John Jeremiah Sullivan, The Granta Podcast

In this episode of the Granta podcast, John Jeremiah Sullivan reads his story ‘The Acute Wing’, from Granta 176: American Berserk.  Set in a low-end psychiatric institution, a man confesses a terrible truth and finds that, contrary to the promises of therapeutic culture, confession only amplifies the damage. John Jeremiah Sullivan is the author of the essay collection Pulphead. He is at work on a new book, The Prime Minister of Paradise, about a forgotten eighteenth-century utopian experiment.

In this episode of the Granta podcast, we are joined by Olga Ravn, author of The Employees, My Work and, most recently, The Wax Child. We discuss Tove Ditlevsen, technology, the difference between consciousness and intelligence, as well as her short story ’The High Priestess’, which appeared in Granta 175: Scandinavia.Thomas Meaney is the editor of Granta.  

In this episode of the Granta podcast, we are joined by the Danish author Helle Helle, author of multiple novels and two collections. Her work has been translated into twenty-four languages and her novel they was published in English this year, translated by Martin Aitken. Six short stories by Helle Helle will be appearing in our forthcoming issue, Granta 175: Scandinavia.We discuss writing about familiar places, Raymond Carver and the process of being translated.Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. He is the author of The Boys (2025).Josie Mitchell is a senior editor at Granta.Referenced in this episode:The short stories of Raymond Carver. Short Cuts (1993), a film by Robert Altman, which adapted the nine short stories by Carver.Short fiction from the Norwegian writer Kjell Askildsen. A translated collection of his writings, Everything Like Before (2021), was published by Archipelago. Writing by the Danish writer Herman Bang. You can find his short fiction in the translated anthology Some Would Call This Living (2022).

In this episode of the Granta podcast, we speak with Christopher Bollas, a leading figure in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and author of the forthcoming Essential Aloneness and Streams of Consciousness. A wide-ranging interview about his life and work appeared in Granta 174: Therapy.In this further conversation, Bollas reflects on the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature, the significance of daydreams, and whether analysis can speak to the great crises of our time.Thomas Meaney is the editor of Granta.

In this episode of the Granta podcast, we speak to Sujatha Gidla, author of Ants Among Elephants: an Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India. Gidla’s essay, ‘I Am My Mother’s Older Brother’, about dementia and caring for her mother, appeared in Granta 173: India.We discuss the history of the caste system, writing a political memoir, and Gidla’s experiences as a train conductor for the New York City Subway.Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. He is the author of The Boys (2025).Thomas Meaney is the editor of Granta.  

In this episode of the Granta Podcast we speak to Karan Mahajan, author of Family Planning, The Association of Small Bombs and the forthcoming The Complex. Mahajan’s essay ‘The Killing of a Canadian Sikh’, on an extrajudicial killing in Surrey, Canada, appeared in Granta 173: India.We discuss his forthcoming novel, the Khalistani separatist movement, Salman Rushdie’s influence and the relationship between India and the US.Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. He is the author of The Boys (2025).Josie Mitchell is senior editor at Granta. 

In this episode of the Granta Podcast we speak to Zoe Dubno, author of Happiness and Love (2025), whose short story ‘The Full Package’ appeared in Granta 166: Generations.We discuss her novel, Happiness and Love, its relationship to Thomas Bernhard’s Woodcutters, and the differences between homage and appropriation.Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. He is the author of The Boys (2025).Josie Mitchell is senior editor at Granta. 

In this episode of the Granta Podcast we speak to Guadalupe Nettel, author of four novels and three collections of short stories, including the most recent collection The Accidentals.We discuss her novel, Still Born, as well as her stories, ‘The Wanderers’, ‘Divination’ and ‘Bonsai’, as well as her approach to the politics of motherhood, realism and exile in her writing.Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. He is the author of The Boys (2025).Josie Mitchell is senior editor at Granta. 

In this episode of the Granta Podcast we speak to Diane Williams, author of eleven books of fiction, including the short story collection I Hear You’re Rich.We discuss the four short stories Diane Williams contributed to the summer issue, Granta 172: Badlands, as well as her various collections, her love of surprise in fiction and the porosity between her identity as a writer and an editor.Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. He is the author of The Boys (2025).Josie Mitchell is senior editor at Granta. 

In this episode of the Granta Podcast we speak to Tao Lin, the author of ten books, including Leave Society and Taipei.We discuss two of Tao Lin’s recent essays, ‘My Spiritual Evolution’, and ‘Gian’, which appeared in Granta 171: Dead Friends, as well as the effects of psychedelics and the possibilities of reincarnation.Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. He is the author of The Boys (2025).Josie Mitchell is senior editor at Granta.