Lit Bits

Ep 12 Literature & WH Auden (Mini Lit Bit with Dinah Roe)

In which are podders, Adam Smyth and James Kidd, putting their feet up after another exhausting 45 minutes of sitting on a chair and talking nonsense, are ambushed by Dinah Roe with a copy of W.H. Auden’s ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’. How will they fare in this on-the-spot close reading? It’s literary criticism, in the nude. Those of a sensitive literary critical disposition might want to look away…now.
Listen out for the sound of pouring wine. And possibly Wystan H turning in his grave.
About suffering Lit Bits was often wrong. But only epistemologically.

Ep 11 Literature & Sheds (Mini Lit Bit)

Sheds! Innocent abodes for gardening equipment? Laboratories of literary invention? Adam Smyth and James Kidd stroll down to the bottom of the garden to nose around.
Don’t close the door.

Ep 10 Literature & Art (with Dinah Roe)

Art! In which our intrepid podsters Kidd and Smyth are joined by Dinah Roe and, freshly saddled, bound off in pursuit of enlightenment on the verbal and the visual. We begin with some chatter about the Pre-Raphaelite painters who also designed books and even wrote some poems to go inside them. 
We ask our usual quota of big questions. Are poems like paintings? Are frames like paratexts? How large was William Morris’ beard? Frank O’Hara is read the riot act, or at least just read. How do texts interact with images, and vice versa. Are is there really not a rhyme for orange? 
Gratuitous references to Andrew Motion are included.
Can you see what it is yet?
Dinah Roe is a Reader at Oxford Brookes University, the author of The Rossettis In Wonderland: A Victorian Family History (2011) and Christina Rossetti’s Faithful Imagination and the editor of two Penguin Classics: Christina Rossetti: Selected Poems and The Pre-Raphaelites: From Rossetti to Ruskin.

Ep 9 Literature & Computers 2.0 (Mini Lit Bit with James Kidd)

Greetings from the future, pod listeners. Admire our foil suits and chrome helmets. Our touch-screen soap dispensers. Stand well back as James Kidd plugs in, turns on and downloads a hi-tech second mini-pod on literature and computers. Think Keats. Think computer speech software. Think Radiohead. Think Nicholas Roe. Just think, listeners. Just think.
Astronaut food not included.
Duration: 6.47.
Fitter, happier and more deductive
 

Ep 8 Literature & Computers (Mini Lit Bit with Adam Smyth)

Hail! A mini Lit Bits in which—for half of ten minutes—Adam Smyth reflects on what Shakespeare would have made of computer-simulated voice software.
Bring your inky cloak and enjoy.

Ep. 7 Literature & Pop Music (with Paul Myerscough)

Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by man of song Paul Myerscough. After an opening entanglement with Usher’s Climax, the podsters tap their feet to a merry farrago of (among others) Paul Morley—Kylie Minogue—Christopher Ricks—Ulysses—Bob Dylan—Keats—Shakespeare—and perhaps the greatest of them all, Andrew Ridgeley.
Hear the worst cover of Run DMC - ever (now that’s what I call shit hop). Thrill to the pointiillist synthesiser. And gasp as someone admits to their love for Bon Jovi and Natasha Bedingfield. The only question is: who?
Dancing shoes? We think so.
Paul Myerscough is a Senior Editor at the London Review of Books. As heard on Resonance FM.

Ep. 6 Literature & Architecture (with Steve Rose)

In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by Steve Rose Esq., Guardian film critic and man of buildings. Some 40 minutes of musings on books and buildings —the links and differences— not excluding with some matters concerning to: impossible buildings, the language of architecture and literature, the relationship between reading a book and walking a city, the lusty symbolism of the brick, and how to enter a building.
Other questions include. What exactly is a Rem Koolhaas? What do architects and writers have in common? What happened when Adam went to an exhibition of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell's  defaced library books? How do you preserve buildings and for that matter books? 
One trigger warning alert. There is some discussion of Andrew Motion and a reading of one of his poems, which was projected onto a building in Sheffield. Listener discretion advised. 
The pleasant history then draws to a conclusion. Regrets are few as the fellows depart for an ordinary or inn.

Ep. 5 Literature & Advertising (with Jonathan Thake)

In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by advertising wiz, comedy writer, and all-round chap-about-town Jonathan Thake. Our trusty podders saddle their steeds and engage in a veritable canter through the vast wild fields of literature and advertising. Among other oddities they encounter on their questing voyage, are Ben Jonson, Pot Noodle, American Psycho, Heineken, and Andrew Motion. Profit and delight are assured.
Duration: 38.05
Jonathan Thake is a writer for both television and advertising. His first comedy series, The Persuasionists, told the story of a fictional advertising agency, and premiered on BBC2 in 2010. Jonathan also works in advertising, and is best known for the controversial ‘slag of all snacks’ campaign for Pot Noodle.
A pod a day helps you work, rest and play

Ep. 4 Literature & Film (with James Mottram)

In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by film critic and author James Mottram to discuss several matters pertaining to literature and film.
After some general comments, the topics touched upon include the many difficulties involved when translating prose to the cinema—the life and opinions of Thomas Hanks Esq—the strange discourse of The Empire Strikes Back (a novel in several episodes)—the peculiarities of reading a book and attending the cinema—Mr Thomas Hanks (actor)—the attractions or otherwise of becoming a screenwriter—the curious circumstances that befell Thomas Hanks—as well as more surprising and unexpected adventures, full of learning and good wit.
Did we mention Tom Hanks?
James Mottram is the author of The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood .

Ep. 3 Literature & Food (with Polly Russell)

In which Adam Smyth and James Kidd are joined by Polly Russell.
After the introduction to the work—or bill of fare to the feast—containing as much of the background as is necessary or proper to acquaint the listener with in the beginning of this ‘podcast’—discussion turned to such topics as: who reads cookbooks for fun? TV chefs: for or againt? Poems about plums? And how many servants is ideal for the upkeep of a stately house?
Containing scenes of gastronomical felicity in different degrees of life—and various other transactions. Fit for all to consume.
The pod you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite. 
Don't forget to floss after each novel.
Polly Russell is a Curator at the British Library, and co-author of the celebrated The Kitchen Revolution: A Year of Time-and-money-saving Recipes. Polly is also a chef, and has cooked under Joyce Molyneux and at London’s renowned Moro.