The Penguin Podcast

This week on the Penguin Podcast we're recapping the year with a selection of the brilliant guests we've welcomed onto the show. We hear from Jane Fallon, Chris van Tulleken, Julian Barnes, David Mitchell and more. We thank you for tuning in, and we'll see you in 2024. Happy holidays.

This week on the Penguin Podcast, Nihal Arthanayake is joined by national treasure and bestselling author, Sebastian Faulks.

Together they they discuss the tweet that helped inspire his latest book, The Seventh Son, his thoughts on imposter Syndrome and humility, the influence of George Orwell on his political outlook, and a magical riverbank he discovered in France. 

This week on the Penguin Podcast, Nihal Arthanayake is joined by Booker Longlisted author, C Pam Zhang.

Together they discuss Zhang's latest novel, The Land of Milk and Honey, as well as the effects of extreme wealth on the human psyche, the place of pleasure and joy in human existence, the many expectations still placed upon women, and the literary benefits of being a marginalised writer.

This week on the Penguin Podcast, Nihal Arthanayake is joined by one of our time's most important moral philosophers and animal rights activists, Peter Singer.

In this episode, they discuss Singer's experience of animal rights in the 70s compared to now, what inspired him to begin campaigning for the rights of animals, the importance of suffering in determining rights, and his views on the rise of veganism.

This week on the Penguin Podcast, Nihal Arthanayake is joined by the former Finance Minister of Greece and co-founder of the international grassroots movement DM25 as well as a Professor of economics at the University of Athens, Yanis Varoufakis. His latest book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, explores how the owners of big tech have become the world's feudal overlords.

In this episode, Nihal and Yanis discuss the impact living through the digital age has on our lives, how commodities have more freedom of movement than people, and the objects that inspired the theories explored in his book.