In Ali Smith's Gliff , two children wake up to find that someone has painted a red line around their home. They've been marked "unverifiable" and they're at risk of being captured. The dystopian near-future in which they live is a world of government surveillance and environmental destruction – and one without libraries. In today's episode, Smith talks with NPR's Scott Simon about the authoritarian themes in her novel. They discuss what makes authoritarianism feel attractive and safe, Smith's fo...
Feb 11, 2025•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast As a cable news host, MSNBC's Chris Hayes is in the attention business. But in today's interview, he says that he often feels like he's chasing rather than directing his audience's focus. In his new book, The Sirens' Call , Hayes argues that attention has become the information age's most finite resource, with damaging consequences for our politics, lives and collective alienation. In today's episode, Hayes joins NPR's Steve Inskeep for a conversation about the difference between attention and i...
Feb 10, 2025•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast The authors of two nonfiction books say they were moved to change the world after finding inspiration in nature. First, Robin Wall Kimmerer's book The Serviceberry explores themes including economies of abundance and reciprocity in the natural world – similar to those addressed in her hit book Braiding Sweetgrass . In today's episode, Kimmerer joins NPR's Ari Shapiro for a conversation that touches on biomimicry, little free libraries, and what nature can teach us about human economies. Then, we...
Feb 07, 2025•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cecilia, the main character in Olivia Abtahi's The Interpreter , wears an oversized green suit and tie. She's a kid, but she also works as a translator and interpreter for her immigrant parents. Whether at the DMV, the doctor's office or the mechanic, she's there to help out with cultural translation. The story, illustrated by Monica Arnaldo, is based on Abtahi's own experience growing up with an Iranian father and an Argentine mother who both spoke English, but sometimes needed support with cul...
Feb 06, 2025•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast At age 36, actor Naomi Watts visited her doctor in hopes of starting a family. Instead, she was told that she was close to menopause. She says she felt panicked and alone, despite the fact that tens of millions of women experience menopause each year. In a new book, Dare I Say It , Watts tries to open what she sees as a closed conversation around aging. Her advice-based book covers her own fertility story, her experience with menopause symptoms, skincare, nutrition and more. In today's episode, ...
Feb 05, 2025•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2021, Andy Corren published an obituary for his late mother in The Fayetteville Observer . "A plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso on Saturday," he wrote. His colorful, candid remembrance went viral on Twitter, and now Corren has expanded the tribute into a memoir. Dirtbag Queen recounts the author's experience of growing up in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with a single, Southern, unconventional mother of six children. In today's episode, Corren speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about ...
Feb 04, 2025•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Betty Shamieh was the first Palestinian American playwright to have a play produced off-Broadway. She describes her debut novel, Too Soon , as a "Palestinian American Sex and the City." The novel follows three Palestinian American women across generations as they navigate love and identity. In today's episode, Shamieh speaks with NPR's Pien Huang about using comedy as a way to humanize characters who may be dehumanized in the real world, the 10 year writing process for the book, and how she didn...
Feb 03, 2025•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Grady Hendrix is one of the biggest names in horror fiction today. He's published 11 horror novels and won a Bram Stoker Award for his non-fiction book on the history of horror fiction. In this episode, we revisit a 2021 conversation between Hendrix and former NPR host Audie Cornish about his book Final Girl Support Group with a discussion on society's obsession with violence and its perpetrators, rather than the victims. Then, we hear Hendrix speak with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about his latest nove...
Jan 31, 2025•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a long career as a prosecutor, a defense attorney and a judge, 77-year-old Rusty Sabich is retired. But when a young woman named Mae Potter goes missing, Rusty comes out of retirement to defend the lead suspect – who happens to be his soon-to-be stepson. Presumed Guilty is the latest novel from Scott Turow, who's been writing about this character since he published Presumed Innocent in 1987. In today's episode, Turow joins NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation that touches on second chances...
Jan 30, 2025•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new book titled Unassimilable: An Asian Diasporic Manifesto for the 21st Century by Bianca Mabute-Louie makes a radical case against assimilation for the Asian diaspora. The project was inspired by the author's upbringing in San Gabriel Valley, an ethnoburb right outside of Los Angeles, which Mabute-Louie describes as a place "where Asian immigrants go to never assimilate." In today's episode, the author joins NPR's Ailsa Chang for a conversation about what un-assimilability looks like in prac...
Jan 29, 2025•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Photographer Brian Kelley has been collecting National Park ephemera for years. He wanted to find a way to share the maps, brochures and memorabilia he's collected from his visits, which resulted in the 2019 project Parks . Now, Kelley is out with a sequel, Parks 2 , a coffee table book that shares more of his personal archive of National Park designs. In today's episode, Kelley speaks with NPR's Sarah McCammon about what inspired him to start his collection, the history of design technology, an...
Jan 28, 2025•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this interview with NPR's Scott Simon, Han Kang says the idea for her latest novel came to her in a snowy, haunting dream. The Nobel Prize-winning author's We Do Not Part is itself dreamlike. The novel follows narrator Kyungha as she tries to rescue a friend's beloved pet bird in the midst of a snowstorm that has hit South Korea's Jeju Island. As the story goes on, Kyungha is confronted with the taboo, hidden history of a 1948 massacre that took place on the island. In today's episode, Simon ...
Jan 27, 2025•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two new novels tackle themes of motherhood and family secrets. First, in Emma Knight's The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus , 18-year-old Pen has just arrived as a student at the University of Edinburgh. For Pen's whole life, she's sensed that her parents were hiding something from her – and she believes the answers might lie in Scotland. In today's episode, Knight joins NPR's Mary Louise Kelly for a conversation about her debut novel. They discuss the first character that came to Knight – and h...
Jan 24, 2025•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast The beginning of a new year often represents a clean slate for people hoping to make a change. But by this point in January, many have let go of their resolutions. It can be difficult to make goals stick, especially when they require actions that aren't inherently rewarding. Katy Milkman, a behavioral economist at the University of Pennsylvania, has spent her career researching what it takes to achieve our goals. Her 2021 book How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You...
Jan 23, 2025•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jules Feiffer, illustrator of The Phantom Tollbooth , died last week at age 95. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and cartoonist began drawing and writing for a living when he was 17. And just last year, Feiffer came out with his first graphic novel for middle grade readers. That book, Amazing Grapes , kicks off with a father's departure, which sets in motion a series of adventures across dimensions for his three children. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Feiffer and NPR's S...
Jan 22, 2025•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast