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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.

Copyright: © 2026 The New York Review of Books

Latest Episodes:

Rachel Kushner Reads from Love and Death in the American Novel Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Private Life, Rachel Kushner reads an excerpt from Leslie A. Fiedler’s Love and Death in the American Novel (1960), which was reissued by New York Review Books in April. In Kushner’s selection, Fiedler writes about Mark Twain and the themes and characters of his books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Kushner is best known for her novels Telex from Cuba (2008), The Flamethrowers (2013), and The Mars Room (2018). Her most recent novel is Creation Lake (2024).

Leslie A. Fiedler (1917–2003) was a literary critic and novelist. His books include The Stranger in Shakespeare (1972), Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self (1978), and Fiedler on the Roof: Essays on Literature and Jewish Identity (1991).

Last week’s episode featured Edwin Frank in a conversation about Fiedler’s literary criticism and Love and Death in the American Novel. You can find Love and Death in the American Novel at nyrb.com or at your favorite bookseller.

Edwin Frank on Love and Death in the American Novel Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Private Life, Edwin Frank joins Jarrett Earnest to discuss Leslie A. Fiedler's Love and Death in the American Novel (1960), which was reissued by NYRB Classics in April. They discuss the preoccupations of Fiedler’s literary criticism, the process of putting together a collection of criticism, and Frank’s book Stranger than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth Century Novel (2024).

Edwin Frank is the editor of New York Review Books as well as the founder and editorial director of the NYRB Classics series. In addition to Stranger than Fiction, he has also released a collection of poems, Snake Train (2015).

Leslie A. Fiedler (1917–2003) was a literary critic and novelist. He published two novels and three short story collections, as well as dozens of volumes of criticism, including The Stranger in Shakespeare (1972), Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self (1978), and Fiedler on the Roof: Essays on Literature and Jewish Identity (1991).

Next week’s episode will be a selection from Love and Death in the American Novel, read by the writer Rachel Kushner. You can find Love and Death in the American Novel at nyrb.com or at your favorite bookseller.

"The Perils of Pauline" by Renata Adler Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Private Life, the actress Holland Taylor reads Renata Adler’s essay “The Perils of Pauline,” an expansive assessment of Pauline Kael’s film criticism from the Review’s August 14, 1980, issue. Taylor has been working on films, television, and Broadway since the 1960s. She is a nine-time Emmy nominee, winning once, in 1999, for her role as a judge on The Practice. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 2013 for playing Texas governor Ann Richards in Ann.

Renata Adler is a journalist and film critic who was a staff writer at The New Yorker for four decades. Her books include A Year in the Dark (1969); Toward a Radical Middle (1970); Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker (1999); and the novels Speedboat (1976) and Pitch Dark (1983), which were both reissued by NYRB Classics.

Last week’s episode was an interview with Lucy Sante that discussed Adler’s essay and film criticism. You can read “The Perils of Pauline” and other essays with a subscription to The New York Review of Books, which, in addition to twenty print issues a year, gives you access to our full archive since 1963.

Lucy Sante on Pauline Kael, Film Criticism, and Pop Culture Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

In the second season premiere of Private Life, host Jarrett Earnest is joined by the writer and critic Lucy Sante to discuss Pauline Kael’s career, pop culture writing, and Sante’s writing for the Review, where she has been a frequent contributor since the 1980s. The conversation focuses on “The Perils of Pauline” (published in the magazine’s August 14, 1980, issue), Renata Adler’s blistering assessment of Kael’s film criticism; the legacy of staff film critics; and Sante’s relationship with popular music from Elvis to The Velvet Underground.

Lucy Sante is the author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (1991), Six Sermons for Bob Dylan (2024), and the memoir I Heard Her Call My Name (2024). Her first essay for the Review, “Relic” (published in the December 17, 1981, issue), reviewed Albert Goldman’s controversial 1981 biography, Elvis. Sante taught writing and the history of photography at Bard College for twenty-four years.

Next week’s episode will be a recording of Adler’s “The Perils of Pauline” read by the actress Holland Taylor. You can read the essays discussed in this episode with a subscription to The New York Review of Books, which, in addition to twenty print issues a year, gives you access to our full archive since 1963.

”A Little Iliad” by Daniel Mendelsohn Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

This episode is a reading of Daniel Mendelsohn’s essay,“A Little Iliad,” a review of the film Troy, an adaptation of the Iliad, from the Review’s June 24, 2004, issue. It is read by the countertenor and opera director Anthony Roth Costanzo. Among many other roles, Costanzohas performed as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Akhnaten in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, both at the Met Opera, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 2022 for the cast recording of Akhnaten. He is currently the director and president of Opera Philadelphia.

Daniel Mendelsohn is the Editor-at-Large of The New York Review of Books and the Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities at Bard. The paperback edition of his translation of Homer’s Odyssey was released in April by the University of Chicago Press.

Last week’s episode was an interview with Mendelsohn on Homer’s Odyssey, both the film adaptation and his translation. You can read “A Little Iliad” and other essays by Mendelsohn with a subscription to The New York Review of Books, which, in addition to twenty print issues a year, gives you access to our full archive since 1963.

Daniel Mendelsohn on The Odyssey, Film Adaptations, and Translations Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Private Life, Daniel Mendelsohn joins Jarrett Earnest to discuss his 2025 translation of Homer’s Odyssey and Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming film adaptation, premiering this week. They discuss the debate surrounding the film’s casting, the significance of descriptive language in translations, and the enduring place of Greek literature, history, and aesthetics in gay cultural and intellectual life.

Daniel Mendelsohn is the Editor-at-Large of The New York Review of Books and the Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities at Bard. His books include An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic (2017), The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million (2006), and How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken: Essays (2008). Mendelsohn is also the author of the essay collections Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture (2012) and Ecstasy and Terror (2019), as well as Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate (2022), which were all published by New York Review Books. The paperback edition of his translation of Homer’s Odyssey was released in April by the University of Chicago Press.

Next week’s episode will be a reading of Mendelsohn’s essay “A Little Iliad,” a review of the film Troy from the Review’s June 24, 2004, issue. You can read that essay and others by Mendelsohn with a subscription to The New York Review of Books, which, in addition to twenty print issues a year, gives you access to our full archive since 1963.

”The Mayakovsky of MacDougal Street” by Geoffrey O’Brien Jul 08, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Private Life, the poet and writer Eileen Myles reads Geoffrey O'Brien's essay on Frank O'Hara, ”The Mayakovsky of MacDougal Street,” from The New York Review of Books‘ December 2, 1993, issue. It is read by the poet and writer Eileen Myles. Their work includes the semi-autobiographical book Chelsea Girls (1994), the novel Inferno (2008), and the poetry collection I Must Be Living Twice (2015).

Frank O’Hara was a writer, art critic, and a leading poet of the New York School who worked as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art. He is best known for his poetry collection Lunch Poems (1964) and “Personism: A Manifesto” (1959).

You can read “The Mayakovsky of MacDougal Street” by Geoffrey O’Brien and other essays with a subscription to The New York Review of Books, which, in addition to twenty print issues a year, gives you access to our full archive since 1963.

Robert Glück on His Books, Frank O'Hara, and Dreams Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Private Life, Robert Glück joins Jarrett Earnest for a conversation about his books, the characters that shaped his stories, and Geoffrey O’Brien’s essay “The Mayakovsky of MacDougal Street” (published in the Review’s December 2, 1993, issue) on the poet and writer Frank O’Hara. They discuss Glück’s work of postmodern fiction Jack the Modernist (1985), his experimental novel Margery Kempe(1994), and his genre blending book About Ed(2023), all of which were published by New York Review Books.

Robert Glück is a poet, fiction writer, and editor who cofounded the literary movement New Narrative alongside Bruce Boone in the 1970s. Glück’s books of poetry include La Fontaine (1981) with Bruce Boone, and Reader (1989). His other works include the story collection Denny Smith (2003) and the essay collection Communal Nude (2016). He was the director of San Francisco State’s Poetry Center, served as codirector of Small Press Traffic, and was an associate editor at Lapis Press.

You can find Robert Glück’s books at nyrb.com or at your favorite bookseller. Read Geoffrey O’Brien’s “The Mayakovsky of MacDougal Street” with a subscription to The New York Review of Books, which, in addition to twenty issues a year, gives you access to our full archive since 1963, searchable on our website.

“Chronicles of Love and Loss“ by Helen Vendler Jun 24, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Private Life, Langdon Hammer reads Helen Vendler’s essay, “Chronicles of Love and Loss,” from the May 11, 1995, issue of The New York Review of Books. The essay reviews James Merill’s posthumous collection of poetry, A Scattering of Salts (1995), as well as his poem “The House Fly,” published in the May 13, 1982, issue of the Review.

Langdon Hammer is the Niel Gray Jr. Professor of English at Yale and the author of James Merrill: Life and Art. He has reviewed biography and poetry for the Review and has written about the poet Elizabeth Bishop.

Helen Vendler was an academic and literary critic, known for her contemporary poetry criticism. She was the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor Emerita in the Department of English at Harvard. Vendler was a contributor to the Review for more than forty years.

You can read “Chronicles of Love and Loss” with a subscription to The New York Review of Books, which in addition to twenty issues a year, gives you access to our full archive since 1963, searchable on our website.

Eve Babitz's Letters from “Too L.A.” Read By Gina Gershon Jun 17, 2026

Show notes

This episode of Private Life is a reading from the forthcoming New York Review Books collection of Eve Babitz’s writing, Too L.A.: Letters Never Sent (But Some Were), edited and with an introduction by Lili Anolik. It is read by the actress and singer Gina Gershon. Gershon is best known for starring in the films Showgirls (1995), Bound (1996), Face/Off (1997), and The Insider (1999). Her book AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs was published earlier this year.

Eve Babitz (1943–2021) was a writer and artist from Hollywood, California. She wrote the essay collections Eve’s Hollywood (1974) and Slow Days, Fast Company (1977), both reissued by NYRB Classics, and the novel Sex and Rage (1979). NYRB also published I Used to Be Charming (2019), which brought together decades of her uncollected nonfiction.

This reading accompanies last week's Private Life episode featuring Lili Anolik discussing Eve Babitz’s life and legacy. Too L.A.: Letters Never Sent (But Some Were) will be published on June 23, 2026, and will be available at NYRB.com or at a local bookseller.

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