LARB Radio Hour

The Los Angeles Review of Books has quietly become one of the most important literary publications in the country, and the LARB Radio Hour brings that same editorial sensibility to audio. Hosted by Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman, the weekly show features interviews and readings with authors, artists, and cultural critics who tend to be doing genuinely interesting work rather than just promoting a book tour stop. Episodes run about 45 to 55 minutes and cover a wide range: contemporary fiction, poetry, cultural criticism, translation, independent publishing, and the kinds of interdisciplinary conversations that happen when literature bumps up against politics, art, and philosophy. The hosts are well-informed without being pretentious -- reviewers consistently praise their ability to ask smart questions and then actually listen to the answers, which sounds basic but is rarer than you'd think in literary podcasting. With 99 episodes and a near-perfect 4.9-star rating from 135 reviews, the LARB Radio Hour punches well above its weight. The show doesn't have the massive audience of some bigger-name book podcasts, but the listeners it does have are devoted. The pacing is brisk enough that episodes never drag, even when the subject matter is dense. If your taste in books skews toward the literary and you're tired of podcast recommendations that stick to the bestseller list, the LARB Radio Hour consistently surfaces the kind of writing that deserves more attention.