Welcome to Light On Light Through episode 417, in which Sarah Clarke Stuart and her husband Jonathan Oakes join me and my wife Tina Vozick in a conversation about Sarah's debut novel, Song of the Unsung Mushroom, published January 15, 2026 by Connected Editions (a boutique publisher that I and Tina created and operate).

At times joining our conversation are Alexis Stuart (who created the cover for Sarah's novel), Susan Clarke, Molly Vozick-Levinson, Elizabeth Clarke, Chryssi Steven, Meghan Vickers, Bud Gundy, and Edwin Stepp (thanks to the last three for providing blurbs for the novel).

Relevant links:

• Kindle, paperback, hardcover, audiobook (read by Sarah for Listen and Live Audio) of the novel here
• More about Connected Editions here
• YouTube video of this conversation here

Welcome to Light On Light Through episode 416, in which I review the The Beatles Anthology 2025 documentary.

Relevant links:

• my written review of Anthology 2025
• my 2024 podcast review of Beatles '64
• my 1972 article in The Village Voice: Murray the K in Nostalgia's Noose
• my 1971 article in The Village Voice: A Vote for McCartney
• my 1972 song Murray the K's Back In Town
• my 2024 novel It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles
• 2023 radioplay It's Real Life on Killerwatt Radio adapted from first chapter of my novel (audiobook of radioplay here)
• my 2025 written review of One to One: John & Yoko
• my 2017-2018 written reviews of Rob Sheffield's book Dreaming the Beatles (I review every chapter!)
• my 2016 review of Billy J. Kramer's book Do You Wanna Know a Secret?
• my thoughts about The Beatles' Now and Then
• "The Beatles and Podcasts" my Fall 2023 essay in the Journal of Beatles Studies
• my 2023 written review of John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial
• my 2021 podcast reviews of Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back
• Chris Willman's interview with Oliver Murray in Variety
• Note added at February 10, 2026: Ten-Minute Take on Current Beatles Books and Documentaries on Rock Talk Studio podcast with Big Rick

Welcome to Light On Light Through episode 415, in which I interview Brooklyn Demme about Paul Thomas Anderson's movie One Battle After Another, in which Brooklyn played a minor role. But in a movie this great, every role is important.

Relevant links:

• my review of One Battle After Another
• Simon Vozick-Levinson's A Guide to the Revolutionary Music in 'One Battle After Another' in Rolling Stone, September 29, 2025
• screening of That Kid (produced by Brooklyn Demme) in Nyack, NY November 1, 2025 at 12 Noon

Welcome to Light On Light Though episode 414, the complete "radio documentary" on WFDU-FM from 1977 -- "Life & Death of a 20th Century Troubadour" -- in which Josh Meyrowitz and I discuss the life, death, and timeless impact of Phil Ochs and his music.

Relevant links:

• Lou Canto media conversions
• Marilyn and Monet

Welcome to Light On Light Through episode 413, in which I interview Mike Grynbaum about his book Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, which was just published today. Condé Nast is the publisher of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Wired, and other iconic magazines, so we had a lot to talk about.

• order Empire of the Elite
• Maureen Dowd interviews Mike Grynbaum at the 92nd Street Y tonight!
• Mike Grynbaum's "Mangia Mafia! Food, Punishment, and Cultural Identity in The Sopranos" in The Essential Sopranos Reader, eds. David Lavery, Douglas Howard, and Paul Levinson; University Press of Kentucky, 2011
• Excerpt from Empire of the Elite in The Hollywood Reporter

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 412, in which I interview Tom Cooper about his new book Wisdom Weavers: The Lives and Thought of Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan published on May 1, 2025 by Connected Editions.

A group of 51 scholars from the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Poland gathered on May 1 via Zoom -- a mini global village -- to see this interview with Tom Cooper. The interview and subsequent Q&A is presented here in audio its entirety. We started off with some casual conversation ...

• Transcript of the complete Zoom Chat that took place after the interview
• Get the book in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover here
• Other audio interviews about Wisdom Weavers: Captain Phil interviews Paul Levinson about Wisdom Weavers on WUSB Radio ... Frank LoBuono interviews Paul Levinson and Tom Cooper about Wisdom Weavers on the Being Frank podcast
• Watch the entire interview on video

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 411: I returned to Captain Phil's Planet on WUSB (Stony Brook University) Radio the other day to talk to Captain Phil about Tom Cooper's new book, Wisdom Weavers: The Lives and Thought of Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan, to be pubished by Connected Editions (my publishing company) on May 1.

As we discussed in the interview, I'll be interviewing Tom about his book via Zoom on the evening of Wisdom Weavers' publication -- 8pm (New York time), May 1. If you'd like to attend, email me at Levinson at Fordham dot edu and I'll be happy to send the Zoom URL to you.

In the meantime, check out my Marshall McLuhan playlist on YouTube for 50 of my lectures, interviews, etc about McLuhan over the past 20 years. Here are my two books about McLuhan: Digital McLuhan and McLuhan in an Age of Social Media. You'll also find numerous essays about McLuhan on my Academia.edu page. And, if you're a fan of audio podcasts, just search on "McLuhan" on my Light On Light Through podcast page.

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 410, in which I interview Kingsley Marin and Massimo Seriale, two freshmen at Fordham University, who have created and edit a new publication (independent of the University), The Polar.

More about The Polar here.