Rob Delaney & Tim Blake Nelson Explore The Greats In Video Podcast

Rob Delaney, co-creator and star of Catastrophe, is a huge fan of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.

The actor, who also stars in Hulu’s new drama series Furious, is one of a number of stars exploring the great novels in a new video podcast series and he got to record his parts at Melville’s former abode.

Delaney, O Brother, Where Art Thou? star Tim Blake Nelson and John Douglas Thompson, the British stage actor who appeared in HBO’s The Gilded Age, are leading Exploring The Greats, a video podcast book club series from Vespucci.

Exploring the Greats starts with four classic works of literature – The Odyssey, Moby-Dick, Plato’s Republic, and Othello. Each book club is filmed and released as its own weekly video podcast series.

The idea is to make these books more accessible to audiences.

Delaney is exploring Moby Dick with Professor Hester Blum of Washington University in St. Louis; Blake Nelson is exploring Plato’s Republic with Agnes Callard, philosopher of the University of Chicago and Douglas Thompson is exploring Othello with James Shapiro, Shakespeare scholar at Columbia University.

Mary Beard, Cambridge classicist and chair of the 2026 Booker Prize jury is also exploring The Odyssey, a timely choice given the recent launch of Chris Nolan’s movie, with Charlotte Higgins, chief culture writer at The Guardian. The pair also hosted Vespucci’s 38-part series on the poem in Instant Classics.

The series launches today with each book series ranging from five episodes to 38. Episodes are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Vespucci’s acclaimed slate includes over 30 podcasts produced in partnership with Audible, Apple, Spotify, Wondery, iHeart, BBC, and Sony featuring talent including Will Arnett, Elle Fanning, Steve Buscemi, and Emilia Clarke, along with multiple feature-length documentaries for Amazon, Showtime, and Paramount+.

Vespucci is behind podcasts such as Spotify’s Revelations and Elle Fanning’s One Click as well as titles with Will Arnett, Steve Buscemi, and Emilia Clarke. It also produces documentaries including Showtime’s 2nd Chance, Amazon’s The Sexiest Man In Winnipeg and Paramount+’s The Honey Trap.

“We are vibrating with excitement to share this podcast with the world. This was no mere job for us, rather it was a genuine labor of love, diving deep into our favorite book of all time, Moby-Dick,” said Delaney. “If we impart a fifth of the fun we had making this show to the audience, they will have an amazing time.”

“There is an old adage that a classic is something everyone wants to have read and nobody wants to read. In an age of fractured attention, that’s more likely truer than ever before. We hope these clubs create conditions for focus and immersion, for grappling seriously with big ideas, without losing any sense of curiosity or play,” added Vespucci Co-Founders Johnny Galvin and Daniel Turcan.