radfrac_archive: (Ben Butley)
2008-04-17 04:34 pm

podcasts: The New Yorker Out Loud

I have never doubted for a minute that a lot of other people are smarter than me, and figure things out quicker, and have grace and statistical norms on their side.
--From "I Bought a Little City", Donald Barthelme


I like the New Yorker Out Loud Podcast. They don't read the current month's story. I would find that redundant, and so far I haven't found most of the current stories very interesting. Instead, a contemporary author chooses a story from the New Yorker archive and reads it aloud. Then they discuss it for a few minutes with the host. The writers are erudite and thoughtful people. They choose good stories and they speak about them well.

I like the mellow-voiced host. She sounds like she's sitting in a cool, dimly-lit room, speaking her thoughts aloud. I like the blurry guitar chords they chose for the intro/extro.

Usually fiction doesn't operate correctly for me when I'm working. It requires the wrong kind of attention. These were often quite short and entirely functional.

Pleasing.

{rf}