Rebecca and Jeff pit reason against romance as they consider Jane Austen's beloved tale of sisters trying to find love and preserve their family's legacy. Join us on Patreon for access to read-alongs,…
Vote for Zero to Well-Read in the Signal Awards for Best Arts & Culture Podcast and Best New Podcast! Thanks to ThriftBooks for sponsoring this season of Zero to Well-Read. Zero to Well-Read is a…
Jeff and Rebecca dive into John Steinbeck's epic, magisterial novel about fathers and sons, family legacies, and the question of free will. They discuss the story's biblical roots, Steinbeck's…
Twenty years after it was published, Cormac McCarthy's The Road remains a landmark work of post-apocalyptic fiction. This week, Jeff and Rebecca explore what the bleak and beautiful story has to say…
Rebecca and Jeff sit down with history and civics educator Sharon McMahon to recommend books—both fiction and nonfiction—to help you better understand American history and politics. Sharon's book, The…
Jeff and Rebecca celebrate Zero to Well-Read's first anniversary with a brief look at some of the show's most popular episodes. Then, they dip into the mailbag to answer listener questions about Book…
Jeff and Rebecca are joined by Rob Harvilla, host of 60 Songs That Explain the '90s: The 2000s, for a conversation about Jonathan Franzen's award-winning breakout novel. They discuss Franzen's…
Minor characters get main character syndrome in Tom Stoppard's Hamlet send-up filled with wordplay, philosophical puzzles, silliness, and existential questions. On the occasion of its 60th…
Jeff and Rebecca take on one of the most transgressive and unsettling novels of the 21st century so far, Nobel Prize winner Han Kang's The Vegetarian. They discuss the use of art to explore questions…
Rebecca and Jeff talk with New York Times canon editor Gilbert Cruz about the project of curating the best books of the 21st century, the recent list of the 50 best thrillers of the century, and the…
