Podcast appearances and mentions of Andy Weir

On this episode, Stephanie Majercik and Nicole Abrahamson from Off Color Book Club join me to discuss the most recent Off Color Book Club book, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.    My Book Club Guide   If you're interested in joining the Off Color Book Club in the future, our next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 17th to discuss There There by Tommy Orange. All are welcome! 

Send us a textJoin Liz Wilson and her other half, Jonathan Wilson (aka Producer Jonny!) on Two Babes and a Book as we have some book banter about the book Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Rachel is in the midst of a move, so she will be back for the next episode!**We have a new content ratings system! It involves 3 tiers for each category (sex, violence, drugs and alcohol, language). It's similar to G/PG, Pg-13, and R ratings in movies. Check out our instagram page for the breakdown.Follow us on instagram @twobabesandabook. Make a comment there and tell us if you read this book. Make sure to leave us a review!  Thanks to those friends who have already shared the podcast!! It means the WORLD to us! As Holbrook Jackson said, "Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today."Now go stick your nose in a book!

Welcome to Watch. Review. Repeat. This is the podcast where two best friends discuss the latest in film and television and then do it all over again the following episode! Special guests James Bailey and Luke Elliott from the Ink to Film podcast join us for one last adventure in Hawkins, Indiana, in 'Stranger Things 5', the long-awaited final season of the Netflix original series! 00:00:00 - Episode Teaser/Intro Music/Opening 00:13:14 - 'Stranger Things 5' (Intro and Fun Facts) 00:21:08 - 'Stranger Things 5' (Non-Spoilers and Recommendation) 01:20:04 - 'Stranger Things 5' (Spoilers) 02:54:06 - Catching Up With James (Wedding, Honeymoon in Japan, 'Bugonia', Clair Obscur: Expedition 33) 03:00:02 - Catching Up With Luke (Researching and Writing Book, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Enter Shikari, Manchester Orchestra) 03:05:56 - Catching Up With Andrew (Football Bad, 'Chad Powers', Magic: The Gathering, ARC Raiders, Home Renovations) 03:11:32 - Catching Up With Colton (Christmas Movie Staples, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir)  03:15:58 - Conclusion/Outro Music Visit our website! Support us on Patreon! For more information on the Ink to Film Podcast, check out www.inktofilm.com! If you enjoy their show, please leave a rating or review! Thank you for listening! Got something to say? Send it our way to watchreviewrepeat@gmail.com! Produced by: Anna Mattis Intro/Outro Music: Mechanolith Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

What if the most transformative thing you can do for your writing craft and author business is to face what you fear? How can you can find gold in your Shadow in the year ahead? In this episode, I share chapters from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words. In the intro, curated book boxes from Bridgerton's Julia Quinn; Google's agentic shopping, and powering Apple's Siri; ChatGPT Ads; and Claude CoWork. Balancing Certainty and Uncertainty [MoonShots with Tony Robbins]; and three trends for authors with me and Orna Ross [Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast]; plus, Bones of the Deep, Business for Authors, and Indie Author Lab. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn  Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers, dark fantasy, and memoir as J.F. Penn. She's also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker. What is the Shadow? The ‘creative wound' and the Shadow in writing The Shadow in traditional publishing The Shadow in self-publishing or being an indie author The Shadow in work The Shadow in money You can find Writing the Shadow in all formats on all stores, as well as special edition, workbook and bundles at www.TheCreativePenn.com/shadowbook Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words The following chapters are excerpted from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words by Joanna Penn. Introduction. What is the Shadow? “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.” —C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul We all have a Shadow side and it is the work of a lifetime to recognise what lies within and spin that base material into gold. Think of it as a seedling in a little pot that you're given when you're young. It's a bit misshapen and weird, not something you would display in your living room, so you place it in a dark corner of the basement. You don't look at it for years. You almost forget about it. Then one day you notice tendrils of something wild poking up through the floorboards. They're ugly and don't fit with your Scandi-minimalist interior design. You chop the tendrils away and pour weedkiller on what's left, trying to hide the fact that they were ever there. But the creeping stems keep coming. At some point, you know you have to go down there and face the wild thing your seedling has become. When you eventually pluck up enough courage to go down into the basement, you discover that the plant has wound its roots deep into the foundations of your home. Its vines weave in and out of the cracks in the walls, and it has beautiful flowers and strange fruit. It holds your world together. Perhaps you don't need to destroy the wild tendrils. Perhaps you can let them wind up into the light and allow their rich beauty to weave through your home. It will change the look you have so carefully cultivated, but maybe that's just what the place needs. The Shadow in psychology Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychologist and the founder of analytical psychology. He described the Shadow as an unconscious aspect of the human personality, those parts of us that don't match up to what is expected of us by family and society, or to our own ideals. The Shadow is not necessarily evil or illegal or immoral, although of course it can be. It's also not necessarily caused by trauma, abuse, or any other severely damaging event, although again, it can be. It depends on the individual. What is in your Shadow is based on your life and your experiences, as well as your culture and society, so it will be different for everyone. Psychologist Connie Zweig, in The Inner Work of Age, explains, “The Shadow is that part of us that lies beneath or behind the light of awareness. It contains our rejected, unacceptable traits and feelings. It contains our hidden gifts and talents that have remained unexpressed or unlived. As Jung put it, the essence of the Shadow is pure gold.” To further illustrate the concept, Robert Bly, in A Little Book on the Human Shadow,uses the following metaphor: “When we are young, we carry behind us an invisible bag, into which we stuff any feelings, thoughts, or behaviours that bring disapproval or loss of love—anger, tears, neediness, laziness. By the time we go to school, our bags are already a mile long. In high school, our peer groups pressure us to stuff the bags with even more—individuality, sexuality, spontaneity, different opinions. We spend our life until we're twenty deciding which parts of ourselves to put into the bag and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again.” As authors, we can use what's in the ‘bag' to enrich our writing — but only if we can access it. My intention with this book is to help you venture into your Shadow and bring some of what's hidden into the light and into your words. I'll reveal aspects of my Shadow in these pages but ultimately, this book is about you. Your Shadow is unique. There may be elements we share, but much will be different. Each chapter has questions for you to consider that may help you explore at least the edges of your Shadow, but it's not easy. As Jung said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” But take heart, Creative. You don't need courage when things are easy. You need it when you know what you face will be difficult, but you do it anyway. We are authors. We know how to do hard things. We turn ideas into books. We manifest thoughts into ink on paper. We change lives with our writing. First, our own, then other people's. It's worth the effort to delve into Shadow, so I hope you will join me on the journey. The creative wound and the Shadow in writing “Whatever pain you can't get rid of, make it your creative offering.” —Susan Cain, Bittersweet  The more we long for something, the more extreme our desire, the more likely it is to have a Shadow side. For those of us who love books, the author life may well be a long-held dream and thus, it is filled with Shadow. Books have long been objects of desire, power, and authority. They hold a mythic status in our lives. We escaped into stories as children; we studied books at school and college; we read them now for escape and entertainment, education and inspiration. We collect beautiful books to put on our shelves. We go to them for solace and answers to the deepest questions of life. Writers are similarly held in high esteem. They shape culture, win literary prizes, give important speeches, and are quoted in the mainstream media. Their books are on the shelves in libraries and bookstores. Writers are revered, held up as rare, talented creatures made separate from us by their brilliance and insight. For bibliophile children, books were everything and to write one was a cherished dream. To become an author? Well, that would mean we might be someone special, someone worthy. Perhaps when you were young, you thought the dream of being a writer was possible — then you told someone about it. That's probably when you heard the first criticism of such a ridiculous idea, the first laughter, the first dismissal. So you abandoned the dream, pushed the idea of being a writer into the Shadow, and got on with your life. Or if it wasn't then, it came later, when you actually put pen to paper and someone — a parent, teacher, partner, or friend, perhaps even a literary agent or publisher, someone whose opinion you valued — told you it was worthless. Here are some things you might have heard: Writing is a hobby. Get a real job. You're not good enough. You don't have any writing talent. You don't have enough education. You don't know what you're doing. Your writing is derivative / unoriginal / boring / useless / doesn't make sense. The genre you write in is dead / worthless / unacceptable / morally wrong / frivolous / useless.  Who do you think you are? No one would want to read what you write. You can't even use proper grammar, so how could you write a whole book? You're wasting your time. You'll never make it as a writer. You shouldn't write those things (or even think about those things). Why don't you write something nice? Insert other derogatory comment here! Mark Pierce describes the effect of this experience in his book The Creative Wound, which “occurs when an event, or someone's actions or words, pierce you, causing a kind of rift in your soul. A comment—even offhand and unintentional—is enough to cause one.” He goes on to say that such words can inflict “damage to the core of who we are as creators. It is an attack on our artistic identity, resulting in us believing that whatever we make is somehow tainted or invalid, because shame has convinced us there is something intrinsically tainted or invalid about ourselves.” As adults, we might brush off such wounds, belittling them as unimportant in the grand scheme of things. We might even find ourselves saying the same words to other people. After all, it's easier to criticise than to create. But if you picture your younger self, bright eyed as you lose yourself in your favourite book, perhaps you might catch a glimpse of what you longed for before your dreams were dashed on the rocks of other people's reality. As Mark Pierce goes on to say, “A Creative Wound has the power to delay our pursuits—sometimes for years—and it can even derail our lives completely… Anything that makes us feel ashamed of ourselves or our work can render us incapable of the self-expression we yearn for.” This is certainly what happened to me, and it took decades to unwind. Your creative wounds will differ to mine but perhaps my experience will help you explore your own. To be clear, your Shadow may not reside in elements of horror as mine do, but hopefully you can use my example to consider where your creative wounds might lie. “You shouldn't write things like that.” It happened at secondary school around 1986 or 1987, so I would have been around eleven or twelve years old. English was one of my favourite subjects and the room we had our lessons in looked out onto a vibrant garden. I loved going to that class because it was all about books, and they were always my favourite things. One day, we were asked to write a story. I can't remember the specifics of what the teacher asked us to write, but I fictionalised a recurring nightmare. I stood in a dark room. On one side, my mum and my brother, Rod, were tied up next to a cauldron of boiling oil, ready to be thrown in. On the other side, my dad and my little sister, Lucy, were threatened with decapitation by men with machetes. I had to choose who would die. I always woke up, my heart pounding, before I had to choose. Looking back now, it clearly represented an internal conflict about having to pick sides between the two halves of my family. Not an unexpected issue from a child of divorce. Perhaps these days, I might have been sent to the school counsellor, but it was the eighties and I don't think we even had such a thing. Even so, the meaning of the story isn't the point. It was the reaction to it that left scars. “You shouldn't write things like that,” my teacher said, and I still remember her look of disappointment, even disgust. Certainly judgment. She said my writing was too dark. It wasn't a proper story. It wasn't appropriate for the class. As if horrible things never happened in stories — or in life. As if literature could not include dark tales. As if the only acceptable writing was the kind she approved of. We were taught The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie that year, which says a lot about the type of writing considered appropriate. Or perhaps the issue stemmed from the school motto, “So hateth she derknesse,” from Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women: “For fear of night, so she hates the darkness.” I had won a scholarship to a private girls' school, and their mission was to turn us all into proper young ladies. Horror was never on the curriculum. Perhaps if my teacher had encouraged me to write my darkness back then, my nightmares would have dissolved on the page. Perhaps if we had studied Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or H.P. Lovecraft stories, or Bram Stoker's Dracula, I could have embraced the darker side of literature earlier in my life. My need to push darker thoughts into my Shadow was compounded by my (wonderful) mum's best intentions. We were brought up on the principles of The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and she tried to shield me and my brother from anything harmful or horrible. We weren't allowed to watch TV much, and even the British school drama Grange Hill was deemed inappropriate. So much of what I've achieved is because my mum instilled in me a “can do” attitude that anything is possible. I'm so grateful to her for that. (I love you, Mum!) But all that happy positivity, my desire to please her, to be a good girl, to make my teachers proud, and to be acceptable to society, meant that I pushed my darker thoughts into Shadow. They were inappropriate. They were taboo. They must be repressed, kept secret, and I must be outwardly happy and positive at all times. You cannot hold back the darkness “The night is dark and full of terrors.” —George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords It turned out that horror was on the curriculum, much of it in the form of educational films we watched during lessons. In English Literature, we watched Romeo drink poison and Juliet stab herself in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. In Religious Studies, we watched Jesus beaten, tortured, and crucified in The Greatest Story Ever Told, and learned of the variety of gruesome ways that Christian saints were martyred. In Classical Civilisation, we watched gladiators slaughter each other in Spartacus. In Sex Education at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the mid-'80s, we were told of the many ways we could get infected and die. In History, we studied the Holocaust with images of skeletal bodies thrown into mass graves, medical experiments on humans, and grainy videos of marching soldiers giving the Nazi salute. One of my first overseas school field trips was to the World War I battlegrounds of Flanders Fields in Belgium, where we studied the inhuman conditions of the trenches, walked through mass graves, and read war poetry by candlelight. As John McCrae wrote: We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Did the teachers not realise how deeply a sensitive teenager might feel the darkness of that place? Or have I always been unusual in that places of blood echo deep inside me? And the horrors kept coming. We lived in Bristol, England back then and I learned at school how the city had been part of the slave trade, its wealth built on the backs of people stolen from their homes, sold, and worked to death in the colonies. I had been at school for a year in Malawi, Africa and imagined the Black people I knew drowning, being beaten, and dying on those ships. In my teenage years, the news was filled with ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and massacres during the Balkan wars, and images of bodies hacked apart during the Rwandan genocide. Evil committed by humans against other humans was not a historical aberration. I'm lucky and I certainly acknowledge my privilege. Nothing terrible or horrifying has happened to me — but bad things certainly happen to others. I wasn't bullied or abused. I wasn't raped or beaten or tortured. But you don't have to go through things to be afraid of them, and for your imagination to conjure the possibility of them. My mum doesn't read my fiction now as it gives her nightmares (Sorry, Mum!). I know she worries that somehow she's responsible for my darkness, but I've had a safe and (mostly) happy life, for which I'm truly grateful. But the world is not an entirely safe and happy place, and for a sensitive child with a vivid imagination, the world is dark and scary. It can be brutal and violent, and bad things happen, even to good people. No parent can shield their child from the reality of the world. They can only help them do their best to live in it, develop resilience, and find ways to deal with whatever comes. Story has always been a way that humans have used to learn how to live and deal with difficult times. The best authors, the ones that readers adore and can't get enough of, write their darkness into story to channel their experience, and help others who fear the same. In an interview on writing the Shadow on The Creative Penn Podcast, Michaelbrent Collings shared how he incorporated a personally devastating experience into his writing:  “My wife and I lost a child years back, and that became the root of one of my most terrifying books, Apparition. It's not terrifying because it's the greatest book of all time, but just the concept that there's this thing out there… like a demon, and it consumes the blood and fear of the children, and then it withdraws and consumes the madness of the parents… I wrote that in large measure as a way of working through what I was experiencing.” I've learned much from Michaelbrent. I've read many of his (excellent) books and he's been on my podcast multiple times talking about his depression and mental health issues, as well as difficulties in his author career. Writing darkness is not in Michaelbrent's Shadow and only he can say what lies there for him. But from his example, and from that of other authors, I too learned how to write my Shadow into my books. Twenty-three years after that English lesson, in November 2009, I did NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, and wrote five thousand words of what eventually became Stone of Fire, my first novel. In the initial chapter, I burned a nun alive on the ghats of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges River. I had watched the bodies burn by night on pyres from a boat bobbing in the current a few years before, and the image was still crystal clear in my mind. The only way to deal with how it made me feel about death was to write about it — and since then, I've never stopped writing. Returning to the nightmare from my school days, I've never had to choose between the two halves of my family, but the threat of losing them remains a theme in my fiction. In my ARKANE thriller series, Morgan Sierra will do anything to save her sister and her niece. Their safety drives her to continue to fight against evil. Our deepest fears emerge in our writing, and that's the safest place for them. I wish I'd been taught how to turn my nightmares into words back at school, but at least now I've learned to write my Shadow onto the page. I wish the same for you. The Shadow in traditional publishing If becoming an author is your dream, then publishing a book is deeply entwined with that. But as Mark Pierce says in The Creative Wound, “We feel pain the most where it matters the most… Desire highlights whatever we consider to be truly significant.” There is a lot of desire around publishing for those of us who love books! It can give you: Validation that your writing is good enough Status and credibility Acceptance by an industry held in esteem  The potential of financial reward and critical acclaim Support from a team of professionals who know how to make fantastic books A sense of belonging to an elite community Pride in achieving a long-held goal, resulting in a confidence boost and self-esteem Although not guaranteed, traditional publishing can give you all these things and more, but as with everything, there is a potential Shadow side. Denying it risks the potential of being disillusioned, disappointed, and even damaged. But remember, forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. Preparation can help you avoid potential issues and help you feel less alone if you encounter them. The myth of success… and the reality of experience There is a pervasive myth of success in the traditional publishing industry, perpetuated by media reporting on brand name and breakout authors, those few outliers whose experience is almost impossible to replicate. Because of such examples, many new traditionally published authors think that their first book will hit the top of the bestseller charts or win an award, as well as make them a million dollars — or at least a big chunk of cash. They will be able to leave their job, write in a beautiful house overlooking the ocean, and swan around the world attending conferences, while writing more bestselling books. It will be a charmed life. But that is not the reality. Perhaps it never was. Even so, the life of a traditionally published author represents a mythic career with the truth hidden behind a veil of obscurity. In April 2023, The Bookseller in the UK reported that “more than half of authors (54%) responding to a survey on their experiences of publishing their debut book have said the process negatively affected their mental health. Though views were mixed, just 22%… described a positive experience overall… Among the majority who said they had a negative experience of debut publication, anxiety, stress, depression and ‘lowered' self-esteem were cited, with lack of support, guidance or clear and professional communication from their publisher among the factors that contributed.” Many authors who have negative experiences around publishing will push them into the Shadow with denial or self-blame, preferring to keep the dream alive. They won't talk about things in public as this may negatively affect their careers, but private discussions are often held in the corners of writing conferences or social media groups online. Some of the issues are as follows: Repeated rejection by agents and publishers may lead to the author thinking they are not good enough as a writer, which can lead to feeling unworthy as a person. If an author gets a deal, the amount of advance and the name and status of the publisher compared to others create a hierarchy that impacts self-esteem. A deal for a book may be much lower than an author might have been expecting, with low or no advance, and the resulting experience with the publisher beneath expectations. The launch process may be disappointing, and the book may appear without fanfare, with few sales and no bestseller chart position. In The Bookseller report, one author described her launch day as “a total wasteland… You have expectations about what publication day will be like, but in reality, nothing really happens.” The book may receive negative reviews by critics or readers or more publicly on social media, which can make an author feel attacked. The book might not sell as well as expected, and the author may feel like it's their fault. Commercial success can sometimes feel tied to self-worth and an author can't help but compare their sales to others, with resulting embarrassment or shame. The communication from the publisher may be less than expected. One author in The Bookseller report said, “I was shocked by the lack of clarity and shared information and the cynicism that underlies the superficial charm of this industry.” There is often more of a focus on debut authors in publishing houses, so those who have been writing and publishing in the midlist for years can feel ignored and undervalued. In The Bookseller report, 48 percent of authors reported “their publisher supported them for less than a year,” with one saying, “I got no support and felt like a commodity, like the team had moved on completely to the next book.” If an author is not successful enough, the next deal may be lower than the last, less effort is made with marketing, and they may be let go. In The Bookseller report, “six authors—debut and otherwise—cited being dropped by their publisher, some with no explanation.” Even if everything goes well and an author is considered successful by others, they may experience imposter syndrome, feeling like a fraud when speaking at conferences or doing book signings. And the list goes on … All these things can lead to feelings of shame, inadequacy, and embarrassment; loss of status in the eyes of peers; and a sense of failure if a publishing career is not successful enough. The author feels like it's their fault, like they weren't good enough — although, of course, the reality is that the conditions were not right at the time. A failure of a book is not a failure of the person, but it can certainly feel like it! When you acknowledge the Shadow, it loses its power Despite all the potential negatives of traditional publishing, if you know what could happen, you can mitigate them. You can prepare yourself for various scenarios and protect yourself from potential fall-out. It's clear from The Bookseller report that too many authors have unrealistic expectations of the industry. But publishers are businesses, not charities. It's not their job to make you feel good as an author. It's their job to sell books and pay you. The best thing they can do is to continue to be a viable business so they can keep putting books on the shelves and keep paying authors, staff, and company shareholders. When you license your creative work to a publisher, you're giving up control of your intellectual property in exchange for money and status. Bring your fears and issues out of the Shadow, acknowledge them, and deal with them early, so they do not get pushed down and re-emerge later in blame and bitterness. Educate yourself on the business of publishing. Be clear on what you want to achieve with any deal. Empower yourself as an author, take responsibility for your career, and you will have a much better experience. The Shadow in self-publishing or being an indie author Self-publishing, or being an independent (indie) author, can be a fantastic, pro-active choice for getting your book into the world. Holding your first book in your hand and saying “I made this” is pretty exciting, and even after more than forty books, I still get excited about seeing ideas in my head turn into a physical product in the world. Self-publishing can give an author: Creative control over what to write, editorial and cover design choices, when and how often to publish, and how to market Empowerment over your author career and the ability to make choices that impact success without asking for permission Ownership and control of intellectual property assets, resulting in increased opportunity around licensing and new markets Independence and the potential for recurring income for the long term Autonomy and flexibility around timelines, publishing options, and the ability to easily pivot into new genres and business models Validation based on positive reader reviews and money earned Personal growth and learning through the acquisition of new skills, resulting in a boost in confidence and self-esteem A sense of belonging to an active and vibrant community of indie authors around the world Being an indie author can give you all this and more, but once again, there is a Shadow side and preparation can help you navigate potential issues. The myth of success… and the reality of experience As with traditional publishing, the indie author world has perpetuated a myth of success in the example of the breakout indie author like E.L. James with Fifty Shades of Grey, Hugh Howey with Wool, or Andy Weir with The Martian. The emphasis on financial success is also fuelled online by authors who share screenshots showing six-figure months or seven-figure years, without sharing marketing costs and other outgoings, or the amount of time spent on the business. Yes, these can inspire some, but it can also make others feel inadequate and potentially lead to bad choices about how to publish and market based on comparison. The indie author world is full of just as much ego and a desire for status and money as traditional publishing. This is not a surprise! Most authors, regardless of publishing choices, are a mix of massive ego and chronic self-doubt. We are human, so the same issues will re-occur. A different publishing method doesn't cure all ills. Some of the issues are as follows: You learn everything you need to know about writing and editing, only to find that you need to learn a whole new set of skills in order to self-publish and market your book. This can take a lot of time and effort you did not expect, and things change all the time so you have to keep learning. Being in control of every aspect of the publishing process, from writing to cover design to marketing, can be overwhelming, leading to indecision, perfectionism, stress, and even burnout as you try to do all the things. You try to find people to help, but building your team is a challenge, and working with others has its own difficulties. People say negative things about self-publishing that may arouse feelings of embarrassment or shame. These might be little niggles, but they needle you, nonetheless. You wonder whether you made the right choice. You struggle with self-doubt and if you go to an event with traditional published authors, you compare yourself to them and feel like an imposter. Are you good enough to be an author if a traditional publisher hasn't chosen you? Is it just vanity to self-publish? Are your books unworthy? Even though you worked with a professional editor, you still get one-star reviews and you hate criticism from readers. You wonder whether you're wasting your time. You might be ripped off by an author services company who promise the world, only to leave you with a pile of printed books in your garage and no way to sell them. When you finally publish your book, it languishes at the bottom of the charts while other authors hit the top of the list over and over, raking in the cash while you are left out of pocket. You don't admit to over-spending on marketing as it makes you ashamed. You resist book marketing and make critical comments about writers who embrace it. You believe that quality rises to the top and if a book is good enough, people will buy it anyway. This can lead to disappointment and disillusionment when you launch your book and it doesn't sell many copies because nobody knows about it. You try to do what everyone advises, but you still can't make decent money as an author. You're jealous of other authors' success and put it down to them ‘selling out' or writing things you can't or ‘using AI' or ‘using a ghostwriter' or having a specific business model you consider impossible to replicate. And the list goes on… When you acknowledge the Shadow, it loses its power Being in control of your books and your author career is a double-edged sword. Traditionally published authors can criticise their publishers or agents or the marketing team or the bookstores or the media, but indie authors have to take responsibility for it all. Sure, we can blame ‘the algorithms' or social media platforms, or criticise other authors for having more experience or more money to invest in marketing, or attribute their success to writing in a more popular genre — but we also know there are always people who do well regardless of the challenges. Once more, we're back to acknowledging and integrating the Shadow side of our choices. We are flawed humans. There will always be good times and bad, and difficulties to offset the high points. This too shall pass, as the old saying goes. I know that being an indie author has plenty of Shadow. I've been doing this since 2008 and despite the hard times, I'm still here. I'm still writing. I'm still publishing. This life is not for everyone, but it's my choice. You must make yours. The Shadow in work You work hard. You make a living. Nothing wrong with that attitude, right? It's what we're taught from an early age and, like so much of life, it's not a problem until it goes to extremes. Not achieving what you want to? Work harder. Can't get ahead? Work harder. Not making a good enough living? Work harder. People who don't work hard are lazy. They don't deserve handouts or benefits. People who don't work hard aren't useful, so they are not valued members of our culture and community. But what about the old or the sick, the mentally ill, or those with disabilities? What about children? What about the unemployed? The under-employed? What about those who are — or will be — displaced by technology, those called “the useless class” by historian Yuval Noah Harari in his book Homo Deus? What if we become one of these in the future? Who am I if I cannot work? The Shadow side of my attitude to work became clear when I caught COVID in the summer of 2021. I was the sickest I'd ever been. I spent two weeks in bed unable to even think properly, and six weeks after that, I was barely able to work more than an hour a day before lying in the dark and waiting for my energy to return. I was limited in what I could do for another six months after that. At times, I wondered if I would ever get better. Jonathan kept urging me to be patient and rest. But I don't know how to rest. I know how to work and how to sleep. I can do ‘active rest,' which usually involves walking a long way or traveling somewhere interesting, but those require a stronger mind and body than I had during those months. It struck me that even if I recovered from the virus, I had glimpsed my future self. One day, I will be weak in body and mind. If I'm lucky, that will be many years away and hopefully for a short time before I die — but it will happen. I am an animal. I will die. My body and mind will pass on and I will be no more. Before then I will be weak. Before then, I will be useless. Before then, I will be a burden. I will not be able to work… But who am I if I cannot work? What is the point of me? I can't answer these questions right now, because although I recognise them as part of my Shadow, I've not progressed far enough to have dealt with them entirely. My months of COVID gave me some much-needed empathy for those who cannot work, even if they want to. We need to reframe what work is as a society, and value humans for different things, especially as technology changes what work even means. That starts with each of us. “Illness, affliction of body and soul, can be life-altering. It has the potential to reveal the most fundamental conflict of the human condition: the tension between our infinite, glorious dreams and desires and our limited, vulnerable, decaying physicality.” —Connie Zweig, The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul The Shadow in money In the Greek myth, King Midas was a wealthy ruler who loved gold above all else. His palace was adorned with golden sculptures and furniture, and he took immense pleasure in his riches. Yet, despite his vast wealth, he yearned for more. After doing a favour for Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, Midas was granted a single wish. Intoxicated by greed, he wished that everything he touched would turn to gold — and it was so. At first, it was a lot of fun. Midas turned everything else in his palace to gold, even the trees and stones of his estate. After a morning of turning things to gold, he fancied a spot of lunch. But when he tried to eat, the food and drink turned to gold in his mouth. He became thirsty and hungry — and increasingly desperate. As he sat in despair on his golden throne, his beloved young daughter ran to comfort him. For a moment, he forgot his wish — and as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek, she turned into a golden statue, frozen in precious metal. King Midas cried out to the gods to forgive him, to reverse the wish. He renounced his greed and gave away all his wealth, and his daughter was returned to life. The moral of the story: Wealth and greed are bad. In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is described as a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner.” He's wealthy but does not share, considering Christmas spending to be frivolous and giving to charity to be worthless. He's saved by a confrontation with his lonely future and becomes a generous man and benefactor of the poor. Wealth is good if you share it with others. The gospel of Matthew, chapter 25: 14-30, tells the parable of the bags of gold, in which a rich man goes on a journey and entrusts his servants with varying amounts of gold. On his return, the servants who multiplied the gold through their efforts and investments are rewarded, while the one who merely returned the gold with no interest is punished: “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” Making money is good, making more money is even better. If you can't make any money, you don't deserve to have any. Within the same gospel, in Matthew 19:24, Jesus encounters a wealthy man and tells him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor, which the man is unable to do. Jesus says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Wealth is bad. Give it all away and you'll go to heaven. With all these contradictory messages, no wonder we're so conflicted about money! How do you think and feel about money? While money is mostly tied to our work, it's far more than just a transactional object for most people. It's loaded with complex symbolism and judgment handed down by family, religion, and culture. You are likely to find elements of Shadow by examining your attitudes around money. Consider which of the following statements resonate with you or write your own. Money stresses me out. I don't want to talk about it or think about it. Some people hoard money, so there is inequality. Rich people are bad and we should take away their wealth and give it to the poor.  I can never make enough money to pay the bills, or to give my family what I want to provide. Money doesn't grow on trees.  It's wasteful to spend money as you might need it later, so I'm frugal and don't spend money unless absolutely necessary. It is better and more ethical to be poor than to be rich. I want more money. I read books and watch TV shows about rich people because I want to live like that. Sometimes I spend too much on things for a glimpse of what that might be like.  I buy lottery tickets and dream of winning all that money.  I'm jealous of people who have money. I want more of it and I resent those who have it. I'm no good with money. I don't like to look at my bank statement or credit card statement. I live off my overdraft and I'm in debt. I will never earn enough to get out of debt and start saving, so I don't think too much about it. I don't know enough about money. Talking about it makes me feel stupid, so I just ignore it. People like me aren't educated about money.  I need to make more money. If I can make lots of money, then people will look up to me. If I make lots of money, I will be secure, nothing can touch me, I will be safe.  I never want to be poor. I would be ashamed to be poor. I will never go on benefits. My net worth is my self worth. Money is good. We have the best standard of living in history because of the increase in wealth over time. Even the richest kings of the past didn't have what many middle-class people have today in terms of access to food, water, technology, healthcare, education, and more. The richest people give the most money to the poor through taxation and charity, as well as through building companies that employ people and invent new things. The very richest give away much of their fortunes. They provide far more benefit to the world than the poor.  I love money. Money loves me. Money comes easily and quickly to me. I attract money in multiple streams of income. It flows to me in so many ways. I spend money. I invest money. I give money. I'm happy and grateful for all that I receive. The Shadow around money for authors in particular Many writers and other creatives have issues around money and wealth. How often have you heard the following, and which do you agree with? You can't make money with your writing. You'll be a poor author in a garret, a starving artist.  You can't write ‘good quality' books and make money. If you make money writing, you're a hack, you're selling out. You are less worthy than someone who writes only for the Muse. Your books are commercial, not artistic. If you spend money on marketing, then your books are clearly not good enough to sell on their own. My agent / publisher / accountant / partner deals with the money side. I like to focus on the creative side of things. My money story Note: This is not financial or investment advice. Please talk to a professional about your situation. I've had money issues over the years — haven't we all! But I have been through a (long) process to bring money out of my Shadow and into the light. There will always be more to discover, but hopefully my money story will help you, or at least give you an opportunity to reflect. Like most people, I didn't grow up with a lot of money. My parents started out as teachers, but later my mum — who I lived with, along with my brother — became a change management consultant, moving to the USA and earning a lot more. I'm grateful that she moved into business because her example changed the way I saw money and provided some valuable lessons. (1) You can change your circumstances by learning more and then applying that to leverage opportunity into a new job or career Mum taught English at a school in Bristol when we moved back from Malawi, Africa, in the mid '80s but I remember how stressful it was for her, and how little money she made. She wanted a better future for us all, so she took a year out to do a master's degree in management. In the same way, when I wanted to change careers and leave consulting to become an author, I spent time and money learning about the writing craft and the business of publishing. I still invest a considerable chunk on continuous learning, as this industry changes all the time. (2) You might have to downsize in order to leap forward The year my mum did her degree, we lived in the attic of another family's house; we ate a lot of one-pot casserole and our treat was having a Yorkie bar on the walk back from the museum. We wore hand-me-down clothes, and I remember one day at school when another girl said I was wearing her dress. I denied it, of course, but there in back of the dress was her name tag. I still remember her name and I can still feel that flush of shame and embarrassment. I was determined to never feel like that again. But what I didn't realize at the time was that I was also learning the power of downsizing. Mum got her degree and then a new job in management in Bristol. She bought a house, and we settled for a few years. I had lots of different jobs as a teenager. My favourite was working in the delicatessen because we got a free lunch made from delicious produce. After I finished A-levels, I went to the University of Oxford, and my mum and brother moved to the USA for further opportunities. I've downsized multiple times over the years, taking a step back in order to take a step forward. The biggest was in 2010 when I decided to leave consulting. Jonathan and I sold our three-bedroom house and investments in Brisbane, Australia, and rented a one-bedroom flat in London, so we could be debt-free and live on less while I built up a new career. It was a decade before we bought another house. (3) Comparison can be deadly: there will always be people with more money than you Oxford was an education in many ways and relevant to this chapter is how much I didn't know about things people with money took for granted. I learned about formal hall and wine pairings, and how to make a perfect gin and tonic. I ate smoked salmon for the first time. I learned how to fit in with people who had a lot more money than I did, and I definitely wanted to have money of my own to play with. (4) Income is not wealth You can earn lots but have nothing to show for it after years of working. I learned this in my first few years of IT consulting after university. I earned a great salary and then went contracting, earning even more money at a daily rate. I had a wonderful time. I traveled, ate and drank and generally made merry, but I always had to go back to the day job when the money ran out. I couldn't work out how I could ever stop this cycle. Then I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, a book I still recommend, especially if you're from a family that values academic over financial education. I learned how to escape the rat race by building and/or accumulating assets that pay even when you're not working. It was a revelation! The ‘poor dad' in the book is a university professor. He knows so much about so many things, but he ends up poor as he did not educate himself about money. The ‘rich dad' has little formal education, but he knows about money and wealth because he learned about it, as we can do at any stage in our lives. (5) Not all investments suit every person, so find the right one for you Once I discovered the world of investing, I read all the books and did courses and in-person events. I joined communities and I up-skilled big time. Of course, I made mistakes and learned lots along the way. I tried property investing and renovated a couple of houses for rental (with more practical partners and skilled contractors). But while I could see that property investing might work for some people, I did not care enough about the details to make it work for me, and it was certainly not passive income. I tried other things. My first husband was a boat skipper and scuba diving instructor, so we started a charter. With the variable costs of fuel, the vagaries of New Zealand weather — and our divorce — it didn't last long! From all these experiments, I learned I wanted to run a business, but it needed to be online and not based on a physical location, physical premises, or other people. That was 2006, around the time that blogging started taking off and it became possible to make a living online. I could see the potential and a year later, the iPhone and the Amazon Kindle launched, which became the basis of my business as an author. (6) Boring, automatic saving and investing works best Between 2007 and 2011, I contracted in Australia, where they have compulsory superannuation contributions, meaning you have to save and invest a percentage of your salary or self-employed income. I'd never done that before, because I didn't understand it. I'd ploughed all my excess income into property or the business instead. But in Australia I didn't notice the money going out because it was automatic. I chose a particular fund and it auto-invested every month. The pot grew pretty fast since I didn't touch it, and years later, it's still growing. I discovered the power of compound interest and time in the market, both of which are super boring. This type of investing is not a get rich quick scheme. It's a slow process of automatically putting money into boring investments and doing that month in, month out, year in, year out, automatically for decades while you get on with your life. I still do this. I earn money as an author entrepreneur and I put a percentage of that into boring investments automatically every month. I also have a small amount which is for fun and higher risk investments, but mostly I'm a conservative, risk-averse investor planning ahead for the future. This is not financial advice, so I'm not giving any specifics. I have a list of recommended money books at www.TheCreativePenn.com/moneybooks if you want to learn more. Learning from the Shadow When I look back, my Shadow side around money eventually drove me to learn more and resulted in a better outcome (so far!). I was ashamed of being poor when I had to wear hand-me-down clothes at school. That drove a fear of not having any money, which partially explains my workaholism. I was embarrassed at Oxford because I didn't know how to behave in certain settings, and I wanted to be like the rich people I saw there. I spent too much money in my early years as a consultant because I wanted to experience a “rich” life and didn't understand saving and investing would lead to better things in the future. I invested too much in the wrong things because I didn't know myself well enough and I was trying to get rich quick so I could leave my job and ‘be happy.' But eventually, I discovered that I could grow my net worth with boring, long-term investments while doing a job I loved as an author entrepreneur. My only regret is that I didn't discover this earlier and put a percentage of my income into investments as soon as I started work. It took several decades to get started, but at least I did (eventually) start. My money story isn't over yet, and I keep learning new things, but hopefully my experience will help you reflect on your own and avoid the issue if it's still in Shadow. These chapters are excerpted from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words by Joanna Penn  The post Writing The Shadow: The Creative Wound, Publishing, And Money, With Joanna Penn first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Pippa and KJ are back to discuss The Martian by Andy Weir and it's 2015 feature adaptation of the same name. Come for the light discussion on what counts as hard scifi vs. soft scifi and stay for the cannibalism tangent. Website: https://adaptordiepod.wixsite.com/mysite  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/adaptordiepod  Cover art by Jess Rubio. Music by Isabel Forden. Sources: Sandstorms, Explosions, Potatoes, Oh My: 'Martian' Takes Its Science Seriously NPR https://www.npr.org/2015/09/27/443192327/sandstorms-explosions-potatoes-oh-my-martian-takes-its-science-seriously The surprising story of how Andy Weir's self-published book 'The Martian' topped best seller lists and got a movie deal Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/how-andy-weirs-the-martian-became-so-successful-2015-6 Andy Weir's Website https://www.galactanet.com/writing.html 'The Martian': Andy Weir, Drew Goddard Discuss the Book-to-Film Journey Variety / Jacob Bryant https://variety.com/2016/film/awards/martian-andy-weir-drew-goddard-book-film-journey-1201705079/

Das Jahr beginnt mit Karma und zwar Bastis schlechtem Karma! Her Bielendorfer hat sich nachts auf dem Weg zur Toilette auf die Fresse gelegt und sich verletzt...woher kenne ich das nur? Ansonsten geht es um Schusswaffen in Filmen, Jackass, Unbeschwertheit, Fotos, MP3 Player, USB, Andy Weir, Aktien und Crypto. Du möchtest mehr über unsere Werbepartner erfahren? Hier findest du alle Infos & Rabatte: https://linktr.ee/AlliterationAmArsch Du möchtest Werbung in diesem Podcast schalten? Dann erfahre hier mehr über die Werbemöglichkeiten bei Seven.One Audio: https://www.seven.one/portfolio/sevenone-audio

In this episode, Madeline chats with her friend Ben Fetterman, a chemical laboratory technician. During their conversation, they discuss his conversion from evangelical Mennonite to Byzantine Catholic, a brief history of Mennonites and the Amish, his college journey at Penn State, why he joined an Eastern Sui iris church, praying the liturgy, priesthood in the Eastern Catholic churches, and so much more.During the course of their conversation, they make many references which you can explore. Some of these references include Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the Inkwells and Anvils writing community, and Fide et Ratio.Feel free to like, subscribe, and share the episode! Follow us on Instagram! @sbltfpodcastDon't forget to go out there, and be a light to this world!

This week on Enjoy Stuff, Jay and Shua tumble head-first into the wonderfully absurd world of Monty Python, celebrating the comedy troupe that made nonsense an art form. From silly walks to spam, it's a fast-paced love letter to ridiculous genius. It's…….Monty Python's Flying Circus! Let's dive head first into the pepper pot of silliness with the classic BBC comedy show that influenced generations.    News Ghostbusters II's River of Slime being turned into a five-hour cinematic ambience video, plunging viewers into the eerie tunnels beneath New York City. Dark Chocolate Reese's Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Peanut Butter hit the shelves A Kansas public library has recreated some iconic scenes from The Breakfast Club to promote reading and community   Check out our TeePublic store for some enjoyable swag and all the latest fashion trends What we're Enjoying Jay has been diving deep into the imaginative worlds of Andy Weir, enjoying The Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary for their clever science, humor, and heartfelt storytelling. He shares how Weir's blend of problem-solving and character makes each book feel like a cinematic adventure. Shua is loving the Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions, now available on Audible, praising the huge ensemble of recognizable voices that bring the wizarding world to life. The immersive performances make it feel like listening to a blockbuster movie in audiobook form.     Sci-Fi Saturdays -  This week on Sci-Fi Saturdays Jay gives ARQ (2016) the spotlight as he discusses this tense, time-looping science-fiction thriller. It's an obscure one that is definitely worth a watch. Read his article on RetroZap.com. And make sure to play around with the interactive map on MCULocationScout.com. Plus, you can tune in to SHIELD: Case Files where Jay and Shua talk about great stuff in the MCU.   Enjoy Spam!  Digging into the history of Monty Python's Flying Circus, exploring how six writers, one animator, and one fearless Carol Cleveland changed comedy forever through sketch, satire, and surreal animation. Through 4 seasons of absurdist comedy, they broke the mold of what comedy was supposed to be.    Then we wrap things up with a playful game in which Jay reads the opening line of an iconic Python quote and challenges Shua to guess what comes next. Test yourself if you're a Python fan to see if you can do better than Shua. .   Are you a Monty Python fan? Do you like Spam? Who won the English football cup in 1949? Let us know! First person that emails me with the subject line, "This is a dead parrot" will get a special mention on the show.  Let us know. Come talk to us in the Discord channel or send us an email to EnjoyStuff@RetroZap.com 

Today, I review The Martian, by Andy Weir!Goodreads/Fable: Ellie ManoEmail: hookofabookpodcast@gmail.comTikTok/Instagram: @hookofabook

O QueIssoAssim 342 – Expectativas 2026 chega com tudo para quem ama cinema, séries e cultura pop. Neste episódio especial do podcast, Brunão e Baconzitos recebem a amiga Andreia, do Livros em Cartaz, para uma conversa recheada de hype, apostas e boas reflexões sobre os filmes e séries mais esperados de 2026 — além de um balanço sincero do que marcou o consumo audiovisual em 2025. Se você gosta de ficar por dentro dos próximos lançamentos de Hollywood, adaptações literárias, continuações aguardadas e novas apostas de diretores consagrados, este episódio é praticamente obrigatório.

In der neuen Folge machen wir das, was wir immer am Jahresende machen. Wir schauen auf das neue Jahr und erzählen, auf was wir uns aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht freuen. Das sind 2026 u.a. das Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, der Besuch von Hera bei einem Asteroiden und der Film “Der Astronaut”. Es gibt aber noch viel mehr zu erzählen, was wir bei Sekt, Schokolade und Keksen getan haben. Wenn ihr uns unterstützen wollt, könnt ihr das hier tun: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/PodcastDasUniversum Oder hier: https://steadyhq.com/de/dasuniversum Oder hier: https://www.patreon.com/dasuniversum

Happy Holidays from the MCPL Podcast! From a new baby and rice cooker to binge-worthy shows like Stranger Things Season 5, Welcome to Derry, and Only Murders in the Building, plus standout books such as Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, I See You've Called in Dead by John Kenney, and Michael J. Fox's Future Boy – the team reflects on concerts, podcasts, and personal wins that made the year memorable. Stay tuned next week for what they're looking forward to in 2026!

Bár 2025-öt nem egy Star Trek filmmel zárjuk, a Mentőexpedíció mégis ideális választás lehet az ünnepekre, hiszen az Andy Weir regényéből készült produkció a Trek rajongók számára is számos felemelő pillanatot tartogat. Az idei évet tehát Ridley Scott (immár 10 éves) mozijával búcsúztatjuk, a mikrofonok mögött Csabát, Ysu-t és NocadLee-t hallhatjátok. Műsorunk videós formában is fogyasztható: - https://youtu.be/ifCwIh18DKA

The average reader need not go far in a bookstore before, knowingly or not, they encounter authors who started their careers by self-publishing prior to achieving commercial success. Examples include Margaret Atwood, Andy Weir, Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, E. L. James, Scarlett St. Clair, and many more. Such stories of self-made writers are compelling and seem more attainable to others with the accessibility of modern publishing platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, Wattpad, Webtoon, Radish, Inkitt, Qidian, Tapas, and Swoon Reads. However, in Inequalities of Platform Publishing: The Promise and Peril of Self-Publishing in the Digital Book Era (U Massachusetts Press, 2025) Claire Parnell uncovers in her examination of the two most popular—Amazon and Wattpad—these services in fact perpetuate systemic racial, gender, and sexual bias against authors of color and queer authors through their technological, economic, social, and cultural structures. At a time when there is a real reckoning with the discrimination that has resulted in publishing opportunities for only relatively few privileged authors—who are often White, upper class, and male—self-publishing presents itself as an equalizer of sorts. Exploring that idea, Parnell shows that these platforms are not just intermediaries for information; they structure content and users in multiple, often inequitable, ways through their ability to set market conditions and apply algorithmic sorting. Combining original interviews, walkthrough method, metadata analysis, and more, Parnell finds that self-publishing platforms reproduce challenges for authors from marginalized communities. Far from equalizing the market, the new platforms instead frequently perpetuate the stubborn barriers to mainstream success for BIPOC and queer authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The average reader need not go far in a bookstore before, knowingly or not, they encounter authors who started their careers by self-publishing prior to achieving commercial success. Examples include Margaret Atwood, Andy Weir, Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, E. L. James, Scarlett St. Clair, and many more. Such stories of self-made writers are compelling and seem more attainable to others with the accessibility of modern publishing platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, Wattpad, Webtoon, Radish, Inkitt, Qidian, Tapas, and Swoon Reads. However, in Inequalities of Platform Publishing: The Promise and Peril of Self-Publishing in the Digital Book Era (U Massachusetts Press, 2025) Claire Parnell uncovers in her examination of the two most popular—Amazon and Wattpad—these services in fact perpetuate systemic racial, gender, and sexual bias against authors of color and queer authors through their technological, economic, social, and cultural structures. At a time when there is a real reckoning with the discrimination that has resulted in publishing opportunities for only relatively few privileged authors—who are often White, upper class, and male—self-publishing presents itself as an equalizer of sorts. Exploring that idea, Parnell shows that these platforms are not just intermediaries for information; they structure content and users in multiple, often inequitable, ways through their ability to set market conditions and apply algorithmic sorting. Combining original interviews, walkthrough method, metadata analysis, and more, Parnell finds that self-publishing platforms reproduce challenges for authors from marginalized communities. Far from equalizing the market, the new platforms instead frequently perpetuate the stubborn barriers to mainstream success for BIPOC and queer authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

The average reader need not go far in a bookstore before, knowingly or not, they encounter authors who started their careers by self-publishing prior to achieving commercial success. Examples include Margaret Atwood, Andy Weir, Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, E. L. James, Scarlett St. Clair, and many more. Such stories of self-made writers are compelling and seem more attainable to others with the accessibility of modern publishing platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, Wattpad, Webtoon, Radish, Inkitt, Qidian, Tapas, and Swoon Reads. However, in Inequalities of Platform Publishing: The Promise and Peril of Self-Publishing in the Digital Book Era (U Massachusetts Press, 2025) Claire Parnell uncovers in her examination of the two most popular—Amazon and Wattpad—these services in fact perpetuate systemic racial, gender, and sexual bias against authors of color and queer authors through their technological, economic, social, and cultural structures. At a time when there is a real reckoning with the discrimination that has resulted in publishing opportunities for only relatively few privileged authors—who are often White, upper class, and male—self-publishing presents itself as an equalizer of sorts. Exploring that idea, Parnell shows that these platforms are not just intermediaries for information; they structure content and users in multiple, often inequitable, ways through their ability to set market conditions and apply algorithmic sorting. Combining original interviews, walkthrough method, metadata analysis, and more, Parnell finds that self-publishing platforms reproduce challenges for authors from marginalized communities. Far from equalizing the market, the new platforms instead frequently perpetuate the stubborn barriers to mainstream success for BIPOC and queer authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

Whether you like ripping page turners, incredible characters, books that make you laugh out loud, exploring unforgettable new worlds, or literary books that will make you see the world in a new way, there's a great intro to scifi out there for everyone!Join the Hugonauts book club on discord to tell us about your favorite time travel booksOr you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer videoIf you want to jump around, here are the timestamps for all the books we talked about: 00:00 Intro 00:38 Incredible Characters - Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold 3:07 A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 4:04 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 4:52 Unforgettable Worlds - The Expanse by James S.A. Corey 6:58 Hyperion by Dan Simmons 8:24 House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds 9:20 Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 10:56 The Forever War by Joe Haldeman 12:22 Funny SF - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 13:36 Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson 14:50 Old Man's War by John Scalzi 16:01 Page turners - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 17:43 Dark Matter or Recursion by Blake Crouch 18:52 All Systems Red by Martha Wells 20:01 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 21:35 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 22:34 Literary SciFi - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin 24:55 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 26:26 The Road by Cormac McCarthy 27:49 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 28:40 Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

On this episode, Jesus, Emily, and Brian from Off Color Book Club join me to discuss the most recent Off Color Book Club book, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar.    My Book Club Guide If you're interested in joining the Off Color Book Club in the future, we will not be meeting in December but will meet on Tuesday, January 20th to discuss Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. All are welcome!

It's the shadow season time of year, people! Bay and Laura discuss all things dark season, like Adult Sleep Training, Ghost Jokes and more. Bay has distilled a fresh Essence for Laura, and they break down this foundational ontological concept for West of Wonderland listeners. Follow West of Wonderland Podcast for more Adult Sleep Training tips that do and don't work! PS. Bay reads The Egg by Andy Weir.

The Space Show Presents Dr. Daniel Whiteson on his new book, “Do Aliens Speak Physics” Friday, 11-14-25Brief Summary:Our program began with introductions and discussions about alternative physics theories, including hyperdimensional physics, and the challenges of accepting unconventional ideas in the scientific community. The group explored various topics related to extraterrestrial life and communication, including the nature of mathematics, the potential for alien civilizations, and the challenges of decoding alien messages. They concluded by discussing unidentified aerial phenomena, the possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life, and the difficulties of communicating with alien civilizations, while acknowledging the skepticism of most physicists regarding philosophical questions about the nature of physics and reality.Detailed full summary:David, Dr. Daniel Whiteson (our guest) and John Jossy discussed alternative physics theories, including the brief mention of hyperdimensional physics (if real), and the challenges of accepting unconventional ideas in the scientific community. John Jossy, a physicist & astronomy major at Cal and now a retired engineer, shared his educational background and interest in astronomy, expressing excitement for the upcoming discussion on life and the universe. The group also touched on the importance of traditional science education and the evolution of science requirements in universities that seem weaker today than yesteryear.The meeting recording started with a discussion about Andy Weir's book, “Project Hail Mary,” including its screenplay adaptation by the same person who wrote “The Martian.” Daniel expressed admiration for the book's creativity, particularly in its portrayal of alien interactions. David then introduced the show's format and Wisdom Team participants, including Marshall Martin, a retired software engineer with an engineering perspective, and John Hunt, a physics advisor to David and TSS. David explained his background in business and his interest in space and science, as well as his son's experience with cystic fibrosis and the advancements in medical technology which led him to many lessons learned re media, science and medical reporting, narrow versus broad minded thinking while remaining grounded in reality. The Team discussed the potential for alien contact and the importance of science and media in shaping public perception of future technologies. The conversation ended with an announcement of upcoming guests and a reminder about the show's fundraising campaign which is essential to Space Show continuance as it is a 100% listener supported non-profit program.Daniel discussed his book “Do Aliens Speak Physics?” which explores the question of whether physics is universal and if aliens would necessarily understand it in the same way as humans. He emphasized the importance of remaining open-minded about potential alternative ways of understanding the universe, as current data only supports the universality of physics within our observable universe. Daniel explained his decision to write the book in a light-hearted, accessible format with humor and illustrations to make complex concepts more approachable for readers. David raised the possibility that aliens might perceive and interact with the universe in fundamentally different ways than humans, potentially challenging our current understanding of physics and conservation laws.Daniel discussed the nature of physics and reality, exploring the possibility of multiple ways to describe the universe. He explained that while our current models of physics work well, they are based on philosophical assumptions rather than scientific evidence. Daniel suggested that the universe could be much stranger than we imagine, and that our intuitive understanding may not align with the true nature of reality. He also touched on the limitations of our senses and how they shape our perception of the universe, highlighting the potential for alien physics to be fundamentally different from our own.The Wisdom Team discussed the challenges of communicating with extraterrestrial life, focusing on two scenarios: receiving a message from aliens and their physical arrival on Earth. Daniel and David explored the difficulties of decoding alien messages, highlighting the arbitrary nature of language encoding and the lack of a Rosetta Stone for alien languages. They emphasized that even understanding human languages without cultural context is challenging, making the prospect of decoding alien messages seem hopeful but uncertain. The discussion concluded that direct physical interaction with aliens might offer a more promising avenue for communication, as it would provide a shared context for building understanding.The Wisdom Team discussed the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence and the nature of mathematics in the universe. Daniel and David explored the idea that mathematics might not be universal, while John Hunt suggested that alien species could have different senses and physical capabilities. Daniel shared his experiences with the elegance of mathematical descriptions in physics, but also acknowledged the arguments of mathematician Field, the author of the classic “Science Without Numbers,” that mathematics could be a human construct rather than a universal language. The discussion raised questions about whether aliens could understand the universe differently, and whether mathematics is necessary for explaining physical phenomena.We continued discussing the nature of mathematics and its potential alternatives, with Daniel explaining that while mathematicians seek universal axioms, physicists are more flexible in their approach, often modifying axioms to better describe observations. Marshall challenged the notion of alternative foundations to Euclidean geometry, while John Jossy focused on the universality of the four fundamental forces, suggesting that even aliens would likely recognize these forces despite different methods of perception and communication.Daniel discussed the possibility that alien civilizations might not share humanity's scientific approach to understanding the universe, suggesting that technological advancement could occur without a deep understanding of fundamental physics. He emphasized that human descriptions of the universe are approximate and historically contingent, leading to the idea that there could be multiple valid ways to describe and interact with the universe. David asked about the best way to attempt contact with aliens, given potential incompatibilities in communication methods. Daniel suggested building von Neumann probes for exploration, noting the large distances involved and the potential for exponential reproduction, while acknowledging the ethical and practical challenges of such an endeavor.Daniel and David discussed the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the potential for discovering intelligent beings with different ways of understanding the universe. Daniel emphasized the excitement of finding colleagues with similar interests but also highlighted the value of encountering beings who challenge human assumptions about mathematics and physics. He suggested that discovering alien intelligence that operates differently from humans could offer profound insights into the nature of human existence. David raised a question about the role of a universal God in the context of alien life, prompting Daniel to reflect on the possibility that such a God might not necessarily be the same for all intelligent beings.Daniel and David discussed the potential for extraterrestrial life and the implications for human understanding of the universe. Daniel suggested that aliens might have diverse beliefs and cultures, including religious and scientific perspectives, which could challenge human concepts of God and faith. David shared a perspective from a Chabad rabbi that equates scientific and religious faith, but Daniel emphasized the self-correcting nature of science as a key distinction given that scientific faith requires data. Religious faith is usually based on stories, not quantifiable data. Marshall raised the possibility of using artificial intelligence to communicate with aliens, but Daniel expressed doubt that AI could truly understand the universe, though it might assist in decoding alien communications.As we were nearing the end of the program, our Wisdom Team discussed the possibility of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and extraterrestrial life, with Daniel expressing skepticism despite wanting to believe in aliens. John Hunt shared his perspective on the pervasive nature of UAP reports over the past 80 years and the government's history of disinformation. They explored potential methods of communication with aliens, with Daniel suggesting starting with mathematics and using a broad range of sensors to detect signals. David raised questions about Earth's signal leakage and the potential for extraterrestrial civilizations to detect us, suggesting that light-based communication might be more effective than radio waves, assuming we used the best wave lengths for such communication.In conclusion, our discussion focused on the challenges of communicating with extraterrestrial civilizations, with Daniel explaining that while powerful astrophysical phenomena like quasars emit intense signals, harnessing such energy for communication would be impractical and potentially dangerous. Daniel emphasized the difficulty of distinguishing between natural signals and potential alien communications due to our limited understanding of the universe, using examples like the WOW signal and cosmic rays to illustrate this challenge. The conversation concluded with Daniel expressing optimism about the possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life, while acknowledging that most physicists are skeptical of philosophical questions about the nature of physics and reality.If you are reading the summary on The Space Show website, try Substack and watch the Zoom video: doctorspace.substack.com. Please don't forget that we are in our fund raising period to support TSS for the coming year. Please donate now. Let me know if you have questions.drspace@thespaceshow.com. Thank you very much.Special thanks to our sponsors:Northrup Grumman, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Helix Space in Luxembourg, Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, Astrox Corporation, Dr. Haym Benaroya of Rutgers University, The Space Settlement Progress Blog by John Jossy, The Atlantis Project, and Artless EntertainmentOur Toll Free Line for Live Broadcasts: 1-866-687-7223 (Not in service at this time)For real time program participation, email Dr. Space at: drspace@thespaceshow.com for instructions and access.The Space Show is a non-profit 501C3 through its parent, One Giant Leap Foundation, Inc. To donate via Pay Pal, use:To donate with Zelle, use the email address: david@onegiantleapfoundation.org.If you prefer donating with a check, please make the check payable to One Giant Leap Foundation and mail to:One Giant Leap Foundation, 11035 Lavender Hill Drive Ste. 160-306 Las Vegas, NV 89135Upcoming Programs:Broadcast 4462: Zoom: Dr. Doug Plata | Sunday 16 Nov 2025 1200PM PTGuests: Dr. Doug Plata Get full access to The Space Show-One Giant Leap Foundation at doctorspace.substack.com/subscribe

Esta semana Raystryder nos cuenta su experiencia viendo KPop Demon Hunters en el cine. Estamos sorprendidos con Guillermo del Toro y su adaptación de Frankenstein. Dan Trachtenberg se va 3 de 3 con su tercera película en el mundo de los Yautja con Predator: Badlands. Seguimos con algunos updates sobre los anime de esta temporada. Andy Weir, el autor detrás de The Martian, tiene otro libro Project Hail Mary que pronto será una película protagonizada por Ryan Gosling. Terminamos con updates sobre los spin-offs de The Walking Dead. La saga que, al igual que los zombies, nunca muere.   Suscribanse y sigan a LAG: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lagpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lagpod_/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lagbytes.bsky.social   Bryan: instagram.com/brncarrion Chanlaser: x.com/Chanlaser_ Jercyan: https://bsky.app/profile/jercyan.bsky.social Rasalas: instagram.com/ratalas Raystryder: tiktok.com/@raystryder   Discord: bit.ly/DiscordLAG

In Ep. 210, Laura McGrath, author of the popular Substack newsletter, textCrunch, joins Sarah to take a sharp look at the State of the Publishing Industry in 2025. This packed episode covers a high-level look at the top sales and book trends, as well as Laura's insights into the future of the book world for 2026. Also, Laura shares her favorite books of 2025! This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Highlights Laura McGrath's book Middlemen (publishing April 28, 2026) is available for pre-order here: Amazon | Bookshop.org  Fiction's performance in the sales charts since 2019. The trend seen in nonfiction over the past few years and where it may be headed. The continued debate about whether 2025 has a "Book of the Year." Surprising sales trends in religious books and imprints. How self-publishing still brings us successful authors. What Laura sees in her research that she thinks publishers should be paying attention to. A bit about the current outlook for mid-list and debut authors. Laura's predictions for 2026 book trends. State of the Publishing Industry in 2025 HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW [2:45]  Onyx Storm (Empyrean, 3) by Rebecca Yarros (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [7:49] Fourth Wing (series, 1) by Rebecca Yarros | Amazon | Bookshop.org [8:58]  The Women by Kristin Hannah (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [9:21] James by Percival Everett (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [9:59] The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [10:02] Flashlight by Susan Choi (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [10:25] The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [11:58] The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [12:04] A Guardian and a Thief by Leela Tapryal (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [12:31] The Names by Florence Knapp (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [13:19] Audition by Katie Kitamura (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [13:57] The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [13:59] 2025 BOOK SALES & TRENDS [14:41]   The Martian by Andy Weir (2011) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [17:03]  The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [21:38]   The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [21:40]   Heart the Lover by Lily King (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [21:42]  BIG BOOK STORIES OF 2025 [30:18]  Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [33:30]  V by Thomas Pynchon (1963) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [33:32]  Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (1969) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [33:41]  The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead (1999) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [33:47]  The Mothers by Brit Bennett (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [33:54]  2026 PUBLISHING PREDICTIONS [42:29]  Audition by Katie Kitamura (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [4:41] Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [43:55]  Discipline by Larissa Pham (January 20, 2026) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:01]  Under Water by Tara Menon (March 17, 2026) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:07]  Laura's 3 Favorites Books of 2025 [45:31]  Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [46:17]  Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghey (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[47:59]  The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [49:38] Other Links The New York Times | The Dogged, Irrational Persistence of Literary Fictionby Gerald Howard The Walrus | Publishing Has a Gambling Problem by Tajja Isen Time | How Taylor Jenkins Reid Became a Publishing Powerhouse by Lucy Feldman Book Riot | How Much Does Genre Matter to Readers? (Podcast Episode) Public Books | Who Cares About Literary Prizes? by Alexander Manshel, Laura B. Mcgrath, & J. D. Porter

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: a poem a day + excitement over release days Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: we discuss your top books from 2019-2024 and draw the giveaway winner The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site). .  .  .  1:59 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week 2:07 - The Poetry Foundation's Poem of the Day 2:27 - A Rebellion of Care by David Gate 3:55 - The Black Wolf by Louise Penny 4:34 - The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny 6:02 - Our Current Reads 6:08 - The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (Kaytee) 8:21- A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers 9:03 - The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds by Jennifer Moorman (Meredith) 10:11 - Words Matter Bookshop 10:40 - The Magic All Around by Jennifer Moorman 14:17 - The Bookshop by Evan Friss (Kaytee) 15:12 - Parnassus Books 17:29 - Exile in Bookville 17:58 - Books - A Manifesto: Or, How to Build A Library by Ian Patterson (Meredith, Goldsboro link)  20:16 - Goldsboro Books UK 24:16 - The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler  26:03 - I Leave It Up To You by Jinwoo Chong (Kaytee) 29:05 - Flux by Jinwoo Chong (amazon link) 29:34 - The Wasp Trap by Michael Edwards (Meredith) 32:45 - The Guest List by Lucy Foley 33:09 - Listeners' Top Ranked Books 35:11 - Giveaway Post to see other listeners' best books! (reminder - giveaway is CLOSED) 42:17 - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 42:32 - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 42:43 - The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green 42:56 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 43:06 - Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 43:07 - Still Life by Louise Penny 43:59 - Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon 44:03 - Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 44:08 - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 44:16 - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 44:18 - The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Giveaway Winner Christie's Reads 47:25 - Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen 47:27 - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 47:30 - The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 47:33 - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 47:35 - The Anxious Generation by Johnathan Haidt 47:39 - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 48:17 - Meet Us At The Fountain 48:22 - I wish to tell you about the gold star item I found for reading and sleep. (Kaytee) 48:32 - Stolen Focus by Johann Hari 48:47 - Bloom 51:30 - I wish for you to try more specific ASMR rooms or listening to playlists for books. (Meredith) 51:34 - Katabasis by R.F. Kuang 51:37 - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 51:38 - Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon   Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. November's's IPL is brought to us from Content Bookstore in Northfield, Minnesota. Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business.  All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

Today, I review Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir!Goodreads/Fable: Ellie ManoEmail: hookofabookpodcast@gmail.comTikTok/Instagram: @hookofabook

It's space book club time, featuring the latest book by author and photography expert Andy Saunders: Gemini and Mercury Remastered. Producer Richard enthuses about these mid-60s missions and we talk to the author. Meanwhile, Dr Becky, Izzie and Dr Robert also discuss Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. With questions on the size of space and why the centres of galaxies are brighter, it really is quite the bonus episode. You can hear a longer version of the interview with Andy Saunders in the latest Space Boffins Podcast. Join The Supermassive Club for ad-free listening and share your questions, images and more. Or email reach us at podcast@ras.ac.uk or on Instagram @SupermassivePod (particularly if you discover a comet). The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're switching things up this week and sharing some of our favorite Bible study recommendations! This episode is a little different from our usual book chats, but it's something that's been on our hearts lately. Whether you're just starting out in your faith or have been studying for years, we've got resources for every stage of the journey. Tune in for a mix of personal favorites and practical tools to deepen your time in the Word. We compiled a list of all of our recommendations for you here!   Make sure to check out our Instagram bio for a link to our storefront where you can find links to all the studies we reference today!   Currently Reading: Alchemised by SenLinYu If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir  

Today I'm reviewing Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir—an unforgettable sci-fi adventure that blends high-stakes survival, ingenious problem-solving, and a surprisingly emotional story about connection.Following Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut who wakes up light-years from Earth with no memory of how he got there, this novel is equal parts thrilling and heartfelt. Between the razor-sharp science and one of the best alien friendships ever written, Project Hail Mary proves why Andy Weir remains a master of smart, accessible sci-fi.✨ Tune in for my full breakdown—why this book works so well, how it balances humor and heart, and why it's a must-read for fans of The Martian, Interstellar, and character-driven science fiction.#ProjectHailMary #AndyWeir #SciFiBooks #BookReviewPodcast #SpotifyPodcasts #BookTube #ScienceFictionReads #SpaceSurvival #BookishCommunity

Bar Talk (our recommendations):Jessica is reading The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard; drinking Labatt's NA.Damien is reading Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell; drinking Hibiki Japanese Harmony.Ryan is reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir; drinking the Lagavulin 16yr.If you liked this week's story, watch Oddity (2024; dir. Damian McCarthy)Up next: "The Parson's Oath" by Mrs. Henry Wood.Special thank you to Dr Blake Brandes for our Whiskey and the Weird music! Like, rate, and follow! Check us out @whiskeyandtheweird on Instagram, Threads & Facebook, and at whiskeyandtheweird.com

We're rereleasing Bald Move's coverage of The Martian (2015) in honor of the film's 10th anniversary! Check out the Matt Damon poster photos here! Jim and A.Ron saw Ridley Scott's "The Martian" last night, starring Matt Damon, and have a lot to say about it.  Note, the first part of the podcast is spoiler free, but then when we say we're about to spoil things, that's your cue to get out while the getting is good.  Along the way, we talk about the trailers we saw for The Revenant, The Big Short, Joy, and Concussion. If you are still hungry for more Martian goodness, might I recommend reading Andy Weir's original book (The Martian) the film is based on?  Then, I'd proceed to reading Robert Zubrin's A Case For Mars, upon which most of the science of the book and film are based upon.  And if that's not enough, check out the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Hey there!  Check out https://support.baldmove.com/ to find out how you can gain access to ALL of our premium content, as well as ad-free versions of the podcasts! Join the Club! Join the discussion:  Email | Discord | Reddit | Forums Follow us: Twitch | YouTube | Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Facebook Leave Us A Review on Apple Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 174 Monday September 22, 2025 On the Needles 5:35 ALL KNITTING LINKS GO TO RAVELRY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.  Please visit our Instagram page @craftcookreadrepeat for non-Rav photos and info   Succulents 2025 Blanket CAL by Mallory Krall, Hue Loco DK in ??   SSAL Delectable Collectible Socks by Stephen West, Dark Omen Yarns Sock in Electric Minis (navy, royal, light blue with speckles, cream with speckles, cream)- 2nd sock for PSP   Pop Rock Pullover by Tanis Lavallee, La Bien Aimée singles and Mohair Silk in AVFKW A Day by the Bay   Clapotis ‘24 by Kate Davies, Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock in Ainsley (original 23.8K, sharon mcmahon 3IG) On the Easel 10:12 All the sewing, gardening, & painting…esp work on 2026 calendar. On the Table 18:13 Sheet-Pan Gnocchi with Mushroom Bolognese   my favorite vegetarian sandwich is.... - by Julia Turshen   Pickled potato salad by Casey Elsass from What Can I Bring: How to live your guest life   Secret Menu Dill-Pepperoncini Tuna Salad from Smitten Kitchen   Ottolenghi Spicy Mushroom lasagna Blueberry Cheesecake Phyllo cups Paper airplane cocktail On the Nightstand 31:18 We are now a Bookshop.org affiliate!  You can visit our shop to find books we've talked about or click on the links below.  The books are supplied by local independent bookstores and a percentage goes to us at no cost to you! Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, trans by Deepa Bhasthi from Kannada  On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle, trans by Barbara J. Haveland The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna   The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir  

In this expansive episode of Rewind, host Tony brings together a constellation of voices from the groundbreaking Nat Geo series Mars. Compiled from one-on-one and roundtable interviews at NYCC, SDCC, and a special New York Mars event, this episode explores the intersection of science fiction and science fact through the lens of one of television's most ambitious hybrid series.

Episode Page Episode Info Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir Description Dan & Thalia speak with friends of the show, Guy and Mike about Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, and Science Fiction Topics Intro (0:00:00) Project Hail Mary vs. The Martian (0:02:46) Where to Rank Andy Weir? (0:17:12) Optimism vs. Dystopia (0:22:30) Open Discussion (0:28:00) Favorite Scientific Concept (0:32:38) What Do You Re-Read? (0:35:57) Adaptation Most Looking Forward To (0:43:20) Outro (0:46:34) Contact rehydrate@fastmail.com @rehydrate.bsky.social @rehydrate@mas.to

  Thank you for tuning in to Episode 305 of the Down Cellar Studio Podcast. Full show notes with photos can be found on my website. This week's segments included:   Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins From the Armchair KAL News Events Ask Me Anything On a Happy Note Quote of the Week   Thank you to this episode's sponsors: Skein & Co and Handmade Hygge   Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins   Tie Dye Day Socks Yarn: Legacy Fiber Artz Steel Toes base in the Tie Dye Day Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page 262.3 meters for Stash Dash   Four Leaf Clover Granny Square Blanket Pattern: Four Leaf Clover Granny Square by Apinya Roszko Hook: H (5.0 mm) Yarn: Knit Picks Brava 500 in colorway Mint & Loops and Threads Impeccable in Colorway 01808 Center square (in darker green)- 4g. Three rounds on outside of clover (in mint)- 12g Size:  6 inch square. 5x7 blanket (30x42”) before border. Modification- the pattern calls for attaching new yarn (at the end of the square) to make the stem for the clover. I just chain to get to the center, make the stem and cut the yarn. I find it easy to crochet the granny square around it in Mint. No issues and one less end to weave in. I am joining squares as I go. I used this YouTube tutorial to remind me how to do this. 1186.1 meters for Stash Dash   10,426.8 meters for Stash Dash this year.   716 Splash Pad Socks Yarn: 716 Knit Sock Set  in the 716sock base in the colorway: It needs to be ok with getting on a boat with Levar Burton and never coming back. Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page About the yarn: stripe of black, stripe of bright poolside colors (orange, yellow, peach, greens & aquas . 344.2 yards/ 86 grams used.   On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins   Sweetly Striped Hat Pattern: Sweetly Striped Hat by Chit Chat Knits. $4.50 knitting pattern available on Ravelry Yarn: Berroco Vintage in colorway 5185 Tide Pool Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) & US 8 (5.0 mm) Ravelry Project Page Pattern: Snack Shack Sponsor- Chit Chat Knits- 20 points Project Bag & Notions Pouch- Pro Shop Sponsor The Huckleberry Girl- 40 pts each= 80 points   Traveler Sweater Pattern: The Traveler by Andrea Mowry ($9 pattern available on Ravelry & the designer's website) Yarn: Hazel Knits Small Batch Sport (90/10 SW/Nylon) Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Progress: 5 purl ridges done   Mayor of Halloween Town Socks Yarn: Woolens & Nosh Targhee Sock in the Mayor of Halloween Town colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Cast on 9/4 for Pigskin Party Project bag: Pro Shop Sponsor Wandering Purl (40 pts) Yarn: Pro Shop Sponsor Woolens & Nosh (40 pts) About the yarn: Light gray- larger stripes with smaller stripes of dark gray, white and orange   Born to Be Mild Socks Yarn: Hypnotic Yarn Plush Sock in the Born to Be Mild Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Progress- just into the leg of the first sock. About the yarn: tan base with browns and robin's egg. It reminds me of a robin's nest.   From the Armchair   Writers & Lovers by Lily King. Amazon Affiliate Link. Check out Season 3 Episode 6 of the Books, Beach & Beyond podcast with Elin Hilderbrand with Lily King Euphoria by Lily King. Amazon Affiliate Link. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Amazon Affiliate Link. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune. Amazon Affiliate Link. In the Likely Event by Rebecca Yarros. Amazon Affiliate Link.   Lily King talking on Books, Beach & Beyond (2025)-  on love "Love is really the most important thing to us and possibly the thing, the only thing that is going to save us from our other impulses. I am extremely concerned about the state of mind of this country and what we are allowing and what we have voted in and what we are experiencing and, in in some ways, our lack of resistance to it, and our our silence and our complicity. And it all really comes down to love. And if we lose that ability, I don't think AI is going to help us with love, I don't think Instagram is going to help us with love. I feel like all of our habits that are increasing and increasing are pulling us apart even giving us the illusion that its not, but we are, and we have to remember what it is like to love people. In all of those forms. It is the thing that makes us human. And we have to stay human." Lily King   A few of my other favorite quotes from Writers & Lovers “When my mother died, I sort of felt her inside me sometimes,' I say. ‘Like I'd swallowed her.' He laughs. ‘Swallowed her.' ‘I still have moments when I feel that, when it feels like she's inside me, and there's no difference between us or that the difference doesn't matter.” ― Lily King, Writers & Lovers   “I can tell he lost someone close somehow. You can feel that in people, an openness, or maybe it's an opening that you're talking into. With other people, people who haven't been through something like that, you feel the solid wall. Your words go scattershot off of it.” ― Lily King, Writers & Lovers   “When I was visiting her a few years ago she hugged me and said, ‘Tomorrow after you leave I will stand here at this window and remember that yesterday you were right here with me.' And now she's dead and I have that feeling all the time, no matter where I stand.” ― Lily King, Writers & Lovers   “I look into my eyes, but they aren't really mine, not the eyes I used to have. They're the eyes of someone very tired and very sad, and once I see them I feel even sadder and then I see that sadness, that compassion, for the sadness in my eyes, and I see the water rising in them. I'm both the sad person and the person wanting to comfort the sad person. And then I feel sad for that person who has so much compassion because she's clearly been through the same thing, too. And the cycle keeps repeating. It's like when you go into a dressing room with a three-paneled mirror and you line them up just right to see the long narrowing hallway of yourselves diminishing into infinity. It feels like that, like I'm sad for an infinite number of my selves.” ― Lily King, Writers & Lovers   Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.   KAL News   Pigskin Party '25 Event Dates: KAL Dates- Thursday September 4, 2025- Monday February 9, 2026 Find everything you need in the Start Here Thread in the Ravelry Group Official Rules Registration Form  (you must be Registered to be eligible for prizes) Enter your projects using the Point Tally Form Find the full list of Sponsors in this Google Doc. Coupon Codes are listed in this Ravelry Thread Exclusive Items from our Pro Shop Sponsors are listed in this Ravelry Thread Questions-  ask them in this Ravelry Thread or email Jen at downcellarstudio @ gmail.com Our Official Sponsor for Quarter 1 (October): Love in Stitches with Knitty Natty is hosting a Cozy Up Challenge. The challenge doesn't start until 10/1 but you can start planning now. Check out the details in this Ravelry Thread. Join Knitty Natty & me for a special zoom hangout Thursday 10/2 at 8p Eastern. Details will be shared in the Start Here Thread. Check out this Ravelry Thread with helpful tips for the event, crowd sourced from our incredible players.   Updates In This Episode Thanks to Mary for her Commentator report. She talked specifically about these 2 large projects that have already been finished. 904Stephanie (my teammate!) has already finished a blanket- Ravelry photo & cmfamigli has already finished a pullover- check out her Ravelry Project Thanks to Sarah for starting a Pigskin Tips Ravelry Thread! Add your Super Bowl Prediction- details in this Ravelry Thread Our first Official Sponsor of the Quarter is Love in Stitches! Check out all of the details in this Ravelry Post. Join Knitty Natty & me for a special zoom hangout Thursday 10/2 at 8p Eastern. Cast on, chat, learn about some of Natalie's cool cozy patterns and have some fun. Official Sponsor for Quarter 2 (November)- Twice Sheared Sheep Official Sponsor for Quarter 3 (December)- Suburban Stitcher Official Sponsor for Quarter 4 (January)- Yarnaceous Fibers   Events DFW Fiber Fest Sept 19-21 in Irving Texas Adirondack Wool & Arts Festival September 20 & 21 in Greenwich, New York. Greater Boston Yarn Crawl. September 26-28 - 16 shops Cape and South Shore Yarn Haul. September 25-28- 8 shops Vermont Sheep & Wool. October 4 & 5 Indie Untangled. October 17 CAKEpalooza. October 17 A Woolen Affair. October 17 NY Sheep & Wool (aka Rhinebeck). October 18 & 19. Down Cellar Studio Meet up at Saturday 2p at the Pavilion to the left of the beer tent! Come and say hi. The Fiber Festival of New England. November 1 & 2 Sunkissed Fiber Festival: January 24-25, 2026- just outside Tampa, FL   Ask Me Anything Tune in to hear my answer to kjkrochet's question: How did you come up with the concept for Pigskin Party?   On a Happy Note Saturday of Labor Day weekend- Clear the Needles Event w/ Love in Stitches group 2 fun pool days over Labor Day Weekend complete with cornhole tournament  I gifted my friend Megg her "I'll bring the dance moves" hat to go with my "I'll bring the alcohol" hat since my dad always teases her for dancing constantly. Dinner with Melissa of Maple Roots Creative Dinner with friends including my dance teacher from middle/high school Pigskin Paty Kick Off Weekend was so much fun! Seeing Passengers at American Repertory Theater   Quote of the Week “It's a particular kind of pleasure, of intimacy, loving a book with someone.” ― Lily King, Writers & Lovers   Thank you for tuning in!   Contact Information: Check out the Down Cellar Studio Patreon! Ravelry: BostonJen & Down Cellar Studio Podcast Ravelry Group Instagram: BostonJen1 YouTube: Down Cellar Studio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downcellarstudio Sign up for my email newsletter to get the latest on everything happening in the Down Cellar Studio Check out my Down Cellar Studio YouTube Channel Knit Picks Affiliate Link Bookshop Affiliate Link Yarnable Subscription Box Affiliate Link FearLESS Living Fund to benefit the Blind Center of Nevada Music -"Soft Orange Glow" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/ Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.  

Welcome to Watch. Review. Repeat. This is the podcast where two best friends discuss the latest in film and television and then do it all over again the following episode! Colton, Andrew, and special guest Henrique Jaime launch into Earth 828 to witness the heroism of Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing in 'The Fanastic Four: First Steps'! 00:00:00 - Intro 00:05:23 - Andrew's Totally Embarrassing Dad Joke of the Episode! 00:07:42 - Henrique and Colton's Fun Facts About 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' 00:13:20 - Sony and Nintendo Reveal Zelda and Link Casting in 'The Legend of Zelda' Live-Action Film 00:20:16 - Sony Unveils New Spider-Suit in 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day'; Jon Bernthal and Mark Ruffalo Join Cast 00:32:01 - 'Project Hail Mary' Official Trailer 00:41:19 - 'Tron: Ares' Official Trailer 00:50:41 - 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Official Trailer 00:59:15 - 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' (Non-Spoilers and Recommendation) 01:50:04 - 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' (Spoilers) 02:36:43 - Catching Up With Henrique (The Martian by Andy Weir,   'Superman', Nintendo Switch 2, 'KPop Demon Hunters', 'Dandadan', 'My Hero Academia', 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba', 'Call of the Night', 'Delicious in Dungeon', 'My Dress-Up Darling', 'The Summer Hikaru Died', 'Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai') 02:55:14 - Catching Up With Andrew (Magic: The Gathering, 'Eyes of Wakanda', Dad Life) 03:06:17 - Catching Up With Colton ('Fantastic Four' (2005), 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer', 'The Fantastic Four' (1994), 'Silver Surfer: The Animated Series', 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story') 03:17:58 - Conclusion/Outro Visit our website! Support us on Patreon! Thank you for listening, and please send any feedback to watchreviewrepeat@gmail.com! Intro/Outro Credit: Mechanolith Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Director Ridley Scott returned to outer space with the 2013 Alien prequel Prometheus, set on a distant world, and two years later, when he adapted Andy Weir's best-selling 2011 novel, Scott visited another extraterrestrial destination, albeit one relatively closer to home: Mars. On the Red Planet, Matt Damon plays an astronaut stranded by fate who must survive in the harsh environment while his NASA colleagues come up with plans to rescue him. With an ensemble cast, including Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover, and Benedict Wong, the film was an interplanetary success, premiering at Number One and going on to top the box office for multiple non-consecutive weekends. Just a month after its release, the film surpassed Gladiator to become Scott's highest-grossing film at the domestic box office. With Weir's novel Project Hail Mary set to get the big screen treatment next year, we're visiting The Martian for its tenth anniversary, and we promise to bring him home when we're done!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Aug-Heist: The Getaway Theme features beats produced by Anabolic Beatz https://www.anabolicbeats.com | Remixed with lyrics and vocals by Jonolobster   Normal Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Our summer of podcasting comes to an end with this 682nd episode about The Martian, where we talk about Matt Damon having a years-long space adventure alone on the red planet. He's left behind by his crew and has to use his wits & botany talent to survive until they can come back for him...with plenty of help from the geniuses at NASA back on Earth. The optimism in Andy Weir's novel translates to the rare cheery entry in Ridley Scott's filmography. Damon's charm and sense of humour are a huge part of what made that possible in a science fiction film that's actually pretty close to science fact. So DO NOT fire up that disco music on the 4th planet, but DO like them potatoes as you devour our ep about The Martian. Residents of Mars can't order Sparkplug Coffee, but Canadians and Americans can...and our listeners will enjoy a onetime 20% discount if they use our "HYES" promo code. The website is "sparkplug.coffee/hyes". Subscribe to Have You Ever Seen in your app and/or on YouTube (@hyesellis in the YouTube search bar). Rate our 'casts, write a review and comment on YouTube. Let us know your own thoughts about The Martian by firing off an email (haveyoueverseenpodcast@gmail.com). Or contact us on Twi-X (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) or Bluesky (ryan-ellis and bevellisellis).

Welcome to Watch. Review. Repeat. This is the podcast where two best friends discuss the latest in film and television and then do it all over again the following episode! Colton and Andrew look up for the inaugural film in the DC Universe, James Gunn's 'Superman'! 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:01 - Andrew's Totally Embarrassing Dad Joke of the Episode! 00:07:24 - Colton's Fun Fact About 'Superman' 00:13:17 - Robert Eggers to Write and Direct New 'A Christmas Carol' Adaptation 00:19:16 - Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily Rose-Depp, and Willem Dafoe to Reunite with Robert Eggers for 'Werwulf' 00:24:44 - Jason Momoa, 50 Cent, and More Cast in New Live-Action 'Street Fighter' Film 00:34:49 - Taika Waititi Attached to Direct New Take on 'Judge Dredd' 00:39:36 - John Krasinski Returning as Writer, Director, and Producer of 'A Quiet Place Part III' 00:41:58 - 'Wicked: For Good' Official Trailer 00:45:47 - 'The Running Man' Official Trailer 00:51:37 - 'Mortal Kombat II' Official Trailer 00:56:11 - 'Gen V' Season 2 Official Trailer 00:58:08 - 'The Odyssey' Teaser Trailer 01:05:44 - 'Peacemaker' Season 2 Official Trailer 01:09:22 - 'Superman' (Non-Spoilers and Recommendation) 01:53:20 - 'Superman' (Spoilers) 02:30:05 - Catching Up With Andrew (Michigan Vacation, Magic: The Gathering - Edge of Eternities, 'Severance' Season 2, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, Nine Inch Nails - As Alive As You Need Me To Be) 02:37:48 - Catching Up With Colton (All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, 'Star Wars' Prequel Trilogy, 'How to Train Your Dragon' (2025), 'F1', 'A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read', Nintendo Switch 2, Jimmy Eat World and The Offspring Concert) 02:51:18 - Conclusion/Outro Visit our website! Support us on Patreon! Thank you for listening, and please send any feedback to watchreviewrepeat@gmail.com! Intro/Outro Credit: Mechanolith Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Bonus issue for your ear holes! Today Jong and Michael are talking SDCC 2025 with Chalice Williams of Reel Movie Junkie. Chalice explains her exerpience at this year's event, covering for The Hollywood Reporter, getting to interview the cast of Predator: Badlands, how the Predator is carry Elle Fanning's character around like an upgraded labubu, getting hyped for Project Hail Mary, her thoughts on Ryan Gosling as the star of the Andy Weir adaptation, Mark Hamill taking over The Long Walk panel, what to know about going out to SDCC, studios absent, her favorite activation, what exactly are activations, and more! Follow Chalice across social media, @HeyChalice. For the latest in film/TV coverage visit Reel Movie Junkie online or subscribe to the Reel Movie Junkie YouTube channel, @ReelMovieJunkie.Follow Jong and Michael on social media.  Bluesky: @one-punch.bsky.social & @producermike975.bsky.socialThreads: @producermike975Instagram: @onepunch______ & @producermike975Rate, review, like, and/or subscribe to Comicast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox, Goodpods, Podcast Addicts, or wherever you get your podcasts!  Feedback, questions, or topic ideas for the show? Email us at comicastpod@gmail.com 

In Episode 202, Susie (@NovelVisits) and Sarah explore some of their new favorite Micro Genres. Since starting the Micro Genres series, they've loved taking the opportunity each year to examine and define their tastes in these sub-sub-genres. This year, they have curated a list of 10 all-new Micro Genres, along with notable books for each category. With over 80 books mentioned, this is another year of niching down for some great book recommendations! This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Books Told From the Perspective of the Person Left Behind (Sarah) [2:26] Sarah The Wanderers by Meg Howrey (2017) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [3:39] Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [3:52] Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [4:29] Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (2019) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [4:31] Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [4:42] Penitence by Kristin Koval (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [4:52] Z by Therese Ann Fowler (2013) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [5:11] The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (2011) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [5:19] An American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld (2008) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [5:26] The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [5:35] The Wives by Simone Gorrindo (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [5:59] A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [6:41] Susie Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [7:07] Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [7:35] The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton (2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [7:37] Circe by Madeline Miller (2018) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [7:52] We Begin at the End (Susie) [8:22] Sarah Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson (2019) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [12:46] Penitence by Kristin Koval (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [13:16] I'm That Girl by Jordan Chiles (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [14:20]  Susie The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[10:20] What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[10:49]  Victim by Andrew Boryga (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [11:48] How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [12:21]  Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [12:28]  Other Books Mentioned We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker (2021) [8:33]  A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (2025)  [13:54]  Big Business Women (Sarah) [14:34] Sarah Anna Bright is Hiding Something by Susie Orman Schnall (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [15:29] The Boys' Club by Erica Katz (2020) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [15:46]  Women Are the Fiercest Creatures by Andrea Dunlop (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [15:51]  Dead Money by Jakob Kerr (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [15:55]  Susie The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker (2019) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[16:30] The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer (2018) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [16:55]  Other Books Mentioned Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (2018) [15:34]  Books By Irish Authors Telling Distinctly Irish Stories (Susie) [17:35] Sarah Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe (2018) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [22:30]  Northern Spy by Flynn Berry (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [22:43]  The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [22:52]  56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [23:39]  Susie Nesting by Roisín O'Donnell (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [19:39] The Coast Road by Alan Murrin (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [20:07] The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne (2017) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[20:54]  Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [20:59] Home Stretch by Graham Norton (2020) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [21:02]  Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [21:50]   Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [22:07]  Other Books Mentioned Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (1996) [19:20]  Normal People by Sally Rooney (2018) [23:16]  Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (2023) [24:07]  Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent (2013) [24:09]  The Collective “We” Narration (Sarah) [24:33] Sarah The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (1993) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[25:59]  We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan (2020) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [26:16]  The Mothers by Britt Bennett (2016)| Amazon | Bookshop.org  [27:31]  Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett (2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [27:56]  Susie The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (2011) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [28:38] The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [28:58]   Other Books Mentioned The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (2012) [25:09]  The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker (2025) [25:11]  The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020) [27:39]  Torn Between Two Lovers: The Women's Edition (Susie) [29:40] Sarah Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [33:05]  Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (1996) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [33:14]  Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [33:35] Susie Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [31:18]  The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [31:38]  One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [32:18]  An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (2018) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [32:44]  Fiction Modeled on Real-Life Serial Killers or Crimes (Sarah) [33:50] Sarah The Death of Us by Abigail Dean (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [34:33]  Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [34:39]  Heartwood by Amity Gaige (2025)| Amazon | Bookshop.org  [34:42]   We Burn Daylight by Bret Anthony Johnston (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [34:52]  The Girls by Emma Cline (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [35:00] Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Ed Tarkington (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [35:05] When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [35:29]  Monday, Monday by Elizabeth Crook (2014) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [35:39]  Susie Wolf at the Table by Adam Rapp (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [36:05]  Books with Characters Struggling with Mental Health (Susie) [36:57] Sarah Sociopath by Patric Gagne, PhD (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [41:24]  Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (2020) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [41:58]  Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [42:13]  Fire Exit by Morgan Talty (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [42:23]  When I Ran Away by Ilona Bannister (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [42:28] The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [42:36]   Susie Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [37:56]  More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:06]  Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:43]  My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach (2017) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [40:13]  I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [40:58] Other Books Mentioned Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy (2023) [42:33]  Dude Thrillers (Sarah) [42:45] Sarah Dead Money by Jakob Kerr (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [43:34]  The Boomerang by Robert Bailey (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [43:40]  Departure 37 by Scott Carson (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [43:55]  The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [44:10]  Red Widow by Alma Katsu (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [44:27] Red London by Alma Katsu (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [44:28]   Susie The Holdout by Graham Moore (2020) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [44:57]  The River by Peter Heller (2019) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [45:24]  Burn by Peter Heller (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [45:25]  The Martian by Andy Weir (2011) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [45:36]  Other Books Mentioned Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021) [45:41]  All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby (2023) [45:33]  Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby (2020) [46:06]  Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (2021) [46:13]  Standalone Fantasy Set on Earth (Susie) [46:36] Susie The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab (2020) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [48:36] Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [48:39] The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [49:07] Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (2019) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [49:08] Weyward by Emilia Hart (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [49:28]  The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (2015) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [49:32]  Circe by Madeline Miller (2018) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [49:50]  The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [49:51]  Other Books Mentioned A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015) [47:03]  Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates (2013) [50:30] 

Jess, Sarina, Jennie and Jess are all here to talk about taking a break from various angles: the mechanics angle, the guilt angle, the fear angle, the identity angle and inspiration angle. Mechanics. * Leave yourself notes about the project when you leave off, for example, “The next thing that needs to happen is this…” so when you come back, you know how to get back into the project. This is Sarina's daily practice, but it really helps when she has to leave a project behind. This can be especially helpful when you have to go away for an unexpected emergency. * Jennie adds that the only way you can do this is if you have a place to keep and find those notes to yourself. In one of your 47 notebooks or in the document itself? Or, as Jess adds, on the side of the cardboard box you use for trash in your basement workshop that you almost recycle by accident. * Jennie also notes that you have to have intentionality, to know what you are writing so you can know what comes next, whether that's in your outline, inside outline, or whatever. * Jennie has a little notebook she brings on vacation with her and she downloads those ideas into that just before going to sleep at night when she's away. * These vacation inspiration moments are much like shower thoughts, part of the magic of our brain unhooking, getting into deep default mode network, and becoming its most creative. * Sarina mentioned an article about how walking makes you more creative, also a study in why tapping into the default mode network is so effective as a practice. Fear * The only way to get over this is to sit down and do it. Open the document. Just start. * Jennie points out that getting back into a manuscript when it's disappeared feels horrifying but it's much easier than it sounds and has happened to one of our frequent guests, Sarah Stewart Taylor, when her then-toddler created a password for the document that was not recoverable. She had to give in to the fact that her book was gone, and recreate it out of her memory. Guilt and Identity* It only took Jess until her fiftieth year to figure out that her process - of walking, gardening, beekeeping, musing - is a part of writing, and that's cool. * Can you be a writer if you are not actively writing? Yes, if research, planning, thinking and otherwise cogitating is a part of your writing process. Get over it. The words have to land on the page eventually, of course, but if you are doing both, have grace for the not-actively-writing part of the writing process. #AmReadingTess Gerritsen's series set in Maine (The Spy Coast and The Summer Guests) and, once she finished those two books, Jess went back to The Surgeon, where it all started for Tess Gerritsen. Stay tuned for our interview with her! Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary (Don't watch the movie trailer if you plan to read the book!)Sarah Harman's All the Other Mothers Hate MeAmy Tintera's Listen for the LieRosemerry Wahtola Trommer The UnfoldingRichard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (coming to Netflix in August!)Janelle Brown's What Kind of Paradise Want to submit a first page to Booklab? Fill out the form HERE.Writers and readers, KJ here, if you love #AmWriting and I know you do, and I know you do, and especially if you love the regular segment at the end of most episodes where we talk about what we've been reading, you will also love my weekly #AmReading email. Is it about what I've been reading and loving? It is. And if you like what I write, you'll like what I read. But it is also about everything else. I've been #AmDoing: sleeping, buying clothes and returning them, launching a spelling bee habit, reading other people's weekly emails. Let's just say it's kind of the email about not getting the work done, which I mean that's important too, right? We can't work all the time. It's also free, and I think you'll really like it. So you can find it at kjdellantonia.com or kjda.substack.com or by clicking on my name on Substack, if you do that kind of thing.Come hang out with me. You won't be sorry.Transcript below!EPISODE 458 - TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaWriters and readers, KJ here. If you love Hashtag AmWriting, and I know you do, and especially if you love the regular segment at the end of most episodes where we talk about what we've been reading, you will also love my weekly Hashtag AmReading email. Is it about what I've been reading and loving? It is. And if you like what I write, you'll like what I read. But it is also about everything else. I've been ‘hashtag am-doing', sleeping, buying clothes and returning them, launching a spelling bee habit, reading other people's weekly emails. Let's just say it's kind of the email about not getting the work done—which, I mean, that's important too, right? We can't work all the time. It's also free, and I think you'll really like it. So you can find it at KJdellantonia.com or kjda.substack.com or by clicking on my name on Substack, if you do that kind of thing or of course in the show notes for this podcast. Come hang out with me. You won't be sorry.Multiple SpeakersIs it recording? Now it's recording. Yay! Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. Try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. All right, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay. Now, one, two, three.KJ Dell'AntoniaHey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia, and this is the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast, the weekly podcast, while writing all the things—short things, long things, pitches, proposals, fiction, nonfiction. And somebody told me they thought this was a recorded intro. And I just want you to know I do this live every time, which is why there's this, come on, there's more variety here, people, and you should know that. Anyway, here we are, all four of us, for we got a topic today. But before we do that, we should introduce ourselves in order of seniority, please.Jess LaheyI'm Jess Lahey. I am the author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation. And I laugh, because when you said seniority, all I could do was think of us in our little eave space in my old house, down the street from you, not knowing what the heck we were doing. But yeah, we've been doing this for a long time now. You can find my... you can find my journalism at The New York Times, at The Washington Post, at The Atlantic, and everything else at Jessicalahey.com.Sarina BowenI'm Sarina Bowen. I'm the author of many novels. My new one this fall is called Thrown for a Loop, and it will be everywhere that books are sold, which is very exciting to me, and all about me at Sarinabowen.com.Jennie NashI am the newest of the co-hosts, and so happy to be among this group of incredibly smart and prolific and awesome women, and I'm the founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, which is a company on a mission to lead the emerging book coaching industry. And you can find us at bookcoaches.com or authoraccelerator.com.KJ Dell'AntoniaI'm KJ Dell'Antonia. I'm the author of three novels, the latest of which is Playing the Witch Card, and the most televised of which is The Chicken Sisters—Season Two coming soon to a Hallmark network near you. And I'm also the former editor and lead writer of The Motherlode, making me our... well, and Jennie too, like the crossover. I've done too many different kinds of writing—probably should have stayed in my lane. Oh well. And our plan today—as we're recording, it is summer. And a pretty frequent thing that happens in the summer is that you need to put your project down for a little while, because you have house guests, because you're going on the kind of vacation that does not involve working, because you just need a break or you're sick. That's not really a summer thing, but it definitely happens. Anyway, we wanted to talk about how, you know, what—what do you do to make that work better?Jess LaheyI think a lot about being a parent and needing to take a break too. And you know, this is something I talk a lot about with, you know, other writers who are sort of struggling, especially since I read a lot about parenting—who are struggling to—with that guilt of, you know, like, I feel like I owe my time to the words, and I feel like I owe my time to the children. And finding a way to take a break from the words and not feel guilty about not being with the words can be really, really hard, especially when you're going gung-ho on something. So I want to make sure that we figure out a way to have a break without guilt. That's like the big question I get a lot—is, how do you, you know, either from the parenting or the writing side?KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd I was thinking about it more from a mechanics side.Jess LaheyYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaHow do you put this thing aside for a week or two weeks or even a month? And know where you were?Jess LaheyRight.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd come back and feel like it does not take you forever to dig in.Sarina BowenYeah. Um, so we've got the guilt question. We've got the mechanics of how to do it. And I would just like to add a layer, which is the fear factor.Jess LaheyYeah.Sarina BowenI have this thing where, when I walk away from a manuscript, I become afraid of it. So it seems scarier when I take a break. Like, even if it's not true—that I don't know where I am or that I become unmoored from the channel of that book and it seems intimidating to go back to.Jess LaheyCan I add one more layer as well? And that's the identity factor. You know, if I identify as a writer, what am I if I'm not actively writing something? And that messes my head up a lot. So I would love to add that added layer in as well and make sure we discuss that.Jennie NashWell, and I have something totally different from all of those, which is that I often find when I go on vacation, I am more inspired and motivated to work on my project than I was in my real life. It tends to light a fire under me. So then I'm faced with that choice of, you know, wanting to really lean into it. And, you know, just like a really small piece of that story is, I love to write on airplanes. I just love it. Give me a very long flight, and it's—I just want to work and not talk to anybody. And, you know, it's awesome. So I feel some guilt around that. When I'm with my family, it's like, don't talk to me, don't watch movies. You know, I'm—I'm enjoying my plane time, doing my work. So I have that reality.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, that's the choice that you have to start with, is, am I just, you know, can I not? Am I—do I need to accept the reality, which is that this is a beach trip with extended family and some, you know, my—to multiple generations, and I inevitably am going to be the person who is cooking and figuring out where the garbage has to go in the Airbnb? I should, you know, I—I will feel better if I just accept the reality that I'm not going to wake and work. Or, you know, is it a—is it a trip where you can schedule some work time and want to? Or is it a trip where you affirmatively want to give yourself a break? Or is it also, I mean, I sort of think that the last possibility—well, there are probably multiples—is I just want to touch this every day. So I feel like you can kind of—you're like, you're either like, just—no, not going to happen, not going to pretend it's going to happen, not going to feel the guilt. That's the—that's where we are. And there's sort of a, I just want to open the file every day and keep it warm and friendly. And on, you know these three—three days I have an hour.Jess LaheySo let's do this. Let's—let's do mechanics first, since that's the real nuts-and-bolts stuff, and then we'll talk about all the touchy-feely stuff after that. So let's do mechanics first. It sounds like you have thoughts, KJ…?KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, I was actually thinking that Sarina did this pretty recently.Jess LaheyYeah, that's true.Sarina BowenYeah. Like, you know, I, um, I have found mechanically that leaving yourself notes every time you walk away from your manuscript is a good thing. So this is sort of like a best practices in your life idea, where I will have a writing day, and it's done now, and I'm going to get up and go do other things in my life. If I pick up my notebook, and I write down where I am—like, okay, and the next thing that has to happen is this—like, it could be really short or not. But taking better notes about the structure of the thing I'm working on is serving me on so many levels that it just slots right in here. Like, I took a big trip in April, and I thought I might work, but then I didn't, and I really seamlessly came right back in, because I knew where I was, and I avoided a lot of my own fear. So, if the practices that help you become a good day-to-day writer also can be practices that help you in this very instance, the mechanics of picking up your book again are that you left yourself a note right in your document, um, or in your notebook, that says, and here's what I think is supposed to happen next. And, yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's going to be gold for an unexpected break too, because that happens, you know, right? You get one of those phone calls, and it's a week before you're back or more.Sarina BowenYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. I love this practice. This is one of those things I forget to do.Jennie NashI feel like I—I feel like I have to add to that a couple things. That the only reason you can do that is, A, if you have a place to take notes, which—which could be your, the document itself that you're working on. But Sarina talked about a notebook, right? You have a place that you know, that you can find that, which is not an insignificant thing to have, or...Sarina BowenCorrect!Jennie NashRight?! Or, in the case of me, it's like, I have 47 notebooks. Well, which one did I put the note in?Sarina BowenRight.Jennie NashBut then the second thing is, I mean, this is something that I find so inspiring about the way you work, Sarina, and it—and it's a thing that I teach—is you have to know what you're writing, you know, in order to know where you are, what the structure is, and what you're doing, and to ask those—like, you have to have done the thought work of what, what it is you're trying to do and what your intention is. Otherwise, you sort of don't ever know where you are or where you're going. So...Sarina BowenRight, but that's on two levels. Like, you could—let's just say you have successfully written yourself an Inside Outline, you know, the way that you do it—you still might need that granular thing.Jennie NashOh yeah!Sarina BowenLike, you might know where you are in the arc of the book, but you might actually need the note that's like, "And now we're going to wash the dishes." I mean, let's please not put that in the novel, but you know what I mean.Jennie NashYeah, yeah. But that intentionality of, on the big picture, what am I doing, and on the small picture—in this chapter, in this scene, in this moment, and with this character—what was I... how'd that fit into the whole? What was I thinking? And those things are not—they're not easy. Like, we're talking about them like, "Oh, you just..." You know, like I was saying, what if you have 47 notebooks? That literally is a problem I have. It's like, I know I wrote this note down, and I don't know where I put it—digitally or analog.Sarina BowenRight. I confess I actually do still have this problem. Like, even with all of my best practices, like, put into—sometimes it's like, well, is that in the document, or is it in my notebook? And then—or I thought about it at four in the morning and actually didn't write it down anywhere. And I'm looking anyway...Jennie NashOh, I do that too. I absolutely do that too. I'm convinced that I left a note while I was driving—that's a thing I often do. I'll leave—I'll have Siri write me a note, and then somehow it doesn't appear, or it's like, I know I did this, I know I asked her to do this... you know.Jess LaheyI actually have—I was doing the recycling, and I realized that I was in big trouble because three sides of a box I'd had down in the basement with me while I was working on a project—I was doing something with my, getting some beehives ready—and I was listening to an audiobook that is research for a project I'm working on, and I had scribbled some really important notes to myself about how I was supposed to start a chapter on. And it was a great start. It was like a whole paragraph on the three sides of the box, with an old Sharpie I found down in the basement. And then I realized I almost recycled, like, some really useful outline stuff.Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jess LaheySo normally—no, so I actually have them. While you guys are talking about something else, since we do see each other while we're recording this, I'll show you later. But the thing that I normally do is either in the document, like right where I left off, or in my main notebook, because I am so bad at finding those notes that I have strewn all over my office or on the side of a cardboard box.KJ Dell'AntoniaI have had the problem lately of I'm not in a manuscript, and that it's much easier when you're in a manuscript to come back to a manuscript, but I'm in a notebook full of assorted random Blueprint challenge, you know, like trying to—I'm, I'm in figuring out where this is going mode, which means I do a lot of thinking while I'm not working that then hopefully I go and write down. But it also means that I frequently sit down and I'm like, well, am I going to think about who these people are? Am I going to think about what the plot is? What am I going to do? So I've been trying to leave myself like a task, something that will, that will just get me, get me back in, because sometimes that's the problem. I, you know, I open the notebook, and there's no obvious thing to do, and the next thing I know, I'm buying running shoes.Jennie NashWell, since we're talking about nuts and bolts, when I said that I often get inspired when I go away or go on vacation and I want to work, I'm not talking about I'm going to go sit in a library or coffee shop for three hours. What, what I mean by that is I often have ideas that I want to capture, and so I have a little notebook that I bring on vacation, and what I like to do is go to bed early enough that I can download all the things I thought that day. I need that space and time to—if it's, if I'm working on something, it's in my head. It's not going to not be in my head. And so the one sort of new mechanical thing that I, that I do, is have that "vacation notes notebook" with me.KJ Dell'AntoniaI always carry one, and I never use it. So there's that.Jess LaheyI get—I am at my most inspired to write when I specifically can't write, which is usually behind the wheel of my car. So I use, in my car, I have been known to, you know, either scribble on things—which, totally don't do that—or to record myself on my phone. But then, audio things, I'm particularly bad at going back and listening to; that seems like it's just too much work. So those tend to get lost a lot. I need to come up with a better system for that. But it is predictable that if I am in a place where I cannot physically write, I will be at my most inspired to write.Jennie NashJess, that's kind of what I'm talking about. That's what happens to me, is I might say I'm leaving all work behind. I'm going off the grid. I'm not doing the thing. And that's when I most want to do the thing. And I, like, my brain seems to really get inspired. What? What do you think that's about? Is that...Jess LaheyI, you know, I, I was very worried that it was my sort of, um—sorry, what's the word I'm looking for? It was—it's my, my brain's way of saying, "Oh, you couldn't possibly work now, so let's have some of the best ideas so that you seem like a good little doobie writer, but it's physically impossible for you to write now." It's just a really weird thing, and maybe one of the other things I thought about is that I'm often listening to a book that I'm really into, which also inspires me to write. I've been listening to a lot of really great books lately, and you can't listen to a book—even one that inspires you deeply—and actually write at the same time, which is another quandary.Sarina BowenYou know what, though? This is not uniquely your brain messing with you—like, this is shower thoughts.Multiple Speakers[Overlapping: “Mm-hmm.” “Sorry.” “Ohhh...”]Sarina BowenBut everybody—everybody has those great ideas in the shower, and it's because you have unhooked yourself. You are just in there with the shampoo and the conditioner and that razor that you probably should change the blade with, and like, you know, there is nowhere to write and nothing to do. So your brain is like, I am free right now to unclench and actually solve this problem of chapter 17, and that's what—that's what happens.Jess LaheyIt is my duty, whenever we mention this, to bring up that—years ago, Ron Lieber, the write... uh... the "Your Money" columnist at The New York Times, told me that he has a waterproof little whiteboard situation that's— that lives in the shower. He and his wife, Jodi Kantor—amazing writer as well, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, even— that these would be people who might just need a waterproof whiteboard in the shower with them.Sarina BowenBut would that ruin the magic…?KJ Dell'AntoniaIt might just...Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jess LaheyIf you had a place to write it down, your brain would—like—be... your brain would say, "Sorry, I'm not coming up with good ideas."Sarina BowenBecause I don't think I am willing to take this risk. I take a lot of risks in my life, but this one—like; we do not mess with the shower thoughts. I think, I think...KJ Dell'AntoniaSo, so what do we do if you didn't do any of this? If what—you know—what are—you're listening to this podcast, coming back from your trip, and you're like, I... was writing... something...Sarina BowenYou know what, though? I almost feel that we should point out the fact that, like, that is kind of unlikely. Like, somebody should feel welcome to take this trip and to have all those thoughts, and even if you didn't write them down on your whiteboard in the shower or on your handy notebook, like, I would argue that unhitching yourself in the first place possibly leads to a lot of creative development that, even if you don't capture it in the moment, is still with you. Like, I had this fantastic trip in April. I thought I was going to work, and then I did not, and it was, like, the best two weeks of my life. So then, the other day, my husband said, “Hey, there's a new article you need to read in The Athletic,” which is a New York Times sports blog, and I have just pulled it up so that we can recommend it, about how walking makes you a better problem solver. And the framing story of this article is about a retired baseball coach, but, um, but then, when they got around to studying it, um, they said this question planted the seed for the first set of studies to measure if walking produces more creativity. In the series of experiments, Oppezzo and Schwartz [Marily Oppezzo & Daniel L. Schwartz] asked 176 college students to complete different creative thinking tasks while sitting, walking on a treadmill, walking outside through campus, or being pushed in a wheelchair. In one example, the students had to come up with atypical uses for random objects, and anyway, on average, the students' creative output increased by 60% when they were walking.Jennie NashThat's so cool!Sarina BowenAnd the article is—it's so cool—it's called An MLB manager found value in long walks. Research suggests it's a ‘brain-changing power'.Jess LaheyI have put a spot for it in the show notes. And I should mention that this is all part of what we call the default mode network. This is the—the part of our brain that is the wandering, most creative part of our brain. And we can get there lots of ways. Walking is a fantastic way to do it.KJ Dell'AntoniaSarina, if you do have the fear of the manuscript when you're coming back to it, like, take—you know, travel back in time to maybe when you were a little less confident in your abilities. What do you do to get past the fear and sit down?Sarina BowenThere is only one solution, and that is sitting down. And I'm not so great at this—like, when, when the fear creeps up on me, in spite of my best intentions, man, I will do anything to avoid that sucker. And then when I finally do, and I wade back in, almost every time my response is, Oh, this isn't so bad. I know where—I kind of remember now. It's going to be fine, you know. But it's so easy to put off work out of fear. It's—it's the—it's the one big obstacle. Like, I don't put work off for other reasons, you know, because I'm tired or whatever. It's because I'm afraid that there's something fundamentally wrong with the project, or fundamentally wrong with me, and that is almost always what's keeping me from doing good work.Jennie NashThere was, back in the day before computers became what they are now, people would frequently lose manuscript drafts. It was just much harder to save your work. And I can't—I can't explain exactly what changed, but it was. People frequently lost huge chunks of their work if they didn't actively back up. And when I was a new coach and working with writers who would lose their manuscripts, they would be—understandably—beyond devastated. And this often was full manuscripts, just unrecoverable, full manuscripts. And it was true that if they sat down to recreate what they'd written, it would really flow from them, for that same reason—it was still in their brain. They—they had—they'd written it, so there was a sense that they had, they owned it, and they could sit down, and it was kind of quite remarkable. And I would confidently say to them, just sit down, start writing. I think it will come to you, and it always did. It's very interesting.Jess LaheyThere's an example—we've interviewed Sarah Stewart Taylor many times now, and she tells the story of, a long time ago, her youngest managed to crawl across the computer in such a way as to create a password for the document itself, and there's nothing that can be done. She was on the phone with Word—with Microsoft—for a long time, and they're like, look, this is a password you created. We can't—that's not recoverable. So she had to go and recreate—I believe she was about a third of the way into a book—but she said that it actually flowed really well, and that, you know, she'd had it, it had been cooking and stuff like that. So that massive fear of, oh my gosh, how am I going to get back into this project when it has just disappeared? It turned out to be not a thing—that it actually came really easily to her.Jennie NashJess, you're bringing all the very weird stories today, and I'm so here for it—notes on boxes, babies making passwords.Jess LaheyYeah, well, and the hard part—the funny part about that—is like, you cannot recreate a toddler, essentially, like bashing away at your keyboard and creating a password that's never coming back. Sorry.Sarina BowenThere is a writer—she once gave a talk that I heard—a very successful young adult author, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and she apparently wrote a discovery draft of the novel to, like, figure out what it was about and then deleted it and started over on purpose.Jennie NashOn purpose?!Sarina BowenYes, and everyone in the room gasped because, of course, you know that I just rather, like, been in a lot of pain. I'd rather have oral surgery than delete my first draft of a novel. But, um... but yeah, if she was unafraid to get back there after that kind of break, then I think we can all handle it.KJ Dell'AntoniaThis is true. I've never deleted a draft, but I have just gone—poofft—"Let's, let's, let's start again." In fact, almost every time. Kind of sad. I'm doing it now, actually, but it's not a full draft. Anyway. So take the breaks, right? That's what we're saying here.Sarina BowenYeah, take the break.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou can break however you do it, you know, whichever thing you pick, and if you don't do what you thought you were going to do, that's cool, too. It's going to—it's going to be fine.Jess LaheyCan I mention something that has—so that now that we've sort of done mechanics, we've done a little bit about the fear thing, the—the identity thing—has been really hard for me, in that I have these two books that I've written, and I've written a bunch and researched a bunch of things over the past couple of years, and people keep asking me, what are you writing? What are you writing? And the reality is, like, I'm not. I'm working on something, I'm researching something, and I've written a lot of things. In fact, now I'm holding up my cardboard box pieces—I found them. But the day—I'm not, like, meeting a 1200-words-a-day goal. And sometimes I feel really... I feel like a fraud. I feel like a massive fraud. Like, what kind of writer is not actually sitting down and writing 2,000 words a day? And that's incredibly difficult for me. Like, I don't deserve to call myself a writer, even though I have a couple of books out there and I wrote—you know—did all this other stuff. But the thing that I have—there are a couple of things that have really helped—and one of those is to understand that and have some grace for myself around what I happen to know full well what my process is. Yes, I wrote a couple of book proposals that didn't turn into books, but it was only through writing the book proposals that I discovered that those books weren't something that I wanted to write, and only through doing all of this research on audiobooks and writing on the side of cardboard boxes. That's the way I've written every one of my books. And it's not—it's just what works for me. And so having a little bit of this, you know, this feeling of insecurity as a writer, I don't think is—I don't think is unique to me. I think a lot of writers feel this, and it's...KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, all the rest of them are...Jess LaheyAll of them are really...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, everyone else is just like, well, of course. No, I'm not an imposter.Jess LaheyBut what's great is when I sit down with other writers and I say, what is an integral part of your process that isn't actually about putting the words on the page? That's not some bogus, like, excuse for not writing. You know, the gardening is part of it, the—the research is part of it, the listening to audiobooks is part of it. The writing—or the walking—is part of it. And it's not just a part of it. It is an incredibly important part of it for me, and—and understanding that and owning that about myself has been really a good thing for allowing myself to not—I'm not productive when I just feel guilty or like an imposter every day. It—that's not good for my process. But none of you ever feel that, right?KJ Dell'AntoniaOr apparently the people around you…Jess LaheyThe other thing that has been—well, the other thing that's been really, really helpful is the—and especially from the parenting perspective—is, or the marriage perspective, or the dog perspective, or the bees perspective, is I need to be fully committed to the thing right in front of me when I'm doing that thing. And if I'm feeling guilty about not being with the words when I'm with my children, or not being with my children when I'm with the words, that is awful, too. And so I have found that when I have to let go of all the other stuff and be fully, 100% in, I'm highly distractible. And so if I'm not fully in the thing, and that—all that guilt of not being over there doing that other thing—that's just taking away from the actual process of writing or researching or whatever it is, or taking care of my bees. I have to be fully in the thing I'm in and not feel guilty about not doing something else. And that's been a growth moment for me, too. It only took me—how old am I? I'm 55 now, and I got there somewhere around 50, I think.Jennie NashThere is also—I mean, I—I love what you're saying, and that is a thing to strive for, for sure—to be, to be present in whatever you're doing. But there is also this idea—I always think of it as mental real estate—that you leave for your project, for your idea, for your writing, for your book. That you, that you have a space in your brain devoted to that, and that you visit, whether or not you're producing words. And I think that that, too, is writing. I think, in some ways, that's more writing than sitting at the keyboard. I mean, I always object to the process of just putting words down. And a lot of the things that challenge writers to do that, because they skip that part—the thinking part and the having-the-part—you know, the real estate-in-your-brain part. And I think this connects to the shower—shower thoughts, right? You're gardening or beekeeping, you're walking, you're thinking, you're writing proposals and throwing them out. You're doing all that, that, that's writing. That's the—that's writing in my mind.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd it's not... I mean the other thing we do say a lot is, you know, "Good writing comes last."Jennie NashYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou've got to do the other stuff. So you can do it on vacation, or you could not do it on vacation. This—I don't think—we just—maybe I—this was my idea, and I think maybe I just needed the reassurance. I have a couple weeks coming up where I'm probably not going to do anything, and I just needed a reminder that that's cool. That's cool. It's all right. It's going to be okay. That's what I—if y'all could just pat me on the head and say "it's going to be okay."Multiple Speakers[Overlapping voices: “Mm-hmm,” “Sorry,” “Ohhh...”]KJ Dell'AntoniaSix or ten times an hour, that might be about what I need.Jess LaheyWell and one of the other things that has been really cool this summer is I've been on a streak of really good books. And every one of those really good books that I've been reading has made me like, Oh, I could do this. Oh my gosh, I could do that. I could write like her. I could I could write this other thing. And it's, it's all that energy is good and it's all a good thing to sit on a beach and read a book, or sit in the woods and read a book. It's all great.KJ Dell'AntoniaAll right, everybody, go collect some energy. Hey, on that note, who's read something good lately?Jennie NashI want to hear all these great books, Jess.Jess LaheySo I really have been on this roll. I've already talked about Atmosphere in an earlier podcast, the Taylor Jenkins Reid thing. But then I've been on this Tess Gerritsen jag, because we're—I'm interviewing Tess Gerritsen later this week. You guys will get to hear her later this summer. I am... Sarina and KJ, I believe, read the first of her new series that she has set in Maine and with a couple of retired CIA agents and spies in Maine. And then I enjoyed those so much that I went all the way back to the beginning—to her first book, The Surgeon, which I didn't even know was turned into this whole series called Rizzoli and Isles. It's a television show—I had no idea. And now I'm deep into Tess Gerritsen land. I'm still—I found out that there's going to be a movie of the book by the guy who wrote The Martian, Andy...Sarina BowenAndy WeirJess LaheyAndy Weir, thank you. And I was warned very specifically on social media not to watch the preview—the trailer—for the new movie that is going to be coming out with Ryan Gosling later on this summer, because it ruins the book. The book is called Hail Mary… Project Hail Mary. So I very quickly turned away from social media and said, Ooh, I better read the book really quickly before anyone ruins it for me, and I am enjoying the heck out of Project Hail Mary. So it's been really fun. Yeah.Sarina BowenI am reading a book that KJ put into my hands. And the fun part is that I don't remember why she put it into my hands, you know. Like, why did I pick up this book? Like, it happens all the time. It's called All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman.Jennie NashWhat a great title.Sarina BowenYeah, like, I picked up this book, and my husband said, oh my God, what a great title. And so, yes, that's super cool. And it's very voice-y. And the—the flap copy has the—a premise that smacks of a thriller, but the voice isn't like all deep, dark thriller. And so I think maybe the contrast of those two things might be why KJ put it into my hands. But I am enjoying the fabulous writing, and I'm—I'm still at the beginning, but the way she introduces characters is really sharp. So even that alone is like a little master class on introducing characters.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, that was why I gave it to you, was that we'd been talking about, you know, the voice, and also because we'd been talking about, like, funny thrillers versus thriller-y thrillers. And this isn't funny, but it's super voice-y. It reminds me of the one you pressed into my hands, which maybe is a little funnier—Listen for the Lie.Sarina BowenYeah, yeah.Jennie NashWell, I'm reading something very different, which is not—not very beachy. I go to a yoga class that is taught by a middle grade English teacher, and she runs her yoga class sort of like English class, where she always starts with a poem and throughout the class, she refers back to the poem in a very embodied way that you're doing the yoga around. And then she reads the poem again at the end. It's—its spectacular. She's—she's so popular at our yoga studio that you have to, you know, fight your way in. But she read a poem by a woman named Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer—and that's Rosemerry like Christmas Merry, so: Rosemerry. And the book is called The Unfolding. And I say it's very different from what you are all mentioning because this woman experienced the death of her young son and father in very close proximity, and her poems are ostensibly about grief, but they're just filled with joy and hope and delight. And, you know, it's kind of that thing you're talking about, Sarina—that it's—here's a book about tragedy and grief, but it's—there's something about the voice that just is—is fresh. And they're just—they're just stunning, just absolutely stunning. And I have gone and ordered all her books, of which there are—are many. So she's a new voice to me, and I just—I can't get enough of them. They're incredible.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, here I am going to go back to the fiction summary read-y thing. I am very late to The Thursday Murder Club party, but it is joy. It is so much fun—really your sort of classic Agatha Christie stuff, but way, way funnier and more entertaining, with a dash of elderly spies. So we're on that theme. And then I also want to mention, just because I liked it so much—and I'm not sure I want everyone to read it—What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown. This could be your lit fic read of the summer. It's somewhere—but—but it's still a page turner. And I thought the premise was extremely great. Basically, it's: what if the Unabomber had also raised a young daughter with him in the woods on all of his theories, back when the Unabomber was living in the woods, and inadvertently involved her in his first kill before she got away? And now she's an adult looking back at what happened. And Janelle Brown is a Silicon Valley person. She's really steeped in this culture. She really knows this world. It's a really good book—plus super entertaining.Jennie NashI love it.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's it!Jess LaheyI love it when we have a lot of good stuff, because there have been a couple weeks this year where we were like, I was just let down this time around. But yay, I'm loving this.KJ Dell'AntoniaAll right, I think that's it for us this week, kids. Remember, if you support the podcast, you get bonus content every week right now, because we are killing it. You might get Jess's Soup to Nuts series, where she is coaching a fellow writer on creating a nonfiction proposal that also will work with her speaking career. You can join me and Jennie on a weekly basis as we flail our way through the beginnings of writing a couple of books. And of course, on a monthly basis, we've got the Booklab, where we look at the First Pages of novels submitted by listeners. And if you'd like to submit to the Booklab, that'd be great. Jess will put the link in the show notes.Jess LaheyIndeed, Jess will. And until next week, everyone, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.The Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perella. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Send us a textKathy and Burk react to the trailer for Project Hail Mary, an upcoming American science fiction adventure film produced and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from a screenplay by Drew Goddard, based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Andy Weir. The film stars Ryan Gosling (who is also a producer on the film), Sandra Hüller, and Milana Vayntrub.Support the show

Author Andy Weir was as shocked as anyone when The Martian became a top bestseller novel in the US. He repeated that achievement with his equally mind-blowing science fiction masterpiece Project Hail Mary. Former Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan welcomed Andy in April of 2023 for the first livestreamed author conversation in The Planetary Society's member book club. Now, with the film version of Project Hail Mary approaching, we’re proud to begin making these insider interviews available to Planetary Radio listeners. We’ll post them on the third Friday of each month. Join us as we talk with Andy about his obsession with getting the science right while his reluctant and unlikely hero attempts to save humanity from a deep space scourge. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/book-club-andy-weirSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jared and Joe welcome friend of the Network Seth Skorkowsky to discuss Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, the birth of RPGs, and our philosophical stances on spoilers. Watch the video here: ⁠⁠⁠https://youtu.be/y99hHUx6P6c Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠jointhenaish.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join Troy Lavallee, Joe O'Brien, Skid Maher, Matthew Capodicasa, Sydney Amanuel, and Kate Stamas as they tour the country. Get your tickets today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hubs.li/Q03cn8wr0⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hubs.li/Q03cmY380⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on news, Rosie and Jason ponder what caused Megan to flop at the box office. Is this a Blum House misstep or a change in the culture? Then, we're looking at the film adaptation of Andy Weir's best-selling novel Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling. We gently judge the ranking of the New York Times' top 100 Films of the 21st Century List and share our top 10 movies of the past twenty-five years. Plus, Jason and Rosie remember actor Michael Madsen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show, we'll discuss some headlines that might've slipped under the radar this week. First, most staff at the U.S. Agency for International Deveopment officially marked their final day with the agency. What might the dismantling of USAID mean for U.S. influence abroad? Plus, school districts are scrambling as federal education dollars are on hold. Then, we'll smile about Andy Weir's latest sci-fi novel being adapted for the big screen and the WNBA expanding into more cities! Here's everything we talked about today: “Bush, Obama and Bono Commend USAID Staff Members on Their Last Day” from The New York Times“The US says 'little to show‘ for six-decade aid agency. Supporters point to millions of lives saved” from The Associated Press“USAID cuts could lead to 14 million deaths over the next five years, researchers say” from NBC News“Education Department freezes cash for school districts, teacher training, migrant students” from POLITICO“Watch the first trailer for ‘Project Hail Mary'” from Popular Science“WNBA adds three more franchises as league's popularity continues to grow” from The Washington Post“‘Friendship' Review: Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd Hit Maximum Cringe” from The New York TimesIf you have a question, give us a call: 508-U-B-SMART or email makemesmart@marketplace.org

• Let's Encrypt drops its long-running email notifications. • Microsoft's new "Unexpected Restart Experience". • Microsoft's response to last year's massive CrowdStrike outage. • Windows 10's extended service updates will sort of be free. • Russia-sold iPhones MUST include the RuStore app. • Lyon, in France, says bye-bye to Windows. Hello to Linux. • The US Gov gets more serious about memory-safe languages. • A new unbelievable AI malware scanner evaSion technique. • A new pair of Cisco 9.8 and 10.0 vulnerabilities. • The current state of post-Elon government cybersecurity. • PNGv3, Swift on Android, and the Samsung email purge. • Andy Weir's "Hail Mary" movie trailer. • And a close look at the pervasiveness of web browser tracking fingerprinting. Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-1032-notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: go.acronis.com/twit bitwarden.com/twit threatlocker.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT

On today's show, we'll discuss some headlines that might've slipped under the radar this week. First, most staff at the U.S. Agency for International Deveopment officially marked their final day with the agency. What might the dismantling of USAID mean for U.S. influence abroad? Plus, school districts are scrambling as federal education dollars are on hold. Then, we'll smile about Andy Weir's latest sci-fi novel being adapted for the big screen and the WNBA expanding into more cities! Here's everything we talked about today: “Bush, Obama and Bono Commend USAID Staff Members on Their Last Day” from The New York Times“The US says 'little to show‘ for six-decade aid agency. Supporters point to millions of lives saved” from The Associated Press“USAID cuts could lead to 14 million deaths over the next five years, researchers say” from NBC News“Education Department freezes cash for school districts, teacher training, migrant students” from POLITICO“Watch the first trailer for ‘Project Hail Mary'” from Popular Science“WNBA adds three more franchises as league's popularity continues to grow” from The Washington Post“‘Friendship' Review: Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd Hit Maximum Cringe” from The New York TimesIf you have a question, give us a call: 508-U-B-SMART or email makemesmart@marketplace.org

In Part 2 of Tom's wide-ranging conversation with Andy Weir, Andy explores how AI will transform material science, medicine, biotechnology, and possibly even human evolution itself. From AI-designed drugs and custom gene editing to the ethical dilemmas of “designer babies” and the future of cosmetic self-alteration, Andy contemplates what these advances could mean for human identity, equality, and society's deepest values. The episode then hurtles into the far future, weighing the prospects of artificial superintelligence, AI alignment, and the ultimate “tool or agent” debate. Tom and Andy touch on open versus closed source AI, existential risk, and what humanity's historical track record tells us about technology. SHOWNOTES 22:08 AI's leap in material science, biotech, and AlphaFold's revolution28:49 Hardware bottlenecks and the coming “AI card” revolution32:09 Efficiency breakthroughs, compression, and training paradigm shifts36:10 How new materials could propel us to low Earth orbit38:39 AI-designed proteins: The promise and danger within biology39:47 The ethics of designer babies: Health, intelligence, and consent46:38 The coming age of “cosmetic ethnicity” and identity fluidity47:29 Body hacking: Social and economic consequences, from eating to politics48:32 Why society will push—and resist—genetic modifications49:34 The looming “intelligence arms race” between humans and AI50:15 Why Andy doubts the need to compete with AI; the “bulldozer analogy”57:15 Caution and optimism: Why Andy expects a post-scarcity AI future58:10 Why “control” is likely to stay with humans—unless we hand it over1:01:04 Open source debate, narrative control, and algorithmic bias1:28:00 What excites Andy: Self-driving cars and societal revolution1:33:57 Andy on writing, his approach to AI, and what's next for his books1:35:29 Where to follow Andy Weir FOLLOW ANDY WEIR:Twitter/X: @andyweirauthorFacebook: Andy Weir CHECK OUT OUR SPONSORS ButcherBox: Ready to level up your meals? Go to ⁠https://ButcherBox.com/impact⁠ to get $20 off your first box and FREE bacon for life with the Bilyeu Box! Vital Proteins: Get 20% off by going to ⁠https://www.vitalproteins.com⁠ and entering promo code IMPACT at check out Netsuite: Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at ⁠https://NetSuite.com/THEORY⁠ iTrust Capital: Use code IMPACTGO when you sign up and fund your account to get a $100 bonus at ⁠https://www.itrustcapital.com/tombilyeu⁠  Mint Mobile: If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at ⁠https://mintmobile.com/impact.⁠  DISCLAIMER: Upfront payment of $45 for 3-month 5 gigabyte plan required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customer offer for first 3 months only, then full-price plan options available. Taxes & fees extra. See MINT MOBILE for details. What's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here: If you want my help... STARTING a business:⁠ join me here at ZERO TO FOUNDER⁠ SCALING a business:⁠ see if you qualify here.⁠ Get my battle-tested strategies and insights delivered weekly to your inbox:⁠ sign up here.⁠ ********************************************************************** If you're serious about leveling up your life, I urge you to check out my new podcast,⁠ Tom Bilyeu's Mindset Playbook⁠ —a goldmine of my most impactful episodes on mindset, business, and health. Trust me, your future self will thank you. ********************************************************************** LISTEN TO IMPACT THEORY AD FREE + BONUS EPISODES on APPLE PODCASTS:⁠ apple.co/impacttheory⁠ ********************************************************************** FOLLOW TOM: Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/⁠ Tik Tok:⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=en⁠ Twitter:⁠ https://twitter.com/tombilyeu⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeu⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Bilyeu is joined by Andy Weir, celebrated science fiction author best known for his bestsellers “The Martian” and “Project Hail Mary.” Andy brings his trademark grounded, analytical perspective as he and Tom grapple with one of the most pressing and fascinating subjects of our time: the future of artificial intelligence. In Part 1, Andy breaks down the near- and mid-term landscape of AI's impact—from industry disruptions and the transformation of art to the coming upheaval in entertainment and personal storytelling. The conversation dives into economic inevitabilities, how AI art upends creative professions, and the paradigm shift awaiting writers, artists, and audiences alike. Andy also unpacks the deeper consequences: Are we heading toward a world without shared cultural narratives? What do ultra-personalized stories mean for society, politics, and how we connect? SHOWNOTES 00:00 Introduction: Andy Weir on grounded sci-fi and AI's future04:34 How AI will revolutionize storytelling and end “event entertainment”06:06 Personalized narrative: When every film is custom-made for you12:07 What shared values mean in a fractured, AI-personalized world13:50 Roots of national cohesion before mass media, and the role of religion15:53 Core documents, slow narrative, and the dangers of centralized change17:35 Social change, the “woke era,” and decentralized storytelling18:57 Summing up: Will control of narrative actually break down meaningfully?21:15 How personal entertainment will always sidestep challenges to belief22:08 Setting up what's next: The technological future, material science, and medicine FOLLOW ANDY WEIR:Twitter/X: @andyweirauthorFacebook: Andy Weir CHECK OUT OUR SPONSORS ButcherBox: Ready to level up your meals? Go to https://ButcherBox.com/impact to get $20 off your first box and FREE bacon for life with the Bilyeu Box! Vital Proteins: Get 20% off by going to https://www.vitalproteins.com and entering promo code IMPACT at check out Netsuite: Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at https://NetSuite.com/THEORY iTrust Capital: Use code IMPACTGO when you sign up and fund your account to get a $100 bonus at https://www.itrustcapital.com/tombilyeu  Mint Mobile: If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at https://mintmobile.com/impact.  DISCLAIMER: Upfront payment of $45 for 3-month 5 gigabyte plan required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customer offer for first 3 months only, then full-price plan options available. Taxes & fees extra. See MINT MOBILE for details. What's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here: If you want my help... STARTING a business: join me here at ZERO TO FOUNDER SCALING a business: see if you qualify here. Get my battle-tested strategies and insights delivered weekly to your inbox: sign up here. ********************************************************************** If you're serious about leveling up your life, I urge you to check out my new podcast, Tom Bilyeu's Mindset Playbook —a goldmine of my most impactful episodes on mindset, business, and health. Trust me, your future self will thank you. ********************************************************************** LISTEN TO IMPACT THEORY AD FREE + BONUS EPISODES on APPLE PODCASTS: apple.co/impacttheory ********************************************************************** FOLLOW TOM: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeu YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices