Joining John and Andy this week are Natasha McEnroe, the Keeper of Medicine at the Science Museum in London, and novelist Lissa Evans, Backlisted's old friend and the show's Original Guest, both of whom are Betty MacDonald superfans. The Plague and I (1948) is the author's unflinching and hilarious memoir of the nine months she spent as a patient at a TB sanatorium in the Pacific North West of America. We discuss this book and the eventful life of its million-selling author (The Egg and I, Anybody Can Do Anything, Onions in the Stew), are exposed to a selection of TB-related public information films and music, and there is even a 'communicable disease in literature' quiz. Also in this episode Andy is grabbed by Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper (1943) by Donald Henderson, reputedly Raymond Chandler's favourite crime novel; while John has been enjoying Olivette Otele's recently published history African Europeans, which traces a long African European heritage via the lives of individuals both ordinary and extraordinary.

Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
08:16 - Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper by Donald Henderson
15:49 - African Europeans by Olivette Otele
20:37 - The Plague And I by Betty Macdonald

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald

Returning to Backlisted this week are literary agents Becky Brown and Norah Perkins, joint custodians of the Curtis Brown Heritage list of literary estates and previously our guests on episode #109, Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. This time we are discussing the work of crime novelist Dorothy B. Hughes and in particular her suspenseful and subversive novel In a Lonely Place (1947), freely adapted as a classic film noir by director Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. Also in this episode Norah and Becky pitch titles by Kay Dick, Stella Gibbons and R.C. Sherriff to Andy, John and Nicky. Make sure you have a pen and paper to hand...

Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
15:00 - Starlight by Stella Gibbons
19:10 - The Fortnight In September
26:56 - In A Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes

* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted

In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes

From the Literature education podcast series "Acting It Out" developed and produced by Diane Havens and Robert Jadah. This is a clip from the Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning episode. Robert Jadah's narration of Robert Browning's first letter to Elizabeth Barrett.

Robert Browning Letter to Elizabeth narrated by Robert Jadah

An old guitar idea I finally turned into a full song.  Vocals and lyrics by CP Roscoe Martin.  You can find him on Bandlab.  Song and all instrumentation by me.

What's in the Bag

Indespicable

Ambient track to sit back and dream with.  Trying to evoke that feeling of travelling, exploring and seeing the world.

Going Walkabout

Widely praised and winner of the 2023 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, this book illuminates why Lincoln’s unprecedented welcoming of African American men and women to the White House transformed the trajectory of race relations in the United States. From his 1862 meetings with Black Christian ministers, Lincoln began inviting African Americans of every background into his home, from ex-slaves from the Deep South to champions of abolitionism such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.

More than a good-will gesture, the president conferred with his guests about the essential issues of citizenship and voting rights. Drawing from an array of primary sources, White reveals how African Americans used the White House as a national stage to amplify their calls for equality. Even more than 160 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s inclusion of African Americans remains a necessary example in a country still struggling from racial divisions today.

Warning: As much as possible, the author has given the accounts in the words of the participants themselves. His "goal is to reproduce the voices of Lincoln’s guests, as well as of some of their critics in the white press, enabling readers to see the White House as they saw it, and the president as they encountered him." This included using the "n" word in the quoted text. After much deliberation, we elected to record the "n" word without censoring it, too, as we felt that it better reflected the atmosphere and blatant racism of Lincoln's time.

Dec 20, 2023

A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House by Jonathan W. White

All Credit Goes To Smosh

www.youtube.com/user/Smosh
Make Sure To Subscribe To Them For More Awesome Songs And Videos!

Smosh - Anything You Can Do I Can Do Dumber

TheSkyIsEverywhere - Demo

Jan-Werner Müller's "What Is Populism?" - democracy depends on a shared understanding of what democracy is, and an understanding of what isn't democracy.

"Populism is not just antiliberal, it is antidemocratic—the permanent shadow of representative politics. That's Jan-Werner Müller's argument in this brilliant book. There is no better guide to the populist passions of the present."—Ivan Krastev, International New York Times

"The most useful work to comprehend Trump's appeal is What Is Populism? (2016) by Princeton University political scientist Jan-Werner Müller. In this essential [audio] book, Müller defines populism's most salient characteristics—anti-elitism, anti-pluralism, exclusivity—and explains Trump and other populists through that framework. It is a quick read , and worth every page."—The Washington Post

Download the audio book today! http://bit.ly/populism101

Audio Book: What Is Populism?, Jan-Werner Müller, narrated by Simon Vance (1)

WHERE HOPE PREVAILS - Demo

Post Hypnotic Press is an audiobook publishing company located in Burnaby, BC, Canada. We offer an eclectic mix of audiobooks made-up of classic to current fiction and non-fiction for all ages. All audiobook clips offered here are copyrighted to Post Hypnotic Press. Check out our web site: www.posthypnoticpress.com. Like us on Facebook and /orTwitter. 

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A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House by Jonathan W. White

Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

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