Write-minded Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional. There’s always a takeaway at the end of each show for listeners, too. Brooke and Grant interview writers, authors, and publishing industry folks, and bring to this weekly podcast their shared spirit of community, collaboration, and a deeply held belief that everyone is a writer, and everyone’s story matters.
In celebration of the kind of fiction readers love but the industry doesn’t always know what to do with comes two past episodes honoring fan fiction and gothic fiction, respectively. Revisiting these episodes is a reminder of the vast world of fiction outside the narrow confines of upmarket or commercial or historical fiction. Our two...
In this second week of Write-minded’s August mashups, we bring back the heartfelt interviews with Javier Zamora and Susan Kiyo Ito, both of whom spoke so honestly and supportively about writing and sharing stories they’ve carried with them their entire lives. Javier’s harrowing journey from El Salvador to the US border when he was just...
Every August Grant and Brooke share their summer plans and writing aspirations and hopes and fails, along with some mashups of their favorite interviews of the year. Write-minded kicks off this best-of series with two beloved industry experts—agent Lisa Leshne and publicist Kathleen Schmidt. There’s real wisdom and straight-talk in these conversations that writers and...
Most writers either have or will have a failed or abandoned book project—or two, or three, or four—over the course of their lifetimes. The more you write, the more crisis moments you’ll face. It can be hard to come back from those moments, which is why this week’s episode with Paolo Bacigalupi is so encouraging. He...
This week’s episode airs Brooke in conversation with Naomi Klein at this year’s Bay Area Book Festival. While this interview does not hew to Write-minded’s effort to offer weekly doses of inspiration for writers, Brooke and Grant decided to make this available both because our listeners requested it and because we admire the work Naomi...
Secrets come in all forms, big and small. We inherit secrets, carry the secrets of others, and struggle with the burden of all they hold and how they sometimes fester within us. This week’s episode with guest Margaret Juhae Lee explores the difference between people who want to keep the past buried and those who want...
This week’s guest, Jayne Anne Phillips, is a Pulitzer prize-winning author for her latest book, Night Watch, which gives Write-minded an opportunity to muse about awards—why they matter, what we make of them and do with them, and where we might find awards from things we seek out in addition to those we receive. Join us for...
This week’s Write-minded centers questions, and how questions guide writers, drive fiction, and unearth important stories. Guest Rachel Khong shares how the big and provocative question of who’s a “real American” informed her new novel and why she writes without an outline. We also talk about ambition and drive, why novelists have to grapple with...
Write-minded is celebrating memoir as an evolving form this week, tackling the difference between imaginative writing in memoir and writing in memoir that might not be true. Memoir is increasingly embodying its rightful spot in the realm of creative nonfiction, in that there’s allowance for writers to explore ideas and truths within the realms of...
This week we take on The Big Novel and unpack our thoughts on novel length, the very concept of The Great American Novel, advances, and more. Guest Garth Risk Hallberg joins us to talk about his own long works of fiction, as well as his writing process that involves seeing where his characters want to...
It’s Write-minded’s 300th episode! And we’re celebrating by bringing listeners the esteemed Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose novel, The Sympathizer, was adapted for HBO Max and started streaming in April. In this interview, Nguyen addresses didacticism as a craft choice, the mindset of writers who, like him, find themselves between two languages, and how his desire to capture the Vietnamese...
This week’s episode is one for book lovers, book collectors, aspiring authors, and every kind of writer. It’s always helpful to know what booksellers know—because bookstores do so much more than just provide a place for browsing and buying books. Join us to talk with Josh Cook of Porter Square Books about his new book, The Art...
In this week’s extra-inspiring show, guest Dhonielle Clayton treats us to a generous conversation about effecting change in the industry and how that inevitable comes with backlash. We talk about representation in publishing, Penguin Random House’s recent firing of two high-profile publishers, and book bans—among other important topics, like packaging and IP and how kids...
What will other people think? What will be the consequences of sharing my truth? These are among some of the questions that hold memoirists back, and their realities post-publication can cause “vulnerability hangovers.” Exposure, fear of fallout, concern for people we love—memoir doesn’t make it easy. With very recent experience informing her, this week’s guest, Susan Kiyo Ito,...
We’re living through a golden age of memoir, and guest Jennifer Leigh Selig’s Deep Memoir is a new contribution to the “how-to” space for memoirists who want to explore the how and the why of memoir writing. This episode will help listeners consider their own “why” when it comes to that age-old question of why...
This week’s Write-minded takes on grief, and why, as our guest Claire Jiménez says, “it’s where language collapses.” Jiménez’s new book deals with loss and grief and what happens in a family in the aftermath of a disappearance of a child, and yet, she weaves in humor and the history of American colonization of Puerto Rico and...
This week Write-minded is interviewing an established writer whose star is on the rise. Elwin Cotman’s new story collection blew us away for how he played with form and takes readers on an expected journeys. His stories don’t fit into any box—including length, and we loved it! On this week’s show Grant also announces his...
This week Write-minded reaches broadly into the topic of intimacy to explore its many permutations—not just romantic, but innocuous, violent, collective, and more. Guest Stacey D’Erasmo invites us to consider intimacy in writing, how we do it, how we feel it as readers, and also to consider acts of intimacy, like an older actress showing her...
This week’s guest is John McMurtrie, the esteemed former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle’s book review section. Join us as we explore the transition of book reviews from traditional media like TV and radio to online outlets like Amazon and Goodreads. His is an interesting take about how things were and how things are,...
What does it really mean to consider your own social responsibility as a fiction writer? Guest Naomi Kanakia confronted that very question as she considered her modeling as a trans author writing YA books for teens. What if hers was the first book a genderqueer or trans kid ever read? What did she owe her...
Strap on your seatbelts ’cause we’re going for a ride—into the wild world of book publishing. Guest Kathleen Schmidt is a leading voice in publishing. Her popular Substack, Publishing Confidential, is a go-to source for tell-it-like-it-is realities about the industry and what authors can and should expect. We talk shop this week, touching upon author...
An episode about friendship, writing about friendship, and how friendship influences our writing lives. As a community-minded podcast, Write-minded has often touched upon the importance of a broader net of friendship on our writing. This week we get a bit more specific with guest Tomas Moniz, who’s written a new book about male friendship and...
This week’s Write-minded show examines the nuanced and deep exploration at the heart of guest Lissa Soep’s new book, Other People’s Words. A consideration of the ways others’ voices echo in our own, her book and this episode shows us a kaleidoscope of how we conjure and recycle and tap into the words of others. There’s much...
Ready for a reprieve? Join Brooke and Grant and this week’s guest, Neely Tubati-Alexander, for a conversation about whether romance and rom-com writers are having more fun. We dive into questions of the success of the genre, what publishers are looking for, and how a writer gets into romance writing in the first place. A light-hearted...
This week Write-minded wades into the important topic of writing about childhood trauma. Trauma is at the heart of many of our stories, whether you’re writing coming-of-age or only touching upon childhood stories in the context of specific memoir scenes (or raw material for fiction). Javier’s memoir, Solito, is a stunning book about his nine-week journey from...
It’s important to learn from the challenges of a failed book rather than allowing it to define your career. The publishing industry can be harsh and unforgiving to writers in this situation. Unforgiving as in agents abandoning the writer or publishers turning away future work, not because of its quality, but because of the one...
A fun episode about aesthetic, language, and paying attention to style and taste in writing. This week’s guest K-Ming Chang talks about disorientation as a style, language as something that lives in the body, and hating plot. This is a playful interview that focuses on the experiential and reminds us that we all have an...
This week Write-minded explores point of view, especially those stories told with less conventional points of view. Uncommon points of view stick with you—and Brooke and Grant cover books they love that have ghost points of view, dog points of view, and the kind of point of view where the reader is part of the story. This week’s guest Jimin Han walks us through some of her narration choices for her new novel, The Apology,and shares insights into her writing process, her characters, her inspirations, and so much more.
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Write-minded is kicking off our sixth year this week with an episode focused on the skinny around what agents do, what they’re thinking about, and how to think about working with an agent—all through the lens of our guest, Lisa Leshne of The Leshne Agency. Lisa brings an honest and fresh perspective to the hard work of agenting, how authors want to think about being strategic partners with their would-be agents, and we touch upon some recent publishing news, like the future of AI and the Simon & Schuster buyout.
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Two of our favorite memoir episodes from last year revisited, with guests whose memoirs showcase exceptional craft—so much so that they’ll be teaching a fall memoir course with Brooke that starts next month. We’re revisiting these two authors whose memoirs have so much to teach writers about good writing, storytelling, and creating an experience that has real staying power. Tune in or relisten—and we’re back next week with fresh episodes and a brand-new season.
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This week we’re celebrating two of our more accomplished guests of last year. Grant and Brooke talk about the joy of interviewing authors we’ve long admired, and highlight these two fabulous shows with Gish Jen and Peggy Orenstein, two authors at the top of their game. These are great shows to revisit for their insights from writers who’ve been at their craft for a while, and have a thing or two to impart to writers at all stages of their career.
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This week we’re revisiting our favorite two book biz episodes from last year. Both episodes got more listener feedback than any others—and if you missed the money episode, there’s so much here to be inspired by. For all writers and aspiring authors, there’s not enough we can say about being savvy about the business side of authorprenuership, which is why we’re spotlighting these two shows for our August round-up of our favorite shows of the past year. Happy Summer!
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This is the first of our summer favorites series, featuring Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Ana Reyes. We’re revisiting our favorite episodes of the past year during the month of August, so we invite you to tune in or relisten as we celebrate and honor high-stakes fiction with two writers whose books we felt pushed the limits of fiction and made us think more critically about complex topics that wiggle their way into readers' hearts and souls. Happy Summer!
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This week’s show takes on an age-old topic—that of all the ways family’s feelings, impressions, and reactions play a role in our writing. No relationship is more complex and multilayered than that of the parent and adult child, which is why Brooke wanted to bring on her mom, Gail Warner, as a guest to discuss writing and how the act of self-expression is not an isolated experience. We have considerations, many of which involve our family—and this episode opens that conversation between one mother and daughter. It’s also the final episode of the fifth year of Write-minded, for which Grant conjures up an imagined parade to celebrate.
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This week's guest Ben Purkert, author of the newly released novel, The Men Can’t Be Saved,gives us some insight into the art of writing complex characters, including the downright unlikeable ones. Atrocious acts and bad behavior are at the center of storytelling, and when constructed well, supposedly unlikeable characters are often more gripping and memorable than likable ones. We’re titillated and drawn forth by a character’s conflict, bad behavior, and perhaps even downfall. A good author challenges their readers to be interested in their unlikeable characters—even through their flaws.
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On this community-minded podcast, we love to host a community-focused episode from time to time. Guest Kellye Garrett shares the many ways that community has been a boon and a boost in her writing life and writing career. She shares about communities she’s founded, communities she’s been a part of, and the ways that community has supported her and championed her along the way. Grant and Brooke touch upon how and why building community can be hard for people, recognizing the reality that finding community can be anxiety producing, too. Brooke recalls an early She Writes mantra—“Writers don’t let writers write alone”—which encapsulates the energy behind this week’s show.
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This week’s episode spotlights one of the most popular types of stories we see in both memoir and fiction—the coming-of-age narrative. Guest Yasmin Azad, author of Stay, Daughter,shares her considerations for writing her coming-of-age memoir. An episode about craft, the timeline of coming-of-age, why coming-of-age stories endure the way they do, and Brooke and Grant share some of their favorite coming-of-age memoirs and novels.
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This week Write-minded is expanding our literary horizons beyond the written word and into the myriad forms of visual creative expression that can accompany text. Guest Kelcey Ervick joins us to talk about her new book, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature, Artists and Writers on Creating Graphic Narratives, Poetry Comics, and Literary Collage, a compilation of pieces from graphic and visual artists of all sorts. In the episode we touch upon how to approach this space if you’re not artistically inclined, and what it means that “outside” forms are becoming more mainstream. Lots of interesting food for thought, and inspiration for getting more expansive with your own creative process.
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This week we’re talking about purpose and passion with guest N.D. Jones, a prolific author of fantasy stories and series who’s also a nonfiction author and publisher with a beautiful and creative online presence. This week’s show is inspired by Jones’s desire to articulate her “why,” and Brooke and Grant discuss how important purpose—the why—is for authors who might be feeling a little lost in the quest to get published. This week’s focus is platform, brand, spin-offs, content—all within the context of purpose.
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This week Grant and Brooke return to a topic we love—taking the leap, saying yes to the dare, finding inspiration in the thrill of writing the book you want to read. Guest Krystal Marquis has a special personal story, too, about taking on the dare to write a book from her brother. If you’re a writer who’s trying to find a story to write, or someone looking for a little boost of creative inspiration in your life, this episode will surely light a little fire. And maybe help you set your sights on saying yes to your own dare, and certainly saying yes to the many opportunities NaNoWriMo offers writers for staying on top of their goals.
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This is an onstage interview with Brooke Warner and this week’s guest Nicole Chung. Brooke interviewed Nicole at the Bay Area Book Festival in May. The conversation is wide-ranging and covers the topics and themes central to Nicole’s new memoir, A Living Remedy, as well as questions and considerations central to memoir and telling the stories that must be told. Don’t miss this thoughtful and relatable interview. If you’re writing your story, Nicole’s words will make you feel like you can and should keep going! Also, Write-minded is celebrating our 250th episode this week. We thank you for your loyal listenership!
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We bring you a powerful show stemming from a powerhouse of a guest this week. Write-minded examines the intersection of activism and writing and love with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain Gang All Stars.This week’s episode also makes a case for why dystopian fiction needs to be rethought and reclassified, and provides insight in the form of the reminder that the best stories are those that must be told because they shine light on uncomfortable truths.
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This week’s episode covers the importance of investigation and research in works of family and personal histories and memoirs. Guest Gretchen Cherington shares the many ways she researched her latest family memoir, The Butcher, The Embezzler, and the Fall Guy, through first-person narratives, interviews, and countless documents and letters. Hers is a book that attempts not so much to solve a crime as to understand the powerful men at the center of a scandal, making for a rich interview about men and power, the legacy our families leave us, and how writing can help us see varying perspectives as we uncover complicated truths.
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If you’re a longtime listener, you know Write-minded loves a good show on the mystery, on the magic, on the questions. And that’s because so much of the inspiration that propels us forward in our writing journeys is centered here, in the unexplainable that writers wrangle with, using language to make sense (and sometimes just mirror) the human experience. This conversation goes straight into the heart of the magic, stemming from guest Charif Shanahan’s assertion that the mystery is the clarity. Tune in to hear more about what that means to him—and much more.
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Resist, push back, go your own way! These are themes of today’s show as we talk about book publishing with a publisher, Joe Biel, who’s doing things a lot differently from your average indie publisher. Biel shares why Microcosm Publishing stopped selling on Amazon and why that’s not as scary as it may sound. Microcosm was a few years ahead of its time, and now the world is catching up in time for Biel to revel in its well-earned success. For this episode, we invite listeners to check out Microcosm’s software to support other publishers to accomplish what they have at WorkingLit.com, and also to purchase How to Resist Amazon and Why here.
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When it comes to writing about family, in memoir or fiction, writers must consider the ramifications. To write honestly, writers must know what’s at stake, and be ready. This week’s guest, Rebecca Carroll, shares with Write-minded her own experience with family fallout, and subjects ranging from her readership, to her literary heroine Toni Morrison, to her thoughts on trans-racial adoption. There’s a lot to unpack this week, from a guest who sets the gold standard for radical honesty on the page.
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If you’ve been taught never to talk about money, or if the idea of sharing your earnings publicly makes you uncomfortable, this is a must-listen episode because we’re pulling back the curtain on author earnings and disclosing dollar amounts. Guest Rachael Herron walks us through why she started talking about how much she makes as an author—and tells how much she earned last year and from what streams of income. Grant and Brooke jump on the bandwagon, too, and share expenses (Brooke) and earnings (Grant). This week’s show shines a light on money—and encourages authors everywhere to be more transparent, and especially never to apologize about talking about money.
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This episode honors a pioneer of a genre with guest Donna Hill, who pioneered a genre and hasn’t looked back. With more than 100 published books to her credit, Hill is a force. This episode covers the stamina it takes to publish so prolifically, a bit of history about what the publishing industry was like way back when in the early 90s, especially for a Black romance novelist who wasn’t seeing the books she was writing represented—anywhere, and much more. Hill is a generous guest who’s truly been around the block, so her tips and story are not to be missed.
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This week’s episode features a bright new star in the literary universe, Jinwoo Chong, whose debut novel, Flux, was also his masters’ thesis. Brooke and Grant loved the book—and the subject of conversation in this week’s show is wide-ranging: what does it mean to execute an ambitious project? How does future dystopia meet ’80s nostalgia make for a great book? And what are our favorite time travel books? Tune in for an ambitious interview that covers lots of ground, necessarily so given the author who set its baseline.
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This week Write-minded rings in National Poetry Month with guest HeatherBourbeau in a conversation about poetry, working with themes, and collaborations. Grant shares what he’s planning to do this month to celebrate National Poetry Month, and this episode invites you to think about how poetry informs your writing, and ways to invite it in.
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Longing is a subject, topic, theme, and obsession of countless stories that have shaped our literary landscape. Grant and Brooke take a good hard look at longing this week and hold it up against its companion emotion, desire, and consider some of the most enduring narratives of longing we know. Guest Madelaine Lucas shares her take on the prism of longing that shines through her debut novel, Thirst for Salt, and opens up this conversation for all of us to consider how the ache of longing may inform our stories and our characters.
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This week kicks off a 6-week craft-minded series, starting with the great A.M. Holmes on characterization. In this episode we talk about dialogue, indirect and direct characterization, character tics, and how to pay attention to your own writing tics and “bad habits.” Homes is a seasoned writer of many books and teaches creative writing at Princeton, and she’s known for her depth and breadth of character—so you’re in for a treat on this topic that feels like it could be endlessly mind. Much food for thought for the craft-minded!
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This week’s episode is a celebration of opinion, of boldly stating what you mean and what matters to you and why. Writing is an exercise in truth-telling, and when it’s your personal truth—no matter what your genre—it’s scary as hell. And while this week centers memoir, the episode is for anyone who’s trying to write what they think. It’s about why it matters that writers synthesize, interpret, make meaning, extrapolate, and also examines consequences—for you as a writer, and also for the world outside of you. If you’re wrestling with truth, with fallout, with consequences, with what’s at stake—Mychal Denzel Smith will provoke many questions and leave you inspired.
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In her profound and moving new memoir, What My Bones Know, guest Stephanie Foo writes about trauma, and about a diagnosis of Complex PTSD that is lacking first-person narratives. In this week’s episode, the first of Write-minded’s fifth year, co-hosts Brooke and Grant talk about why trauma is a slippery subject to sell to publishers, and why Stephanie’s book is a breakthrough kind of memoir that paves the way for more of these kinds of narratives in the future. Stephanie is an insightful guest, offering valuable tips for how to write trauma and sharing how this was a book she had to write, and some of the considerations and fears she faced on the memoir journey.
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In our final summer episode, we bring you two voices of advocacy in an episode that will both stoke your passions and remind you to be gentle with yourself at the same time. Guests Charlie Jane Anders and Azar Nafisi both speak to why we must write our truths, pay attention, bear witness, and remember the power of one person’s voice and words to save and change lives.
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This week Write-minded revisits two powerful interviews in which guests Erica Jong and Lilly Dancyger shared with us about the power of emotion on the page. Erica Jong’s work has often centered fear and desire while Lilly Dancyger’s work has circled anger. Both women share the power of unlocking emotion on the page, and touch upon the ways in which women are expected to be more confined in their emotional expression. This is exactly why it’s so important to feel those emotions and express them on the page, and these two authors give the absolute permission to do so, and model how in their wonderful works of fiction and nonfiction.
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This week’s episode is chock-full of craft tips and ideas for thinking about the subtle art of subtext and omission, featuring two of our favorite craft episodes from the past year. E.J. Koh and Charmaine Wilkerson will help you think about what to leave out, how to help your readers read between the lines, and why these craft techniques are an exercise in building trust with your readers. Two excellent writers on two important craft points that create more depth and sophistication when it comes to storytelling and scene-writing.
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In this week’s remembrances of some of the best episodes of the past year, we’re highlighting fantasy’s importance as a genre with guests Kwame Mbalia and Namina Forna. There’s so much goodness packed in here—about process, about why we write, about inspirations, and some fabulous tips for staying the course even when you feel like you don’t have the time. This isn’t so much an episode about fantasy as it is about writing intentionally and infusing meaning into genre writing just as you would any writing you do.
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All August we’re celebrating with our favorite guests of the past year—but with a fresh take on the topic at hand and a new book trend. This week’s episode basks in the smart, intimate, and insightful energy of Ashley C. Ford and Melissa Febos, two wonderful memoirists who share about writing intimate truths. Brooke gives her take on why memoir is a force that’s changing the culture, and we celebrate Grant’s latest side gig, the Reality TV project “America’s Next Great Author”—which we’re excited to share about on this week’s show.
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Anthologies date all the way back to the Renaissance and earlier, when important works of various authors were collected and bound. This week, Brooke and Grant discuss the modern anthology—what kinds of works lend themselves to collections and what publishers are looking for. Guest Stephanie Raffelock joins the show to discuss her latest book, Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis, a joint project with She Writes Press that collects the work of 80+ She Writes Press authors and which emerged from the premise Stephanie posed in her call for submissions—that art can and will carry us, even save us, during turbulent times.
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Romance often gets the short-shrift for being not a serious genre, or for being a guilty pleasure—and yet, it’s the best-selling genre there is. Which is why Grant and Brooke chose to explore with Angelina Lopez, touching upon the sexiness of romance, yes, but also the fact that it’s so much more than that. Romance can be socially conscious, and importantly—there’s romance out there for every kind of reader. Listen in to open your horizons to new reading experiences, or if you’re already a big romance lover, to be nodding your head, knowing you’ve been on the money all along.
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Do you have to be a comedian or a humorist to execute funny in memoir? We don’t think so—and this episode tackles how humor shows up in the everyday, in universal experiences, and through the journey of looking inward. Guest David Sipress, whose New Yorker cartoons are recognizable worldwide, talks about his own insecurities in approaching memoir and how he worked through them, how he mines for funny, and shares with us some insight about his cartoonist brain. You’re in for a treat—and Grant is holding out for a cartoon portrait to arrive in his mail any day now.
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We’re having fun this holiday week talking about genre-blending and bending, and why it’s fun and freeing, but also often problematic from an industry standpoint when stories are not easily categorized. Join Brooke and Grant this week in their conversation with Barbara Graham, a long-time nonfiction writer who breaks the mold with her debut novel, and shares about how intuitive her process was, and how and why she was compelled to write the story that became her book, What Jonah Knew.
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This week’s episode brings to the fore why meaning in all its outward, bigger-than-a-single-individual forms is so profound in writing. The notion that your story is broader than your limited experience is something memoirists know, but too often fail to fully execute on the page. Kathryn Schulz is a master of this form. Tune in to hear about what Brooke calls “litle-T takeaway” and the conversation that ensues with Kathryn, whose recent book, Lost & Found, offers up so much for discussion and emulation.
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Omission—it’s something writers understand as meaningful to story, but don’t often execute well on the page. In this week’s episode, guest Charmaine Wilkerson offers solid pointers on how to think about omission and why it will make your writing more meaningful. Join Grant and Brooke for this week’s craft-based conversation on the power of omission as we consider some of the best books we’ve read lately that do omission well. We’ll also explore human behavior—like lying, secret-keeping, betrayal, cheating, protecting, and more—that lends itself to exploring omission more deeply.
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Write-minded is honored to be celebrating a few milestones this week—with guest Zakiya Dalila Harris’s paperback release and our announcement that starting next week, we are joining the Lit Hub Radio family! It’s a perfect episode to talk about publishing, since Zakiya’s novel, The Other Black Girl, points a finger at the industry—and because there’s so much else to say. Also, since this week’s book trend spotlights DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), we draw your attention in the show to the Independent Book Publishers Association’s DEI Resource Center: https://www.ibpa-online.org/page/dei-resource-center
This week’s episode inspires and challenges and encourages all of us to embrace the magic of subversive reading. This conversation with Azar Nafisi, the best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, about her new book, Read Dangerously, is a reminder of what’s at stake for us right now in the US, why we need to engage and not check out, or worse, employ the same tactics as extremists in the fight for democracy. Tune in for an episode that’s political and urgent and necessary—and if you’re not reading dangerously, make the next book on your reading list a subversive one.