New Yorker: Out Loud
A weekly conversation about what's new in The New Yorker.
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Malcolm Gladwell and Ben McGrath on doping in sports.
This week in the magazine, Malcolm Gladwell reviews David Epstein's ...
This week in the magazine, Malcolm Gladwell reviews David Epstein's "The Sports Gene," which looks at the biological advantages of elite athletes, from extra-long Achilles tendons to exceptionally high red-blood-cell counts. Here, Nicholas Thompson talks with Gladwell and Ben McGrath about our inconsistent ideas about fairness in sports and whether doping should or shouldn't be allowed. Gladwell asks, if we allow laser surgery to improve eyesight or Tommy John surgery to replace ligaments, why don't we allow athletes to take F.D.A. approved testosterone, in doses that are not harmful, in order to accelerate their recovery time after workouts and competition? He argues that we should legalize performance-enhancing drugs and then regulate them, and imagines a world where athletes make their biological passports public: "What I really would like is to have complete liberalization and complete transparency. I would like to know about every single baseball player, track-and-field athlete, basketball player, precisely what they are on. And then I'd like to reach my own conclusions as a fan about how to evaluate their performance." Thompson presses Gladwell on his own feelings as a fan of track-and-field athletes, and argues that the sport of running would be diminished by allowing P.E.D.s. Gladwell counters that "those days of running innocence" are already long gone, and that we need to accept that, for better or worse, doping is a part of athletic competition in the modern world. Also on the podcast, Sarah Larson celebrates Linda Ronstadt's voice.
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Rebecca Mead and Joshua Rothman on Jane Austen.
This week in the magazine, Anthony Lane reviews "Austenland," one ...
This week in the magazine, Anthony Lane reviews "Austenland," one of many films on Jane Austen's work, or in this case, on the fans of her work. Not everyone loves Jane Austen, but her fans definitely include Joshua Rothman, the New Yorker's archive editor, and staff writer Rebecca Mead. They've both written about Jane Austen for newyorker.com, and they recently spoke about the enduring appeal of her books with Sasha Weiss.
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Richard Brody and Ryan Bloom discuss a recently recovered play by Camus.
At Page-Turner last week, we published "The Life of the ...
At Page-Turner last week, we published "The Life of the Artist: A Mimodrama in Two Parts," a newly translated short play by Albert Camus. Here, the New Yorker editor Leo Carey reads selections from the text, and the translator Ryan Bloom talks to Richard Brody about the play and where it fits into Camus's life. Also, James Surowiecki considers the high price of lobster in restaurants when the wholesale price of lobster is plummeting.
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Nicholson Baker about writing and technology.
This week on the podcast, Michael Agger talks with Nicholson ...
This week on the podcast, Michael Agger talks with Nicholson Baker about writing and technology, including his recent piece on LCD screens. Baker explains his unorthodox writing techniques, what kinds of fiction make for the best dreams, and how he combats "peak attention span" by reading aloud in the morning.
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Sarah Stillman and Patrick Radden Keefe on civil forfeiture.
This week in the magazine, Sarah Stillman reports on how ...
This week in the magazine, Sarah Stillman reports on how local governments around the country are invoking the powers of civil forfeiture to take money and property from people who haven't been convicted of any crime. Here, Nicholas Thompson talks with Stillman and Patrick Radden Keefe about these abuses and what they mean for the citizens targeted and the law-enforcement agencies using it to fund their budgets. Also, Christian DeBenedetti on the joys of sour beer.
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Cressida Leyshon and Ruth Franklin on Shirley Jackson.
This week in the magazine there's a new, previously unpublished ...
This week in the magazine there's a new, previously unpublished story by Shirley Jackson, who died in 1965. It's called "Paranoia," and its about a man in New York City who is followed through the city by a suspicious character. In this week's podcast, Cressida Leyshon, the deputy fiction editor, and Ruth Franklin, who is writing a biography of Shirley Jackson, talk about the story and about Jackson's life with the literary editor of newyorker.com, Sasha Weiss. Also, Hilton Als weighs in on "The Designated Mourner."
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Bill Buford and John Bennet on French cooking.
This week in the magazine, Bill Buford writes about cooking ...
This week in the magazine, Bill Buford writes about cooking traditional French recipes with the chef Daniel Boulud. Buford has been living in Lyon for the last several years learning French cooking, and here he talks with John Bennet and Sasha Weiss about how the militaristic system of training chefs in the national cuisine has changed his approach to cooking, the similarities between soccer hooligans and cooks, and why he's so fascinated with food. Also, Patricia Marx explains how to avoid cognitive decline.
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James Wood and Adam Gopnik on family memoirs.
In the magazine this week, James Wood reviews Greg Bellow's ...
In the magazine this week, James Wood reviews Greg Bellow's book "Saul Bellow's Heart: A Son's Memoir." Here, James Wood talks about the pleasures and perils of intimate family memoirs with Adam Gopnik, who has written about his own family life for the magazine, in a conversation led by Sasha Weiss. Also, Reed Johnson explains the obsession with a mysterious manuscript from the late Middle Ages.
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Jill Lepore and Judith Thurman on Jane Franklin.
Jill Lepore's "Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of ...
Jill Lepore's "Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin," a biography of Ben Franklin's sister, comes out this fall. This week in the magazine, Lepore writes about her decades-long interest in the subject, how the story figured into her relationship with her own mother, and what finally motivated her to overcome her reluctance and write the biography. Judith Thurman is also a biographer, with books about Isak Dinesen and Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. Here, Thurman and Lepore talk with Sasha Weiss about Jane Franklin, what motherhood has forced different generations of women to give up, and the history of American women writers. Also, writer Ruth Franklin on the sixtieth anniversary of Shirley Jackson's classic tale, "The Lottery."
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Ian Buruma and Philip Gourevitch on Liao Yiwu.
This week in the magazine, Ian Buruma writes about the ...
This week in the magazine, Ian Buruma writes about the exiled Chinese writer Liao Yiwu whose prison memoir, "For a Song and a Hundred Songs," was recently published in English. Liao is also known for his book of interviews, "The Corpse Walker," which is made up of talks with Chinese prisoners and other marginal characters. Philip Gourevitch helped publish the first English translations of those interviews and has blogged about Liao Yiwu extensively on newyorker.com. Here, Buruma and Gourevitch talk about why Liao doesn't consider himself a political dissident, why his writing is threatening to the Chinese government, and the challenges of living in exile.
