Love this pod. Would love to see its return.

This used to be my hands down favorite podcast. So glad your are (sorta) back ❤️❤️❤️

Speaking waaaay too fast. Sounds like helium balloon speed chat.

I haven’t found another bookish podcast with the same depth of analysis. The hosts don’t talk endlessly about their personal lives and there are no gimmicks or shticks. Just extraordinarily thoughtful and interesting discourse. I don’t blame them for disappearing after so many reviews lambasted a vocal quality of a commentator. I personally was able to overlook it to obtain the top-notch content. Perhaps we didn’t deserve this podcast.

Best book podcast I’ve ever listened to. Please come back!

My all time favorite book podcast. Please come back!!

Professor is terrific

I love this podcast, I would love new episodes! Please come back!

I absolutely love this podcast! The first one I listened to was the Odyssey episode and I feel in love with the eloquence and intelligence of these people! Also I would just like to say that you all have such beautiful voices and this is so interesting, please start them again!

Really enjoying the way the podcast unravels and presents the texts, with no presumption that the audience has read it too.

Good books. Inane discussions.

I did not (NOT!!!) support Clinton, but I am interested in what informs the opinions of those who did support her. Not much new here. Would be much more interesting to hear from guests with differing opinions. Still, I found myself engaged enough to get to the end (almost). I’ll give a few more podcasts a go.

I tried listening to the episode Her Body and Other Parties, and I just could not. I don’t understand how you could have a podcast with a host whose voice is completely grating and unpleasant.

BRING IT BACK. I love all the episodes - they're so fun.

Love it! They are all so smart and insightful.

I tried to enjoy “Lincoln in the Bardo” and “Handmaids Tale,” which I mostly did. The panel was erudite, insightful, and articulate. But! The host has a verbal fry that started as distracting and by midway through the second episode became unbearable. I’d go back but I’ll need assurances.

Oh the vocal fry!! It is so obviously an affectation - when they actually speak in their normal registers their voices are completely normal! The insights are awesome, I love hearing these people discuss books, but for God's sake: CLEAR YOUR THROAT!

Katy Waldman’s vocal fry makes this podcast unbearable.

I had to unsubscribe. I tried to get past Katie's voice, but I did not even want to try and get past her attitude. She basically mocked anyone who believes in an afterlife when discussing "Lincoln in the Bardo." It was also apparently horrid that the book was about ghost and grief, and not about slavery. Hey Katie, go write your own book about Lincoln and slavery. UGH. I am SO SICK AND TIRED of this idea that only social justice warriors read.

I would love to have the insights without sympathetically clearing my throat over and over. Have to unsubscribe because I cannot listen.

So grateful to have found this pod. Intellectual, relevant discussions —Handmaid’s Tale episode was fantastic

I listened to a total of three podcasts before unsubscribing. Katy's voice is like nails on a chalkboard. The gravelly quality of her speech makes the otherwise interesting conversation unlistenable. I look forward to the day the hosts change.

I am listening to the episode on The Odyssey. Great program except for Katy Waldman's voice. Katy Waldman's voice makes me physically sick. She sounds like she just rolled out of a bed and hasn’t brushed her teeth. Her voice cracks into thousand different ways. And what exactly is stucked in her throat? Really horrible.

I always have a hard time picking a book to read, and I’m really happy I found this podcast to help solve that issue!

I enjoyed the exchange between the two reviewers for When Breath Becomes Air, but I quit listening before the review was finished because the recording was somewhat subpar negatively impacting the listener’s experience; the clarity of the ads confirmed my observation.

Usually wonderful discussions on this show. Just wish this podcast happened much more often. Not that I always agree with the opinions on some of the books, but always thought-provoking. Great job!!

Super thoughtful conversations

The discussions are generally interesting, but like a lot of people have complained, Katy’s vocal fry is unpleasant. Perhaps there could be something done in the editing/production? It’s especially noticeable with headphones on, and the amplified buzzing in my ears becomes distracting to the conversation and physically uncomfortable.

Nice to listen in on conversations about these books.

Love this podcast. Found many excellent books through it.

Is not vocal fry. It's that you don't have any better insights than my own book club. The pretensions to intellectualism are laughable.

I really like this podcast! So it pains me to say I just can't listen to it anymore. The content is great and the book selections are wonderful, but the voice of one of the hosts just kills me. I realize how mean that sounds, but some people just aren't meant for radio/podcasting. Their voices just aren't appealing for the listeners. It's like nails on a chalkboard. I won't write her name on here because I do feel bad saying these things, but I will be unsubscribing until Slate makes some necessary changes to their hosting panel.

When I saw that Slate's Audible Book Club would be a discussion of The Handmaid's Tale I was quite excited to listen....until I realized that Katy Waldman would be one of the participants. I knew her comments would be interesting but like many others, I wasn't sure that listening to her voice would be worth it. What is wrong?? Surely there is something seriously wrong. I worry that she might have a medical problem. Even throat cancer. I'm not being facetious. I think she needs to see a doctor asap. My father, who was a law professor developed throat polyps and had to rest his voice for over a year. He couldn't speak, other than to deliver his lectures in class. His voice never sounded as bad as hers, but perhaps she has something like he had. He did eventually recover. Katy, please seek treatment!

Had to stop listening to the Review of The Art of War as both the host and her female guest made competing efforts at Vocal Fry. This is my third attempt to listen to the show after failing to be able to hang in there through Katy's vocal fry. I'm starting to wonder if there's a medical condition that explains this? Her guest can't be forgiven for this though. Ladies-you sound awful!

Love this book club--look forward to it every month. Intelligent discussion of literature. Very organized--relveals what you need to know in order to either read the book or better understand it once you've read it. Other book podcasts would do well to listen to this one to gain a sense of how it should be done.

Great podcast with insightful, indepth conversations about interesting books. Very happy with the range of book choices. I hate to say this because it makes me feel like I should hand in my feminist card but Katy Walkman's voice is so distracting I cannot listen to the podcast. I wish I could get past it but I just can't.

If you enjoy the kind of literary discussion where a group of writers tears apart every aspect of a book then this is the podcast for you. Each week they choose a great book by a great writer and pick it apart for every perceived flaw. At the end the panel all recommend the book agreeing how much they liked it. I am always shocked because in the space of an hour they don't say one positive thing about the book. My advice would be don't listen to the podcast if you are thinking of reading the book because they will convince you not to. But if you have no intention of reading that book or have already read it, then give it a shot. The one thing they do really well is talk this reader out of reading the books they are discussing.

Great podcast with thoughtful discussions, great selection of books and look forward to each episode. Waldman's voice isn't perfect, but it's not THAT bad and she always has something interesting to say, so don't let that deter you, and those that gave up just because of that, you are missing out!

I'm really really interested in the content here but unfortunately Katie's baby-with-a-cold voice is a no-go for me. Disappointed.

I love to hear what the hosts have to say after I've read a book, and they often echo and augment my opinions, but the banter and disagreement between them makes it a fun listen.

I am in the same boat as many other reviewers. I enjoyed the discussion on this podcast, but finally gave up because I couldn't take Katy Waldman's vocal fry any longer. It really is a shame that her vocal mannerisms make any otherwise worthy show unlistenable for many.

This is perhaps my favorite podcast--the book discussions are so interesting and the various hosts that feature on here are intelligent and well-informed. The infamous voice that bothers so many people...is grating at first, I had to work to get over it, but if you love books and crave in-depth book discussion as much as I do, this is so fun to listen and read along to.

I'm giving the podcast three stars for the archived episodes, prior to Katie Waldman becoming the host. While I enjoy the discussions of individual books and haven't yet found a similar podcast to turn to, I've reached my threshold of tolerance for Waldman's grating voice, so I'm bidding a sad farewell.

I just can't. I love books, I love Slate, I wanted to love this show so much, but I keep instinctually gulping down water and doing vocal warmups, as if I can help by osmosis. PLEASE get a voice coach. And Slate, what are you doing?! This is a podcast. It's all about the voice.

I only listen to episodes where I've read the book, but they've become harder to get through. For me, I don't look forward to listening because of the host's vocal fry, which I understand isn't her fault, but I think should have been taken into greater consideration when switching hosts.

I once spent two days as a substitute teacher in a classroom of 6th graders all of whom, boys and girls, spoke in -- uptalk? When their teacher, a young woman herself, returned late on the second day, I asked her, "Have you noticed that they all end every statement with -- a ques-tion?" No. No, she had not. Apparently it was not a problem. This habit of speech is not prevalent today, at least not in my world, and when I hear a professional woman approaching middle age use uptalk, I wonder why she never grew out of it like everyone else her age. . . And now vocal fry is a feminist issue??? Why would someone think that? Is it because saying it makes it so? Are we also to regard petulance and flightiness as feminist traits? . . . It's a real shame.

Sorry but I'm unsubscribing. Just listened to the When Breath Becomes Air discussion and it was just dreadful. For one it sounded like it was recorded on a dictaphone and played back into a mic. And I know we're all supposed to now be ashamed if vocal fry bugs us because it's antifeminist but a lot of women have it and I usually don't care or really notice much. Katy's voice is like having your eardrum scraped out with a qtip that's missing the cotton. Ugh.

Like so many others, I can’t stand Katie’s voice. She talks like a little girl, despite being an intelligent woman, and her vocal fry is so distracting. Why doesn’t Slate do anything about all the complaints about her voice? It obviously turns many people away from the show.

Love this podcast but Katie's voice makes it impossible to listen. 5 stars except for that.

I had to unsubscribe in spite of the thoughtful criticism because Katie’s voice is so grating. Folks, this is basically radio, and it is valid to criticize a broadcaster’s voice since that is the instrument of the medium. Having read the countless criticisms of Katy’s voice, I’m amazed that Slate has not taken any action. Asleep at the switch? A voice coach would cure the problem and make Katie’s intelligent remarks intelligible. Until then, sorry.