Philosopher Simon Critchley reads and discusses recent works, Bowie and Notes on Suicide, touching on the beauty of endurance, the dangers of optimism, and the power of tragedy. Poet Nathan McClain reads from his debut collection, Scale.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen.

Colson Whitehead & Deepak Unnikrishnan read from their latest novels, The Underground Railroad and Temporary People, each a work of hallucinatory dystopian fiction that uses surreal elements to convey the very real terrors of societies past and present.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-operative Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen.

Poet Clint Smith discusses his debut collection, Counting Descent, growing up black in America, and our society's problems with historical amnesia and cultural pathology. Critic Donna Seaman tells the story of forgotten artist Gertrude Abercrombie.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen.

Paleontologist Lance Grande gives a behind-the-scenes look into the world of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. Intellectual historian Lorraine Daston discusses scientific archives as a locus of scholarly utopianism and melancholy.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen