Podcasts about What We Lose

This week's retirement reading is from HumbleDollar titled, What We Lose. Listen in as Casey Weade breaks down the article and shares what he thinks! Today's episode can also be accessed by visiting RetireWithPurpose.com/388.  Show Notes: RetireWithPurpose.com/388 Rate & Review the Podcast: RetireWithPurpose.com/review Sign Up to Casey's Weekend Reading Email! Sifting through the copious amount of conflicting financial advice and retirement information can be daunting - but it doesn't have to be! Each week, Casey makes it super easy. He hand-picks 4 of the most important articles you need to read, that are beneficial to you whether you're at, near, or in retirement! If you want them sent straight to your inbox, sign up by visiting RetireWithPurpose.com/weekend-reading

Meet Danielle Samake: a rising second-year Princeton student from Maplewood, New Jersey. Danielle shares how she has grappled with her tricultural identity as a Jamaican, Malian, and first-generation American. She asks us to reconsider the ways in which we ask too much of marginalized communities, discusses her experiences as a Black woman at Princeton, and imparts wise words on how she stays optimistic. A literary enthusiast, Danielle provides an entire shelf of book recommendations, to which Susan and Anna share a few as well.*This episode was recorded on April 10, 2021.Links mentioned:The Loveland FoundationGirls Learn InternationalVikalp SansthanJatan SansthanDanielle's blogDanielle's book recommendations:What We Lose  by Zinzi ClemmonsSwing Time  by Zadie SmithAnnihilation of Caste  by B. R. AmbedkarHalf the Sky  by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunnBecoming  by Michelle ObamaSexual Citizens  by Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus KhanListen to the 10 lessons learned podcastSupport the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/psinapod)

First things first: are YOU familiar with coding on the WIX platform? Let us know, because we could use your help!! Now that that’s out of the way, thanks for tuning in to hear us talk about our fictional Valentine's and the V-Day candy we'd love to share with them. PS: here's the link to help support Troop 6000, as promised in the ep: https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/troop6000-161. If you’re a member of the fan club you may have seen that The Ex Talk book club discussion kicked off yesterday. We’re so excited to keep chatting about the book for the rest of the month, so join us over on the Patreon if you’re interested! You can join our fan club at https://www.patreon.com/booksandthecitypod, and you can get your merch here: https://www.booksandthecitypod.com/merch. Shop all the books we’ve discussed on this episode and past episodes at bookshop.org/shop/booksandthecity. Make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter on our website, and send us an email at booksandthecitypod@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!!-------------> Emily just read: Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour (11:20-22:03) https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/Black-Buck/9780358380887 Up next for Emily: Breathless by Beverly Jenkins Becky just read: The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor (22:04-31:09) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534620/the-lost-letter-by-jillian-cantor/ Up next for Becky: The Divines by Ellie Eaton Libby just read: What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons (31:10-39:33) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/547466/what-we-lose-by-zinzi-clemmons/ Up next for Libby: A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley Kayla just read: The Dating Plan by Sara Desai (39:34-48:52) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622473/the-dating-plan-by-sara-desai/ Up next for Kayla: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn Music by EpidemicSound, logo art by @niczollos, all opinions our own.

Los and Bertram discuss another kind of epidemic that has been spreading the globe: loneliness. Did you know it's killing more people than obesity? The boys uncover some new, fascinating information about the destruction loneliness is having on our lives right now. A must listen for anyone who feels like they are struggling through this virus right now. Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast. Resources from this episode: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/01/pandemic-goodbye-casual-friends/617839/ (The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship - The Atlantic) https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/threat-to-health/ (The Campaign to End Loneliness) https://www.hrsa.gov/enews/past-issues/2019/january-17/loneliness-epidemic (The Loneliness Epidemic - HRSA.gov) https://www.npr.org/2021/02/01/962946851/what-we-lose-when-we-lose-acquaintances (What We Lose when We Lose Acquaintances - NPR interview) https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/teenagers-covid-pandemic-mental-health/2021/02/10/3389983a-39d6-11eb-9276-ae0ca72729be_story.html (The Loneliness of an Interrupted Adolescence - Washington Post) https://www.cdc.gov/aging/publications/features/lonely-older-adults.html (Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Serious Health Conditions | CDC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj71G_CCAto (Loneliness in the UK: ‘I go to supermarket just to talk to someone’ | ITV News) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/the-history-of-loneliness (The History of Loneliness | The New Yorker) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EidKI1Bdons&t=583s (Why Are We So Lonely? - Glad You Asked S1) Coronavirus FAQs: What Are The New Dating Rules? And What About Hooking Up? | Goats and Soda | NPR https://orsl.usc.edu/click-making-meaningful-relationships/ (Making Meaning Relationships - A Free Non-Credit Course for USC Students/Staff | Campfires USC ) https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/rep-linda-sanchez-on-impeachment-we-have-no-other-choice/rainn-wilson-and-reza-aslan-on-loneliness-forgiveness-and-metaphysical-milkshake (Rainn Wilson and Reza Aslan on loneliness, forgiveness, and the ‘Metaphysical Milkshake’ | KCRW) https://www.cigna.com/about-us/newsroom/news-and-views/press-releases/2018/new-cigna-study-reveals-loneliness-at-epidemic-levels-in-america (New Cigna Study Reveals Loneliness at Epidemic Levels in America | Cigna) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhVCGl-Huqg (Dave Chappelle - Redemption Song)

Hey hey hey, it's Ada. how are you doing? I hope you're taking good care of yourself and doing well. In this episode of The Misty Bloom book club I am going to be reviewing What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons. You ready? Let's go into the clubhouse. Before I launch into my review of what we lose by Zinzi Clemmons, I want to talk a little bit about honesty. So grab your coffee, water, wine, whatever your drink of choice is, sit back and relax. Because it's about to get real. So there's this great advice that I’ve seen floating around the internet. I’ve seen two versions of the same advice and I don’t know who to originally attribute the quotes to but if you do know, let me know. Okay, so the first quote is truth without love is brutality. And the second quote is honesty without compassion is cruelty. So both of these quotes are essentially saying the same thing. And it's stuck with me because honesty is a virtue. And that is unquestioned. We are taught from a young age not to lie, to always speak truth to power, we are taught honesty is the best policy. There's no negotiating honesty. We should all strive for honesty as one of the greatest virtues to pursue and practice. However, honesty is not an excuse for us to hurt people. You know in the exercise of being blunt there's no need for us to administer blunt force trauma. There has to be a way, and I'm learning this as well, to be honest without inflicting harm on someone. So finding a balance between being honest and truthful but also couching the honesty and truth in the way that minimizes harm. So why am I bringing this up? No, I'm not taking a detour from talking and being about books to becoming a virtue guru. Although if that pays more I might reconsider. I still want everyone, including myself, to be kind. It makes for a better world and a gentler existence when we're all kind to each other. But the reason I was bringing up the whole honesty and truth cruelty brutality thing is because I thought about perhaps not doing reviews for books that I didn't enjoy reading but I also think that's completely unrealistic. You know, sort of pandering to the whole if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. Which to me can sometimes be a cowardly piece of advice in my opinion because it is taking the path of least resistance. If you're willing to do the work you can always find something nice to say. It's a little bit passive and kinda wack to just absolve yourself of the responsibility of saying nothing at all. Rather than plumbing the depths to finding the good about someone or a situation. Also the podcast would start to come across as fake because after a while you'd notice that I love absolutely everything that I read. Which is impossible. Life is not just a pond of lilies. It would not give The Misty Bloom Book Club any sort of dimension, I would not be a reliable source of literary commentary, critique, or appreciation. You guys are smart. You would pick up on the artifice that I'd be putting out. And even as a published author, I'm still growing and always learning to be a better writer and seeing the work of others, where their novels shine and where they fail, helps to sharpen my own craft. And the bottom line is that it is immature to avoid conversations that are difficult or uncomfortable. And, like you, I also want to challenge myself to be honest without being brutal. So now that I've given you my whole spiel on honesty and brutality, let me start my review of What We Lose with a quick and dirty overview. See what I did there? What We Lose is written in the first-person, the I, and follows Thandi who's born and raised in Pennsylvania to a South African mother and an American father. Partway through the novel, Thandi’s mother is diagnosed with cancer and very unfortunately passes away. And the novel transforms into a meditation on dealing with terminal illness, grief, and loss. So going into what we lose by Zinzi Clemmons, I had high hopes for the book. And the reason I had such high hopes is because the writer Zinzi Clemmons. Ok, hold on let's talk about her name for a second. I love her name, Zinzi, by the way. It just sounds glorious and she has the coolest initials. Zee Cee baby. Zee Cee in da building!!!. Anyway Zinzi Clemmons is part South African and part African-American so I was looking forward to getting her extremely unique and distinctive perspective on race and race relations. You know with her coming from this dual heritage that's very loaded on both sides with very different but both extremely intense race histories and that's putting it mildly. And no I'm not putting this burden on Zinzi Clemmons to talk about race. You guys know exactly how I feel about black and minority writers being forced to take on social issues. If not, go listen to Episode 1 of The Misty Bloom Book Club where I talk about this in a little bit more detail. I had this expectation for Zinzi Clemmons to address race issues not because of her heritage. But because the actual book jacket describes the protagonist of What We Lose, Thandie, as being caught between being black and white. So there you go. The first thing I thought about What We Lose is that this novel, for me read like a memoir or maybe even more accurately a non chronological diary. Or maybe a fusion of all these things together. Like part novel part memoir part diary. Which I thought of as an unconventional approach to creative writing. I totally saw what the author was trying to do here. Zinzi Clemmons took what we know of as the conventional novel, you know the traditional approach to crafting a novel and turned it on its head. It had like untitled mini chapters under chapters, there are graphs included in the book, it is wildly non-chronological, there is some philosophy thrown in, there are expositions on South Africa. With What We Lose, the author attempted to do something inventive. But not just trying to be inventive for its own sake. I saw very clearly that the unorthodox structure Zinzi Clemmons adopted for this novel is meant to reflect that grief is not linear or a tidy emotion. The emotions of grief are all over the place. Grief is disorganized. Your feelings are a jumbled mess. Your memories of the person you lost switch back and forth between the recent past and way way back. And the non-chronological narrative choice of What We Lose reflects this. And I always respect when anyone is truthfully and doggedly pushing the boundaries of what we think is possible. It was certainly brave of Zinzi Clemmons to attempt to do something innovative here. Like I said earlier taking what we know of as the orthodox approach to novel writing and turning it on its head. And I respect Zinzi Clemmons for writing What We Lose in the manner that she felt was best suited to this story. I'm gonna speculate that Zinzi Clemmons would have come up against some resistance so it must have taken guts to push forward with and fight for a novel structured in this manner. Aside from that, What We Lose had some profound moments. And I'll give you some examples. I really liked the part of the book where Thandi's father is moving on and finding a new relationship after the death of his wife. And Thandie is understandably resistant to her father moving on from her mother. And I'll read the scene to you from page 164. "I want to be happy again" he says, his voice breaking. "Don't you think I deserve happiness?" "of course, I say." you deserve much more than that. I only wish I could be okay with what form of happiness you've chosen." That right there is a pearl of wisdom that I want you to think about in your life. For example I think many of us are not really resistant to other people finding happiness. We only question their methods for doing so. Whether or not is our business to do so but it's something to definitely think about. There was one line I really liked on page 145 and it reads "I realized that that was how heartbreak occurred. Your heart wants something but reality resists it." So true, you guys! So true. I also like this paragraph from page 182. It reads “Love and marriage are completely unrelated enterprises. Marriage bears little resemblance to love as competing in the Olympics does to your afternoon jog. Sometimes I think with regret of how our love might have grown if we hadn't driven a pregnancy, then a marriage, like two speeding 18-wheelers straight into it.” I mean that right there is a lot of food for thought. I also liked this line on page 185, “Peter sighs, reaches for the pacifier, and pops it nervously into M's mouth, as if our child is a bottle of champagne threatening to explode.” I thought that was a fun sentence. Here’s another great line page 206. It reads, “sometimes I sniff the bottle of perfume of hers that I saved, but it doesn't come close to the robustness of her smell. It is her, flattened.” It is a heavy sentence and it made me sad. I think the sentence was so effective because we associate smell with memories and nostalgia so I think that's what was so profound about this particular sentence. So those are the things that I appreciated about What We Lose. Now, I'm gonna flip the script and talk about what I didn't like quite as much about What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons. But before I do that here is a quick message from my sponsor. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to the Misty Bloom book club thanks for staying with me. So now I'm going to talk about what frustrated me about What We Lose So, overall, I'm going to admit that I struggled with What We Lose. Sadly, it didn't hit the spot for me. And I hate that it didn't because like I said earlier, I had such high hopes for this book. However, I wouldn't call what I didn't like about the book as weaknesses per se. But I see this more as a cataloging of my frustrations with the What We Lose. What We Lose totally was a worthy and admirable attempt at being experimental and innovative with fiction However and ultimately for me. I’m sorry. it just didn't work. While I wholeheartedly understood that the author was making a deliberate eclectic artistic choice, I struggled with the way the book was structured. I mentioned that it had like untitled mini chapters under chapters, there are graphs, it is wildly non-chronological making it difficult to follow, the philosophy felt like it was thrown in, there are what I found to be problematic expositions on South Africa that I'll talk about a little bit later . The inconsistency of the novel's structure crippled my enjoyment of it. It interrupted the flow of the novel and gave it a distinctly jerky quality that felt like whiplash. I appreciate the author’s experimentation. But to me, it just read as disjointed and came off as gimmicky. Or maybe I just simply have boring, stock, archetypal tastes in literature. You tell me, I don’t know. But my advice here for any new and aspiring writers who are listening, my advice for whatever it's worth is to be aware of the line between avant garde and gimmicks. You should always, always aim to express your own originality or uniqueness like Zinzi Clemmons did here. However, please remember that your originality or uniqueness is like a fingerprint, it’s innate in you. And you don't need the gimmicks, bells and whistles, or whatever the writing version of auto-tune is. Trust yourself that your work will reflect your individuality. Period. Apart from the stylistic and structural choices that Zinzi Clemmons made in What We Lose, I also found that unfortunately there was nothing special about the writing itself. And that was another problem for me. The writing overall was pretty basic. But it did have some very strong, thoughtful moments which I shared with you earlier in the episode. And those were the shining moments. I didn’t like that beyond those examples that I shared earlier, most of the rest of the prose was pretty basic. Like describing winter as a “long dark and cold period”. Or saying “The sun is shining with full strength.” I don’t expect descriptions like this from someone with an MFA in Creative Writing. And for those who don’t know, an MFA is a Masters in Fine Arts. Which is an advanced degree for fiction writing. So, when I get descriptions like winter is long dark and cold period or the sun is shining with full strength I get genuinely confused and frustrated.These are some of the ways in which I found What We Lose to be frustrating. I mentioned before that What We Lose contains expositions on South Africa. These expositions on South Africa did not resonate with me at all. I wasn't feeling them because the protagonist’s story would suddenly stop, and then the author would randomly veer off into unrelated discussions sprinkled through the book on South Africans and South Africa. Like talking about Oscar Pistorius, talking about the Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, Kevin Carter, the author inserted a blog post about crime in Durban, there were sections on Winne Mandela. And then we'd return to the novel’s main plot, Thandie's story. It was totally disruptive to the story’s narrative arc. And the hard part about reading these expositions on South Africa was it didn't feel like I was reading it from an insider, it wasn't a knowing, intimate, and heartfelt perspective of a South African but felt like it was coming from a foreign, touristy gaze. These South African sidebars had the quality of reading as academic, like something copied and pasted from Wikipedia or a newspaper article. They were all things that anyone who even has a tiny micro familiarity with events in South Africa already knows. It wasn’t new information or like you know a new take on these people or events. And there was no emotional connection or narrative links between these events and Thandie. And this matters because Thandie is supposed to be half South African. It really really frustrated me because all it did was to say "hey I'm Thandie, I'm half South African and I'll prove this to you by talking about some South African things. " It just felt like a cheap shot, like these South African events and people were used as filler, to fill in pages in the book. And it made me honestly feel defensive and protective of South Africa being used this way. Something else I had mixed feelings about was that this book is very unapologetically upper-middle-class. I felt like Thandie kept trying to emphasize the fact that in South Africa she is a colored and therefore higher up the social ladder than a black person. And in America, she comes from an upper middle class black pedigree. The issue is not in having these social advantages. The issue here is that they're not stated merely as fact but stated as a sort of point being made about social separation. And I'm not sure who that point is being made to because this book is written in the first-person. Hmmmm. I honestly cannot see it appealing to a diverse array of literary tastes. I mentioned that this book is a meditation on Grief. And grief is a universal emotion and feeling that everyone across every social category will go through. We will all experience loss. We will all experience bereavement. We will all mourn people that we love. That's bound to happen to all of us unfortunately. So I feel like this book should have read as universal but it didn't. It's very specific in its target audience, very specific in who it would appeal to. And it would appeal to firmly upper middle class readers. But maybe ultimately there's nothing wrong with that. You know there's an old saying - know your audience. Something else I wanna discuss and this is not just specific to what we lose or Zinzi Clemmons but broadly across the literary world. Literature has a lot of jobs. You know? To inform. To help us empathize. To reveal who we are as a people. To introduce us to new worlds. Blah Blah Blah. But there's another function of literature which I feel is often minimized or not seen as important as the other functions of literature. And I'm just going to say it. Literature also has a duty to entertain. It's like other forms of art whether it's film or music or paintings or fashion. I don't care how high brow or indie or niche or upscale your sensibilities are. Art should also be aesthetically pleasing and part of being aesthetically pleasing is the duty to entertain, to please my senses you know. It's kind of like those super, super indie movies that only like two people that get what the filmmaker is trying to do . Or those haute couture outfits that only 10 people in the world will ever wear not because of the price tag but because there's no normal everyday event to wear them to. In those cases, you're ultimately producing art for yourself and not to please an audience. And this is how I felt reading What We Lose entertaining. My opinion is that yes make art for you. But, if you expect to have an audience participate in your art, then you have to think beyond yourself. Look, I get it this book is not a $100 bill so it's not going to appeal to every single person that reads it. Including me. But I would have at least liked to have been able to relate to a tiny aspect of it. And speaking of being unable to relate to this novel I think I figured out what the crux of the issue was for me. What We Lose reads like the diary of a moody, conflicted teenager. Even though Thandie is not a teenager. So you're immersed in this conflicted, jumbled reality of a person who doesn't even know who they are, who has no sense of direction, who's simply aimless. And there was no inner growth or progression as Thandie got older. I was disappointed. Very disappointed. I found Thandie to be very tiresome. And the reason I found her to be tiresome is because she is one of those people that's very feelings based who is so severely inward looking. You know those people who never really look outward, who don’t seem to be concerned about how other people are feeling or how they're doing. They're just so into the supposed complexity of their own super important feelings. You know those kinds of people who define themselves by their feelings and think that somehow the complexity of their feelings makes them cool. But all it does for the rest of us is it make them appear selfish because they don’t care about how other people feel. They come across to us as insufferable because they don't have the capacity to realize that other people besides them also experience very complex emotions.I said earlier that What We Lose is a novel about handling grief. It also deals with the depression that accompanies grief which I think is a really powerful subject to always address in fiction. But the problem with Thandie as a fictional character is that she was always inward looking and feeling sorry for herself even before tragedy hit so we never saw her degradation from normalcy into grief. Thandie was mourning life waaay before death came along. Another aspect to this was that I didn't feel like I could latch onto the secondary characters even if I wanted to ignore Thandie. Thandie was so me me me, that I never got the chance to really get to know the secondary characters in a tangible way. So guys, that's the main gist of my catalog of frustrations of What We Lose. Next up, I'll do the fun personality profile of Zinzi Clemmons and guess what I think she is like as a person. And then I'll end with some final thoughts. But before I do that, here's a quick message from my sponsor. Per usual, don't go anywhere. Okay I'm going to do a personality profile of Zinzi Clemmons. Of course this is purely fun guesswork from reading What We Lose. Soooo, I'm gonna guess that Zinzi Clemmons is probably a spontaneous, adventurous type person, who wears her heart on her sleeve. If you know Zinzi Clemmons, let me know if I hit the bullseye with this or if I'm completely way off base. Finally I'll close with saying that i admire the unconventional eclectic style and structure of what we lose. Even though i think would have been incredibly successful if it was written as a straightforward memoir. But I also realize it's a selfish thing for me to say because by saying that, I'm wanting the author to adapt her art to suit my own particular preference. And I suspect, and of course this is pure but respectful speculation, that it was a deliberate choice for Zinzi Clemmons not to write this book as a memoir to intentionally put some distance between herself and the grief, and shield herself from direct pain. And I completely understand this. So, if you've read What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons or if you do plan to read it, let me know what you think. I'd love to have a conversation with you on social media. Support Misty Bloom Book Club by donating to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/mistybloombookclub Find out more at https://mistybloombookclub.pinecast.co

Annie is joined by Jordan Jones, her husband who also happens to be an attorney and personality typing expert. Today, they’re chatting about the Enneagram and making book recommendations for each type. Enneagram 1: East of Eden by John Steinbeck or Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski Enneagram 2: Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel or A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza Enneagram 3: The Best of Me by David Sedaris or Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell Enneagram 4: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon or The Harpy by Megan Hunter Enneagram 5: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi and Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry Enneagram 6: Sea Wife by Amity Gaige and Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer Enneagram 7: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert and Here for It by R. Eric Thomas Enneagram 8: Untamed by Glennon Doyle and A Knock at Midnight by Brittany K. Barnett Enneagram 9: What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons and Hey Ladies! by Michelle Markowitz and Caroline Moss A full transcript for today’s episode is available here. From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Boy-Crazy Stacey by Ann M. Martin and Jordan is reading The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova. If you liked what you heard on today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter, follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic, and receive free media mail shipping on all your online books orders. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.

Slip on your comfiest shoes (ideally the ones that don’t go outdoors?) and get ready to curl up with a good book—or, rather, our enthusiastic endorsements of 26 novels by Black authors. YA and romance included, duh.   The linkage:   If you want more from us on Instagram, head to @athingortwohq. If you want to give us a ring, dial up 833-632-5463.   Some (Birkenstock-y) house-shoe picks: Arizona Essentials EVA, Boston Essentials EVA, and Boston Suede with Shearling.     NOVELS BY BLACK AUTHORS! That we love! Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid; Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue; The Idea of You by Robinne Lee; The Wedding Date, The Proposal, The Wedding Party, and more (!!) by Jasmine Guillory; The Nickel Boys (and next up: Sag Harbor) by Colson Whitehead; My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite; American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson; What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons; An American Marriage and Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones; The Mothers (and next up: The Vanishing Half) by Brit Bennett; Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson; Homegoing (up next: Transcendent Kingdom) by Yaa Gyasi; We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge; Americanah and The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.   YA NOVELS! With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo; The Hate U Give and On the Come Up by Angie Thomas; The Sun is Also a Star and Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon.   Listen to Tayari Jones on our podcast or on Death, Sex & Money (where she talks about getting a call from Oprah!).   Get your DIY fix with Sewsquad. For free shipping on your first order, sign up for the newsletter. YAY.   Produced by Dear Media

La misión de Diana Garcia es compartir a través de su arte multidisciplinario la filosofía BE WHAT YOU DREAM (SÉ LO QUE SUEÑAS). Su arte se encuentra en las calles de Mexico, EU, Asia y Europa. Sus más recientes murales incluyen, la campaña WHAT WE LOSE de especies en extinción en colaboración con Endangered Activism en algunas ciudades de Europa y EU, LIBERTAD en la calle de Viaducto en la Ciudad de México que habla sobre la liberación de simbolismos en nuestra bandera, THE PATH OF THE PANTHER en colaboración con el activista / fotógrafo de NatGeo, Carlton Ward, en Miami durante Art Basel. Murales en Mx y EU de apoyo al movimiento de Toms: END GUN VIOLENCE TOGETHER. WHAT DO YOU SEE?, en apoyo para la campaña del film Ay Mariposa, cuestionando nuestros espejos y acciones reflejándonos con el President Estadounidense. DEJA QUE TU EGO SE DISUELVA en colaboración con Lisa Salivar en la Ciudad de Mexico que toca el tema de la importancia de hacer ceremonia con plantas medicinales y GRANDMOTHER´S WISDOM en la tienda de Rag and Bone en NYC. Su obra también abarca esculturas, collage, instalaciones de altares y metamorfosis de diferentes animales en taxidermia. LA VIDA ES UNA CEREMONIA, fue su segunda exposición individual el pasado Marzo en Casa Basalta, CDMX. Como actríz, algunos de sus filmes obtuvieron la atención varios festivales de cine como Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, Thessaloniki, y AFI (Dramamex, Sin Nombre, Casi Divas, Aqui entre Nos). Fue oradora en TEDx Oaxaca en el 2014 y Productora del Festival de Innovación Social CATAPULTA, en Oaxaca en el 2015. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/karina-velasco/support

Watch the video here. A cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor for Literary Hub, Zinzi Clemmons has had work published in a variety of literary magazines, including Zoetrope: All Story, The Paris Review Daily, and Transition. Raised in Philadelphia to a South African mother and an American father, Clemmons teaches in Los Angeles at The Coleburn Conservatory and Occidental College. Her debut novel, What We Lose, tells the story of Thandi, a young woman caught between cultures as she struggles with love, unexpected motherhood, and the loss of the person who shaped her the most.  (recorded 7/13/2017)

We go down the #INCEL rabbit hole in Episode 36. What IS an INCEL? What is the "INCEL rebellion," a "Chad," a "Stacy," a "Normie," and all the other various language and ideas guiding this particularly dangerous group of men. We also give you new language: "aggrieved entitlement," and "misogynistic terrorism." With all the #massshootings today, mostly committed by young white men who are angry with women for denying them sex, we provide a basic primer on this movement and make the connection, which is something that is being ignored in mainstream media outlets. The #TrumpsterFire addresses #POTUS's misogyny (or hatred of women). Our #FierceWomanWarriors this episode are two #womenwriters who have shared their stories and exposed #JunotDiaz as a sexual predator: Zinzi Clemmons, author of What We Lose and Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties. Our #MediaMinute asks you to watch the second season of Hulu's series The Handmaid's Tale. And finally, our #ActivistAction asks you to buy books by women #whistleblowers. #Empower yourself by joining our #community and feel less alone in this topsy-turvy time. #Share this episode with your social media networks and ask others to #listen and join this fight (we are also on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Google Play Music). We are in this together.   We work hard to bring you #originalcontent. Do you agree that our content is valuable? Important? Have we given #voice to some of your own concerns? Helped you feel less alone in this world-gone-off-the-rails? Become a patron for $1 a month and help us be #sustainable. That's less than the cost of a cup of coffee to help support our feminist/activist podcast. Click the little green "Become a Patron" button on this screen to start your patronage today! (At $8/month, you'll get access to every episode and Expert Extra AS SOON AS WE POST THEM, along with an Inside 254 writing journal, stickers, shout-outs, and love!) Want to help us out with expenses, but don't want the monthly patron option? You can make a one-time donation at our GoFundMe page.   Please #share our #podcast with your like-minded friends. We need your help to build our audience and community! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on our web site where we post links and additional information from the current episode. Thanks for listening and helping us be sustainable for you for the long-term, community!

Writer Zinzi Clemmons speaks with author and cultural critic Margo Jefferson about her debut novel, What We Lose. They talk about the experience of being biracial, struggling with terminal disease, black womanhood and motherhood, and how fiction can be influenced by creative essay writing.

From an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African-American woman coming of age--a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and country.  Raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother's childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor--someone, or something, to love. In arresting and unsettling prose, we watch Thandi's life unfold, from losing her mother and learning to live without the person who has most profoundly shaped her existence, to her own encounters with romance and unexpected motherhood. Through exquisite and emotional vignettes, Clemmons creates a stunning portrayal of what it means to choose to live, after loss. An elegiac distillation, at once intellectual and visceral, of a young woman's understanding of absence and identity that spans continents and decades, What We Lose heralds the arrival of a virtuosic new voice in fiction. Praise for What We Lose "Penetratingly good and written in vivid still life, What We Lose reads like a guided tour through a melancholic Van Gogh exhibit--wonderfully chromatic, transfixing and bursting with emotion. Zinzi Clemmons's debut novel signals the emergence of a voice that refuses to be ignored." --Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout  "An intimate narrative that often makes another life as believable as your own." --John Edgar Wideman, author of Writing to Save a Life  "The narrator of What We Lose navigates the many registers of grief, love and injustice, moving between the death of her mother and the birth of her son, as well as an America of blacks and whites and a South Africa of Coloreds. What an intricate mapping of inner and outer geographies! Clemmons's prose is rhythmically exact and acutely moving. No experience is left unexamined or unimagined." --Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland  "Zinzi Clemmons' first book heralds the work of a new writer with a true and lasting voice--one that is just right for our complicated millennium. Bright and filled with shadows, humor, and trenchant insights into what it means to have a heart divided by different cultures, What We Lose is a win, just right for the ages." --Hilton Als, author of White Girls  "I love how Zinzi Clemmons complicates identity in What We Lose. Her main character is both South African and American, privileged and outsider, driven by desire and gutted by grief. This is a piercingly beautiful first novel." --Danzy Senna, author of New People  "It takes a rare, gifted writer to make her readers look at day-to-day aspects of the world around them anew. Zinzi Clemmons is one such writer.What We Lose immerses us in a world of complex ideas and issues with ease. Clemmons imbues each aspect of this novel with clear, nuanced thinking and emotional heft. Part meditation on loss, part examination of identity as it relates to ethnicity, nationality, gender and class, and part intimate look at one woman's coming of age, What We Lose announces a talented new voice in fiction." --Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House  "Wise and tender and possessed of a fiercely insightful intimacy, What We Lose is a lyrical ode to the complexities of race, love, illness, parenthood, and the hairline fractures they leave behind. Zinzi Clemmons has gifted the reader a rare and thoughtful emotional topography, a map to the mirror regions of their own heart." --Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine  Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal, a contributing editor to Literary Hub, and deputy editor for Phoneme Media. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope, The Paris Review Daily, Transition, and the Common. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles with her husband. Event date:  Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - 7:30pm

What We Lose author Zinzi Clemmons on writing grief, experimental literature and the author who changed her life.

Zinzi Clemmons' debut novel, "What We Lose," is an intimate coming-of-age story centered around a tough and tender moment -- the loss of the main character's mother. The story is based on Clemmons' own loss and grieving process. The novel -- referred to as autofiction, a cross between an autobiography and ficition -- also explores love, identity and womanhood. Reviews hail the novel as "stunning," "inventive" and "poignant," and critics are calling Clemmons "a promising new voice." Callie Crossley speaks with the author about the themes of the novel and her avant-garde approach to writing and literature. "What We Lose" is our October selection for Bookmarked: the Under the Radar book club. Guest: Zinzi Clemmons, author of "What We Lose."

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have author Zinzi Clemmons on the show! Zinzi’s gorgeous debut novel, What We Lose, has already taken the literary world by storm establishing her as a strong new voice to watch. Raised in the Philadelphia suburbs by a South African mother and American father, Zinzi has much in common with the main character of her novel, Thandi, so much so that What We Lose has been described as autobiographical fiction. Listen in as we dive into Zinzi’s novel and how to craft fiction and reality in a novel that defies normal expectations. In this episode Zinzi and I discuss: Autobiographical fiction, and how to decide what pieces of reality to include in your novel. How to weave big topics—such as race and identity—into your novel organically. What to do when you receive pushback about your story, and how to preserve that emotional truth. Why art and literature can shine a light on the grey areas of life. When to keep pursuing a novel and when to throw it out. Plus, Zinzi’s #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/165

Ryan Gattis is the author of Kung Fu and All Involved, which won the American Library Association’s Alex Award & the Lire Award for Noir of the Year in France. Gattis lives and writes in Los Angeles, where he is a member of the street art crew UGLARworks & a founding board member of 1888, a Southern California literary arts non-profit. Ryan’s latest novel is Safe. Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, the Paris Review Daily, Transition and elsewhere. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor to Literary Hub. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the Colburn Conservatory and Occidental College. Zinzi’s debut novel is What We Lose. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Walliams has just notched up his 100th week as the UK's best-selling children's author. Among his most popular books is Gangsta Granny, and a stage version is about to open at the London's Garrick Theatre. David Walliams tells Samira Ahmed why he thinks the play is better than the book, and how his career as a children's author developed out of the comedy sketch show he created with Matt Lucas - Little Britain.Cultural commentator Agnès Poirier reflects on the life of Jeanne Moreau, the French film actress and leading light of the Nouvelle Vague, whose death was announced today; and New York Times London theatre critic Matt Wolf remembers the American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Sam Shepard, who has died aged 73.Debut novelist Zinzi Clemmons was brought up in the USA, with roots in South Africa and Trinidad. She discusses her fragmentary book What We Lose, which was inspired by her own experiences nursing her mother through terminal cancer and explores motherhood, race and grief.Ever since Mamma Mia! burst onto the West End stage in 2001, the jukebox musical - using a popular artist's back catalogue of music to tell a theatrical story - has become a phenomenon. But why do some make millions and some spectacularly flop? Are they a great way of bringing theatre to the masses, or simply a lazy ploy by producers to guarantee a cash cow?Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Harry Parker.

Zinzi Clemmons, author of What We Lose, talks to Daniel Ford about her circuitous path to writing, why she decided to pursue an MFA, and what inspired her incredibly well-written and structured debut novel. To learn more about Zinzi Clemmons, visit her official website or follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Also read our review of What We Lose in July’s “Books That Should Be On Your Radar.”

Named a “Writer Worth Knowing” in The New York Times Summer Book Preview Named a summer 2017 recommended read by The New York Times, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Elle, The Millions, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Nylon, Houston Chronicle, Redbook, and Time Zinzi Clemmons’ WHAT WE LOSE is a powerful and innovative debut novel that questions the nature of identity, grief, and love through the eyes of a young woman who loses her mother to cancer. Told in visceral vignettes that draw from autofiction, online media, and encyclopedia, WHAT WE LOSE is a thoughtful, poignant debut from a promising new voice. At the beginning of the novel we meet Thandi, a second generation South African American of mixed race growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs. Thandi is raised by her South African mother, yet in Thandi’s daily life she is immersed in the culture of “American Blacks . . . my precarious homeland.” “Because of my light skin and foreign roots,” Clemmons writes, “I was never fully accepted by any race.” This feeling, of being detached from a tribe, the loneliness of a perpetual outsider, follows her throughout her life. Her mother, a pillar of strength in their family, becomes ill while Thandi is at college, and eventually Thandi leaves school to care for her. After her mother’s death, Thandi struggles to anchor herself to a self-image and to relationships that seem increasingly tenuous to her. She falls in love and fashions an unexpected new family for herself, only to find herself uncomfortable in it—an interloper again—and still deeply disoriented by the loss of her mother. Clemmons intersperses the narrative with photography, text messages, excerpts from blogs and newspaper articles; the effect is by turns playful and haunting. The primary sources create intimate and sprawling connections between the reader, Thandi, and the novel’s larger questions: about the construct of race, injustice within social systems, the durability of love, and the ability to overcome grief. In this way WHAT WE LOSE confronts the horrors and the legacy of Apartheid, and the tyranny of race in the personal and political realms. The meditations in WHAT WE LOSE are deeply felt, not least because its themes are informed by the author’s personal experiences. www.zinziclemmons.com Twitter: @zinziclemmons ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. She is a graduate of Brown and Columbia universities, and her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All Story, The Paris Review Daily, Transition, and elsewhere. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal, a contributing editor to Literary Hub. She has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Dar al-Ma’mûn, Morocco. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

This week, Liberty and Rebecca discuss American Fire, Meddling Kids, What We Lose, and more books. This episode was sponsored by ThirdLove, Goodbye, Vitamin, and LeVar Burton Reads. Find a list of the titles discussed on this episode in the shownotes.

Jeff was the voice of JudyBats until '94, and is now Heiskell. He sings with character, or characters, always articulate, overly introspective, with intimacy issues. We discuss his current status as happy, self-funded, free-styled, hands-off yet obsessive compulsive solo artist and his high-pressure, compromise-filled time on a major label that led him to quit music altogether for a while. Songs covered: "Firefiles" and "Just Can't Say" from Heiskell's Arriving (2015) and "What We Lose" from the JudyBats' Full-Empty (1994). Plus we listen to "Our Story" from Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow (1992). Learn more at heiskellmusic.com. Sign up for a recurring donation to get more conversation and songs. Hear more Nakedly Examined Music.

Jeff was the voice of JudyBats until '94, and is now Heiskell. He sings with character, or characters, always articulate, overly introspective, with intimacy issues. We discuss his current status as happy, self-funded, free-styled, hands-off yet obsessive compulsive solo artist and his high-pressure, compromise-filled time on a major label that led him to quit music altogether for a while. Songs covered: "Firefiles" and "Just Can't Say" from Heiskell's Arriving (2015) and "What We Lose" from the JudyBats' Full-Empty (1994). Plus we listen to "Our Story" from Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow (1992). Learn more at heiskellmusic.com. Sign up for a recurring donation to get more conversation and songs. Hear more Nakedly Examined Music.

What We Lose