A literature podcast for everyone.

Thanks for visiting Literature and History, one of the most popular independent literature podcasts! Each episode explores an influential work of world literature, featuring summaries of the texts, historical analyses of the cultures that produced them, and some original music to keep you engaged. Take Literature and History with you on your drive, jog, or whatever it is you do when listening to podcasts. There are no ads. There’s no fluff. When you hit play, the substantive stuff begins, and it continues until the end. Click “All Episodes” above to browse and download shows on your computer, or subscribe using the links here. Learn more about the show on the About page, and take a tour of what we’ve covered on the Previous Seasons page.

Season-by-Season Overview

Out of all the literature podcasts, why ours?

Literature podcasts should make even challenging texts accessible and fun. Especially for newcomers, texts like Homer’s Odyssey, and the Bible, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses can be dense. The advantage of Literature and History is our program’s structure. Each show starts with a clear, organized introduction to a text. These introductions are followed by full, soundtracked summaries. Following the summaries are historical, cultural, and biographical analyses of each work considered. Our approach works well for narrative works like plays or novels. Where we really shine among other literature podcasts, though, is when dealing with more complex subjects, like collections of poetry, and sacred scriptures; with philosophical oeuvres, and multipart texts. Distilling these complicated subjects into narratives is what we do best. Each episode is a story, studded with quotes from primary sources and academic citations, but also with humor, clarity, and a contagious love of literature.