Annotated

This book podcast is like Radiolab for books, studying different aspects of books, reading, and language. Past episodes have focused on the 2018 Nobel crisis in literature, Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance, and how Shakespeare was saved.

Episode 30 National Novel Writing Month

How a gimmick to write more became one of the biggest literary events online.

Episode 29 The Baby-Sitters Club

The affirming, surprising, and most of all lasting legacy of The Baby-Sitters Club.

Episode 28 The Dream of a Universal Language

What if the whole world spoke the same language? How would it work? Who would be interested in speaking it? In this episode, the dream, the reality, and the hope that is Esperanto.

Episode 27 The Life-Changing Magic of Reading a Book

Sometimes people refer to a book they really liked as "life-changing." But what if you read a book, and it really did change your life in a big way? In this episode, stories of people reading books and making a big change.

Episode 26 You Are Not Alone

In this episode, the story of the interrupted literary career of Freido Lampe, and how his story reveals the underpinnings of the Nazi obsession with books and literature.

Episode 24 Books Behind Bars, Part 1

There are few places books can be put to better use than in prisons. So why is it so hard to get books into the hands of people in jail? In this episode, we look at how Washington state tried to radically restrict the flow of books into prisons.

Episode 23 The Prophet

How Khalil Gibran's The Prophet became a quiet cultural powerhouse.

Episode 22 Drag Queen Story Hour

In this episode, a look at how Drag Queen Story Hour became a public library phenomenon.

21 Viral

In this episode, three stories about books, or parts of books, going viral.

Episode 20 The Very Model of a Modern Major Bookstore

In this episode, how Barnes & Noble became a dominant force, why its not now, and what the future of the big bookstore could be.