🤡

I didn’t think it was possible to go “too shallow” with a Franzen podcast but these guys managed to do it, at least in the “Freedom” episode:

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An excellent podcast if you know how to read and like to do so.

Great stuff

Genuinely really thoughtful and thorough analysis with a great dose of humor thrown in. I have never read Franzen and still found so much to love in the conversation!!! And they tricked me into buying The Corrections lol. Absolutely lovely podcast, excellent hosts, an extremely engaging listen, I HIGHLY recommend

Fun and insightful, with some great voices, too.

The hosts’ voices are soothing

Legitimately my favorite literary podcast (I keep trying them, for some reason, but this is truly the only one to take)

Alex in particular has a very sultry voice

This podcast made me want to read The Kraus Project which is……………..saying a lot.

This is a wonderful podcast full of trenchant literary criticism, but what really makes it great is the mellifluous voices of its hosts, especially Alex Shephard. Overall, a solid five out of five Lamberts.

The supreme single author pod!

Full of good jokes, smart criticism, and sharp analysis. Really like it!

I want to get more out of this podcast but always come away thinking I’ve just heard a bunch of college students without much life experience chatting with bubblegum seriousness about the themes of Franzen's books. But maybe I’m just difficult too.

Good job!

Enjoying this a lot. Hope they eventually get to his nonfiction books as well.

A good listen but at various points very pretentious.

It’s hard to give five stars to a podcast whose subject is a congenital three-star reviewer, but it’s a winning production on par with a shambolic Richard Katz bootleg. The decision to begin each episode with a power ranking of Franzen canon was inspired, as was the choice to prepare thoroughly but speak unrehearsed for emotionally immediacy (eg searching for pages during recording to make “sentence-level” commentary). If you’ve ever wanted talking heads who care if Lethem is more/less interesting on the subject of Talking Heads than Franzen, these are they. It’s a niche and they fill it solidly.

This podcast is /actually/ good! Hosts are smart and insightful, widely-read, and engaging. I desperately hope that, after they've milked all the episodes they can from Franzen's body of work, they continue making content for book nerds. There are so few podcasts about literature and book culture—especially contemporary literary fiction—worth listening to. Please don't stop at Franzen!

Get hyped for his latest novel with this intelligent and hysterical look back at Franzen’s novels. Thank you to this podcast for ensuring I never waste my precious time on earth on his first two. This podcast is so good.

And it’s still good

Honestly, the podcast that Franzen deserves. Wonderful stuff.

Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner? Clearly because these hosts are visionaries.

I do.