Desperate Readers
Tatiana and Niko meet together to discuss great literature of the past and present. In each episode they read a book of contemporary world literature and pair it with a canonical western classic to delve into shared literary themes and questions that writers keep returning to across space and time. Follow us on Instagram: @desperatereaderspod and Twitter: @DeserateReads Sound recording and editing by Niko and Tatiana Opening music by Seth Thomsen
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Episodes
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
... I sing. The whole gang is here! Niko and Tatiana read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, touching on everyone: Zeus, Medusa, Julius Caesar, Juno, Apollo, Diana, and all your other favorite Roman deities.
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams… Niko and Tatiana are joined by special guest Zach McRae for Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis. We talk about what it’s like to be a bug, workers and artists, sadomasochism, body horror, and more. This episode gets very silly at times.
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Niko and Tatiana read Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta. They discuss The Joys of Motherhood, gender expectations, children, and city living.
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
The number one best mom award goes to…! Niko and Tatiana revisit Euripides and read his most famous play, Medea. They discuss Medea’s motherhood, foreign status, cunning, and vengeance.
Wednesday May 24, 2023
Wednesday May 24, 2023
A book surrounded by scandal and mythos: Niko and Tatiana read Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem. The story follows an African tribe from precolonial times to the twentieth century and plots the evolution of violence. Niko and Tatiana discuss the significance and form of this violence, as well as fertility and power.
The Other Press will release a new critical edition of Bound to Violence in September 2023.
Friday May 19, 2023
Friday May 19, 2023
April is the cruelest month. Niko and Tatiana welcome special guest Bart Bolander to talk about The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. The three discuss Eliot’s poetic philosophy, fragmentation, and the modernism, while scratching the surface of Eliot’s symbolism and references.
Friday Apr 28, 2023
Friday Apr 28, 2023
This week, Niko and Tatiana read Potiki by Patricia Grace, one of the first published Māori writer, and discuss memory, the flavors of tragedy, and the interpretation of disaster.
Tuesday Apr 18, 2023
Tuesday Apr 18, 2023
An incredible short story taking place in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Niko and Tatiana discuss the human spirit, the spectacle of life, and the craft of the short story in Heinrich von Kleist’s “The Earthquake in Chile.”
Read the story before you listen here: https://www.scarsdaleschools.k12.ny.us/cms/lib5/NY01001205/Centricity/Domain/237/Reading%2019%20-%20Kleist-Earthquake.pdf
Thursday Apr 13, 2023
Thursday Apr 13, 2023
As the clock strikes midnight, Saleem is born with the partition of India. Niko and Tatiana discuss the flavors of magical realism, the spread of democracy, and the power of scent as they talk about Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
The devil comes to Moscow, and Pontius Pilate meets Jesus of Nazareth in The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Tatiana and Niko discuss magical realism and the evils of bureaucracy.
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