With a Side of Knowledge is a podcast produced by the Office of the Provost at the University of Notre Dame. It brings listeners informal interviews with fascinating scholars and professionals from both Notre Dame and elsewhere that take place over brunch.
The ninth episode of season two, “On Heroes and Humanity’s Greatest Invention,” was released Thursday, Feb. 21, and features Man Booker Prize-winning author John Banville.
Banville has written some two dozen novels under both his own name and the pseudonym Benjamin Black and is best known for The Sea, which won the Booker Prize in 2005. His work has also been recognized with the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature, and the Franz Kafka Prize, among numerous other honors.
He and host Ted Fox sat down to brunch last November during Banville’s time as a short-term visitor at Notre Dame’s Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies. Their conversation started with a reading from The Sea, and they then talked about everything from the writing process and what makes a hero to the bet Banville’s accountant placed on him when he was a longshot to win the Booker Prize.
You can visit provost.nd.edu/podcast to learn more about the podcast, which is available through iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher or by searching “With a Side of Knowledge” in your favorite podcast app.
You can also listen to the episode with Banville using the player below.
Originally published by at provost.nd.edu on February 21, 2019.