David is the most thoughtful & present interviewer. He and guests both bring forward such incredible insights & wisdom in each conversation. Listening to this show makes me a more attentive reader, a more inspired creative, and a more hopeful human in general!

Such a wonderful podcast replete with hearty and engaging literary conversations! I learn so much each episode. I happily signed up as a Patreon subscriber for more literary content and context. Love David’s deep interviewing style and close reading ethos. Keep up the excellent work, David!

One of the literary podcasts out there!

Between the Covers is an education and an invitation. I am so grateful for Naimon’s generosity and the brilliance he clarifies, exudes, and convenes. BTC is a gem of a podcast.

David Naimon brings unparalleled preparation, interest, and love for literature to each of these interviews. One of my favorite literary podcasts. Authentically earnest.

Such a thoughtful, intelligent, and humane offering to listeners about how to live in this world and how to relate to one another with sensitivity and care. I know of no other podcast where I am so routinely awakened to a new way of being in the world.

Host David Naimon is the deepest and most widely informed reader … I don’t know how he does it. I guess his love of what writing can do takes him so far and wide. I love seeing a new show in my feed, and knowing I’ll be on a rangy adventure that will have me buying books and sharing the show. I used to get annoyed with his long intros and longer questions, thinking him self-absorbed, but after listening to a couple of shows, I was hooked. His questions are long because his thinking is deep and his preparation vast and because THERE IS A LOT TO SAY. David is committed to frank exploration of difficult topics, so if your mind is not open, don’t bother.

BTC is a genre-unto-itself. There is David (Naimon, your host) and David’s guest and then there are your ears. Something world-making goes down each go-around. You feel through your ears the pay-off that could only/must inevitably follow from the seemingly infinite attention David paid to that writer’s corpus. We tip over into the vanishing point together. There is nothing else in the air like it.

Between the Covers has the most thoughtful conversations and I hear of so many amazing books and authors from it

Easily the most considered and well-researched literary conversation available. A careful and respectful host, Naimon is capable of asking questions that penetrate and illuminate material that is always challenging and profound. Sometimes I think the questions this show unhesitatingly asks are a new kind of literature in and of itself - resonant, and with an abiding commitment to listen to voices in any context. Recent unmissable episodes for me have been the interviews with Carl Phillips and Joyelle McSweeny. I will always be grateful also for Naimon’s series on Ursula Le Guin and his commitment to her worlds and her legacy.

Truly useful explorations of thought, Art, feeing, ways of being. I am so grateful this exists. You may love it more than you can imagine.

This show is amazing, David is such an intentional interviewer who does his homework like no other podcast host I’ve ever encountered. We cannot take his work for granted! (plus all my favorite writers also love and appear on this show)

I get so much out of this podcast and David Naimon’s insightful, reverent, and well researched questions. I often listen to episodes more than once!

Best resource for inquisitive readers, writers, and people interested in the high craft of the interview and the artful conversation. David is an exemplar of the human form.

Finding token Jews to back up false claims of genocide shortly before the anniversary of 10/7. Are you kidding me?

Excellent guests but someone with radio production expertise please give the host an executive producer editing hand. The extremely verbose 5 million minute intros and questions need to be edited down immensely, better audio quality and a little bit of production value could go a long way! This show has a lot of potential!

David’s careful, deeply curious attention to texts, and the smart and enthusiastic connections he makes among them, is an aural antidote for the speed and superficiality with which so much other discourse charges itself in the name of commercial optimization. These are beautifully rendered, important conversations. Thank you, David!

David Naimon interviewing a guest reminds me of Bruce Springsteen in concert, speaking between songs. We hit all the tangents, head forward, move back a little, make a circle, then another tangent and maybe another circle before we get to the end of his question. At the end, we’re not sure what the question is. Maybe we’re not even sure what happened or where we’ve been, but just like how, at a Springsteen concert, it makes the song sound sweeter, Naimon turns the interviewee’s words into pure gold.

Older episodes, see the China Miéville episode, get right to the point. We hear him come in before we’ve even spent two minutes listening. I tried to listen to the Mariana Enriquez episode but was dismayed when nearly twenty minutes had passed and the host was still talking to himself. I got to wondering if Mariana would ever arrive or if I’d been had. He seems to go on and on, in love the with the sound of his own voice, until any interest a listener might have has long since evaporated. Side note: he also used to talk faster. Now it seems he’s trying to set a personal record for speaking as slowly as he can, as if in a kind of reverse Speed scenario, where if he exceeds a certain number of words per minute, a bus will explode. An absolute slog in what should be a home run podcast.

I can say unequivocally this is truly the ideal podcast for literature. No other podcast reveals the spirit of a book quite like this one—the interviews with authors is rich in both content and language. I love listening to the words chosen to express thinking, in addition to the pleasure of listening to the content of those words. As soon as I listen I remember why I love reading and each episode brings new ways to appreciate literary conversation. Of the many hundreds of podcasts, this one is essential and a classic. Thank you for creating this!

Truly the best literary interview podcast out there. David reads and researches extensively, posing questions that make every interview deep and insightful. I’m so grateful for this podcast. ❤️

David Naimon’s series of 12 episodes in 2022 called “Crafting with Ursula” is such loving homage to one of my favorite writers. I looked forward to every conversation and I was never disappointed. The selection of writers to engage in these themed interviews is so well-conceived. Each had unique insights to offer, and Naimon engaged with them sincerely, and humbly, seeking to learn on our behalf, the podcast audience. Thank you for a profound listening experience.

David Naimon, the guests are pleasantly surprised by your depth of research and so am I. Every episode. If these podcast episodes were paintings, you’d be up there with the greats. I just finished listening to the Ngugi Wa Thiong’o interview. It felt like there was no bias — just two persons (among a small group) having the most wonderful conversation on a verandah somewhere in the tropics, drinks in hand, of course. It felt like you are very good friends and you started the conversation with “tell me again how you do it.” Masterful exquisite work. Thanks for all you do!

The long form allows for deeper conversations. The questions are well informed holding thoughtful twists going beyond the standard banter. I often listen and take notes or listen and do some handwork (stitching or knitting or laborious drawing). The poets are almost all new to me and I love learning about them through these interviews. They are each priceless.

First time listener here. But won’t be the last. The Gabrielle Bates interview was my gateway drug to this wonderful gem. What a thoughtful, brilliant conversation. The host does an amazing job of connecting with the guest writer. And clearly, he does his homework, so he can go deep beneath the superficial in the conversation. Thank you. Loved it. And I love, love, love the gut-wrenchingly gorgeous Judas Goat by Gabrielle Bates. . Thank you so much for helping me appreciate it even more.

So grateful I stumbled on this in a twitter post. It lights up my love for art and lengthens my to-read list with an urgency.

Between the Covers is to me what Car Talk was to my father: the radio show that has earned our quiet devotion through its deep craft knowledge, curiosity, and the fun it adds to our lives. In one episode, host David Naimon described his preparation work as an attempt to 'center someone in the universe of their interests,' and this captured in part the magic of the show for me as a listener. Each episode feels like a deep dive and a sort of real-time longform essay co-written by Naimon and many of my favorite contemporary authors--it's magic. Tin House and Between the Covers are absolute gifts.

Truly a gold standard in podcasting, David Naimon is a consummate host (does not! interrupt! guests!), and listening regularly to Between the Covers is an entire education in itself. Do listen and support this podcast’s Patreon!

This is the food I need as an interdisciplinary musician. Thank you!

David, host of the Between the Covers podcast, highlights all aspects of writing and more in this can’t miss podcast! The host and expert guests offer insightful advice and information that is helpful to anyone that listens!

You just can’t get better than this. Reliably excellent episodes to sink into...

Natalie Diaz!! Wow, parts I & II, fantastic!

Just listened to the episode with Jenny Offil about Weather... wow! Great job! Illuminating conversation, it was hard at times to connect with an unhinged narrator!

Insightful and eye opening, even if you haven’t read the work they are discussing. David thinks critically and is remarkably well-researched: carefully composing his questions and directing the conversation. Truly the best podcast to which I’ve had the pleasure of listening.

Really love the show and your preparation for your guests. The interviews are in-depth and provide really insightful tips for nonfiction writers.

No one reads as insightfully or prepares as well as David Naimon. His questions are doorways that lead us deeper into literary works and elucidate the creative process of writers. I don’t think there is a more valuable podcast for readers and writers anywhere. This is the cutting edge of understanding what literature can do for us now.

I wanted to like this but I can't get past the lip smacking and other mouth noises. The EQ or mic settings need to be adjusted for David to prevent these sounds from coming through.

Great chats with authors I’ve mostly never heard of. Still a worthy time passer.

Between the Covers might be my favorite podcast to fall asleep to. That sounds like a backhanded compliment, but I mean it as anything but. David Naimon has insightful, deeply felt questions and invites his guests to answer with equally rich, personal responses. There’s something so comforting about these interviews that makes them perfect bubbles to drift off towards

I am so glad I found Between The Covers. This is honestly the most intelligent conversations and interviews I have ever been privy to. Thank you so much.

I love this podcast

I absolutely love this podcast! Thanks to BTC I've learned about so many fantastic writers and books and especially love revisiting particular author episodes after reading the books that I learned about the first time through. David is easily the most reliably thoughtful and well-researched interviewer that I'm aware of; it's clear that a great deal of time goes into preparing for each interview and the results prove it!

Recent find for me. Immediately began pouring through the backlog. Has some of the most insightful interviews with a clearly engaged host in David.

People talk about books, people ask writers questions, and people do this stuff often but David Naimon is different. He actually reads each writer's work and actually thinks about it because the conversations he has with these writers and the questions he asks are insightful and hella thoughtful. Thank you David for creating this and continuing your work.

As a writer and a reader, I get so much out of David Naimon's interviews. I end up reading a lot of the authors I hadn't heard of and love them--and appreciate them.

The Catherine Lacey episode was phenomenal.

David Naimon’s thoughtful insights as a deep reader and masterful interviewer make Between the Covers my favorite podcast of any genre. Thank you, David, for the time, effort and soul you put into each and every episode. If I could, I’d add another star to your rating!

A deeply important and needed show

This is certainly the most erudite, intelligent, intellectual literary show I’ve heard. What I love about this show is that the conversations, led by host David Naimon, always have depth to them but I never get the feeling that I’m being left out. Quite the contrary, these conversations are inviting and generous, and I always look forward to a new episode.

I love David Naimon's "Between the Covers" podcast. David conducts in-depth interviews with all the best literary writers working today. Every episode gives me something to think about or makes me look at something in a different way. It's a pleasure to listen to this podcast, and I'm so grateful for it!