A weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading authors. Hosted by Brad Listi.
Listeners of Otherppl with Brad Listi that love the show mention: keep it up brad, host brad, small press, writerly, consistently thoughtful, yoohoo, writers talk, writers', listening to other people, writer's, childhoods, one on one interviews, brad is a great, brad's, literary podcast, i'm amazed, monologues, thoughtful interviews, publishers, it's a podcast.
The Otherppl with Brad Listi podcast is a must-listen for literature enthusiasts and aspiring writers. Brad does an exceptional job of engaging his guests in intelligent and interesting conversations, making each episode a delight to listen to. The layout of the podcast is well-structured, and every aspect of it is enjoyable. As a result, I have found myself purchasing around 85% of the books that have been discussed on this podcast. I am now a big fan and highly recommend giving it a go if you appreciate literature.
The best aspect of The Otherppl with Brad Listi podcast is undoubtedly the engaging discussions with interesting authors. Brad's thoughtful questions inspire authors to reveal new perspectives and ideas, making each conversation enlightening and thought-provoking. It is a fantastic opportunity to gain insights into the lives and creative processes of these talented individuals.
However, while the majority of the content is excellent, there are occasional moments when the host rambles or grunts during interviews. Some may find this charming and genuine, but others might find it distracting or unnecessary. Nonetheless, these moments are few and far between, so they do not detract significantly from the overall quality of the podcast.
In conclusion, The Otherppl with Brad Listi podcast is a gem for anyone interested in literature or writing. Brad's skill as an interviewer shines through in each episode, creating a space for genuine conversations that reveal both the personal experiences and professional insights of authors. While there may be occasional moments that some listeners find distracting, they do not overshadow the wealth of valuable material present in this podcast. Overall, it is an invaluable resource for both readers and writers alike.
Carla Kaplan is the author of Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford (Harper Books). Kaplan is an award-winning professor and writer who holds the Stanton W. and Elisabeth K. Davis Distinguished Professorship in American Literature at Northeastern University. She has published seven books, including Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters and Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance, both New York Times Notable Books. A recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities “Public Scholar” fellowships, Kaplan has been a fellow in residence at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute; is a fellow of the Society of American Historians; and serves on the board of Biographers International. She divides her time between Boston and Cape Cod. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vol. 4 of Story Time, a new series on the program featuring an author reading aloud from her work. In this episode, Jeannie Vanasco reads from her new memoir A Silent Treatment, available from Tin House. Official December pick of the Otherppl Book Club. Jeannie's other memoirs are Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl and The Glass Eye. Born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio, she lives in Baltimore and is an associate professor of English at Towson University. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 73 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Christmas shopping confusion...Brad anesthetizes himself with Ken Burns documentaries...Brad's friend has a gun....Mira's dog almost dies?....might adopt a feral cat...all planets are in retrograde...the darkest weekend in memory....a cascade of terrible news...Alec and Hilaria, house-hunting in Jersey?...Bennie and the Jens...Dick Van Dyke turns 100....looking back on 2025...the year in review...and more.... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Susan Straight is the author of the novel Sacrament, available from Counterpoint Press. Straight has published nine previous novels, including Mecca, A Million Nightingales, and Highwire Moon, and one memoir, In the Country of Women. She's been a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the National Book Award, among other honors, and received the Lannan Prize, the O. Henry Award, the Edgar Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. Her fiction has been translated into ten languages. She was born in Riverside, California, where she lives with her family. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jeannie Vanasco is the author of the memoir A Silent Treatment, available from Tin House. It is the official December pick of the Otherppl Book Club. Vanasco is the author of the memoirs Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl and The Glass Eye. Born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio, she lives in Baltimore and is an associate professor of English at Towson University. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vol. 3 of Story Time, a new series on the program featuring an author reading aloud from his work. In this episode, Tod Goldberg reads from his latest work of crime fiction, a novel called Only Way Out, available from Thomas & Mercer. Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels, including the Gangsterland quartet: Gangsterland, Gangster Nation; The Low Desert, and Gangsters Don't Die. His short fiction and essays have been anthologized in Best American Mystery and Suspense and Best American Essays and appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Alta. Tod is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, where he founded and directs the low-residency MFA program in creative writing and writing for the performing arts. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 72 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...police helicopters interrupt Brad's pre-dawn routine...almost sneezing in the dental chair...Brad gets weepy watching the Jeff Buckley documentary...Mira helps her friend Alex organize a holiday orgy...the Baldwins plotting a move?...Tarantino attacks Paul Dano...all of Hollywood retaliates...the most annoying A-list auteur in history...Dame Judi calls for the liberation of Harvey....an update on Tara Reid's hotel bar fiasco...Trump hosts his first Kennedy Center Honors...and more.... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jordan Castro is the author of the novel Muscle Man, available from Catapult Press. Castro is also the author of The Novelist, and two poetry books. His fiction and non-fiction has been published in Harper's, The Point, Tin House, Muumuu House, and more. He is the Deputy Director of the Cluny Institute, and on the board of the Giancarlo DiTrapano Foundation for Literature and the Arts. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lauren Rothery is the author of the debut novel Television, available from Ecco Books. Rothery was born in London and raised in San Diego. She spent her twenties writing and directing short films and music videos between New York and Los Angeles. In 2020, she moved to Europe and began writing fiction. Television is her first novel. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. "This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vol. 2 of Story Time, a new series on the program featuring an author reading aloud from her work. In this episode, Ellen Huet reads from Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult (MCD Books). Huet is an investigative journalist who covers technology and Silicon Valley forBloomberg News. She writes award-winning features for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, has hosted two seasons of the podcast Foundering, and holds a particular interest in writing about strange and complex subcultures. Previously, she was a staff writer at Forbes and a crime reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. "This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 71 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad tries tai-chi...in holiday hell with the Elf on a Shelf...Mira's grandfather goes clam-diving...influencers keep dying...Kevin Spacey rocks Tel Aviv...Olivia Nuzzi, already out at Vanity Fair...the need to formalize cancellation rehab...Kim K's low activity brain scan...everyone looks like shit at the Gotham Awards...and more.... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Laura K. Field is the author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, available from Princeton University Press. Field is an associate with the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University and a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has written about the New Right for The New Republic, Politico, The Bulwark, and other publications, and holds a PhD in government from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Washington, DC. *** This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription." Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tod Goldberg is the author of the novel Only Way Out, available from Thomas & Mercer. Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels, including the Gangsterland quartet: Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize; Gangster Nation; The Low Desert, a Southwest Book of the Year; and Gangsters Don't Die, an Amazon Best Book of 2023 and a Southwest Book of the Year. Other works include The House of Secrets, coauthored with Brad Meltzer; Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and the Burn Notice series. His short fiction and essays have been anthologized in Best American Mystery and Suspense and Best American Essays and appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Alta. Tod is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, where he founded and directs the low-residency MFA program in creative writing and writing for the performing arts. For more information, visit www.todgoldberg.com. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This week's episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. Visit AuraFrames.com and get $45 off Aura's best-selling Carver Mat frames—named #1 by Wirecutter—by using promo code OTHERPPL at checkout. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A new series on the podcast called Story Time, featuring an author reading aloud from her work. In this debut episode, Jessica Gross reads from her new novel, Open Wide, available from Abrams Books. Open Wide was the November 2025 pick of the Otherppl Book Club. Gross is also the author of the debut novel Hysteria (2020), which Publishers Weekly declared "every bit a page-turner as it is a descent into sexual madness." Hysteria has been optioned for TV development, and Open Wide for film development. Gross's nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Lilith, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. She has taught writing at The New School and Texas Tech University and currently lives in West Texas. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 70 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad goes to a Grateful Drag concert...the aliens are here....Mira is thankful for weed...Kate Beckinsale's daughter's boyfriend laid two eggs....Tara Reid wheeled out of Chicago hotel bar...claims she was roofied...Kevin Spacey wants you to know he's not actually homeless...Ozempic is the only good thing about the 21st century...buried penis syndrome no more...Jesus Penis...and more.... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ellen Huet is the author of Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult, available from MCD Books. Huet is an investigative journalist who covers technology and Silicon Valley forBloomberg News. She writes award-winning features for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, has hosted two seasons of the podcast Foundering, and holds a particular interest in writing about strange and complex subcultures. Previously, she was a staff writer at Forbes and a crime reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This week's episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. Visit AuraFrames.com and get $45 off Aura's best-selling Carver Mat frames—named #1 by Wirecutter—by using promo code OTHERPPL at checkout. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Joseph O'Neill is the author of the novel Godwin, now available in trade paperback from Vintage. O'Neill was born in Ireland and grew up in Mozambique, Iran, Turkey, and Holland. His previous novels include the PEN/Faulkner Award–winning Netherland and the Booker Prize long-listed The Dog. O'Neill's short fiction appears regularly in The New Yorker and his political essays in The New York Review of Books. He lives in New York City. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 69 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad's toast panic...Mira's plumbing nightmare...Angry Adam, gentler than usual...the Olivia Nuzzi rehabilitation project, courtesy of the New York Times....what the fuck is a 'canto'...RFK Jr. on DMT...Congress votes to release the Epstein emails...did Trump blow Bubba?...and more.... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jennifer Eli Bowen is the author of The Book of Kin: On Absence, Love, and Being, available from Milkweed Press. Bowen's work has received a Pushcart Prize, The Arts and Letters Prize, and the Tim McGinnis Award, and her writing has appeared in The Sun magazine, The Iowa Review, Orion, and Kenyon Review. The founder of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, she lives in St. Paul, a block in any direction from sidewalk poetry and snow. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This week's episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. Visit AuraFrames.com and get $45 off Aura's best-selling Carver Mat frames—named #1 by Wirecutter—by using promo code OTHERPPL at checkout. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jessica Gross is the author of the novel Open Wide, available from Abrams Press. It is the official November pick of the Otherppl Book Club. Gross is the author of Hysteria (2020), which Publishers Weekly declared "every bit a page-turner as it is a descent into sexual madness." Hysteria has been optioned for TV development, and Open Wide for film development. Gross's nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Lilith, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. She has taught writing at The New School and Texas Tech University and currently lives in West Texas. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 68 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Kris Jenner's insane and 'magical' James-Bond-themed 70th birthday party...looking 35 at 70...Kim K fails the bar for a third time...her psychics fail her...Taylor Swift's coordinated bridesmaid reveal..Sydney Sweeney's boxing movie bombs...Coco T breastfeeding a 6-year-old...DeepDive launches a new product...Mira gives Tyler some of her muscle-relaxers...and more.... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chris Kraus is the author of the novel The Four Spent the Day Together, available from Scribner. Kraus is a writer and critic. She studied acting and spent almost two decades making performances and experimental films in New York before moving to Los Angeles where she began writing. Her novels include Aliens & Anorexia, I Love Dick, Torpor, and Summer of Hate. She has published three books of cultural criticism—Video Green: Los Angeles Art and the Triumph of Nothingness, Where Art Belongs, and Social Practices. I Love Dick was adapted for television and her literary biography After Kathy Acker was published by Semiotext(e) and Penguin Press. A former Guggenheim Fellow, Kraus held the Mary Routt Chair of Writing at Scripps College in 2019 and was Writer-in-Residence at ArtCenter College between 2020–2024. She has written for various magazines and has been a coeditor of the independent press Semiotext(e) since 1990. Her work has been praised for its damning intelligence, vulnerability, and dazzling speed and has been translated into seventeen languages. She lives in Los Angeles. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aja Gabel is the author of the novel Lightbreakers, available from Riverhead Books. Gabel is also the author of the debut novel The Ensemble. Her prose can be found in The Cut, the Los Angeles Times, Oprah Daily, and elsewhere. Her short story “Little Fish” was adapted into a feature film, and she has written extensively for television. She lives in Los Angeles. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 67 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad copes with the transactional nature of obscure podcaster fame...decides to attend AWP...Mira's big gay Halloween in Venice...Is Anthony Hopkins autistic?...a Mississippi mama shoots a missing Mississippi monkey...Bill Maher goes out with Al Pacino's 31-year-old baby mama..RIP to the frozen burrito king billionaire...& more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jonathan Lethem is the author of A Different Kind of Tension: New and Selected Stories, available from Ecco. It was the official October 2025 pick of the Otherppl Book Club. Lethem is the bestselling author of thirteen novels, including Brooklyn Crime Novel, The Feral Detective, and Motherless Brooklyn, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. His five story collections include Men and Cartoons and Lucky Alan, and his short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and the Paris Review, among other publications, garnering a Pushcart Prize, a World Fantasy Award, and inclusion in The Best American Short Stories. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in Los Angeles and Maine. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Donika Kelly is the author of the poetry collection The Natural Order of Things, available from Graywolf Press. Kelly is also the author of Bestiary, winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and The Renunciations, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 66 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad airs his 1000th author interview...Mira shares her favorite Otherppl memories...Mira hasn't slept in days...Luigi Mangione is a Swiftie...Mira's friend Alex has successfully bottomed...Angry Adam returns....Disney World has become America's hottest suicide destination...Kristen Bell refuses to apologize....Mossimo Giannulli's Skin addiction...Katy and Justin make it official...& more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Susan Orlean is the author of the memoir Joyride, available from Avid Reader Press, and she joins me for my 1,000th author interview. Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Substack at SusanOrlean.Substack.com. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Francesca Wade is the author of the biography Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, available from Scribner. Francesca Wade is the author of Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars (2020). She has received fellowships from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, the Leon Levy Center for Biography and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, Paris Review, Granta, and elsewhere. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 65 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad makes his first DeepDive hire...Big Frank hits a hole-in-one...Mira is swarmed by a pack of coyotes after attending an Addison Rae concert....Mira teaches her friend Alex how to 'bottom'...Angry Adam defends his allegiance to Rush and its incel army of fanboys...the unified theory of protein and fascism takes yet another turn...Brad's lonely war on food and joy continues...J-Lo claims her many ex-husbands were 'incapable' of loving her...J-Lo's first husband claps back in a shockingly illiterate Instagram carousel...Kim K. wears a mask at the Academy Museum....a porn star makes a wish...& more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amber Sparks is the author of the debut novel Happy People Don't Live Here, available from Liveright Publishing. Sparks is the author of the short story collections And I Do Not Forgive You and The Unfinished World. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Slate, and elsewhere. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, daughter, and cats. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vincenzo Latronico is the author of the novel Perfection, available from New York Review Books. Translated by Sophie Hughes. Perfection was longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature and is a finalist for the International Booker Prize. Born in Rome, Vincenzo Latronico studied philosophy at the University of Milan and has since published numerous books in Italian, including The Conspiracy of Doves and Gymnastics and Revolution. In addition to his own writing, he has also translated the work of many writers into Italian including work by George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, and Alexander Dumas. He lives in Milan. Sophie Hughes is a translator of Spanish and Italian literature. Her translation of The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2019, and her translation of Fernanda Melchor's Hurricane Season was shortlisted for the same prize. Her writing and translations have appeared in McSweeney's, The Guardian, The Paris Review, The White Review, Frieze and The New York Times. She lives in the United Kingdom. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 64 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Mira's psych meds drama...Mira's grandma broke her hip...Mira's flu recap...her mushroom trip at the Chappell Roan show...a hummingbird update...the great Diane Keaton has left us...the inevitability of A.I.-generated dead celebrity threesome porn...the vile politics of nude bike rides...Mira weighs in on Life of a Showgirl...Hilaria Baldwin's DWTS meltdown...blames defeat on 'mean girls'...Alec crashes the Range Rover in the Hamptons...& more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Angela Flournoy is the author of the novel The Wilderness, available from Mariner Books. It was longlisted for the National Book Award and is a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. Flournoy's debut novel, The Turner House, was a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Indie Next pick, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Flournoy has taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, and UCLA. She lives in New York. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What does it mean to be a “minor writer” in a world obsessed with major success? In this episode, I talk with Jeff Alessandrelli about his essay 'Minor, Minor, Minor Writer,' and what it has to say about literary ambition, obscurity, ego, and the quiet reality behind most books. We discuss BookScan recon, indie lit fame, the collapse of serious readership, and the stubborn hope that keeps writers going anyway. Alessandrelli lives in Portland, OR, where he directs and co-edits the non-profit book press/record label Fonograf Editions. His latest book is And Yet (Future Tense Books, 2024). “Minor, minor, minor writer” is an excerpt from an essay that will be included in a forthcoming collection to be published by Autofocus Books in late 2027/early 2028. His new Substack is https://substack.com/@jalessandrelli. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 63 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Mira is out sick...Angry Adam and Gene Morgan sit in...Brad and Gene took their kids to One Battle After Another...the Sanchize blacks out in Indianapolis...three middle-aged white men review The Life of a Showgirl...Trump greenlights his own ultimate fighting birthday party...and more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jade Chang is the author of the novel What a Time to Be Alive, available from Ecco Books. Chang's debut novel, The Wangs vs. the World, won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and has been published in a dozen countries. Her journalism and essays have recently appeared in The Best American Food Writing, and in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times magazines. She also writes for film and TV. She lives in Los Angeles. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Melissa Febos is the author of The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex, available from Knopf. Febos is the national bestselling author of five books, including Abandon Me, Girlhood—which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, and, most recently, The Dry Season. Her awards and fellowships include those from the Guggenheim Foundation, LAMBDA Literary, the National Endowment for the Arts, The British Library, The Black Mountain Institute, MacDowell, the Bogliasco Foundation, The American Library in Paris, and others. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Sun, The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Essays, Vogue, The Best American Travel and Food Writing, and New York Review of Books. Febos is a Roy J. Carver Professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program. She lives in Iowa City with her wife, the poet Donika Kelly. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 62 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...prayers for Dolly...Mira experiences personal triumph in a Soul Cycle class...the unified theory of protein and fascism...Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio...trying hard to imagine Baron Trump's hot date at Trump Tower...Lionel Richie fans are the tip of the revolutionary spear...and more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jason Diamond is the author of the debut novel Kaplan's Plot, available from Flatiron Books. Diamond is the author of Searching for John Hughes, The Sprawl and co-author ofNew York Nico's Guide to NYC (with Nicolas Heller). His work has been published by the New York Times, Esquire, The New Yorker, GQ, The Paris Review, and many other outlets. He publishes the newsletter The Melt, was born in Skokie, Illinois, and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. Kaplan's Plot is his first novel. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today's episode is a special preview of How to Write Autobiographical Fiction, a brand-new DeepDive course featuring acclaimed novelist Hannah Pittard, author of Listen to Me, Visible Empire, The Fates Will Find Their Way, Reunion, and If You Love It, Let It Kill You. The course, hosted by Brad Listi, explores the art and craft of autobiographical fiction: what it is, how it differs from memoir, how to shape persona and voice, how to navigate the ethical challenges of writing about real people, how to revise effectively, and how to bring your work into the world. Along the way, Hannah shares candid stories, practical exercises, and hard-won lessons from her own writing life. The course also features conversations with Michael Wheaton, founder of Autofocus Books, an independent press dedicated to publishing autobiographical writing. How to Write Autobiographical Fiction launches on October 1, 2025, exclusively from DeepDive. You'll be able to stream the course online or listen in the DeepDive app, which also gives you access to the DeepDive Community — a space to ask questions, get feedback, and connect with other writers. In this episode, you'll hear Episode One of the course in its entirety. Learn more at www.deepdive.audio or download the DeepDive app in the App Store. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 61 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad & Mira do field work...adventures in Television City...Mira takes a hero dose of THC...Hilaria competes for the title as her brood looks on....Alec no-shows...triumph of the Mormon wives...Corey Feldman aggressively humps the floor...Trump and RFK Jr. demonize Tylenol...Trump delivers a senile rant for the ages at the UN...and more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Leigh Stein is the author of the novel If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You, a national bestseller available from Ballantine Books. Leigh is the author of six books, including the critically acclaimed satirical novel Self Care. She is also the creator of the Attention Economy newsletter on Substack and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Allure, ELLE, Airmail, and The Cut. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kyle Spencer is a journalist and the author of Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America's Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power (Ecco). We spoke about this book in November 2022—it features Charlie Kirk prominently. In light of Kirk's death, I invited Kyle back onto the program to discuss his life, his work, and the very combustible and very tragic political moment in which we now find ourselves. I hope this conversation helps bring clarity and insight. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 60 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...The Emmys (didn't watch them)...Charlie Sheen's skeletons....Mira's adventures at a drag brunch...Angry Adam no-shows....Robert Redford, über-mensch...arguing for the decency of Indecent Proposal...the grim and chaotic demise of a political commentator...15 incontinent dogs in a Calabasas mansion...Hogan snubbed at the Emmys...will Brad and Mira get tickets to Dancing with the Stars?...and more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Elaine Hsieh Chou is the author of the debut story collection Where Are You Really From, available from Penguin Press. Official September 2025 pick of the Otherppl Book Club. Elaine Hsieh Chou is a Taiwanese American author and screenwriter from California. Described as “the funniest, most poignant novel of the year” by Vogue, her debut novel Disorientation was a New York Times Editors' Choice Book, New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award Finalist and Thurber Prize Finalist. A former Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow at New York University, her Pushcart Award–winning short fiction appears in Guernica, Black Warrior Review, Tin House Online, Ploughshares and The Atlantic, while her essays appear in The Cut and Vanity Fair. She is a Fred R. Brown Literary Award recipient, a Sundance Episodic Lab Fellow and a Gotham Series Creator to Watch. Her work has been supported by the Harry Ransom Center, the New York Foundation for the Arts and Hedgebrook's Writers-in-Residence Program. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Character Study, Vol. 17. 'Character Studies' is a new series on the podcast featuring interviews with 'civilians'—ordinary adult humans of all ages and backgrounds, talking with Brad about their lives, anonymously. In Vol. 17, a conversation with Rachel, 32, a Director of Content & Engagement from Queens, NYC. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Twitter Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 59 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Trump's horny artwork in the terrifying Epstein birthday book....Angry Adam repeatedly punching his dashboard...Mira in the Emergency Room...Charlie Sheen comeback tour starts now...gets liposuction after being taunted by a sex worker...Britney's incontinent dogs...her filthy mansion...Alec Baldwin selfie video confessional...Hilaria in psycho-training-mode for DWTS...and more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hala Alyan is the author of the debut memoir I'll Tell You When I'm Home, available from Avid Reader Press. Alyan is the author of the novels Salt Houses—winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize—and The Arsonists' City, a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. She is also the author of five highly acclaimed collections of poetry, including The Twenty-Ninth Year and The Moon That Turns You Back. Her work has been published by The New Yorker, The Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Guernica. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, where she works as a clinical psychologist and professor at New York University. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jennifer Pastiloff is the author of Proof of Life: Let Go, Let Love, and Stop Looking for Permission to Live Your Life, available from Dutton. Pastiloff trots the globe as a public speaker and to host her retreats to Italy, as well as her one-of-a-kind workshops, which she has taught to thousands of people all over the world. The author of the popular Substack, also called Proof of Life, she teaches writing and creativity classes called Allow, and workshops called Shame Loss, when she isn't painting and selling her art. She has been featured on Good Morning America, and Katie Couric, and in New York magazine, People, Shape, Health magazine, and other media outlets for her authenticity and unique voice. She is deaf, reads lips, and mishears almost everything, but what she hears is usually funnier (at least she thinks so). The author of the national bestseller On Being Human, Pastiloff lives in Southern California with her son, Charlie Mel. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volume 58 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad and Mira go to karaoke, don't speak to one another, worry about communicable disease...Angry Adam on Taylor Swift...Burning Man murder mystery....Sydney Sweeney and Scooter Braun in love....more on the Swift-Kelce engagement...Trump is obsessed...Blake Lively remains in exile....The Hilaria Baldwin surrogate conspiracy...imagining the Baldwins on The Playa...and more... *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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