Most Useful Information about Love by Hanne Ørstavik

Most Useful Information: Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

We recorded this ages ago and I only just got around to editing it. Sorry, life takes time and so does editing and sometimes it’s hard to do both. Before the edits there was a lot more Dillinger Four talk. You’re welcome. Ray is a joy. So is Elena Ferrante. I hope you like this one. These podcasts have slowed down. I really apologize to you, my fans. Someday when life takes less time I hope they pick up again. Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mostusefulinfo.substack.com [https://mostusefulinfo.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Most Useful Information about Love by Hanne Ørstavik

This was supposed to go out on Tuesday. I had Covid. My dog is dying. I forgot. Sorry. When Most Useful Information is celebrating 50 years of spamming inboxes and millions of fans vote on their favorite episodes of the podcast this episode will unanimously be voted number one. Taylor is very funny. Also smart. She came prepared. Enjoy. Recorded in July. Edited it in July. Unlistened since. Whatever contained in the podcast is a mystery to you and to me. Thanks for listening. See you soon. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mostusefulinfo.substack.com [https://mostusefulinfo.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Most Useful Information about Cousins by Aurora Venturini

Before Bella suggested it, I’d never heard of Cousins. It sounded cool. It started cool. By the end I wasn’t so sure. Expectations can be a bummer. It was nice to talk about it though. Sometimes I kind of use this podcast just to chat with people I haven’t seen/spoken to in a long time. I hadn’t seen/spoken to Bella in a long time. Since we last chatted we had both quit are very professional jobs, gone back to school, graduated, and moved across several state lines. Very good to chat again. Most Useful Information highly recommends calling someone on the phone and talking to them. It doesn’t even have to be someone you haven’t spoken with in a long time, but it’s cool. For reasons inexplicable to humankind Bella’s audio sounds great and mine sounds like trash. Sorry! See you soon! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mostusefulinfo.substack.com [https://mostusefulinfo.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Most Useful Information about Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

Again no written Most Useful Information. My apologies. Life at the MUI HQ is still bonkers. Soft goal of writing something in June to send out in July. No promises. Again instead of a written Most Useful Info, a podcast. Adin and I are fans of Katie Kitamura. Her book A Separation is a book both Adin and I read on vacation each in our own covid fugue. It’s about grief I think. Intimacies isn’t about grief. It’s about intimacy I think. Maybe also about the difficulty of communication. Both books are good in and out of fugues. Speaking to one another deepened our appreciation of Intimacies specifically and Katie Kitamura generally. Hopefully listening to our conversation will do the same for you. If you wanna do one of these podcasts with me shoot me an email. They’re easy and fun. See you next month pukesters! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mostusefulinfo.substack.com [https://mostusefulinfo.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Most Useful Information about Hunger by Knut Hamsun

Normally on the first Thursday of each month you get a newsletter. Two weeks later on a Tuesday you get a podcast. I had planned a newsletter as normal for May but with a small announcement that over the next three months the Most Useful Information both newsletter and podcast would be less frequent and less scheduled. Instead they’d be so random! The print newsletter would pause all together. In late may things at the Most Useful Information Headquarters were going to get a bit crazy, so promising things at certain times would be foolish. I didn’t want to be a fool. Well, things got crazy a month early. I am a fool! May’s edition of Most Useful Information is half-finished and not going out until it’s finished. I have at least two other groupings of books planned, but only the Lord knows when I’ll read them and type up a newsletter. So instead of a May newsletter here is a podcast I recorded with my friend and fellow substacker Zander Abranowicz. We talk about Hunger by Knut Hamsun. Hunger was one of my favorite books in my late teens/early twenties. He doesn’t mean as much to me now, Hunger least of all (Mysteries and Pan pull me). There’s no denying what Hamsun and Hunger meant to a younger me. Reading him is like catching up with an old friend. Talking with Zander is like catching up with a new friend. Listening to our podcast is like doing both at the same time. You can find Zander at buzzcut.substack.com [https://buzzcut.substack.com/]. Take care and I’ll see you when I see you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mostusefulinfo.substack.com [https://mostusefulinfo.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]