The Virtual Memories Show

Episode 476 - David Sipress

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

New Yorker staff cartoonist David Sipress joins the show to celebrate his new book, What's So Funny?: A Cartoonist's Memoir (Mariner Books)! We get in...

Episode 475 - Mark Prins

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Author Mark Prins joins the show to celebrate his debut novel, The Latinist (WW Norton), a fantastic, Highsmith-ian novel of Oxford intrigue. We talk ...

Episode 474 - Nicole Rudick

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Author, critic and editor Nicole Rudick joins the show to celebrate the publication of her amazing book, What Is Now Known Was Once Only Imagined: An ...

Episode 473 - Darryl Cunningham

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cartoonist Darryl Cunningham rejoins the show to talk about his brand-new graphic biography, Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator (Drawn & Quarterly...

Episode 472 - Scott Meslow

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Let's pre-celebrate Valentine's Day with a conversation with Scott Meslow, author of the brand-new book, From Hollywood With Love: The Rise and Fall (...

Episode 471 - Glenn Kurtz

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Bianca Stigter's documentary, Three Minutes: A Lengthening, on the festival circuit, author and inadvertent historian Glenn Kurtz joins the show ...

Episode 470 - David Thomson

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With his new book Disaster Mon Amour (Yale University Press), legendary film critic & writer David Thomson explores the intersection of disaster-as-en...

Episode 469 - Raman Sehgal

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With his new book, The Floundering Founder: 24 Lessons To Refocus Your Business and Better Yourself, marketing entrepreneur (& longtime pal) Raman Seh...

Episode 468 - Wallis Wilde-Menozzi

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Author, poet and translator Wallis Wilde-Menozzi returns to the show to explore her new memoir/meditation, Silence & Silences (FSG). We talk about the...

Episode 467 - Ken Krimstein

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With his new book, When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teens (Bloomsbury), cartoonist Ken Krimstein recreates a lost world, bringi...

Episode 466 - Gil Roth and Aaron Finkelstein

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our final guest of the year is . . . me! I invited my long-time pal Aaron Finkelstein to interview me as we close out 2021. We talk about my newfound ...

Episode 465 - The Guest List 2021

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Thirty of this year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2021 and the books they hope to get to in 2022! Guest...

Episode 464 - Nora Krug

12 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Artist, illustrator & author Nora Krug rejoins the show to talk about her work on the new Graphic Edition of Timothy Snyder's ON TYRANNY: Twenty Lesso...

Episode 463 - Sophia Glock

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With her wonderful new YA graphic memoir PASSPORT (Little, Brown Young Readers), Sophia Glock recounts a key moment from her teenage years: the discov...

Episode 462 - Edward Sorel

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Legendary artist, illustrator, cartoonist, & author Ed Sorel joins the show to celebrate the publication of his memoir, Profusely Illustrated (Knopf)....

Episode 461 - Matt Madden

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With his new book, Ex Libris (Uncivilized Books), cartoonist Matt Madden takes readers on a post-modern, formalist dive into comics. We talk about the...

Episode 460 - Rutu Modan

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With TUNNELS (Drawn & Quarterly, tr. Ishai Mishory), Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan has created a fantastic, thoughtful, wonderful, hilarious, complex,...

Episode 459 - Tess Lewis and Alta Price

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

They were among the last people I recorded with before lockdown, and now translators Tess Lewis and Alta L. Price are back to talk about co-curating t...

Episode 458 - Robert Emmet Meagher

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With Albert Camus and the Human Crisis (Pegasus Books), professor Robert Emmet Meagher distills a half-century of reading and teaching Camus' work to ...

Episode 457 - Dash Shaw

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cartoonist and animator Dash Shaw joins the show to celebrate his new book, Discipline (New York Review Comics), a Civil War-era story about a Quaker ...

Episode 456 - Zoe Beloff

18 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With Parade Of The Old New, artist Zoe Beloff has created a panoramic history painting documenting the depths of the Trump years. We get into the impe...

Episode 455 - Charles Bivona

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Writer, poet, professor & editor Charles Bivona returns to the show for a wide-ranging conversation about art, depression, anxiety, midlife health cri...

Episode 454 - Anne Cattaneo

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lincoln Center Theater's dramaturg Anne Cattaneo joins the show to celebrate her new book, The Art of Dramaturgy (Yale University Press). We answer th...

Episode 453 - Nadine Sergejeff

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's part 2 of a 2-part show about the new Philip Roth Personal Library at the Newark Public Library! This week, Supervising Librarian Nadine Sergejef...

Episode 452 - Rosemary Steinbaum

21 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's part 1 of a 2-part show about the new Philip Roth Personal Library at the Newark Public Library! This week, NPL trustee Rosemary Steinbaum talks ...

Episode 451 - Jacques Berlinerblau

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Jacques Berlinerblau joins the show to celebrate his new book, The Philip Roth We Don't Know: Sex, Race, and Autobiography (UVA Press)! We ...

Episode 450 - Robert McCrum

07 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With his new book, Shakespearean: On Life and Language in Times of Disruption (Pegasus Books), author & literary editor Robert McCrum uses Shakespeare...

Episode 449 - Scott Newstok

24 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With How To Think Like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education (Princeton University Press), Scott Newstok explores the Bard's schooling, ho...

Episode 448 - Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living (Notre Dame Press), Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn explores how different p...

Episode 447 - Peter Schjeldahl

09 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I traveled up to the Catskills this weekend for a round of Rip Van Winkle-themed putt-putt golf, lunch, and some conversation with New Yorker art crit...

Episode 446 - Heywood Gould

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With his compulsively entertaining new book, Drafted: A Memoir of the '60s (Tolmitch Press), author, screenwriter, and director Heywood Gould takes hi...

Episode 445 - Heather Cass White

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Author & professor Heather Cass White joins the show to celebrate her wonderful new book. Books Promiscuously Read: Reading as a Way of Life (FSG). We...

Episode 444 - Jonathan Baylis

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Jonathan Baylis joins the show (in person!) to celebrate the latest issue of his autobio comics series, So Buttons (Tinto Press/Alchemy Comix)....

Episode 443 - Anita Kunz

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With her new book, Another History of Art (Fantagraphics), legendary illustrator & artist Anita Kunz beautifully reimagines classic paintings from a f...

Episode 442 - Weng Pixin

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With her gorgeous new graphic memoir, Let's Not Talk Anymore (Drawn & Quarterly), artist Weng Pixin (a.k.a. Pix) explores 5 generations of women in he...

Episode 441 - Andi Watson

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With The Book Tour (Top Shelf Productions), cartoonist Andi Watson makes his triumphant return to 'grown-up' comics, spinning a tale more Waugh than K...

Episode 440 - Ron Hogan

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Practice makes person! With his new book, Our Endless and Proper Work: Starting (and Sticking to) Your Writing Practice (Belt Publishing), Ron Hogan e...

Episode 439 - Glenn Head

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With his new graphic memoir, Chartwell Manor (Fantagraphics), cartoonist Glenn Head returns to the scene of the crime: the boarding school where he an...

Episode 438 - Will McPhail

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cartoonist and illustrator Will McPhail joins the show to celebrate his debut graphic novel, IN. We talk about weaponized self-awareness, the genesis ...

Episode 437 - Keiler Roberts

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Artist and cartoonist Keiler Roberts returns to the show to celebrate her new book, My Begging Chart (Drawn & Quarterly), and explain how she found a ...

Episode 436 - Dmitry Samarov

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With his new book OLD STYLE, artist & author Dmitry Samarov moves from memoir into a (mostly) fictional mode, chronicling the lives and deaths of a pa...

Episode 435 - Dorothy Gallagher

17 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For my first in-person podcast since March 2020 (!), I talked with writer, memoirist & biographer Dorothy Gallagher about her beautiful new collection...

Episode 434 - Karl Stevens

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cartoonist & illustrator Karl Stevens rejoins the show to celebrate his new book, Penny: A Graphic Memoir (Chronicle Books), in which Karl explores th...

Ed Ward Tribute Episode

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On May 4, 2021, news came out that rock & roll journalist and historian Ed Ward was found dead in his home in Austin, TX. In honor of Ed's work, I've ...

Episode 433 - Darryl Cunningham

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the new edition of Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich an Powerful (Drawn & Quarterly), cartoonist Darryl Cunningham explores the lives and busin...

Episode 432 - Shary Flenniken

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Legendary cartoonist & humorist Shary Flenniken joins the show to celebrate the long overdue collection of her amazing Trots & Bonnie comics (New York...

Episode 431 - Louis Menand

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and cultural critic Louis Menand joins the show to celebrate his phenomenal new book, THE FREE WORLD: Art And Thought In...

Episode 430 - Jesse Sheidlower

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lexicographer, bartender and bon vivant Jesse Sheidlower rejoins the show to talk about his new project, the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction....

Episode 429 - Nate Powell

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How will we remember and recover from the last 5 years? National Book Award-winning cartoonist Nate Powell's new collection, Save It For Later: Promis...

Episode 428 - Michael DeForge

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cartoonist Michael DeForge joins the show to celebrate his amazing new graphic story collection, Heaven No Hell (Drawn & Quarterly). We get into his p...

Episode 427 - Kate Lacour

25 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's been a year since I started the COVID Check-In series of podcasts, so I decided to return to the very first guest in that series, artist Kate Lac...

Episode 426 - Laura Lindstedt

22 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Finnish novelist Laura Lindstedt joins the show to celebrate the US publication of My Friend Natalia (Liveright, tr. David Hackston). We get into the ...

Episode 425 - Vivian Gornick

15 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Literary and feminist legend Vivian Gornick joins the show to celebrate her new collection, Taking A Long Look: Essays on Culture, Literature, and Fem...

Episode 424 - Jen Silverman

07 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What price fame? With her debut novel, We Play Ourselves (Random House), writer and playwright Jen Silverman tells a comedic tale of theater life gone...

Episode 423 - Leslie Stein

02 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With her latest graphic memoir, I Know You Rider (Drawn & Quarterly), Leslie Stein reveals a piece of her life that she'd never shared with anyone: he...

Episode 422 - Anahid Nersessian

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Let's commemorate the 200th anniversary of John Keats' untimely death with a conversation with Anahid Nersessian, author of Keats' Odes: A Lover's Dis...

Episode 421 - Kate Maruyama

15 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Author, editor and activist Kate Maruyama rejoins the show to celebrate the publication of her wonderfully creepy new novella, Family Solstice (Omnium...

Episode 420 - John Porcellino

09 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With Drawn & Quarterly publishing new editions of King-Cat Classix, Map of My Heart, and Perfect Example, what better time for John Porcellino to retu...

Episode 419 - Nadia Owusu

01 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With her debut memoir, Aftershocks (Simon & Schuster), Nadia Owusu explores the fault lines of identity, race, and justice, and the ways trauma and my...

Episode 418 - Sven Birkerts

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Is it unhip to search for a meaningful pattern in life? Sven Birkerts rejoins the show to talk about his new book, Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory: B...

Episode 417 - Mark Wunderlich

19 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A series of deaths and personal losses in 2018 hang over Mark Wunderlich's poems in his new collection, God of Nothingness (Graywolf Press). We talk a...

Episode 416 - Wendung

11 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"At 50, everyone has the face he deserves," said George Orwell, but he died at 47, so what does he know? To celebrate turning 50, I use an obscure Wo...

Episode 415 - Jerome Charyn

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With his amazing new novel, Sergeant Salinger (Bellevue Literary Press), Jerome Charyn evokes and explores J.D. Salinger's WWII experience in the Coun...

Episode 414 - James Oseland

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the final episode of 2020, James Oseland rejoins the show to celebrate the launch of his World Food series of cookbooks, beginning with World Food...

Episode 413 - DW Young

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With the wonderful documentary, The Booksellers (Greenwich Entertainment), director D.W. Young celebrates the world of antiquarian books and the perso...

Episode 412 - The Guest List 2020

13 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It's the 8th annual Guest List episode! Thirty of this year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2020 and the ...

Episode 411 - Lisa Kohn

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In her debut memoir, To The Moon And Back: A Childhood Under The Influence (Heliotrope Books), Lisa Kohn tells the tale of how her mother brought her ...

Episode 410 - Phillip Lopate

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Essayist and editor Phillip Lopate rejoins the show to celebrate the publication of The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays From Colonial Time...

Episode 409 - Rian Hughes

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With his amazing new book XX (Overlook Press), Rian Hughes gets to add "novelist" to his titles of graphic designer, typographer, illustrator, comics ...

Episode 408 - Celia Paul

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With her wonderful new memoir, SELF-PORTRAIT (NYRB), celebrated life-painter Celia Paul explores her life as an artist, the evolution of her portraitu...

Episode 407 - Virginia Postrel

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and scholar Virginia Postrel rejoins the show to talk about her brand-new book, The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made The World (Ba...

Episode 406 - David Shields

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2018, essayist David Shields wrote Nobody Hates Trump More Than Trump: An Intervention (Thought Catalog). For Election Day 2020, we decided to revi...

Episode 405 - Jeff Trexler

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lawyer, ethics advisor and comics nerd Jeff Trexler joins the show to talk about his new role as Interim Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal De...

Episode 404 - Michael Shaw

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Got the election / pandemic / climate change / midlife / inexplicable rash blues? Then listen to me and cartoonist & humorist Michael Shaw talk about ...

Episode 403 - Merrill Markoe

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Comedy legend Merrill Markoe returns to the show to celebrate her new graphic memoir, We Saw Scenery: The Early Diaries of Merrill Markoe (Algonquin B...

Episode 402 - Darryl Pinckney

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and cultural critic Darryl Pinckney joins the show to celebrate the new edition of Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy (NYRB) and the...

Episode 401 - John Keene

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Author, translator, professor and MacArthur Fellow John Keene joins the show to talk about how voices are found and how they're erased. We get into ho...

Episode 400 - Michael Musto

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Legendary entertainment columnist Michael Musto joins the show to talk about the evolution of gossip, nightlife, New York City, celebrity, and queer r...

Episode 399 - Sheila Williams

22 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With her new short story anthology, Entanglements: Tomorrow's Lovers, Families, and Friends (MIT Press), editor Sheila Williams brings together a pano...

Episode 398 - R Sikoryak

15 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cartoonist R. Sikoryak rejoins the show to talk about his new book, Constitution Illustrated (Drawn & Quarterly), and how his mode of parodying other ...

Episode 397 - Daniel Mendelsohn

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate (UVA Press), Daniel Mendelsohn has written one of my favorite books of 2020. We get into Homer'...

Episode 396 - Keith Knight

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

To celebrate the launch of WOKE, his fantastic new comedy series on Hulu, Keith Knight rejoins the show! A lot has gone on since our 2015 conversation...

Episode 395 - Derf Backderf

08 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With Kent State: Four Dead In Ohio (Abrams ComicArts), Derf Backderf not only creates a graphic history of one of America's darkest chapters, he gives...

Episode 394 - Henri Cole

01 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Poet Henri Cole joins the show to celebrate his brand-new collection, Blizzard: Poems (FSG). We get into his evolution as a poet over the 10 volumes h...

Episode 393 - Betsy Bonner

25 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With her new memoir The Book Of Atlantis Black (Tin House), author Betsy Bonner explores her sister's mysterious death by overdose in a Tijuana hotel....

Episode 392 - David Mikics

18 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With his new book, Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker (Yale University Press), David Mikics explores the life and movies of one of cinema's greatest ...

Episode 391 - Christopher Brown

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Can there be economic justice without environmental justice? With his new novel, FAILED STATE (Harper Voyager), Christopher Brown returns to the alter...

Episode 390 - Kurt Andersen

11 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With his fantastic new book, Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America (Random House), Kurt Andersen explores how rich conservatives responded to the 196...

Episode 389 - Woodrow Phoenix

06 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Who's driving whom? With Crash Course (Street Noise Books), British cartoonist, artist and designer Woodrow Phoenix examines what cars do to us: physi...

Episode 388 - Margot Mifflin

04 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With her new book, Looking for Miss America: A Pageant's 100-Year Quest to Define Womanhood (Counterpoint), Margot Mifflin has written a compelling, t...

Episode 387 - Benjamin Taylor

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Author, editor & memoirist Benjamin Taylor joins the show to talk about his wonderful new memoir, Here We Are: My Friendship with Philip Roth (Penguin...

Episode 386 - Judy Gold

28 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Comedian, actress and Emmy-winning TV writer Judy Gold joins the show to celebrate her brand new book, Yes, I CAN Say That: When They Come for the Com...

Episode 385 - Ellen Lindner

23 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Batter up! Let's celebrate Major League Baseball's 2020 Opening Day by talking with cartoonist, illustrator and baseball fan Ellen Lindner. We get int...

Episode 384 - Adrian Tomine

21 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cartoonist and illustrator Adrian Tomine is in it for the long haul. With his new graphic memoir, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist (Draw...

Episode 383 - Everett Glenn

14 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Artist, cartoonist, and clotheshorse Everett Glenn joins the show from Berlin to talk about how narrating his life as a story helped him make (some) s...

Episode 382 - John Vercher

09 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With Three Fifths (Agora), debut author John Vercher explores race and representation in a taut crime novel. We get into Black identity and the notion...

Episode 381 - Zena Hitz

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Author & St. John's College tutor Zena Hitz joins the show to talk about her wonderful new book, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellect...

Episode 380 - Bill Campbell

30 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Author & publisher Bill Campbell joins the show to talk about what he's learned from running Rosarium Publishing (and how he accidentally became a pub...

Milton Glaser Tribute Episode

27 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The beyond-legendary designer Milton Glaser died on June 26, 2020, on his 91st birthday. To celebrate his life and world-changing career, I've re-post...

Episode 379 - Jonathan W Gray

25 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I nerd out with author, English professor, and hardcore comics reader Jonathan W. Gray. We talk about how Blackness is represented in American comics ...