Private Life: A New York Review Podcast

About Private Life: A New York Review Podcast

Private Life is a podcast from The New York Review, hosted by contributor Jarrett Earnest. Each episode offers intimate, in-depth conversations with distinguished voices from across the literary landscape—about their lives, their work, and the ideas that shape both. Along the way, they revisit pieces from the The New York Review of Books's robust sixty-year archive (some episodes of the podcast will feature newly recorded readings of these classic essays) to situate arguments within contemporary culture. The show also includes discussions of titles from our book publishing arm, New York Review Books, featuring talks with translator Mark Polizzotti on Andre Breton's surrealist masterpiece Nadja and musician Richard Hell on the re-issue of his novel Godlike. Other early episodes find Joyce Carol Oates ruminating on true crime, while Darryl Pinckney opens up about the perils of memoir and his formative friendship with essayist Elizabeth Hardwick. Private Life is a personable, expansive invitation for longtime subscribers and a new generation of readers alike to connect with the past, present and future of The New York Review.

Publisher

New York Review Podcasts

Category

arts · education

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

6 Feb 2026

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

11 of 28 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   14 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Rachel Kushner Reads from Love and Death in the American Novel

   Author Rachel Kushner reads from Leslie A. Fiedler's "Love and Death in the American Novel," exploring Mark Twain's iconic characters and themes.

2. 

   7 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Edwin Frank on Love and Death in the American Novel

   Edwin Frank, editor at New York Review Books, discusses Leslie A. Fiedler's "Love and Death in the American Novel" with Jarrett Earnest, exploring Fiedler's criticism and Frank's own work.

3. 

   30 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   "The Perils of Pauline" by Renata Adler

   Actress Holland Taylor reads Renata Adler's essay, exploring Pauline Kael's film criticism and offering insights into literary analysis.

Inside a recent episode

Rachel Kushner Reads from Love and Death in the American Novel

Published 14 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] There is, moreover, the lyrical quality of much of the book, the colloquial poetry which celebrates the natural world and childhood as two aspects of a single thing. The historical moment to which Twain's child-centered imagination returned was the moment when america was passing out of a rural childhood into urban maturity and the pattern of his own life seemed therefore the prototype of the national experience as time has gone on and for more and more americans as the world of nature has shrunk to the memory of far-away vacations and an occasional visit to the old folks As even the river has been spanned and harnessed to industry, Twain's vanishing rural community has come to seem more and more mythic, strange, and beautiful. […]

Who has been a guest on Private Life: A New York Review Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Rachel Kushner
• Edwin Frank
• Holland Taylor
• Lucy Sante
• Anthony Roth Costanzo

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

42 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

16 ratings

Contact Private Life: A New York Review Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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