Balancing Beliefs and Narrative in Fiction

Whether anticipating the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in his short story Radicalised, helping the world to wake up to the grift of the social media giants through his concept of 'Enshittification', or imagining a genuinely better world to replace the dystopia of our present in novels like The Lost Cause and Walkaway, Cory Doctorow is equally accomplished as an award-winning storyteller and as an analyst of our present and near future.

His new series of noirish crime thrillers transport us into a Silicon Valley where grifters, gangsters, and plutocrats wreck chaos. Cory's decades of firsthand experience of the Valley and deep thought about the relationship between technology and power imbue every page with authenticity and insight. He joins us to reveal the crimes at the heart of the latest book, Picks and Shovels, and the real life misdemenours that inspired the novel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices