50 Years After ‘Jaws’ Terrified Filmgoers, a Reporter Looks Back
14 June 2025 - 37 minsSteven Spielberg’s movie “Jaws” hit theaters 50 years ago this month, in June 1975, and became a phenomenon almost instantly. In some ways that was no surprise: The Peter Benchley novel it was based on, also called “Jaws,” had been a huge best seller the year before, and the public was primed for a fun summer scare. Brian Raftery — the author of “Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen” — wrote about “Jaws” for the Book Review last year in honor of the novel’s 50th anniversary, and this week he visits the podcast to talk about the book, the movie adaptation and the era of blockbuster thrillers.
“If you’ve seen ‘Jaws,’ you could probably guess what the opening chapter of the...
Series Episodes
Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Wuthering Heights,' by Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë’s classic “Wuthering Heights” has long been a favorite among readers, and the novel is back in the zeitgeist thanks to Emerald Fennell’s recent film adaptation. On this week’s episode, host MJ Franklin discusses “Wuthering Heights” with colleagues from the New York Times Book Review.
54 mins
27 February Finished
Director Clint Bentley on Adapting ‘Train Dreams’ for the Big Screen
The latest film from the writer and director Clint Bentley, “Train Dreams,” is nominated for four Oscars, including best adapted screenplay. The movie is based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the same name and tells the story of Robert Grainier, a logger in the Pacific Northwest, in stream-of-consciousness, nonlinear prose. This week, Gilbert Cruz talks with Bentley, who wrote the screenplay with Greg Kwedar, his longtime collaborator, about how he went about translating Johnson’s work into a visual medium. Bentley first read “Train Dreams” just after college, long before he ever thought of making it into a movie. When producers with rights to the book approached Bentley, he was suddenly worried. “Going back and reading the book again,” Bentley said, “I was like, Oh, maybe this thing is unadaptable.” Set on capturing the spirit of the book, Bentley and Kwedar focused on “the vastness of this small little life,” he said. “We very rarely have an understanding of our lives in the moment we’re actually living them,” Bentley said. “We only start to understand them when it’s too late.”
38 mins
24 February Finished
Guillermo del Toro on Writing and Directing the Oscar-Nominated ‘Frankenstein’
Ahead of this year’s Academy Awards, the director appeared on the Book Review podcast to speak about his latest film.
35 mins
20 February Finished
Julia Quinn on Her 'Bridgerton' Books and the Smash Netflix Series
Julia Quinn published "The Duke and I," the first book in the 'Bridgerton' series, in 2000. Seven books and a quarter century later, its adaptation remains one of the biggest series ever to air on Netflix. Quinn spoke to host Gilbert Cruz about the show, her books and how the romance genre has changed over several decades.
42 mins
13 February Finished
How Nintendo Became the World's Most Fun Video Game Company
Keza MacDonald, the video games editor at The Guardian and author of the new book “Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play,” speaks with host Gilbert Cruz about the iconic Japanese company.
42 mins
6 February Finished
Book Club: Let's Talk About 'The Hounding' by Xenobe Purvis
Xenobe Purvis’s slim but powerful debut novel, “The Hounding,” is about five young sisters in 1700s England who are suspected of being able to transform into a pack of wild dogs. It is a gothic parable about male ego, cultural misogyny and the dangers of gossip run amok. On this week’s episode, host MJ Franklin discusses “The Hounding” with fellow Book Review editors Joumana Khatib, Emily Eakin and Gregory Cowles.
49 mins
30 January Finished
