# Chiara Barzini & Olivia Laing: Aqua

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718/chiara-barzini-olivia-laing-aqua
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718/chiara-barzini-olivia-laing-aqua.md
Podcast: [London Review Bookshop Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718)
Published: 2026-05-06T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB2782081856.mp3?updated=1777965225
Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB2782081856.mp3?updated=1777965225
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718/episodes/chiara-barzini-olivia-laing-aqua
Duration seconds: 3488

## Resource

The Los Angeles Aqueduct, a 233-mile engineering masterwork, carries water from the Owens Valley, across the desert to a barren corner of California. Without it, the city of Los Angeles and the film industry as we know it would not exist. In Aqua (Canongate) writer and film-maker Chiara Barzini explores this contested land and waterscape, blending travel writing, philosophy, cultural history and memoir in a hugely entertaining meditation on water, film, dreams versus reality, and an empire on the brink of catastrophe. Barzini was in conversation with writer Olivia Laing, who has described Aqua as ‘outrageously good’ and ‘unforgettable’. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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## Transcript

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