Bernard Malamud
American novelist and short story writerWikipedia
12
MENTIONS
10
EPISODES
9
PODCASTS
Search complete. 12 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Bernard Malamud".
Oct 19, 2026
Howie CarrHOST
I mean, the, is the University of Chicago...
Howie CarrHOST
I mean, consider it, I, I know that there, you know, uh, there, there are people who, like Bernard Malamud, I guess.
Howie CarrHOST
He was a great writer back in the 20th century.
Howie CarrHOST
He w- he was a teacher there.
Cindy WheelerGUEST
I mean, it's just a star-studded cast.
Cindy WheelerGUEST
It's based on a Bernard Malamud book, so it has a little bit of gravity sort of there as well.
Cindy WheelerGUEST
It's not just written for the screen.
Cindy WheelerGUEST
It's actually, I think, better than the book, which I hardly ever say.
Cindy WheelerGUEST
I don't want to ruin the movie.
Cindy WheelerGUEST
Yeah.
Cindy WheelerGUEST
I don't want to ruin the movie for myself because I saw this quote where Bernard Malamud told his daughter that he thought that the movie gave him legitimacy as an author.
Cindy WheelerGUEST
So he kind of felt like it did him a great service as well from his original, which a lot of people, you know, the endings are very different apparently.
Adam BrickerGUEST
[laughs]
Roger DeakinsHOST
... and Bernard Malamud, I'm afraid.
Adam BrickerGUEST
[laughs]
Roger DeakinsHOST
Oh, I was in a bit of a darker world than James Bond.
Bob AlperGUEST
It was a great place.
Bob AlperGUEST
Little tiny college with people like Bernard Malamud on the faculty.
Bob AlperGUEST
Amazing place.
Eric ThompsonHOST
Wow.
Marv AlbertHOST
Even the, the grainy texture of the film, uh, gave it that approach, was the type of movie I would have enjoyed, uh, as, as a wide-eyed youngster
Bob CostasHOST
Malamud's book, uh, The Natural, was itself a bit of mythology and, and fantasy, and that's, that's the direction in which the movie moved
Marv AlbertHOST
So you're saying you like it.
Bob CostasHOST
Very much
Marv AlbertSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It was the type of movie I would've enjoyed, uh, as, as a wide-eyed youngster.
Bob CostasSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Malamud's book, uh, The Natural, was itself a bit of mythology and, and fantasy, and that's, that's the direction in which the movie moved.
Marv AlbertSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So you're saying you like it.
Bob CostasSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Very much.
Brooke GladstoneHOST
Wow.
Laura McGrathGUEST
Also writers like William Gaddis and Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth and John Cheever, a number of writers who we now associate with high postmodernism.
Brooke GladstoneHOST
But was she good at the lunch?
Laura McGrathGUEST
Candida was amazing at the lunch.
speaker_1HOST
Oh, the adaptation of The Natural is a textbook example of cinematic friction.
speaker_1HOST
Like, director Barry Levinson and his screenwriters made a highly deliberate, calculated decision to completely invert the ending of Bernard Malamud's original novel.
speaker_0HOST
They totally flipped it.
speaker_1HOST
Completely.
6 MINS LATER
speaker_1HOST
Truly.
speaker_1HOST
So they mandate the title Field of Dreams, which is a somewhat generic focus grouped alternative.
speaker_1HOST
And at this point, you would expect W.P. Kinsella to react the exact same way Bernard Malamud did, outraged that his masterpiece is being butchered, his characters erased, and his title stripped.
speaker_0HOST
But the twist is that Kinsella actually loved the change.
Xochitl GonzalezGUEST
We were reading working class literature.
Xochitl GonzalezGUEST
We were reading Bernard Malamud, The Assistant.
Xochitl GonzalezGUEST
We were reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Xochitl GonzalezGUEST
We were reading Herbert Selby, Last Exit to Brooklyn.
Sean McGirrHOST
Reminiscing about a bat because there's something about a bat, isn't there? Something that speaks to our primitive beliefs about the purity of struggle and the strength of our team, the home team of the right and the white.
Sean McGirrHOST
Surely Bernard Malamud knew it.
Sean McGirrHOST
Jack has read The Naturalist score of times, always loving the fact that Roy Hobbs named his cudgel Wonder Boy.
Sean McGirrHOST
And never mind the critics with all their stuffy talk about the Arthurian legend and phallic symbols.