This week, Toby Lichtig previews the season’s fictional highlights; and Ann Manov on Sally Rooney’s latest gambit.

‘Creation Lake’, by Rachel Kushner

‘Intermezzo’, by Sally Rooney

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, typographer Tom Cook on the fonts of all knowledge; and Graham Daseler explores Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler's firecracker relationship.

'Albertus: The Biography of a Typeface', by Simon Garfield

'Baskerville: The Biography of a Typeface', by Simon Garfield

'Comic Sans: The Biography of a Typeface', by Simon Garfield

'From the Moment They Met it was Murder: Double Indemnity and the Rise of Film Noir', by Alain Silver and James Ursini

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Mary Beard joins us to explain why two recently discovered fragments of Euripides are big news; and an interview with director James Macdonald and actor Lucian Msamati on their new production of Waiting for Godot.

'Ino' and 'Polyidus', by Euripides

'Waiting for Godot', by Samuel Beckett, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, until December 14 2024

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, medieval spells and modern cures, as we look back at some podcast highlights with Mary C Flannery and Charles Foster.

'Textual Magic: Charms and Written Amulets in Medieval England', by Katherine Storm Hindley

'Ten Trips: The new reality of psychedelics', by Andy Mitchell

'Psychedelics: The revolutionary drugs that could change your life – a guide from the expert', by David Nutt

'I feel love: MDMA and the quest for connection in a fractured world', by Rachel Nuwer

'Psychonauts: Drugs and the making of the modern mind', by Mike Jay

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Lucy and Alex are joined by Amber Massie-Blomfield, who discusses her new book about the connections between art and protest.

'Acts of Resistance: The Power of Art to Create a Better World', by

Amber Massie-Blomfield

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Lucy and Alex are joined by the novelist David Peace, who explains what drew him to writing about the 1958 Munich Air Disaster.

'Munichs', by David Peace

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, we take a look back at Fintan O'Toole's pre-election assessment of Keir Starmer; and revisit a conversation with William Boyd.

'Keir Starmer: The Biography', by Tom Baldwin

'November 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War

II’, by Peter Englund', translated by Peter Graves

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Philip Ball assesses the anxiety about AI - and provides some reassurance; and Jane Robinson on Emily Davies, the woman who founded Girton College, Cambridge.

'Moral AI: And how we get there', by Jana Schaich Borg, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Vincent Conitzer

'The AI Mirror: How to reclaim our humanity in an age of machine thinking', by Shannon Vallor

'Robots and the People Who Love Them: Holding on to our humanity in an age of social robots', by Eve Herold

'The Atomic Human: Understanding ourselves in the Age of AI', by Neil D. Lawrence

'Emily Davies and the Mid-Victorian Women's Movement', by John Hendry

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Isaac Nowell takes us out in all weathers, Sean O'Brien reads a new poem, and Norma Clarke on a fascinating story of exile and doomed love.

'In All Weathers: A Journey Through Rain, Fog, Wind, Ice and

Everything in Between', by Matt Gaw

'Fingerpost', by Sean O'Brien

'In Pursuit of Love: The Search for Victor Hugo's Daughter', by Mark Bostridge

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Anna Katharina Schaffner on a top-to-tail exploration of deportment; and Toby Lichtig in conversation with novelist Hari Kunzru at the Hay Festival.

'Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America', by Beth Linker

'Blue Ruin', by Hari Kunzru

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Lily Herd on a child's-eye view of rockstar royalty; and Toby Lichtig talks to novelist Chigozie Obioma at the Hay Festival.

'My Family and Other Rock Stars', by Tiffany Murray

'The Road to the Country', by Chigozie Obioma

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Heather O'Donoghue puzzles over the locked rooms and red herrings of the crime genre; and Josh Raymond on an animated attempt to understand teenage turmoil.

'The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators', by Martin Edwards

'Inside Out 2'

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, we accompany Stephen Sawyer on a speeded-up saunter through the arrondissements; and Toby Lichtig in conversation with Rory Stewart at the Hay Festival.

'Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century', by Simon Kuper

'The Zone: An Alternative History of Paris', by Justinien Tribillon

'Politics on the Edge', by Rory Stewart

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, TLS editors and writers guide you through a summer of reading; and Sarah Watling explores the extraordinary story of an artistic double act.

'Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story', Charleston, Lewes, Sussex

'The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth, aka Patricia Preece', by Denys J. Wilcox

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Ben Hutchinson on the making of Franz Kafka, a century after the writer's death; and an interview with Roz Dineen about her vision of climate catastrophe and societal collapse.

'Kafka: Making of an icon', Weston Library, Bodleian, Oxford, until October 27

Accompanying book edited by Ritchie Robertson

'Briefly Very Beautiful', by Roz Dineen

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Join us for at the Hay Festival for a conversation encompassing portals to other worlds, rock bands, improbable giraffes and the travails of the M4.

'Impossible Creatures', by Katherine Rundell

'One Ukrainian Summer: A Memoir About Falling in Love and Coming of Age in the Former USSR', by Viv Groskop

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, we hear from two international prize-winning authors, Jenny Erpenbeck and Mircea Cărtărescu.

'Kairos' by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann

'Solenoid' by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, writers including Andrew O'Hagan, Rose Tremain, Ayobami Adebayo and Marian Keyes select their most memorable sporting moments; and we drop in on the European Writers' Festival at the British Library.

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, we look at the busy afterlives of two canonical characters: Nathalie Olah on Tom Ripley and Emelyne Godfrey on Sherlock Holmes.

'Ripley', on Netflix

'The Worlds of Sherlock Holmes: The inspiration behind the world’s greatest detective', by Andrew Lycett

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Susan Owens explores the surreal and vivid life of the artist Eileen Agar; and Rosie Goldsmith, curator of the European Writers' Festival, joins us to explain what's on the bill.

'A Look at My Life', by Eileen Agar

The European Writers' Festival, the British Library, London, 18-19 May 2024

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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