Podcasts about ganeshananthan

We should look at wars not to build hierarchies but to understand something important about humans. Where does the violence come from? How to prevent it? What to do when it is already there? How can we defend ourselves and others? For this episode, we invited an award-winning writer V.V. Ganeshananthan. Her novel "Brotherless Night" tells a story of the civil war in Sri Lanka that has lasted for more than 25 years. The book won Women's Prize for Fiction 2024 and the Asian Prize for Fiction in 2023. In this conversation we tried to connect war experiences in Sri Lanka and Ukraine. Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, the chief editor of UkraineWorld and the president of PEN Ukraine. Explaining Ukraine is a podcast by UkraineWorld, a media about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine, and based in Kyiv. You can support our work at https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld. Your support is crucial as our media increasingly relies on crowdfunding. You can also support our volunteer trips to the front-line areas, where we provide assistance to both soldiers and civilians - mainly by bringing cars for soldiers and books for civilians. You can support our trips via PayPal at ukraine.resisting@gmail.com. This episode was produced in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute, Ukraine's major cultural and public diplomacy institution, and NGO Cultural Diplomacy Foundation. "Brotherless Night": https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/453754/brotherless-night-by-ganeshananthan-v-v/9780241997673

South African writer Rešoketšwe Manenzhe joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the influence that wealthy South African immigrants like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are having on the Trump administration and conservative U.S. politics in general. Manenzhe talks about how growing up under apartheid may have shaped these men's views, how South Africans view Musk now, and what the country's history can tell us about the current American political situation. She also discusses South Africa's Immorality Act of 1927 and reads from her novel, Scatterlings.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Hunter Murray. Selected Readings: Rešoketšwe Manenzhe Scatterlings Others: “A Biracial Family Risks Persecution in 1920s Cape Town” by V.V. Ganeshananthan How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia' extend to apartheid South Africa | Elon Musk | The Guardian Gravity's Rainbow (Classics Deluxe Edition) by Thomas Pynchon US focuses on persecution claims as white South Africans seek resettlement | Reuters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s widely publicized and false claims about autism, writer Jodie Hare joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V Ganeshananthan to talk about the politics of neurodiversity and the importance of autistic communities. Hare, who was diagnosed as autistic in adulthood, explains how the pathologization of the autistic population is historically connected to industrialization and capitalism. She also discusses the discriminatory and criminal history of searching for a “cure” for autism through a series of cruel methods, which have all failed. She challenges the idea that there are normal and abnormal ways of living, and reads from her book, Autism Is Not a Disease: The Politics of Neurodiversity.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Hunter Murray and Vanessa Watkins. Selected Readings: Jodie Hare Autism Is Not A Disease: The Politics of Neurodiversity Why we must politicise neurodiversity | shado Autism cannot be cured — stop trying | huck, July 2024 The Dehumanisation of Autistic People Must End | Verso blog, May 2022 Others: Empire of Normality  by Robert Chapman Unmasking For Life: The Autistic Person's Guide to Connecting, Loving, and Living Authentically by Devon Price, PhD Neuroqueer Heresies  by Nick Walker RFK Jr. Is Using a New Study on Autism Rates to Push His Anti-Vaccine Agenda | Mother Jones People with autism seek dignity where RFK seeks a cure | Axios RFK Jr. Calls Autism ‘Preventable,' Drawing Ire From Researchers | The New York Times A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll RFK Jr. Set to Launch Disease Registry Tracking Autistic People | The New Republic | The New Republic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed novelist and journalist Vauhini Vara joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V Ganeshananthan to discuss her new essay collection, Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age. Vara talks about the rise of the loser tech bro, internet privacy, Google search logs, the power and limits of turning one's collected personal data into art, and whether a recently publicized AI-authored short story is actually good.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Hunter Murray and Vanessa Watkins. Selected Readings: Vauhini Vara Searches This Is Salvaged The Immortal King Rao “Ghosts,” The Believer  Others: A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace  Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams “OpenAI's metafictional short story about grief is beautiful and moving,” by Jeanette Winterson, The Guardian “‘A computer's joke, on us': writers respond to the short story written by AI,” The Guardian  Vauhini Vara on the Perils and Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 17 Alex Reisner on Covering Books3 and Fighting Piracy Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following ICE's detention of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil and the sudden revocation of hundreds of student visas across the country, professor and novelist Sheila Sundar joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the targeting of international university students, especially those involved in pro-Palestine speech or protests, by the Trump administration. Sundar reflects on a childhood spent partly among intellectuals travelling between countries, and explains how this led to her recent novel, Habitations, in which the protagonist leaves her home in South India for graduate school at Columbia. Sundar discusses international students' contributions to American intellectual life and how the current assault on diversity damages academia. She also talks about how work-restrictive policies treat international students as “takers” who are not welcome to integrate fully into American society. Sundar reads from Habitations. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Hunter Murray and Vanessa Watkins. Selected Readings: Sheila Sundar Habitations (2024) Yellow Curtains The Massachusetts Review (2023) Diplomacy  Virginia Quarterly Review (2022) The Death of Tyler Clementi The Threepenny Review (2021) Others: Meghan O'Rourke on The End of the University, Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 27 Nearly 150 Students Have Had Visas Revoked and Could Face Deportation - The New York Times Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to the Press Trump Immigration Policies Increase Peril For International Students Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harini Amarasuriya est la Première ministre du Sri Lanka, un pays qui sort de cinq années de crise financière et d'instabilité politique. De passage à Paris le 1er avril dernier afin de participer à une conférence internationale sur la protection du patrimoine bouddhiste de son pays, dont le célèbre site archéologique d'Anuradhapura inscrit au patrimoine mondial de l'Unesco, elle s'est entretenue avec RFI.  RFI : Madame la Première ministre, vous avez été nommée à votre poste en novembre dernier. Quel bilan faites-vous de vos cent jours au pouvoir ? Harini Amarasuriya : Renouer avec la stabilité politique, c'était ça notre priorité et c'est ce que nous avons, je crois, réussi à instaurer au cours des cent premiers jours de pouvoir. Après les turbulences de ces dernières années, la population avait besoin de se sentir rassurée avec un exécutif stable aux manettes, sans décalage entre les promesses et les actions du gouvernement, bref, un gouvernement auquel les Sri Lankais peuvent faire confiance. Cette confiance est née aussi du fait que l'économie est en voie de rétablissement même si je ne dirais pas que nous soyons encore tout à fait sortis de l'affaire. Qui plus est, et je crois c'est fondamental, nous avons réussi à imprimer la possibilité de faire la politique différemment que nos prédécesseurs. Les électeurs ont rejeté la vieille garde et sa politique déconnectée du quotidien, laissant les citoyens se débrouiller seul. Voilà quels sont, je dirais, les principaux acquis de cette période.Vos détracteurs dépeignent votre entourage comme une « bande d'idéologues », enfermés dans leur utopie marxiste-léniniste. Vous reconnaissez-vous dans ce portrait qu'on brosse de vous et de vos collègues ministres ?Cette référence à l'idéologie marxiste-léniniste concerne de prime abord la Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna ou le JVP, le parti que dirige le président Dissanayake et qui est une composante de notre coalition au pouvoir. Cette coalition, le National People's Power ou le NPP est une alliance plus ouverte, située au centre-gauche de l'échiquier politique. Au cours des cinq dernières années, soit depuis 2019, la plateforme que le NPP a présentée à la population a été essentiellement axée sur des solutions pragmatiques à apporter aux problèmes auxquels les gens sont confrontés au quotidien. Certes, dans nos discours, il est beaucoup question de justice sociale, d'équité, d'égalité, mais nous avons toujours affirmé que nous ne nous laisserions pas enfermer dans des cases idéologiques. Il n'est pas question pour nous de privilégier une idéologie quelconque, faisant fi des impératifs de l'ici et maintenant.L'un de vos principaux succès a sans doute été économique, puisque l'économie srilankaise a renoué avec la croissance. Mais le mérite pour le succès ne devrait-il pas revenir d'abord à votre prédécesseur qui avait négocié le prêt de sauvetage avec le FMI ?   Le président Ranil Wickremesinghe, prédécesseur de l'actuel chef de l'État du Sri Lanka avait en effet engagé les discussions avec le FMI dans ce sens. L'accord pour un prêt avait été signé avant que nous n'arrivions au pouvoir en septembre dernier, mais je pense que nous pouvons être crédités de la mise en œuvre de cet accord dans des conditions qui soient acceptables pour la population.En accédant au pouvoir, nous avons pris langue avec le bailleur de fonds institutionnel. Le gouvernement a négocié pied à pied pour faire assouplir les mesures d'austérité draconiennes. Par exemple, nous voulions une protection sociale renforcée, et l'ajustement du régime fiscal. Nous avons pu aussi réduire la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée (TVA) sur les produits de première nécessité, notamment sur les fournitures éducatives essentielles et les médicaments. Les salaires ont été augmentés dans le secteur public. La paix sociale était à ce prix et elle est à mettre à notre crédit.Le problème avec l'ancien président qui avait négocié l'accord, ce n'était pas tant l'accord en soi qui posait problème, mais le fait que cet accord n'était pas soutenu par le peuple. Pour notre part, c'est fort du mandat du peuple srilankais que nous avons discuté avec le FMI, pour s'assurer que le fardeau de la dette soit équitablement partagé entre les différentes couches sociales du Sri Lanka. La morale de l'histoire, c'est que la stabilité économique ne peut être garantie sans la stabilité politique et sans le soutien du peuple pour l'application des réformes.Le président Dissanayake, tout comme vous, avez été élus sur une promesse de rupture avec le précédent régime. Comment définiriez-vous votre feuille de route ?On pourrait dire, pour simplifier, que notre feuille de route, c'est la réforme du contrat social entre citoyens et classe politique au Sri Lanka. Sur l'île, les années post-indépendance ont été marquées par une lutte acharnée entre l'élite et le peuple. Cette tension s'est manifestée de différentes manières, notamment à travers des conflits et des violences extrêmes qui ont ensanglanté notre histoire moderne. Je pense à la guerre de sécession dans le Nord, à l'insurrection de la jeunesse cinghalaise en 1971... Pour moi, le mouvement « Aragalaya », la grande révolution citoyenne de 2022, relève de cette même aspiration pour une société plus égalitaire. Notre feuille de route répond à cette aspiration en proposant de jeter les bases d'une relation renouvelée entre l'État et la population.La refonte de la relation entre l'État et la population passe par une réconciliation nationale entre la majorité cinghalaise et la minorités tamoule qui a subi des abus et des violations pendant la guerre civile. Votre camp qui a fait une percée spectaculaire dans le nord aux législatives est attendu avec impatience sur ce terrain. Où en êtes-vous dans votre réflexion sur la mise en place d'un mécanisme pour déterminer la responsabilité des violences perpétrées pendant les années de guerre civile ?Je ne sais pas si vous le savez, lorsque la guerre civile dans le nord a pris fin en 2009, le JVP s'est manifesté dès les premières heures qui ont suivi la fin des hostilités pour réclamer la création le plus rapidement possible d'une commission « Vérité et Réconciliation » sur le modèle sud-africain. Bien sûr, cette demande n'a pas été prise au sérieux à l'époque.Aujourd'hui, nous nous trouvons plusieurs années après la fin de la guerre. Il est à craindre que la mise en place aujourd'hui d'un mécanisme d'enquête pour connaître la vérité sur la guerre civile n'ouvre les vannes de la détresse en ravivant des souvenirs qui ont été soigneusement enterrés. Qui plus est, ces victimes ont raconté leurs histoires aux différents comités d'enquêtes mis en place au fil des ans. Ce que les gens veulent aujourd'hui, ce sont des actions concrètes à partir des informations et révélations déjà enregistrées. Nous voulons commencer ce processus de réparation dès cette année, en nous appuyant sur des logistiques existantes telles que le Bureau des Personnes Disparues et le Bureau de l'Unité Nationale et de la Réconciliation.Par ailleurs, il faut que nous nous assurions que tous les citoyens, indépendamment de leur appartenance ethnique et de leur religion, puissent pleinement bénéficier des projets de développement lancés par le gouvernement central. Pendant trop longtemps, les minorités dans le nord et à l'est ont été tenues à l'écart des programmes et des politiques de développement du gouvernement central. Nous œuvrons pour que désormais les projets du gouvernement central tiennent compte des besoins et des inquiétudes des citoyens qui vivent loin des bureaux des décideurs gouvernementaux.Au cours des cent jours écoulés, la politique étrangère a été l'un des principaux champs d'action du nouveau gouvernement srilankais. Le président Dissanayake s'est rendu en Inde en novembre, puis en Chine en janvier. Maintenant, il s'apprête à recevoir le Premier ministre indien Narendra Modi à Colombo. On a l'impression que vous vous êtes partagé les tâches diplomatiques : à vous le vaste monde et au président le voisinage compliqué…Les tâches sont partagées entre les 21 membres du gouvernement. C'est une répartition du travail particulièrement sophistiquée. Quant à ma visite en France, elle avait été décidée avant que la visite officielle du Premier ministre indien Modi ne soit finalisée. Je serai ensuite de retour au Sri Lanka pour accueillir avec mon président, le Premier ministre Modi que j'aurais déjà rencontré au sommet BIMSTEC qui se déroule cette année à Bangkok.La compétition entre l'Inde et la Chine pour asseoir leur domination sur Colombo n'est pas sans rappeler les rivalités anglo-russes en Asie centrale au début du siècle dernier. Comment votre petit pays insulaire vit-il cette nouvelle version du « Grand jeu » ?Voyez-vous, le Sri Lanka, historiquement, a toujours été, en raison de notre emplacement géostratégique, au centre d'intérêts concurrents. Les superpuissances ne nous ont jamais ignorés. Nous avons suscité la compétition, nous avons été un partenaire très recherché par les acteurs globaux et régionaux. Nous avons donc l'habitude de gérer des intérêts concurrents, sans oublier de s'assurer de notre propre sécurité au milieu de ce tumulte. La scène de théâtre de l'ombre où nous nous retrouvons aujourd'hui, dans le contexte d'émergence de superpuissances régionales, est très représentative de la manière dont le Sri Lanka a toujours dû à agir avec ses voisins et alliés. La Chine et l'Inde sont des pays avec lesquels nous avons des relations historiques sur plusieurs fronts : économiques, culturels, religieux, pour ne citer que ceux-là. Il y a eu entre nous des palimpsestes de relations commerciales, beaucoup de mouvements, beaucoup d'aller et retour. C'est ça, le Sri Lanka. Comme vous avez la réputation d'être une grande lectrice, je voudrais finir cette interview en vous demandant de partager avec nous vos goûts en littérature. Citez-nous trois livres qui vous ont passionnée.Je pense en premier à Brotherless Night de V.V. Ganeshananthan (Penguin Books, 2023),  Le livre a remporté le Women's Prize for Fiction en 2024. C'est sans doute l'un des meilleurs livres sur le conflit sri-lankais que j'ai lus. Pendant longtemps, j'avais arrêté de lire des livres sur le conflit srilankais parce que je faisais un blocage psychologique par rapport à cette thématique. L'autre livre que j'ai lu avec fascination tout récemment, c'est Human Acts (Random, 2017) de la Sud-Coréenne Han Kang. C'était vraiment une lecture difficile, mais importante. En fait, j'ai lu à la fois Han Kang et Ganeshananthan. Ce sont deux approches très contrastées de la guerre et des événements traumatiques.Le troisième livre sur lequel j'aimerais attirer l'attention de vos lecteurs, n'est pas un roman. The Value of Everything est un essai de quelque 400 pages, sous la plume d'une économiste britannique, Mariana Mazzucato. Je déteste l'économie. Je devrais plutôt dire que je détestais l'économie, mais en me lançant dans la politique je me suis rendu compte que je ne pouvais plus ignorer l'économie. En fait, c'est l'essai de Mazzucato qui m'a fait vraiment aimer l'économie qu'elle raconte comme une histoire, comme une philosophie, comme un humanisme. Je relis régulièrement ce livre pour me rappeler que l'important, c'est la valeur qu'on attache aux choses et pas leur coût.

Essayist, poet, and Yale Review editor Meghan O'Rourke joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her recent New York Times piece, “The End of the University as We Know It.” O'Rourke discusses the situation at Columbia University; the Trump administration's attacks on other universities, including the threats to deport international students for participation in pro-Palestine protests; the false notion of the radical college campus; and how the political balance on campuses has actually shifted in recent years. She also reflects on how the Cold War reshaped these institutions and made them national assets; the financial relationship between the university and the state; and why schools can't just spend their endowments. O'Rourke reads from her essay. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell. Selected Readings: Meghan O'Rourke Opinion | The View Inside Trump's Assault on Universities - The New York Times: The End of the University as We Know It by Meghan O'Rourke The Yale Review | Meghan O'Rourke Yale's Unsafe Spaces | The New Yorker The Invisible Kingdom (2023) Sun in Days (2019) Once (2013) The Long Goodbye (2012) Halflife (2008) Others: Creating the Market University | Princeton University Press by Elizabeth Popp Berman 20 Colleges With the Biggest Endowments | The Short List: Colleges | U.S. News Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Alex Higley joins host V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new novel, True Failure, in which a man fired from his job decides not to tell his wife what happened and attempts to change his fortunes by applying to join the cast of a Shark Tank-like show. Higley discusses how he experiences the news in Trump 2.0; lying as avoidance and as emotional refuge; and two big American lies (that an individual can succeed on his own and that we can't collectively organize to make change). He also talks about Shark Tank as a curated and tidy presentation of entrepreneurship and capitalism, and his choice to have his protagonist focus not on what he will sell or invent, but on how he can bluff his way to what he wants. Higley reads from True Failure. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell. Selected Readings: Alex Higley True Failure (2025) Old Open (2017) Cardinal and Other Stories (2017) Others: Choice by Neel Mukherjee Cue the Sun! by Emily Nussbaum Dana Spiotta Being There (Film, 1979)  Shark Tank The Apprentice  Big Brother  Organizing My Thoughts Today in Tabs Sally Franson and Emily Nussbaum on Reality TV Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 42 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist, memoirist and biographer Edmund White joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his recent book, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir. White talks about the changes he has witnessed the LGBTQ+ community go through over the years and the hostility the transgender population faces under the Trump-Vance regime. He discusses a general concern older members of the community have about losing Social Security and health coverage should gay marriage become Trump's next target, as well as this administration's attempt to erase queer language from governmental archives. White previews his forthcoming novel about Louis XIV's gay brother titled Monsieur and reads from The Loves of My Life. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Ian Johnson, Hunter Murray, and Vanessa Watkins.  Selected Readings: Edmund White  The Loves of My Life (2025) The Humble Lover (2025) Nocturnes for the King of Naples (2024) A Previous Life (2023) A Saint from Texas (2022) The Unpunished Vice (2018) The Flaneur (2015) Inside a Pearl (2015) Jack Holmes & His Friend (2012) City Boy (2010) A Boy Story (2009) Marcel Proust - A Life (2009) Anthologies, Foreword & Others: The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame (2022) A Luminous Republic (2020) The Stonewall Reader (2019) Such Small Hands (2017) The Violet Quill Club, 40 Years On - The Gay & Lesbian Review by David Bergman, January-February 2021 Felice Picano, Champion of Gay Literature, Is Dead at 81 - The New York Times Edmund White and Emily Temple on Literary Feuds, Social Media, and Our Appetite for Drama Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling fiction writer Curtis Sittenfeld joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her new collection of stories, Show Don't Tell. Sittenfeld discusses the title story, which depicts graduate students in creative writing competing for funding, and its connections to her time at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, when that practice was common. She also considers how President Trump's attacks on DEI reveal some people's true natures, and what it means to write about “the hypocrisy of being a person.” Finally, she explains why she thinks of time as a plot twist, and reflects on returning to the protagonist of her debut novel, Prep, Lee Fiora, who reappears in the new collection's final story, which features her thirtieth high school reunion. Sittenfeld reads from Show Don't Tell. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Curtis Sittenfeld Show Don't Tell (2025) Romantic Comedy (2023) Rodham (2021) The Best American Short Stories 2020 (ed. with Heidi Pitlor) You Think It, I'll Say It (2019) Eligible (2016) Sisterland (2013) American Wife (2008) The Man of My Dreams (2006) Prep (2005) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Karen Weingarten joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about a new anthology she has edited, Abortion Stories: American Literature Before Roe v. Wade. Weingarten reflects on the complicated history of abortion, the varied use of abortifacients, abortion's ties to eugenics and state control of bodies, and the rise of the anti-abortion movement. She discusses how access to abortion facilitates other kinds of resistance, and explains how the book came to include authors like Maria Sybilla Merian, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Lucille Clifton, and Eugene O'Neill alongside oral histories from formerly enslaved persons and groundbreaking politicians like Shirley Chisholm. She talks about the stories she hopes to see represented in post-Dobbs writing and reads from her foreword to the anthology. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Karen Weingarten Abortion Stories: American Literature Before Roe v. Wade Pregnancy Test Abortion in the American Imagination: Before Life and Choice, 1880-1940 Others Dirty Dancing Fast Times at Ridgemont High The Cider House Rules The Mothers The Art of Subtext Jessica Valenti Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win Peyton Place Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway (which includes “Hills Like White Elephants” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canadian authors Suzette Mayr and Kai Thomas join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the repercussions of President Trump's recent threats to annex and tax Canada. They talk about the possible empowerment of the Canadian right as a result of Trump's extreme remarks, as well as measures their communities are taking to unify in the current political environment. Mayr and Thomas read from their recent novels, The Sleeping Car Porter and In the Upper Country.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Suzette Mayr The Sleeping Car Porter  Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall Monoceros Venous Hum The Windows Moon Honey  Kai Thomas In the Upper Country Others: 2025 4 Nations Face Off | NHL.com | NHL Justin Trudeau's speech in response to Trump's tariffs | CBC News The Last Black Town in the West |The Daily Yonder Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters  | Library of Congress There's only one winner in a trade war... | This Hour Has 22 Minutes (YouTube) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quick Sunday episode wherein I share some exciting news: Later this year, I will be launching a new company called DeepDive, which specializes in the creation of long-form educational audio. The debut course from DeepDive will be 'How to Write a Novel,' and it will feature more than 50 hours of never-before-heard conversations with dozens of today's leading writers, including Emily St. John Mandel, Porochista Khakpour, Melissa Broder, Steve Almond, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Lynn Steger Strong, Vauhini Vara, Lydia Kiesling, Madelaine Lucas, Matt Bell, Jerry Stahl, Hannah Pittard, Kimberly King Parsons, Gina Frangello, Stephen Graham Jones, and many more. The official DeepDive website is www.deepdive.audio. And please follow DeepDive on Instagram and on BlueSky. You can sign up for the official DeepDive newsletter right here. And you can read my Substack announcement here. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Twitter Instagram  TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times reporter Nicholas Fandos, author of a recent article titled “An Emboldened Trump Seeks to Bend New York City to His Will,” joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about why President Trump wants to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Officials in Trump's Department of Justice say they want Adams to be free to aid Trump's immigration crackdown in the Big Apple, which since 2014 has been a sanctuary city. But conservative federal prosecutors like Danielle Sassoon and Hagen Scotten say this amounts to a quid pro quo and have resigned rather than drop the case against Adams. Fandos reflects on what might happen next and the larger implications for the Department of Justice. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Nicholas Fandos An Emboldened Trump Seeks to Bend New York City to His Will  Eric Adams Discussed Possible Republican Primary Run with G.O.P. Leader  Jeffries Works With N.Y. Democrats to Weaken G.O.P. Control of the House Others: Who Is Danielle Sassoon, the Prosecutor Who Quit Over Eric Adams's Corruption Case? | New York Times  Danielle Sassoon's Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Annotated | New York Times  Here Are the Charges Eric Adams Faces, Annotated | New York Times | September 26, 2024 Read the Resignation Letter From Hagan Scotten | New York Times  Read The Letter From Emil Bove Accepting Danielle Sassoon's Resignation, Annotated | New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Atlantic staff writers Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, authors of a recent article called “The Tech Oligarchy Arrives,” join host Whitney Terrell to talk about tech oligarchs' influence over President Trump's administration. They discuss the significance of prominent billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos attending Trump's inauguration as visible supporters, how these tech leaders have changed their opinion of Trump over time, and the regulatory and legal benefits they may gain from their close association with the new administration. They also discuss Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and the fallout from that group's efforts to access Treasury data and dismantle USAID. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Ashley Parker & Michael Scherer The Tech Oligarchy Arrives |The Atlantic |January 20, 2025 Trump Advisers Stopped Musk From Hiring a Noncitizen at DOGE |The Atlantic |February 4, 2025 Trump Takes Over the Kennedy Center |The Atlantic | February 7, 2025 Trump's Conquest of the Kennedy Center Is Accelerating |The Atlantic | February 8, 2025 Ashley Parker The Memo That Shocked the White House |The Atlantic | January 29, 2025 Michael Scherer Why Meta Is Paying $25 Million to Settle a Trump Lawsuit |The Atlantic | January 29, 2025 Others: DOGE task force gains access to U.S. Treasury Department data, payment systems |CBS News |February 3, 2025 Doge v USAid: how Elon Musk helped his acolytes infiltrate world's biggest aid agency |The Guardian |February 5, 2025 Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity – The White House |The White House |January 21, 2025 Meta Goes Full MAGA as it Kills Off DEI Programs |Daily Beast|January 10, 2025 The Tech Oligarchy Arrives |The Atlantic |January 20, 2025 Trump, a populist president, is flanked by tech billionaires at his inauguration | AP News | January 20, 2025 Zuckerberg Turns Facebook Full MAGA and Smears California Staff |Yahoo! News |January 7, 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Essayist Thomas Dai joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new collection, Take My Name But Say It Slow, in which he writes about place and identity. Dai talks about the imperialist impulse behind Trump's attempt to turn the Gulf of Mexico into the “Gulf of America,” the power of naming, and the appeal and uncertainty of mapping. He also reflects on the surprising history of border policing, queer cartographies, and the sometimes paradoxical relationship between inner self and physical space. Dai reads from Take My Name But Say It Slow.    To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Thomas Dai Take My Name But Say It Slow Others National Archives, The Chinese Exclusion Act  “Queering the Map” Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon Peter Ho Davies, The Fortunes “Think There's Nothing You Can Do to Stop ICE? Think Again.” | The Nation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed novelist and Director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop Lan Samantha Chang joins Fiction/Non/Fiction hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the role that literary personas may–or may not–have played in recent revelations about Alice Munro, Neil Gaiman, and Cormac McCarthy. Chang discusses how writers often develop literary personas as their public profiles grow. Chang also discusses how personas can be both protective and damaging when they no longer align with the writer's true self, the impact of personas on writers' privacy and the industry's role in shaping and maintaining these personas. She reads from her novel All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Lan Samantha Chang The Family Chao Hunger Inheritance All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost  Writers, Protect Your Inner Life |Lit Hub|August 7, 2017 Others: A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway Erasure, Percival Everett Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 40: “In Memory of Cormac McCarthy: Oscar Villalon on an Iconic Writer's Life, Work, and Legacy” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7 Episode 19: “Jacinda Townsend and James Bernard Short on American Fiction”  James Alan McPherson Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7 Episode 35: “Jonny Diamond on His Mother and Alice Munro”  The Dark Secrets Behind the Neil Gaiman Abuse Accusations|Vulture | January 13, 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist and former Huffington Post climate reporter Sarah S. Grossman joins Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the Los Angeles wildfires. Grossman, who lives in Los Angeles and whose 2024 novel A Fire So Wild centers on a wildfire in Northern California, discusses how communities are coming together to support each other in the wake of the devastation. She reflects on the damage to the historically Black neighborhood of Altadena; the fact that people are differently affected by climate change, even as wealth cannot completely shield anyone; the factors that contributed to the wildfires; and what it is like to prepare to evacuate, or, alternatively, to offer shelter to others. Grossman reads from A Fire So Wild. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Sarah S. Grossman A Fire So Wild The Antidote To Climate Dread | HuffPost Impact | The Huffington Post | Aug 25, 2021 More Americans Than Ever Understand Climate Change Is Real And Harmful | HuffPost Impact | The Huffington Post | Nov 18, 2021 Nearly 30% Of Americans Aren't Worried 'At All' About The Deadly Climate Crisis | The Huffington Post | April 19, 2022 Others: What happened on Friday, Jan. 17 Crews improved containment of the fires; some residents allowed to return | Los Angeles Times L.A. fires upend hard-won stability for the area's homeless population | The Washington Post Mutual Aid LA Network (@mutualaidla) • Instagram Displaced Black Families GoFundMe Directory Safe Place for Youth  How Wildfires Came for City Streets | The New York Times Over 170,000 People Under Evacuation In LA County Wildfires | Inkl New wildfire concerns in Los Angeles: Strong winds could return next week. | USA Today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed novelist Charles Baxter joins Fiction/Non/Fiction hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his recent novel Blood Test: A Comedy. Baxter talks about turning to humor in dark times, the burden of expectations, and writing a protagonist, Brock Hobson, who some readers love and others detest. He discusses how seeing websites and ads that predicted his likes and dislikes led to him inventing a fictional company, Geronomics, which predicts a certain future for Brock and is invested in that scenario playing out one way or another. Baxter also analyzes the craft of writing an antagonist who is a Trumper, but who is never explicitly identified as such. He reads from Blood Test. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Charles Baxter Blood Test: A Comedy Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature Gryphon Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction There's Something I Want You to Do The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot Shadow Play Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5 Episode 33: "The Politics of Craft: Charles Baxter on How His Essays on Writing Respond to a Changing World" Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4 Episode 6: "Hope on the Horizon: Charles Baxter and Mike Alberti on Despair and Renewal in Fiction" Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1 Episode 4: "We're All Russian, Now" Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellows Oedipus Rex by Sophocles Macbeth by Shakespeare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, novelist Ream Shukairy joins Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the country's future. Shukairy, who grew up in California and spent summers in Syria, reflects on the long history of Syrian resistance to oppression, as well as how parts of her family emigrated. She also talks about how it feels to emerge from a culture of fear and surveillance, what it's like to revisit what she previously wrote about Assad, and the places she wants to see when she returns to Syria for the first time in years. Shukairy reads from her young adult novel The Next New Syrian Girl. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Ream Shukairy The Next New Syrian Girl Six Truths and a Lie Others: Return to Homs For Sama The White Helmets (film) The White Helmets (organization) Last Men in Aleppo Cries from Syria Still Recording The Cave Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War by Leila Al-Shami and Robin Yassin-Kassab Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy by Yassin al-Haj Saleh Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria by Sam Dagher  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Jacinda Townsend and writer James Bernard Short join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the movie American Fiction, which is based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. Townsend and Short discuss how the film addresses race in the publishing industry via its central character, Black author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, who tries to make an ironic point by writing a book exploiting Black stereotypes and finds, to his dismay, that it's received in earnest and a bestseller. Townsend and Short analyze director Cord Jefferson's approach and the film's themes of family dysfunction, freedom in storytelling, and the importance of portraying the complexity of Black lives.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Jacinda Townsend Mother Country Saint Monkey James Bernard Short “Aqua Boogie” | Blood Orange Review “Rootwork” | Blood Orange Review “Flash, Back: Langston Hughes' The Simple Shorts” | SmokeLong Quarterly Others: American Fiction (movie) | Official Trailer Erasure by Percival Everett An American Marriage by Tayari Jones Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward The Color Purple by Alice Walker Thelonious Monk Ralph Ellison Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison “The Little Man at Chehaw Station” by Ralph Ellison | The American Scholar, 1978 The Tuskegee Institute White Negroes by Lauren Michele Jackson “The White Negro” by Norman Mailer | Dissent, 1957 “Dragon Slayers” by Jerald Walker | The Iowa Review, 2006 “The Hidden Lesson of ‘American Fiction'” by John McWhorter | The New York Times Origin (movie) | Official Trailer Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 11, “Annihilation, Adaptation: What's It Really Like to Have Your Book Made Into a Movie” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 11, “Brit Bennett and Emily Halpern on Screenwriting's Tips for Fiction” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 33, “The Stakes of the Writers' Strike: Benjamin Percy on the WGA Walkout, Streaming, and the Survival of Screenwriting” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 38, “Jacinda Townsend on Why Democrats Are Skeptical of President Biden—and How He Can Win Them Back” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this holiday re-broadcast, Romance novelists Elle Everhart and Ellie Palmer join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the genre's increasing popularity. Everhart, the London-based author of the new book Hot Summer, featuring a protagonist who joins the cast of a reality show only to realize she's interested in a fellow contestant, discusses coming to romance writing as a fourth grader fascinated by kissing, and wonders why as sales boom, the U.S.—but not the U.K.—is seeing more romance-specific bookstores. Palmer, the author of the new book Four Weekends and a Funeral, whose main character is a carrier of the BRCA1 mutation, recalls falling in love with the genre as she prepared for her own preventative double mastectomy. She reflects on how the genre's structure promises positive endings for those who need them at challenging moments, and how the language of romance gave her a way to think about her own body and sexuality. Everhart reads from Hot Summer and Palmer reads from Four Weekends and a Funeral.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Elle Everhart Hot Summer Wanderlust Ellie Palmer Four Weekends and a Funeral Others "9 New Books We Recommend This Week" | May 4, 2023 | The New York Times  "Hot and Bothered: Four New Romance Novels" by Olivia Waite | August 7, 2020 | The New York Times Nora Ephron Nancy Meyers Mhairi McFarlane Beth O'Leary Talia Hibbert Bolu Babalola “A Romance Bookstore Boom” by Olivia Waite | The New York Times “Emily Henry is Proud to be Called a Romance Writer” by | The New York Times Olivia Waite Jodi Picoult Love Island Tropes & Trifles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, journalists and podcasters Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko return to Fiction/Non/Fiction to tell hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell how Ukrainians view Donald Trump's return to power in the U.S. They talk about the situation at the frontlines, the consequences of delayed aid, the urgent need for a swift and decisive response to Russian aggression, and continued Ukrainian resilience in the face of the existential threat of the war.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan. Selected Readings: Tetyana Ogarkova Ukraine Crisis Media Center L'Ukraine face à la guerre - Ukraine Crisis Media Center Volodymyr Yermolenko Internews Ukraine   Explaining Ukraine podcast Ukraine World Trump's Election and Its Impact on Ukraine - with Nataliya Gumenyuk  Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5 Episode 15: Scott Anderson on What Russia's Wars in Chechnya Tell Us about the Invasion of Ukraine Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 51: Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko on How Artists Are Responding to the War in Ukraine Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 2: How Dostoevsky's Classic Has Shaped Russia's War in Ukraine, with Explaining Ukraine's Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ProPublica reporter Molly Redden joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her recent piece on impoundment, Donald Trump's strategy to thwart Congressional spending priorities. Redden talks about how the presidential budget and Congressional appropriations work now, Trump's claim that he has the authority to ignore what Congress wants to fund, what this could mean for those he perceives as enemies, and the possible role of the “nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency,” co-led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. She explains the history of impoundment, Richard Nixon's excessive use of the power to ignore projects he didn't want to do, and how this led to a 1974 law restricting the option. She analyzes the likelihood that Trump will succeed in challenging the law and reflects on writing and reporting on seemingly outlandish schemes that are neither likely nor impossible. She reads from her article, “How Trump Plans to Seize the Power of the Purse From Congress.” To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Molly Redden “How Trump Plans to Seize the Power of the Purse from Congress” | ProPublica  Others: “Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: The DOGE Plan to Reform Government” | WSJ The Brownback Legacy: Tax cut push led to sharp backlash | Wichita Eagle | July 26, 2017 The Constitution of the United States Loving v. Virginia Impoundment Control Act Alien Enemies Act Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer and podcaster Carvell Wallace joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss finding his way to the understanding that life is lived on a continuum and is not made up of neat endings and beginnings. He talks about how his childhood experiences with poverty, housing insecurity, and a frustrated creative genius of a single mother prepared him to understand the world. Wallace also discusses his expansive, generous approach to writing about both people he knows and loves and those he's profiling as a journalist. He reads from his new memoir Another Word for Love. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Carvell Wallace Another Word for Love Others: Life is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera Marilynne Robinson Easy Rider “Remembering Hollywood's Hays Code, 40 Years On” | All Things Considered, NPR | August 8, 2008 James Alan McPherson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following Donald Trump's dinner at Mar-A-Lago with Ye (formerly Kanye West) and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, novelist Michael Knight joins hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the best and worst dinner parties in literature. They discuss the pressures of hosting, what makes someone a great guest, signature dishes, post-party regrets, and festive successes, as well as scenes in literature featuring all of these things. Knight also reads from a classic dinner party scene in his novella The Holiday Season. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Selected Readings: Michael Knight The Typist At Briarwood School for Girls Divining Rod Dogfight  Goodnight, Nobody  Eveningland The Holiday Season  Others: “The inside story of Trump's explosive dinner with Ye and Nick Fuentes,” by Marc Caputo The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Leo Tolstoy “The 8 best Festivus moments from ‘Seinfeld,' ranked,” USA Today “Curb Your Enthusiasm”: Bad Middling Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee Light Years by James Salter Last Night by James Salter Beloved by Toni Morrison The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf The Dark Tower VII by Stephen King Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro Jim Harrison Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway Redwall series by Brian Jacques Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Ruben Reyes Jr. joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the Trump administration's plans for mass deportation. Reyes explains how deportation could affect families or households with different immigration statuses, including those here through Deferred Action Childhood Arrival (commonly known as DACA) and with Temporary Protected Status. The three discuss Trump's plans to involve the military in his efforts, and the difficulties he may face, given the interconnectedness of our social and economic systems. Reyes also talks about writing about the dehumanization of immigrants through science fiction and satire, and how he thinks about agency and possibility when he is portraying characters facing systemic oppression. He reads from his short story collection There is a Rio Grande in Heaven. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Rubin Reyes Jr. There is a Rio Grande in Heaven Others: “Trump is promising deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. What is it?” by Rachel Treisman | NPR Stephen Miller “Who is Usha Vance? Yale law graduate and wife of vice presidential nominee JD Vance” by Olivia Diaz |AP Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo "Trump's goal of mass deportations fell short. But he has new plans for a second term" by Elliot Spagat | AP Donald Trump TIME Interview on 2024 Transcript | Time "In Trump's mass deportation plan, the private prison industry sees a lucrative opportunity" by Laura Romero and Peter Charalambous | ABC News "If Trump Wins the Election, This is What's at Stake" by Lauren Gamibino | The Guardian “Trump promised the 'largest deportation' in U.S. history. Here's how he might start” by Steve Inskeep and Christopher Thomas | NPR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of the election, writer Maggie Tokuda-Hall joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss what Project 2025 has in store for authors and book bans. Tokuda-Hall explains Project 2025's misuse of terms like “critical race theory” and “pornography” and how these will be used to attack mainstream content, especially material by BIPOC and LGBTQ creators. She analyzes conservatives' plans to make reading less accessible to the general population and talks about co-founding the new organization, Authors Against Book Bans. She also reflects on her experiences with corporate attempts to censor her books for children and young adults, the importance of libraries, and how individuals can resist by connecting with others and by understanding and focusing on their own expertise. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Maggie Tokuda-Hall The Worst Ronin The Siren, the Song, and the Spy The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea Love in the Library Squad Others: Authors Against Book Bans Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, Episode 13: "Censoring the American Canon: Farah Jasmine Griffin on Book Bans Targeting Black Writers" "The Republicans' Project 2025 is Disastrous For Books," by James Folta | LitHub Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, Episode 12: "Intimate Contact: Garth Greenwell on Book Bans and Writing About Sex" Alex DiFrancesco's resignation from Jessica Kingsley Publishers | X Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 52: "Brooklyn Public Library's Leigh Hurwitz on Helping Young People Resist Censorship" Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 20: "Adam Serwer on Critical Race Theory and the Very American Fear of Owning Up to Our Racist Past and Present" Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 22: “Rachel Bitecofer on Democratic Strategies to Counter Republicans in the 2024 Election” And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, and Henry Cole Idaho House Bill No. 710 Iowa Senate File 496 Book Bans | PEN America Kimberlé Crenshaw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Jennifer Maritza McCauley joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to analyze the fallout from Tony Hinchcliffe's “floating island of garbage” comment at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally. McCauley—whose mother is Puerto Rican—discusses the island's history and her communities' reactions. McCauley reads her mother's self-assured response to Hinchcliffe's racism and reflects on the country's distinctive mix of African, Spanish, and Indigenous populations. She also discusses the rights Puerto Ricans have and are denied, given their unusual status as U.S. citizens of a territory rather than a state. She reads from the title story of her collection, When Trying to Return Home, which includes many depictions of Puerto Rican identity. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Jennifer Maritza McCauley Kinds of Grace When Trying to Return Home Scar On/Scar Off Others: "Pennsylvania: anger among Puerto Ricans in key swing state after racist remarks" by José Olivares | The Guardian Tony Hinchcliffe “Trump's Derision of Haitians Goes Back Years” by Michael D. Shear | The New York Times Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 52: “Myriam J.A. Chancy on Haitian American Communities” “Donald Trump is the First White President” by Ta-Nehisi Coates | The Atlantic | October 2017 Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton The Jones Act  “Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny, and Racism” by Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman and Michael Gold | The New York Times X: “Bigot Coachella” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the lead-up to the presidential election, novelist Jess Walter returns to the show to revisit his previous comments about former president Donald Trump. Walter joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss Trump's dangerous decisions and inflammatory rhetoric, as well as how reactions to him have changed since 2016. Walter talks about former Trump cronies who have abandoned the candidate and endorsed Kamala Harris, and reflects on the inaction that has made it possible for Trump, a felon, to run for the presidency once more. He hazards a prediction about the election results, and reads from his short story “Town and Country,” which appeared in his recent story collection Angel of Rome.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Jess Walter The Angel of Rome and Other Stories  The Cold Millions Beautiful Ruins Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1 Episode 6: "All the President's Shakespeare: Jess Walter and Kiki Petrosino"  Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4 Episode 4: “Life After Trump: Jess Walter and Jerald Walker on the Aftermath of Election 2020” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 8 Episode 2: “Jeff Sharlet on ‘Sanewashing' and Fascism” Anderson Cooper interviews Kamala Harris | CNN | October 24, 2024 The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party by Michael Tackett Liz Cheney Lindsey Graham Shark Tank Hopium Chronicles by Simon Rosenberg Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7 Episode 50: “Thomas Frank on How the Harris-Walz Ticket Can Win Red State Voters”  Veep Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, novelist Stephen Markley joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his novel The Deluge, which predicts and depicts the impact of climate change over the next couple of decades. Markley talks about researching and portraying the scale of catastrophic climate events, the role of the markets and other financial considerations in pushing world leaders to take the issue seriously, and which character in his novel was previously Kamala Harris. Markely also reflects on how in revision, he repeatedly had to scale up his fictional disasters to keep them ahead of actual events, the uncanny experience of forecasting disasters like Helene, and the movement leaders—including Bill McKibben, Al Gore, and James Hansen—he felt compelled to include in his novel. Markley reads from The Deluge. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Cheni Thein. Stephen Markley The Deluge  Ohio Only Murders in the Building Others: Matthew Salesses on the Possibilities of Climate Fiction | Literary Hub 1984 by George Orwell Ali Zaidi Weather Underground Climate Defiance The End of Nature by Bill McKibben The Stand by Stephen King The Inflation Reduction Act The Green New Deal  “Helene, Milton losses expected to surpass ‘truly historic' $50 billion each”  - CBS News “Beyond Helene: Hurricane death toll tops 300 lives, with month left in season” - USA Today Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4 Episode 15: Workshop Politics: Matthew Salesses on Centering the Marginalized Writer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

V.V. Ganeshananthan won two of the world's biggest fiction prizes this year: the U.K. Women's Prize and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Her novel Brotherless Night imagines one Tamil family's experience during the first decade of Sri Lanka's civil war, told through the eyes of a courageous medical student. V.V. speaks to Mattea Roach about the complexities of writing fiction about a real conflict, grappling with authenticity and diasporic storytelling, and her almost 20-year journey working on the novel.

Linguist, writer, and professor Anne Curzan joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss how language is constantly changing—and how that's okay. Curzan talks about how, in her work as an English language historian, she's learned that people have always been critical of usage changes; Ben Franklin, for instance, didn't care for colonize as a verb. But, Curzan explains, as much as “grammandos” bemoan the evolution of language, it can't be stopped—singular “they,” “funnest,” and “very unique” are here to stay. Curzan reads from her book, Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Language. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Anne Curzan Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words “‘They' has been a singular pronoun for centuries. Don't let anyone tell you it's wrong.” | October 21, 2021 | The Washington Post Others: Grammando Declaration of Independence Dreyer's English: And Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White Fiction/Non/Fiction Season: One Episode, 12: “C. Riley Snorton and T Fleischmann Talk Gender, Freedom, and Transitivity” Antonin Scalia  Will Shortz Maxine Hong Kingston The American Heritage Dictionary Urban Dictionary Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nonfiction writer Jeff Sharlet joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss how mainstream media outlets sanitize Donald Trump's rhetoric in their reporting rather than straightforwardly describing his words and behavior, an approach recently dubbed “sanewashing” by The New Republic's Parker Molloy. Sharlet analyzes the term's usefulness and also its limitations; talks about the need to describe fascism using the word itself; and reflects on who is now at the center of political discourse and who is at the fringe. He also considers whether popular new media influencers like the MeidasTouch Network and YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen are really filling the need to describe Trump as he is. He reads from his book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Jeff Sharlet The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers Sweet Heaven When I Die C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power Others: "This genius website captures Trump's weirdest debate quotes," by Grace Snelling | Fast Company Lenny Bruce The White Album by Joan Didion The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton Rick Perlstein Brian Tyler Cohen MeidasTouch Network Jeffrey Ruoff Susan Faludi Lane Kirkland Dietrich Bonhoeffer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the housing crisis worsens and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris makes lowering housing prices a key part of her agenda, nonfiction writer Lola Milholland joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her experience with communal living. With traditional single-family homes economically out of reach for many Americans, Milholland talks about the social and financial benefits of living with others, including shared cooking and meals. She cautions that living with roommates will not solve the housing crisis and talks about the need for widespread and systemic change. She reads from her book, Group Living and Other Recipes. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Lola Milholland Group Living and Other Recipes Umi Organic Living With Roommates Is Sorely Underrated |TIME Can a $9 Lunch Cure Loneliness? | Oprah Daily Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 33: “Brandy Jensen on the Mainstreaming of Polyamory” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 29: “Jen Silverman on Generational Divides in American Politics” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 52: “Myriam J.A. Chancy on Haitian American Communities” Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard  Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard: “Home Prices Far Outpace Incomes” The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World by Lewis Hyde Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laura Caygill reviews Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan published by Penguin Books.

Following Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's racist smears against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, author Myriam J.A. Chancy joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about Haitian history and independence; imperialism in Haiti; immigration to and from Haiti; the positive and negative impacts social media has on Haitian communities; and how the current discourse obscures both Haitian past and present. Chancy reflects on the importance of translating Haitian literature into English, recommends the work of several other writers, and discusses the Expo of '49, which brought people from around the world to Haiti. She reads a related scene from Village Weavers.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Myriam J.A. Chancy  Village Weavers  What Storm, What Thunder  Spirit of Haiti Harvesting Haiti Others: Cléanthe Desgraves Valcin  Yanick Lahens Marie-Célie Agnant Valérie Bah Lyonel Trouillot Gary Victor     Mackenzy Orcel  Kettly Mars    “'It just exploded': Springfield woman claims she never meant to spark false rumors about Haitians” by Alicia Victoria Lozano | NBC News “Opinion | Trump Knows What He's Doing in Springfield. So Does Vance.” by Jamelle Bouie| The New York Times “Marianne Williamson Defends Donald Trump's Bizarre Haitian Pet-Eating Conspiracy” by Liam Archacki| Daily Beast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Vice President Kamala Harris's historic campaign for the presidency enters its final weeks, writer Ellen Emerson White joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her prescient 1984 novel The President's Daughter, which imagines the first woman president's campaign and early days in the White House from the point of view of her teenage daughter. White reminisces about beginning the YA book when she was still a teenager herself and notes the uncanny similarities between a fictional presidential debate that appears in the book and the recent Trump-Harris showdown. White reflects on the qualities her character Katharine Powers shares with Kamala White—notably, a “likable, elegant swagger”—as well as how Powers's cool bearing contrasts with Harris's reputation for warmth. She talks about hitting pause on her current writing project following Harris's entrance into the race, and reads from The President's Daughter. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Ellen Emerson White “The President's Daughter” series A Season of Daring Greatly Webster: Tale of an Outlaw “The Echo Company” series Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7 Episode 50: “Thomas Frank on How the Harris-Walz Ticket Can Win Red State Voters”  The Apprentice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nonfiction writer Alissa Quart joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss how the American obsession with “bootstrap narratives” led to the publishing industry championing Hillbilly Elegy, the bestselling and problematic memoir by J.D. Vance, who was subsequently elected to the Senate and is now the Republican vice presidential nominee. Quart talks about Vance's failure to credit those who have contributed to his success and reflects on both the fetishization of poverty and the importance of authentic representation. She also explains the long tradition of self-made man narratives and their underlying queer romantic elements, and compares Vance's work to that of writers like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Horatio Alger. She critiques Vance's recent remarks about childless and professional women and suggests the need for a more nuanced and expansive understanding of community. Quart talks about the nonprofit she leads, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and reads from her book, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Alissa Quart Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream Thoughts and Prayers  Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America  Monetized  Republic of Outsiders: The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers, and Rebels  Economic Hardship Reporting Project   "JD Vance is the Toxic Byproduct of America's Obsession with Bootstrap Narratives" | Literary Hub Others: Laura Ingalls Wilder Horatio Alger Barbara Ehrenreich Dorothy Allison Elizabeth Catte Alex Miller Bobbi Dempsey Ann Larson Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 32: “The East Palestine Train Derailment and Your Health: Kerri Arsenault on the Pervasive and Ongoing Risks of Dioxin”  “‘Dangerous and un-American': new recording of JD Vance's dark vision of women and immigration” by Jason Wilson | The Guardian Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Going for Broke with Ray Suarez | The Nation Going for Broke | NPR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ProPublica reporter Joshua Kaplan joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his recent article on militia group American Patriots Three Percent, or AP3. Kaplan talks about group founder Scot Seddon, a former Army reservist, and how he created a movement whose members number gun control and the “LGBTQ agenda” among their grievances. Kaplan also reflects on AP3's ties to law enforcement, the military, and elected officials, as well as their calculated attempts to brand themselves. He considers the recent history of militias in the U.S., including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and explains how that led to a loss of momentum for the movement, the subsequent rise of recruiting via Facebook, and the environment that allowed for the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Finally, he reflects on how Donald Trump fans the flames of extremist groups like AP3. Kaplan reads from his article. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Joshua Kaplan "Armed and Underground: Inside the Turbulent, Secret World of an American Militia" Others: Oklahoma City Bombing “Trump to Host ‘The J6 Awards Gala' at His Bedminster Golf Club” by Owen Lavine | The Daily Beast BlacKkKlansman Mad Max Keith Kidwell Oath Keepers Southern Poverty Law Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following Elon Musk's estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson's accusations of unethical behavior on the part of Musk's authorized biographer, memoirist Kelly McMasters and biographer Iris Jamahl Dunkle join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the ethics of biography. Dunkle, the author of Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb, talks about using archives to restore the history of Babb, the writer whose notes John Steinbeck used to research The Grapes of Wrath, and how women's lives are often wrongly or incompletely depicted. McMasters, a memoirist whose recent book The Leaving Season: A Memoir portrays many people close to her, talks about the impossibility of writing honestly about her life without including her children, the two people with whom she spends the most time. Dunkle and McMasters discuss Wilson's accusations against Walter Isaacson, whom she says did not directly contact her for comment for his recent book about her father, although much of his book refers to her life. The group also discusses recent revelations that Alice Munro failed to act when she learned that her second husband had abused her daughter, and how authorized biographies often omit full accounts of the truth. Dunkle and McMasters read from their work. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Iris Jamahl Dunkle  Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb  West: Fire: Archive Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer Finding Lost Voices | Substack Kelly McMasters The Leaving Season: A Memoir Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir From and Atomic Town This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home “The Ethics of Writing Hard Things in Family Memoir,” Literary Hub Others: Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson “Musk's Daughter Flames Dad's Biographer: ‘You Threw Me to the Wolves'” by Dan Ladden-Hall | Daily Beast J.D. Salinger The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck “What do we Know about Alice Munro Now?” by Contance Grady | Vox La Belle Noiseuse The Hyacinth Girl: T.S. Eliot's Hidden Muse by Lyndall Gordon Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation by Emily Van Duyne Jackson Pollock “What Virginia Woolf's ‘Dreadnought Hoax' Tells Us About Ourselves” by Danell Jones | January 25, 2024 | Literary Hub Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 19: “The Lives of the Wives: Carmela Ciuraru on Marriage, Writing, and Equity” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Francine Prose joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book, 1974: A Personal History. Prose talks about her relationship with Tony Russo, who in collaboration with Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, a whistleblowing act which revealed decades of government lies about U.S. involvement in Vietnam; how the politics and progressive activism of today compare to those of half a century ago; and why that year was politically pivotal. She also reflects on how in 1974, the idea of government dishonesty was shocking, whereas today it's a given. Prose reads from the book. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Francine Prose 1974: A Personal History A Changed Man Blue Angel Anne Frank: the Book, The Life, the Afterlife Others: The Heritage Foundation The Sixties: Big Ideas, Small Books by Jenny Diski Opus Dei J.D. Vance Patty Hearst RAND Corporation Daniel Ellsberg Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 46: “Samuel G. Freedman on What Hubert Humphrey's Fight for Civil Rights Can Teach Us Today” Ground Truth | NPR Journey to Italy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Cato Institute Pentagon Papers Espionage Act Comstock Act Wag the Dog Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marine biologist Jasmin Graham joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book, Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist, which is about the beauty and diversity of sharks and her career studying them inside and outside of academia. Graham, who left a doctoral program and subsequently founded the community-based organization Minorities in Shark Science to make the field more accessible and inclusive, unpacks how Jaws-inspired fears about sharks fail to understand the species. She also talks about seeing similarities in how sharks and Black people are misrepresented, misunderstood, brutalized, and threatened. Graham reads from Sharks Don't Sink.   To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Jasmin Graham  Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist “How Japanese-American Scientist Eugenie Clark Spearheaded the Study of Sharks” | Literary Hub Others: "50 Years Ago, ‘Jaws' Hit Bookstores, Capturing the Angst of a Generation" by Brian Raftery | The New York Times  Opinion | "What is Trump's shark story really about?" by Eugene Robinson | The Washington Post  Opinion | "What is going on inside Trump's mind?" by Eugene Robinson | The Washington Post Jaws by Peter Benchley  Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane  Finding Nemo Shark Tale Shark Week SharkFest Apocalypse Now Anthony Swofford Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 25: "Ivy Pochoda on Caitlin Clark and Women Athletes” Nyad “Donald Trump Mocked Over 'Bizarre Rant' About Sharks” | video | Newsweek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Romance novelists Elle Everhart and Ellie Palmer join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the genre's increasing popularity. Everhart, the London-based author of the new book Hot Summer, featuring a protagonist who joins the cast of a reality show only to realize she's interested in a fellow contestant, discusses coming to romance writing as a fourth grader fascinated by kissing, and wonders why as sales boom, the U.S.—but not the U.K.—is seeing more romance-specific bookstores. Palmer, the author of the new book Four Weekends and a Funeral, whose main character is a carrier of the BRCA1 mutation, recalls falling in love with the genre as she prepared for her own preventative double mastectomy. She reflects on how the genre's structure promises positive endings for those who need them at challenging moments, and how the language of romance gave her a way to think about her own body and sexuality. Everhart reads from Hot Summer and Palmer reads from Four Weekends and a Funeral.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Elle Everhart Hot Summer Wanderlust Ellie Palmer Four Weekends and a Funeral Others "9 New Books We Recommend This Week" | May 4, 2023 | The New York Times  "Hot and Bothered: Four New Romance Novels" by Olivia Waite | August 7, 2020 | The New York Times Nora Ephron Nancy Meyers Mhairi McFarlane Beth O'Leary Talia Hibbert Bolu Babalola “A Romance Bookstore Boom” by Olivia Waite | The New York Times “Emily Henry is Proud to be Called a Romance Writer” by | The New York Times Olivia Waite Jodi Picoult Love Island Tropes & Trifles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Daily News columnist Harry Siegel joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about his recent piece about the Supreme Court's decision to permit what he has dubbed “after-the-fact bribery.” Siegel, who has covered corruption for years, explains how the legality of accepting gratuities, tips, and gifts has become so nuanced that it's now almost impossible to prosecute a politician who's been bought off, and details why the newest version of the law is “fundamentally incoherent.” Siegel also talks about the language, literature, and history around ducking the rules, including the origin of the word “scofflaw,” and reads from a recent New York Daily News article. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Harry Siegel “Supreme Court Legalizes After-the-Fact Bribery” New York Daily News | June 6, 2024 “Scofflaw Trump is a Defaming Menace to America” New York Daily News | January 27, 2024 The muckrackers and the gunslingers: What's in the balance as the Supreme Court gets ready to take up a legal challenge to New York's tough firearm laws” New York Daily News | February 1, 2019 Others: “English, loanword champion of the world” by Britt Peterson | The Boston Globe | June 29, 2014        Breaking Bad The Sopranos      Succession Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravations by Amman Shea Thomas Malthus Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis e.e. cummings Krazy Kat by George Harriman Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor Democracy by Joan Didion Democracy and American Novel by Henry Brooks Adams Primary Colors by Joe Klein Plunkitt of Tammany Hall by William R. Riordon The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan The Man in the Arena: Selected Writings of Theodore Roosevelt: A Reader by Theodore Roosevelt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Sally Franson and critic Emily Nussbaum join host V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about reality television. Franson, a recent reality TV show winner whose new novel, Big in Sweden, is from the point of view of a woman who joins the cast of a program in that country, reflects on transforming her real-life experience into fiction. Nussbaum, a staff writer at The New Yorker whose new nonfiction book, Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV, addresses the history of what she calls the “dirty documentary” genre, discusses the hundreds of interviews she conducted with reality show staff, as well as the form's surprisingly early origins and the influence of The Apprentice on national politics. Nussbaum and Franson trade notes on how the relationships between people on camera and people behind the camera influence edited footage; the way race was and is handled on reality television; and what it's like to be a contestant or producer. They also talk about poor labor conditions on sets and what that means to the genre. They read from their work. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Sally Franson  Big in Sweden A Lady's Guide to Selling Out Emily Nussbaum Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution “Is “Love Is Blind” a Toxic Workplace?” | The New Yorker Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 26: “Sally Franson on Fashion and Literature” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 33: “The Stakes of the Writers' Strike: Benjamin Percy on the WGA Walkout, Streaming, and the Survival of Screenwriting” Allt för Sverige Big Brother The Real World Survivor Love is Blind An American Family The Amazing Race Heartburn by Nora Ephron Nora Ephron Carl Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of the recent Trump-Biden debate, public relations operative Phil Elwood joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about his career spinning stories in favor of infamous international leaders. Elwood, whose clients previously included figures like Libya's Gaddafi family and Syria's al-Assads, recalls his strangest assignments, his biggest regret—helping Qatar to secure soccer's World Cup—and his proudest accomplishments, including spotlighting the mental health treatment that has helped him. He reflects on how his career shifted when he was swept up in then-FBI Director Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and also explains tactics such as “detonating the bomb in a safe location,” which means giving an unavoidable, damaging story to a second-tier publication so that the “hit isn't so bad.” Elwood reads from his new book, All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Phil Elwood All the Worst Humans: How I Made New for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians Others: “Sri Lanka, Lobbyists and War Crimes” by Ken Silverstein | Harper's Magazine | October 23, 2009 “Gunner Palace,” by Peter Travers | Rolling Stone | February 24, 2005 “Nothing seemed to treat their depression. Then they tried ketamine,” by Meryl Kornfield | The Washington Post | September 12, 2022 John Grisham Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election by Robert Mueller | U.S. Department of Justice | March 2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Literary Hub observes July 4, we return to our archives for a 2017 episode that remains relevant today. We will return with a new episode July 11. In episode 6, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell talk political betrayal past and present with novelist Jess Walter and poet Kiki Petrosino. Jess Walter once interviewed an ailing Mark Felt, aka "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame, and he gives us the skinny on the literary qualities of Nixon, Trump, Flynn, NY mobsters, and his 2005 novel Citizen Vince. Plus, would John Gotti have liked the president? On the eve of the release of her new book, Witch Wife, Kiki Petrosino talks to us about MacBeth's witches and how Shakespeare can help us decode our current age of political skulduggery. What Trump Administration officials would you cast in Macbeth? Readings: All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward; Citizen Vince by Jess Walter; Witch Wife by Kiki Petrosino; The Tragedy of Macbeth; The Tempest; The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In the Stacks: J.J. Cantrell interviews Annie Philbrick of Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT and Savoy Bookshop & Cafe in Westerly, Rhode Island. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Maxim Loskutoff joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about his new novel, Old King, which is about Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who moved to Montana to withdraw from society. Loskutoff, who grew up in Missoula, Montana, discusses the mythology that draws men like Kaczynski—who sought to be in nature, and to avoid technology and other people—to his home state; the gap between the imaginary American West and its reality; and how these connect to American settler colonialism. He also explains how he positioned the Kaczynski of his novel not as a hero or even an antihero, but as a symbol of this dark and unhealed facet of American society. Loskutoff reads from Old King. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Maxim Loskutoff Old King Ruthie Fear Come West and See Opinion | The Unabomber and the Poisoned Dream of the American West - The New York Times Others William Kittredge Richard Hugo  Lewis and Clark  Billy the Kid  Jack Kerouac  “The Story of Jack and Neal: the friendship that made On the Road—and the Beat Generation—possible” by James Parker, The Atlantic, March 11, 2022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist and novelist Nicolás Medina Mora joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about Mexico's president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who will be the first woman and first Jewish person to lead the country. Medina Mora explains current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador's history, his hold on Mexico's political imagination, and how his connections to Sheinbaum will affect policy moving forward as he uses his last days in office to attempt 18 changes to Mexico's constitution. Medina Mora, who is an editor at the Mexican magazine Nexos, reflects on writing about Lopez Obrador through both fiction and journalism. He elaborates on a pre-election piece he wrote for The New York Review of Books and also reads from his novel, América del Norte, in which he plays with the relationship between fiction and nonfiction. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Nicolás Medina Mora América del Norte Where Next for Mexico? | Nicolás Medina Mora | The New York Review of Books Nexos Others Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 32: "Claire Messud on Blurring Family History and Fiction" Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 17: "Ed Park on Korea's Past, Real and Imagined" "Mexico's outgoing president pushes ahead with plan to fire 1,600 judges" by Christine Murray | Financial Times "Mexico's bloodiest election in history sends new asylum-seekers to the US border" by Caitlin Stephen Hu, David Culver, Norma Galeana and Evelio Contreras| CNN The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices