The Virtual Memories Show
Episodes
Episode 671 - Rachel Tzvia Back
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
With The Dark-Robed Mother: A Memoir (Wesleyan University Press), poet-translator-professor Rachel Tzvia Back explores her life with high-functioning ...
Episode 670 - Sven Birkerts
07 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Essayist Sven Birkerts, one of my favorite past pod-guests, welcomes me back to the mic for a conversation about writing, art, mortality, resistance, ...
Episode 670 - Sven Birkerts
07 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Essayist Sven Birkerts, one of my favorite past pod-guests, welcomes me back to the mic for a conversation about writing, art, mortality, resistance, ...
Episode 669 - Indefinite Hiatus
29 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For his 2025 year-end wrap-up, Gil's putting the podcast & newsletter on hiatus: talk about your crazy New Year's resolutions! He talks about how he r...
Episode 668 - The Guest List 2025
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's time for our year-end Virtual Memories Show tradition, now celebrating its thirteenth anniversary: The Guest List! I reached out to 2025's pod-gu...
Episode 667 - Jonathan Sandler
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Let's close out 2025 with graphic memoirist and comics journalist Jonathan Sandler! We talk about his childhood secret origin in comics, the comics co...
Episode 666 - Morten Hoi Jensen
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With THE MASTER OF CONTRADICTIONS: Thomas Mann and the Making of The Magic Mountain (Yale University Press), Morten Høi Jensen brings us a masterful ...
Episode 665 - Prue Shaw
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With her amazing new book, DANTE: THE ESSENTIAL COMMEDIA (Liveright), scholar Prue Shaw brings us a canto-by-canto journey through Dante's masterwork,...
Episode 664 - Glenn Kurtz
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who were the men who built the Empire State Building? Glenn Kurtz returns to the show to tell their story with MEN AT WORK: The Empire State Building ...
Episode 663 - Jennifer Hayden
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who knew that olive oil makes head lice sleepy? Jennifer Hayden rejoins the show to celebrate her new graphic memoir/anti-cookbook, WHERE THERE'S SMOK...
Episode 662 - Rian Hughes
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-hyphenate Rian Hughes rejoins the show to celebrate his new Kickstarter, TYPERACTIVE: Thirty Years of Device Fonts (closing November 20, 2025)! ...
Episode 661 - Josh Neufeld
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Comics journalist Josh Neufeld joins the show to talk about the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the legacy of his fantastic graphic reportin...
Episode 660 - Dean Haspiel and Whitney Matheson
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cartoonist-playwright-filmmaker Dean Haspiel rejoins the show for the homestretch of his new Kickstarter, ANTIMATTER (finishing Nov. 3, 2025), and bri...
Episode 659 - Ron Rosenbaum
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of my fave writers, Ron Rosenbaum, returns to the show to celebrate his amazing new book, BOB DYLAN: Things Have Changed (A Kind Of Biography) (Me...
Episode 658 - Lance Richardson
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Lance Richardson rejoins the show to celebrate his magnificent new biography, TRUE NATURE: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen (Pantheon). We t...
Episode 657 - Tom Tomorrow
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow (a.k.a. Dan Perkins) is back as we celebrate his new Kickstarter project, OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE (closing Oct. ...
Episode 656 - Kayla E
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With her debut graphic novel, PRECIOUS RUBBISH (Fantagraphics), artist and designer Kayla E explores and investigates the trauma of her upbringing, th...
Episode 655 - Hunter Prosper
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
ICU nurse Hunter Prosper joins me this week as we celebrate his wonderful new book, STORIES FROM A STRANGER: Every Person Has a Story (Simon Element)....
Episode 654 - ML Rio
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With her amazing new novel, HOT WAX (Simon & Schuster), author, critic, and inveterate road-tripper M.L. Rio evokes the rock scene of the '80s and the...
Episode 653 - David Leopold
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Curator and archivist David Leopold rejoins the show for a wide-ranging talk centered on the amazing new HIRSCHFELD'S SONDHEIM: A Poster Book (Abrams ...
Episode 652 - Dmitry Samarov
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a year since his last episode, so what's artist Dmitry Samarov been up to? Plenty! We talk about his new project of redesigning and illustra...
Episode 651 - AMA
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
No guest this week, so it's time for our first Ask Me Anything (AMA) episode since 2019! Past guests and pals peppered me with questions about the pod...
Episode 650 - Dan Goldman
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With RED LIGHT PROPERTIES: Unfinished Business (Kinjin Storylab), writer/cartoonist Dan Goldman brings us a wildly entertaining graphic novel of midli...
Episode 649 - David Levithan and Jens Lekman
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With SONGS FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S WEDDINGS (Abrams Press), writer David Levithan and singer-songwriter Jens Lekman bring the collaborative alchemy, as 20 ...
Episode 648 - Sacha Mardou
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With PAST TENSE: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself In Therapy (Avery), cartoonist Sacha Mardou brings us a phenomenal graphic memoir about the ...
Episode 647 - Oliver Radclyffe
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With his phenomenal debut memoir, FRIGHTEN THE HORSES (Roxane Gay Books/Grove Atlantic), Oliver Radclyffe takes us on a journey into trans-selfhood. W...
Episode 646 - Eulogy
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
No conversation this week, unless you count me talking to myself. This episode, I share some thoughts and memories about my father, following his deat...
Episode 645 - Rachel Cockerell
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did Russian Jews wind up migrating to Galveston, Texas in the early 1900s? How did the image of America as melting pot come into existence? How di...
Episode 644 - Paul Karasik
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thirty-plus years in the making, the graphic adaptation of Paul Auster's THE NEW YORK TRILOGY (Pantheon) is here at last! Paul Karasik rejoins the sho...
Episode 643 - Kate Maruyama
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of my fave guest/friends, Kate Maruyama, rejoins the show to celebrate her wonderful new novel, ALTERATIONS (Running Wild Press)! We talk about th...
Episode 642 - David Denby
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With his fantastic new book, EMINENT JEWS (Holt), writer and critic David Denby explores the impact on American culture of Jews Unbound through profil...
Episode 641 - Peter Stothard
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can we find the poet in their poems? With HORACE: Poet on a Volcano (Yale University Press), Peter Stothard explores how the life of the great Roman p...
Episode 640 - Cecile Wajsbrot
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With her bewitching and beautiful novel NEVERMORE (Seagull Books, translated from French by Tess Lewis, who joins our conversation), Cécile Wajsbrot ...
Episode 639 - Keiler Roberts
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
She may be able to quit cartooning (for a while), but Keiler Roberts can't quit The Virtual Memories Show! With her wonderful new book, PREPARING TO B...
Episode 638 - Peter Kuper
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With his new graphic novel, INSECTOPOLIS (WWNorton), Peter Kuper brings us the 400-million-year history of insects in their own words as they take a p...
Episode 637 - Vauhini Vara
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With SEARCHES: Selfhood in the Digital Age (Pantheon), tech writer Vauhini Vara explores how our sense of self has been co-opted, quantified, and expl...
Episode 636 - Craig Thompson
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artist Craig Thompson joins the show at long last to celebrate his new book, GINSENG ROOTS: A Memoir (Pantheon). We talk about how he spent ten summer...
Episode 635 - Ari Richter
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artist, professor and now like-it-or-not cartoonist Ari Richter joins the show to talk about his fantastic book, Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz: A...
Episode 634 - Dan Nadel
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Author and curator Dan Nadel joins the show to celebrate the publication of his amazing new biography, CRUMB: A Cartoonist's Life (Scribner). We get i...
Episode 633 - See Hear Speak
12 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
No guest? No problem! It's time for another impromptu monologue episode: this time, Gil sorts through family legacies of the genetic and Larkinesque v...
Episode 632 - Peter Trachtenberg
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With his amazing new book The Twilight of Bohemia: Westbeth and the Last Artists in New York (Black Sparrow Press), Peter Trachtenberg explores the 50...
Episode 631 - David Shields
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Author David Shields returns to the show for a conversation about his new documentary, HOW WE GOT HERE, and the companion book, HOW WE GOT HERE: Melvi...
Episode 630 - Meeting Across The River
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Uh-oh! Gil doesn't have a guest this week, so he recorded a monologue from a hotel room in Weehawken, NJ during a business conference for his day job!...
Episode 629 - Elon Green
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With THE MAN NOBODY KILLED: Life, Death, and Art In Michael Stewart's New York (Celadon Books), author Elon Green brings us an investigation into a te...
Episode 628 - Vanda Krefft
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Biographer Vanda Krefft returns to the show to celebrate her wonderful & illuminating new book: EXPECT GREAT THINGS!: How the Katharine Gibbs School R...
Episode 627 - Seth Lorinczi
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With DEATH TRIP: A Post-Holocaust Psychedelic Memoir (Spiral Path Collective Press), Seth Lorinczi explores how trauma can be transmitted over genera...
Episode 626 - Martin Mittelmeier
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With NAPLES 1925: Adorno, Benjamin, and the Summer That Made Critical Theory (Yale University Press, tr. Shelley Frisch), Martin Mittelmeier traces th...
Episode 625 - Jonathan Ames
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can LA private detective Happy Doll live up to the Four Noble Truths and escape the cycle of Samsara? Jonathan Ames returns to the show to help answer...
Episode 624 - Witold Rybczynski
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With his latest book, THE DRIVING MACHINE: A Design History of the Car (Norton), architect and architecture & design writer Witold Rybczynski explores...
Episode 623 - Matt Madden
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cartoonist Matt Madden rejoins the show to celebrate his new collection, SIX TREASURES OF THE SPIRAL: Comics Formed Under Pressure (Uncivilized Books)...
Episode 622 - Fred Kaplan
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After 4+ decades as a reporter and with a half-dozen nonfiction books under his belt, Fred Kaplan rejoins the show to celebrate his first foray into f...
Episode 621 - Mia Wolff
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With THE EMPTY LOT (Fantagraphics Underground), artist Mia Wolff brings together 100 paintings from more than 40 years of her oeuvre. We talk about ho...
Episode 620 - Damion Searls
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Translator & author Damion Searls kicks off our 2025 season with a talk about his amazing new book, THE PHILOSOPHY OF TRANSLATION (Yale University Pre...
Episode 619 - 2024 Recap
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's the end of the year, so let's take stock of 2024 with a big ol' year-in-review monologue! Your intrepid/decrepit host, Gil Roth, gets personal wh...
Episode 618 - The Guest List 2024
22 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty-two of this year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2024 and the books they hope to get to in 2025! G...
Episode 617 - Benjamin Swett
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With The Picture Not Taken: On Life and Photography (NYRB), Benjamin Swett brings us a subtly beautiful series of essays that explore memory and ident...
Episode 616 - Ken Krimstein
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
LIVE from Labyrinth Books, artist and vulgarizer of history (in the French sense) Ken Krimstein returns to the show to celebrate his new book, EINSTEI...
Episode 615 - Eddie Campbell
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cartoonist & historian Eddie Campbell returns to the show with his fantastic new book, KATE CAREW: America's First Great Woman Cartoonist (Fantagraphi...
Episode 614 - Caitlin McGurk
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Comics librarian and curator Caitlin McGurk returns to the show to celebrate her amazing new book, TELL ME A STORY WHERE THE BAD GIRL WINS: The Life a...
Episode 613 - Frances Jetter
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artist Frances Jetter joins the show to talk about her amazing new book, AMALGAM: An Immigrant, His Labor Union, and His American Family in Brooklyn (...
Episode 612 - Roland Allen
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With THE NOTEBOOK: A History of Thinking on Paper (Biblioasis), Roland Allen explores how the proliferation of paper & binding changed culture, busine...
Episode 611 - Eric Drooker
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With his new graphic novel, NAKED CITY (Dark Horse Books), artist/activist Eric Drooker finishes the New York trilogy begun in Flood! and Blood Song. ...
Episode 610 - Simon Critchley
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With his fantastic new book, MYSTICISM (NYRB), philosopher Simon Critchley explores mystic traditions from medieval Christianity to the present. We ta...
Episode 609 - Doug Brod
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hail Satan! It's spooky season, and writer/editor Doug Brod joins the show to celebrate his fantastic new biography, BORN WITH A TAIL: The Devilish Li...
Episode 608 - Sven Birkerts
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author & essayist Sven Birkerts returns to the show to celebrate his fantastic new essay collection, The Miró Worm and the Mysteries of Writing (Arro...
Episode 607 - Christopher Brown
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With his phenomenal new book, A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMPTY LOTS: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys and Other Wild Places (Timber Press), Chr...
Episode 606 - Dmitry Samarov
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artist Dmitry Samarov returns to the show to bail me out after a stressful couple of weeks and to explore his fantastic new book, MAKING PICTURES IS H...
Episode 605 - Stephen B Shepard
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With Salinger's Soul: His Personal & Religious Odyssey (Post Hill Press), author and retired journalist/editor Stephen B. Shepard explores the life of...
Episode 604 - Benjamin Dreyer
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Dreyer joins the show to talk about the joy of good writing. We talk about his career as managing editor and copy chief of the Random House, ...
Episode 603 - Nicholas Delbanco
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas Delbanco returns to the show to celebrate his 32nd book and his first true foray into memoir (or ME-moir), STILL LIFE AT EIGHTY (Mandel Vilar...
Episode 602 - Dash Shaw
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cartoonist and animator Dash Shaw returns to the show to celebrate his phenomenal new graphic novel, BLURRY (New York Review Comics). We talk about th...
Episode 601 - Jess Ruliffson
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Comics journalist Jess Ruliffson joins the show to talk about the origins of INVISIBLE WOUNDS (Fantagraphics), her collection of stories from veterans...
Episode 600 - Joe Coleman
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For my 600th episode, the great artist Joe Coleman joins the show to celebrate his phenomenal new career-spanning retrospective book, A DOORWAY TO JOE...
Episode 599 - Mirana Comstock
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This one's all about legacies: familial, literary, cultural & institutional! Mirana Comstock joins the show to celebrate the publication of The Algonq...
Episode 598 - Anita Kunz
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artist & illustrator Anita Kunz returns to the show to talk about how art saved her life, as we catch up on her fantastic books, ORIGINAL SISTERS and ...
Episode 597 - Shalom Auslander
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With his amazing new book, FEH: A Memoir (Riverside Books), Shalom Auslander explores how the judgmental disgust of FEH infected his life, and what it...
Episode 596 - Maurice Vellekoop
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artist & illustrator Maurice Vellekoop joins the show to celebrate his amazing new graphic memoir, I'M SO GLAD WE HAD THIS TIME TOGETHER (Pantheon). W...
Episode 595 - Laura Beers
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Historian, professor & author Laura Beers joins the show as we celebrate her important new book, ORWELL'S GHOSTS: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-F...
Episode 594 - Robert Pranzatelli
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author, publicist and partially involved narrator Robert Pranzatelli joins the show to celebrate his amazing new book, PILOBOLUS: A Story of Dance and...
Episode 593 - Bob Fingerman
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With That's Some Business You're In (Zoop), cartoonist-humorist-author Bob Fingerman has created a career retrospective to celebrate (lament?) his 40t...
Episode 592 - Swan Huntley
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author & illustrator Swan Huntley joins the show to celebrate her two new books, I WANT YOU MORE (Zibby Books), and YOU'RE GROUNDED: An Anti-Self-Help...
Episode 591 - Stan Mack
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Legendary cartoonist & artist Stan Mack pioneered documentary comics and bought New York's multitudes to life with Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies (RLF)...
Episode 590 - Jim Moske
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With his amazing new book, Deaths of Artists (Blast Books), archivist Jim Moske explores art, mortality, media, fame and our secret lives. We talk abo...
Episode 589 - Adam Moss
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With his amazing new book, THE WORK OF ART: How Something Comes From Nothing (Penguin Press), hall-of-fame magazine editor Adam Moss explores the arti...
Episode 588 - Randy Fertel
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With WINGING IT: Improv's Power & Peril in the Age of Trump (Spring Publications), author, professor & philanthropist Randy Fertel explores the role o...
Episode 587 - DW Young
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For more than 40 years, the breathtaking pictures of photographer James Hamilton have chronicled New York City and America (and a couple of war zones)...
Episode 586 - Jen Silverman
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author-playwright-screenwriter-poet Jen Silverman returns to the show to celebrate their amazing new novel, THERE'S GOING TO BE TROUBLE (Random House)...
Episode 585 - Leonard Barkan
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With Reading Shakespeare Reading Me (Fordham), professor Leonard Barkan blends memoir and deep reading of Shakespeare's greatest plays to explore his ...
Episode 584 - Emily Raboteau
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After a ~10-year gap, Emily Raboteau rejoins the show to celebrate her amazing new essay collection, LESSONS FOR SURVIVAL: Mothering Against "The Apoc...
Bonus Episode - Trillian Stars and Kyle Cassidy
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Photographer and writer Kyle Cassidy and actor and model Trillian Stars join us for a Bonus Episode to talk about their new Kickstarter, THIS IS ONLY ...
Episode 583 - Leela Corman
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At long last, artist Leela Corman joins the show as we celebrate her breathtaking new graphic novel, VICTORY PARADE (Schocken Books)! We talk about ho...
Episode 582 - Keith Mayerson
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How did an eBay search lead to the discovery of a lost classic of comics? How can art help us build a better America? Artist and teacher Keith Mayerso...
Episode 581 - Edith Hall
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Classicist Edith Hall joins the show to talk about her fantastic, important new book, FACING DOWN THE FURIES: Suicide, the Ancient Greeks, and Me (Yal...
Bonus Episode - Dean Haspiel
17 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
LEAN INTO DEAN! Cartoonist, playwright, schmoozer, etc. Dean Haspiel returns for a Bonus Episode to talk about his new Kickstarter, THE RED HOOK X DEA...
Episode 580 - David Small
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With his brand new collection, THE WEREWOLF AT DUSK and Other Stories (Liveright), David Small brings us a trio of stories about the beast within (tha...
Episode 579 - Brad Gooch
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With RADIANT: The Life and Line of Keith Haring (Harper), Brad Gooch brings us the biography of Keith Haring, an artist who transformed public art & t...
Episode 578 - Japan
25 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
No conversation this week, except for our host, Gil Roth, in conversation with some virtual memories of his own! On the occasion of going to the movie...
Episode 577 - Scott Guild
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With his fantastic debut novel, PLASTIC (Pantheon), Scott Guild brings us a dystopian future of eco-terrorism, meta-reality, and . . . a world populat...
Episode 576 - Aaron Lange
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is the meaning of Cleveland? Cartoonist Aaron Lange joins the show to talk about AIN'T IT FUN: Peter Laughner & Proto-Punk In The Secret City (St...
Episode 575 - Donald J Robertson
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor (Yale University Press), author & therapist Donald J. Robertson brings us the life and philosophy of the last ...