What should I read next?—Scratch that. What should I listen to next?
As we roll out the new season of our podcast Transposition, we want to take a moment to appreciate and recognize some of our favorite literary-themed podcasts. These hidden gems offer a rich tapestry of bookish discussions, author interviews, and deep dives into the world of literature and beyond with some familiar favorites from our Expo family.
Thanks to our podcast team for curating this list of recs!
Book Fight!
The Book Fight podcast is hosted by Mike Ingram and Tom McAllister—writers, writing professors, and long-time editors for Barrelhouse, a literary magazine and book publisher.
Favorite Episode:
- Episode 420: Christopher Gonzalez: “Return guest Christopher Gonzalez (I’m Not Hungry But I Could Eat) joins us to talk about the difference between gay stories and queer stories, writing long, and how not to be a creepy weirdo on Twitter.” Expo connect: Christopher was also a Flash 405 Judge for Flash 405, August 2021: “House Party” and was featured on our podcast Transposition: A Very Special Episode on Literary Identity and Responsibility.
creativity café
An IG live series from sofía aguilar, featuring a new special guest writer each video! creativity café is held on sofía’s IG live as an opportunity for writers of all backgrounds, levels, genres, & stages of their career to share their work and discuss all things writing!
Favorite Episode:
- Diamond Braxton: “another episode of creativity café is LIVE!! ☕️✨ today i had an amazing time chatting with today’s special guest writer @diamondgbraxton for the twenty-ninth episode of the podcast! we talked all about her writing journey, current projects, writing about food, their indie publishing press @abodepress, and much more!” Expo connect: sofía is a past Expo contributor and Flash 405 Judge for Flash 405, June 2022: “Inheritance”.
Hollywood-ography 
A podcast dedicated to exploring the full filmographies of Hollywood’s greatest stars. Hosted by Maureen Lee Lenker and Oriana Nudo.
Favorite Episode:
- West Side Story: “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way… Be a Jet till your last dying day and take a listen to our WEST SIDE STORY episode.” Expo connect: Maureen is a Flash 405 Judge for Flash 405, February 2019: “Happily Ever After” and past director for Expo’s Staged Reading series.
LARB Radio Hour
Hosted by LARB Editors-at-Large Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman, Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour is a weekly show featuring interviews, readings, and discussions about all things literary.
Favorite Episode:
- K-Ming Chang’s “Gods of Want”: “On this special LARB Book Club episode of the Radio Hour, Boris Dralyuk and Lindsay Wright are joined by K-Ming Chang to discuss her collection of stories, Gods of Want. Chang made her debut with the 2018 poetry chapbook Past Lives, Future Bodies, which she followed up in 2020 with the novel Bestiary.” Expo connect: K-Ming is past Expo contributor and was featured on Transposition.
On Being with Krista Tippett
On Being is a podcast and a former public radio program. Hosted by Krista Tippett, it examines what it calls the “animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live?” Wisdom to replenish and orient in a tender, tumultuous time to be alive. Spiritual inquiry, science, social healing, and poetry. Conversations to live by.
Favorite Episode:
- Ross Gay — Tending Joy and Practicing Delight: “The ephemeral nature of our being allows writer Ross Gay to find delight in all sorts of places (especially his community garden). To be with Gay is to train your gaze to see the wonderful alongside the terrible; to attend to and meditate on what you love, even in the midst of difficult realities and as part of working for justice.”
The Bookshop Podcast
Mandy Jackson-Beverly is a confessed bibliophile who believes independent bookshops are the gems of communities and authors are the rock stars of the literary world. As an author and book reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, Mandy profoundly understands and appreciates what it takes to write a book and present it to readers.
Favorite Episode:
- Leah Koch, The Ripped Bodice: “In today’s episode, I’m closer to home. Just a 90-mile drive and I’m in Culver City, home of The Ripped Bodice, where I chatted with co-owner Leah Koch. Here’s a short blurb about this romance-only indie bookshop! The Ripped Bodice, owned by sisters Leah and Bea Koch, is the only exclusively romance bookstore on the West Coast. The store is proudly Woman and Queer Owned and features a vast and diverse selection of romance fiction. In addition to books, The Ripped Bodice carries a wide selection of gift items focusing on supporting independent, woman-owned businesses.”
The Moth
The Moth Podcast features re-airs of all new episodes of The Moth Radio Hour, plus additional stories from a vast archive recorded over the past two decades.
Favorite Episode:
- Love Hurts: Kemp Power & Beth Bradley: “This week, two stories of love, losing it, and finding it again when you least expect it. This episode of The Moth Podcast is hosted by Dame Wilburn. Storytellers: Kemp Powers, Beth Bradley.”
The Slowdown
Poet Major Jackson is your guide on the pathways to feel and understand our common journey – through poetry. In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown for a poem and a moment of reflection in one short episode, every weekday.
Favorite Episode:
- 1059: Love and the Moon: “Today’s poem is Love and the Moon by Nan Cohen.” Expo connect: Nan Cohen joined Expo on our Southern California Poetry Festival panel: “Bending Boundaries: How Hybrid Poems Cross Genres” in 2016.
Scriptnotes
Screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin discuss screenwriting and related topics in the film and television industry, everything from getting stuff written to the vagaries of copyright and work-for-hire law.
Favorite Episode:
- Scriptnotes, 356: Writing Animated Movies: “John welcomes Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Homeward Bound) to talk about her experience writing animated features, from the parallel processes of writing and production to her paltry paycheck for Beauty and the Beast. They consider the blurring lines between live-action and hyperrealistic CGI, as well as the history of animation writers’ exclusion from the WGA.”
Short Story Today
A weekly podcast hosted by Jon DiSavino. It celebrates the enduring and compact literary form known as – you guessed it – the short story. But more importantly, it gives listeners an opportunity to hear the work of some of the best emerging writers of today. Each episode begins with an interview and contains a professional audiobook performance of a story.
Favorite Episode:
- Tommy Dean: “Naming the Darkness”: “No stranger to hard work, Indiana author Tommy Dean toiled in the corn fields of his youth, dreaming of basketball or baseball stardom. He’s drawn to the ways that writing fiction allows him to become a kind of shapeshifter, creating worlds in which he gets to live multiple lives. The characters who populate his stories may live hard lives, but their faith in humanity keeps them connected to the world in profound ways. We read “Naming the Darkness” from the collection Hollows.” Expo Connect: Flash 405 winner Tommy Dean!
- Upcoming episodes Expo Fiction Co-Editor and Flash 405, June 2020, “International Travel” judge Dave Gregory
Skylight Books Podcast Series
The Skylight Books Podcast features exciting author conversations about new fiction, poetry, essays, and more!
Favorite Episode:
- Exposition Review Vol IV: “WONDER” Launch Party and Reading: “Join the Exposition Review editors as we celebrate our latest issue, Vol. IV: “Wonder” with our Launch Party & Reading! Readers include Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick, Mia Nakaji Monnier, Tim McAdams, Charles Duffie, and mentee alumni from Writegirl!” Expo connect: We love hosting our launch events at Skylight Books, and are so glad to have a few immortalized on Skylight’s podcast!
Transposition
Transposition is Exposition Review’s very own free literary podcast, featuring conversations on poetry, fiction, nonfiction, stage, screen, art, and experimental readings alongside performances from our contributors and interviews with host Laura Rensing as our guide.
Favorite Episode:
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