Two powerhouse authors from each side of the Atlantic: American Jeffrey Eugenides -- a former Academy fellow -- and German-Austrian Daniel Kehlmann discuss the craft, challenges, and joys of novel writing at a literary salon in Aspen, Colorado, hosted by Academy trustee Leah Zell. On July 1, 2025, Zell hosted this fifth annual summer salon, bringing the work of the American Academy in Berlin to the Rocky Mountains. Host: Kristen Allen Producer: Tony Andrews Music: "Valium," by nothanks Photo: Hal Williams

Today’s German-based Jewish writers navigate complex identities that encompass Holocaust migration history and diverse diasporic narratives. In this episode of “Beyond the Lecture,” literary scholar and spring 2025 Carol Kahn Strauss Fellow in Jewish Studies Agnes Mueller speaks to three prominent authors who are bringing such stories to life: Olga Grjasnowa, Julia Franck, and Dana Vowinckel. It’s a rare chance to hear them speak about their work in English. Visit https://www.americanacademy.de/person/agnes-mueller/ for more information about Agnes Mueller and her work at the American Academy in Berlin. For more information about the authors: Olga Grjasnowa: https://www.hanser-literaturverlage.de/personen/olga-grjasnowa-p-802 Julia Franck: https://juliafranck.de/ Dana Vowinckel: https://danavowinckel.com/ Host: Kristen Allen Producer: Tony Andrews Music: “Valium,” by nothanks Photo: Annette Hornischer

Taiwan is frequently in the news, but context is scarce. In this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," journalist and spring 2024 Holtzbrinck Fellow Michael Meyer talks about his research and writing on the colonial history of the island, the immense changes it has seen in recent decades, and what’s at stake for residents when their now thriving democracy is treated like a geopolitical pawn between superpowers. Visit https://www.americanacademy.de/person/michael-meyer-2/ for more information about Michael Meyer and his work at the American Academy in Berlin. Host: Kristen Allen Producer: Tony Andrews Music: “Valium,” by nothanks Photo: Annette Hornischer

Our “Beyond the Lecture” podcast is back! In this episode, spring 2024 Nina Maria Gorrissen fellow and expert in comparative political behavior Noam Lupu talks about his research into how intergenerational trauma shapes political identity. Touching on his own family's experience and those of his research subjects, he opens new ways of understanding this transfer. Visit https://www.americanacademy.de/person/noam-lupu/ for more information about Lupu and his work at the American Academy in Berlin. Host: Kristen Allen Producer: Tony Andrews Music: “Valium,” by nothanks Photo: Annette Hornischer

With the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Academy's spring 2022 Daimler fellow Lawrence Douglas's project on aggressive war, atrocity and the "Verbrecherstaat" suddenly became very current. On this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," Douglas talks about the origin of the term "Verbrecherstaat," considers Russia's actions in light of the categories of aggressive war and atrocity, and explains the options and limitations of international law. Host: Denise Gamon Producer: Juliane Schallau Music: Valium by nothanks Photo: Annette Hornischer

In fall 2021, New Orleans-based writer Ladee Hubbard spent her time as Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in Fiction working on her new novel, "The Descendants." On this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," Hubbard talks about her novel-in-progress, the 1980s war on drugs, and, as a special treat, reads a story from her forthcoming collection "The Last Suspicious Holdout" (Amistad, March 8). Host: Denise Gamon Producer: Juliane Schallau Music: Valium by nothanks Photo: Ralph K. Penno

During her stay at the American Academy as the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in Fiction in fall 2021, Lan Samantha Chang gave the finishing touch to her much-anticipated new novel "The Family Chao," to be published by W.W. Norton & Company in February 2022. On today's episode, you can find out how rediscovering Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" has shaped Chang's own writing, what it means to be an immigrant, or the child of immigrants, in the Midwest, and why two Chinese-American brothers have to visit an American diner to find some privacy. Host: Denise Gamon Producer: Juliane Schallau Music: Valium by nothanks Photo: Juliane Schallau

In this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," we take a behind-the-scenes look at a debate currently roiling classical scholarship and pedagogy. It’s a debate about how the field should be approached now and in the future, about privilege and access and the very aura of classics. To get into this story, we talk with spring 2021 American Academy fellow Nandini Pandey, who teaches classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research is bringing to light a more detailed picture of the heterogenous makeup of the ancient Roman world. And as an Indian American, she represents the changes that are occurring in classical scholarship itself. Host: R. Jay Magill Producer: Tony Andrews Production Assistance: Denise Gamon Music: Machinery by Kai Engel Image: Triumph of Dionysus by Sophie Hay

What was it like to be the first black person at an all-white private school in the American South? The very first, that is. In this episode, we explore this question through the work of investigative journalist and fall 2020 Holtzbrinck fellow, Mosi Secret, who's currently writing a book about a philanthropic initiative to integrate black children into elite Southern schools in the 1960s and '70s. We also invite Secret to consider his own experience as part of a black minority at a similar school in Atlanta in the 1990s. Did the first generation make it any easier for those who followed? Host: R. Jay Magill; Producer: Tony Andrews with help from Denise Gamon; Special thanks to Nisha Simama; Music: Mystery Blues by Squire Tuck, Jolenta Clears The Table by Doctor Turtle, Distilled by Nctrnm, Meekness by Kai Engel, Midnight in the Green House by Kevin MacLeod, and Chad Crouch by The Pond Instrumental.

There are few novelists who made more of an impact on twentieth-century German literature than Thomas Mann. His works have been translated into over thirty languages and remain the subject of much debate. On today's podcast, we bring together two scholars who have made Mann's life and literary output the focus of their academic concerns: Susan Bernofsky, a fall 2020 fellow and professor of writing at Columbia University, and Veronika Fuechtner, a spring 2020 fellow professor of German at Dartmouth College. As Fuechtner continues work on a project about Mann’s maternal Brazilian heritage, Bernofsky is currently translating Mann’s 1924 masterpiece, The Magic Mountain. Their resulting discussion is alive with passion and curiosity for Thomas Mann's private life and unique literary inventiveness. Host: R. Jay Magill Producer, Editor: Denise Gamon

The world is on hold and we are all going a bit stir-crazy. Strange things are happening in a tiny New York City apartment, where a young podcaster uses his isolation time to open a mysterious portal to the afterlife. This episode of “Beyond the Lecture” features a special recording of novelist Paul LaFarge’s fictive play “Ninth Beast.” LaFarge is the American Academy’s spring 2020 Holtzbrinck fellow and author of five novels, such as “The Night Ocean” (2017) and “Haussmann, or the Distinction” (2001). Host: R.Jay Magill Producer: Tony Andrews Script: Paul LaFarge Voice Actors: Harvey Friedman, Anna Janusz, and Tara Bray Smith Music: The Spring (Instrumental) by Chad Crouch; Talk to me by Loyalty Freak Music

In this episode of „Beyond the Lecture,” scholars and artists at the American Academy in Berlin reflect on the various intersections of the coronavirus pandemic with their respective fields of study. We spoke with composer Carolyn Chen, cultural historian Liliane Weissberg (spring 2020 Anna-Maria Kellen fellow) of University of Pennsylvania, German Studies professor Veronika Fuechtner (spring 2020 Anna-Maria Kellen fellow) of Dartmouth College, filmmaker Kevin Everson (spring 2020 Ellen Maria Gorrissen fellow) of University of Virginia, professor of comparative literature Moira Fradinger (spring 2020 Andrew W. Mellon fellow) of Yale University, urban historian Nikhil Rao of Wellesley College, cultural anthropologist Dominic Boyer (Axel Springer fellow) of Rice University, and Cymene Howe of Rice University. Host: R. Jay Magill Producer and narrator: Tony Andrews Recordings: Dominic Boyer

In this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," cultural anthropologists Dominic Boyer (spring 2020 Axel Springer Fellow) and Cymene Howe, both of Rice University, reveal some insights from their recent research into Iceland's ancient traditions. What they found has profound implications for how we view grief, the future, and the way we come to terms with an increasingly shared sense of precariousness. Music: We have to do something by Komiku; Mystery Blues by Squire Tuck; Free To Use 9 by Monplaisir; Frá opnunarhátíð Hörpunnar by Raddir Íslands. Sound of the glacier courtesy of the Art We There Yet Project; image and drone footage by Josh Okun. The story was produced and narrated by Tony Andrews, and hosted by R. Jay Magill

Poet, playwright, and Yale University professor Claudia Rankine was at the American Academy in Berlin as a Distinguished Visitor in early November 2019, to deliver the John W. Kluge lecture. Academy producer Tony Andrews sat down with Rankine to discuss the various dynamics at work in the conversations she quotes in her forthcoming book, Just Us, a collection of essays that critically engages with the conversation as a racialized space. Host: R. Jay Magill Producer: Tony Andrews Photo: Annette Hornischer

Historian Linda Gordon was recently at the American Academy in Berlin, as a Marcus Bierich Distinguished Visitor, to discuss her latest book, "The Second Coming of the KKK." In it, Gordon goes beyond the more well-known terrorism of the KKK in the South, to show just how active the Klan was in northern states like Oregon and Massachusetts in the first half of the twentieth century. There, the primary methods employed by the Klan did not rely on violence but rather on propaganda and electoral activity, both entirely legal means, for furthering their racist agenda. In this episode of “Beyond the Lecture,” Gordon suggests that some of the anti-immigrant sentiment in contemporary political discourse has its roots in the Klan of the 1920s. Host: R. Jay Magill Producer: Tony Andrews Photo: Annette Hornischer Music: "After the End," "Final Step," "Desert Fox Underscore," and "Eye of Forgiveness" by Rafael Krux; "Midnight in the Green House" by Kevin MacLeod; "Distilled" by Nctrnm; "Staunch and True" by United States Marine Band.

Writer Anne Finger is in Berlin to research histories of disability in the city. In this episode, she goes on a trip to an old, abandoned Nazi psychiatric facility with producer Tony Andrews. Along the way, they meet up with Andreas Hechler, whose great grandmother was sent to a facility just like it. In the process, they confront some disturbing history and reflect upon the politics of memory today. Host: R. Jay Magill Producer: Tony Andrews Photo: Annette Hornischer Music: "Meekness" and "Mercy" by Kai Engel; "Jolenta Clears The Table" by Doctor Turtle.

Composer and pianist Wang Lu was born in the Xi’an, China, the country’s ancient capital. Brought up in a musical family with strong Chinese opera and folk music traditions, her compositions are inspired by both of these forms, and fused with urban environmental sounds. Wang’s works have been performed internationally by the Ensemble Modern, The Minnesota Orchestra, The American Composers Orchestra and Holland Symfonia, to name just a few. As a spring 2019 Fellow at the Academy, Wang is working on new pieces, and she’ll be performing works from Urban Inventory in the city as well. Producer Tony Andrews sat down with Wang to discuss her work.

Literary historian Martin Puchner's journey with languages started early and unexpectedly: a series of seemingly unconnected events led to his discovery that he was the last speaker of an almost forgotten medieval language, Rotwelsch. In his research into what this language was — where it came from, who spoke it, and why — Puchner was forced to confront the good and the bad in his own family's history and how he would choose to inherit the Rotwelsch legacy. Host: R. Jay Magill, Producer: Tony Andrews, Photo: Annette Hornischer, Music: "Mischief" and "Neugierig" by Ryan Rainer; "I Leaned My Back Against an Oak" by Axletree; "Jolenta Clears The Table" by Doctor Turtle.

Sir David Chipperfield is a world-renowned architect who has designed and refurbished some of the most iconic buildings in the world, including Berlin’s Neues Museum. On March 21, 2019, Sir Chipperfield was at the American Academy to deliver a lecture entitled “Identity and Sustainability—Fundación RIA in Galicia.” In the lecture, he discusses his work at Fundación RIA, an NGO that enables architects to serve society through comprehensive engagement in urban planning. Berlin architect Jason Danziger, of the firm thinkbuild, sat down with Sir Chipperfield to discuss how architects can and should serve their communities.

New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen was at the American Academy in late November to talk about her most recent book, The Future Is History. In this podcast, she discusses Russia, cynicism, doublethink, and the imaginative powers of democracy with fall 2018 Academy fellow Joshua Yaffa, the Moscow correspondent for the New Yorker. Host: R. Jay Magill Producer: Cristina Gonzalez Photo: Annette Hornischer