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The Paris Review

The Paris Review Podcast returns with a new season, featuring the best interviews, fiction, essays, and poetry from America’s most legendary literary quarterly, brought to life in sound. Join us for intimate conversations with Sharon Olds and Olga Tokarczuk; fiction by Rivers Solomon, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and Zach Williams; poems by Terrance Hayes and Maggie Millner; nonfiction by Robert Glück, Jean Garnett, and Sean Thor Conroe; and performances by George Takei, Lena Waithe, and many others. Catch up on earlier seasons, and listen to the trailer for Season 4 now.

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20 episodes
Avg 22 min
English

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March 4 · 20 min
Inside the Issue | “I Don’t Do Innocents: A Radio Play in One Act” by Anne Carson
A special production of Anne Carson’s “I Don’t Do Innocents," which first appeared in issue no. 253 (Fall 2025).
Nov 17, 2025 · 45 min
Inside the Issue | "My Life, By Barbara Rosenberg," by Jordy Rosenberg
Jordy Rosenberg reads his story from issue no. 253, which gives voice to one mother’s many grievances about her child’s transgressive proclivities.
Oct 6, 2025 · 17 min
Personals | “I Got Snipped”
Joseph Earl Thomas reads his essay “I Got Snipped: Notes after a Vasectomy,” about the best sexual decision he ever made.
Sep 29, 2025 · 20 min
Personals | "Two Strip Clubs, Paris and New Hampshire"
Lisa Carver reads an essay about visiting two strip clubs with her French husband: first the Moulin Rouge, then a dive bar in Bedford, New Hampshire.
Sep 22, 2025 · 18 min
Personals | “Wax and Gold and Gold," by Mihret Sibhat
Mihret Sibhat reads her essay about a friendship she formed with a prostitute in Addis Ababa while attempting to teach her about Jesus.
Sep 15, 2025 · 13 min
Personals | “What I Want to Say About Owning a Truck,” by J. D. Daniels
“When people see your truck, they tend to see what you can do for them,” J. D. Daniels writes in his essay a black Nissan hardbody pickup he owned many years ago.
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Sep 8, 2025 · 11 min
Personals | “The Smoker,” by Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh reads her essay “The Smoker,” about renovating a house soaked in nicotine—and a haunting encounter with its former owner.
Aug 18, 2025 · 59 sec
Trailer: The Paris Review presents "Personals," a new audio series
Writers reading first-person essays. "Personals" is available in The Paris Review Podcast feed.
S4 · E12
Mar 20, 2024 · 17 min
S4E12 | Concerning the Future of Souls, by Joy Williams
“Concerning the Future of Souls” by Joy Williams
S4 · E11
Mar 13, 2024 · 37 min
S4E11 | Trial Run
Zach Williams short story "Trial Run" is read by actors Michael Chernus, Danny Mastrogiorgio, and Gabriel Marin.
S4 · E10
Feb 21, 2024 · 8 min
S4E10 | Foley’s Pond
Peter Orner's gripping short story, “Foley’s Pond,” read by actor Jim Fletcher.
S4 · E9
Feb 14, 2024 · 30 min
S4E9 | “The Victim” by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
George Takei delivers a stunning read of this 1910 story from legendary Japanese author, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.
S4 · E8
Jan 24, 2024 · 17 min
S4E8 | The Walk Book
Sean Thor Conroe shares entries from “The Walk Book”—his meticulous, funny travelogue about his 2014 attempt to walk across the United States.
S4 · E7
Jan 17, 2024 · 18 min
S4E7 | Olga Tokarczuk’s Divine Cosmos
Nobel Prize–winning Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, interviewed in her home in the village of Krajanów.
S4 · E6
Jan 10, 2024 · 46 min
S4E6 | About Ed
Robert Glück reading from his memoir, "About Ed," and in conversation with Lucy Ives.
S4 · E5
Dec 20, 2023 · 36 min
S4E5 | Scenes from an Open Marriage
Scenes from an Open Marriage, read by Jean Garnett
S4 · E4
Dec 13, 2023 · 10 min
S4E4 | Bob Ross Paints Your Portrait
Terrance Hayes reads his poem, "Bob Ross Paints Your Portrait."
S4 · E3
Nov 22, 2023 · 21 min
S4E3 | The I is Made of Paper
Pulitzer Prize winner Sharon Olds discusses sex, religion, and writing poems that "women were definitely not supposed to write, and reads three of her poems.
S4 · E2
Nov 15, 2023 · 10 min
S4E2 | The Same IKEA Bed
A stealth poetry reading inside a bustling IKEA. Poet Maggie Millner reads her own poem, as well as two more from the archive: Toi Dericotte’s “Bird” and Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Death.”
S4 · E1
Nov 15, 2023 · 34 min
S4E1 | “This is Everything There Will Ever Be” by Rivers Solomon
Actor, producer, and screenwriter Lena Waithe reads Rivers Solomon’s “This Is Everything There Will Ever Be,” which was published in issue no. 243 of the Review. The story, dark and uplifting by turns, is a portrait of “just another late-forties dyke entirely too into basketball, dogs, and memes.”

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes