The Moth
The Moth
Arts
Marlon and Jake Read Dead People
by Penguin Random House
Today: #86 in Arts on our combined chart.
Chart positions today
If you like Marlon and Jake Read Dead People, try…
Fresh Air
NPR
99% Invisible
Roman Mars
The Magnus Archives
Rusty Quill
The MOOD Podcast
Matt Jacob
Spooked
KQED and Snap Studios
Ranking history
History builds daily. We started tracking this show on the Arts chart recently, so the trend line appears after a second day of data.
View as table
| Date | Apple Podcasts |
|---|---|
| Oct 1 | #53 |
About the show
Marlon and Jake Read Dead People is a podcast hosted by the Booker Prize-winning and internationally bestselling author Marlon James and his editor, Jake Morrissey, Executive Editor at Riverhead Books. In each episode, Marlon and Jake talk about authors—specifically dead authors. Authors they like. Authors they hate. Great books, terrible books, and books they love that you’d never expect them to. As a writer and an editor, Marlon and Jake have read thousands of books between them, and they’re not shy in expressing their opinions about them. Sometimes they’ll agree, sometimes they won’t, but in every episode, they’ll tell you what they think— uncensored and with no holds barred. (That’s why the authors have to be dead.) So, listen along to hear about the spectacularly good, the hilariously bad, and the brutally honest.
Latest episodes
-
The Literary Hall of Shame
September 8, 2026 · 36 minIn our last episode of the season, Marlon and Jake take on the worst books by the best authors—or at least, authors they usually love. They discuss why a journalist’s instincts can be both a gift and a curse when writing fiction, the…
-
English Teachers, Look Away
September 1, 2026 · 44 minMarlon and Jake discuss the books they’d banish from school reading lists—not ban but give a well-earned time out. They consider why the Bible shouldn’t make the cut, why mythology deserves to expand beyond the Greeks and Romans, and what…
-
In Defense of Gratuitous Violence
August 25, 2026 · 39 minMarlon and Jake take on violence in fiction: what makes it effective, what makes it gratuitous, and whether “gratuitous violence” is even a useful distinction. Tune in as they discuss the difference between violence on the page and on…
-
The Most Important Character Isn’t a Character
August 18, 2026 · 48 minMarlon and Jake explore the power of setting in novels—and why the best stories feel like they couldn’t have happened anywhere else. They discuss settings that become characters in their own right, fictional worlds they’d love (or…
-
This Got More Personal Than We Expected
August 11, 2026 · 37 minMarlon and Jake explore the books that have helped define who they are, choosing four that capture different parts of their personalities and lives. They unpack how reading can shape our understanding of identity, community, and growing…
-
Why Does Great Literature Have Such Bad Sex?
August 4, 2026 · 36 minMarlon and Jake dive into one of literature's trickiest subjects: sex. Why do some writers capture intimacy with honesty while others veer into the unintentionally hilarious? Along the way, they discuss why writing about sex is really…
-
Writers We'll Never Read Again (Sorry, Faulkner)
July 28, 2026 · 40 minMarlon and Jake tackle the writers they have no interest in revisiting, asking when it's worth giving a beloved (or notorious) author another chance and when it's perfectly fine to walk away for good. Tune in as they debate literary canon…
-
Is Jane Eyre Okay?
July 21, 2026 · 36 minMarlon and Jake explore why we're so eager to revisit the worlds of our favorite stories, asking whether great characters are better left where their authors left them—or if there's value in imagining what came before or after. Tune in as…