Best Franz Kafka Podcasts (2025)

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Ep 728 - Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett 1:15:40

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1d ago1:15:40

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Perhaps befittingly, Anne Patchett's fourth novel changed the trajectory of her career. The award-winning Bel Canto centers on 58 people (a combination of hostages and militants sequestered in an unnamed country), many of whom spend the time cut off from the outside world meditating on the paths their lives did and didn't take. Many welcome the opp…

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748 Katherine Mansfield (with Gerri Kimber) | The Poet and the Sex Worker Who Burgled Him | My Last Book with Emerson Expert Kenneth Sacks 55:47

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Katherine Mansfield's writing, said Virginia Woolf, "was the only writing I was ever jealous of." In this episode, Jacke talks to author Gerri Kimber about Katherine Mansfield: A Hidden Life, which explores the life and work of one of literary modernism's most significant writers. PLUS Jacke takes a look at the unusual friendship between poet W.H. …

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(summary) Animal Farm by George Orwell 7:58

5d ago7:58

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Send us a text Animal Farm, published in 1945 by George Orwell, is a satirical novella that serves as an allegorical critique of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent rise of Stalinism, using a seemingly simple tale of barnyard animals who overthrow their human farmer to establish a society based on equality, only to see it devolve into…

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747 Graphomaniac - The Story of a Horrible Russian Poet (with Ilya Vinitsky and James H. McGavran III | My Last Book with Stephanie Sandler | #8 Greatest Book of All Time 1:11:57

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Dmitry Ivanovich Khvostov (1757-1835) might be the worst poet who ever lived. Pathologically prolific and delusional dedicated to a craft for which he had no talent, he continued to write and publish his poetry despite the pleadings of friends, loved ones, critics, and the public. In this episode, Jacke talks to author Ilya Vinitsky and translator …

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Ep 727 - My Man Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse 1:02:57

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Did you ever wonder why the name "Jeeves" has always been inseparable from the concept of "a very good butler"? It's because of these short stories (plus more short stories, plus several novels) by English novelist P.G. Wodehouse. Hapless gadfly Bertie Wooster relies on his man Jeeves for just about everything, from clothing advice to getting his v…

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746 Wild Jane Austen (with Devoney Looser) | #9 Greatest Book of All Time 1:04:37

9d ago1:04:37

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Author Devoney Looser may be a mild-mannered English professor to most people, but roller derby fans know her as Stone Cold Jane Austen, her smashmouth alter ego. In this episode, Devoney tells Jacke about her new book Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, which suggests we also rethink the commonly held view of "spinster Jan…

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[PREVIEW] Halloween Reading: "The Yellow Sign" by Robert W. Chambers

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Way back in 2016, I started this yearly Halloween Reading tradition by performing "The Repairer of Reputations" by Robert W. Chambers, the first story from The King in Yellow. Now, all of these years later, I bring you the final of the four horror stories that open that book. An aloof painter has a grudge against a nightwatchman at the church acros…

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745 Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti (Halloween Fun-Size Edition) 2:14:14

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In the spring of 2022, Jacke dropped everything to plummet into one of the strangest poems he had ever read, "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). The result was a two-part episode that never quite found its home. In this special Halloween episode, we've combined the best parts of both of those episodes to bring you the full story of a…

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Utopia, by Thomas Moore 9:27

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Send us a text Thomas More’s Utopia, published in Latin in 1516, emerged from the intellectual ferment of Renaissance humanism and More’s own complex life as a lawyer, scholar, and eventual Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII. Framed as a conversation in Antwerp between More, his friend Peter Giles, and the fictional traveler Raphael Hythloday, the wo…

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Ep 726 - I Know What You Did Last Summer, by Lois Duncan 1:18:47

16d ago1:18:47

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Did you know that the classic 1997 slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer was actually based on a propulsive young adult thriller from 1973? Lois Duncan's original novel isn't too interested in bloody kills, however. It's more focused on how young people build their identities: around their regrets, around their parents, and around tragedies.…

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744 Love, Sex, and Frankenstein (with Caroline Lea) | #10 Greatest Book of All Time | My Last Book with Geoffrey Turnovsky | A Letter from a Middle School Teacher and Mom 1:26:42

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The year is 1816, and 18-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire. They're on their way to visit Lord Byron's villa in Lake Geneva, Switzerland - and to change the course of literary history. In this episode, Jacke talks to Caroline Lea about her novel Love, Sex, and Frankenstein, which tells the h…

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Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 04 - Mary Anne Saves the Day (The Baby-Sitters Club #4) 53:12

18d ago53:12

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Fresh off their victory over the Baby-Sitters Agency, the girls of the BSC turn on each other in this month's entry. Quiet Mary Anne has to get the group back together, negotiate with her well-meaning but strict single father, make and repair a new friendship, and engineer an unlikely meet-cute. And, of course, she needs to tend to some babysitting…

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The Phaedo by Plato 8:04

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Send us a text The Phaedo is one of Plato's Socratic dialogues, written around 360 BCE, which recounts the final hours of the philosopher Socrates before his execution by hemlock poisoning in Athens in 399 BCE. Set in Socrates' prison cell, the dialogue is narrated by Phaedo, a disciple of Socrates, to Echecrates, and it explores profound philosoph…

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743 Fairy Tales (with Jack Zipes) [RECLAIMED] | Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (#11 GBOAT) | Chaucer News 1:02:07

20d ago1:02:07

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An early encounter with one of the most famous people in the world initiated Jack Zipes into the world of fairy tales - and he never looked back. In this episode, Jacke talks to the fairy tale expert about his book Buried Treasures: The Power of Political Fairy Tales, which profiles modern writers and artists who tapped the political potential of f…

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Ep 725 - The Haunted Baby (Choose Your Own Nightmare #13), by Edward Packard 1:16:59

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An official offshoot of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series, the Choose Your Own Nightmare books cropped up for a couple of years in the mid-90s, an (alleged) response to the popularity of our old friend RL Stine’s Goosebumps series. Stine’s somewhat longer-lived Give Yourself Goosebumps sub-series would launch just months after the first …

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742 Edgar Allan Poe (with Richard Kopley) | Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (#12 GBOAT) | My Last Book with Christopher Herbert 1:17:41

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It's October, the perfect month to celebrate the master of mystery and the macabre. In this episode, Jacke talks to author Richard Kopley about his book Edgar Allan Poe: A Life, a comprehensive critical biography that combines a narrative of Poe's enduring challenges (including his difficult foster father, poverty, alcoholism, depression, and his n…

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The Book of Revelation 12:36

26d ago12:36

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Send us a text The Book of Revelation, the final book of the New Testament, was written by the apostle John, traditionally identified as John the Evangelist, around 95-96 AD while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. Addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor, it is an apocalyptic work, rich in symbolic imagery, that unveils divine visions of God’…

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741 Gabriela Mistral 1:04:27

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In 1945, the Nobel Committee awarded its prize for literature to Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world." Born in a rural Andean valley and abandoned by her free-spirited father at the age of three, Mistral s…

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Ep 724 - Dark Carnival, by Ray Bradbury 1:30:45

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Everybody loves our old friend Ray Bradbury! This time we’re taking a spin with his first short story collection Dark Carnival, a smattering of spooky tales that wound up scattered across a number of other collections throughout Bradbury’s career. Stories discussed in this episode include: The Small Assassin The Dead Man Skeleton The Scythe The Emi…

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740 Mel Brooks and Other Eminent Jews (with David Denby) | War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (#13 GBOAT) 1:03:56

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In this episode, Jacke talks to author David Denby about his new book, Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer, a group biography (loosely inspired by Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians) that describes how four larger-than-life figures upended the restrained culture of their forebears and changed American life. PLUS in honor of War and P…

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739 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (#14 GBOAT) | Johannes Gutenberg (with Eric Marshall White) 1:34:01

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Thanks to his invention of Europe's first typographic printing method, and his pioneering work on the first printed Bible, the fifteenth-century German inventor Johannes Gutenberg has a fame and reputation that continues to this day. In 1997, Time magazine credited him with the most important innovation of the past one thousand years. However, due …

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Ep 723 - Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove 1:16:52

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A buzzy title that came to life thanks to BookTok but came to our attention because of a good-old bookstore shelf display, this week’s book (and the kickoff to Spooktober 2025) is what it says on the cover: it’s about monsters and also computers. If you didn’t associate either of these things with “found family,” then it’s also here to challenge so…

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738 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (#15 Greatest Book of All Time) 1:16:09

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Emily Brontë only published one full-length book before dying at the tragically young age of 30. But that book, Wuthering Heights, which tells the story of obsessive and vengeful love on the rugged moors of Yorkshire, is still considered one of the pinnacles of English literature, landing at #15 on the list of Greatest Books of All Time. In this ep…

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737 "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs 42:21

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It's October! Jacke kicks off his favorite month with a classic tale of horror, "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. Perhaps you know the general contours of the paradigmatic "be careful what you wish for" story from the Simpsons or another popularization - but just how scary was the original story? And who was W.W. Jacobs? Join Jacke on a trip throu…

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The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann 8:42

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Send us a text The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg), published in 1924 by German author Thomas Mann, is a landmark novel of modernist literature, set in a Swiss tuberculosis sanatorium in the years before World War I. Drawing on Mann’s own experience visiting his wife at a similar facility, the novel follows Hans Castorp, a young engineer who arrive…

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Ep 722 - The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling 1:09:56

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Rudyard Kipling's classic story collection The Jungle Book doesn't have a jazz orangutan named Louie, but it does have the bare necessities of imperialist fiction. The stories about Mowgli and other trailblazing animals all contain a whiff of "But what about the rigid hierarchy of nature?" And when every animal is personified...well...those simple …

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736 Jane Austen's Favorite Brother, Henry (with Christopher Herbert) | A Letter from the South of France | My Last Book with Nicholas Jenkins 1:00:29

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Jane Austen had six brothers, but her older brother Henry was her favorite. Kind and witty, Henry has long been appreciated by Austen fans for his devotion to Jane and his championing of her novels. But Henry was a fascinating figure in his own right, capering through risky financial schemes and marrying an enigmatic French countess before ending h…

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Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 03 - The Truth About Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club #3) 47:53

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The Club has encountered (gasp) competition! How will they manage to beat their new rivals, the Baby-sitters Agency? Also, Stacey's ready to spill her truth: her parents need to chill out. She's successfully managing her diabetes AND making friends AND crushing it as a baby-sitter, but their plan to see a new doctor in New York could ruin everythin…

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Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 9:49

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Send us a text "Romeo and Juliet", written by William Shakespeare around 1594–1596, is one of the most enduring tragedies in English literature, first published in a 1597 quarto edition. Likely inspired by Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" and Italian novellas, the play tells the story of two young lovers from fe…

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Ep 721 - The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka 1:10:29

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Some of us read a book. Some of us research the author and the historical context. Some of us sit in front of our microphones and record a podcast. Some of us edit it together and upload it to the website. Some of us write the description that goes up with it. Boy I hope this bit works! Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis. Follow @overdue…

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735 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (with Mark Hussey) | My Last Book with Graham Watson 1:23:55

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Jacke talks to author Mark Hussey (Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel) about Virginia Woolf's beloved novel Mrs Dalloway, which turned 100 earlier this year. PLUS author Graham Watson (The Invention of Charlotte Bronte) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Join Jacke on a trip through literary England (signup open thr…

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The Trial, by Franz Kafka 7:48

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Send us a text "The Trial", written by Franz Kafka between 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously in 1925, is a seminal work of modernist literature, reflecting Kafka’s preoccupation with absurdity, bureaucracy, and existential dread. Set in an unnamed city, the novel follows Josef K., a bank clerk inexplicably arrested and prosecuted by a myster…

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734 The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (#16 GBOAT) | 1925 - A Literary Encyclopedia (with Tom Lutz) 56:09

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Jacke talks to author Tom Lutz about 1925: A Literary Encyclopedia, which provides a fascinating window into a year when literature was arguably at its peak centrality. PLUS a look at J.R.R. Tolkien and his influential Lord of the Rings, #16 on the list of the Greatest Books of All Time. Join Jacke on a trip through literary England (signup open th…

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Ep 720 - Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell 1:10:44

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Perhaps Elizabeth Gaskell’s best-known work, Cranford chronicles the lives of some Victorian era LMMs (Ladies of Modest Means). Their customs and relevance may be waning as Industrialization advances, but that doesn’t mean they won’t find ways to entertain us with their wit, their foibles, and their heart. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. …

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733 Haruki Murakami (with Mike Palindrome | To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (#17 GBOAT) | A Letter from Tehran 1:24:11

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Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) is one of the rare writers who combines literary admiration with widespread appeal. Host Jacke Wilson is joined by lifelong Murakami fan Mike Palindrome to discuss what makes his novels so compelling, so mysterious, and so popular. Works discussed include The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, and …

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732 The Bible (#18 GBOAT) | The Diaries of Samuel Pepys (with Kate Loveman) | Health Advice 1:13:35

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Jacke starts the episode by looking at the different ways that ten writers have viewed the Bible, #18 on the list of the Greatest Books of All Time. Then he's joined by scholar Kate Loveman, one of the few people in the world who's been able to read the diaries of Samuel Pepys in the original shorthand, for a discussion of her book The Strange Hist…

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Ulysses by James Joyce 8:44

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Send us a text "Ulysses", written by Irish novelist James Joyce and first published in its entirety in 1922, is a modernist masterpiece that chronicles a single day—June 16, 1904—in the lives of Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, and Molly Bloom in Dublin, Ireland. Structured as a loose parallel to Homer’s *Odyssey*, the novel’s 18 episodes explore th…

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Ep 719 - The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi 1:11:12

2M ago1:11:12

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For anyone who’s ever loved a movie or TV show where people in silly outfits pretend to be giant city-crushing lizards and/or robots, this week’s book plays around in a pretty entertaining space. If the references to the mid-to-late-2020 stretch of the COVID pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election date it a little, and if every single named …

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731 The Brothers Karamazov Reclaimed (#19 Greatest Book of All Time) 1:21:06

2M ago1:21:06

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Responding to a special request from a listener, Jacke discusses Fyodor Dostoevsky, his novel The Brothers Karamazov, and the search for meaning in a meaningless world. This episode was originally released as episode #250 on October 7, 2020. For reasons Jacke discusses, it has not been available for several years. One show note: at several points i…

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730 "To Autumn" by John Keats | The Invention of Charlotte Brontë (with Graham Watson) | My Last Book with Sara Charles 1:06:20

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Jacke looks forward to a new season by exploring the language and imagery of John Keats's famous ode to autumn. Then he talks to Graham Watson about his new book The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life, which tells the story of how how Charlotte reinvented herself as an acclaimed author, a mysterious celebrity, and a passionate lover. PLUS Sa…

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Ep 718 - The Four Million, by O. Henry 1:20:14

2M ago1:20:14

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The name O. Henry is synonymous with more than just a candy bar. It's become shorthand for a brief, punchy tale that ends with a magical little twist. And this collection, his second published, contains such classic examples as the "Gift of the Magi" and "The Cop and the Anthem." Can you guess the ironic twist ending of this podcast? This episode i…

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729 Milton the Revolutionary (with Orlando Reade) | My Last Book with Jodi Picoult | More Exciting News 1:07:45

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Since the publication of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost in 1667, readers and critics have noted the relationship between the poem and the author's political and personal struggles. What has been less prominent - at least until now - is how the poem came to haunt various political struggles over the next four centuries. In this episode, Jacke…

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The Epic of Gilgamesh 8:03

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Send us a text The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest known works of literature, originates from ancient Mesopotamia, likely composed around 2100 BCE in Sumerian, with later Akkadian versions, notably the Standard Babylonian version from the 13th–10th centuries BCE. Preserved on clay tablets in cuneiform script, the epic emerged from the city-sta…

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Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 02 - Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-Sitters Club #2) 52:20

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The Club has been humming along for two months until a spat of terrifying phone-based burglaries have our sitters sittin' scared! Also, it's Claudia time! Between gigs, she must repair her relationship with her sister and figure out how to catch the eye of the dreamiest poet around: Trevor Sandbourne. These episodes posted first for our Patreon sup…

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Ep 717 - Bad Summer People, by Emma Rosenblum 1:02:22

3M ago1:02:22

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As a reader, you cannot get upset if you read a book called "Bad Summer People" and it's filled with terrible people and all the stuff that they do to each other over the course of One Fateful Summer. You are allowed, of course, to get upset if you summered in the same place as the author and you recognize the town and all the people in it and also…

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728 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (#20 GBOAT) | Lorraine Hansberry - RECLAIMED 1:30:35

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As part of the "25 for '25" series, Jacke starts the episode with a look at #20 on the list of Greatest Books of All Time, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Then he reclaims a previous episode devoted to Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun, a brilliant playwright who died at the tragically young age of 34. (The Hansbe…

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727 Earthly Paradise in Old French Verse (with Jacob Abell) | My Last Book with Victorian Literature Expert Allen MacDuffie | A Dueling Neapolitan Passionate for Poetry 1:04:12

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What happened to Eden? While today we might view the story of Adam and Eve as metaphorical, for many generations of Christians, the Earthly Paradise was a vibrant symbol at the heart of the cosmos. In this episode, Jacke talks to Jacob Abell about his book Spiritual and Material Boundaries in Old French Verse: Contemplating the Walls of the Earthly…

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Ep 716 - An Extraordinary Union (Loyal League #1), by Alyssa Cole 1:21:41

3M ago1:21:41

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The secret Union organization Elle Burns spies for swears by the four Ls: Loyalty. Legacy. Life. Lincoln. But what about…Love? Enter Malcolm MacCall, a brash but lovable Scot posing as a Confederate soldier. And the rest, as they say, is historical fiction. Also it’s a pretty successful romance novel! Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis. …

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726 England vs France - A Literary Battle Royale (with Mike Palindrome) - RECLAIMED 1:03:36

3M ago1:03:36

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“Our dear enemies,” a French writer once called the English. Englishman John Cleese called the French “our natural enemies” and joked “if we have to fight anyone, I say let’s fight the French.” With the exception of some (very important) twentieth-century alliances, the French and the English have been at each others’ throats for a thousand years. …

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Wuthering Heights 8:28

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Send us a text Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights, published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, is Emily Brontë’s only novel and a cornerstone of English literature, renowned for its dark, passionate exploration of love, revenge, and social class on the desolate Yorkshire moors. Set in the late 18th to early 19th century, the…