Three Percent Podcast
by Open Letter Books
Latest episode
Three Percent Podcast #215: The Icelandic Translator Triptych
Three Percent Podcast #215: The Icelandic Translator Triptych
About this podcast
The Three Percent Podcast is a weekly(ish) conversation about new books, the publishing scene, international literature in translation, and many other random rants and raves. Chad W. Post of Open Letter Books and Tom Roberge of New Directions and Albertine Bookstore keep things irreverent, informed, and funny in a podcast that'll keep you up to date on the international literary and publishing worlds. Maybe. (Presented by Three Percent @ the University of Rochester.)
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Episodes
The newest 50 of 441 episodes
- Three Percent Podcast #215: The Icelandic Translator Triptych · 1 h 3 minOver the past two months, Open Letter has released three Icelandic titles—Boudoir by Sigrún Pálsdóttir & Lytton Smith, The Strongest Woman in the World by Steinunn G. Helgadóttir…
- Three Percent Podcast #214: “Kicking Down the Gatekeepers” · 1 h 51 minJeremy Tiang and Bruna Dantas Lobato get things started this episode by talking about Violent Phenomena: Essays Toward the Future of Literary Translation, a collection of essays…
- Patrick McGinley’s “Bogmail” · 1 h 6 minOn this episode, Vince Francone (A Book No One Wants) finds out that Patrick McGinley wrote more than one book, and Chad posits a Shklovskian reading of Bogmail: A Tale of…
- Brian Dillon's "Ambivalence: An Education" · 1 h 32 minOn this episode, Vince Francone (A Book No One Wants, Jabber) and Chad W. Post discuss Brian Dillon’s forthcoming book, Ambivalence: An Education (NYRB/Fitzcarraldo) as part of…
- Daniel Hahn on "If This Be Magic" · 1 h 8 minOn this episode, Daniel Hahn OBE joins Chad to talk about his new book, If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation. They discuss how the book foregrounds…
- Kurdish Literature and Henar Press · 1 h 17 minOn this episode, special guest Aryan Omar Hassan talks about Henar Press and their first publications: Gābor by Seyed Qader Hedayati, translated from the Kurdish by Chiya…
- Three Percent Podcast #209: Arunava Sinha on South Asian Literature in Translation · 52 minArunava Sinha—professor, journalist, translator of over 100 works, including The Laboratory by Rabindranath Tagore—discusses his new venture, Chowringhee Press, his career in…
- Three Percent Podcast #208: Translating Godzilla & Mothra · 1 h 0 minJeffrey Angles (translator of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again and many non-Kaiju related titles) joins Chad and special guest Joanne Bernardi (Writing in Light: The Silent…
- Three Percent Podcast #207: Translating Malagasy Literature with Allison Charette · 54 minOn this episode of the Three Percent Podcast, French translator and University of Rochester MALTS grad, Allison Charette, joins Chad to discuss her most recent translation…
- "The Calf" by Leif Høghaug & David M. Smith · 1 h 7 minLeif Høghaug (who is currently translating Finnegans Wake into Norwegian) and David M. Smith join Chad and Kyle Semmel to talk about The Calf, one of the strangest books to come…
- "Married Life" by Sergio Pitol & George Henson · 1 h 29 minGeorge Henson (Pitol’s translator) and Mark Haber (Lesser Ruins, Ada) join Chad to celebrate the recent release in English of the third volume in Sergio Pitol’s “Carnival…
- Hagfish · 1 h 5 minDropping on the same day that Hagfish’s first publication—To Smithereens by Rosalyn Drexler—was named as one of the New York Times’s “100 Notable Books of 2025,” this podcast…
- Three Percent Podcast #203: World Editions 3.0 + "The Cracks We Bear" · 59 minChristine Swedowsky, the newest publisher of World Editions, and Michelle Mirabella, translator of Catalina Infante’s The Cracks We Bear join Chad to discuss the various eras of…
- Three Percent Podcast #202: Jen Calleja on "Fair: The Life-Art of Translation" · 58 minQuick Reminder: All Open Letter books either written or translated by women are on sale for 40% off to celebrate Women in Translation Month through August 31st! Shop the whole…
- Three Percent Podcast #201: Suzanne Jill Levine's "Unfaithful" · 54 minIn our ongoing celebration of Women in Translation Month, Chad talked to Suzanne Jill Levine about Unfaithful: A Translator’s Memoir, recently released by Bloomsbury Academic…
- Three Percent Podcast #200: The Return of Roberge · 1 h 18 minOn this special 200th episode of the Three Percent Podcast, Tom Roberge—original co-host, former publicist for New Directions, co-founder of Riffraff Books, and current head of…
- Three Percent Podcast #199: Blake Butler and the Ideal Publisher · 1 h 29 minOn this episode, Blake Butler (Molly, Void Corporation, Uxa.Gov, the Dividual Substack) joins Chad to discuss his recent piece, “What I Want In an Ideal Publisher.” They discuss…
- Three Percent Podcast #198: Tom Comitta and "People's Choice Literature" · 1 h 17 minIn this episode, Tom Comitta (The Nature Book, Patchwork) joins Chad to talk about their book(s) People’s Choice Literature: The Most Wanted and Unwanted Novels, for which they…
- Three Percent Podcast: Why Fund a Nonprofit Publisher? · 1 h 17 minIn the final entry in this series of podcasts on the NEA (for now . . . there may be a return to industry-based Three Percent episodes in the near future), Chad welcomes Hilary…
- Three Percent Podcast: The Impact of the Terminated and Withdrawn Grants · 1 h 4 minOur series on the National Endowment for the Arts continues by talking with three organizations and publishers about both the specific impact of the May 2nd…
- Three Percent Podcast: The History of the NEA (and the Attacks on It) · 1 h 43 minThis is part one of a two part series (for now) on the National Endowment for the Arts and the, by now, much reported on letters that NEA grantees received on May 2nd, 2025…
- Three Percent Podcast #196: The Latvian Triptych · 1 h 8 minAs a special episode of the Three Percent Podcast, Kaija Straumanis (curator of the Latvian Triptych, translator of The River by Laura Vinogradova) discussed language…
- Three Percent Podcast #196: Emyr Wallace Humphreys · 1 h 18 minEvery spring, I teach a “World Literature & Translation” class in which I select 10 translations from 10 languages and 10 different translators—most of which I also haven’t read…
- TMR 24.9: "I Hate Thinking about Thinking about Myself Like This" [Melvill] · 53 minIn the penultimate episode of this season, there’s a lot of talk about Melville’s relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne as we get more of Melville’s life as he bounces through…
- TMR 24.8: "Fampiro" [Melvill] · 1 h 1 min[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. And this one if you listen on Spotify. The others will be going away in the near future.] On the final…
- TMR 24.7: "The White Delirium" [Melvill] · 1 h 14 min[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please subscribe to this feed.] Lori Feathers (Across the Pond podcast, Involutions of the Seashell, Interabang Books, and Republic of…
- TMR 24.6: "Liquidate It At Cost" [Melvill] · 1 h 20 min[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] With Melville's Fidèle receding into the dark…
- TMR 24.5: "Very Charming." [Confidence-Man] · 1 h 3 min[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] Chad, Brian, and Kaija venture into the darkness…
- TMR 24.4: "How Unreal All This Is!" [Confidence-Man] · 1 h 4 min[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] Opening with a couple of rants, this week's…
- TMR 24.3: "You Are a Punster" [Confidence-Man] · 1 h 0 min[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] "Grifters Gonna Grift" merchandise coming soon!…
- TMR 24.2: "Trust Me, Nature Is Health" [Confidence-Man] · 1 h 4 min[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] Chad and Kaija go it alone this week, talking…
- TMR 24.1: "May I Ask if You Have Confidence?" [Confidence-Man] · 60 minNot the happiest day in which to record a podcast, but Chad, Brian, and Kaija speak their fears and then dive into Melville's Confidence-Man, talking about grifters, the value of…
- TMR Supplement #2: "Joytime Killbox" by Brian Wood · 1 h 9 minAfter referencing Joytime Killbox on hundreds of TMR episodes, we finally break it down with the author himself! Conversation includes ideas about short stories and how they…
- Three Percent #195: Lori Feathers on Marguerite Young · 49 minThis week, Lori Feathers joins Chad to talk about "Involutions of the Seashell," a Substack project dedicated to reading and talking about Marguerite Young's Miss MacIntosh, My…
- TMR Supplement #1: "Dear Dickhead" by Virginie Despentes & Frank Wynne · 1 h 18 minOn the first ever one-off episode of the Two Month Review, Chad breaks down Virginie Despentes's Dear Dickhead for Kaija and Brian, a novel about . . . well, just listen. (It'll…
- Three Percent #194: Mark Haber, "Lesser Ruins" · 1 h 0 minToday's episode features Mark Haber talking about his brand new novel, Lesser Ruins, his influence, the Bernhard thing, going from bookselling to publishing, and much more. It's…
- Three Percent #193: K.E. Semmel, "Book of Losman" · 59 minOn this week's podcast, Kyle Semmel—translator from the Danish and author of Book of Losman—discusses his debut novel, life as a translator, articles he wrote on Tourette's…
- Three Percent #191: Pilar Adón, "Of Beasts and Fowls" · 1 h 3 minIn this special edition of the podcast, Chad talks with Pilar Adón about the forthcoming Of Beasts and Fowls (translated by Katie Whittemore), her general writing life, two…
- TMR 23.9: "My Maps Are Out of Date" [Lanark] · 56 minIt all gets wrapped up with a "Catastrophe,." "Explanation," an "End," and a "Tailpiece." Chad, Brian, and Kaija discuss global capitalism, the fight for love and the be human…
- TMR 23.8: "The Critic Fights Back" [Lanark] · 1 h 12 minFrom the Olympics to the most meta moment of the whole of Lanark, this week's podcast has you covered! Brian, Chad, and Kaija banter about divorce, plagiarisms versus influences…
- TMR 23.7: "Not a Domestic Man" [Lanark] · 52 minThe reviews were right: Once you hit page 410, the Unthank sections of Lanark snap into place. Chad, Brian, and Kaija discuss that, capitalism, how terrible advertisements are…
- TMR 23:6 "Upon This Spot King Edward Had Lunch After Stalking" [Lanark] · 1 h 11 minIf you want to send Chad through the roof, simple crap on his conceptual publishing project five years in the making . . . To that end, everyone reading this should preorder…
- TMR 23.5: "His Brain Rotten with Resentful Dreams" [Lanark] · 54 minDuncan Thaw feels like he's on the brink in this week's episode which includes conversations about incels, kind fathers, painting and art, perfection and Aliocha Coll, and much…
- TMR 23.4: “Homo A Se Coctum Esumque Crustum Est Hoc Fecit Separation” [Lanark] · 50 minChad and Brian break down the loss of Duncan Thaw's mother, his entrance into art school, his reasons for creating art, religious imagery throughout the book, fathers who are…
- TMR 23.3: "Normal Underworlds" [Lanark] · 1 h 3 minCome for the book discussion, stay for Thaw's unproven remedies for asthma! One of the most fun, and conventional, sections of the book so far, Chad, Kaija, and Brian follow…
- TMR 23.2: "Can He Help Lanark Out of Hell?" [Lanark] · 1 h 4 minAs mentioned from the top, we had severe technical difficulties, so the sound quality on this is janky. (Mostly Chad's voice is quiet, which, for many, is likely to be a relief.)…
- TMR 23.1: "Book Three" [Lanark] · 1 h 0 minMostly a set-up episode about Alasdair Gray and Lanark, in which Chad, Kaija, and Brian discuss the introduction (weird), the start of the novel (which opens with "Book 3"), the…
- TMR 22.10: "Butterfly Coma" [Praiseworthy] · 45 minPraiseworthy ends with some praise, a bit of exhaustion, questions about satire and the ending, and a dirty phrase Chad can't quit competing. Then there's the TMR Class Draft in…
- TMR 22.9: "One Donkey at a Time" [Praiseworthy] · 50 minLike a first time marathon runner, Chad, Brian, and Kaija are losing steam this season, but persist in talking about the book and their mixed feelings. They do learn some things…
- TMR 22.8: "Madder Than White Heat" [Praiseworthy] · 59 minLittle discussion of Priaseworthy in this episode. Instead there's a longer discussion about publishing, art, sales, how do these books get made?, favorite lines, future games…
