Bloomcast │ Episode 2 │ Calypso, Lotus Eaters, and Hades

Welcome to Bloomcast, a ten-part plunge into James Joyce's Ulysses presented by Adam Biles, Alice McCrum, and Lex Paulson, live from Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Join them as they muddle through this radical, sublime, and often misunderstood novel first published one hundred years ago, in 1922. 

In episode two, your hosts provide zippy overviews of Calypso, Lotus Eaters and Hades; respond to listener comments, discuss the centenary; and mull over the arrival of Leopold Bloom (Who is he? Why do we follow him to the outhouse?), animal consciousness, reincarnation, and the point of interior monologue. Guided by Kevin Birmingham, Montaigne, Aristotle, Samuel Beckett, Homer, William James, and (as ever) Frank Budgen, they reflect too on how trauma lives within us, what Bloom can teach us about life and death, and the difference between fictional and historical narratives.

Please share your thoughts on the book and anything you’d like to hear us discuss: [email protected]

A student of environmental policy at Sciences Po-Paris, Alice McCrum runs programming at the American Library in Paris. 

In between fits of Joycean nerdery, Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco. An adopted Parisian, he teaches at Sciences Po-Paris and writes on the past and future of democracy.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, Paris. He is the author of the novel Feeding Time, available in French as Défense de nourrir les vieux.

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Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com

Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses

Find out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/home

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Find out more about him here: https://www.adambiles.net

Buy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-time

Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco.

Original music & sound design by Alex Freiman.

Hear more from Alex Freiman here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1

Follow Alex Freiman on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alex.guitarfreiman/

Featuring Flora Hibberd on vocals.

Hear more of Flora Hibberd here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EFG7rqfVfdyaXiRZbRkpS

Visit Flora Hibberd's website: This is my website:florahibberd.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/florahibberd/ 

Music production by Adrien Chicot.

Hear more from Adrien Chicot here: https://bbact.lnk.to/utco90/

Follow Adrien Chicot on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/adrienchicot/

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