Podcasts about National Book Award

It’s probably cliché to say that sport imitates life, but Hanif Abdurraqib traces the intimate details of basketball legends and faded school-yard stars in an unforgettable book about sport, life, and the places we call home. Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and author of the new book, "There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,” is the selection for this year's Reading Across Rhode Island Statewide Read, sponsored by the Rhode Island Center for the Book. His first full length poetry collection, “The Crown Ain't Worth Much,” was released in June 2016 and named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His first collection of essays, “They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us,” was released in winter 2017 by Two Dollar Radio and was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. His book, “Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest” became a New York Times Bestseller, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. His 2021 book, “A Little Devil In America,” was a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the The PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. The book won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Gordon Burn Prize.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwidge Danticat joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Two Men Arrive in a Village,” by Zadie Smith, which was published in The New Yorker in 2016. Danticat, a MacArthur Fellow and a winner of the Vilcek Prize in Literature, has published six books of fiction, including “Breath, Eyes, Memory,” “The Farming of Bones,” “Claire of the Sea Light,” and “Everything Inside.” Her memoir “Brother, I'm Dying” won the National Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, among others. She has been publishing fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker since 1999. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Louise Erdrich reads her story “Love of My Days,” from the June 2, 2025, issue of the magazine. Erdrich is the author of more than two dozen works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including the novels “The Round House,” which won the National Book Award in 2012, “The Night Watchman,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2021, and “The Mighty Red,” which was published last year. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Ross Gay teaches us how to notice delight and joy in our everyday lives. We discuss: concrete ways to rediscover and capture joy every day; how to rebuild your “delight muscle”; how to dissolve the myth of disconnection between us; and how to “unknow” our people so we can delight in them. About Ross:  Ross Gay is an American poet, essayist, and professor committed to healing the world through observing and articulating joy, delight and gratitude. He won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his 2014 book, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, which was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. A devoted community gardener, Ross is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. A college football player, he is a founding editor of the online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin'. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York Times bestselling author Hanif Abdurraqib spoke to me about taking a leap of faith, the tentpoles of his writing practice, and his recent NBCC award-winning THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR: On Basketball and Ascension. Hanif Abdurraqib is a lauded New York Times bestselling author, recent Winner of the NBCC Award for criticism, and a finalist for the National Book Award for A Little Devil in America. He is also a poet, essayist, cultural critic, contributor for The New Yorker, and a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. His latest book, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, was described by Publishers Weekly, in a Starred Review, as "A triumphant meditation on basketball and belonging…" and named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, Electric Lit and many others. Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams, called it, “Mesmerizing  ... not only the most original sports book I've ever read but one of the most moving books I've ever read, period.” Hanif's first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was named a book of the year by NPR, Esquire, BuzzFeed, O: The Oprah Magazine, Pitchfork, and the Chicago Tribune, among others. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Hanif Abdurraqib and I discussed: What it's like to be on a book tour for close to a year His superpower as a highly prolific writer Quitting his 9-5 job after squirreling away money from freelancing Building his own poetry curriculum Why his writing routine hasn't changed much over the years Hot takes on the 2025 NBA Playoffs And a lot more! Show Notes: abdurraqib.com  There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib (Amazon) Hanif Abdurraqib on Facebook Hanif Abdurraqib on Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was hungry for language. And stories. And how to tell our stories. That's what this book gave me. But let's not make a Bible out of it.Today we meet Kris Kleindienst and we're talking about the queer book that saved her life: Diving Into The Wreck by Adrienne Rich.Kris is a 72-year old queer lesbian writer, bookseller, and activist. She owns Left Bank Books, a 56-year old progressive bookstore in St. Louis, Missouri. Kris edited a collection of activist essays titled This Is What Lesbian Looks Like: Dyke Activists Take on The 21st Century, published by Firebrand Press and winner of a Lambda Literary Award. She was a gold medal winning and 4-time participant in The Gay Games (also the co-founder of Team St. Louis). She has won multiple awards locally, regionally and nationally for my work with Left Bank Books. She is at work on a memoir about growing up in the 50s-60s with a Lesbian mother. Fun fact: She once got high with Armistead Maupin.Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971–1972 was Adrienne Rich's seventh book of poetry, an anthology of poems described as provocative and which co-won the 1974 National Book Award for Poetry with Allen Ginsberg's The Fall of America. Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was an award-winning poet and essayist.Special Limited SeriesThis episode is part of a special limited series of episodes featuring only guests who are owners or staff at LGBTQ bookstores. Airing April-June 2025, these episodes will feature six bookstores across the United States and United Kingdom.Today's guest owns Left Bank Books. Opened in 1969 by a group of graduate students at Washington University who wanted to create a place where one could find all kinds of literature, Left Bank Books is the oldest and largest independently-owned full-line bookstore in St. Louis, Missouri. Open seven days a week, Left Bank Books offers a full-line of new and used books, gifts, cards, toys and services. Learn more and get shopping: left-bank.comConnect with Kriswebsite: left-bank.comfacebook: facebook.com/kleindienstBecome an Associate Producer!Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbookCreditsHost/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change)Executive Producer: Jim PoundsAssociate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean SmithPatreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy EricksonQuatrefoil LibraryQuatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1Join us in helping Lambda Literary raise $20k for The Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices to ensure all writers can attend. Donate here: http://bit.ly/3RjW51aSupport the show

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New YorkTimes–bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and Furies, Matrix, and The Vaster Wilds, and the celebrated short story collections Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. She has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies' Choice Award, France's Grand Prix de l'Héroïne, and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the recent death of Pope Francis and the election of Leo XIV, feels like a good time to talk with best-selling author ELAINE PAGELS about her new book, MIRACLES AND WONDER: The Historical Mystery of Jesus. In it, she asks: Why is Jesus said to have had a virgin birth? Why do we say he rose from the dead? Did his miracles really happen and, if so, what did they mean? And finally, how did a poor young Jewish man and failed Messiah inspire a religion that has persisted and grown for 2000 years? Professor Emeritus of Religion at Princeton, Pagels has won Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Fellowships, as well as the National Book Award. You can learn more at elaine-pagels.com.Elaine Pagels-04-23-2025-Transcript 

Friends Like Us celebrates Malcolm X's  100th birthday! Join host Marina Franklin as she talks with Tamara Payne and Troy LaRaviere as they discuss the impact of his teachings and how they resonate today. Tune in and be inspired!  Tamara Payne sheds light on her father Les Payne's groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning work, "The Dead Are Arising," and its revelations about his life.   Tamara Payne is co-author of The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X written with her father, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne, published by Liveright. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and NAACP Image Award. Troy A. LaRaviere is an American school administrator, educator and current President of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. Prior to assuming his role as president, LaRaviere served as a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) principal. He began his teacher career at CPS in 1997. LaRaviere received both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Education from the University of Illinois. LaRaviere served in the United States Navy in the late 80's. LaRaviere advocates for Progressivism, and has appeared in ads for Bernie Sanders and was a candidate for the 2019 Chicago mayoral election. Always hosted by Marina Franklin - One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female ( Amazon Prime, CW Network), TBS's The Last O.G, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Hysterical on FX, The Movie Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO's Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf. Writer for HBO's 'Divorce' and the new Tracy Morgan show on Paramount Plus: 'Crutch'.   

In 'Meanwhile', Jacqueline Woodson and Catherine Gund weave together the words of literary legends to explore the intersection of art, grief, and social justice.Description: James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Muhammad Ali and Nina Simone are some of the artists featured in the moving new film “Meanwhile”, from National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson and Emmy-nominated producer & director Catherine Gund. Their meditations on grief, art, breath and more are beautifully woven together as the film poses the question, how do you keep breathing amidst the chaos? Catalyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd, Gund and Woodson tap into our shared existence. The artists featured in the docu-poem, with a haunting soundtrack by Meshell Ndegeocello, work through questions of race, political violence, resistance and identity — so much of what shapes our lives and relationships. “This is not a love letter to this country but to us inside this country,” says Woodson in the film. “We see us. We love us. We make eye contact and nod to us”. In this conversation with Laura Flanders, the trio of longtime friends discuss the film from Aubin Pictures, the losses they experienced in the 80s, and how the arts and poetry can compel us to enact change. Can we reclaim the “meanwhile”? All that, plus a commentary from Laura on hers.Guests:•  Catherine Gund: Producer & Director, Meanwhile; Filmmaker & Founder, Aubin Pictures•  Jacqueline Woodson: Writer & Performer, Meanwhile; Author, Brown Girl Dreaming; Founder, Baldwin for the Arts;  The Elders Project, ColumbiaWatch the special report released on YouTube May 16th 5pm ET; PBS World Channel May 18th, and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast May 21st.Full Conversation Release May 16th, 2025: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation. ARE YOU AUDACIOUS? SUPPORT OUR RESISTANCE REPORTING FUND! Help us continue fighting against the rise of authoritarianism in these times. Please support our Resistance Reporting Fund. Our goal is to raise $100K. We're at $35K! Become a sustaining member starting at $5 a month! Or make a one time donation at LauraFlanders.org/Donate RESOURCES:Watch the broadcast episode cut for time at our YouTube channel and airing on PBS stations across the country  Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:•  Ask Angola Prison: What Difference Can a Play Make?  Watch / Listen:  Episode and Full Conversation•  Survival Guide for Humans Learned from Marine Mammals with Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Watch / Listen:  Episode and Full Conversation  •  V (formerly Eve Ensler): Reckoning with Our Past, Transforming the Future: Watch / Listen Related Articles and Resources:•  Jacqueline Woodson:  Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence (2022-2024)•  Catherine Gund's Meanwhile:  A gorgeous, quietly energetic, and moving meditation on Black resilience and world-making in the face of interminable violence. by Brittany Turner, March 2025, The Brooklyn Rail•  Ivy Young, D.C. journalist, poet, and activist dies at 75: A life of service dedicated to community building. By Staff reports, June 6, 2023, Washington Blade•  Gai Gherardi, legendary co-founder of L.A. Eyeworks, Garrett Leight *Recommended book:“Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson. Get the Book*(*Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. The LF Show is an affiliate of bookshop.org and will receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.) Full Episode Notes are located HERE. Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O'Conner. FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky: https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

The artists retreat, Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY nurtures talent, offering superb working space and time for artists, an engaged audience for their work, and a vibrant hub where diverse ideas and voices converge to inspire innovation.Since the first group of guests arrived in 1926, more than 6,500 artists have come to Yaddo. Such sustained support has helped launch and sustain some of the most celebrated careers in the arts.Collectively, Yaddo artists have won 83 Pulitzer Prizes, 1 Nobel Prize, 13 Academy Awards, 71 Emmy Awards, 34 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowships, 71 National Book Awards, 500+ Guggenheim Fellowships, and 16 Tony Awards.

In 'Meanwhile', Jacqueline Woodson and Catherine Gund weave together the words of literary legends to explore the intersection of art, grief, and social justice.Description:  James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Muhammad Ali and Nina Simone are some of the artists featured in the moving new film “Meanwhile”, from National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson and Emmy-nominated producer & director Catherine Gund. Their meditations on grief, art, breath and more are beautifully woven together as the film poses the question, how do you keep breathing amidst the chaos? Catalyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd, Gund and Woodson tap into our shared existence. The artists featured in the docu-poem, with a haunting soundtrack by Meshell Ndegeocello, work through questions of race, political violence, resistance and identity — so much of what shapes our lives and relationships. “This is not a love letter to this country but to us inside this country,” says Woodson in the film. “We see us. We love us. We make eye contact and nod to us”. In this conversation with Laura Flanders, the trio of longtime friends discuss the film from Aubin Pictures, the losses they experienced in the 80s, and how the arts and poetry can compel us to enact change. Can we reclaim the “meanwhile”? All that, plus a commentary from Laura on hers.“. . . Having lost people so early and in such quick succession and under such an awful oppressive situation [of AIDS in the 80s], . . . each one of those hit so hard. We wrote and we made movies, and we had these elaborate memorials, and we did things to process and grieve. I am really holding on to that approach to death and dying as we get older, because I don't wanna ever not care.” - Catherine GundGuests:•  Catherine Gund: Producer & Director, Meanwhile; Filmmaker & Founder, Aubin Pictures•  Jacqueline Woodson: Writer & Performer, Meanwhile; Author, Brown Girl Dreaming; Founder, Baldwin for the Arts;  The Elders Project, Columbia Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation. These audio exclusives are made possible thanks to our member supporters.Watch the special report released on YouTube May 16th 5pm ET; PBS World Channel May 18th, and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast May 21st. ARE YOU AUDACIOUS? SUPPORT OUR RESISTANCE REPORTING FUND! Help us continue fighting against the rise of authoritarianism in these times. Please support our Resistance Reporting Fund. Our goal is to raise $100K. We're at $35K! Become a sustaining member starting at $5 a month! Or make a one time donation at LauraFlanders.org/Donate RESOURCES:Watch the broadcast episode cut for time at our YouTube channel and airing on PBS stations across the country Full Episode Notes are located HERE. Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:•  Ask Angola Prison: What Difference Can a Play Make?  Watch / Listen:  Episode and Full Conversation•  Survival Guide for Humans Learned from Marine Mammals with Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Watch / Listen:  Episode and Full Conversation  •  V (formerly Eve Ensler): Reckoning with Our Past, Transforming the Future: Watch / Listen Related Articles and Resources:•  Jacqueline Woodson:  Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence (2022-2024)•  Catherine Gund's Meanwhile:  A gorgeous, quietly energetic, and moving meditation on Black resilience and world-making in the face of interminable violence. by Brittany Turner, March 2025, The Brooklyn Rail•  Ivy Young, D.C. journalist, poet, and activist dies at 75: A life of service dedicated to community building. By Staff reports, June 6, 2023, Washington Blade•  Gai Gherardi, legendary co-founder of L.A. Eyeworks, Garrett Leight   Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O'Conner. FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky: https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

Winner of the National Book Award and now the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, James is a subversive reimagining of “Huckleberry Finn” told from the perspective of Jim, Huck's enslaved companion on the raft ride. Percival Everett tells Robert Kirkwood about the book and reveals he read Huck Finn too many times in the research! We also hear about the science behind James Bond's gadgets and Agatha Christie's poisons with Kathryn Harkup and find some new books in the RNIB Library.

Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, novelist and professor of modern poetry and poetics at New York University. Some of you may already be familiar with his best-selling debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, which received a MacArthur “Genius” grant and was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction in 2019.  Vuong's award-winning poetry collections include, Time Is a Mother (2022) and Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016).  His latest novel is  “The Emperor of Gladness. A Novel.”   

In this episode, host Kristina Woo talks with Interior Chinatown creator, showrunner, and author Charles Yu (Westworld, Legion, American Born Chinese) about adapting his National Book Award-winning novel to a limited series, his unlikely path in the entertainment industry, why inclusion & representation matters, and more.

A year ago, Percival Everett published his twenty-fourth novel, “James,” and it became a literary phenomenon. It won the National Book Award, and, just this week, was announced as the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. “James” offers a radically different perspective on the classic Mark Twain novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”: Everett centers his story on the character of Jim, who is escaping slavery. The New Yorker staff writer Julian Lucas is a longtime Everett fan, and talked with the novelist just after “James” was released. “My Jim—he's not simple,” Everett tells Julian Lucas. “The Jim that's represented in ‘Huck Finn' is simple.” This segment originally aired on March 22, 2024.

Sergio Ruzzier"Io ero te e tu eri me"Ruth Krauss, Maurice SendakAdelphiwww.adelphi.itIn tutte le sue sfaccettature, la relazione più misteriosa e sconvolgente di cui fa esperienza un bambino: l'amicizia.Io ero te e tu eri me racconta la più misteriosa e sconvolgente relazione con i propri simili di cui fanno esperienza i bambini, nella realtà e nell'immaginazione: l'amicizia. Selvatica, vezzosa, simbiotica, ridondante, mimetica (con quella grazia un po' goffa del gioco) nei confronti dei cerimoniali previsti dai rapporti tra adulti, rude e romantica, spavalda e patetica, bizzarra e serissima – l'amicizia infantile esplorata in tutte le sue sfaccettature da un libro poetico e festoso.Testi di Ruth KraussIllustrazioni di Maurice SendakTraduzione di Sergio RuzzierRuth Krauss (1901-1993), nata a Baltimora, è una delle autrici per bambini più celebrate di tutti i tempi, vincitrice di due Caldecott Honor. Tra i primi a osservare e usare il linguaggio dei bambini, ha firmato moltissimi picture book con illustratori come Maurice Sendak, il marito Crockett Johnson (proprio da lei incoraggiato a dedicarsi al libro per bambini), Remy Charlip, Marc Simont e molti altri artisti, ed è autrice anche di poesie e opere teatrali in rima per adulti. I suoi libri, anche dopo tanti decenni, continuano a essere ristampati, e sono letti e adorati dai bambini di tutto il mondo. In Italia sono usciti per Topipittori Il seme di carota, illustrato da Crockett Johnson, e per Camelozampa Il giorno felice, illustrato da Marc Simont, e L'uovo felice, illustrato da Crockett Johnson.Maurice Sendak è stato uno scrittore e illustratore statunitense di origini polacche. Si appassionò fin da piccolo alla lettura a causa dei problemi di cuore che lo confinavano spesso a letto; prese la decisione di diventare un illustratore dopo aver visto il film Fantasia, all'età di dodici anni. Iniziò la sua carriera disegnando immagini per le vetrine del negozio di giocattoli F.A.O. Schwarz e creando illustrazioni di libri per l'infanzia. Alla fine degli anni Cinquanta iniziò a scrivere e a disegnare le proprie storie aggiudicandosi, nel 1970, il Premio Hans Christian Andersen e, nel 1982, il National Book Award. È noto soprattutto per l'opera Nel paese dei mostri selvaggi, albo illustrato per ragazzi pubblicato in Italia da Emme Edizioni nel 1968.Sergio RuzzierNato e cresciuto a Milano, a pochi passi dalla Chiesetta delle Lucertole, Sergio Ruzzier si è affermato negli Stati Uniti, a partire dalla fine degli anni Novanta del secolo scorso, come illustratore e narratore, collaborando con numerose testate, tra cui «The New Yorker», «The New York Times» e «Blab!».In seguito si è dedicato sempre più esclusivamente alla creazione di libri a figure, rivolti a lettori bambini ma non solo. Più recentemente si è cimentato con la traduzione di grandi autori americani quali Ruth Krauss, Maurice Sendak e James Marshall.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarewww.ilpostodelleparole.itDiventa un supporter di questo podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/il-posto-delle-parole--1487855/support.

Journalist and author Barbara Demick discusses her new, powerful, and must-read book "Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins". With a deep boots-on-the-ground experience, she details the brutality of China's one-child policy and the profound lasting effects it continues to have. She describes the scandalous adoption frenzy that took place, where officials illegally kidnapped Chinese children from their families and disappeared them. Demick found a needle in a haystack and managed to reunite one set of twins who were strewn across the planet, from America to China. Watch on BitChute / Brighteon / Rumble / Substack / YouTube Geopolitics & Empire · Barbara Demick: Abducted & Adopted, The Story of China's One-Child Policy #553 *Support Geopolitics & Empire! Become a Member https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com Donate https://geopoliticsandempire.com/donations Consult https://geopoliticsandempire.com/consultation **Visit Our Affiliates & Sponsors! Above Phone https://abovephone.com/?above=geopolitics easyDNS (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://easydns.com Escape Technocracy course (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://escapethetechnocracy.com/geopolitics PassVult https://passvult.com Sociatates Civis (CitizenHR, CitizenIT, CitizenPL) https://societates-civis.com Wise Wolf Gold https://www.wolfpack.gold/?ref=geopolitics Websites Website https://www.barbarademick.com Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins https://www.barbarademick.com/book/daughters-of-the-bamboo-grove X https://x.com/barbarademick About Barbara Demick Barbara Demick is author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea and Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood and the recently released Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town, published by Random House in July 2020.  She was bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times in Beijing and Seoul, and previously reported from the Middle East and Balkans for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Demick grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Yale College Her work has won many awards including the Samuel Johnson prize (now the Baillie Gifford prize) for non-fiction in the U.K., the Overseas Press Club's human rights reporting award, the Polk Award and the Robert F. Kennedy award and Stanford University's Shorenstein Award for Asia coverage. Her North Korea book was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She was a press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Bagehot fellow in business journalism at Columbia University and a visiting professor of journalism at Princeton University.  She lives in New York City. *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Katie Kitamura is the author of the novel Audition, available from Riverhead Books. Kitamura's other novels include A Separation and Intimacies, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, a Lannan fellowship, and many other honors, and her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University. *** ⁠Otherppl with Brad Listi⁠ is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, etc. 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

In this episode, we read and discuss "Singer," a narrative poem that celebrates the poetic speaker's mother in all of her complexity. Dorianne Laux is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Life on Earth (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324065821), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems (https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393652338) which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is also the author of a new craft book titled Finger Exercises for Poets (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324050667/). “Singer” appears in LIFE ON EARTH by Dorianne Laux. Copyright © 2024 by Dorianne Laux. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Ann Patchett, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studio on a book tour for “Bel Canto,” September 20, 2001. Ann Patchett is the author of nine novels and five works of non-fiction. Her most recent novel, Tom Lake, was published in 2023.  She's best known, though, for her fourth novel, Bel Canto, which became a National Book Award finalist, and was adapted into a film in 2018. There is currently talk about a mini-series in the works.  This interview has not aired in over twenty years. The post Ann Patchett, “Bel Canto,” 2001 appeared first on KPFA.

Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.About the host:Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning novelist and writing coach, and the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup built to help authors succeed. She is an internationally published author of four historical fiction novels. Her debut, The Virgin's Knot, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. As an author and writing coach, she knows that the first page of any book has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. So she thought to ask your favorite master storytellers how they do their magic to hook you. Holly lives in Marin County with her family and two Labrador retrievers, and enjoys mountain biking, hiking, swimming and pretending to surf. To learn more about her books and writing coaching services, please follow her on IG + X @hollylynnpayne or visit hollylynnpayne.com.Tune in and reach out:If you're an aspiring writer or a book lover, this episode of Page One offers a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice. I offer these conversations as a testament to the magic that happens when master storytellers share their secrets and experiences. We hope you are inspired to tune into the full episode for more insights. Keep writing, keep reading, and remember—the world needs your stories. If I can help you tell your own story, or help improve your first page, please reach out @hollylynnpayne or visit hollylynnpayne.com.You can listen to Page One on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher and all your favorite podcast players. Hear past episodes. If you're interested in getting writing tips and the latest podcast episode updates with the world's beloved master storytellers, please sign up for my new Substack newsletter, Power of Page One. You can also learn more about me at hollylynnpayne.com and follow me @hollylynnpayne on Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook. Your email address is always private and you can always unsubscribe anytime! The Page One Podcast is created on a houseboat in Sausalito, California and is a labor of love in service to writers and book lovers. My intention is to inspire, educate and celebrate. Be well and keep reading, and please join us at POP1, The Power of Page One.  Thank you for being a part of my creative community on Substack! In service,Holly Thank you for listening to the Page One Podcast! I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I loved hosting, producing, and editing it. If you liked it too, here are three ways to share the love:Please share it on social and tag @hollylynnpayne.Leave a review on your favorite podcast players. Tell your friends. Please keep in touch by signing up to receive my Substack newsletter with the latest episodes each month. Delivered to your inbox with a smile. You can contact me at @hollylynnpayne on IG or send me a message on my website, hollylynnpayne.com.For the love of books and writers,Holly Lynn Payne@hollylynnpaynehost, author, writing coachwww.hollylynnpayne.com

Find the full interview with Yaakov Shapiro here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-full-127784040 Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro talks about his protest against Ben Gvir in front of the Israeli Consulate in New York and why he sees Zionism as the enemy of Judaism. Jennifer Koonings shares what she observed attending a Ben Gvir protest where a woman was physically attacked and bloodied by Ben Gvir supporters. But first historian Greg Grandin talks about the Pope, immigration, imperialism and his excellent new book America "America, América: A New History of the New World" Greg Grandin is Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of a number of prize-winning books, including most recently The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, and The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World, which won the Bancroft and Beveridge prizes in American History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in the UK. He is also the author of Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History, as well as for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Yaakov Shapiro is an international speaker, author, and pulpit rabbi for over 30 years, now emeritus. He has attained an enviable place in the arena of anti-Zionist public intellectuals, having constructed a unique oeuvre on the ideology of Zionism and its relationship to Judaism. After graduating high school at age 16, Rabbi Shapiro dedicated himself to full-time study of religion, becoming the protégé of some of the most well-regarded rabbinic scholars in Orthodoxy. Among his areas of research are religious philosophy, analytic theology, Talmud, Halachah, and Biblical exegesis. At age 19 he published his first book, משפטי הבירורים, a collection of original expositions on rabbinic principles of tort adjudication. His most recent work, The Empty Wagon: Zionism's Journey from Identity Crisis to Identity Theft (2018), a 1381-page treatise on the differences between Judaism and Zionism, is the most comprehensive work written on the subject and considered by many to be definitive. Jennifer Koonings is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, New York State certified sexual assault forensic examiner (SAFE) and former ER nurse. She completed graduate studies in global public health. She was fired from her long held held SAFE role for her anti-genocide advocacy after the NY district attorney's office accused her of being a rape apologist as well as the reason why a sexual assault victim she provided care to and testified in court for did not receive justice. She currently works providing mental health services to underserved women in the NYC shelter system. She also runs a social media account focusing on social justice issues. ***Please support The Katie Halper Show *** For bonus content, exclusive interviews, to support independent media & to help make this program possible, please join us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thekatiehalpershow Get your Katie Halper Show Merch here! https://katiehalper.myspreadshop.com/all Follow Katie on Twitter: https://x.com/kthalps Follow Katie on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kthalps/

“Practice teaches us to have faith in the process,” says Andrea Barrett, National Book Award winning author. In this episode of Emerging Form, we speak with her about her newest book, Dust and Light: On the Art of Fact in Fiction. It's one of the most metaphor-rich, process-curious shows we've had yet. We explore the joys of rabbit holes, the importance of not knowing what we are looking for, the inevitability of false starts (and how to let go of the work we've done), why we shouldn't worry about writing unreadable first drafts, how to develop the muscle of intuition, and the questionable wisdom of how we teach creative writing.Andrea Barrett is the author of the National Book Award-winning Ship Fever, Voyage of the Narwhal, Servants of the Map, Natural History, and other works of fiction. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an NEA Fellowship, and the Rea Award for the Short Story, and been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in the Adirondacks. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe

It's been almost a year since Miranda July released her hit novel, “All Fours.” The novel features a woman in her mid-40s who heads out on a solo road trip across the country, only to stop at a roadside motel 30 minutes from her home. She winds up staying there for three weeks, exploring and questioning what she actually wants and needs out of midlife, things she can't really focus on when she's busy being a wife, a mom and a working artist. In the motel, she redecorates the room, designs her days the way she wants to and gets in touch with her changing desires.In the past year, this book has become a touchstone for how our culture addresses women in perimenopause. It's expanded beyond the page to a kind of movement. Soon after the book's release, women started writing to July with their own stories. She started a Substack to keep those conversations going. People organized discussion groups all over the world called All Fours Group Chats. Hats were made. “All Fours” was shortlisted for the National Book Award, and it's currently being adapted into a limited TV series. The paperback version of the novel will be released May 13.In this week's episode of Modern Love, July talks about the anger and desire that shaped the writing of “All Fours.” And she reflects on why this novel is inspiring to some, and threatening to others, in this cultural moment. Listener Callout:How did your dad express his feelings? Tell us your story in a voice memo, and you might hear yourself in a future episode. For Father's Day, the Modern Love team is looking at different ways dads show their feelings, and we want to know about a moment when your dad opened up to you. Where were you? What did he do or say? How did you react? Did it have a lasting impact on you? And if you're a dad, how do you think about showing emotion or vulnerability when you're with your kids? Is it something you do intentionally? Does it feel easy? Hard? The deadline is May 15. Submission instructions are here.Here's how to submit a Modern Love essay to The New York Times.Here's how to submit a Tiny Love Story. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Robbery, kidnapping, extortion, rape and murder— that's what migrants face on their journey north. Jason De León spent years interviewing human smugglers in Mexico and Central America. De León argues it's far more complicated than what American politicians and the media portrays. His book Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling won the National Book Award.

This week, we're revisiting a critical conversation we had back in 2020 with author and historian Nancy MacLean, in which she exposes how today's threats to democracy were decades in the making. Based on her groundbreaking book Democracy in Chains, MacLean traces how Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan worked with billionaire donors to rig the rules of government to expand corporate power and protect extreme wealth. From public choice theory to voter suppression, this episode reveals the coordinated strategy to undermine democracy—and explains why understanding it is essential to fighting back. Nancy MacLean is an award-winning historian and the William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University. Her book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America was a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. ⁠This episode originally aired on July 21, 2020⁠. Social Media: ⁠@nancymaclean.bsky.social⁠ ⁠@NancyMacLean5⁠ Further reading:  ⁠Democracy in Chains⁠ Website: ⁠http://pitchforkeconomics.com⁠ Instagram: ⁠@pitchforkeconomics⁠ Threads: ⁠pitchforkeconomics⁠ Bluesky: ⁠@pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social⁠ Twitter: ⁠@PitchforkEcon⁠, ⁠@NickHanauer⁠, ⁠@civicaction⁠ YouTube: ⁠@pitchforkeconomics⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Pitchfork Economics⁠  Substack: ⁠The Pitch⁠

What would it happen if I allowed my thoughts about my gender become known to me?Today we meet Dr. Christina Neuwirth and we're talking about the queer book that saved their life: Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery. And Daniel joins us for the conversation!Dr. Christina Neuwirth is a writer, researcher and bookseller based in Edinburgh. Their 2018 novella Amphibian was shortlisted for Scotland's National Book Awards. Their writing has been published in Gutter Magazine and The Skinny. At Lighthouse Bookshop, Christina runs the Bread & Roses Prize for Radical Publishing.Daniel M. Lavery is the “Dear Prudence” advice columnist at Slate, the cofounder of The Toast, and the New York Times bestselling author of Texts From Jane Eyre and The Merry Spinster. In 2024, he published his debut novel Women's Hotel.From a thoughtful analysis of the beauty of William Shatner to a sinister reimagining of HGTV's House Hunters, and featuring figures as varied as Anne of Green Gables, Columbo, and the cast of Mean Girls, Something That May Shock and Discredit You is a hilarious and emotionally exhilarating compendium that combines personal history with cultural history to make you see yourself and those around you entirely anew.Special Limited SeriesThis episode is part of a special limited series of episodes featuring only guests who are owners or staff at LGBTQ bookstores. Airing April-June 2025, these episodes will feature six bookstores across the United States and United Kingdom.Today's guest is a bookseller at Lighthouse Bookshop, a queer-owned and woman-led independent community bookshop. It is an unapologetically activist, intersectional, feminist, antiracist, lgbtq+ community space. In 2020 it was nominated Scotland's Best Independent Bookshop.Connect with Christina and Danielwebsite: christinaneuwirth.comwebsite: danielmlavery.cominstagram: @daniel_m_laveryBecome an Associate Producer!Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbookCreditsHost/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change)Executive Producer: Jim PoundsAssociate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean SmithPatreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy EricksonQuatrefoil LibraryQuatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1Join us in helping Lambda Literary raise $20k for The Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices to ensure all writers can attend. Donate here: http://bit.ly/3RjW51aSupport the show

Stand Up is a daily podcast that I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 700 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more Greg Grandin, who received his doctorate at Yale University under the direction of Emilia Viotti da Costa and Gilbert Joseph, previously taught at New York University for nineteen years.  He is the author of seven books, including The Blood of Guatemala, which won the Latin American Studies Association's Bryce Wood Award for best book published on Latin America in any discipline, The Last Colonial Massacre, Empire's Workshop, Fordlandia, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Award, The Empire of Necessity, which won the Bancroft and Beveridge awards in American history, Kissinger's Shadow, and The End of the Myth, which won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and was a finalist in the history category.  Grandin is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians.  He has co-edited, with Gil Joseph, A Century of Revolution, and, with Deborah Levenson and Elizabeth Oglesby, The Guatemala Reader.  Grandin has published widely, in The Nation, where he is a member of the editorial board,the London Review of Books, the New Republic, NACLA's Report on the Americas, and the New York Times, among other venues.  He is a regular guest on Democracy Now!  A revised edition of Empire's Workshop is forthcoming.  Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout!  Pete on Blue Sky Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on YouTube  Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll  Follow and Support Pete Coe Buy Ava's Art  Hire DJ Monzyk to build your website or help you with Marketing

Tech Bro NonsenseFormer Google CEO Tells Congress That 99 Percent of All Electricity Will Be Used to Power Superintelligent AIbillionaire tech tycoon and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt comments to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce: "What we need from you is we need the energy in all forms, renewable, non-renewable, whatever. It needs to be there, and it needs to be there quickly.""Many people project demand for our industry will go from 3 percent to 99 percent of total generation... an additional 29 gigawatts by 2027 and 67 more gigawatts by 2030. If [China] comes to superintelligence first, it changes the dynamic of power globally, in ways that we have no way of understanding or predicting.”Meta Says It's Okay to Feed Copyrighted Books Into Its AI Model Because They Have No "Economic Value"In the ongoing suit Richard Kadrey et al v. Meta Platforms, led by a group of authors including Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer and National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company has argued that its alleged scraping of over seven million books from the pirated library LibGen constituted "fair use" of the material, and was therefore not illegal.Meta's attorneys are also arguing that the countless books that the company used to train its multibillion-dollar language models and springboard itself into the headspinningly buzzy AI race are actually worthless. Meta cited an expert witness who downplayed the books' individual importance, averring that a single book adjusted its LLM's performance "by less than 0.06 percent on industry standard benchmarks, a meaningless change no different from noise." Thus there's no market in paying authors to use their copyrighted works, Meta says, because "for there to be a market, there must be something of value to exchange," as quoted by Vanity Fair — "but none of [the authors'] works has economic value, individually, as training data." Other communications showed that Meta employees stripped the copyright pages from the downloaded books.Tellingly, the unofficial policy seems to be to not speak about it at all: "In no case would we disclose publicly that we had trained on LibGen, however there is practical risk external parties could deduce our use of this dataset," an internal Meta slide deck read. The deck noted that "if there is media coverage suggesting we have used a dataset we know to be pirated, such as LibGen, this may undermine our negotiating position with regulators on these issues."Lauren Sánchez in Space Was Marie Antoinette in a Penis-Shaped RocketKaty Perry Boasts About Ridiculous Rocket Launch While NASA Is Scrubbing History of Women in Space“It's about a collective energy and making space for future women. It's about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it. This is all for the benefit of Earth.”Last month, the Orlando Sentinel first reported, NASA scrubbed language from a webpage about the agency's Artemis missions declaring that a goal of the mission was to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon; just a few days later, NASA Watch reported that comic books imagining the first woman on the Moon had been deleted from NASA's website.A webpage for "Women at NASA" is still standing, but pictures of women and people of color — astronauts, engineers, scientists — have reportedly been removed from NASA's real-world hallways amid the so-called "DEI" purge. Per Scientific American, the word "inclusion" has been removed as one of NASA's core pillars. And as 404 Media reported in February, NASA personnel were directed to remove mentions of women in leadership positions from its website.OpenAI NonsenseOpenAI Is Secretly Building a Social NetworkOpenAI has been secretly building its own social media platform, which The Verge reports is intended to resemble X-formerly-Twitter — the social media middleweight owned by CEO Sam Altman's arch-nemesis, Elon MuskOpenAI updated its safety framework—but no longer sees mass manipulation and disinformation as a critical riskOpenAI said it will stop assessing its AI models prior to releasing them for the risk that they could persuade or manipulate people, possibly helping to swing elections or create highly effective propaganda campaigns.The company said it would now address those risks through its terms of service, restricting the use of its AI models in political campaigns and lobbying, and monitoring how people are using the models once they are released for signs of violations.OpenAI also said it would consider releasing AI models that it judged to be “high risk” as long as it has taken appropriate steps to reduce those dangers—and would even consider releasing a model that presented what it called “critical risk” if a rival AI lab had already released a similar model. Previously, OpenAI had said it would not release any AI model that presented more than a “medium risk.”Saying 'please' and 'thank you' to ChatGPT costs OpenAI millions, Sam Altman saysBeing nice to your AI chatbot requires computational power that raises electricity and water costsAltman responded to a user on X (formerly Twitter) who asked how much the company has lost in electricity costs from people being polite to their models: “Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know,” the CEO wrote.AI models rely heavily on energy stored in global data centers — which already accounts for about 2% of the global electricity consumption. Polite responses also add to OpenAI's water bill. AI uses water to cool the servers that generate the data. A study from the University of California, Riverside, said that using GPT-4 to generate 100 words consumes up to three bottles of water — and even a three-word response such as “You are welcome” uses about 1.5 ounces of water.Antitrust NonsenseTrump DOJ's plan to restructure Google hurts consumers, national security, says exec: 'Wildly overbroad'Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs: "We're very concerned about DOJ's proposal. We think it would hurt American consumers, our economy, our tech leadership, even national security. The proposed reform from DOJ "would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses — and jeopardize America's global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it's needed most."8 revelations from Mark Zuckerberg's 3 days on the witness stand in Meta's antitrust trialThe FTC alleges Meta "helped cement" its illegal monopoly in the social media market with its acquisition of Instagram and the messaging app WhatsApp more than a decade ago.8 revelations:Antitrust worries surfaced years agoTwo years before the FTC initially sued Meta over allegations that it violated US competition laws, Zuckerberg considered breaking Instagram out into its own company to avoid potential antitrust scrutiny, according to a 2018 internal email revealed by the government at trial."I wonder if we should consider the extreme step of spinning Instagram out as a separate company," Zuckerberg wrote in the email to company executives. "As calls to break up the big tech companies grow, there is a non-trivial chance that we will be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5-10 years anyway." If a break up were to happen, Zuckerberg wrote, history showed that companies could end up better off.Asked about this view at trial, Zuckerberg said, "I'm not sure exactly what I had in mind then."A 'crazy idea' to boost Facebook's relevanceZuckerberg's "crazy idea" for Facebook in 2022 involved purging all users' friends. The CEO — fearful that Facebook was losing cultural relevance — made the proposal in a 2022 email to the social network's top brass."Option 1. Double down on Friending," Zuckerberg wrote in the message. "One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone's graphs and having them start again."Sheryl Sandberg wanted to play Settlers of CatanZuckerberg once offered to give Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Meta, a tutorial in the board game Settlers of Catan.The lesson offer came up in 2012 messages in which the two discussed the fresh $1 billion purchase of Instagram, partially redacted missives presented by the FTC during Zuckerberg's testimony showed."We would love it. I want to learn Settlers of Catan too so we can play," Sandberg told Zuckerberg in the message. He responded: "I can definitely teach you Settlers of Catan. It's very easy to learn."Meta's rivalry with TikTok has only just begunDuring his testimony, Zuckerberg hammered home Meta's argument that the tech giant faces massive competition from other apps, especially TikTok."TikTok is still bigger than either Facebook or Instagram," Zuckerberg testified. "I don't like it when our competitors do better than us. You can sort of bet that I'm not going to rest until we are doing quite a bit better than we are doing now.”Facebook Camera app struggles were a source of worryInstagram's early rise shook Zuckerberg. As his company struggled to mount its response with the Facebook Camera app, the CEO began to lose his patience."What is going on with our photos team?" Zuckerberg wrote in a 2011 message to top executives, as revealed by the FTC in court. Zuckerberg then described a number of individuals, whose names were redacted, as being "checked out." He added another person didn't want "to work with this team because he thinks this team sucks."In May 2012, Facebook launched a photo-sharing app called Facebook Camera, which aims to make it simpler for the social network's users to upload and browse photos on smartphones. Only weeks after Facebook spent $1 billion on a similar photo-sharing app called Instagram. Zuckerberg tried to buy Snapchat for $6 billionZuckerberg's failed bid to buy Snapchat was highlighted by the government to bolster its argument that Meta sought to maintain its dominance in the social media market through acquisitions rather than competition.Facebook isn't really for friends anymoreWhile under questioning by the FTC, Zuckerberg said that Facebook had greatly evolved since he launched the platform more than 20 years ago and that its main purpose wasn't really to connect with friends anymore.The FTC argues that Meta monopolizes the market for "personal social networking services.""The friend part has gone down quite a bit," Zuckerberg testified. He said the Facebook feed has "turned into more of a broad discovery and entertainment space."Not impressed by WhatsApp cofounderZuckerberg wasn't too impressed with one of WhatsApp's cofounders after a 2012 meeting he had with company leadership."I found him fairly impressive although disappointingly (or maybe positive for us) unambitious," Zuckerberg wrote in an email to colleagues after the meeting, it was revealed at trial.Jan Koum and Brian Acton cofounded WhatsApp in 2009. Zuckerberg said in his testimony that he thinks he was referring to Koum. Asked about his email, Zuckerberg seemed uneasy. He said that Koum was clearly smart but that he and Acton were staunchly opposed to growing their messaging app enough to be a real threat to Facebook. Zuckerberg would go on to buy WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms adds former Trump advisor to the board days before an antitrust showdown with the FTCMeta Platforms is further boosting its lineup of heavy hitters with the additions of Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Dina Powell McCormick to the mix. Powell McCormick was the former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump during his first term. Married to Republican Senator Dave McCormick, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge fundsStakeholder/shareholder activism NonsenseBP suffers investor rebellion at first AGM since climate strategy U-turnBP suffered an investor rebellion on Thursday after facing shareholders for the first time since abandoning its climate strategy at a meeting marred by protest.About a quarter of shareholders (24.3%) voted against the chair, Helge Lund, which marked the first time in at least a decade that more than 10% of BP's shareholders voted against the re-election of the chair.The outgoing chair told shareholders that the company had “pursued too much while looking to build new low-carbon businesses” but that “lessons have been learned”.BP's CEO Murray Auchincloss (2.7% against), repeated his previous claim that BP's optimism in the global green energy transition was “misplaced”, and that the board's “one simple goal” was to “grow the long-term value of your investment”.Mark Van Baal, the founder of the green activist investor group Follow This, said shareholders had “made it clear that weakening climate commitments is unacceptable”. He added: “This historical result serves as a wake-up call to BP's board and emphasises investor expectation for robust governance mechanisms and genuine leadership on ESG issues.”Starbucks CEO faces major backlash after details of his work routine are revealed: 'Ill-conceived decision'A press release from the National Center for Public Policy Research reported on the hypocrisy of Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's transportation practices when considering the company's public commitment to eco-friendly practices.Niccol travels regularly from his home in Newport Beach, California, to Starbucks' headquarters in Seattle, Washington, via private jet. Each 2,000-mile round-trip commute releases nearly nine tons of carbon dioxide.The National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project's director Stefan Padfield pointed out the discrepancy of policy and practice during his presentation of Proposal 8 requesting an annual report on emissions congruency. He noted that each round trip made by Niccol "is roughly the annual energy-consumption footprint of the typical American household."This analogy paints a vivid picture of the hypocrisy between Starbucks' public environmental commitments and the practices of the CEO. Gaps are apparent. Target CEO Cornell meets with Sharpton to discuss DEI rollback as civil rights leader considers boycottCEO Brian Cornell met with the Rev. Al Sharpton in New York on Thursday as the retailer faces calls for a boycott and a slowdown in foot traffic that began after it walked back key diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the civil rights leader told CNBC Wednesday.The meeting, which Target asked for, comes after some civil rights groups urged consumers not to shop at Target in response to the retailer's decision to cut back on DEI. While Sharpton has not yet called for a boycott of Target, he has supported efforts from others to stop shopping at the retailer's stores.“You can't have an election come and all of a sudden, change your old positions,” Sharpton told CNBC in a Wednesday interview ahead of the meeting. “If an election determines your commitment to fairness then fine, you have a right to withdraw from us, but then we have a right to withdraw from you.”IBM Informs Staff of DEI Retreat as Trump-Era Scrutiny GrowsEmployees were told of the changes earlier this week, in a memo that cited “inherent tensions in practicing inclusion.” Legal considerations and shifting attitudes to DEI were among the factors for the company. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna discussed the changes in his monthly video update to employees Thursday.Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck said he first contacted the company in February to question its policies. IBM confirmed it discussed its changes with Starbuck.The company (-10% gender influence gap) also disbanded a diversity council that represents the views of employee groups as part of its reevaluation.Exxon Faces No Shareholder Proposals for First Time in 25 YearsThe absence of requests in Exxon's proxy statement comes a year after the company sued two climate-focused investors to remove what it described as their “extreme agenda.” It also tracks with the US Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to back guidelines that make it easier for corporations to block votes on shareholder resolutions at their annual meetings.Exxon said in a statement late Monday that it received only one proposal this year and the SEC agreed it should be discarded because “it tried to micromanage the company.”Occidental Petroleum Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and Dow Inc. are other companies with no shareholder proposals up for vote at this year's annual meetings.Exxon said this year marks “the first time in recent history that our proxy includes zero proposals from activists.” It was just four years ago that a small fund scored a victory over Exxon, placing three directors on the company's board.Climate activist shareholder group Follow This pauses big oil campaignClimate activist shareholder group Follow This said on Thursday a lack of investor appetite has forced it to suspend its nearly decade-long campaign seeking stronger commitments from major oil and gas producers to emission cutsHarley-Davidson slams activist investor, saying its campaign is messing up its CEO searchIn early April, H Partners' Jared Dourdeville, who had been a Harley director since 2022, abruptly resigned from the board, saying among other things that Harley had “cultural depletion” because of its work-from-home policies and the exit of several senior leaders. And that was not his only point of contention with the rest of the board.Investment firm H Partners, a major investor with 9.1% of Harley's shares, in an open letter filed on Wednesday, urged fellow shareholders to remove three longtime directors from Harley's eight-member board at its annual meeting in mid-May by withholding votes for them. H Partners said the board had not held Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz accountable for what it called his repeated “strategic execution failures” and “severe underperformance.”CEO/Chair Zeitz (2007, 30%)Lead DIrector Norman Thomas Linebarger (2008, 13%)Sara Levinson (1996, 20%)"We believe Mr. Zeitz, Mr. Linebarger, and Ms. Levinson should be held accountable for the destruction of shareholder value,"Harley's bylaws stipulate that directors who win less than 50% of votes in an election must tender their resignations.Harley announced last week that Zeitz, CEO since 2020 and board member for 18 years, would resign but stay in his role until a successor is found. H Partners wants him out now.That followed a letter issued a day earlier by Harley-Davidson, which accused H Partners of “publicly campaigning” against it and saying that those efforts are also “adversely impacting the CEO search process and ongoing execution of the Hardwire strategic plan,” referring to a turnaround plan it launched in 2021.Harley said that it began a CEO search late last year after Zeitz expressed interest in retiring and has interviewed three potential CEOs, including one supported by Dourdeville, but declined to offer any the job. The company has also said that Dourdeville had cast only one vote against the majority during his time as a director and that as recently as November 2024 he had expressed support for Zeitz.Harley-Davidson faces board fight from H Partners amid calls for CEO to exit soon

Elise Paschen's (Osage) new book of poetry, “Blood Wolf Moon”, weaves Osage stories from the Reign of Terror with her experience as the daughter of famous major prima ballerina, Maria Tallchief. m.s. RedCherries' (Northern Cheyenne) first poetry book, “mother”, was a 2024 National Book Award for Poetry finalist. It follows the Cheyenne protagonist who is exploring Indian identity as a former boarding school student reconnecting to her roots and larger Native community through the backdrop of the American Indian Movement. “Indigenous Poetics” is a collection of essays illustrating how Native poets use their craft as a critical tool to help readers understand, question, and realize deeper layers of Indigenous life and community. Aligning with National Poetry Month, we'll dive into these new and recent publications by Indigenous poets. GUESTS Dr. Elise Paschen (Osage), poet and author of “Blood Wolf Moon” Inés Hernández-Ávila (Nez Perce and enrolled with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation), co-editor of “Indigenous Poetics” with Molly McGlennen m.s. RedCherries (Northern Cheyenne Tribe), poet and author of “mother”

Send us a textHow did a humorous military anecdote about a mysterious Dorothy evolve into an enlightening nonfiction picture book about LGBTQIA history? Author Kyle Lukhoff and illustrator Levi Hastings share the creative journey behind Are You a Friend of Dorothy? Kyle and Levi discuss the challenges and joys of representing complex identities in children's literature, emphasizing the importance of these narratives in today's world.In this episode, we also explore the diverse paths that led Kyle and Levi to champion LGBTQIA representation through their art. From Kyle's transition from librarian to full-time writer (Kyle is a Newbery Honor winner, National Book Award finalist, and Stonewall Award winner!!!), fueled by a passion for connecting with young readers, to Levi's shift from graphic design to illustrating children's books, their stories are as captivating as the tales they create. Discover their approach to portraying historical figures like Gavin Grimm and Baron von Steuben, and learn about their recent works, including a Jewish fantasy adventure and a book about pride. Stay tuned as they share their future plans and invite you to follow their artistic endeavors as they continue to enrich the literary landscape.(0:00:03) - Are You a Friend of Dorothy? We explore the origins of the phrase "Are You a Friend of Dorothy?" and its significance in the LGBTQIA community. Kyle and Levi share insights into their creative process and the importance of historical narratives in understanding current struggles.(0:15:36) - Adventures in Learning with Kyle and Levi Learn more about Kyle and Levi's journeys in writing and illustration, highlighting their transitions to full-time careers in children's literature. (0:26:42) - Recent Works and Future Plans Pre-order Are You a Friend of Dorothy? (out 4/29/25)Follow Kyle Lukhoff on Instagram and FacebookFollow Levi Hastings on Instagram and FacebookDon't miss this engaging episode as we uncover the artistry and advocacy behind Are You a Friend of Dorothy? Preorder your copy today and share it with someone who needs to hear its important message. Your support helps bring diverse stories to life and fosters understanding across communities.Support the showSubscribe & Follow: Stay updated with our latest episodes and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and the Adventures in Learning website. Don't forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! *Disclosure: I am a Bookshop.org. affiliate.

On Wednesday's show: We discuss the latest developments in politics in our weekly roundup.Also this hour: We chat with Houston Chef Michelle Wallace, owner of B'tween Sandwich Co. She was a competitor on Season 21 of Top Chef, where she was named fan favorite.And Houston author Huda Fahmy tells us about her latest graphic novel, Huda F Wants to Know? It's the latest in her series about a young Muslim girl, loosely based on herself, growing up in America. The previous installment, Huda F Cares? was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Dr. T and Truth Fairy welcome Greg Wrenn, a former Alabama state representative and long-time health policy advocate, who shares insights into how he became interested in the therapeutic use of psychedelics through personal research and professional exposure. Greg recently wrote a book called “Mothership” about coral reef research, ecological crisis, and his personal PTSD healing journey with ayahuasca. He discusses portions of the book and his experiences with Truth and Dr. T.  Greg explores the growing interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy, particularly its potential to help individuals who struggle with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. He addresses the shift from viewing psychedelics as taboo to recognizing their potential under controlled, clinical settings. His personal stories, alongside those shared by Truth, highlight the positive impact psychedelic therapy can have and how his passion for the issue has been fueled. Truth Fairy, Dr. T, and Greg share concerns about the challenges of implementing beneficial psychedelic healing sessions, and they celebrate Greg's integration of tribal and liberating dance into the ayahuasca ceremony. They talk about the importance of regulation, ethical safeguards, and integration of Indigenous practices, and caution against the risks of commercialization. The episode is both vulnerable and informative, painting a hopeful picture of potential healing even in the face of difficult times.“You know, I'm no psychedelic evangelist. I don't think everyone should drink ayahuasca or work with psychedelics. I know I should, I know I need to. And so this is really important for my mission, which is to, I guess, spread a message of love and spread a message of the possibility of planetary healing, because planetary healing happens, at least with humanity, one brain at a time.” - Greg Wrenn__About Greg Wrenn:A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, GREG WRENN is the author of the ayahuasca eco-memoir Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis, an evidence-based account of his turning to coral reefs and psychedelic plants to heal from childhood trauma, and Centaur (U of Wisconsin Press 2013), which National Book Award-winning poet Terrance Hayes awarded the Brittingham Prize. ​Greg's work has appeared or is forthcoming in HuffPost, The New Republic, Al Jazeera, The Rumpus, LitHub, Writer's Digest, Kenyon Review, New England Review, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He has received awards and fellowships from the James Merrill House, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, the Poetry Society of America, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Spiro Arts Center. On his Mothership book tour, he spoke to audiences around the world, including at Yale School of Medicine, the University of Utah School of Medicine, Vancouver Island University, and the University of Virginia School of Nursing. Greg has also been on numerous podcasts, including Levi Chambers's PRIDE, and was recently interviewed by Emmy Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Vargas on NewsNation​ and by Jane Garvey on Times Radio (UK). ​As an associate English professor at James Madison University, he teaches creative nonfiction, poetry, and environmental literature and directs the JMU Creative Writing Minor. He also teaches in the Memoir Certificate Program at Stanford Continuing Studies. He was educated at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis.Greg is currently at work on a follow-up book to Mothership and sending out Homesick, his second poetry collection. A student of ayahuasca since 2019, he is a trained yoga teacher and a PADI Advanced Open Water diver, having explored coral reefs around the world for over 25 years. He and his husband divide their time between the mountains of Virginia and Atlantic Beach, Florida.Website: GregWrenn.comBook: “Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis” by Greg Wrenn__Contact Punk Therapy:Patreon: Patreon.com/PunkTherapyWebsite: PunkTherapy.comEmail: info@punktherapy.com Contact Truth Fairy: Email: Truth@PunkTherapy.com

Maggie Jackson sits down with us to discuss her latest book, Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure. Nominated for a National Book Award and added to three Best Books of 2023 lists, Uncertain helps readers understand why they should seek “not-knowing” in times of angst and flux. How can we harness the neglected power of uncertainty? Uncertain is a book that provides a detailed roadmap for people looking to shake things up in their lives… Maggie is a former columnist for the Boston Globe and has written for The New York Times and other publications worldwide. With a passion for asking the hard questions, she writes about crucial aspects of life such as home and attention – and now the uncertain mind. Click play to explore: The importance of asking the right “human questions.” What the research says about technology-derived cognitive damage. How uncertainty is related to distraction. The two different kinds of uncertainty and how to harness it. You can find more on Maggie and her work here! Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, and a Great Dane named Bing star alongside a lot of terrific character actors in this adaptation of the 2018 National Book Award-winning novel by Sigrid Nunez. Is it your run of the mill pet movie, or something more? While we're (topically) in New York City, we thought we'd collect some nominees for the Hall of Excellence!What's GoodAlonso - Michael G. Lee's biography of Randy Shilts, When the Band Played OnDrea - Miss Eggy's live television momentIfy - Wayfair delivery journeyITIDICYoung Moviegoers Are Making a Ruckus at Minecraft Movie ScreeningsTangled Live-Action Remake Gets Put on PauseA New Arthouse Cinema is Opening in ManhattanHall of ExcellenceInto the Spiderverse (possibly any Spiderman)Sweet Smell of SuccessDo the Right ThingStaff PicksDrea - A NICE INDIAN BOYAlonso - PLAY IT AS IT LAYSIfy - MARLEY AND ME Follow us on BlueSky, Facebook, or InstagramWithDrea ClarkAlonso DuraldeIfy NwadiweProduced by Marissa FlaxbartSr. Producer Laura Swisher

National Book Award-winning author Colum McCann says he chooses what to write about based on what he most wants to know. His latest novel “Twist” springs from his fascination with the underwater cables, no thicker than a garden hose, that carry some 95% of the world's telecommunications. McCann's protagonist is a journalist who goes asea to investigate a cable break off the coast of Africa after the Congo River floods. We talk to McCann about themes of sabotage and repair – both in the abyssal zone he writes about and in our lives. Guest: Colum McCann, author, “Twist”; His other novels include “Apeirogon,” “Transatlantic” and “Let the Great World Spin,” which won a National Book Award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode's guest is actor, writer, voiceover artist, and unapologetic improv nerd, Roxana Ortega.Roxana is one of those rare artists whose vulnerability, honesty, and humor hit you all at once – and leave a lasting impression. If her voice sounds familiar, it might be because she's voiced everything from the passionate Frida Casagrande on The Casagrandes to characters in Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, and Monsters at Work. She's narrated Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, voiced countless animated characters, and is a master of voice matching (yes, she's dubbed for Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek).In our conversation, Roxana takes us through the unexpected path that led her to acting – from growing up in an academic household where creativity wasn't considered a “real” career, to having a life-changing epiphany while teaching English in Spain. We talk about the internal battle between playing it safe and going after what you truly want—and what it really means to decide to be an artist.We go deep into the power of improv as both a performance tool and a life philosophy, how failure can be a gift, and why community-building and representation matter now more than ever. Roxana shares how she uses her voice – literally and figuratively – to make space for underrepresented stories, and how she's continued to evolve as a writer, performer, and director.Whether you're someone who thrives on stage or someone working up the courage to take the leap, Roxana's journey will remind you that embracing risk, staying curious, and being fiercely yourself is always worth it.Episode Chapters 00:00 – Welcome + Introduction02:00 – Names, Language, and Laughter04:00 – Academic Roots & Artistic Restlessness07:55 – The Epiphany in Spain13:49 – “I Decided to Be an Actor”16:00 – Improv, Joy, and Redefining Failure21:45 – Performing, Directing, and Creating Her Own Work32:00 – Representation, Identity, and Making Space40:00 – The Tapestry of Humanity49:30 – Amazing Race Nerd Out50:50 – Blissful Spinster & Making Art on Your Own Terms54:35 – Final Words of Wisdom55:14 – What's Next for Roxana58:00 – Wrap-Up & Thank YouRoxana's Bio:Roxana Ortega is an American actor, writer, and voiceover artist who is known for voicing the ever-emotional Frida Casagrande on Nickelodeon's Emmy award-winning and Imagen award-winning cartoon The Casagrandes, a spinoff of the acclaimed series The Loud House.On-camera, she recently starred opposite Danny Trejo, Reno Wilson, and a cast of legends including Garrett Morris, Barry Bostwick, and James Hong in the Universal feature Grand-Daddy Day Care. Other film credits include The Flight Before Christmas opposite Mayim Bialik, Miss Congeniality 2 opposite Sandra Bullock, and Larry Crowne opposite Tom Hanks. Her TV guest-star credits include New Girl, Shonda Rhimes' For The People, The League, Rules of Engagement, NCIS, and the Peabody award-winning satire American Vandal.Behind the mic, she has voiced countless characters in TV, films, trailers, commercials, and some of the biggest video game franchises around, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Final Fantasy, Halo, and Ghost Recon: Wildlands. A two-time AudioFile Earphones Award winner, she has narrated the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina, and the New York Times's non-fiction best seller Random Family to name just a few. In addition, her mimicking skills have led her to voice-match the likes of Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, and Jennifer Tilly.Born in Los Angeles and raised in Fullerton, CA, Roxana is of mixed Peruvian and Mexican descent. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, then spent a year teaching English in Madrid, Spain. It was there, while she was elaborately acting out English vocabulary to her students, that she realized she wanted to pursue a career in acting. She returned to the Bay Area and immersed herself in theatre and improvisation, then made her way to Los Angeles where she continued her improv and acting training and began writing and performing sketch comedy.Roxana is an alumna of the CBS Diversity Sketch Comedy Showcase, Upright Citizen's Brigade, and the Groundlings Sunday Company. She has written and produced her own shorts and performed storytelling all over Los Angeles, including at The Moth GrandSLAM.She is also the creator and co-host of the live storytelling show Minority Retorts, which spotlights stories from the under-represented, and The Risking Space, a podcast about art and risk. Connect with Roxana on: InstagramLearn more about Latina's Act Up on: InstagramCheck out The Groundlings on: Instagram Links & LoveIf your ears like what they're snacking on, follow, rate, and drop a review—it helps others find the show too.Want to support the show or get access to extra content—like behind-the-scenes journals, guest deep dives, and updates on getting Alone Girl made? Check out my Substack: The Blissful Spinster. Just $5/month supports this DIY labor of love and gets you a peek behind the scenes (when I find the time to write, lol). Find me and the pod on Instagram, Pinterest, and at blissfulspinster.com—where you can also find some pretty cool merch, if you're into that sort of thing. Thanks for being on this journey with me—and until next time, go find your happy.

My talk with National Book Award-winner Colum McCann, discussing his latest novel, Twist. We explored, (1) the underwater garden hose-sized tubes that (rather vulnerably) carry all the world's information; (2) how writers ought to feel in the age of AI writing (hint: undaunted!); and (3) how the current age of political strife will likely generate powerful new art. All episodes of The Thoughtful Bro aired live originally on A Mighty Blaze. The Thoughtful Bro is proudly sponsored by Libro.fm and Writer's Bone.

“I'm really interested in the formal aspect of characters who are channeling language, who are speaking the words of other people, and in characters who are aware of how little agency they actually have, who have passivity forced upon them, who perhaps even embrace their passivity to a certain extent but eventually seek out where they can enact their agency.”Katie Kitamura is the author five novels, most recently Audition and Intimacies, which was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021, longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, fellowships from the Cullman Center and the Lannan Foundation, and many other honors. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“This novel is the third in what I see as a little set of books that all feature unnamed female protagonists who have experienced varying degrees of passivity and agency in their lives. They're all women who speak the words of other people.”Katie Kitamura is the author five novels, most recently Audition and Intimacies, which was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021, longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, fellowships from the Cullman Center and the Lannan Foundation, and many other honors. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

Host Jason Blitman talks to Katie Kitamura (Audition) about learned behaviors, the nature of intimacy, the art of performance, and her immersive process of writing. Perhaps most importantly, they talk at length about french fries. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader Nathan Lee Graham, currently starring in Hulu's Mid-Century Modern to talk about what he's reading. Katie Kitamura is the author five novels, most recently Audition and Intimacies, which was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021, longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, fellowships from the Cullman Center and the Lannan Foundation, and many other honors. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.Nathan Lee Graham is an American cabaret artist, actor, singer, writer, and director. He is known for roles in Zoolander and its sequel, Sweet Home Alabama, and Hitch, along with appearances in films like Confessions of an Action Star, Bad Actress, and Trophy Kids. On television, he originated the role of Peter in The Comeback and guest-starred on Scrubs, Absolutely Fabulous, and Law & Order SVU. Graham's stage credits include the original Broadway cast of The Wild Party and Miss Understanding in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He received a Drama League nomination for his role in Wig Out! and won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award in 2006 for Best Featured Performer in The Wild Party (LA premiere). More recently, he played Carson in Hit the Wall at the Barrow Street Theatre. As a soloist, he earned a 2005 Grammy Award for Best Classical Album for Songs of Innocence and of Experience.SUBSTACK!https://gaysreading.substack.com/ BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreading FOLLOW!Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanBluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanCONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com

“I'm really interested in the formal aspect of characters who are channeling language, who are speaking the words of other people, and in characters who are aware of how little agency they actually have, who have passivity forced upon them, who perhaps even embrace their passivity to a certain extent but eventually seek out where they can enact their agency.”Katie Kitamura is the author five novels, most recently Audition and Intimacies, which was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021, longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, fellowships from the Cullman Center and the Lannan Foundation, and many other honors. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“This novel is the third in what I see as a little set of books that all feature unnamed female protagonists who have experienced varying degrees of passivity and agency in their lives. They're all women who speak the words of other people.”Katie Kitamura is the author five novels, most recently Audition and Intimacies, which was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021, longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, fellowships from the Cullman Center and the Lannan Foundation, and many other honors. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“I'm really interested in the formal aspect of characters who are channeling language, who are speaking the words of other people, and in characters who are aware of how little agency they actually have, who have passivity forced upon them, who perhaps even embrace their passivity to a certain extent but eventually seek out where they can enact their agency.”Katie Kitamura is the author five novels, most recently Audition and Intimacies, which was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021, longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, fellowships from the Cullman Center and the Lannan Foundation, and many other honors. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“This novel is the third in what I see as a little set of books that all feature unnamed female protagonists who have experienced varying degrees of passivity and agency in their lives. They're all women who speak the words of other people.”Katie Kitamura is the author five novels, most recently Audition and Intimacies, which was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021, longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, fellowships from the Cullman Center and the Lannan Foundation, and many other honors. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

" I think the narrative structure of those story ballets, which were some of the biggest stories of my childhood. I grew up watching Swan Lake. Giselle, La Bayadère, these were stories that were as present to me as anything that I read. Those story ballets are often split in two parts in a way. You have the White Swan and the Black Swan. In Giselle, you have the young girl and then you have the shade, the kind of ghost who comes to haunt her, her lover. Very similar in La Bayadère. And the structure of this novel is in two parts and it's two versions, in a way, of the same character. And now that you said it, I wonder if in some way, without realizing it, that narrative structure had really seeped into my brain."Katie Kitamura is the author five novels, most recently Audition and Intimacies, which was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021, longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, fellowships from the Cullman Center and the Lannan Foundation, and many other honors. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

In his new novel, “Twist,” the National Book Award-winning Irish writer Colum McCann tells the story of a journalist deep at sea in more ways then one: A man adrift, he accepts a magazine assignment to write about the crews who maintain and repair the undersea cables that transmit all of the world's information. Naturally, the assignment becomes more treacherous and psychologically fraught than he had anticipated. On this week's episode, McCann tells host Gilbert Cruz how he became interested in the topic of information cables and why the story resonated for him at multiple levels.“Now, I don't know if the novel is prescient in any way. I wanted to talk about repair. And when I got deep into the subject, I did talk about repair — which is, human repair or actual repair of a cable. But I also ended up talking about sabotage, too. And the sabotage of these cables is something that has to be on our minds.” Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Sigrid Nunez's 2018 novel The Friend won the National Book Award. It's now a film, starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, about a woman who inherits a dog after her friend's suicide. She spoke with Terry Gross about the book in 2019.Also, Justin Chang reviews the new French film thriller Misericordia.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As the long, exhausting march toward summer begins for many students, the wise and compassionate David Wagoner takes us to the intersection of love and weakness. Happy reading.David Wagoner was recognized as the leading poet of the Pacific Northwest, often compared to his early mentor Theodore Roethke, and highly praised for his skillful, insightful and serious body of work. He won numerous prestigious literary awards including the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, and the Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and was nominated twice for the National Book Award. The author of ten acclaimed novels, Wagoner's fiction has been awarded the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Award. Professor emeritus at the University of Washington, Wagoner enjoyed an excellent reputation as both a writer and a teacher of writing. He was selected to serve as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1978, replacing Robert Lowell, and was the editor of Poetry Northwest until 2002.Born in Ohio and raised in Indiana, Midwesterner Wagoner was initially influenced by family ties, ethnic neighborhoods, industrial production and pollution, and the urban environment. His move to the Pacific Northwest in 1954, at Roethke's urging, changed both his outlook and his poetry. Writing in the Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Wagoner recalls: “when I drove down out of the Cascades and saw the region that was to become my home territory for the next thirty years, my extreme uneasiness turned into awe. I had never seen or imagined such greenness, such a promise of healing growth. Everything I saw appeared to be living ancestral forms of the dead earth where I'd tried to grow up.” Wagoner's poetry often mourns the loss of a natural, fertile wilderness, though David K. Robinson, writing in Contemporary Poetry, described the themes of “survival, anger at those who violate the natural world” and “a Chaucerian delight in human oddity” at work in the poems as well. Critics have also praised Wagoner's poetry for its crisp descriptive detail and metaphorical bent. However, Paul Breslin in the New York Times Book Review pronounced David Wagoner to be “predominantly a nature poet…as Frost and Roethke were nature poets.”Wagoner's first books, including Dry Sun, Dry Wind (1953), A Place to Stand (1958), and Poems (1959), demonstrate an early mastery of his chosen subject matter and form. Often comprised of observations of nature, Wagoner links his speakers' predicaments and estrangement to the larger imperfection of the world. In Wagoner's second book, A Place to Stand,Roethke's influence is clear, and the book uses journey poems to represent the poet's own quest back to his beginnings. Wagoner's fourth book, The Nesting Ground (1963), reflects his relocation physically, aesthetically and emotionally; the Midwest is abandoned for the lush abundance of the Pacific Northwest, and Wagoner's style is less concerned with lamentation or complaint and more with cataloguing the bounty around him. James K. Robinson called the title poem from Staying Alive (1966) “one of the best American poems since World War II.” In poems like “The Words,” Wagoner discovers harmony with nature by learning to be open to all it has to offer: “I take what is: / The light beats on the stones, / the wind over water shines / Like long grass through the trees, / As I set loose, like birds / in a landscape, the old words.” Robert Cording, who called Staying Alive “the volume where Wagoner comes into his own as a poet,” believed that for Wagoner, taking what is involves “an acceptance of our fragmented selves, which through love we are always trying to patch together; an acceptance of our own darkness; and an acceptance of the world around us with which we must reacquaint ourselves.”Collected Poems 1956-1976 (1976) was nominated for the National Book Award and praised by X. J. Kennedy in Parnassus for offering poems which are “beautifully clear; not merely comprehensible, but clear in the sense that their contents are quickly visible.” Yet it was Who Shall Be the Sun? (1978),based upon Native American myth and legend, which gained critical attention. Hayden Carruth, writing in Harper's Magazine, called the book “a remarkable achievement,” not only for its presentation of “the literalness of shamanistic mysticism” but also for “its true feeling.” Hudson Review's James Finn Cotter also noted how Wagoner “has not written translations but condensed versions that avoid stereotyped language….The voice is Wagoner's own, personal, familiar, concerned. He has achieved a remarkable fusion of nature, legend and psyche in these poems.”In Broken Country (1979), also nominated for the National Book Award, shows Wagoner honing the instructional backpacking poems he had first used in Staying Alive. Leonard Neufeldt, writing in New England Review,called “the love lyrics” of the first section “among the finest since Williams' ‘Asphodel.'” Wagoner has been accused of using staid pastoral conventions in book after book, as well as writing less well about human subjects. However, his books have continued to receive critical attention, often recognized for the ways in which they use encounters with nature as metaphors for encounters with the self. First Light (1983), Wagoner's “most intense” collection, according to James K. Robinson, reflects Wagoner's third marriage to poet Robin Seyfried. And Publishers Weekly celebrated Walt Whitman Bathing (1996) for its use of “plainspoken formal virtuosity” which allows for “a pragmatic clarity of perception.” A volume of new and collected poems, Traveling Light, was released in 1999. Sampling Wagoner's work through the years, many reviewers found the strongest poems to also be the newest. Rochelle Ratner in Library Journal noted “since many of the best are in the ‘New Poems' section, it might make sense to wait for his next volume.” That next volume, The House of Song (2002) won high praise for its variety of subject matter and pitch-perfect craft. Christina Pugh in Poetry declared “The House of Song boasts a superb architecture, and each one of its rooms (or in Italian, stanzas) affords a pleasure that enhances the last.” In 2008 Wagoner published his twenty-third collection of verse, A Map of the Night. Reviewing the book for the Seattle Times, Sheila Farr found many poems shot through with nostalgia, adding “the book feels like a summing-up.” Conceding that “not all the work reaches the high plane of Wagoner's reputation,” Farr described its “finest moments” as those which “resonate with the title, venturing into darkness and helping us recognize its familiar places.”In addition to his numerous books of poetry, David Wagoner was also a successful novelist, writing both mainstream fiction and regional Western fiction. Offering a steady mix of drama seasoned with occasional comedy, Wagoner's tales often involve a naive central character's encounter with and acceptance of human failing and social corruption. In the Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Wagoner described his first novel, The Man in the Middle (1954), as “a thriller with some Graham Greene overtones about a railroad crossing watchmen in violent political trouble in Chicago,” his second novel, Money, Money, Money (1955), as a story about “a young tree surgeon who can't touch, look at, or even think about money, though he has a lot of it,” his third novel, Rock (1958) as a tale of “teenage Chicago delinquents,” and his fifth novel, Baby, Come On Inside (1968) as a story “about an aging popular singer who'd lost his voice.” As a popular novelist, however, Wagoner is best known for The Escape Artist (1965), the story of an amateur magician and the unscrupulous adults who attempt to exploit him, which was adapted as a film in 1981. Wagoner produced four successful novels as a Western “regional” writer. Structurally and thematically, they bear similarities to his other novels. David W. Madden noted in Twentieth-Century Western Writers: “Central to each of these [Western] works is a young protagonist's movement from innocence to experience as he journeys across the American frontier encountering an often debased and corrupted world. However, unlike those he meets, the hero retains his fundamental optimism and incorruptibility.”Although Wagoner wrote numerous novels, his reputation rests on his numerous, exquisitely crafted poetry collections, and his dedication as a teacher. Harold Bloom said of Wagoner: “His study of American nostalgias is as eloquent as that of James Wright, and like Wright's poetry carries on some of the deepest currents in American verse.” And Leonard Neufeldt called Wagoner “simply, one of the most accomplished poets currently at work in and with America…His range and mastery of subjects, voices, and modes, his ability to work with ease in any of the modes (narrative, descriptive, dramatic, lyric, anecdotal) and with any number of species (elegy, satirical portraiture, verse editorial, apostrophe, jeremiad, and childlike song, to name a few) and his frequent combinations of a number of these into astonishingly compelling orchestrations provide us with an intelligent and convincing definition of genius.”Wagoner died in late 2021 at age 95.-bio via Poetry Foundation This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe