Kurt Vonnegut Radio with Gabe Hudson: Recent Episodes
Gabe Hudson
A.M. Homes is author of 13 books including most recently a novel: The Unfolding. Homes' 2013, May We Be Forgiven, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and her memoir, The Mistress's Daughter was published to international acclaim. Her work has been translated into 22 languages. Gabe talks to the iconic writer A.M. Homes about her new novel, The Unfolding, her renowned Barbie story, "A Real Doll," teaching at Princeton, and her position in the Writers Guild and the WGA strike. Quotes from the episode Why she wrote a Barbie story back in the day I wrote it while I was a graduate student at the University of Iowa, and I was really just interested in how, when I was growing up, my mother was like, Barbie's not an appropriate toy for girls to play with, you can't have a Barbie, she's too sexual. And so I wanted to write this theoretically innocent story about a boy who was dating a Barbie doll. How ppl responded to her Barbie when she was in U. of Iowa MFA I went and got one, and I put it on the mantle in my apartment in Iowa City. And everyone who came over started doing things to Barbie and the first thing every person did was they took off her clothes and I was like, weird, like you come into my house and you undress my Barbie? And then they would confess. They would tell me things that either they had done to their Barbie or that their sibling had done to Barbie. And so it immediately became a much more complicated and darker story about... Men and women, to sexuality, to all this kind of stuff that's just under the surface. On why her latest novel, The Unfolding, is a political novel set in 2008 I also am very interested, as one sees in The Unfolding, in the domestic. And so this was a chance in this book to write big and small. Large scale American political landscape, and also American familial landscape, and how that all evolves. Because the novel is really about how we got to now. And the choice to set it in this period between the election inauguration in 2008, I wanted to begin to illustrate how the racism and sexism that was always latent, obviously, and had never really gone away, but when Obama was elected, it also became Much brighter and louder. I think older white men got really scared. And so there absolutely is this sense of what is the underlying threat. Buy A.M. Homes’ new novel The Unfolding Buy A.M. Homes’ The Safety of Objects Read about A.M. Homes’s fictional encounter between Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger Read about A.M. Homes’ Embrace the Absurd public art project w Laurie Anderson Visit A.M.’s website and follow her on twitter A.M.’s book recs: Buy Randall Keenan’s Black Folk Could Fly Buy Maria Popova’s Figuring Buy Henry Hoke’s Open Throat Rate/review Kurt Vonnegut Radio on podcast app of yr choice Enjoy more Kurt Vonnegut Radio episodes:
Sam Lipsyte: Interview
Mike Sowden: Interview
Sari Botton: Interview
Alex Dobrenko: Interview
Andrew Leland: Interview
On Sinead O’Connor
On George Saunders
]On Kurt Vonnegut
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Find me on Twitter and Instagram
Contact me at gabehudsonpod(at)gmail.com
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Gabe Hudson talks about how as someone whose official job title in Marine Corps was "rifleman," he believes we should ban AR-15's now. He explains how if it's harder to get ahold of an assault rifle in Marine Corps than in regular society, then America has lost its mind. He talks about the white supremacist who killed 3 Black people this weekend. And how the myth of the "lone wolf" is a complete lie. And how all the white supremacists are in conversation with each other, in their online screeds "manifestos" and with their AR-15's. Also includes commentary on wanna-be-fascist Ron DeSantis and this is all part of his plan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gabe reads one of George Saunders' early stories out loud and explains some of George's ingenious writing techniques. For anyone who writers stories, or who is in the storytelling trade, what you learn on thisd podcast episode might turn out to be the most important thing you know in your life. It will probably change your life. Because it completely changed Gabe's life. Gabe also explains how by using the technique that George Saunders taught him a couple decades ago, a writer can set their characters free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gabe Hudson talks about what Sinead O'Connor's truth-telling remains contagious. He talks about the recent documentary about her life, Nothing Compares to You.
Referred to in episode: Sinead singing This is to Mother You Sinead O'Connor documentary Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram Rate/Review Kurt Vonnegut Radio Subscribe to Kurt Vonnegut Radio's Substack
Other episodes for you to enjoy: 1st Sinead O'Connor episode Kurt Vonnegut Sam Lipsyte George Saunders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Akhil Sharma is the author of Family Life and A Life of Adventure and Delight. He’s a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and has won a bunch of awards including the PEN/Hemingway Award, Guggenheim, and International Dublin Literary Award. He’s also a professor at Duke University.
Buy Akhil Sharma’s novel Family Life
Buy Akhil’s story collection A Life of Adventure and Delight
Read Akhil’s Why I hate My Best Short Story in The New Yorker
Read Akhil’s short story We Didn’t Like Him in The New Yorker
Listen to convo with Akhil & Fiction Editor Deborah Treisman on TNYer Podcast
Rate/review Kurt Vonnegut Radio (this is how you help our show live)
More episodes of KVR: Sinead O’Connor Sari Botton Sam Lipsyte Andrew Leland George Saunders Kurt Vonnegut
Follow Kurt Vonnegut Radio on podcast app of your choice
Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram
Contact Gabe at gabehudsonpod(at)gmail.com
Jude Brewer was executive producer and editor for this episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sari Botton is the author of memoir, And You May Find Yourself: Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen X Weirdo. Sari is the editor-in-chief of the beloved publication, Oldster Magazine, which publishes such luminaries as Cheryl Strayed, Deesha Philyaw, Maggie Smith, and Lauri Stone. Sari and Gabe compare Gen X notes about growing up as feral children in the 70’s. They discuss the challenges Sari overcame in writing her memoir. They chat about Sari’s lifelong sense of being a misfit and how through writing and telling the truth she found her people. They discuss her fascination with aging and and why she feels that who she is today is the realest version of herself. They also discuss her editorial vision and what the word “oldster” means to her. Follow Sari Botton on Twitter and Instagram Buy Sari’s memoir Read Sari’s magazines Oldster and Memoir Land and Adventures in Journalism Read an excerpt from Sari’s memoir in LitHub Read Sari’s Hurricane Tim story that we discuss in this episode Take Sari’s Skillshare class on writing memoir Visit Sari’s website Jude Brewer was executive producer and editor for this episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sam Lipsyte is the author of many astonishing books, a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and faculty member at Columbia University’s MFA program. This convo is a doozy: Gabe and Sam discuss his recent piece in The New Yorker, “A Lesson for the Sub,” which is, in part, about the classes he took from the legendary editor Gordon Lish. Gabe and Sam also discuss Sam’s recent novel, No One Left To Come Looking for You, which is a Gen X masterpiece. (Listeners to WTF podcast have probably heard Marc Maron recently say he wants to option Sam’s novel and make it his directorial debut: after the strikes are resolved.) Gabe and Sam also talk about Public Enemy, his father’s relationship with Muhammad Ali, and his love for the word Antwerp. PS. Gordon Lish, as editor, is responsible for helping launch many of your favorite writers, including: Amy Hempel, Barry Hannah, Diane Williams, Garielle Lutz, Ben Marcus, Raymond Carver, Christine Schutt, Brian Evenson, Will Eno. Jude Brewer was executive producer and editor for this episode Buy Sam Lipsyte’s recent novel No One Left to Come Looking For You Buy Sam’s recent novella Friend of the Pod Read Sam’s recent nf piece in The New Yorker, “A Lesson for the Sub” Read Sam’s essay about his father, the legendary sportswriter Listen to Sam’s noise-punk band Dungbeetle from early 90’s Rate/review Kurt Vonnegut Radio Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram and email More episodes: Sinead O’Connor George Saunders Kurt Vonnegut Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gabe Hudson talks about what Sinead O'Connor's songs and activism meant to him. And how she changed Generation X. He talks about her ripping up the Pope's picture on Saturday Night Live. Her performance at the Bob Dylan Benefit concert at Madison Square Garden. And why she sang covers of Bob Marley's song War. Gabe also talks about what he is doing with his grief about Sinead's passing.
Youtube clips referred to in episode: Sinead on SNL Sinead at Bob Dylan Benefit concert Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram Rate/Review Kurt Vonnegut Radio Subscribe to Kurt Vonnegut Radio's Substack
Other episodes for you to enjoy: Kurt Vonnegut George Saunders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today on the podcast we've got a very special guest, author Andrew Leland, whose beautiful memoir, The Country of the Blind: a Memoir at the End of Sight is out today from Penguin Press. (Andrew was profiled today in New York Times, Boston Globe, and reviewed in The Guardian). Andrew has a condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa, which has been causing him to lose his sight over time. Today he is legally blind. The New Yorker ran an excerpt from Andrew's memoir last week called “How to Be Blind.” Andrew has published in the New York Times Magazine, did a piece for The New Yorker Radio Hour, and he did a piece for Radiolab, and for 99 Percent Invisible. He's also an editor at The Believer Magazine, and was the founding Managing Editor at The Believer. This conversation runs long and goes deep. You could call this Andrew Leland: Unplugged. Andrew Leland: Deep Cuts. Andrew Leland: The Director's Cut. We have a fun and open-hearted conversation about Andrew’s experiences in blind communities across America, his recent Radiolab piece where he joined a crew of disabled people in a training program for astronauts, the meaning of the word “disability,” how to be an ally to blind people, and what it’s like to write a piece of journalism for The New Yorker. Show Notes Follow Andrew Leland on Twitter and Instagram and visit his website Buy Andrew’s new memoir The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight Find me on Twitter and Instagram Rate/Review our show Jude Brewer was Executive Producer and Editor for this episode Other episodes for you to enjoy: How Kurt Vonnegut became my North Star George Saunders gave me writing advice that changed my life Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Host Gabe Hudson talks about how George Saunders gave him some writing advice that changed his life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Host Gabe Hudson gets personal and talks about what Kurt Vonnegut's writing has meant to him Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Joe Hagan always knew he wanted to write but wasn't sure what kind: fiction, poetry, or journalism? Well, in addition to being the author of the culture defining book Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine, Joe ended up becoming a capital m major journalist who has written in depth reportage on some of the most significant people and entities of our time: Hillary Clinton, The Bush family, Henry Kissinger, Goldman Sachs, The New York Times, and Twitter. But Joe also has the heart and sensibility of a poet. And from Joe's low key but hilarious way of describing his life adventures, what emerges is the portrait of a deeply sincere and very smart writer with a huge heart. A writer who seemingly can't help but keep falling in love with the world. Joe and Gabe discuss their early rambling days, their love of the band Pavement, and how when Joe first moved to New York he knew not a soul and arrived with a backpack and a guitar. Joe talks about his early days in NYC and how he met his "Virgil" who took him down into New York's underground art and film scene. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stephanie Land didn’t take the traditional path to writing a New York Times Bestselling memoir (MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive). And she didn’t take the traditional path to having her memoir be adapted into a Netflix Emmy-nominated series (MAID). In fact, Stephanie blazed a trail that hadn’t existed until she created it. Stephanie and Gabe talk about her struggles as a single mother living in public housing with two children and her perseverance to fulfill her dream of becoming a writer. How she used the exorbitant cost of her college diploma as motivation to develop her writing craft. And how the rise of the internet provided Stephanie with new opportunities to bypass traditional gatekeepers. She shares a special personal letter that is framed and hangs by her desk. She discloses the best part about having a military spouse. And Stephanie reveals why she broke her no podcast appearance policy to join Gabe on Twitterverse. Stephanie Land is the New York Times Bestselling author of the memoir MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive. Netflix released an Emmy-nominated series MAID based on the book. Her next memoir CLASS is forthcoming. Stephanie is a frequent guest speaker at venues across the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Everyone knows Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the young rockstar New York Times-bestselling author of the story collection Friday Black. But what experiences have shaped the brilliant mind behind this cutting edge work of fiction? In this episode, you get a real sense of the sweep of Nana’s life. Nana and Gabe discuss what it was like for him to grow up Ghanian-American with his family in Spring Valley, Rockland County, NY. And what happened when his father was diagnosed with cancer and how that changed everything. Nana & Gabe talk about his rapping, which he does on the show and even breaks down his lyrics. Nana has learned a lot of fascinating lessons in his life journey thus far. Prepare to become acquainted with the intricacies of this writer’s dynamic mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Charles Yu is an author and screenwriter who has won the National Book Award & also written for Westworld. Charles and Gabe chat about whether Charles’ book Interior Chinatown will be made into a show for Hulu. Charles gets real about the surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans in recent years and the psychic toll these attacks have had. What does Pandemic Brain mean to Charles? And why does time feel like it has gone into Salvador Dali mode? Charles and Gabe really crack open their hearts, but they also manage to squeeze in some good jokes too. CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown (the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for fiction), and the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine best book of the year). He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, Westworld. He has also written for shows on FX, AMC, and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes, in honor of his parents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Merve Emre is a literary icon for the digital age, a professor at Oxford University, and a contributing writer to the New Yorker. She’s the author of several award-winning books and recently served as a judge for the International Booker Prize. By any metric, Merve is some kind of genius, a wunderkind. And Merve’s Twitter feed makes the case for Tweets being little works of art that form a kind of jigsaw portrait of the writer. So Merve and Gabe crack open her Tweets and get into it. They chop it up about Merve’s journey from Turkey to Brooklyn as a young child. What was it like for her family to live in Park Slope in the early 90’s? How did she break her arm that one time as a kid, and how does that event inform who she is today? What is the texture of Merve’s heart and the nature of the fire therein? Also, can a podcast episode be a work of art? In a surprisingly intimate conversation, full of joy and jokes and rare candor, Merve and Gabe attempt to answer these questions. Strap on your seatbelt, because this episode goes like a bat out of hell. Merve Emre is an associate professor of English at the University of Oxford and the author of several books, including The Personality Brokers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gabe sits down with Gen X icon and University of North Carolina professor and MacArthur Genius Award winner, Tressie McMillan Cottom. Tressie is a renowned sociologist and the author of several award-winning books, including Thick and Other Essays. This interview feels personal for Tressie and Gabe: because they both grew up in North Carolina at the same time and were shaped by many of the same cultural forces. We learn how the strong and creative and playful Black women in Tressie’s family helped shape her. Tressie talks about how her mother was a member of the Black Panthers in college. And how Tressie’s mother’s comrades from the Black Panthers and their stories are present and very alive in Tressie’s life today. Tressie and Gabe discuss Toni Morrison’s famous quote, “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work.” This conversation is full of joy and joy real talk about writing and the subject of race. And when Tressie says that Black people are the most future people she knows, if you don’t know what she means, you will definitely know what she means by the end of this episode. Honestly how can you resist this solid gold? Go listen. Tressie McMillan Cottom is a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, a 2020 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, and New York Times columnist. More from Tressie McMillan Cottom:
Thick: And Other Essays
Lower Ed: Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy
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Author and journalist and superstar Tweeter Molly Jong-Fast sits down with Gabe to tell him what it felt like to do battle with Elon Musk out on the timeline. Molly explains why she loves Twitter and how she used it to sting Bill Maher for being a bully. She talks about a recent horror show scenario on Twitter which lead to one of the scariest experiences in her life. Molly also gets personal and talks about her childhood and the unique challenges of growing up with a mother who was a famous writer and 2nd wave feminist icon in the 80’s. Plus her own career as a book author in the early aughts and how the media treated her. She and Gabe chop it up about Gen X: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Molly also describes what to her is the worst case doomsday scenario for America. And why Jon Stewart might be the only person who can prevent it. Molly Jong-Fast is the author of Normal Girl, Girl, Maladjusted, and The Social Climber's Handbook. She has written for many newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Harpers Bazaar, W Magazine, Cosmo, The Times (UK), and Marie Claire. She lives in Manhattan. She is married to a recovering academic. They have three very small children, all of whom like to talk to her when she is on the phone. Read more from Molly Jong-Fast:
Normal Girl
The Social Climber's Handbook
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A new podcast from Literary Hub and Best Case Studios, hosted by award-winning author Gabe Hudson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices