By Corinna Kloth
About the Podcast
A Podcast about Ideas and Culture.
Little Atoms is a weekly show about books, with authors in conversation. Produced and presented by Neil Denny.
Tell us about yourself!
ND: My name is Neil Denny, I’m the producer and presenter of Little Atoms podcast, a role I’ve been doing for over 18 years now, so the podcast is old enough to drink (in the UK at least). I don’t have any background in the media, I’m a civil servant, but I love books and wanted to meet authors and that’s how the podcast came about.
How would you describe your podcast?
ND: Little Atoms is an interview show about books, each episode I interview an author about their latest release. It started off as mainly a popular science themed show and then began to cover more general non-fiction. Then I realised that I wasn’t reading any contemporary fiction and so I started covering that too, and now the show is probably 70 percent fiction.
What’s the most challenging and most satisfying part of running a podcast?
ND: Publishing a weekly show nearly every week for 18 years has been the most challenging part, but as I have an obligation to fill a radio slot too for another broadcaster that gives me a deadline to work to which helps. Also keeping on top of the reading is hard. I insist on reading the book before conducting the interview with the author, which seems obvious to me but according to the authors I interview it’s quite rare! The most satisfying part is getting to know authors I love. Authors really enjoy being on the show, and will come back again and again, I think the current record is 12 times!
What’s one of your favorite episodes?
ND: My favorite book of 2023 was A.K. Blakemore’s The Glutton,
a fictionalized life of a real-life revolutionary era Frenchman named Tarare who couldn’t stop eating. I really loved talking to Amy about it. You can listen to the episode here:
What is your uploading schedule, and what can we expect from little atoms in the coming months?
ND: The show is published usually once a week on Tuesday’s, but sometimes there’s a bonus one on a Friday as I record too many! The show is booked up into the summer, and over the next few weeks will feature interviews with Sigrid Nunez, Kiley Reid, Lauren Tyler, Stuart Turton and Sarah Perry.
Where can listeners find little atoms podcast?
ND: As well as on Resonance FM on Mondays at 11:am GMT, you can find Little Atoms in all the usual places, Apple, Spotify or directly here: https://play.acast.com/s/littleatoms
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