Best Conceive Magazine Podcasts (2025)

1
Cold War Pen-Pals 39:49

2d ago39:49

39:49

The Soviet Women’s Anti-Fascist Committee was set up in 1941 to foster connections with Allied countries and encourage British and US women to ‘invest personally’ in the war effort. Two years later, the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship in New York started its own letter-writing programme. The correspondence between a few hundred pairs…

1
Close Readings: 'Vanity Fair' by William Makepeace Thackeray 33:07

9d ago33:07

33:07

Thackeray's comic masterpiece, 'Vanity Fair', is a Victorian novel looking back to Regency England as an object both of satire and nostalgia. Thackeray’s disdain for the Regency is present throughout the book, not least in the proliferation of hapless characters called George, yet he also draws heavily on his childhood experiences to unfold a compl…

1
Conceiving Pregnancy 40:38

16d ago40:38

40:38

It's now possible to take a home pregnancy test eight days after ovulation, yet in the 16th century, women sometimes turned to astrologers for confirmation. And in the 1950s and 1960s, one might send a urine sample to an address in Sloane Street where they would inject it into a tropical frog that would lay eggs. In this episode of the LRB Podcast,…

1
Trump’s War by Executive Order 1:00:11

23d ago1:00:11

1:00:11

Judith Butler and Aziz Rana join Adam Shatz to discuss Donald Trump’s use of executive orders to target birthright citizenship, protest, support of Palestinian rights, academic freedom, constitutionally protected speech and efforts to ensure inclusion on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation. They consider in particular the content of Ex…

1
On Mavis Gallant 38:05

30d ago38:05

38:05

Mavis Gallant is best known for her short stories, 116 of which were first published in the New Yorker. Extraordinarily varied and prolific, she arranged her life around the solitary pleasure of writing while battling extreme self-doubt. Tessa Hadley joins Joanne O’Leary to discuss her recent review of 44 previously uncollected Gallant stories and …

1
Close Readings: ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brontë 32:02

1M ago32:02

32:02

When Wuthering Heights was published in December 1847, many readers didn’t know what to make of it: one reviewer called it ‘a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors’. In this extended extract from episode three of ‘Novel Approaches’, Patricia Lockwood and David Trotter join Thomas Jones to explore Emily Brontë’s ‘completely amoral’ nove…

1
The Grimms’ Weird Tales 50:11

1M ago50:11

50:11

The folk tales collected and rewritten by the Brothers Grimm may ‘seem to come from nowhere and to belong to everyone’, Colin Burrow wrote recently in the LRB, but ‘this is an illusion’. In the latest episode of the LRB podcast, Colin joins Thomas Jones to talk about the distinctive place and time in which Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived and worked, …

1
Weaponising Antisemitism 58:24

2M ago58:24

58:24

Two recent books, by Peter Beinart and Rachel Shabi, discuss the response of Jewish communities in the West to the Hamas attacks of 7 October and Israel’s subsequent destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza, and the shifting politics of antisemitism. In this episode Adam Shatz talks to Peter and Rachel about the moral rupture Israel’s actions have c…

1
Who is Paul Marshall? 1:01:41

2M ago1:01:41

1:01:41

A decade ago, the hedge fund manager Paul Marshall was known as a Lib Dem donor and founder of the Ark academy chain. Now, as the owner of UnHerd, GB News and, since last September, the Spectator, he’s a right-wing media tycoon. Peter Geoghegan joins Thomas Jones to discuss Marshall’s transformation. He explains the ‘symbiotic relationship’ between…

1
Close Readings: 'Crotchet Castle' by Thomas Love Peacock 36:12

2M ago36:12

36:12

Thomas Love Peacock didn’t want to write novels, at least not in the form they had taken in the first half of the 19th century. In Crotchet Castle he rejects the expectation that novelists should reveal the interiority of their characters, instead favouring the testing of opinions and ideas. His ‘novel of talk’, published in 1831, appears largely l…

1
Deaths in Custody 35:37

2M ago35:37

35:37

Since 1995, at least 51 young people have died in Scottish prisons. These include Katie Allan and William Lindsay, who shared strong support networks and, despite very different life experiences, died in similar circumstances. Their deaths were deemed preventable in a long-awaited inquiry that identified a ‘catalogue’ of failures but led to no pros…

1
Have we surrendered to climate breakdown? 50:26

3M ago50:26

50:26

In 2015, a vigorous response to climate change seemed possible: even fossil fuel companies talked about transitioning to cleaner energy. But exploration and exploitation of oil and gas reserves have continued unabated, and in 2024, annual temperatures surpassed the 1.5ºC limit set by the Paris Agreement. In a recent piece, Brett Christophers descri…

1
On Vigdis Hjorth 46:14

3M ago46:14

46:14

The Norwegian novelist Vigdis Hjorth is a master of the collapsing relationship. In her twenty books, five of which have been translated into English, she turns her eye to estranged siblings, tormented lovers, demanding parents and disaffected colleagues with the same combination of philosophical penetration and sympathy. But she hasn’t always rece…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Conceive Magazine Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

1
The LRB Podcast

The London Review of Books

1
HaveaBaby.com Live

Conceive Magazine

1
Cold War Pen-Pals 39:49

1
Close Readings: 'Vanity Fair' by William Makepeace Thackeray 33:07

1
Conceiving Pregnancy 40:38

1
Trump’s War by Executive Order 1:00:11

1
On Mavis Gallant 38:05

1
Close Readings: ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brontë 32:02

1
The Grimms’ Weird Tales 50:11

1
Weaponising Antisemitism 58:24

1
Who is Paul Marshall? 1:01:41

1
Close Readings: 'Crotchet Castle' by Thomas Love Peacock 36:12

1
Deaths in Custody 35:37

1
Have we surrendered to climate breakdown? 50:26

1
On Vigdis Hjorth 46:14

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