Caleb Can’t Read is a podcast where you can learn all about the major works, themes, and lives of some of your favorite (or most hated) authors along with Caleb Terrence, being taught the subject of each episode for the first time by his friend, Jordan Raebel, who spent countless hours doing research for your enjoyment and the betterment of his co-host’s education. You can check out our sources used for each episode on our Facebook Sources Page: facebook.com/calebcantread. You can also check ...
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Send us a text You ever go a little too far with your good intentions? John did. And hoo boy is it a doozy. Come cringe with us as we discuss the man who lived undercover in the Deep South in the worst way possible and his resulting novel, "Black Like Me", John Howard Griffin!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text TW: Dead kids; Been a while since we talked about lynchings, shootings, and the misjustices of America, hasn't it? Well wake up and give your kids a shot of whiskey, 'cause today we're covering one of the oldest authors to ever publish a book, the old and ever-delightful George Dawson!…
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Send us a text Welcome! To Nicole Can't Leave! Join us as we go over the life of poetry's most closeted man, and voted Most Likely to Smell Like Used Motor Oil in his high school yearbook: the author of the infamous "Leaves of Grass", Walt Whitman!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text I'll reiterate it here in case you don't have the time, but basically Caleb will be taking several short hiatuses between authors 'cause he's such a busy guy. And while yes, this is technically the definition of slowing down, the podcast ain't goin' anywhere. We have several, SEVERAL subjects to get through, and if we wait 'til Caleb…
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Send us a text ooOOOOoowe're here to tell you frightening tales-- like those of manipulative husbands, bad adaptations, and mixing your prescriptions! We're also here to talk about the woman who has largely been considered the Queen of Horror, Shirley Jackson! Join us as we go over her long career, her fight with critics, and some of her most famou…
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Send us a text Damn, who's that guy over there in the corner? Oh man, you say he's a doctor? And a writer? And in trouble with the Spanish government? And he bangs all the high-class ladies? And he-- oh. Oh, he says the alcohol wasn't free. Oh, he's making me pay for his meal. Ah. Well then, this could only be the conclusion to the most illustrious…
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Send us a text This poor dude might've actually done less damage had he just been left the hell alone. Sure they say the pen is mightier than the sword, but Jose Rizal seemed content to let sleeping Spaniards lie once he found out how much trouble he was in. Unfortunately, the people around him would force his environments to change, and his life t…
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Send us a text Sometimes you gotta be the change you wanna see in the world. And sometimes, you gotta piss off a whole lot of people to do it. Join us as we talk about the early life of the Philippines' foremost national hero, Jose Rizal, as well as his terrible finances, his bad housemate manners, and which side of his pants he hung his hog. Salam…
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Send us a text Hey kids, you wanna get mad about the shitty injustices of the world? You wanna hear the story of a brilliant poet whose life had to end because of how he was born? Wanna hear our perfect pronunciations of Spanish words? Then join us this episode as we delve into the short, sporadic life of one of Spain's most famous poets, Federico …
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Send us a text TW: Torture; You ever have your boss ask you to make a manual of your process at work but really you know they're just trying to understand what the fuck it is you do? While we may not know the story behind the author to a great extent, we fully understand the purpose of his work. Unfortunately a little too well. Join us as we delve …
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Send us a text TW: Abuse; While I wouldn't call this our happiest episode, the story of Nadia Anjuman needs to be told. Her work is criminally underrepresented in the West, and we can only hope that as her message is spread, so too are her poems.由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text TW: Dead kids, Suicide; When a guy like Percy comes along, history seems to revolve around them. Not in like-- a way in which important events seem to crop up around them, but in the fact that we know every little detail about this douchebag's life. If you like kidnapped children, terrible fathers, and boating accidents, boy do we ha…
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Send us a text It's been two years since we last talked about our Terrible Trio: Mary, Percy, and the good ol' Lord Byron. But today we continue the saga with "Mad Shelley", a poet who showed a penchant for explosives, electricity, and freaking out when it was most convenient. Join us as we delve into his earliest works, and the incredible knack he…
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Send us a text Merry Christmas, you filthy animals aware of your own degradation and the wallowing of your own sins, it's the conclusion to our Cormac McCarthy series! This episode, we'll be heavily delving into the works he completed from the years 1985 onward, including "Blood Meridian", "The Road", and the rest. Keep dancing and never die, kids!…
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Send us a text Welcome to Season 6, cowpoke! Join us as we discuss our favorite all-time author, Cormac McCarthy! For the little we really know about his life, the least we can do is celebrate his earliest works, including "The Orchard Keeper", "Outer Dark", "Child of God", and "Suttree". Come take a preliminary course in his works before we jump i…
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Send us a text Light up those skin-safe wax candles and slip on into the non-slip tub, for our Season 5 finale we're gettin' greased up, guffed up, and goofed up to bring you our discussion on the quintessential sex book: the "Kama Sutra"! Join us as we discuss the practices still in use today, the ones we wish weren't, and whether or not a famous …
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Send us a text If you thought the guy was a bastard before, well, no need to change your viewpoint for this episode, I guess. We're here to find out MORE of his shitty opinions, how he felt about his weirdly-named children, the train crash that nearly killed him, and some of the greatest works from the latter-half of his life, including "David Copp…
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Send us a text My lord did this guy get up to some shit. Between the terrorist bird, the woman he tried to drown, the man he was sort of complicit in killing... this man lived a full life all before he turned 40. Join us as we go over the major early works of Charles Dickens, including "The Pickwick Papers", "Oliver Twist", and "A Christmas Carol",…
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Send us a text Emily Dickinson could only be described as a Livewire within poetry. Someone who Blasted the competition out of the water. Unfortunately, her reclusive lifestyle led to her having no real fame until after her death, where her Mountain of works were finally published to universal acclaim. Join us as we go through her ghostly presence …
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Send us a text What a long road it's been. And that road is filled with androids dressed as Romans looking to kill you in a plot 2000 years in the making. Join us as we try to unravel the final years of history's most insane or prophetic writer (depending on what you believe). Time to head on down to the bus stop and yell at wind, we're discussing …
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Send us a text TW: Rape, Suicide; Sex! Drugs! Drugs! Rock n' Roll! Drugs! Well, maybe not so much the sex and Rock n' Roll but at least we got drugs! Philip K. Dick is certainly one of those authors that you know from the hundreds of adaptations you've seen on TV, whether you're aware of it or not, including "The Man in the High Castle", "Do Androi…
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Send us a text You know how to piss off a fanbase? Tell them the truth. Join us as we go into the rest of Jane Austen's life, as she produces satire after satire that seems to go over 50% of the population's head. If she lived longer than she did, there's a good chance she would've finally told the world herself, but unfortunately, we're left with …
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Send us a text Miss us? Don't answer that it'll make me sad. Well we took an impromptu mid-season break by mistake but we're back! Come join us as we go over the early life and works of a very misunderstood lady, someone who's known today for the kind of work that she was actually making fun of in the first place, Jane Austen!…
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Send us a text TW: Pedophilia; Jesus Christ this guy. For some of you, this will for sure be a sad goodbye, as we delve into the remaining years of William S. Burroughs and his works, including his magnum opus, "Naked Lunch". For those of us with a disgust for beatniks, it couldn't come soon enough.由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text TW: Child Abuse, Pedophilia; Now have we dealt with some real pieces of shit here on Caleb Can't Read? Boy have we. Conmen, torturers, literal Nazis... But William S. Burroughs is a special kind of bastard. Come join us as delve into perhaps the most infamous writer of the Beat Generation and the making of his first novel, "Junkie", …
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Send us a text If there were ever a superhero that could drown a man in piss and make you question why you ever called on them in the first place, Francois Rabelais would be the PeePee PooPoo Man. (The 'P' symbol on his chest stands for 'hoPe'.) Since Chaucer's invention of words used on Caleb Can't Read today, there was a man in the 1500's that pu…
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Send us a text For a man such as Roald Dahl, author of "The BFG", "Matilda", and "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", what can you say about him? That he was problematic? A bit creepy with his erotica and kind of shitty to his kids? That he said some problematic things and was a hypocrite when it came to the messages he wrote for children but didn't do himself…
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Send us a text TW: Child Abuse, Dead Kids; To those of you familiar with Roald Dahl's life, you may remember his beginnings as a severely abused child, an ace fighter pilot, and a sexual secret agent. To those of you who are unfamiliar with Roald Dahl... well... we have some surprises for you. Join us today as we delve into the early life of the ma…
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Send us a text TW: Dead Kids; Welcome, you bunch of animals! Come delve into the heyday of Rudyard Kipling, from his surprisingly non-racist classic "The Jungle Book", to his questionable masterpiece "Kim", and alllll the way through his problematic hit "The White Man's Burden". For a man who loved to literally invent new slurs, will he be able to …
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Send us a text Ah, Kipling. A brilliant poet. A wonderful storyteller. A hell of a racist. Join us as we discuss the early life of English literature's most troubling slur creator!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text Kept you waiting? Well we've been dealing with a lot of illnesses lately, which oddly enough is the theme for this episode and Jose Saramago's remaining works. Come join us as we delve into his remaining catalogue, such as "Blindness", "Death With Interruptions", and "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ"!…
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Send us a text TW: Child abuse; For what would have been his 100th birthday, we are presenting you with the early life of Jose Saramago, arguably (by me-- I argue this--) Portugal's best writer. Join us as we delve into his shitty childhood, his bizarre family, and his early works which would later gain a cult following, including "Manual of Callig…
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Send us a text Look, we are not experts. I swear to God, if ever we did a live show, people would have to sit through a good 20 minutes before we actually get to the source material, based solely on the fact that one of us hated how we opened the episode, and were quicker at pressing the 'stop' button than the other could cover it with their hand.…
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Send us a text Welcome to the show, folks!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text TW: Abuse, Dead Kids, Suicide; For our Season 4 finale, we bring to you a lot of sad. For real, there's like 3 different people who die by their own hand in this. But anyway, Sylvia Plath has become an authority in the poetry world since her passing, and her brilliance is something that must to be reiterated. Again though, if you're …
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Send us a text Bet you didn't see this one coming! Huh?! Haha, yeah... Anyway, this guy's a fuckin' fraud, and we're here to tell you all about it. Come listen to us discuss the bullshit prophecies of one of the most infamous conmen, Nostradamus!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text TW: Alabama; It's our 50th episode! And to celebrate, we're going over the sad sad tale of Helen Keller, most well-known for overcoming her blind and deaf disabilities to become a prolific author and Socialist activist, and not as well-known for her weird religion and once flying a whole goddamn plane.…
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Send us a text Come join us as we discuss the life of Louis Braille, the man who invented a system for the blind to read while he was only 15! And also sharing a bathroom with 120 other men. Yes, the 1800's were a pooey time, especially if you were blind before Braille, which we'll also talk about. Seriously, you were like town jester if you had a …
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Send us a text TW: Torture; Welcome to perhaps the most pretentious Latin American writer there ever was, Roberto Bolano! Come learn the backstory of the man who witnessed more than one atrocity in several countries, paving the way for him to create the two novels that one hipster chick was telling you about before her Marxist idealization turned y…
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Send us a text TW: Rape; You may know him as "Geoffrey Chaucer", but we know him as "Geoffrey Chaucer, God of Farts". Welcome to our episode on the man who quite literally invented the word, and perfected the ass-craft with his most famous stories-- and the precursor to the entire English literary scene-- "The Canterbury Tales"!…
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Send us a text TW: Rape; Good goofin' God we're back in Nebraska. Come join us as we go over the greatest works of Willa Cather; including "Death Comes for the Archbishop", "My Antonia", and "One of Ours", as well as the last years of her life, fraught with pain and loss. Yay!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text We hear you, and your prayers have been answered: you want more Nebraska. Well today we have for you the embodiment of Nebraska itself, the author of "The Prairie Trilogy", and famous derby-hat-wearer, Willa Cather!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text Welcome to our finale of Herman Melville folks. The end of his depressing, destructive life, and yet the birth of Billy Budd, the "Handsome Sailor", a man so thicc with love, that he climaxes our hearts. Anyway, we'll be covering some of his most memorable stories here as well, including "Bartleby" and "Benito Cereno" as well. High s…
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Send us a text Come join us as we go in length into the great American masterpiece, "Moby Dick"! There's traumatized toddlers! Dick fat! A South Seas gay marriage! Everything needed to run a safe re-election!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text Split your lungs with blood and thunder, kids! It's Herman Melville! As we begin our journey into the life of this troubled sailor, we will be focusing on his career as a failed writer before his eventual magnum opus, "Moby Dick". Take your Dramamine, the water's gonna be rough!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text Hello, all. This is just a quick update for anyone wondering why we've got such a strange episode schedule currently. Short answer: it's because we don't make any money on this podcast so we're fighting for our lives with our day jobs. And with schedule changes for our day jobs comes schedule changes for our episodes on here. Episode…
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Send us a text WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME YOU LITTLE COMMIE? YOU THINK YOU CAN TALK TO UNCLE SAM THAT WAY? Well it turns out that someone DID talk to Uncle Sam that way, and his name was James Dalton Trumbo, author of "Johnny Got His Gun" and the (in)famous Communist blacklisted from Hollywood! Come listen to us discuss his most well-known work as well…
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Send us a text TW: Abuse, just... a lot of abuse all around. Please skip this one if you've got any kind of hangups on this; Welcome to the first episode for Season 4 of Caleb Can't Read! And along with it, the most notorious pimp of them all, and the man who literally wrote the handbook on it, Iceberg Slim!…
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Send us a text TW: Child Abuse, Rape; You know us, we love a good shithead. Well we're digging up one of the most glorified of all the drunk, abusive, deadbeat writers of them all, the poet and novelist Charles Bukowski!由Jordan Raebel
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Send us a text Well we typed in "worst author" and this guy unsurprisingly topped every list right ahead of Glenn Beck. Come join us as we make fun of a Nazi who tried his hand at a literature and gloriously failed, the author behind terrorist propaganda book "The Turner Diaries", William Pierce III!…
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