The Clearing by Katherine May Podcast

Dec 13 2024 12 ep. 58 mins 8
The Clearing by Katherine May Podcast artwork

A place to find ad-free versions of all episodes of How We Live Now, immersive bonus mini-episodes and audio replays of all events in The Clearing

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True Stories Book Club with Sharon Blackie

Dec 13 2024 51 mins  
True Stories Book Club with Sharon BlackieOn the wisdom, beauty and cunning of folktale eldersThis month, Sharon Blackie joined me to talk about her new book, Wise Women: Myths and Stories for Midlife and Beyond.DownloadI hope you enjoy our chat, and Sharon’s insights into folktales, ageing and the cast of kick-ass older women she introduces us to in this book. This is a public e

How We Live Now: Sarah Moss on memory and meaning-making

Nov 15 2024 46 mins  
How We Live Now: Sarah Moss on memory and meaning-makingHer new memoir explores how we’re made, and how we contain a multiplicity of selvesRecently, I interviewed Sarah Moss about her incredible new memoir, My Good Bright Wolf, an account of growing up as a difficult girl in a difficult family, and how this ultimately led to her eating disorder. Throughout the book, she repeatedl

True Stories Book Club: 'Giving Up the Ghost'

Oct 31 2024 59 mins  
True Stories Book Club: 'Giving Up the Ghost'Exploring Hilary Mantel's memoir with Jillian Hess‘What’s to be done with the lost, the dead, but write them into being?’So writes Hilary Mantel in her extraordinary memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. First published in 2003, it offers a snapshot of the great writer before the Wolf Hall era: a literary, if not commercial, success, and a

True Stories Book Club with Kate Fox

Oct 16 2024 58 mins  
True Stories Book Club with Kate FoxOn the potential and power of poetryIt was National Poetry Day in the UK earlier this month and I couldn’t resist talking to Kate Fox about her new book, On Sycamore Gap, in an extra Book Club event. Kate’s book is about a very special tree in the north of England that was chopped down by vandals, but that has brought people together in the a

True Stories Book Club with Oliver Burkeman

Sep 26 2024 59 mins  
True Stories Book Club with Oliver BurkemanOn mortality, acceptance and imperfectionismSeptember - when we’re almost as likely to be trying to reform ourselves as in January - is the perfect moment for Oliver Burkeman’s new book, Meditations for Mortals. When I sat down to talk to him earlier this week for my Book Club, there was one question I was burning to ask: do you confus

True Stories Book Club with Lucy Jones

Aug 29 2024 52 mins  
True Stories Book Club with Lucy JonesOn Matrescence, maternal myths and transformationFor this month’s Book Club, I spoke to Lucy Jones about Matrescence, her book about the profound changes wrought by pregnancy and birth. Combining the biological, the social and the political with exquisite writing, this is a radical revision of a subject veiled in forced cosiness and obfuscati

True Stories Book Club with Daniel Tammet

Jul 25 2024 54 mins  
I’ve been reading Daniel’s writing for a long time - his first book, Born on a Blue Day, came out in 2006. At the time, he was writing about his experience as a savant (his synaesthesia means that he conceptualises numbers and dates in a completely different way to most of us), and it was interesting to talk here about the way that he was treated during those years. Daniel is a

True Stories Book Club with Tom Newlands

Jun 27 2024 46 mins  
This month’s pick is a bit of an unusual choice for a non-fiction book club… a novel! But Tom Newlands’ debut, Only Here, Only Now captivated me enough to break my own rules. I felt seen by this novel, and I think that many of you will feel the same way. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kat

Samantha Irby on being a person

May 30 2024 55 mins  
A couple of weeks ago, I talked to Catherine Coldstream, author of Cloistered: My Years as a Nun, and disaster struck. Halfway through the conversation, the tech failed in a spectacular way, and we lost the whole recording. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth from me.But Catherine very kindly offered to re-record, and so we got together last Friday to capture this new conversati

Catherine Coldstream on life as a nun

May 23 2024 70 mins  
A couple of weeks ago, I talked to Catherine Coldstream, author of Cloistered: My Years as a Nun, and disaster struck. Halfway through the conversation, the tech failed in a spectacular way, and we lost the whole recording. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth from me.But Catherine very kindly offered to re-record, and so we got together last Friday to capture this new conversati