguese musicologist, educator, communicator and creator from Leiria. After a brief career as a Baritone, with solo performances at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon, he dedicated himself to teaching and took on the administration of several music schools, including the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa (Lisbon National Conservatory), the Orfeão de Leiria (Leiria Choral Society) and the SAMP arts school in the village of Pousos. It’s from this village, where he was born, that he has been developing, since 1992, projects of artistic production and education for early childhood, with special reference to Cradle of Arts, Musicians on Nappies and Concerts for Babies.

Recently, he became interested in organizing artistic practices with the community, with special reference to projects such as Opera in Prison, with inmates, New Springs for the elderly, Il Trovatore or the Roma of the Lis with Romani communities. He was a founding member and part of the first Scientific Council of the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

For decades, he has led Concertos para Bebes (Concerts for Babies), an amazing ongoing series of interactive performances by professional musicians, created to engage very young children in music. The center of his work currently involves collaboration with communities including incarcerated youth and Romani communities.

About Paulo Lameiro https://rhi-think.com/person/266/Paulo-Lameiros

Concertos para Bebes website https://www.concertosparabebes.com/en/

Concertos para Bebes YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/iapapaprrr

Paulo Lameiro on Radio Ara: setting up a music project in prison https://www.radioara.org/episodes/dive-in-with-eme-paulo-lameiro/