Lit Bits

Jul 10 2024 23 ep. 22 mins 15

Lit Bits Podcast artwork

Lit Bits is a bookish podcast and radio show hosted by Adam Smyth, Professor of English at Balliol College, Oxford, and the journalist James Kidd. Each episode glides about a particular subject using books, poems, plays and occasionally high quality trouser-wear.

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Ep. 4 Lit Bits Goes to the Movies

Jul 10 2024 37 mins

In which Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) are joined by film critic and author James Mottram to discuss several matters pertaining to literature and film. We three grapple with, among other things, the strange discourse of The Empire Strikes Back —the life and opinions of Thomas Hanks Esq—the many difficulties involved when translating prose to the cine

Ep. 23 Lit Bits on New Year (Mini Lit Bit)

Dec 27 2023 4 mins

In which Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) forget old acquaintance in a Soho doorway as a December deluge rains on their parade to make their new year resolutions. More exercise, less saturated fat, and a diet of Jeffrey Archer, EL James and Jon Bon Jovi’s epic poem about a strip club. ----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... For the sake of auld lang

Ep. 22 Lit Bits on Walking (Mini Lit Bit)

Dec 26 2023 16 mins

Walk this way. Talk this way. As Run DMC once said before taking their annual Boxing Day ramble to the pub. Adam 'Lit' Smyth and James 'Bits' Kidd follow suit and do their talking while they’re walking – and vice versa – tumbling out of the French House in Soho, recorder in hand.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... With the heaven’s opening, and the pubs closing,

Ep. 21 Lit Bits on Celebration (Mini Lit Bit)

Dec 12 2023 29 mins

In which Adam 'Lit' Smyth and James 'Bit' Kidd don the party hats, parp those funny trumpets and let it all hang out. Or very nearly. This is Lit Bits' way of asking: how do novels, plays and poems celebrate good times (come on). What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Is humanity way too down with ambivalence to have a good time (come on, let's celebrate)? Are we too sad these days to

Ep. 19 Lit Bits goes Shopping (Mini Lit Bit)

Nov 29 2023 5 mins

With Black Friday burning a hole in his tracksuit, James ‘Bits’ Kidd heads for a shopping mall in Poughkeepsie, upstate New York, to blow the entire Lit Bits expense account on a five-speed neck massager.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... As well as flashing the cash, James wonders about at least some of the following. Why are there no clocks in malls? Why are there

Ep. 18 Lit Bits on Mistakes (with Liane Strauss)

Aug 28 2023 55 mins

In which Lit Bits (Adam 'Lit' Smyth and a train-delayed—but eventually present—James 'Bits' Kidd) are joined by poet Liane Strauss to discuss mistakes, slips, wanderings, and things not quite going to plan. A dash of Shakespeare; a shot of Keats; a half-pint tumbler of Wallace Stevens; and a generous lacing of Phil “Errare” Larkin.----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here.

Ep. 17 Lit Bits on Fear (Mini Lit Bit)

Aug 14 2023 8 mins

Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bit’ Kidd) ascends to a hidden portal in the London Library and finds not Thetans, but a creepily broken desk. Is this where recalcitrant members go to die? ----more---- What is Lit Bits? Listen here... Is this what happens if you write in pen in the margin of page 423 of that Lord Byron biography? Is this what happens if you make stain

Ep. 16 Lit Bits on Truth (with Hallie Rubenhold and Alex von Tunzelmann)

Aug 14 2023 44 mins

In which Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) – never afraid to tackle the big issues – dons its metaphysical (and metaphorical) wig, takes a deep breath, and plunges into TRUTH in films and books. Joined by historical whizzes Alex von Tunzelmann and Hallie Rubenhold, the pod wrestles with JFK; Margaret Thatcher; Christian Bale; John Keats; The French Revol

Ep. 15 Lit Bits on Flying (w/ Hallie Rubenhold + Alex von Tunzelmann)

Jul 31 2023 5 mins

It’s chocks away as Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) are joined, for five high-altitude minutes, by Alex von Tunzelmann and Hallie Rubenhold, to talk planes and books. Just what do you read during a flight? Why is airplane food so terrible? Why does every movie seem to star Seth Rogan? And who exactly is Seth Rogan????? Reading, writing, doomed ambition

Ep. 14 Lit Bits on Pubs (Mini Lit Bit)

Jul 17 2023 5 mins

Lit Bits (Adam ‘Lit’ Smyth and James ‘Bits’ Kidd) pop down the boozer for a quick 0.5. Beginning a seemingly inexhaustible fascination with recording nonsense in boozers, our intrepid pod duo battle their way out of the The Lord John Russell to chat about James Joyce and Geoffrey Chaucer. In the process, they struggle to describe Ulysses’ multi-vocal pub conversations, an