Episódios
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As Vice President Kamala Harris's historic campaign for the presidency enters its final weeks, writer Ellen Emerson White joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her prescient 1984 novel The President's Daughter, which imagines the first woman president’s campaign and early days in the White House from the point of view of her teenage daughter. White reminisces about beginning the YA book when she was still a teenager herself and notes the uncanny similarities between a fictional presidential debate that appears in the book and the recent Trump-Harris showdown. White reflects on the qualities her character Katharine Powers shares with Kamala White—notably, a “likable, elegant swagger”—as well as how Powers’s cool bearing contrasts with Harris’s reputation for warmth. She talks about hitting pause on her current writing project following Harris’s entrance into the race, and reads from The President’s Daughter.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Ellen Emerson White
“The President’s Daughter” series
A Season of Daring Greatly
Webster: Tale of an Outlaw
“The Echo Company” series
Others:
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7 Episode 50: “Thomas Frank on How the Harris-Walz Ticket Can Win Red State Voters”
The Apprentice
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Political and cultural critic Thomas Frank joins host Whitney Terrell to discuss how Democrats and Republicans courted voters from the Midwest and South at their respective conventions. Frank gives reports from the floors of both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, which he attended. He analyzes the efforts that the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz tickets have made to attract union and working class, “red state” votes. He also reads a passage from his famed 2004 book What’s the Matter with Kansas on the origin of the terms “red state” and “blue state” and discusses the surprising staying power, and fundamental absurdity, of these categories.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Thomas Frank
The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-populism
What’s the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
Others:
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 3, episode 22: “The Unpopular Tale of Populism: Thomas Frank on the Real History of an American Mass Movement”
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, episode 31: “What Do Dems Do Now? Thomas Frank on How the Left Can Counter a Rogue Supreme Court”
David Brooks
John Podhoretz
Blake Hurst
Hulk Hogan
Kid Rock
Ted Cruz
Tucker Carlson
“Acid, amnesty - and abortion: 1972 and all that” by Michael Cross | Law Society Gazette | May 4, 2022
George McGovern
George Wallace
The New Deal
Robert Reich
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Nonfiction writer Alissa Quart joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss how the American obsession with “bootstrap narratives” led to the publishing industry championing Hillbilly Elegy, the bestselling and problematic memoir by J.D. Vance, who was subsequently elected to the Senate and is now the Republican vice presidential nominee. Quart talks about Vance’s failure to credit those who have contributed to his success and reflects on both the fetishization of poverty and the importance of authentic representation. She also explains the long tradition of self-made man narratives and their underlying queer romantic elements, and compares Vance’s work to that of writers like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Horatio Alger. She critiques Vance’s recent remarks about childless and professional women and suggests the need for a more nuanced and expansive understanding of community. Quart talks about the nonprofit she leads, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and reads from her book, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Alissa Quart
Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream
Thoughts and Prayers
Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America
Monetized
Republic of Outsiders: The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers, and Rebels
Economic Hardship Reporting Project
"JD Vance is the Toxic Byproduct of America’s Obsession with Bootstrap Narratives" | Literary Hub
Others:
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Horatio Alger
Barbara Ehrenreich
Dorothy Allison
Elizabeth Catte
Alex Miller
Bobbi Dempsey
Ann Larson
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 32: “The East Palestine Train Derailment and Your Health: Kerri Arsenault on the Pervasive and Ongoing Risks of Dioxin”
“‘Dangerous and un-American’: new recording of JD Vance’s dark vision of women and immigration” by Jason Wilson | The Guardian
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Going for Broke with Ray Suarez | The Nation
Going for Broke | NPR
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ProPublica reporter Joshua Kaplan joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his recent article on militia group American Patriots Three Percent, or AP3. Kaplan talks about group founder Scot Seddon, a former Army reservist, and how he created a movement whose members number gun control and the “LGBTQ agenda” among their grievances. Kaplan also reflects on AP3’s ties to law enforcement, the military, and elected officials, as well as their calculated attempts to brand themselves. He considers the recent history of militias in the U.S., including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and explains how that led to a loss of momentum for the movement, the subsequent rise of recruiting via Facebook, and the environment that allowed for the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Finally, he reflects on how Donald Trump fans the flames of extremist groups like AP3. Kaplan reads from his article.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Joshua Kaplan
"Armed and Underground: Inside the Turbulent, Secret World of an American Militia"
Others:
Oklahoma City Bombing
“Trump to Host ‘The J6 Awards Gala’ at His Bedminster Golf Club” by Owen Lavine | The Daily Beast
BlacKkKlansman
Mad Max
Keith Kidwell
Oath Keepers
Southern Poverty Law Center
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Following Elon Musk’s estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson’s accusations of unethical behavior on the part of Musk’s authorized biographer, memoirist Kelly McMasters and biographer Iris Jamahl Dunkle join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the ethics of biography. Dunkle, the author of Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb, talks about using archives to restore the history of Babb, the writer whose notes John Steinbeck used to research The Grapes of Wrath, and how women’s lives are often wrongly or incompletely depicted. McMasters, a memoirist whose recent book The Leaving Season: A Memoir portrays many people close to her, talks about the impossibility of writing honestly about her life without including her children, the two people with whom she spends the most time. Dunkle and McMasters discuss Wilson’s accusations against Walter Isaacson, whom she says did not directly contact her for comment for his recent book about her father, although much of his book refers to her life. The group also discusses recent revelations that Alice Munro failed to act when she learned that her second husband had abused her daughter, and how authorized biographies often omit full accounts of the truth. Dunkle and McMasters read from their work.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Iris Jamahl Dunkle
Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb
West: Fire: Archive
Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer
Finding Lost Voices | Substack
Kelly McMasters
The Leaving Season: A Memoir
Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir From and Atomic Town
This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home
“The Ethics of Writing Hard Things in Family Memoir,” Literary Hub
Others:
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
“Musk’s Daughter Flames Dad’s Biographer: ‘You Threw Me to the Wolves’” by Dan Ladden-Hall | Daily Beast
J.D. Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
“What do we Know about Alice Munro Now?” by Contance Grady | Vox
La Belle Noiseuse
The Hyacinth Girl: T.S. Eliot’s Hidden Muse by Lyndall Gordon
Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation by Emily Van Duyne
Jackson Pollock
“What Virginia Woolf’s ‘Dreadnought Hoax’ Tells Us About Ourselves” by Danell Jones | January 25, 2024 | Literary Hub
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 19: “The Lives of the Wives: Carmela Ciuraru on Marriage, Writing, and Equity”
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Novelist Francine Prose joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book, 1974: A Personal History. Prose talks about her relationship with Tony Russo, who in collaboration with Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, a whistleblowing act which revealed decades of government lies about U.S. involvement in Vietnam; how the politics and progressive activism of today compare to those of half a century ago; and why that year was politically pivotal. She also reflects on how in 1974, the idea of government dishonesty was shocking, whereas today it’s a given. Prose reads from the book.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Francine Prose
1974: A Personal History
A Changed Man
Blue Angel
Anne Frank: the Book, The Life, the Afterlife
Others:
The Heritage Foundation
The Sixties: Big Ideas, Small Books by Jenny Diski
Opus Dei
J.D. Vance
Patty Hearst
RAND Corporation
Daniel Ellsberg
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 46: “Samuel G. Freedman on What Hubert Humphrey’s Fight for Civil Rights Can Teach Us Today”
Ground Truth | NPR
Journey to Italy
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Cato Institute
Pentagon Papers
Espionage Act
Comstock Act
Wag the Dog
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
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Marine biologist Jasmin Graham joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book, Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist, which is about the beauty and diversity of sharks and her career studying them inside and outside of academia. Graham, who left a doctoral program and subsequently founded the community-based organization Minorities in Shark Science to make the field more accessible and inclusive, unpacks how Jaws-inspired fears about sharks fail to understand the species. She also talks about seeing similarities in how sharks and Black people are misrepresented, misunderstood, brutalized, and threatened. Graham reads from Sharks Don’t Sink.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Jasmin Graham
Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist
“How Japanese-American Scientist Eugenie Clark Spearheaded the Study of Sharks” | Literary Hub
Others:
"50 Years Ago, ‘Jaws’ Hit Bookstores, Capturing the Angst of a Generation" by Brian Raftery | The New York Times
Opinion | "What is Trump’s shark story really about?" by Eugene Robinson | The Washington Post
Opinion | "What is going on inside Trump’s mind?" by Eugene Robinson | The Washington Post
Jaws by Peter Benchley
Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane
Finding Nemo
Shark Tale
Shark Week
SharkFest
Apocalypse Now
Anthony Swofford
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 25: "Ivy Pochoda on Caitlin Clark and Women Athletes”
Nyad
“Donald Trump Mocked Over 'Bizarre Rant' About Sharks” | video | Newsweek
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Romance novelists Elle Everhart and Ellie Palmer join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the genre’s increasing popularity. Everhart, the London-based author of the new book Hot Summer, featuring a protagonist who joins the cast of a reality show only to realize she’s interested in a fellow contestant, discusses coming to romance writing as a fourth grader fascinated by kissing, and wonders why as sales boom, the U.S.—but not the U.K.—is seeing more romance-specific bookstores. Palmer, the author of the new book Four Weekends and a Funeral, whose main character is a carrier of the BRCA1 mutation, recalls falling in love with the genre as she prepared for her own preventative double mastectomy. She reflects on how the genre’s structure promises positive endings for those who need them at challenging moments, and how the language of romance gave her a way to think about her own body and sexuality. Everhart reads from Hot Summer and Palmer reads from Four Weekends and a Funeral.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Elle Everhart
Hot Summer
Wanderlust
Ellie Palmer
Four Weekends and a Funeral
Others
"9 New Books We Recommend This Week" | May 4, 2023 | The New York Times
"Hot and Bothered: Four New Romance Novels" by Olivia Waite | August 7, 2020 | The New York Times
Nora Ephron
Nancy Meyers
Mhairi McFarlane
Beth O'Leary
Talia Hibbert
Bolu Babalola
“A Romance Bookstore Boom” by Olivia Waite | The New York Times
“Emily Henry is Proud to be Called a Romance Writer” by | The New York Times
Olivia Waite
Jodi Picoult
Love Island
Tropes & Trifles
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New York Daily News columnist Harry Siegel joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about his recent piece about the Supreme Court’s decision to permit what he has dubbed “after-the-fact bribery.” Siegel, who has covered corruption for years, explains how the legality of accepting gratuities, tips, and gifts has become so nuanced that it’s now almost impossible to prosecute a politician who’s been bought off, and details why the newest version of the law is “fundamentally incoherent.” Siegel also talks about the language, literature, and history around ducking the rules, including the origin of the word “scofflaw,” and reads from a recent New York Daily News article.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Harry Siegel
“Supreme Court Legalizes After-the-Fact Bribery” New York Daily News | June 6, 2024
“Scofflaw Trump is a Defaming Menace to America” New York Daily News | January 27, 2024
The muckrackers and the gunslingers: What’s in the balance as the Supreme Court gets ready to take up a legal challenge to New York’s tough firearm laws” New York Daily News | February 1, 2019
Others:
“English, loanword champion of the world” by Britt Peterson | The Boston Globe | June 29, 2014
Breaking Bad
The Sopranos
Succession
Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravations by Amman Shea
Thomas Malthus
Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis
e.e. cummings
Krazy Kat by George Harriman
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
The Last Hurrah by Edwin O’Connor
Democracy by Joan Didion
Democracy and American Novel by Henry Brooks Adams
Primary Colors by Joe Klein
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall by William R. Riordon
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
The Man in the Arena: Selected Writings of Theodore Roosevelt: A Reader by Theodore Roosevelt
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Novelist Sally Franson and critic Emily Nussbaum join host V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about reality television. Franson, a recent reality TV show winner whose new novel, Big in Sweden, is from the point of view of a woman who joins the cast of a program in that country, reflects on transforming her real-life experience into fiction. Nussbaum, a staff writer at The New Yorker whose new nonfiction book, Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV, addresses the history of what she calls the “dirty documentary” genre, discusses the hundreds of interviews she conducted with reality show staff, as well as the form’s surprisingly early origins and the influence of The Apprentice on national politics. Nussbaum and Franson trade notes on how the relationships between people on camera and people behind the camera influence edited footage; the way race was and is handled on reality television; and what it’s like to be a contestant or producer. They also talk about poor labor conditions on sets and what that means to the genre. They read from their work.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Sally Franson
Big in Sweden
A Lady's Guide to Selling Out
Emily Nussbaum
Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV
I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution
“Is “Love Is Blind” a Toxic Workplace?” | The New Yorker
Others:
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 26: “Sally Franson on Fashion and Literature”
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 33: “The Stakes of the Writers’ Strike: Benjamin Percy on the WGA Walkout, Streaming, and the Survival of Screenwriting”
Allt för Sverige
Big Brother
The Real World
Survivor
Love is Blind
An American Family
The Amazing Race
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron
Carl Bernstein
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In the wake of the recent Trump-Biden debate, public relations operative Phil Elwood joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about his career spinning stories in favor of infamous international leaders. Elwood, whose clients previously included figures like Libya’s Gaddafi family and Syria’s al-Assads, recalls his strangest assignments, his biggest regret—helping Qatar to secure soccer’s World Cup—and his proudest accomplishments, including spotlighting the mental health treatment that has helped him. He reflects on how his career shifted when he was swept up in then-FBI Director Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and also explains tactics such as “detonating the bomb in a safe location,” which means giving an unavoidable, damaging story to a second-tier publication so that the “hit isn’t so bad.” Elwood reads from his new book, All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Phil Elwood
All the Worst Humans: How I Made New for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians
Others:
“Sri Lanka, Lobbyists and War Crimes” by Ken Silverstein | Harper’s Magazine | October 23, 2009
“Gunner Palace,” by Peter Travers | Rolling Stone | February 24, 2005
“Nothing seemed to treat their depression. Then they tried ketamine,” by Meryl Kornfield | The Washington Post | September 12, 2022
John Grisham
Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election by Robert Mueller | U.S. Department of Justice | March 2019
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As Literary Hub observes July 4, we return to our archives for a 2017 episode that remains relevant today. We will return with a new episode July 11.In episode 6, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell talk political betrayal past and present with novelist Jess Walter and poet Kiki Petrosino. Jess Walter once interviewed an ailing Mark Felt, aka "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame, and he gives us the skinny on the literary qualities of Nixon, Trump, Flynn, NY mobsters, and his 2005 novel Citizen Vince. Plus, would John Gotti have liked the president? On the eve of the release of her new book, Witch Wife, Kiki Petrosino talks to us about MacBeth's witches and how Shakespeare can help us decode our current age of political skulduggery. What Trump Administration officials would you cast in Macbeth? Readings: All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward; Citizen Vince by Jess Walter; Witch Wife by Kiki Petrosino; The Tragedy of Macbeth; The Tempest; The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.In the Stacks: J.J. Cantrell interviews Annie Philbrick of Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT and Savoy Bookshop & Cafe in Westerly, Rhode Island.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Novelist Maxim Loskutoff joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about his new novel, Old King, which is about Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who moved to Montana to withdraw from society. Loskutoff, who grew up in Missoula, Montana, discusses the mythology that draws men like Kaczynski—who sought to be in nature, and to avoid technology and other people—to his home state; the gap between the imaginary American West and its reality; and how these connect to American settler colonialism. He also explains how he positioned the Kaczynski of his novel not as a hero or even an antihero, but as a symbol of this dark and unhealed facet of American society. Loskutoff reads from Old King.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Maxim Loskutoff
Old King
Ruthie Fear
Come West and See
Opinion | The Unabomber and the Poisoned Dream of the American West - The New York Times
Others
William Kittredge
Richard Hugo
Lewis and Clark
Billy the Kid
Jack Kerouac
“The Story of Jack and Neal: the friendship that made On the Road—and the Beat Generation—possible” by James Parker, The Atlantic, March 11, 2022
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Journalist and novelist Nicolás Medina Mora joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about Mexico’s president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who will be the first woman and first Jewish person to lead the country. Medina Mora explains current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s history, his hold on Mexico’s political imagination, and how his connections to Sheinbaum will affect policy moving forward as he uses his last days in office to attempt 18 changes to Mexico’s constitution. Medina Mora, who is an editor at the Mexican magazine Nexos, reflects on writing about Lopez Obrador through both fiction and journalism. He elaborates on a pre-election piece he wrote for The New York Review of Books and also reads from his novel, América del Norte, in which he plays with the relationship between fiction and nonfiction.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Nicolás Medina Mora
América del Norte
Where Next for Mexico? | Nicolás Medina Mora | The New York Review of Books
Nexos
Others
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 32: "Claire Messud on Blurring Family History and Fiction"
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 17: "Ed Park on Korea’s Past, Real and Imagined"
"Mexico’s outgoing president pushes ahead with plan to fire 1,600 judges" by Christine Murray | Financial Times
"Mexico’s bloodiest election in history sends new asylum-seekers to the US border" by Caitlin Stephen Hu, David Culver, Norma Galeana and Evelio Contreras| CNN
The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen
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In this Pride Month episode, Navy veteran and author Karen Solt joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about her experience of being gay while serving in the military. Solt, who retired as a senior chief petty officer in 2006 and served both before and during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” talks about the Clinton-era policy that prohibited the harassment of gay service members while requiring that they stay closeted. Solt explains the impossible position gay military members were in before and during DADT, as they faced questioning from investigators, the threat of losing their jobs if found out, and being separated from their partners rather than being moved together as their straight counterparts often were. Solt reads from her book, Hiding for My Life: Being Gay in the Navy.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Karen Solt
Hiding for My Life: Being Gay in the Navy
Others
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 30: “Tracie McMillan on the Myth of Colorblindness”
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 21: “Elliot Ackerman and Anuradha Bhagwati on the Role of the Military in American Politics”
The Lieutenant by Andrew Dubus
Roger & Me
A Former Marine Looks Back on Her Life in a Male-Dominated Military, by V.V. Ganeshananthan, The New York Times | April 17, 2024
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With summer approaching, Army veteran and long-distance hiker Akuna Robinson joins host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about the experience of through hiking, or long-distance hiking a trail from end to end. Robinson, the first Black man to complete the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail—the Triple Crown of through hiking—recounts how he was inspired by the movie Wild to attempt the Pacific Crest Trail as a way of managing post-traumatic stress disorder from his military service in Iraq. Robinson reflects on encountering greater diversity on the trail in recent years, seeing the landscape affected by climate change, and the individualized nature of packing for a months-long journey. He also discusses hiking with Gallagher, and reading and writing on the trail. Gallagher reads from his 2021 ESPN profile of Robinson.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Akuna Robinson
“Iraq War veteran Will 'Akuna' Robinson is the trailblazing superstar of thru-hiking,” by Matt Gallagher | ESPN | Nov. 11, 2021
“For first Black man to wear hiking's 'triple crown,' the trails are a place for healing,” by Dakota Kim | Los Angeles Times | Feb. 23, 2023
Others:
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Wild (movie)
Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character by David Straithairn and Jonathan Shay
Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming by Jonathan Shay, Senator Max Cleland
Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: An Adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail by Carrot Quinn
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 3, Episode 4: “Wild Ecologies: So Go the Salmon, So Goes the World, with Tucker Malarkey, Will Bardenwerper, and Stan Brewer
Pacific Crest Trail
Appalachian Trail
Continental Divide Trail
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Editor and writer Jonny Diamond joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about Nobel Prize-winning short story writer Alice Munro, who passed away May 13 in the same Canadian town where Diamond’s mother died 12 years earlier. He outlines what made the lives of the two women similar—namely, marrying young and starting families within the parameters of 1950s expectations, and then finding their own voices after divorcing in the 1970s—and discusses how beautifully Munro wrote about the interiority of those who lived that life or an adjacent life. He reads from his Literary Hub essay, “My Mother Will Live Forever in the Stories of Alice Munro.”
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Jonny Diamond
“My Mother Will Live Forever in the Stories of Alice Munro” | Literary Hub
Others:
Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 1, Episode 19: “Podcasting Pro-Tips and Jonny Diamond on Creating Lit Hub Radio”
Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 7, Episode 32: “Claire Messud on Blurring Family History and Fiction”
Alice Munro
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Laurence
Carol Shields
James Baldwin
John Keats
Walt Whitman
Simone de Beauvoir
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
“Inside Alice Munro’s Notebooks” by Benjamin Hedin | Paris Review
“Wood” by Alice Munro | The New Yorker | November 16, 1980
“Kindling The Creative Fire: Alice Munro's Two Versions of ‘Wood'" by Lisa Dickler Awano | New Haven Review | May 30, 2012
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Following the cancellation of PEN America’s annual literary awards ceremony as well as its World Voices Festival, acclaimed poet Monica Youn joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about political protests and literary prizes. Youn recounts the sequence of events that led her and eight other finalists for PEN’s $75,000 Jean Stein Book Award—as well as a number of nominees in other categories—to withdraw their work from consideration in protest of PEN’s position on Gaza. She explains how PEN’s efforts regarding Gaza and Palestine have failed to match its advocacy for writers in danger in other places, like Ukraine, and discusses whether the organization is living up to its mission to protect free expression. She also describes the situation for student protesters on her own campus, the University of California, Irvine. Youn reads from her most recent collection, From From.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Monica Youn
From From
Blackacre
Ignatz
Barter
Others:
"PEN America calls off awards ceremony amid criticism over its response to Israel-Hamas war," by Hillel Italie |AP News
"The PEN Awards and World Voices Festival Are on the Brink of Collapse," by Dan Sheehan | Literary Hub
"A Leading Free Expression Group Is Roiled by Dissent Over Gaza," by Jennifer Schuessler | The New York Times
American Writers Against the Vietnam War | Wikipedia
Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 5, Episode 10: “‘How on Earth Do You Judge Books?’ Susan Choi and Oscar Villalon on the Story Behind Literary Awards”
Anthony Cody
Mai Der Vang
Suzanne Nossel
Natalie Diaz
“PEN Union Cries Foul in Contract Talks as Criticism of PEN America Intensifies,” by Jill Milliot and Sophia Stewart | Publishers Weekly
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Writer Brandy Jensen joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about polyamory’s place in the contemporary imagination. Jensen discusses the connections between polyamory and politics, noting its links to queer community and its defiance of normative gender roles. She analyzes protections for the rights of multiple-partner relationships in Massachusetts, New York, and California. Jensen also considers the language of polyamory and how it has been portrayed in current and past literature, especially science fiction. She reads from her recent Yale Review article, “The Polycrisis.”
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.
Brandy Jensen
“The Polycrisis” | Yale Review
Others:
More: A Memoir of Open Marriage by Molly Roden Winter
“On the Cover of New York: A Practical Guide to Polyamory,” by Priyanka Mantha | New York Magazine
“Lessons From a 20-Person Polycule: How they set boundaries, navigate jealousy, wingman their spouses and foster community.” by Daniel Bergner | The New York Times Magazine
“Polyamory, the Ruling Class’s Latest Fad,” by Tyler Austin Harper | The Atlantic
“Scenes from an Open Marriage,” by Jean Garnett | The Paris Review |June 29, 2022
Oneida Community
Octavia Butler
N.K. Jemisin
Sally Rooney
American Poly: A History by Christopher Gleason
Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner
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Author Claire Messud joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about how the lines between autobiography and fiction blur, and the ways that families—real and imagined—hide their true histories. Messud’s new novel, This Strange Eventful History, out Tuesday, draws on her own family’s complex past, including their connections to French colonialism in Algeria. Messud talks about using her grandfather’s 1,500-page handwritten memoir as source material, creating a story that spans the globe, how ordinary lives intersect with history, and including a character interested in questioning, editing, translating, and transforming family tales into a story for a different audience, as writers often do. She reads from the novel.
To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/
This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Amanda Trout.
Claire Messud
This Strange Eventful History
The Last Life
The Woman Upstairs
The Emperor’s Children
The Burning Girl
Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write
A Dream Life
The Hunters
Others:
France in Algeria
The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter
Elias Canetti
Alice Munro
Ulysses by James Joyce
In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 7, Claire Messud and Brendan O’Meara on Creative Nonfiction in an Era of ‘Fake News’
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