fiction/non/fiction

Non-fiction writer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Christian Barter to talk about the life of performer and activist Harry Belafonte, who died in 2023. Jelly-Schapiro, the author of a new biography of Belafonte, considers the entertainer's distinctive combination of mainstream appeal and radical politics. He notes how Belafonte's vault to stardom and success with the first LP to sell a million copies, Calypso, positioned him to speak across racial lines in a segregated society. Jelly-Schapiro discusses Belafonte's nation-changing impact on the Civil Rights Movement, and his unique position as the only member of Martin Luther King's inner circle who could also be asked to guest-host The Tonight Show. He reflects on how Belafonte, the son of Jamaican immigrants who grew up between Harlem and his parents' country, navigated the performance of authenticity. Jelly-Schapiro reads from his book, Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Christian Barter.Joshua Jelly-SchapiroDaylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He MadeNames of New York: Discovering the City's Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-NamesIsland People: The Caribbean and the WorldNonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas with Rebecca SolnitPòtoprens: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince with Leah Gordon and Katelyne Alexis Cuba Then, Cuba NowChris Ofili: Paradise Lost with Chris OfiliHarry BelafonteCalypsoIsland in the SunBuck and the Preacher“We Are the World”OthersBeetlejuiceSing Your Song (2011)Following Harry (2024)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Houston-based poet Lupe Mendez joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to discuss ICE raids, the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and the political climate in Texas heading into the midterms. Mendez details the last few minutes of Araujo's life and talks about the government's altered story of Araujo's death. Mendez also explains why he decided to write about the Mexican community's boycott of racist integration practices in Houston during the 1970s and his compulsion to write poetry in Spanish and English. Inspired by Ebony Stewart, Mendez talks about how his “artivism” intersected with his role as Texas Poet Laureate. Mendez reads from We Exist in the Whisper: Huelga School Verses and Prayer Holding Night: New & Selected Works.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Whitney Terrell.Lupe MendezWe Exist in the Whisper: Huelga School VersesPrayer Holding Night: New & Selected WorksWhy I Am Like TequilaOthersEbony Stewart Jasminne Mendez Librotraficante Tintero ProjectsLorenzo Salgado Araujo Chased the American Dream for 35 YearsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Artist and writer Molly Crabapple joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the Jewish Labor Bund and its socialist, secular, anti-Zionist principles. Crabapple, whose artist great-grandfather Sam Rothbort was part of the organization, discusses researching and writing her New York Times bestselling book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund, which chronicles the Bund's roots, founding in 1897, and development in the 20th century. Crabapple explains the Bund's relationship to the idea of Hereness and their belief that diaspora was home and that they belonged where they lived; the Bund's relationship to the Russian empire and to Jewish identity; and the fate of its leaders in the Holocaust. She also reflects on how she structured and shaped the Bund's massive history following a random encounter with a fallen book on the street. She reads from Here Where We Live Is Our Country.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Molly CrabappleHere Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish BundBrothers of the Gun A Memoir of the Syrian War by Marwan Hisham and Molly Crabapple Drawing BloodMy Great-Grandfather the Bundist | The New York Review of BooksOthersZinky Boys Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Andrew Bromfield The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael ChabonU.S.A. The Complete Trilogy [The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money] by John Dos Passos See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

MLS commentator Nate Bukaty joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about Kansas City's influence on American soccer and how the city came to host the World Cup. Bukaty is the co-author of Perfect Pitch: How Kansas City Became the Heart of American Soccer and Landed the World Cup along with the writer Rustin Dodd. He discusses how immigration and local leaders like Lamar Hunt turned a Midwestern “flyover” city into an unexpected soccer powerhouse. Terrell and Bukaty reflect on their youth playing the sport in Kansas City and describe what it felt like for their hometown to become a focal point of this year's World Cup and a destination for teams and fans from all over the world. Bukaty considers the U.S. men's team's loss to Belgium in the round of 16 and compares the most recent roster to the 2014 lineup. He reads from Perfect Pitch.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Nate BukatyPerfect Pitch: How Kansas City Became the Heart of American Soccer and Landed the World CupOthersKansas City, the Smallest World Cup Host, Has the World at Its Feet The New York TimesTrump Asked FIFA to Review U.S. Player's Suspension. Now He's Eligible to Play. The New York TimesFiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 21, Kingdom Quarterback: Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd on Race, Kansas City Football, and Super Bowl MVP Patrick MahomesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Acclaimed nonfiction writer Peter Hessler joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new memoir, Other Rivers: A Chinese Education. Hessler, a New Yorker staff writer who first went to China as a teacher in the 1990s, explains how education there shifted between that era and 2019, when he returned to Sichuan Province with his wife and daughters to teach English again. He discusses the impact of his students' shift from rural to urban lives, unpacks the differences between his twins' schooling in Colorado and in China, and the relationship, in both places, to memorization, creativity, and authority. He also talks about keeping in touch with his students from the 1990s, many of whom became teachers, over decades. Hessler reads from Other Rivers.This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Peter HesslerOther Rivers: A Chinese EducationThe Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian RevolutionStrange Stones: Dispatches from East and WestCountry Driving: A Chinese Road TripOracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in ChinaRiver TownPeter Hessler Latest Articles | The New YorkerA Teacher in China Learns the Limits of Free Expression The Double Education of My Twins' Chinese SchoolChina's Shifting Relationship to the CountrysideChina's Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle ClassOthersStoner by John WilliamsGossip GirlJohn McPheeThe Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckEast of Eden by John SteinbeckKaroline Leavitt: This is a full-blown communist revolutionFactory Girls by Leslie T. ChangSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Young adult novelist Soman Chainani joins co-hosts Christian Barter and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the impact of age on politics. Chainani, the author of a new novel called Young World that features a teenage everyman's unlikely rise to the presidency, explains trying to make his premise as plausible as possible using devices like a Supreme Court decision, a split Electoral College, and realistic images. He talks about smuggling civics lessons into the plot, getting young people excited to vote and run for office, and taking his story beyond the U.S. to imagine a global youth revolution and a fictional G-8 of teen leaders. Chainani also reflects on the impact of aging politicians' unwillingness to relinquish power, particularly as life expectancies continue to rise. He reads from Young World.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Christian Barter.Soman ChainaniYoung WorldCovenThe School for Good and Evil seriesOthersThe President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson WhiteFiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 51: Ellen Emerson White on the First Woman President, Real and Imagined1776Richie RichScandalSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Journalist Matthew Wolfe joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new book Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage. Wolfe talks about the history of environmental activism, including its rarely discussed bipartisan past, and explains how industry made climate change a Democratic and progressive issue. He reflects on the impact of the Earth Liberation Front, which originated in England and developed another home in Oregon. He also unpacks their three guiding principles, including preventing harm to people, and considers law enforcement's reaction to the radical group's arson tactics. Wolfe analyzes the post-9/11 shift in environmental activism and the significance of the term “eco-terrorism,” which moved from describing harm done to the environment to those taking radical actions in the planet's defense. He reads from Fires in the Night.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Matthew WolfeFires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-SabotageOthersSilent Spring by Rachel CarsonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Writer Deb Olin Unferth joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Christian Barter to discuss the enduring power of apocalyptic narratives and her new novel Earth 7. The novel follows the life of Dylan, the daughter of a researcher, cast adrift on an earth that has been depopulated by war and environmental collapse. As Dylan's mother tries to replicate and preserve the DNA of the earth's now extinct flora and fauna, Unferth examines how proposed scientific solutions to global warming–like carbon capture, building artificial reefs, or shooting precious metals and sulfur into the sky–may exacerbate the problems they are meant to solve. She talks about the role apocalyptic narrative plays in a world that is, in many ways, already experiencing the apocalypse. She also reflects on her decision to “lean in” to the possibility of love and hope in the last third of the novel and explains how her optimism stems from the amazing beauty of the earth that we are living on now, even as we destroy it. She reads from Earth 7.Subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Christian Barter and Whitney Terrell.Deb Olin UnferthEarth 7Barn 8Wait Till You See Me DanceI, ParrotOthers“The Second Coming”|William Butler Yeats“September 1, 1939” |W. H. Auden“Waking Early Sunday Morning” |Robert LowellSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Novelist Ben Fountain joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new book, Rasputin Swims the Potomac. Fountain's satire, set in the not-to-distant future, describes the furor, scandal, and hysterical “weeping sickness” that arrives in the wake of the fictional President's decision to seek an unprecedented third term. Fountain talks about the technical choices he has made to fictionalize Trump, including the decision to redact his name. He also reflects on the roles of the other characters in the novel, including Clarence Thomas Jr., a Black reporter unrelated to the Supreme Court Judge; Faith Spack, the President's loyal aide; and Rasputin, a professional wrestler who can cure the “weeping sickness” and begins to rival the President in popularity. Fountain explains how the political times of the original Rasputin increasingly mirror our own and reads from Rasputin Swims the Potomac.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Christian Barter and Whitney Terrell.Ben FountainRasputin Swims the PotomacDevil Makes ThreeBeautiful Country Burn Again: Democracy, Rebellion, and RevolutionBilly Lynn's Long Halftime WalkBrief Encounters with Che Guevara: StoriesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Historian Sarah Pearsall joins co-hosts Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book, Freedom Round the Globe: a World History of the American Revolution. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Pearsall talks about how she chose to write about the global context of the American Revolution. She explains how the hanging of an indigenous woman in Detroit, ordered by British colonizers of the area, led to protests that prefigured the American Revolution. She outlines how tax protests in St. Kitts and the East India Company's actions in South Asia influenced the thinking of revolutionary leaders in the thirteen colonies. She also discusses the role that war crimes played in the public relations battle of the war and reads a passage from Freedom Round the Globe.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Whitney Terrell.Sarah PearsallFreedom Round the Globe: a World History of the American RevolutionOthersThe Declaration of Independence“What we know about the UFC fight at the White House”|CNN, June 1, 2026“These 6 Acts Dropped Out of the Freedom 250 Concert. Here's Why”|People, June 3, 2026See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Music critic Barry Walters joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Christian Barter to discuss his new book, Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music 1969-2000. Walters talks about how he chose the artists that he includes in his book and explains how musicians like David Bowie, Lou Reed, Grace Jones, and Sylvester saved his life. He explores how social repression shaped and complicated work from LGBTQ bands, how queer acts like Queen were pigeonholed by music critics, and how mainstream groups like Nirvana spoke to the LGBTQ experience. He talks about his personal connection to Madonna's work and reads from Mighty Real.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Christian Barter and Whitney Terrell.Barry WaltersMighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music 1969-2000“George Michael's ‘Father Figure': When Love Meets Crime”|Billboard, Oct. 26, 2017“Madonna's ‘Erotica,' ‘Sex': Why Musical Masterpiece, Defiant Book Still Matter”| Rolling Stone, Oct. 19, 2017“As Much As I Can, As Black As I Am: The Queer History of Grace Jones”|Pitchfork, August 25, 2015“Sylvester: Staying Alive”|The Village Voice, Nov. 8, 1988OthersCity Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and '70s by Edmund WhiteSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wake Forest University Professor of Philosophy Christian B. Miller joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to discuss his newest work of nonfiction, The Honesty Crisis: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World. Miller argues that integrity and honesty are rapidly disintegrating and we are quickly losing social norms around truth-telling. He outlines five main categories that are contributing to this honesty crisis, gives his definition of honesty, and explains how we can diminish our reliance on self-interest. He explores how a loss of integrity can affect the academic, romantic, political and technological realms. Miller also addresses contemporary politics, the recent presidential election and how honesty is in flux in our country. He reads from The Honesty Crisis.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Christian B. MillerThe Honesty Crisis: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest WorldThe Character GapOthersHow The Washington Post Fact Checker Tracked TrumpThe Rabbit Series John Updike's Rabbit Tetralogy See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Writer Rebecca Lehmann joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her debut novel, The Beheading Game, a work of speculative historical fiction in which King Henry VIII's second wife, the beheaded Queen of England Anne Boleyn, comes back to life after her wrongful execution, sews her head back on, and seeks revenge. Lehmann considers the contested history of Anne Boleyn, the outlandish accusations against her, and the ways in which her image has been erased and changed over time. She outlines the reasoning behind her portrayal of Anne, explaining how it was born out of a mix of historical fact and modern perspectives. Lehmann discusses Anne's often forgotten role as mother to Queen Elizabeth I and how that may have shaped her motives as a queen and a politician. Lehmann also talks about similarities between the chaotic courts and allegedly treasonous advisors of Henry VIII and President Trump and the importance of scapegoats in consolidating political power. She reads from The Beheading Game. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Rebecca LehmannThe Beheading GameThe Sweating SicknessRingerBetween the CrackupsOthersSir Gawain and the Green KnightSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Veteran war correspondent and Kirkus Prize winner Scott Anderson joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to discuss his new nonfiction book King of Kings, a history of the Iranian Revolution. Anderson examines how rapid modernization, inequality, and U.S. influence destabilized Iran, and traces the rise of Ruhollah Khomeini from exiled cleric to revolutionary leader. The conversation explores key mistakes by the Shah, the failures of U.S. intelligence, and how the revolution unfolded in unpredictable ways. Anderson also connects this history to present-day tensions, discussing Iran's current power structure under Ali Khamenei and the global rise of religious nationalism. Finally, the hosts consider parallels between the Shah's rule and contemporary political leadership, as well as the limits of American military strategy in the region. Anderson reads from King of Kings. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Scott AndersonKing of KingsLawrence in ArabiaOthersMohammad Reza Shah PahlaviRuhollah KhomeiniAli KhameneiIran hostage crisisOPECStrait of HormuzSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Acclaimed novelist Liam Callanan joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss American-born Pope Leo XIV's recent conflicts with the Trump administration. Callanan, who is Catholic, contextualizes the pope's critiques of the Iran war and other political comments within the long history of the Vatican's outspokenness against social injustices. Callanan also talks about the heroine of his most recent novel, When in Rome, a realtor named Claire who finds herself torn between returning to an old flame and taking the veil. He explains Catholicism's connections to writing and tells the story of his own surreal encounter with the magnetic Pope Francis, who passed away last year. Callanan previews the role faith plays in his upcoming nonfiction debut, Stone Age Astronaut, the biography of a record-setting aviator who becomes a priest. He reads from When in Rome. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Liam CallananWhen in RomeStone Age Astronaut: The Astonishing Adventures of America's Forgotten FlierParis by the BookListen & Other StoriesAll SaintsThe Cloud AtlasOthersTrump Attacks Pope Leo as Too Liberal and ‘Weak on Crime' - The New York TimesJD Vance defends Trump amid spat with Pope Leo: ‘Stick to matters of morality'Pope Leo responds to Trump's attack: ‘I'm not afraid of the Trump administration'Author Liam Callanan's Work Is Animated by His Catholic FaithThe Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoevskyAudience with participants in the Conference organized by “La Civiltà Cattolica” with Georgetown University, May 27, 2023See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Writer and scholar Caroline Bicks, the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, joins co-hosts Jennifer Maritza McCauley and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her time in King's archives, an experience which resulted in her new book Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King. Bicks talks about meeting King and exploring his early drafts, dramatic revisions, exchanges with readers and editors, and undergraduate columns. She situates five of King's earliest novels in the context of his personal experiences and deepest fears and also considers how she understood the books as a younger reader, as well as what it was like to revisit them. She reflects on King's writing process and his unique use of language, showcasing how King is not just the king of horror but also a master of craft. Bicks, McCauley, and Ganeshananthan discuss their experiences with King's novels and the intimate and personal nature of horror writing. Bicks reads from Monsters in the Archives. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Caroline BicksMonsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen KingCognition and Girlhood in Shakespeare's World: Rethinking Female AdolescenceOther texts by Stephen King & screen adaptations based on his workThe ShiningCarrie"IT: Welcome to Derry" | HBO MaxOn Writing: A Memoir of the CraftThe StandItSalem's LotNight ShiftPet Sematary OthersThe Witch of Blackbird PondSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Retired astronaut and novelist Chris Hadfield joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss space exploration, geopolitics, and his new book, Final Orbit. Hadfield recalls watching the Apollo 11 Moon Landing as a child and considers how these historic missions capture public imagination. He explains the risks of reentry and splashdown for Artemis II as well as the scientific promise and political stakes of returning to the Moon in the future. Hadfield also reflects on the ethics of public versus private models of space travel and the possibility of future lunar settlement. Pivoting to fiction, he talks about using the real history of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Cold War tensions, and China's early space ambitions to build the alternative-history world of Final Orbit. He describes his research process and how he tackles plot, reveals whether the Apollo Murders series will have another installment, and reads from Final Orbit. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Chris HadfieldThe Apollo MurdersThe DefectorAn Astronaut's Guide to Life on EarthYou Are HereThe Darkest DarkOthersArtemis IIApollo-Soyuz Test ProjectStar TrekProject Hail MaryAstra Carta | Sustainable Markets Initiative "Coming Home May Be the Most Dangerous Part of Artemis II" | The New York Times, April 11See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Psychologist, behavioral geneticist and writer Kathryn Paige Harden joins co-hosts Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book, Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness. Harden talks about the chemistry of human behavior, how society has shaped its views of different communities, the relationship between hereditability and perceived responsibility, and how those opinions shift as science unlocks more mysteries of the human genome. She also reflects on how her Christian upbringing has influenced her thinking and considers what influence new genetic information might have on our legal system. Harden reads from Original Sin.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Kathryn Paige HardenOriginal Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of ForgivenessThe Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social EqualityOthersThe Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso by Dante Alighieri“Criminal Complexity” - The American ScholarSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Writer Ana Gavrilovska joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about her recent article for Current Affairs, "Thomas Pynchon Saw American Fascism Coming." Gavrilovska reflects on Pynchon's long career and his interest in writing about systems, how his time as a technical writer at Boeing informs his work, his classic novels Gravity's Rainbow and The Crying of Lot 49, and his new novel, Shadow Ticket. She explains why Shadow Ticket's fictional Airmont family seems like stand-ins for the Trumps and considers the significance of a food-stuffed film that cheese mogul Bruno Airmont watches with his daughter Daphne as many ordinary people go hungry. The three also discuss Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar-winning movie One Battle After Another, which takes inspiration from Pynchon's novel Vineland. Gavrilovska reads from Shadow Ticket. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Ana Gavrilovska"Thomas Pynchon Saw American Fascism Coming" | Current Affairs Thomas PynchonShadow TicketVinelandGravity's RainbowThe Crying of Lot 49Inherent ViceV.Mason & DixonBleeding EdgeAgainst the DayOthersOne Battle After Another (2025)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Author Ellie Roscher joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to talk about her recent book, Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports, which explores the roadblocks transgender athletes face and the triumphs they achieve despite these challenges. Roscher discusses the harmful myths surrounding trans athletes and describes the current bans against their participation as a “solution in search of a problem.” Roscher, who interviewed 20 trans athletes for the book along with her co-author, Dr. Allie Baeth, interrogates the sex-segregation of the sports world and outlines how restrictions put in place to police the participation of trans athletes are rooted in patriarchy and tend to hurt cisgender participants as well. They consider trans athletes competing at the youth level and the negative impacts trans bans have on children who are searching for play and community. She also explains the importance of advocacy and how everyone wins when everyone is allowed to play. Roscher reads from Fair Game. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Ellie RoscherFair Game (with Dr. Allie Baeth)The Embodied PathPlay Like a GirlOthersFiction/Non/Fiction Season 9, Episode 5: Max Delsohn on the Importance of Portraying Trans MenFiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 43: Gary Shteyngart on Vera, or Faith, and American AuthoritariansSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Novelist Jeff Boyd joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about his new work of literary crime fiction, Hard Times, which is set in Chicago, where he lived previously. The hosts ask about the influence of police procedurals on the portrayal of the novel's main character, a mixed-race cop named Curtis, and Boyd considers whether there is a gray area between “good cops” and “bad cops.” He also discusses the character of Curtis's brother-in-law, a high school teacher named Buddy Mack, and reflects on how his own experience as a teacher informed his writing of Buddy as well as the portrayal of students. He explains how his own childhood as the son of a police officer gives him insight into that profession, and shares his experience of hearing feedback from his father. Boyd reads from Hard Times. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Jeff BoydHard TimesThe WeightOthersLaw & OrderThe WireChicago PDRomeo & Juliet by William ShakespeareSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Award-winning author Daisy Hernández joins co-hosts Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Whitney Terrell to talk about her new book, Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth. Hernández explains the history of the term “citizenship” and the damaging power it holds over a wide range of marginalized identities. She reflects on how educators can galvanize change around these issues in the classroom, as well as her own family's relationship with immigration. Hernández reads from Citizenship.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Whitney Terrell.Daisy HernandezCitizenship: Notes on an American MythThe Kissing BugA Cup of Water Under My BedColonize This! (2002)Colonize This! (2019)Tricycle: The Buddhist ReviewOthersBorderlands/La Frontera by Gloria AnzaldúaSister Outsider by Audre LordeJames Baldwin EssaysThe Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of AI by Petra Molnar, foreword by E. Tendayi AchiumeAmericans in Waiting by Hiroshi MotomuraBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi CoatesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pop culture critic James Sullivan joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the history of American protest music. Sullivan, the author of the book Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs, talks about how music has been an important part of inspiring and supporting protest movements from anti-Vietnam War efforts to the Black Lives Matter Movement and present-day protests against ICE. Sullivan considers the importance of protest music to facilitate camaraderie, build morale, and change minds. He explains how the way a song is sung can transform it into protest, even if the lyrics don't change; he comments on recent Super Bowl halftime shows and their political relevance. He also reflects on songs that not only protest, but also honor political martyrs. Sullivan reads from Which Side Are You On?To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.James SullivanWhich Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest SongsIsland Cup: Two Teams, Twelve Miles of Ocean, and Fifty Years of Football Rivalry7 Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George CarlinMusic“I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier”“We Shall Overcome”“Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”“Which Side Are You On?”“Try That in a Small Town”“Man in Black”“Streets of Minneapolis”“American Obituary”“Mississippi Goddam”“You Don't Own Me”“The Times They Are A-Changin'”“Blowin' in the Wind”“This Land Is Your Land”“The Preacher and the Slave”“Casey Jones (The Union Scab)”OthersICE OUT SING-IN Resistance Songbook‘Streets of Minneapolis': 32 protest songs inspired by the city's ICE resistanceAlfred HayesThe Man Who Never Died by William M. AdlerSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Novelist, essayist, and educator Brian Platzer joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new novel, The Optimists, which follows private school teacher Mr. Keating over three decades. Platzer reflects on the real-life inspiration for the book, his own mentor, Rod Keating, and the fleeting intensity of teacher-student relationships that nevertheless turn out to be formative. He explains how he came to decide that the fictional Keating, struggling to tell the story of his own life, would narrate the story of a remarkable student, Clara, alongside his own. Platzer also talks about the novel's other central relationships, including Keating's marriage to his wife, Caroline, and his connection to his ex's son, Jacob. Platzer, himself a private school teacher, considers the novel's private school setting, as well as the high cost of elite education and small classroom sizes in New York City, the competitive pressures placed on young people, and the broader impact of the gap between private institutions and public schools. Platzer reads from The Optimists. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Writer and editor Yi-Ling Liu joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to talk about state-controlled censorship. Liu, the author of a new book, The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet, explores what it means to build community through the internet while contending with surveillance and suppression. Liu, Terrell, and McCauley discuss the sale of TikTok to U.S. companies, the growing online surveillance and censorship in the United States, and how American citizens can learn from Chinese “netizens” about how to survive under censorship. Liu tells the stories of four people– a renowned feminist, a gay dating app entrepreneur, an aspiring rapper, and a famous science fiction writer—who all found ways to dance around The Great Firewall and earn success for themselves and for their communities online. Liu details the widespread impact of each of these “wall dancers” and reflects on the inspirations that led them to foster social change through online media. Liu explores the importance of cultural exchange and connection online and considers her own personal experience with living and creating under censorship. Liu reads from The Wall Dancers.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Yi-Ling LiuThe Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese InternetOthers “The Little Man at Chehaw Station” Ralph EllisonJourney to the Center of the Earth by Jules VerneWaste Tide by Chen Qiufan, trans. by Ken Liu The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, trans. by Ken LiuSale of TikTok to U.S. Companies | PoliticoTikTok Censorship Investigation | Los Angeles TimesSale of NVIDIA Chips to China | Associated PressThe Great FirewallLü Pin on Feminist VoicesThe Feminist FiveThe Mitu Movement in ChinaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Novelist Eleanor Shearer joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new novel, Fireflies in Winter, which depicts the little-known history of how the Leeward Maroons of Jamaica—a free Black community descended from formerly enslaved Africans and indigenous people—came to Nova Scotia at the end of the 18th century. Shearer, who is British and has Caribbean ancestry, explains the genesis of her interest in the Maroons as an example of successful resistance to slavery, since they fought the British in Jamaica, but also a kind of collusion with it, as they captured and returned runaway slaves to plantations there. She reflects on the connections between her Black heroines' precarious situation in historic Canada and the situation of immigrants in the U.S. and elsewhere today. She also considers her research process, depicting queer life in earlier periods, the importance of sensory and embodied detail in historical writing, and her choice to write about the past in the present tense. Shearer reads from Fireflies in Winter.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Eleanor ShearerFireflies in WinterRiver Sing Me Home‘Rebranded plantations': how empire shaped luxury Caribbean tourism | Slavery | The GuardianOthersAnne of Green Gables by L.M. MontgomeryDavos 2026: Special address by Mark Carney, PM of Canada | World Economic ForumPrime Minister Carney delivers remarks at the World Economic Forum Annual MeetingBlack Loyalist Heritage Center, Nova ScotiaCarrefour Atlantic Emporium BookstoreFiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 22: Suzette Mayr and Kai Thomas on Canada Versus TrumpSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Award-winning journalist, activist, poll worker, and former attorney Anjali Enjeti discusses her new book, Ballot, which considers the real and metaphorical role that ballots play in our democracy. Co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Jennifer Maritza McCauley (in her first episode joining the co-host rotation) talk to Enjeti about her childhood encounters with ballots, the history of ballots in America, and the problems she encountered with Republican-installed Dominion voting machines in Fulton County, Georgia, where she was an election worker during the 2020 presidential race. She debunks the false claims of election fraud in Fulton County during that election and discusses the Trump Administration's recent seizure of 700 boxes of 2020 ballots from Fulton County, what those ballots represent, and whether or not the administration might try to alter them. She reads from Ballot.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Anjali EnjetiBallotThe Parted EarthSouthbound: Essays on Identity, Inheritance, and Social ChangeOthersFiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 8: Lacy Johnson and Anjali Enjeti on the State of Reproductive RightsFBI raid in Georgia has little legal basis – but serves Trump's goal to weaken trust in election results | The GuardianFBI's Search of Fulton County, Georgia, Election Center Is Unprecedented, Experts Say | ProPublicaTrump is trying to change how the midterm elections are conducted | The Washington PostMove to Seize Ballots Thrusts F.B.I. Into Trump's Election Conspiracy Claim | The New York TimesTrump's Mug Shot Is Released After Booking at Fulton County Jail | The New York TimesNickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara EhrenreichSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Award-winning nonfiction writer and former investigative journalist Joe Jackson joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about President Trump's “Don-roe Doctrine” and his imperial ambitions in Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, and beyond. Jackson, the author of a new book, Splendid Liberators: Heroism, Betrayal, Resistance, and The Birth of American Empire, explains how Trump's plan relies on the template set by the Spanish-American War, through which the U.S. rose as a world power and ended Spanish rule in the Western Hemisphere. Jackson sheds light on the rhetoric that fueled the war, as well as the violent history of U.S. military interference in Cuba and the Philippines. Jackson takes us through iterations of the Monroe Doctrine and outlines the impact of that philosophy on Trump's desire for imperial expansion as well as his authoritarian control domestically, in cities like Minneapolis. He discusses how the Spanish-American War served as a turning point for America's soul, including writers of the time, and how it birthed a culture of war that has continued to impact the nation, its citizens, and the world ever since. Jackson reads from Splendid Liberators.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Joe JacksonThe Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of EmpireAtlantic Fever: Lindbergh, His Competitors, and the Race to Cross the AtlanticBlack Elk: The Life of an American VisionaryOther Books:The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen CraneThe Winning of the West, Volumes 1-4, by Theodore RooseveltCarl SandburgMcTeague by Norris"The Storytellers of Empire" by Kamila Shamsie – Guernica Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T.E. LawrenceJose Marti Reader: Writings on the AmericasNoli mi Tangere (Touch Me Not) by Jose RizalOn the Origin of Species by Charles DarwinCuba in Wartime by Richard Harding DavisThe Essential Frank Norris, incl. The OctopusWinesburg, Ohio by Sherwood AndersonOther Links:Society of American HistoriansWestern Writers of AmericaTrue West MagazineMonroe Doctrine (1823, archive.gov)Roosevelt Corollary (19o5, archive.gov)“Manifest Destiny” by John Fiske, March 1885 Harper's Magazine Archives (subscription to read)Trump's Manifest Destiny - Project SyndicateLibrary of Congress: “Remember the Maine!”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Interdisciplinary performance artist and Xicana feminist scholar Jessica Lopez Lyman joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about Minnesota's history with state violence and local resistance to it, as well as ICE's intensified presence in recent weeks. Lopez Lyman, the author of a new book, Place-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin Cities, discusses immigration in Minnesota and how the increased ICE presence is affecting immigrant and BIPOC communities. Lopez Lyman speaks about the January 7 death of Renee Nicole Good, a white woman and legal observer who was shot and killed by an ICE officer, and compares the current situation to the time following police officer Derek Chauvin's murder of George Floyd in 2020. She notes the pervasiveness of the harm wrought by ICE's presence throughout Minnesota, a state with a romanticized, pastoral, and sometimes inaccurately homogenous image. She considers the importance of mutual aid, community care, and legal observers, and explains the term “movidas,” which refers to subversive knowledge and “small, hidden actions that are not public protests, that are really foundational for creating larger social movements.” She reads from Place-Keepers. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Jessica Lopez LymanPlace-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin CitiesOthers:One State, Two Very Different Views of Minneapolis The New York TimesGloria AnzaldúaAudre LordeLittle House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls WilderMaria Isa“Video shows woman dragged from car by ICE agents in Minneapolis as she tells them she's autistic” CBC News"Family of man killed by off-duty ICE agent in LA demands charges: ‘The ache will never go away'" The GuardianNYTPitchbot- Jan. 15, 2026"Native Americans are being swept up by ICE in Minneapolis, tribes say"- The Washington Post"The killing of Daunte Wright and trial of Kimberly Potter" 2021 MPR News"The murder of George Floyd" 2020 MPR News"The death of Philando Castile and the trial of Jeronimo Yanez" 2016 MPR News "Right-wing, anti-Islam protest draws large group of counter demonstrators" MPR News "The Miracle of Minneapolis" 2015 The Atlantic"AMERICAN SCENE: Minnesota: A State That Works" 1973 TIMESee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Award-winning writers and longtime friends Vauhini Vara and Karan Mahajan join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V. V. Ganeshananthan to discuss Vara's recent New Yorker essay “What If Readers Like AI-Generated Fiction?” Vara explains recent research by scientist Tuhin Chakrabarty, who has attempted to fine-tune large language models to produce better writing by feeding them authors' entire oeuvres. She considers what it means that when Chakrabarty ran the results by some creative writing graduate students, they preferred AI imitations of writers like Junot Diaz, Sigrid Nunez, and Tony Tulathimutte to the writers themselves, or could not tell the difference. She and Mahajan talk about their decades-long connection and familiarity with each other's writing. They muse on what it means that, when Vara talked Chakrabarty into letting her compete with a large language model, even Mahajan could not separate her original work from what it produced. Mahajan and Vara debate ways in which this technology will and won't change how literature is written and received, the importance of style, reading as a collective experience, and if there is anything AI will never be able to capture about writing. Vara reads from the essay. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Vauhini Vara“What If Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?” | The New Yorker Searches: Selfhood in the Digital AgeThis Is SalvagedThe Immortal King RaoKaran MahajanThe ComplexThe Association of Small BombsFamily PlanningOthers:Pedro Paramo by Juan RulfoBeloved by Toni Morrison“In the Penal Colony” by Franz KafkaNgugi wa Thiong'oSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bestselling and award-winning writer Matthew Pearl joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new novel The Award. Pearl explores the relationship between cultural prizes and ideas of nationhood, as well as imposter syndrome and external validation, like MFAs, literary awards, and being seen writing in coffeeshops by and with other writers. He reflects on developing the character of David Trent, an aspiring young writer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Pearl himself formerly lived and participated in cafe culture. He talks about the ethical lines David is willing to cross to achieve success and how he rationalizes these choices to himself. He also explains the larger-than-life character of Silas Hale, the famous and mercurial novelist who lives downstairs from David, controls their shared thermostat, and has no interest in mentoring his young neighbor. Pearl considers how David's life changes when he publishes a book and wins a prize. He reads from The Award. This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Matthew Pearl● The Award● Save Our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder● The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America● The Dante Chamber● The Last Bookaneer● The Technologists● The Last Dickens● The Poe Shadow● The Dante Club Others:● Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 19: Jacinda Townsend and James Bernard Short on American Fiction● Erasure by Percival Everett● Rabbit, Run by John Updike● The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz● The Wife by Meg Wolitzer● Yellowface by R.F. Kuang● The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris● Young Lions Fiction Award | The New York Public LibrarySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Acclaimed fiction writer and long-time creative writing professor Elizabeth McCracken joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V. V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her ninth book and first volume about craft, A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction. McCracken reflects on her long-held reluctance to attempt such a project and the impossibility of creating absolute rules for writing. She explains why she doesn't believe in “show don't tell,” “write what you know,” “write every day,” and other classic canards of craft. McCracken talks about the importance of imagining characters' physicality; well-executed present tense; how time can shape narrative; justifying flashbacks; and writing outside one's own identity. She reads from A Long Game. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Elizabeth McCrackenA Long Game: Notes on Writing FictionThe Hero of This BookThe Souvenir MuseumBowlawayThunderstruck & Other StoriesAn Exact Replica of a Figment of My ImaginationNiagara Falls All Over AgainThe Giant's HouseHere's Your Hat What's Your Hurry?Others:Tinkers by Paul HardingThe Gates of the Alamo by Stephen HarriganAffliction by Russell BanksGilligan's IslandAllan GurganusSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

2025 Maya Angelou Book Award winner Alison C. Rollins joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V. V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her 2024 poetry collection Black Bell. She explores the history and symbolism of a bell-laden iron device used to control and torture enslaved people and describes the replica she created after studying metalworking. She also recounts the story of Harriet Jacobs, who spent seven years hidden in her grandmother's attic before escaping slavery. Rollins talks about how her poems engage in call and response with other texts, including the music of Sun Ra and Stevie Wonder and images connected to ornithology, anatomy, Afrofuturism, and the history of slavery. She reflects on who has historically been granted the title of “poet” in America and discusses the archival research behind her writing. Rollins rings a glass bell and reads several poems from Black Bell.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Amelia Fisher, Victoria Freisner, Wil Lasater, and S E Walker. Alison C. RollinsBlack BellLibrary of Small CatastrophesOthers:Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet JacobsThe Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso by Dante AlighieriThe Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. LewisThe Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. TolkienWu - Tang Clan - Enter The Wu - Tang (36 Chambers) [Full Album Mix] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Sven Beckert joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new book, Capitalism: A Global History. Beckert describes capitalism as an ongoing process comparable in significance to geological forces; he examines the way it shapes our interactions with the world and notes its presence in every aspect of daily life. He recounts how it has been influenced and defined for the past thousand years by people all over the world, ranging from merchants to CEOs to rebels resisting enslavement. He unpacks capitalism's devastating global effects as well as its role in technological innovation and revolution. He explains that capitalism is a product of not only cities, but also the countryside. Finally, he addresses the idea that capitalism breeds inequality and argues for more nuance in understanding it as a human-made order that can be changed. He reads from Capitalism.To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, MaryClaire Dunagan, Emani Guerin, and Sarah Feldmann. Sven BeckertCapitalism: A Global HistoryEmpire of Cotton: A Global HistoryAmerican Capitalism: New HistoriesGlobal History, Globally: Research and Practice Around the WorldThe American Bourgeoisie: Distinction and Identity in the Nineteenth CenturyThe Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850-1896Others:Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas PynchonCapitalism named one of 100 NYT Notable Books for 2025See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Journalist Jacob Silverman joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new book, Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley. He discusses the rightward shift in ideology among leading tech giants and their companies, partially attributing the change to an interest in doing business with governments, including the U.S. and Israel. He speaks about the influence of Saudi Arabian wealth on the U.S. tech industry and how Saudi Arabia uses access to cutting-edge technology to remain in power and conduct mass surveillance on its people. Silverman addresses the calculated way today's tech leaders have taken control of the idea economy as they increasingly interfere with what information the public sees, such as Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter (now X). He gives examples of imagined and attempted tech-utopias, discussing communities such as California Forever and Próspera and their impacts. Silverman also discusses the alliance between the tech right and discontented moderate Democrats in San Francisco, explaining their involvement in recall politics and the transactional nature of tech politics. He reads an excerpt from Gilded Rage. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Emma Baxley, Elleanora Meman, Hope Wampler, and Brianna Wilson.  Jacob Silverman Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley “How Shaun Maguire Became Silicon Valley's Most MAGA Firebrand,” Business Insider Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection Others: California Forever The Diversity Myth by Peter Thiel & David Sacks ‘Go home': Honduran islanders fight against crypto colonialists| The Guardian  Elon Musk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Jacob Silverman joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new book, Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley. He discusses the rightward shift in ideology among leading tech giants and their companies, partially attributing the change to an interest in doing business with governments, including the U.S. and Israel. He speaks about the influence of Saudi Arabian wealth on the U.S. tech industry and how Saudi Arabia uses access to cutting-edge technology to remain in power and conduct mass surveillance on its people. Silverman addresses the calculated way today's tech leaders have taken control of the idea economy as they increasingly interfere with what information the public sees, such as Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter (now X). He gives examples of imagined and attempted tech-utopias, discussing communities such as California Forever and Próspera and their impacts. Silverman also discusses the alliance between the tech right and discontented moderate Democrats in San Francisco, explaining their involvement in recall politics and the transactional nature of tech politics. He reads an excerpt from Gilded Rage. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Emma Baxley, Elleanora Meman, Hope Wampler, and Brianna Wilson.  Jacob Silverman Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley “How Shaun Maguire Became Silicon Valley's Most MAGA Firebrand,” Business Insider Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection Others: California Forever The Diversity Myth by Peter Thiel & David Sacks ‘Go home': Honduran islanders fight against crypto colonialists| The Guardian  Elon Musk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Poet and essayist Kathryn Nuernberger joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her new collection of lyric essays, Held: Essays in Belonging, which is about symbiotic mutualisms, and grief and joy in an era of worsening climate change. She discusses COP30, the United Nations climate gathering currently underway in Brazil, and considers the global failure to keep warming below 1.5 °C. She reflects on the nature of symbiotic relationships and offers several examples, noting that over several cycles even parasitic relationships might achieve the balance of mutualism. Nuernberger places her work in the larger tradition of climate and nature writing, which previously tended to celebration and in recent years has turned more elegiac, and also talks about writing personal grief in relation to societal grief. She explains new vocabulary developed to address emerging climate concerns and emotions and identifies several concepts that need new words. She reads an excerpt from Held. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Graham Ballard, Courtenay Kantanka, Katelyn Koenig, and Bayleigh Williams. Kathryn Nuernberger Held: Essays in Belonging The Witch of Eye Rue Brief Interviews with the Romantic Past The End of Pink Rag & Bone Others: The Bureau of Linguistical Reality Cop30 Coverage | The Guardian  The Aquarium by Phillip Henry Gosse John Hickel Raphel Lemkin Annie Dillard  Barry Lopez The End of Nature by Bill McKibben  Edward Abbey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poet and essayist Kathryn Nuernberger joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her new collection of lyric essays, Held: Essays in Belonging, which is about symbiotic mutualisms, and grief and joy in an era of worsening climate change. She discusses COP30, the United Nations climate gathering currently underway in Brazil, and considers the global failure to keep warming below 1.5 °C. She reflects on the nature of symbiotic relationships and offers several examples, noting that over several cycles even parasitic relationships might achieve the balance of mutualism. Nuernberger places her work in the larger tradition of climate and nature writing, which previously tended to celebration and in recent years has turned more elegiac, and also talks about writing personal grief in relation to societal grief. She explains new vocabulary developed to address emerging climate concerns and emotions and identifies several concepts that need new words. She reads an excerpt from Held. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Graham Ballard, Courtenay Kantanka, Katelyn Koenig, and Bayleigh Williams. Kathryn Nuernberger Held: Essays in Belonging The Witch of Eye Rue Brief Interviews with the Romantic Past The End of Pink Rag & Bone Others: The Bureau of Linguistical Reality Cop30 Coverage | The Guardian  The Aquarium by Phillip Henry Gosse John Hickel Raphel Lemkin Annie Dillard  Barry Lopez The End of Nature by Bill McKibben  Edward Abbey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Translator Ottilie Mulzet joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her award-winning translations of Nobel Prize winner László Krasznahorkai's work. Mulzet, who was born in Canada and now lives in the Czech Republic, discusses how she learned Hungarian and began working with Krasznahorkai. She explains the humor in his novels and how his background in music shapes his prose. Mulzet also reflects on the timeliness of his writing and the breadth of his influences, including Europe and Asia more broadly. She considers its political context, including the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán's recent Kulturkampf, or efforts to control Hungarian cultural production. Mulzet reads an excerpt from Herscht 07769, which takes its title from the protagonist's decision to write German Chancellor Angela Merkel a letter using only his name and postcode as a return address. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Amelia Fisher, Victoria Freisner, Wil Lasater, and S E Walker. Ottilie Mulzet's Translations of László Krasznahorkai Herscht 07769 A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East Seiobo There Below Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens: Reportage Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming The World Goes On Animalinside Others: Under a Pannonian Sky: Ten Women Poets from Hungary edited by Ottilie Mulzet Satantango George Szirtes "An Angel Passed Above Us" | The Yale Review  Hungarian Translators House "Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai review – sinister cosmic visions" | The Guardian  "Laszlo Krasznahorkai's Novels Find a U.S. Audience" | The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Translator Ottilie Mulzet joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her award-winning translations of Nobel Prize winner László Krasznahorkai's work. Mulzet, who was born in Canada and now lives in the Czech Republic, discusses how she learned Hungarian and began working with Krasznahorkai. She explains the humor in his novels and how his background in music shapes his prose. Mulzet also reflects on the timeliness of his writing and the breadth of his influences, including Europe and Asia more broadly. She considers its political context, including the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán's recent Kulturkampf, or efforts to control Hungarian cultural production. Mulzet reads an excerpt from Herscht 07769, which takes its title from the protagonist's decision to write German Chancellor Angela Merkel a letter using only his name and postcode as a return address. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Amelia Fisher, Victoria Freisner, Wil Lasater, and S E Walker. Ottilie Mulzet's Translations of László Krasznahorkai Herscht 07769 A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East Seiobo There Below Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens: Reportage Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming The World Goes On Animalinside Others: Under a Pannonian Sky: Ten Women Poets from Hungary edited by Ottilie Mulzet Satantango George Szirtes "An Angel Passed Above Us" | The Yale Review  Hungarian Translators House "Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai review – sinister cosmic visions" | The Guardian  "Laszlo Krasznahorkai's Novels Find a U.S. Audience" | The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fiction writer Max Delsohn joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his debut short story collection, Crawl, which features a number of transmasculine characters. Delsohn addresses the Trump administration's broad and vicious assault on transgender Americans, from advertising misinformation to attacks on higher education. Given pending legislation, he considers how shifting dynamics at the state level affect the decisions trans people and their families are making to find safety. Delsohn also reflects on intra-community violence and trans men's position as minorities within the queer community. He considers how those with trans identities navigate misinterpretation, explanation, and other social pressures from cisgender people. He recounts how his experiences with the queer community in 2010's Seattle, where many of his stories are set, have influenced his work. Delsohn talks about the importance of access to gender-affirming care and reads a related excerpt of “The Machine,” from Crawl.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, MaryClaire Dunagan, Emani Guerin, and Sarah Feldmann. Max Delsohn Crawl.  “18 or 34 Miles From Perennial Square,” “We Do Not Belong Everywhere,” “Thinking Like The Knight,” Others: The Tragedy of Heterosexuality  by Jane Ward On Liking Women by Andrea Long Chu Federal Agreement FAQs: Brown's Sex and Gender Policies and Gender-Affirming Care Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer Max Delsohn joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his debut short story collection, Crawl, which features a number of transmasculine characters. Delsohn addresses the Trump administration's broad and vicious assault on transgender Americans, from advertising misinformation to attacks on higher education. Given pending legislation, he considers how shifting dynamics at the state level affect the decisions trans people and their families are making to find safety. Delsohn also reflects on intra-community violence and trans men's position as minorities within the queer community. He considers how those with trans identities navigate misinterpretation, explanation, and other social pressures from cisgender people. He recounts how his experiences with the queer community in 2010's Seattle, where many of his stories are set, have influenced his work. Delsohn talks about the importance of access to gender-affirming care and reads a related excerpt of “The Machine,” from Crawl.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, MaryClaire Dunagan, Emani Guerin, and Sarah Feldmann. Max Delsohn Crawl.  “18 or 34 Miles From Perennial Square,” “We Do Not Belong Everywhere,” “Thinking Like The Knight,” Others: The Tragedy of Heterosexuality  by Jane Ward On Liking Women by Andrea Long Chu Federal Agreement FAQs: Brown's Sex and Gender Policies and Gender-Affirming Care Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Graphic novelist Ben Passmore joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new graphic novel Black Arms To Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance. Passmore explains the mix of personal reflection and historical storytelling in the book which follows the main character, a version of himself, time-traveling through a century of the Black radical tradition. Passmore talks about imagining a fictional self visiting Black historical figures and spotlights Assata Shakur, a well known member of the Black Liberation Army, who passed away last month. Passmore reflects on Shakur's life and considers how her story highlights the broader struggles and resilience of Black activists whose work is marginalized in mainstream histories. He emphasizes that the book focuses on less prominent figures within the Black radical tradition, providing a corrective to previous whitewashed narratives. He talks about activists and thinkers interested in goals ranging from liberation to reform, as well as community-based forms of resistance and education. Passmore reads from Black Arms To Hold You Up. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Bri Wilson, Emma Baxley, Hope Wampler, and Elly Meman. Ben Passmore Black Arms to Hold You Up Sports is Hell Your Black Friend and Other Strangers Others: We Will Return In The Whirlwind Black Radical Organizations 1960-1975 by Muhammad Ahmad — Charles H. Kerr Publishing Going to the Territory Assata Assata Shakur, an icon of Black liberation who was exiled to Cuba, dies aged 78 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Graphic novelist Ben Passmore joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new graphic novel Black Arms To Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance. Passmore explains the mix of personal reflection and historical storytelling in the book which follows the main character, a version of himself, time-traveling through a century of the Black radical tradition. Passmore talks about imagining a fictional self visiting Black historical figures and spotlights Assata Shakur, a well known member of the Black Liberation Army, who passed away last month. Passmore reflects on Shakur's life and considers how her story highlights the broader struggles and resilience of Black activists whose work is marginalized in mainstream histories. He emphasizes that the book focuses on less prominent figures within the Black radical tradition, providing a corrective to previous whitewashed narratives. He talks about activists and thinkers interested in goals ranging from liberation to reform, as well as community-based forms of resistance and education. Passmore reads from Black Arms To Hold You Up. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Bri Wilson, Emma Baxley, Hope Wampler, and Elly Meman. Ben Passmore Black Arms to Hold You Up Sports is Hell Your Black Friend and Other Strangers Others: We Will Return In The Whirlwind Black Radical Organizations 1960-1975 by Muhammad Ahmad — Charles H. Kerr Publishing Going to the Territory Assata Assata Shakur, an icon of Black liberation who was exiled to Cuba, dies aged 78 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new essay collection, Three or More is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025. Cobb recalls how he began the project by trying to understand how George Zimmerman's killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 set the tone for the era to come. Cobb considers how history's exceptions skew narratives, so that writers miss the bigger picture. He reflects on how discourse about race shifted between the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations and considers the juxtaposition of Martin's murder with Obama's presidency. Cobb also speaks on the significance of transparency in journalism, calling for reporters to show their work to reinforce public trust. He explains his preference for a lowercase “b” in “black” as a racial term, given that the word is not a proper noun, does not designate a nationality, and that capitalization may perpetuate inaccurate racial ideologies. Cobb reads from Three or More Is a Riot. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Bri Wilson, Emma Baxley, Hope Wampler, and Elly Meman. Jelani Cobb Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025 The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker, edited with David Remnick The Essential Kerner Commission Report, edited with Matthew Guariglia The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress The Devil and Dave Chappelle and Other Essays To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic "Lessons of Later-in-Life Fatherhood" | The New Yorker, June 14, 2025 Full text of Jelani Cobb's 2025 Reuters Memorial Lecture: Trust Issues. Credibility, Credulity and Journalism in a Time of Crisis  Others: Lincoln  Django Unchained Gwen Ifill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new essay collection, Three or More is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025. Cobb recalls how he began the project by trying to understand how George Zimmerman's killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 set the tone for the era to come. Cobb considers how history's exceptions skew narratives, so that writers miss the bigger picture. He reflects on how discourse about race shifted between the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations and considers the juxtaposition of Martin's murder with Obama's presidency. Cobb also speaks on the significance of transparency in journalism, calling for reporters to show their work to reinforce public trust. He explains his preference for a lowercase “b” in “black” as a racial term, given that the word is not a proper noun, does not designate a nationality, and that capitalization may perpetuate inaccurate racial ideologies. Cobb reads from Three or More Is a Riot. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Bri Wilson, Emma Baxley, Hope Wampler, and Elly Meman. Jelani Cobb Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025 The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker, edited with David Remnick The Essential Kerner Commission Report, edited with Matthew Guariglia The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress The Devil and Dave Chappelle and Other Essays To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic "Lessons of Later-in-Life Fatherhood" | The New Yorker, June 14, 2025 Full text of Jelani Cobb's 2025 Reuters Memorial Lecture: Trust Issues. Credibility, Credulity and Journalism in a Time of Crisis  Others: Lincoln  Django Unchained Gwen Ifill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Acclaimed fiction writer and essayist Edwidge Danticat joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her new essay collection We're Alone. Danticat reflects on misinformation and xenophobic rhetoric, such as Trump's false 2024 debate claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, and how that type of language and propaganda has broadened during Trump's second term to include even more immigrant communities. She recounts what she has learned about conditions in prisons and detention centers during her visits there and also considers today's immigration policies, including the Trump administration's attempts to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants and how deliberately humiliating immigrants not only hurts them, but also deters others considering crossing borders. Danticat describes her connection to Haiti and the ways natural disasters can unexpectedly bring people together as well as how these disasters are tied to migration. She reflects on political instability in Haiti, the meaning behind the title of her new book, and how writers like Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Jean Rhys and Paule Marshall shaped her thinking and writing process. Danticat reads from We're Alone.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Amelia Fisher, Victoria Freisner, Wil Lasater, and S E Walker. Edwidge Danticat We're Alone Create Dangerously Breath, Eyes, Memory Brother, I'm Dying Others: Jamaica kincaid (@virtuouspomona) • Instagram photos and videos Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation | Black Women Writers (1950-1980) The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde Dany Laferrière Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Immigrants can have ponies | Seinfeld (1989) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Acclaimed fiction writer and essayist Edwidge Danticat joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her new essay collection We're Alone. Danticat reflects on misinformation and xenophobic rhetoric, such as Trump's false 2024 debate claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, and how that type of language and propaganda has broadened during Trump's second term to include even more immigrant communities. She recounts what she has learned about conditions in prisons and detention centers during her visits there and also considers today's immigration policies, including the Trump administration's attempts to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants and how deliberately humiliating immigrants not only hurts them, but also deters others considering crossing borders. Danticat describes her connection to Haiti and the ways natural disasters can unexpectedly bring people together as well as how these disasters are tied to migration. She reflects on political instability in Haiti, the meaning behind the title of her new book, and how writers like Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Jean Rhys and Paule Marshall shaped her thinking and writing process. Danticat reads from We're Alone.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Amelia Fisher, Victoria Freisner, Wil Lasater, and S E Walker. Edwidge Danticat We're Alone Create Dangerously Breath, Eyes, Memory Brother, I'm Dying Others: Jamaica kincaid (@virtuouspomona) • Instagram photos and videos Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation | Black Women Writers (1950-1980) The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde Dany Laferrière Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Immigrants can have ponies | Seinfeld (1989) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer Yiming Ma joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new novel These Memories Do Not Belong To Us. Ma, who was born in Shanghai and visited China frequently after immigrating to the U.S. and Canada, talks about how terrifyingly easy it can be to live in a society in which censorship is the default, and the dangers of self-censorship. Ma, who has an MBA, also reflects on the gap between how the tech and business worlds discuss artificial intelligence versus his peers in the arts. He explains how he developed the protagonist of his novel, a young man who struggles to decide what to do with an inheritance of forbidden memories; reflects on how his book's structure, which moves between those memories, works as a “constellation novel,” in the tradition of Olga Tokarczuk; and considers how his characters demonstrate survival as a form of resistance. He reads from These Memories Do Not Belong To Us. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Moss Terrell. Yiming Ma These Memories Do Not Belong to Us "When fear silences the writer" - The Globe and Mail  Others: Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind by Hans Moravec Flights by Olga Tokarczuk “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe "Mirrors, Memories, Rebellions: An Interview with Yiming Ma” Chicago Review of Books  Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 51: Omar El Akkad on Gaza and Western Empire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer Yiming Ma joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new novel These Memories Do Not Belong To Us. Ma, who was born in Shanghai and visited China frequently after immigrating to the U.S. and Canada, talks about how terrifyingly easy it can be to live in a society in which censorship is the default, and the dangers of self-censorship. Ma, who has an MBA, also reflects on the gap between how the tech and business worlds discuss artificial intelligence versus his peers in the arts. He explains how he developed the protagonist of his novel, a young man who struggles to decide what to do with an inheritance of forbidden memories; reflects on how his book's structure, which moves between those memories, works as a “constellation novel,” in the tradition of Olga Tokarczuk; and considers how his characters demonstrate survival as a form of resistance. He reads from These Memories Do Not Belong To Us. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Moss Terrell. Yiming Ma These Memories Do Not Belong to Us "When fear silences the writer" - The Globe and Mail  Others: Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind by Hans Moravec Flights by Olga Tokarczuk “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe "Mirrors, Memories, Rebellions: An Interview with Yiming Ma” Chicago Review of Books  Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 51: Omar El Akkad on Gaza and Western Empire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Journalist Caleb Gayle joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new book Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State, which recounts the efforts of Edward McCabe, a Black settler who became a prominent politician in the late 1800s and spearheaded a mission to establish a majority-Black state in the American West. Gayle sets the scene of McCabe's upbringing as a free Black man on the East Coast and his move across the country to majority-Black towns in Kansas and Oklahoma. Gayle also talks about how Black settlers navigated the challenges of the supposed promised land, including bleak weather and the machinations of white politicians. Despite great difficulties, Gayle explains, McCabe persisted, and while his dreamed-of state never came to fruition, his legacy is visible in some Western towns even today. Gayle reads from Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Moss Terrell. Caleb Gayle Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power What Was the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921? Others: Victor LaValle's Lone Women Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 25: "Alone on the Range: Victor LaValle on Lone Women's Homesteaders, History, and Horror" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices