The New York Times · Arts & Culture

The Book Review

The world's top authors and critics join host Gilbert Cruz and editors at The New York Times Book Review to talk about the week's top books, what we're reading and what's going on in the literary world. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Episodes

American Hagwon, the latest novel by author Min Jin Lee, examines the intersection of education, economic instability, and the Korean diaspora experience. Centered on a middle-class family navigating the fallout of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the narrative uses the "hagwon"—a private tutoring center—as a metaphor ...

Decades Later, Stephen King Is Finishing What He and Peter Straub Started

02 Oct 2026

36m

Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘Etna,’ by Paul Yoon

26 Sep 2026

55m

John Green Knows a True Hollywood Ending is Complicated

18 Sep 2026

57m

The Best Books of the 21st Century: Taffy Brodesser-Akner on ‘The Corrections’

11 Sep 2026

47m

It’s Time for a Big Ol’ Fall Book Preview

04 Sep 2026

49m

Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘London Falling’

29 Aug 2026

54m

Why We Can’t Resist a Great Bookstore

21 Aug 2026

26m

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Bookstores serve as essential community hubs that foster personal connections and intellectual discovery, defying predictions of their demise in the digital age. Independent bookstores are experiencing a significant resurgence, with hundreds of new locations opening annually, driven by a collective desire for physical ...

This Reporter Can Tell Us What Nuclear Apocalypse Looks Like (Encore)

14 Aug 2026

45m

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Nuclear war unfolds in minutes rather than days, leaving no room for human deliberation or strategic pause. Journalist Annie Jacobsen details a "bolt out of the blue" scenario where a single thermonuclear strike triggers an automated, unstoppable chain reaction of global annihilation. The current command-and-control in...