Nudie Reads
Episodes
Nudie Reads Boris Karloff's Guacamole [S1E80]
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Boris Karloff, Hollywood superstar of Frankenstein and The Mummy was, off camera, an English gent and a foodie. His recipe for guacamole is an annual ...
Nudie Reads Dante's Inferno [S1E79]
17 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy over 700 years ago: an epic poem of a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Can a 13th century epic po...
Nudie Reads God's Banker and Blackfriars Bridge [S1E78]
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1982 'God's Banker' was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London. While an Inquest found suicide (later overturned) many believed it was mur...
Nudie Reads The Terribly Strange Bed [S1E77]
10 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Wilkie Collins was a gout ridden laudanum addict and great friend of Charles Dickens. He had some odd ideas about marriage but he was a gifted writer ...
Nudie Reads Houdini Investigates The Knocks [S1E76]
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Harry Houdini wrote a book debunking spiritualism and mediums. It is filled with precise, polite yet brutal takedowns. The Handcuff King who left scho...
Nudie Reads The Legend of Sleepy Hollow [S1E75]
03 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow from 1819 remains a beloved spooky fun story 200 years later. He knew New York State better than most, eve...
Nudie Reads Joan of Arc Avenged [S1E74]
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Joan of Arc should never have been tried for heresy, much less found guilty and burned at the stake. What does it take to overturn a sham trial? 20 ye...
Nudie Reads The Happy Prince [S1E73]
26 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oscar Wilde's children's stories were heavy on sorrow and emotion - not the usual modern childhood fare. As with all his writing, though, they are gre...
Nudie Reads Cargo Cult Science [S1E72]
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Feynman was an American theoretical physicist and he didn't like junk science or junk scientists. In 1974 he gave a commencement address to Ca...
Nudie Reads Pride & Prejudice [S1E71]
19 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Austen is an English literature giant. Her second novel Pride & Prejudice is 🐐 of romance and an astute social observation of manners and ...
Nudie Reads Hitchcock on Fear [S1E70]
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense film-making. Psycho, anyone? 😱 He understood fear and the secret pleasure of it. And in 1949 he wrote a...
Nudie Reads The 39 Steps [S1E69]
12 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Thirty-Nine Steps is the first spy-espionage manhunt thriller novel. Scotsman John Buchan was a gifted writer whose best-known work published 1915...
Nudie Reads The First Crossword [S1E68]
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Crosswords as we know them may have been invented in 1913 but the word square pre-dates them and the Rotas Square - Rotas-Opera-Tenet-Arepo-Sator - is...
Nudie Reads War of the Worlds [S1E67]
05 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Herbert George Wells - H.G Wells - published The War of the Worlds about an invasion from Mars in 1897. In 2021 we are on Mars as know the red planet ...
Nudie Reads The Shortest Rebuke [S1E66]
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1381 King Richard II of England, after a pandemic, found the peasants revolting and he delivered the shortest rebuke of his own citizens in history...
Nudie Reads Dracula [S1E65]
29 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Abraham Stoker, of Dublin, Ireland wrote a gothic horror classic, "Dracula" in 1897. It didn't make him famous or rich in his lifetime, but as we all ...
Nudie Reads Vulcan Mind-Meld [S1E64]
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What do Star Trek and 19th century science fiction writer Jules Verne's 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' have in common? Spock. The original Spock...
Nudie Reads Jekyll and Hyde [S1E63]
22 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Louis Stevenson, Scotsman, only lived for 44 years but he left us with The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and for that we should al...
Nudie Reads Heil Hitler, Love Bobo [S1E62]
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Unity Mitford, one of the Mitford Sisters of British high society - or Bobo as they called her - fell head over heels in love with Hitler. She used to...
Nudie Reads The 100m Whodunnit [S1E61]
15 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Agatha Christie wrote the best selling mystery book of all time when she wrote And Then Were None. More than 100m sales and still going strong. Whodun...
Nudie Reads Same Clown, Two Theatres [S1E60]
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph Grimaldi was England's beloved clown sensation. People laughed til they cried at his antics. And for one month he wowed them in 2 separate thea...
Nudie Reads Shakespeare [S1E59]
08 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
William Shakespeare is the G.O.A.T. 38 plays and over 150 sonnets, all of them quotable and deeply moving. While "Et Tu, Brute?" is probably not origi...
Nudie Reads Lupercalia Valentine [S1E58]
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why is St Valentine's Day associated with romantic love? Could the kooky Roman festival of Lupercalia have been the inspiration? Reverend Sabine Barin...
Nudie Reads Chaucer Unchained [S1E57]
01 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mrs H.R Haweis wrote Chaucer for Children: The Golden Key in 1877 for her little boy Lionel. A Victorian scholar, writer, painter, illustrator and wom...
Nudie Reads Galileo Frankenstein [S1E56]
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley knew her monsters. She was beloved as the author of Frankenstein. But she was also beloved as a skilled researcher and his...
Nudie Reads Cyrano De Bergerac [S1E55]
25 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cyrano de Bergerac was a real swashbuckling duellist of 17th Century France. And he wrote one of the world's first ever fully-fledged sci-fi stories. ...
Nudie Reads Throw The Kid Out [S1E54]
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
O. Henry was the nom de plume of William Sydney Porter, a gem of an American writer active around the turn of the 20th century. Very active, in fact: ...
Nudie Reads Witch-hunters' Bible [S1E53]
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of the Witches was the infamous 15th Century witch-hunters' bible. A treatise on trying, sentencing and expiring wit...
Nudie Reads The Law Is An Ass [S1E52]
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It was Charles Dickens who gave us "The Law is an Ass" as an astute observation that sometimes law and lawyers can go off the rails. Lousy writers hav...
Nudie Reads Fibonacci's Rabbits [S1E51]
11 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 etc. Leonardo Bonacci of Pisa is the famous Fibonacci of the infamous Fibonacci Sequence: a mathematical sequence observed in na...
Nudie Reads A Human Internet [S1E50]
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The 19th C Right Reverend Doctor Ebenezer Cobham Brewer brought the world his compendiums of useful knowledge and his legacy spawned a delightful 21st...
Nudie Reads A Genial Giant [S1E49]
04 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Crichton wrote "The Andromeda Strain" when he was just 27 years old. It's a Sci Fi classic from 1969. That's more than 50 years ago but it's s...
Nudie Reads Barton's Confessions [S1E48]
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Barton, The Maid of Kent, confessed her treason of King Henry VIII twice. Once officially. And once again, personally, as she stood ready to...
Nudie Reads Class [S1E47]
27 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Fussell's book "Class" is a 1983 classic. While nearly 40 years have passed Fussell's theories of 9 classes with one weird 10th Class 'X' still h...
Nudie Reads Mean Reviews [S1E46]
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Diana Rigg wrote 'No Turn Unstoned', a collection of mean reviews of plays, films and musicals, published back in 1982. It's a gem of a book. Inc...
Nudie Reads Marcus Aurelius [S1E45]
20 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The 5th of Rome's 5 great Emperors, Marcus Aurelius wrote notes to himself almost daily and these treasures from almost 2000 years ago resonate still....
Nudie Reads Benjamin Franklin [S1E44]
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Franklin knew the value of a dollar. And he had the most charming way of advising about that concept in his perfectly written letter to a fri...
Nudie Reads Dickensian Horror [S1E43]
13 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know Charles Dickens wrote horror stories? He did and this one's a doozy. After he was involved in a terrible train crash in he wrote this chi...
Nudie Reads Lawyer Hate [S1E42]
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hating on the lawyers is an ancient and noble past-time. Al Capone's lawyer was Albert Fink. He lost. It's a good bet Capone rather hated him. But Fin...
Nudie Reads The Rake's Progress [S1E41]
06 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
English artist William Hogarth's paintings were so detailed and clever they could be read like books. The Rake's Progress series of 8 pictures show th...
Nudie Reads Early Time Travel [S1E40]
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1889 Mark Twain wrote 'A Confederate Yankee in King Arthur's Court' a charming little book and one of the world's earliest proper time travel stori...
Nudie Reads The Confidence Man [S1E39]
30 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Herman Melville may have been famed for his epic work 'Moby Dick' but his last novel in 1856 was a short but perfectly formed handbook on how to spot ...
Nudie Reads A Camp Classic [S1E38]
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Little Me is a camp classic about a fake Hollywood star, Belle Poitrine. It is an arch satirical send up of all Hollywood starlets and stars but not d...
Nudie Reads Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds [S1E37]
23 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1841 Scotsman Charles Mackay published his enduring and engaging work about popular madnesses across Europe and America. Alongside Dutch tulipmania...
Nudie Reads Pears' Cyclopaedia [S1E36]
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pears' Cyclopaedia started in 1897 and continued til 2017. It was a little book of everything you could conceivably need to know - about everything. &...
Nudie Reads Doctor Watson & Sherlock Holmes [S1E35]
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes canon features 56 stories and 4 novels, all of them wonderfully written adventures ostensibly from the pen of...
Nudie Reads Famous Feuds [S1E34]
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The feud of the Hatfields and the McCoys of Tug Fork in the US and the 19 year duel of Dupont and Fourier in France were extended violent affairs. Hat...
Nudie Reads Ernest Hemingway [S1E33]
09 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ernest Hemingway was a journalist before was a novelist. And it shows in his writing style. He loved spare, simple, straightforward language. So his b...
Nudie Reads Dad, Is That You? [S1E32]
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Murray Walker was famous as a Formula 1 car racing commentator but there was much more to the man than just the dizzy heights of one of the most dange...
Nudie Reads A Literary Dementor [S1E31]
02 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nathaneal West was a depression era American author - alongside F Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck, but West is known for his depressing reads. Lik...
Nudie Reads Not By The Book [S1E30]
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Edmond Hoyle wrote the book. The book of the rules of card games. And chess and backgammon. But his work was immediately pirated by cheeky 18th centur...
Nudie Reads Lennie Lower [S1E29]
25 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lennie Lower was Australia's 'Charlie Chaplin of words' a humourist from the 1930s and 40s whose wry observances of Oz life and attitudes brought joy ...
Nudie Reads The Michelin Guide 1919 [S1E28]
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bibendum = The Michelin Man: beloved mascot of Michelin tyres. Did you know the original Michelin Guides were free and focussed on motoring? And did y...
Nudie Reads Bonus Ep 27 and 3/4 Happy Birthday To Rome [S1E27and3/4]
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A bonus episode to celebrate the birthday of Rome - 21 April 753 BC. A recipe from the oldest cookbook in the world - Apicius De Re Coquinaria. You ca...
Nudie Reads The King Kong of Pulp Fiction [S1E27]
18 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Edgar Wallace, from Kent in England, was such a prolific writer of detective thriller pulp fiction it got him published in Italy and given the sweet j...
Nudie Reads Soap Box Derby Scandal 1973 [S1E26]
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The first ever US National Soap Box Derby was run 1934. In 1973 the Derby was rocked by scandal. A documentary on the topic was made at the time and i...
Nudie Reads Locked Room Murders [S1E25]
11 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Who doesn't love a detective novel with a locked room mystery to puzzle out. From Edgar Allan Poe to John Dickson Carr locked room mysteries are a pop...
Nudie Reads A Song Can Never Be A Poem (Except When It Is) [S1E24]
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Songs can be poems. We know this because the Nobel committee for Literature gave the 2016 award to songwriter Bob Dylan. But not all poets agree. An a...
Nudie Reads The Hunchback of Westminster [S1E23]
04 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There's more than 1 hunchback in the literary canon. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the best loved, of course, by Victor Hugo. And Rigoletto, the hunc...
Nudie Reads Jack The Ripper [S1E22]
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As London reeled from the gruesome work of Jack The Ripper in 1888 one journalist - no longer known - made a powerful effort to write beautifully abou...
Nudie Reads The Diary Of A Nobody [S1E21]
28 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The fictional diary of Charles and Caroline Pooter. A 19th Century English literary gem. Get in touch: Email: [email protected] Web: https:/...
Nudie Reads The French Connection [S1E20]
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Film Reviewer Pauline Kael's scathing review of The French Connection. Beautifully written even if it misses its mark by a mile. 🌂 🚗 🚉 G...
Nudie Reads A Confederacy of Dunces [S1E19]
21 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A posthumously published work of genius from New Orleans. John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. Ignatius J Reilly Letter to Abelman Dry Goods....
Nudie Reads The Marlboro Man [S1E18]
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A letter from an advertising genius, by then in his 60s, led to a world-wide product branding triumph that endured for 45 years. With great experience...
Nudie Reads Original Puss in Boots [S1E17]
14 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A couple of Italian Renaissance gents who loved to write were first to publish many of the fairy tales we know and love today. Thank goodness for them...
Nudie Reads A White Witch [S1E16]
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How seriously will you be taken if you get around town calling yourself a witch, wearing a cape and with a raven on your shoulder? Very seriously, if ...
Nudie Reads A Side of Sigmund Freud [S1E15]
07 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oedipus Complex? Separation Anxiety? Therapy that lasts for years? For better or worse you can thank Sigmund Freud for all that. But he had another si...
Nudie Reads Poena Cullei The Punishment Of The Sack [S1E14]
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine being sewn into an ox-leather sack with a snake, a chicken, a dog and a monkey then thrown into the river. The Roman punishment of Poena...
Nudie Reads Edgar Allan Poe [S1E13]
28 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tonight's read is Edgar Allan Poe's first published short story "Metzengerstein". It has all the Poe elements that made him so famous. Creeping terror...
Nudie Reads Laws Against Drunkenness [S1E12]
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We don't know the authors of these particular legal instruments were but in banning drunkenness their words have echoed across oceans and centuries. A...
Nudie Reads De Toqueville [S1E11]
21 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1831 French Aristocrat, Diplomat and keen student of democracy as a concept, Alexis de Toqueville, went to America. His 2 volume work La Democratiq...
Nudie Reads US Army Aussie Field Guide 1942 [S1E10]
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1942 the US Army published a little handbook for US service personnel stationed in Australia to help them understand the locals 'Down Under'. It's ...
Nudie Reads CottageCore [S1E09]
14 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
CottageCore is an internet subculture of cottage or small-town or rural life. Taking the time to read great writing is a big part of the aesthetic. Co...
Nudie Reads Dark Academia [S1E08]
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dark Academia is a fascinating new subculture and a big part of it is about books and reading. The Dark Academia folks know great writing and celebrat...
Nudie Reads The Origin Story of Syphilis [S1E07]
07 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The father of germ theory and epidemiology was an Italian Renaissance doctor who also happened to write the seminal (pardon the pun) poem giving the d...
Nudie Reads Jack London + HL Mencken [S1E06]
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jack London's 'Call of the Wild' has been in continuous print for over 117 years. There's a good reason for that longevity. It's a great story. And HL...
Nudie Reads Carbolic Smoke Ball Ad [S1E05]
31 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Carbolic Smoke Ball Company in 1890 published an ad that would change the world. Great writing that was never intended to be. 💨🧶🫁 Ge...
Nudie Reads Don Quixote [S1E04]
24 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Don Quixote de la Mancha is the 2nd most translated literary work beaten only by the Bible. Because it is a fantastic story. Everybody loves it, inclu...
Nudie Reads The Salem Witch Trials [S1E03]
20 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Let's hear what the Salem Witch Trials were really like from a contemporaneous account published 1693. Great writing about a very nasty period. 🧹🐈...
Nudie Reads Julius Caesar & The Wicker Man - [S1E02]
17 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know the world’s first reference to the truly awful Celtic practice of The Wicker Man was care of Julius Caesar in his book The Gallic War. ...
Nudie Reads Intro Ep + first read Banjo Paterson - [S1E01]
30 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Introduction to the Nudie Reads podcast. Motivation and what I'll be reading. Plus a quick read of a great Australian poem by Banjo Paterson 'Mulga Bi...