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Shelf Life

Grand Journal

Shelf Life is a show about books and the people who love them. In each episode, we invite a celebrated bibliophile (think Alan Cumming, John Waters, and Joyce Maynard) to select two of their favorite books, and then we chat about them, drawing connections between their lit choices and their lives and careers.
Episodes
Between Dystopias: Marlon James and Hafizah Augustus Geter Live at Deep Water Lit Fest 23October 10, 2023
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DJ Taylor on George Orwell's literary genesis, and why the author of 1984 still mattersJune 14, 2023
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Christopher Bollen on Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, and the abiding pleasures of the whodunnitApril 26, 2023
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Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theater, on secret gardens, complicated heroines, and procrastination.March 30, 2023
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Ari Shapiro on singing for Bono, cooking for Nina Totenberg, and what novels teach him.March 23, 2023
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Reading Stephen King with Sera Gamble, co-creator of the hit show, You.February 23, 2023
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Brooke Gladstone on her terrible waitressing, the future of media, and why Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita resonates todayJanuary 19, 2023
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Jerry Stahl on a bus trip to Auschwitz, his friendship with Anthony Bourdain, and Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust.January 05, 2023
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A Year in Reading with Joyce Maynard, Darcey Steinke, Edmund White, and John WatersDecember 28, 2022
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Marion Nestle on late starts, unhappy families and her war on food mythsDecember 11, 2022
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Leila Taylor on Shirley Jackson's Haunted Houses, Black Goth, and Being a "Creepy Kid."November 23, 2022
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Lydia Millet on writing about goodness; and Mary Ruefle makes a cameo.November 12, 2022
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Orlando Figes on writing history, radioactive fungi, and why Madame Bovary is the greatest novel ever writtenNovember 01, 2022
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A.M. Homes on absurdity, satire, and the troubles of menOctober 16, 2022
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Jonathan Escoffery on tough guys, the joys of ackee, and writing the books we need to see in the worldSeptember 22, 2022
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Seán Hewitt, author of All Down Darkness Wide, on love, loss, and poetrySeptember 10, 2022
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Michael Cunningham on originality in fiction, and realizing his destiny while bartending at a tiki barAugust 26, 2022
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Director Anthony Fabian on Mrs Harris, talking cats, and Colum McCann's sexy resurrection of NuryevAugust 17, 2022
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Douglas Stuart on love and war in 1980s Glasgow and Cromwell's EnglandAugust 09, 2022
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Sondre Lerche on Marguerite Duras, and the alchemy of loveAugust 02, 2022
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William Boyd on Evelyn Waugh's Scoop, and the art of the comic novelJuly 24, 2022
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Courtney Maum on riding out depression (literally), and the children's party that changed her life.June 13, 2022
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Melissa Gilbert on family secrets, escaping Hollywood, and L.A. noirJune 06, 2022
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David Hare on not being a nice boy, the irrelevance of critics, and bourgeois marmaladeMay 30, 2022
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Season Two is coming: bookworms, are you ready?May 25, 2022
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