Left Shelf: Recent Episodes
Left Shelf
Proving politics is downstream of culture. Tune in to hear leftist takes on books and short stories on topics like gender, humanism and the alt right.
“It's also not fair at all that stupidity has gotten you this far. That's another creature you've killed simply by having no brains, which makes anyone with brains feel as if it isn't worth the headache of having them.”
This type of quick, witty humor is what characterizes the treat of a read that is “Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower” by Tamsyn Muir. It’s got all the ingredients of a modern day fairy tale: a badass princess, a stuck-up fairy, and an entrepreneurial witch. But in the end, there is a monstrous twist. In this episode, we talk about this delightful novel and how it examines gender and sexuality.
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Read Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (free): here
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In a (not-so-distant) future world where the experience of pain is outsourced to the third world, a man tries as he might to find intimacy. That is the premise of the short story, “Standard Loneliness Package” by Charles Yu, under today’s discussion. In this episode, we talk about emotional labor, the corruption of intimacy and the quiet piecewise loss of one’s life.
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Read Standard Loneliness Package (free): here
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A train is whizzing across the plains of New England, carrying with it two young boys full of hopes and dreams – one with a green alpine hat carelessly tossed over his head, large suitcases clumsily blocking the train car doors, while the other haughtily looks upon the scene. They are heading to a private boarding school named Choate where their loyalties and allegiances will be tested. In this episode, we are talking about “Smokers” by Tobias Wolff and debunking the myths of upward mobility.
Read Smokers (free): here
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What’s up with Facebook changing their name to “Meta”? What is the “Metaverse” and where did it originate? In this episode, we tackle Neal Stephenson’s book “Snow Crash”, which first conceived of the Metaverse. Join us as we discuss late-stage capitalism and its next technological frontier that aims to transform our lives as ones lived and experienced exclusively through the internet.
Read Snow Crash (free): here
Featuring Mike from Turn Leftist Podcast:
- Turn Leftist Patreon
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- Turn Leftist Twitter: @turnleftistpod
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James Tiptree Jr. (spoiler alert!) is actually the pseudonym for Alice Sheldon, who in her cyberpunk short stories like “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”, addresses gender issues head on. The short story is snarky, crazy, fast-paced, and explicit in its criticism of rigid gender roles and clearly outlines the inevitable tragedies that result from it. In this episode, we talk about what it means to be a woman as a political entity, how beauty and ugliness are defined, and how technology mediates these processes.
Read The Girl Who Was Plugged In (free): here
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“Tlön, Uqbar and Orbis Tertius” is an almost prophetic short story by Jorge Luis Borges about reality and the experiment of thought. In this episode, we sit down with our valued guest Thomas to discuss this complex labyrinth of a story. In our conversation, we dive into the strange world of Uqbar and the even stranger world of Tlön.
Read Tlön, Uqbar and Orbis Tertius (free): here
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Roots: the connections we have with the natural environment around us; Trunk: the connections we have with each other; Crown: the connections we have with the mystical; Seeds: the hope that propagates life forward. “The Overstory” is a book that, through the structure of trees, expands the size of a singular human life and re-contextualizes the scales of time and geography. In this episode, we sit down with a guest, Navel Orange, to discuss this impassioned and moving work by Richard Powers. In our conversation, we talk about the history of environmental movements, our relationship to nature, trauma and more.
Read The Overstory (free): here
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“Letters to Martin” is a book that, through the flow of twelve meditations on historical as well as present events, leads to an understanding of contemporary political struggles. Written as letters to Martin Luther King Jr., this book addresses many of the issues faced by millions of people across the country today — economic inequality, freedom of assembly, police brutality, ongoing social class conflicts, and geopolitics. In this episode, we sit down to talk with the author of the book, Dr. Randal Maurice Jelks, who is a professor, a documentary producer, and an award-winning author. In our conversation, we cover the tender ways in which Dr. Jelks thinks about democracy and human dignity, and the warmth with which he tries to imbue hope.
You can find Letter to Martin: Meditations on Democracy in Black America on:
- Chicago Review Press
- IndieBound
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
Find Dr. Randal Mauric Jelks on:
- Official Website: www.RandalMauriceJelks.com
- Facebook: /randal.jelks
- Instagram: @drjelks
- Twitter: @drjelks
- Hashtags: #BlackTwitter #SocialJusticeTwitter
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The Salaryman by Krys Lee is a painfully real rendition of what happened as the South Korean economy collapsed in the mid-1990s. The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s strict bailout policy forced large lay-offs and what were once guaranteed jobs for people quickly disappeared. In this episode, we touch on Korea’s history and how it shaped the setting described in this piece. We also touch on alcohol consumption as an aspect of culture, disillusionment and the act of being a human being.
Read The Salaryman (free): here
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This holiday season, when your next door neighbor approaches you and once again complains about all the looting that's taking place, what should you say? Listen to find out!
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Outline by Rachel Cusk tries to grasp personhood and identity in the midst of absence and loss through the (titular) outline of the narrator. The narrator tries to understand herself by understanding others. She listens to the stories about marriage and divorce, family, ambitions or even writing itself. In this episode, we discuss the stylistic and philosophical aspects of the book, and whether or not we agree with it.
Read Outline (free): here
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Thank You Ma’am by Langston Hughes (Communist? Communist!!) follows a young boy named Roger as he tries to steal a woman’s purse. The story follows a simple arc -- one event, two characters in three pages -- and yet is ripe with hope and optimism. In this episode, we explore Langston Hughe’s life and touch on the Harlem Renaissance, while also discussing themes of mutual aid and reciprocity.
Read Thank You Ma’am (free): here
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True to its name, the short story The Case For and Against Love Potions by Imbolo Mbue both heeds caution and encouragement about using love potions. In this episode, we sit down with the Colored Pages Book Club Podcast to talk about what a love potion might look like in our world, and who wins and loses from its existence - is it a means of subverting patriarchal systems or does it feed into it?
Read The Case For and Against Love Potions (free): here
Thank you again Colored Pages Book Club Podcast for joining! You can listen to them on Apple Podcast or Spotify and follow them on:
- Twitter: @TheColoredPages
- Instagram: @TheseColoredPages
- Website: thesecoloredpages.com
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Zadie Smith’s debut novel, one she wrote at the tender age of 19, is full of irony, witty sayings, and wild rollercoaster storylines. It is the epitome of social and personal chaos spanning several generations, families and cultures. In this episode, we discuss immigrant psychology, radicalization (left or right), genetic manipulation (?) and the tides of history.
Read White Teeth (free): here
Featuring Mike from Turn Leftist Podcast:
- Turn Leftist Patreon
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- Turn Leftist Twitter: @turnleftistpod
- Turn Leftist Instagram: @turnleftist or @turnleftist1312
- Turn Leftist Facebook
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David Foster Wallace is singular at putting you straight into the minds of his characters, who are tragically sympathetic and simultaneously deplorable. The depressed person in “The Depressed Person” is no exception - her loneliness, self-obsession, agonies and fears are intricately described so that even in moments where one feels exhausted by her, one can also relate to her pain. In this episode, we discuss David Foster Wallace as an author and as a person while also talking about mental illness and depression.
Read The Depressed Person (free): here
Listed to The Depressed Person (free): here
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In this month's extra episode, we talk about the politics on Squid Game and its reception.
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What is freedom and captivity? Can these concepts be talked about without a proper material basis? In this episode, we use the book Journey to Karabakh by Aka Morchiladze as a basis to talk about Soviet and post-Soviet Georgia and how romanticization of suffering has changed public sensibilities and reshaped memories of the USSR.
Read Journey to Karabakh (free): here
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David Foster Wallace's famous 2005 commencement speech "This is Water" gets a lot of hype. Thank God we're here to set the record straight: this speech is just pure darkness of post-modernism and embracing the consumerism of capitalism as sacred.
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The opening scene of Edwidge Danticat’s story is that of a detached man falling to certain death, all Without Inspection. The fall takes six and a half seconds, but it is enough time to think about his lifetime. In his freefall, Arnold thinks about his life in Haiti, his brutal journey to the US and Darlene and Paris, the two people he calls his family. In this episode, we go over the history of Haiti, its relation with the US and talk about key moments that might define the life of an immigrant.
Read Without Inspection (free): here
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If you want someone to break your heart, Jesmyn Ward should be the one to do it. As someone intimately familiar with grief, her stories give voice to the forlorn, strength to the hopeless. In this episode, we talk about her short story Cattle Haul, which follows Reese, a trucker, as he drives a truck of cows across the country. In this episode we explore the complex relationship of Reese with his father, his past and himself.
Read Cattle Haul (free): here
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It does not matter that you do not understand the reason. You are the Beloved Child of the House. Be comforted.
Strange and comforting, eerie and delightful - in her latest fantasy novel Susanna Clarke makes it possible to hold both contradictory feelings about the house at the same time. In this week’s episode, we go a little bit more philosophical and talk about the ontology of the house and the dimensions of its existence.
Read Piranesi (free): here
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With very delicate brushstrokes, E. Lily Yu creates a complicated world of map-making wasps and anarchist bees in a world filled with power struggles within societies and nature. In this episode, we sit down with the hosts of Works in Theory podcast to dissect the intricacies of the characters in this short story - the humans, wasps and bees - how they related to each other, and what we can learn from their successes and failures.
Read The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees: here
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Hi all! We ran into some technical difficulties, so had to delay the publication of the next episode. But in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this extra content!
In June's special episode for Patrons, Ethan and Nino talk about what, if anything, we can get out of being active on social media.
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Let’s admit it: we’ve all seen Lord of the Rings at least five times and held Game of Thrones watch parties. Why? Because fantasy is just that damned good of a genre, allowing for magic and the fantastical to ignite our imaginations and take us off into another world. In this week’s episode, while swooning over fantasy, we also discuss the political elements that make up traditional high fantasy stories, tear apart the tropes and talk about ways in which this genre could become even better.
Read The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: here
Read Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson: here
Read A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin: here
Find Man Carrying Thing:
- YouTube
- Patreon
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To cut straight to the chase: Kevin Nguyen’s book New Waves is good but it could’ve been so much butter. In his debut book, Kevin Nguyen tackles many issues - racism in the workplace, big tech, the grief from the loss of a friend, interracial dating and the difference between the real and virtual lives. While the book takes on a lot of heavy subjects, it seems to just throw them to the wall and never quite connect the dots. In this episode, the hosts talk about all the interesting parts to this novel - the friendship between Lucas and Margo, the tech world and the role of race while complaining (lovingly) about things they wished had been included.
You can read New Waves here.
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If reading Dead Men’s Path by Chinua Achebe felt familiar to you, it’s because this three-page short story so accurately captures histories of colonialism. Even through its brevity, it attacks the notions of “out with the old, in with the new”, juxtaposing education and spirituality. In this Left Shelf episode, we discuss the history of Nigeria n conjunction with this short story as Chinua Achebe’s writing is rife with politics and his life was spent in pursuit of forming a more equitable Nigeria. The hosts talk about how the British instituted their infamous “indirect rule”, christianized the country while aiming to extinguish native spiritualities, and left in their wake fault lines still present to this day.
You can read Dead Men’s Path (free) here.
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“If this world is going to be a better place for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it will be women who make it so” - Isabelle Allende
This - our lives, the lives of our ancestors and the lives of our descendants - is the story. What happens now, what we do now, is history and makes history. In this Left Shelf episode, we discuss The House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende, which centers the lives of four generations of women and how the fabric of history stretches, changes and, sometimes, resiliently stays the same. The hosts, with their guest Tomás, talk about how this novel fits into the greater political events happening in Chile at the time, the role of magical realism, and, of course, gender and race.
You can read The House of Spirits (free) here.
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If your boss asks you to do anything at work today, respond with “I would prefer not to”because what is work these days if not an act devoid of meaning yet ripe with repetition and mechanization. In this week’s episode, we’ll be talking about Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, a tragic yet humorous short novella by Herman Melville. The piece deals with how work in the modern sense makes us desolate, both in terms of extinguishing our inner lives as well as our external relationships, leaving us lonely and trapped. Ah, Bartleby. Ah, Humanity. Is there hope for us yet?
You can read Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (free) here.
You can listen to the short story (free) here.
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Does the title of this episode sound familiar? That’s because The Ones Who Stay and Fight by N.K. Jemisin is a story in response to the very first Left Shelf episode The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin. Jemisin’s story begins in the same way as Le Guin’s, with descriptions of a Utopian city’s beauty and happy citizens. However, there’s a twist. In this episode, we discuss how Jemisin might have interpreted LeGuin’s story and what she is asking the reader when she says “stay and fight”.
You can read the story The Ones Who Stay and Fight (free) here.
You can listen to the short story (free) here.
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Did you ever imagine yourself wearing a trenchcoat, walking through the silent streets of Berlin at night, a lonely man who has seen too much and who knows little of love? A man who is too skilled with a bottle of whiskey, too forlorn and just too darn familiar with the cold? Well, lucky, you no longer have to imagine because Le Carré’s most famous spy novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold depicts all those elements among an intricate web of spies and lies. In Part 2 of this episode series, we’ll be diving into the piece and offering up some more complaints about why men can’t write convincing female characters. Sigh.
You can watch the movie The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (free) here.
You can listen to the book (free) here.
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Did you ever imagine yourself wearing a trenchcoat, walking through the silent streets of Berlin at night, a lonely man who has seen too much and who knows little of love? A man who is too skilled with a bottle of whiskey, too forlorn and just too darn familiar with the cold? Well, lucky, you no longer have to imagine because Le Carré’s most famous spy novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold depicts all those elements among an intricate web of spies and lies. In Part 1 of this episode series, we’ll be discussing the plot and the author behind this spy novel and many others that rose to international acclaim. So grab your detective hat and an umbrella and join us in as we explore the cold world of spies.
You can watch the movie The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (free) here.
You can listen to the book (free) here.
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Busy, busy, busy. In this week’s episode, we are busy discussing the cult classic “Cat’s Cradle” with Mike from the Turn Leftist podcast. It’s obvious from the very first chapter why this Vonnegut novel is a fan favorite - a new religion called Bokononism, the end of the world brought about by a chemical called ‘ice-nice’ and of course, an eccentric cast of characters. In our discussion, we’ll be talking about the big themes of the novel such as the role of technology, where the power for how the technology used is concentrated and the material/economic conditions that justify wars.
You can read Cat’s Cradle (free) here.
You can listen to the book (free) here.
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Jackson Jackson, from this week’s story What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie, is a homeless Native American living in Seattle on a quest to win back an ancestral regalia. The simultaneously lighthearted and tragic tone of the story led us to discussing topics around loss and identity, about creating values outside of the commodity chain and the warmth and kindness in the story that exists in spite of the bleak realities.
You can read What You Pawn I Will Redeem (free) here.
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Even though the Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro just came out with a new book, we’re returning to one of his older works Never Let Me Go. In this episode, we’re incredibly excited to talk about our favorite author and book - what Ishiguro’s writing symbolizes, why he’s so freaking good at what he does and what we can learn from the characters of Never Let Me Go.
You can read “Never Let Me Go” (free) here. You can also watch the movie for free here.
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Tune in for a spooky Left Shelf episode this week where we go over two harrowing short stories by H.P. Lovecraft. We talk about the troubled life of H.P. Lovecraft and his even more troubling works - both in terms of blatant racism and xenophobia but also in terms of themes pertaining to existential fear.
You can read “At the Mountains of Mountains” here and “The Shadow over Innsmouth” here.
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If you’ve ever wondered how to curse capitalists and empower the working class, then you have come to the right book. The Factory Witches of Lowell has all of those components and more! Listen as we talk to the author about magic, feminism, and unionizing.
The Factory Witches of Lowell is available in print, eBook, or audiobook. Through Folx, you can find a local independent bookstore at https://www.indiebound.org/indie-store-finder if you prefer to buy that way. Or a title search on https://www.worldcat.org/ will direct you to the nearest library copy.
You can reach C.S. Malerich through @csmalerich on Twitter or website https://csmalerich.com
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The Indian subcontinent has a complicated history of colonialism and political conflict. In this week’s episode, we explore the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and Bangladeshi independence as experienced by an Indian immigrant living in the United States. Tune in as we talk about the history of that region and explore what it means to be an immigrant in America when crises are going on in your home country.
You can read the short story here.
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What is the nature of suffering and is it good? Why is how mental illness was treated in Russia in the late 1800s similar to how it is viewed today? These and many more questions will be answered with our big brains in this week’s episodes of Left Shelf, where we go over Chekhov’s Ward No. 6. It revolutionized Lenin, and maybe it will revolutionize you too.
You can read the short story here.
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Dear Lorrie Moore,
If you are listening (which we know you are), we were really trying to be nice. But we will not apologize for the violence.
Tune in to this week’s episodes to hear about how a political piece seems to be devoid of all politics and to hear us vent about boomers.
You can read the short story here. The one where she goes off on millennials is here. The deranged lib story you can find here.
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Che Guevara - the man, the symbol, the legend. Join us as we discuss who Che Guevara was before he became the revolutionary he is known for today. We read “The Motorcycle Diaries”, a journal of Che’s travels throughout South America, and explore the Pan Latin Americanism and Humanism presented in his writings.
You can read the whole book here.
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Prepare for an emotional rollercoaster of shame, guilt, hope, and finally, inevitable tragedy. In this week’s episode, we read our first longer piece, “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin, and talk about all things sexuality, gender and how all the characters hate women.
You can read or listen to the whole book here.
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I dare you to find an author as witty and quick as Grace Paley. In this week’s episode, we cover her short story “Faith In A Tree” and talk about all the ways Grace Paley subverts the norms of gender/class expectations with her unusual characters and postmodern writing.
We couldn’t find a free source of this story, but you can get Grace Paley’s short story collection here.
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“I want to see if it’s true. If the sky opens up at the top.” -- find out in this episode, where we explore the short story “Pop Art” by Joe Hill, talk about subtle yet underrated young male friendships and have some (small) asides of a particular cult experience.
You can read Pop Art for free here.
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Sad puppies, rabid puppies, dino dick and extraterrestrial love making. Ladies and gentleman, this piece by Chuck Tingle has got it all. Join us through this tale of woe and intrigue as we discuss how the alt-right, in their endless crusades against diversity, inadvertently made an alleged doctor of massage and his erotic stories more popular.
You can listen to this man read the story for free on YouTube or purchase the piece here for the special price of $2.99.
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It’s not about where you go, but that you walk away. This podcast examines Ursula K. LeGuin’s thought experiment about what it means to have the happiness of a society depend on the suffering of a child.
You can read the piece (for free) here.
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