Here are three more recent podcasts about all things aphoristic, with some conversation highlights indicated by time signatures… Once again I’m grateful for the chance to talk about The World in A Phrase on these wonderful podcasts and thank the hosts for their close readings and fun, provocative questions.

On The Spectator Book Club Podcast, the conversation with host Sam Leith covered everything from why aphorisms are like intellectual puzzles (3:24-5:34) to how aphorists stay lighthearted through dark humor (27:25-32:06) to key female aphorists in the history of the form (30:35-32:06)

On Lit with Charles, host Charles Pignal and I talked about What Walden means to me — and to the history of the aphorism — and why Henry David Thoreau is still relevant today

How James Joyce’s idea of the epiphany is related to aphorisms and how realizing Ulysses was funny helped me finally understand the book

Why some aphorisms work without words

On The Decision-Making Studio Podcast, with host Ben Cattaneo, we explored aphorisms as heuristic devices (9:21-14:09), aphorisms as decision-making manuals (20:22-24:32), aphorisms and improvisation via Wynton Marsalis (32:58-34:53), and what thinking aphoristically means to me (1:03:10-1:04:12)