Episode 2

On Book Clubs, Reading Lists, and Obama's Summer List in Particular.

In his review of the first few episodes of our podcast, literary journo and That Shakespearean Rag blogger, Steven W Beattie said, “Agent Provocateur is a podcast that is not afraid of taking a stance or ruffling feathers, though Hiyate also says he wants to spotlight all sides of an issue.”

In the just-released Episode 2, Diane Terrana and I are joined in our Book Club panel by long-time bookseller and TRF Agent Stacey Kondla, and author, publicist and “gadfly,” Nathaniel Moore. In our only-too-short chat about Obama’s summer reading list, Diane, TRF Associate Agent Kathryn Willms and Dundurn Press veep Chris Houston give thoughts on which books on his list appeal to us. Thanks again to our wonderful producer (and brilliant novelist), Andrew Kaufman.

There’s more coming folks! Follow us on your favourite channel: Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, etc.

Over the past week, a few of you asked about our name. Interestingly, “Agent Provocateur” has also been a number of things, since its early political usage:

• The 5th studio album by the British-American band Foreigner, released in 1984.

• A line of lingerie, whose founders broke with tradition (i.e. “agente provocateuse,” would have been a natural), thus making the term gender neutral, launched in 1994.

• And the name of a now defunct British band, debuting a year later, in 1995.

So our podcast is the 21st century incarnation of the term. Thanks for listening!