The Trans-Atlanticist

The Trans-Atlanticist

Novel RomAntics #7: "No One Is Coming to Save Us" by Stephanie Powell Watts

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In this episode, host Douglas Cowie and his guest, Professor of English at Colgate University, Michael Coyle, discuss No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts. This is the first of two episodes in which Douglas and Michael discuss novels that are based in different ways on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby.

Norwegian Election Preview & the 10-Year Anniversary of the July 22 Terrorist Attack

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Dr. Trygve Svensson, director of the Norwegian think tank AGENDA, and Andrew Sola preview the upcoming elections in Norway on 13 September. Topics include antagonistic politics, social and economic inequality, climate change, and immigration. Lastly, Dr. Svensson remembers the tragic day of the terrorist bombing in Oslo and the subsequent mass shooting on the island of Utøya.

Novel RomAntics #6: Willy Vlautin's The Night Always Comes

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In this episode, host Douglas Cowie and his guest, Professor Robert Eaglestone, discuss The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin, a novel set in Portland, Oregon that dramatizes the human cost of the economic crash. They also touch on the relationship between Willy Vlautin's fiction writing and his songwriting

Novel RomAntics #5: Lesley Nneka Arimah's What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

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In this episode, novelist Nadifa Mohamed and host Douglas Cowie discuss What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, a collection of short stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah. They discuss several of the stories, and the overlaps and differences in cultural expectations between the United States and Africa, the pressures of young womanhood, and more. Nadifa Mohamed's latest novel, The Fortune Men, is published by Penguin, and will be available in German from September, under the titel Der Geist von Tiger Bay, published by C.H. Beck Verlag.

LadyFiction#4: Poetry by Elizabeth Alexander, Marilyn Nelson and Bettina Judd

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Recorded on International Women's Day, LadyFiction’s episode 4 turns to the history of science—and the forgotten role black people played as study objects in this context. Stefanie Schäfer and Dr. Christine Vogt-William from the University of
Bayreuth discuss how black women’s poetry unearths and retells these
forgotten histories. We read Elizabeth Alexander’s poems “The Venus
Hottentot” and selections from Marilyn Nelson’s “Fortune’s Bones” (2004)
and from Bettina Judd’s “Patient” (2014). The poems selected showcase
the Renaissance of the Black Arts in the current moment and its
aesthetic of empowerment that gives a voice to those who have been
silenced by History.

Novel RomAntics #4: Madeline Miller's Circe

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In this episode, host Douglas Cowie and his guest, Classicist Hannah Bean, discuss Circe by Madeline Miller. The novel reimagines and retells the story of one of the characters Odysseus encounters in The Odyssey of Homer, and the discussion looks both at the roots of the story, other tellings of it, and some of the specifics of how Miller imagines these roots into a contemporary novel.

Europe's COVID Vaccine Crisis

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In this episode, host Andrew Sola and our resident EU expert Guenter Danner discuss challenges facing the EU's vaccination program. Also, they discuss the long-term economic consequences of the pandemic as well as challenges facing European social services post-pandemic. Lastly, they offer a preview of the upcoming federal elections in Germany in September.

Novel RomAntics #3: Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future

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In Episode 3, host Douglas Cowie and his guest, science fiction writer Adam Roberts, discuss The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, an ambitious novel set in the near future that tells the story of a global effort to slow impending environmental collapse. Please also see Adam Robert's post about the novel here https://sibilantfricative.blogspot.com/2020/10/kim-stanley-robinson-ministry-for.html

About this podcast

Andrew Sola explores the past, present, and future of relations between Europe and the United States with scholars, artists, authors, politicians, journalists, and business leaders. Based at the Amerikazentrum in Hamburg, the Trans-Atlanticist provides you with insights from the thought leaders who are shaping the trans-Atlantic relationship every single day.

by Andrew Sola

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