The Virtual Memories Show is a biweekly podcast about books and life, not necessarily in that order. Every other Tuesday, you can expect a fascinating conversation with a fascinating person (so far, that includes three Pulitzer Prize winners and one MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellow).

Your host, Gil Roth, interviews guests about their careers and the books that have helped shape their lives, and tries to engage in witty banter that you’d think 42 years of dilettantism would have prepared him better for.

FOLLOW ALONG

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• Tumblr - where I post my Two Minutes’ GREAT! mini-podcasts
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UPCOMING GUESTS (alphabetically)

• David Baerwald, singer/songwriter and producer
• Christopher Bakken, author of Honey, Olives, Octopus: Adventures at the Greek Table
• Clive Bennett, CEO of Halo Pharma
• Charles Blackstone, managing editor of Bookslut and author of Vintage Attraction
• Ivan Brunetti, cartoonist and author of Aesthetics: A Memoir
• John Crowley, author of Little, Big and Aegypt
• Samuel R. Delany, four-time Nebula award-winning author of Dhalgren, The Mad Man and Bread & Wine
• Evan Dorkin, cartoonist/creator of Milk & Cheese
• David Gates, author of Jernigan and Preston Falls
• Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead
• Jonathan Hyman, photographer, 9/11 historian
• Maxim Jakubowski, book editor/translator and founder of Murder One Bookshop in London
• Michael Kupperman, creator of Tales Designed to Thrizzle
• Valya Lupescu, author of The Silence of Trees
• Thomas Powers, NYRB writer and author of Intelligence Wars
• Robert Rodi, author of Seven Seasons in Siena and The Sugarman Bootlegs and founding member of The Pansy Kings

(and, boy, do I have a great list of guests I’m still trying to line up…)

Episodes

Season 3

Coming May 28! Episode 11 – Little Suicides, Little Fish - Singer-songwriter, member of the Golden Palominos, and debut novelist Lori Carson talks about her new book, The Original 1982, the blurring of fact and fiction, the differences and similarities of songwriting and prose-writing, her time with the Golden Palominos, how the music industry changed during her career, her favorite authors, and more! It’s a great conversation with one of my favorite musical artists. Check back soon!

Episode 10 – Eternity is Music that Plays - Poet, novelist, memoirist and all-around wonderful writer Wallis Wilde-Menozzi talks with about her two new books, The Other Side of the Tiber: Reflections on Time in Italy and Toscanelli’s Ray! It’s a great conversation about the nature of art, the joy of poetry, the American experience in Italy over a span of 40 years, and more. (5/14/13) - mp3

Episode 9 – Putting the “Pro” in Profanity – Jesse Sheidlower, editor-at-large for the Oxford English Dictionary and author/editor of The F-Word, talks about the shifting idea of “offensive” language, how one becomes a lexicographer, the OED’s digital challenge, the history of Jesse’s Word, and more! Bonus: you get to listen to me hesitate and trip over myself while trying not to make poor word choices! (4/30/13) - mp3

Episode 8 – Visible Cities: VMS Live with Ben Katchor – Ben Katchor is the guest for the first live recording (as in, in front of an audience of 50 people) of The Virtual Memories Show! Our conversation (and Q&A with the audience) covers Ben’s new collection of comics, Hand-Drying in America, his creative process, his relationship with technology, his non-nostalgic laments for lost urban totems, and more! This episode was recorded in conjunction with the New York Comics & Picture-stories Symposium. (4/16/13)- mp3

Episode 7: The Importance of Being Out – It’s our first double-episode of the year! First, Craig Gidney discusses his new YA/bullying novel, Bereft, and then Ed Hermance talks about the history of Giovanni’s Room, his queer bookstore that’s celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2013. Lots of great conversation about writing, publishing and bookselling in this episode. (4/2/13) - mp3

Episode 6: Cartoon Character – Matt Wuerker, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, joins The Virtual Memories Show to talk about his career (including his fascinating non-comics work and his prescient move to the online world with POLITICO), the experience of winning “the Academy Award for cartoonists”, his artistic and political influences, what it takes to get on the NRA’s Enemies List, the opportunities for editorial cartoonists in a post-print world, how his parents felt about his decision to become a cartoonist, whether he had it easier during the Bush/Cheney era or the Tea Party era, and why he thinks the golden age of cartooning is still ahead of us! (3/19/13) – mp3

Episode 5: Sound Before Story – To celebrate the publication of Middle C, the new novel by literary legend William Gass, I sat down with writer Greg Gerke, who interviewed Gass for Tin House literary magazine. We talked about Gass’ position in the postmodern literary tradition (as it were), what Greg learned over the course of reading much of Gass’ writings and interviewing The Great Man, what it’s like to construct a literary monument to horror, which authors Greg discovered through Gass’ essays over the years, how you can’t judge a man by his (roommate’s) bookshelf, why Gass holds self-publishing in disdain, and how one can build a powerful literary career by putting Sound Before Story. (3/5/13) – mp3

Episode 4: God’s Way of Teaching Americans Geography – Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Fred Kaplan talks about his new book, The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, how we fought the wrong war the wrong way for years in Iraq, why the Army threw out its training manuals after Vietnam, what our original sin in Afghanistan was, and why he got into war writing. Also, I connect war-waging with pharmaceutical clinical trials. (2/19/13) – mp3

Episode 3: All Tomorrow’s Parties – Miss Scorpio, party planner extraordinaire and mistress of Gemini and Scorpio, talks about 10 years of throwing fabulous themed costume parties, curating one of New York City’s largest underground mailing lists of offbeat cultural events, how to build your own social network, and why you never want to do dinner and a movie for your internet first date. (2/5/13) – mp3

Episode 2: The Magnificent Seven – Reading, walking, looking, dancing, listening, swimming, and writing: these are the activities organizing the life of this episode’s guest, Willard Spiegelman, author of Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness! We talk about his wonderful book (go read it!), his addiction to ballroom dancing, how to find joy in the day-to-day world, why he hates book clubs, how he turned me on to one of my favorite novels, who his Desert Island Poets are, and, again, Harold Bloom (sigh). (1/22/13) – mp3

Episode 1: Disarm – We kick off the new year by talking about the end of the world! Guest Ron Rosenbaum, one of my favorite living writers, discusses his new book on nuclear war, How the End Begins, the paradox of deterrence, the evolution of literary journalism, his inadvertent contribution to the founding of Apple, Nixon’s final lie, what he thought of Harold Bloom at Yale, and more! (1/8/13) – mp3

Season 2

Episode 16: Not the camera but the eye – Final episode of 2012! Amazing photographer Kyle Cassidy talks about gun culture(s) in America, science fiction authors’ writing desks, fan subcultures, the breakdown of discourse in America, how he got started in photojournalism, his most hated digital photography tricks, and whether he owns a gun, among other topics. His cat Roswell makes a cameo. (12/16/12) – mp3

Episode 15: Hassling the Hoff – Scott Hoffman, co-founder of Folio Literary Management, joins us to talk about his transition from Washington, DC lobbyist to New York literary agent, the future of book publishing (including What Publishers Want and What Readers Want), why zombies are hot, where e-publishing is going, the explosion of the YA market, and the diminishing relevance of publishing’s gatekeepers, and more. (12/11/12) – mp3

Episode 14: Classical Pop – R Sikoryak, creator of Masterpiece Comics and ringmaster of the Carousel Cartoon Slideshows, joins us to talk about his mashups of “high” literature and “low” comics, the 1980′s art scene in NYC, the sea change in the acceptance of comics as art and entertainment, the (un)importance of having an individual drawing style, and more. (Kindasorta sponsored by Out Of Print Clothing.) (11/26/12)- mp3

Episode 13: The Correction of Taste – Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda talks about his lifetime of reading and career in writing, the essence of book reviewing and the role of negative reviews, breaking free of genre ghettoes and the pretense of literary immortality, how the web has changed the reviewing ecosystem, and why Mao would have loved the collective wisdom of the internet. (Kindasorta sponsored by Out Of Print Clothing.) (10/16/12)- mp3

Episode 12: Comic Sans – Tom Spurgeon, editor of The Comics Reporter and one of my closest pals, talks about his near-death experience in June 2011 and how he’s changed his life since, a process that involved losing more than 175 lbs. in 16 months. We also talk about  the insatiability of junk culture, the good and bad sides of internet commenters, and the meanings of nostalgia. And nothing about the new Batman movie. (Kindasorta sponsored by Out Of Print Clothing.) (10/2/12) – mp3

Episode 11: Fire and Bleak House – My brother, Boaz Roth, reflects on what it means to lose his library in house fire. Along the way, we also talk about the joys of Bleak House, the lasting influence of Orwell’s Inside the Whale, the Tolstoyan qualities of Lost, and what he’s learned over 18 years of teaching literature. Oh, and I offer up The Key To Quentin Tarantino’s Movies. (9/13/12) – mp3

Episode 10: Four Quartets and Other Pilgrimages – Former literature professor Lyn Ballard talks about her gateway books, the metaphysical poets, reading Huck Finn at the age of 5, an embarrassing Stanley Elkin anecdote, the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, the importance of making literary pilgrimages, and more! (9/5/12) - mp3

Episode 9: New York and Old South – Jane Borden discusses her memoir, I Totally Meant To Do That, her life as a debutante-hipster hybrid, the night at the UCB that changed her life, the ways in which we find and lose ourselves in New York, and the challenges of finding a standup venue in Sewanee, TN (along with her favorite comics and how she built her writing career). (8/9/12) - mp3

Episode 8: Manga-loids and Steampunks! – Diana Renn discusses her new YA novel, Tokyo Heist, and science fiction writer/critic Paul Di Filippo discusses his 30 years as a freelance writer, what forces shape the SF market, what it’s like to be regarded as “King of Steampunk,” and how he would’ve handled a Before Watchmen offer. (7/5/12) - mp3

Episode 7: Part II of The Piraeus Tapes - Guest Tom May, a tutor at St. John’s College, about his path to the school, how the place has changed over the years, and how he had to get a note from his priest to read books from the Vatican’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum. (6/16/12) - mp3

Episode 6: Part I of The Piraeus Tapes - Guest David Townsend talks about his path to becoming a tutor at St. John’s College, how to build an American notion of education, what we can learn from the Koran, and whether comic books may ever make it on to St. John’s Great Books curriculum. (6/15/12) - mp3

Episode 5: Guest John B. talks about being dead for 10 minutes last year, and being alive since; Gil talks about Robert Caro and the publicity-industrial complex – mp3

Episode 4: Guest Mark Feltskog talks about books, cancer, riding the rails, and falling in love with New York City - mp3

Episode 3: Guest Ann Rivera talks about Housekeeping in the first Secondhand Books conversation - mp3

Episode 2: Burning libraries, Geoff Dyer, and Norah Jones - mp3

Episode 1: Bach, Piers Anthony and the escapism of being a geek - mp3

Season 1

Episode 3: Ernesto Sabato, Clive James, and Borges’ library - mp3 / m4a

Not-quite-an-episode: Reading an old post about Proust, love and Hegel – mp3 only

Not-quite-an-episode: Reading a passage from a William Gass essay on Proust – mp3 only

Episode 2: On Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities and the high school teacher who turned me on to that book. Music by Telepopmusik – mp3 / m4a

Episode 1: Just a brief proof-of-concept introduction and a little Calvino reading. Music by Danny Wilson (covering Bowie) – mp3 / m4a

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