All episodes of Intelligence Squared

Intelligence Squared · 2026-09-01 · 47 min · 7,648 words

NYT’s Novel of the Century? Marlon James on The Disappearers

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Why times can differ in your player

Welcome to Intelligence Squared where great minds meet. I'm senior producer Mia Sorenti. The New York Times has just dubbed The Disappearers as a masterpiece. The new novel from Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings is described as the best novel of the decade, if not the century. On today's episode, James joins host Mytha Lee Rao to unpack the novel behind the acclaim. The disappearers follows a violent incident set amongst the untold history of the AIDS crisis in 1980s Jamaica. Let's join our host, Mithley Rao, now with more.

You're listening to Intelligence Squared, I'm Mythali Rao. My guest today is Booker Prize winning author Marlon James. His new novel is The Disappearers. Um to start with the disappears was recently long listed for the Booker Prize. You've won that prize before, but congratulations all the same. It must be good to see your work, uh

Recognized in this way again. Yeah, before it even comes out. So that's great. Get the sticker on the on the cover, right? People can see it and know what they have to look forward to. Um, I really enjoyed the book. It's impossible to read it without being completely pulled into this world you've created and in some ways I felt documenting. Um it's a book that's brimming with texture and insight and

That is the first couple of minutes. The rest is $1.49.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (47 minutes, 7,648 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.

get it now

Ready in under two minutes.

credits never expire

Packs go up to 1,000 episodes. Need more? Email contact@podmenti.com and we will make you one.

One episode is up to 4 hours of audio; a longer one counts as one more for every started 4 hours. Secure checkout by Stripe. Paying once needs no account: we create one from your email. By paying you agree to the terms.