Best Dylan Neal Podcasts (2025)

1
710 Weird and Wonderful Stories from Ancient Greece and Rome (with Paul Chrystal) | A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT | Two Listeners Follow Their Dream (And Create Something Amazing) 1:00:09

1d ago1:00:09

1:00:09

It's another action-packed episode! First, Jacke relays the story of a long-time listener who worked some mundane jobs before becoming an artistic bookmaker. Then Jacke talks to author Paul Chrystal about his work diving into lesser-known ancient texts for his book Miracula: Weird and Wonderful Stories of Ancient Greece and Rome. And in between, Ja…

1
709 Black American Humor (with Damon Young) | The Greatest American Joke Ever Told? 1:31:52

8d ago1:31:52

1:31:52

DAMON YOUNG (⁠What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays⁠) is a Pittsburgh writer and humorist. In this episode, Jacke talks to Damon about his work editing and writing an introduction for That's How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor, which emphasizes how and why Black American humor is uniquely transfixing.…

1
708 Science Fact and Science Fiction (with Keith Cooper) | AI Discovers a Work of Ancient Philosophy and Dreams Up a Reading List 1:11:01

12d ago1:11:01

1:11:01

For decades, writers and filmmakers have imagined worlds where characters can do things like watch a double sunset (on Tatooine, of course), or stand among the sand dunes of Arrakis, or gaze at the gas-giant planet Polyphemus from the moon Pandora. But even as works like Star Wars, Dune, and Avatar have enticed us with their fictional renditions of…

1
B. Dylan Hollis, author and TikTok star, with Emily Heil 1:12:24

15d ago1:12:24

1:12:24

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Baking Yesteryear comes Baking Across America: A Vintage Recipe Roadtrip, a cross-country culinary journey with 100 uniquely American recipes—from the coffee-crazed creations of the Pacific Northwest to the larger-than-life sheet cakes of Texas. In conversation with Emily Heil, a reporter covering na…

1
707 Emile Zola (with Robert Lethbridge) | Graham Greene's Only Ghost Story | My Last Book with Irina Mashinski 1:00:42

15d ago1:00:42

1:00:42

For years, listeners have been requesting an episode devoted to the French novelist, journalist, playwright, and public intellectual Émile Zola (1840-1902). In this episode, Jacke talks to author Robert Lethbridge, whose new book Émile Zola: A Determined Life presents a comprehensive exploration of the life, work, and times of the celebrated French…

1
Justice Stephen Breyer with Neal Katyal 1:05:53

21d ago1:05:53

1:05:53

To mark the paperback release of the New York Times bestseller, Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Stephen Breyer offers a provocative analysis of the textualist philosophy of the current Supreme Court’s supermajority and makes the case for a more pragmatic approach o…

1
706 Living with Jane Austen (with Janet Todd) | A Listener Changes His Life | Bored Parents 1:12:23

22d ago1:12:23

1:12:23

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Jane Austen's novels make us wish she was our friend. She wouldn't be just any old friend: she'd be the sharpest and wisest, the one we turn to in a crisis, the one who understands our flaws and helps us see our blind spots. As we navigate the perils of love and life, she'd be the friend who gently point…

1
Isabel Allende, bestselling author, with Dr. Jill Biden 56:20

25d ago56:20

56:20

From the New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits, A Long Petal of the Sea, and The Wind Knows My Name comes My Name Is Emilia del Valle, a historical novel about a young writer who journeys to South America to uncover the truth about her father—and herself. In conversation with Dr. Jill Biden, who served as First Lady of the U…

1
705 Runaway Poets - How the Brownings Fell in Love (And Why It Matters) 59:34

26d ago59:34

59:34

Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861) was one of the most prolific and accomplished poets of the Victorian age, an inspiration to Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, and countless others. And yet, her life was full of cloistered misery, as her father insisted that she should never marry. And then, the clouds lifted, and a letter arrived. It was …

1
704 Butterflies Regained 1:26:31

29d ago1:26:31

1:26:31

Poetry, butterflies, and original music oh my! With some help from poets Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, and John Keats, along with original music by composer Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal, Jacke tackles the topic of butterflies. Yes, yes, we all know that butterflies are symbols of beauty and transformation - but can great poets get beyon…

1
Ed Helms, comedian and actor, with David Chalian 1:01:57

1M ago1:01:57

1:01:57

Building on “SNAFU”—the award-winning podcast about history’s greatest screw-ups hosted by Ed Helms—the actor, comedian, producer, and writer takes you on a wild ride through time that covers the hilarious, head-scratching, and occasionally inspiring blunders that have shaped our world in SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups. …

1
703 D.H. Lawrence (with David Ellis) | My Last Book with Dorian Lynskey 1:09:35

1M ago1:09:35

1:09:35

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) is one of the most famous novelists of his era - and one of the most difficult to pin down. Was he a tasteless, avant-garde pornographer? Or the greatest imaginative novelist of his generation (as E.M. Forster once said)? What should we know about his hard-luck childhood and turbulent adult life? In this episode, Jacke tal…

1
702 Writing in the World of Jane Austen (with D.G. Rampton) | Disaster at the Book Festival! 52:01

1M ago52:01

52:01

Jacke talks to D.G. Rampton, Australia's Queen of the Regency Romance, about her love for the novels of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer - and what it's like for a twenty-first-century novelist to set her novels in the early-nineteenth-century world of intelligent heroines, dashing men, and sparkling banter. Find PLUS Jacke dives into the story of a…

1
701 Emerson's Struggle with Slavery (with Kenneth Sacks) | My Last Book with Victoria Namkung | We Had Sex Inside Moby-Dick! 1:11:31

1M ago1:11:31

1:11:31

For several decades, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was perhaps the most prominent writer and intellectual in America. As an advocate of personal freedom living in Massachusetts, surrounded by passionate abolitionists, one might expect that his positions regarding slavery would be obvious and uncomplicated. And yet, Emerson struggled with the issu…

1
700 - Butterflies at Rest 28:08

2M ago28:08

28:08

Returning to some devastating news after a trip to Paris, Jacke searches for lost time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Jacke Wilson / The Podglomerate

1
Rabbi Shira Stutman with David Brooks 1:10:35

2M ago1:10:35

1:10:35

In her debut book The Jewish Way to a Good Life: Find Happiness, Build Community, and Embrace Lovingkindness, Rabbi Shira—Sixth & I’s former long-time and much beloved Senior Rabbi—distills 3,500 years of Jewish wisdom and culture into practical, time-tested strategies that anyone can adopt to find meaning, cultivate good values, and experience joy…

1
699 Gatsby's Daisy (with Rachel Feder) | My Last Book with Francesca Peacock 1:12:12

2M ago1:12:12

1:12:12

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby might be one hundred years old, but it's still incredibly relevant: one list-of-lists site ranks it as the number-one book of all time. In this episode, Jacke talks to author Rachel Feder about this classic tale of reinvention - and the reinventing she did for her book Daisy, which retells the Gatsby sto…

1
698 Dante in Love (with Ellen Nerenberg and Anthony Valerio) [Ad-Free Archive Edition] 1:05:26

2M ago1:05:26

1:05:26

It's springtime! A great time to be in love - and if you're a poetic genius like Dante Alighieri, a great time to catch a glimpse of a girl named Beatrice on the streets of Florence, fall madly in love with her, and spend the rest of your life beatifying her in verse. In this episode, we present a conversation that first aired in February 2018, in …

1
697 Race in European Fairy Tales (with Kimberly Lau) | My Last Book with Rolf Hellebust 1:21:03

2M ago1:21:03

1:21:03

Anyone digging into fairy tales soon discovers that there's more to these stories of magic and wonder than meets the eye. Often thought of as stories for children, the narratives can be shockingly violent, and they sometimes deliver messages or "morals" at odds with modern sensibilities. In this episode, Jacke talks to Kimberly Lau about her book S…

1
696 John Ruskin (with Sara Atwood) | My Last Book with Collin Jennings 1:00:25

2M ago1:00:25

1:00:25

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a powerhouse of a man: writer, lecturer, critic, social reformer - and much else besides. From his five-volume work Modern Painters through his late writings about literature in Fiction, Fair and Foul, he brought to his subjects an energy and integrity that few critical thinkers have matched. His wide-ranging influence r…

1
Gretchen Rubin, author and happiness expert, with Meghan Keane 1:07:18

2M ago1:07:18

1:07:18

In Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives, the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before distills key insights into simple truths for living with greater satisfaction, clarity, and happiness for anyone undergoing a major life transition. In conversation with Meghan Keane, the founder and ma…

1
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson with Jerusalem Demsas 1:30:28

2M ago1:30:28

1:30:28

In Abundance, journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson explain how one generation’s solutions have become the next generation’s problems and offer a call to rethink big, entrenched problems that seem mired in systemic scarcity, from climate change and housing to education and healthcare. In conversation with Jerusalem Demsas, a staff writer at The…

1
695 Ten Indian Classics (with Sharmila Sen) | My Last Book with Adam Smyth 1:03:57

2M ago1:03:57

1:03:57

For the past ten years, the Murty Classical Library of India (published by Harvard University Press) has sought to do for classic Indian works what the famous Loeb Classical Library has done for Ancient Greek and Roman texts. In this episode, Jacke talks to editorial director Sharmila Sen about the joys and challenges of sifting through thousands o…

1
694 Apocalyptic Literature (with Dorian Lynskey) | My Last Book with Charles Baxter 1:07:02

3M ago1:07:02

1:07:02

For some reason, human beings don't seem to be content just thinking about their own death: they insist on imagining the end of the entire world. In this episode, Jacke talks to author Dorian Lynskey (Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World), who immersed himself in apocalyptic films and literature to discover exactly wha…

1
693 Understanding the Wonders of Nature (with Alan Lightman) | My Last Book with Alan Lightman 1:00:13

3M ago1:00:13

1:00:13

In today's world of specialization, Alan Lightman is that rare individual who has accomplished remarkable things in two very different realms. As a physicist with a Ph.D. from Cal Tech, he's taught at Harvard and MIT and advised the United Nations. As a novelist, he's written award-winning bestsellers like Einstein's Dreams and The Diagnosis. In th…

1
692 An Investigation in Chinatown (with Radha Vatsal) | The Five Books (with Tali Rosenblatt-Cohen) 1:02:57

3M ago1:02:57

1:02:57

It's a two-for-one special! First, Jacke talks to novelist Radha Vatsal about her new book, No. 10 Doyers Street, which tells the gripping story of an Indian woman journalist investigating a bloody shooting in New York's Chinatown circa 1907. Then podcaster Tali Rosenblatt-Cohen stops by to discuss her experience hosting The Five Books, which asks …

1
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, bestselling author, with Glory Edim 1:03:39

3M ago1:03:39

1:03:39

From the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists comes Dream Count, the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires. The novel reflects on the choices we make and those that are made for us, on daughters and mothers, and on our interconnected world. In conversation with Glory Edim, the founde…

1
691 The Making of Sylvia Plath (with Carl Rollyson) | My Last Book with Cheryl Hopson 1:04:05

3M ago1:04:05

1:04:05

Since her death, poet and novelist Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) has been an endless source of fascination for fans of her and her work. But while much attention has been paid to her tumultuous relationship with fellow poet Ted Hughes, we often overlook the influences that formed her, long before she traveled to England and met Hughes. What movies did s…

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Molly Yeh, cookbook author, with Carey Polis 1:06:08

3M ago1:06:08

1:06:08

From the host of “Girl Meets Farm” on the Food Network comes Sweet Farm!: More Than 100 Cookies, Cakes, Salads (!), and Other Delights from My Kitchen on a Sugar Beet Farm, a mix of nostalgic sweets and new concoctions drawn from Yeh’s Asian and Jewish backgrounds as well as adopted Midwestern traditions. In conversation with Carey Polis, a freelan…

1
690 Coleridge and the Person from Porlock [Ad-Free] 1:06:26

3M ago1:06:26

1:06:26

[This episode originally ran on July 18, 2016. It is presented here without commercial interruption.] In 1797, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge took two grains of opium and fell into a stupor. When he awoke, he had in his head the remnants of a marvelous dream, a vivid train of images of the Chinese emperor Kubla Khan and his summer palace, Xanadu.…

1
Giada De Laurentiis, author and TV host, with Jamila Robinson 58:25

3M ago58:25

58:25

In Super-Italian: More Than 110 Indulgent Recipes Using Italy’s Healthiest Foods, the bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning TV host shares the Italian approach to healthful eating—where nothing is off the menu—and you can have your pasta and eat it, too. In conversation with Jamila Robinson, editor in chief of Bon Appétit and Epicurious. This p…

1
689 Thomas Kyd (with Brian Vickers) | My Last Book with Jonathan D.S. Schroeder 47:28

3M ago47:28

47:28

For centuries, the playwright Thomas Kyd has been best known as the author of The Spanish Tragedy, a terrific story of revenge believed to have strongly influenced Shakespeare's Hamlet. And yet, a contemporary referred to Kyd as "industrious Kyd." What happened to the rest of his plays? In this episode, Jacke talks to scholar Brian Vickers about hi…

1
Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, with Kara Swisher 1:07:33

3M ago1:07:33

1:07:33

Memorial Days is a portrait of love and grief from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author in which Brooks reflects on the sudden death of her husband, Tony Horwitz, and explores the ways cultures grieve and what rituals might help to rebuild a life after loss. In conversation with Kara Swisher, the host of “On with Kara Swisher” and cohost of “Pivot,” a…

1
688 Georges Simenon 1:05:36

3M ago1:05:36

1:05:36

The Belgian-born French writer Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was astonishing for his literary ambition and output. The author of something like 400 novels, which he wrote in 7-10 day bursts (after checking with his physician beforehand to ensure that he could handle the strain), he's perhaps best known for his creation of Chief Inspector Jules Maigre…

1
687 Gatsby Turns 100 (with James West) 53:29

3M ago53:29

53:29

"I want to write something new," American author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a letter to his editor, "something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." Months later, he presented the results: the novel that would eventually be titled The Great Gatsby. Published in 1925 to middling success, the book has since become a can…

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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer with Emily Tisch Sussman 1:01:21

3M ago1:01:21

1:01:21

Calling adults of all ages and anyone who wants to make the world a better place: Celebrate the release of the young adult adaptation of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s memoir, True Gretch: Lessons for Anyone Who Wants to Make a Difference. In conversation with Emily Tisch Sussman, founder and host of the award-winning iHeart podcast “She Pivo…

1
686 Russian Poetry After the Cold War (with Stephanie Sandler) 55:32

3M ago55:32

55:32

For decades, the Soviet Union was unfriendly territory for poets and writers. But what happened when the wall fell? Emerging from the underground, the poets reacted with a creative outpouring that responded to a brave new world. In this episode, Jacke talks to Russian poetry scholar Stephanie Sandler about her new book The Freest Speech in Russia: …

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685 Charles Chesnutt (with Tess Chakkalakal) | My Last Book with John Goodby 1:01:41

4M ago1:01:41

1:01:41

Complex and talented, Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was one of the first American authors to write for both Black and white readers. Born in Cleveland to "mixed race" parents, Chesnutt rejected the opportunity to "pass" as white, instead remaining in the Black community throughout his life. His life in the South during Reconstruction, and his kno…

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