Three Percent Podcast

A couple weeks ago, Chad and Tom recorded a podcast about a slew of recent events, including ALTA 38, the Albertine Festival, the "New Literature from Europe Festival, Wordstock, and the Texas Book Festival. Unfortunately, that podcast--one of the best ever recorded--had to be tossed because of technical difficulties. So, this week they talked about some of the same stuff and some new stuff (like Jessica Jones).   As a bit of a tease, here's a list of all the books and stuff they discussed in the "lost epidose":   Knausgaard's review of Submission My Struggle in You're the Worst. The Pushkin Vertigo series David Goodis The Fata Morgana Books by Jonathan Littell The Large Glass Home Radiant Terminus by Antoine Volodine Gesell Dome by Guillermo Saccomanno All the books from Chad's spring class And this short film about Mario Bellatin   This week's music is "Seventeen" by Sjowgren.   Also, just a reminder that because of some difficulties with iTunes, you may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the "correct

Chad's done a bit more number crunching since this was recorded (see the posts on his Twitter account, which is @chadwpost), but this is a good introduction to the ongoing conversation about women in translation. A lot of this discussion is based on this post from Three Percent.    This week's music is "Detachable Penis" by King Missile, which is sort of fitting.   Also, just a reminder that because of some difficulties with iTunes, you may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the "correct feed" in iTunes at that link, or right here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/three-percent-podcast/id434696686\   Or, you can just put this feed link into whichever is your podcast app of choice: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss   Tell all your friends and family to also subscribe--that's what can get us higher in that Top 200 lit podcasts list . . . And it's also amazingly helpful in getting the podcast seen by more eyes if you can take just a moment to stop by iTunes to give us a quick rating (and a little review,

This week's podcast features a discussion of Nobel Prize-winner Svetlana Alexievich (who Chad helped publish at Dalkey Archive), Amazon's recent announcement about investing $10 million into translations, and how rights work. There's a minor rant about Chase Utley ("worst human being on earth") and a little bit of baseball talk.   In honor of the Mets in the World Series (and Cubs making the post-season), this week's music is "Been So Long" by Win Win.   Also, just a reminder that because of some difficulties with iTunes, you may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the "correct feed" in iTunes at that link, or right here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/three-percent-podcast/id434696686\   Or, you can just put this feed link into whichever is your podcast app of choice: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss   Tell all your friends and family to also subscribe--that's what can get us higher in that Top 200 lit podcasts list . . . And it's also amazingly helpful in getting the podcast seen by more eyes if y

This week Chad and Tom discuss Oyster shutting down, whether or not Serial Box makes any sense as a way to consume books, and this list of the top 10 most frequently challenged books. Additionally, they talk about My Struggle: Volume 2 by Karl Ove Knausgaard and Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila.   This week's music is "I'm Sorry" by John Denver (a choice that will make sense by the end of the podcast).   Also, just a reminder that because of some difficulties with iTunes, you may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the correct feed in iTunes at that link, or right here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/three-percent-podcast/id434696686   Or, you can just put this feed link into whichever is your podcast app of choice: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss   Tell all your friends and family to also subscribe--that's what can get us higher in that Top 200 lit podcasts list . . . And it's also amazingly helpful in getting the podcast seen by more eyes if you can take just a moment to stop by iTunes to give us

So after a month away, Chad and Tom are back, discussing the books they read over the summer and breaking down jacket copy for a number of recent books. They're both astounded by how many meaningless phrases they come across (and references to how a book is "necessary"), and also talk about when and how to frame a particular author. Tom rants about how we're reaching the bottom of the barrel in list-making, and Chad gives some love to the Iceland Men's National Team.    Also, after some befuddling technical difficulties, the podcast is back up at iTunes, so please tell all your friends and family to subscribe and rate us. We're determined to break into the top 200 of literary podcasts . . .    To listen to this podcast, either subscribe via iTunes at the link above, or just copy this link to add our show's feed to any podcast app: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss   And, as always, feel free to send any and all comments or questions to threepercentpodcast@gmail.com.   Finally, here's the (hopefully) complete

This week's episode starts with a question from a listener about how translation trends come about, then morphs into a discussion of which books Chad and Tom are bringing on their respective vacations and what makes a "beach book." Rants are raves are random as always.   If you have any comments or questions, feel free to email us at threepercentpodcast@gmail.com   As always you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes "right here":http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/three-percent-podcast/id434696686. Or just copy this link to add our show's feed to any podcast app: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?s=broadcast_3p   And here's the enormous list of books and authors discussed in this episode, pretty much in order of appearance:   Steig Larsson Jo Nesbo Roberto Bolaño Javier Marias W. G. Sebald Elena Ferrante Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Shadow of the Wind The Da Vinci Code Santiago Roncagliolo Gabriel García Marquez Andres Neuman Camilla Lackberg Rafael Chirbes, On the Edge Hard Case Crim

This week Tom and Chad discuss the merging of the Man Booker International Prize with the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the waning interest in Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Book Club, and the Women's World Cup of Literature. There are also rants about "Sevenevens," praise for the Minions movie, and more soccer talk, including the best video.   Since a number of listeners have asked for this, here's a complete list of books and authors that we mention on this episode:   The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky  Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood Delirium by Laura Restrepo Burial Rites by Hannah Kent Maidenhair by Mikhail Shishkin Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai All of the books in Zuckerberg's book club The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling 50 Shades of Gray by E. L. James Roberto Bolaño Michel Houellbecq The Mersault Investigation by Kamel

So, we actually made it to our 100th episode! To celebrate, this week Tom and Chad took questions from all our listeners, leading to discussions about how many books we each read (and how many are in translation), what one thing all translators should know, how censorship plays into our publishing decision, and much more. Of course, it ends with raves and rants--including a rant about rants--and is filled with other interesting side tangents.    Here's a list of all the books we talked about on this episode (although maybe not in this order):   Apocalypse Baby by Virginie Despentes Mexico: The Great Theft by Carmen Boullosa Case Histories by Kate Atkinson Life After Life by Kate Atkinson Delirium by Laura Restrepo Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck The Last Lover by Can Xue Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño That Smell by Sonallah Ibrahim Ulysses by James Joyce Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

This week's podcast is the latest in the ongoing Three Percent Book Club. Julia Berner-Tobin of Feminist Press joins Tom and Chad to talk about Virginie Despentes's fantastic Apocalypse Baby. (And to rant about Franzen, because, of course.)   *And a reminder:* Don't forget to send us your own questions, rants, and raves (about anything from the podcast to publishing to literature to translations to Tom to Chad to soccer to cocktails to etc.) for our big episode 100. Hit us up at threepercentpodcast@gmail.com.

For this week's podcast, we invited Best Translated Book Award Fiction Chair Monica Carter on to talk about the finalists for this year's awards. Monica graciously gave us some insight into the voting process, revealed which of the final ten was a "personal pick" of one of the judges, and managed to make us second guess who we thought would win the award.    Additionally, we talked about the differences between the UK vs. U.S. book scenes, and had some rants, raves, and sports talk.    *   REMINDER: Next week, Feminist Press editor Julia Berner-Tobin will be our guest to discuss Apocalypse Baby by Virginie Despentes, translated from the French by Siân Reynolds, the latest book in the Three Percent Book Club. Go out and get a copy! It's a fast, vicious read, and if you have any questions for the three of us, send them to threepercentpodcast@gmail.com by Tuesday morning.    ANOTHER REMINDER: Our 100th episode is coming up, and to celebrate, we'd like to do one that's all about "listener appreciation." So send a

This week, Tom and Chad talk about some of the new translations that they've read (or are looking forward to reading) and are most excited about. Along the way are the expected digressions (including an explanation of how editing and rights work when a U.S. publisher and a U.K. publisher separately publish the same translation), and, of course, the episode wouldn't be complete without their famous "Raves & Raves" segment (nope, not a typo. Everyone thought they were on rave duty this week, so it's a double dose of happy!).

On the heels of this week's big announcement of the 2015 Best Translated Book Award fiction longlist and poetry longlist, Chad and Tom run through the books that made the cut and talk about their favorites, which books are on their reading lists, who they predict will make the shortlist next month, and try their darnedest to pronounce a lot of names. Then, they respond to some viewer mail about the effectiveness of ACRs for book bloggers before Tom rants about being the patsy of a fiendish shot-buying conspiracy and Chad rave's about the Audubon Society's fiendish take-down of Dark Lord Franzen.

Inspired by all the stupid Buick ads (and disturbing Volkswagon ones) playing throughout the NCAA Tournament, we decided to dedicate this week's episode to talking about advertising for books: whether it's worthwhile, how much it costs, why are book trailers a thing, who buys books because of ads on a subway, and if trailers/commercials for books are ever a good idea.   As one part of Tom's rave, we also talked a bit about our mutual friend Mark Binelli and his recent article for the New York Times Magazine on ADX, America's Toughest Federal Prison.

This week's podcast is a special "book club" one in which Tom and Chad talk about Jean-Patrick Manchette's The Mad and the Bad, a violent little book by the author of Fatale. They also talk about the Spanish branch of Penguin Random House cutting translator rates and an incredible old video.

In this episode, Chad and Tom discuss the recent Festival Neue Literatur, a NYC-based festival promoting German-language literature, and spend a lot of time talking about the ins and outs of editing literature in translation. Additionally, they breakdown this Buzzfeed article about ebook data mining and what this means for the futures of publishing and reading. 

This week's podcast features a true roundtable discussion, with Tom and Chad being joined by Caroline Casey from Coffee House Press, Mark Haber and Jeremy Ellis from Brazos Bookstore, Stephen Sparks from Green Apple Books, and Danish author Naja Marie Aidt (Baboon, Rock, Paper, Scissors) to discuss the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute. One of the funniest podcasts to date, they break down what Winter Institute is, why it's so important for the future of bookselling, and what various publishers get out of attending. They also make fun of all the crappy crutch phrases you find in jacket copy. 

Today's podcast is a special one, featuring PEN Translation Committee co-chair (and talented Czech translator) Alex Zucker to talk about what translators do and should get paid, and to break down where all the money goes in publishing a work of international literature. In comparison to some other Three Percent podcasts, this one is wall-to-wall information, and is sure to spark a number of debates, discussions, and reactions. Enjoy!

It's time for our annual music podcast in which Chad, Nate, and Kaija all share songs from their favorite albums of 2014. Although we only talk about four songs each on this podcast, we put together a Spotify playlist featuring 86 songs and running almost six hours. Enjoy!   Next week we'll be back to normally scheduled book talk. Specifically, Chad and Tom will be talking with Alex Zucker about translator's fees, forming a translators guild, and other financial aspects of publishing international literature. In the meantime, feel free to email us at threepercentpodcast@gmail.com with any questions or comments. 

This week's podcast is all about Denis Johnson's The Laughing Monsters, which came out last year and is "a high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game."   Writer, critic, and Johnson fan Patrick Smith joined us for this book club discussion, which goes off in a few different directions--how everyone's untrustworthy and willing to sell each other out, how Johnson got all this detail about Africa, etc.--with the general consensus that this is a pretty great book and one that fans of Graham Greene and/or spy novels and/or well-crafted fiction in general would like.    (For another analysis/conversation of the book, I highly recommend this discussion between Paul Maliszewski and Jesse Pearson.)    We'll update you in the future when we have a specific date set, but the next book we'll be discussing in this "book club" format is Apocalypse Baby by Virginie Despentes, translated from the French by Sian Reynolds and available from

In this week's episode, Chad and Tom discuss some of the books they read in 2014 and make specific "reading resolutions" for 2015. They also talk about Mark Zuckerberg's book club and Tom's alma mater playing for the National Championship.   Next week, they'll be discussing Denis Johnson's The Laughing Monsters, so if you have any questions, suggestions, comments, opinions, rants or raves, email threepercentpodcast@gmail.com.