fiction/non/fiction

Poet, editor, and writer John Freeman and novelist Omar El Akkad join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the final issue of Freeman’s, a literary magazine founded in 2015. El Akkad, a contributor to the volume, describes founding editor Freeman’s intense and uniquely broad interest in literature, as well as his unusual ability to curate collections of pieces that are in conversation with one another. Freeman explains the work and support that made the magazine possible, and reflects on the moment when he decided to pursue it, as well as how he decided to conclude it. They discuss the publication as a project that created a valuable network of literary connections and gave many writers a new context and outlet for their work. El Akkad reads from “Pillory,” his story which appears in the final edition of Freeman’s, and talks about how he came to write it.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.John Freeman Freeman’s Wind, Trees Maps How to Read a Novelist Dictionary of the Undoing Omar El Akkad “Pillory”, by Omar El Akkad American War What Strange Paradise Others: Freeman’s Conclusions | Vancouver Writers Fest Freeman's Conclusions - The Nest - Vancouver - Oct 20, 2023 · Showpass 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 3, Episode 17: “Poetry, Prose, and the Climate Crisis: John Freeman and Tahmima Anam on Public Space and Global Inequality” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 5: “Is College Education a Right or a Privilege?” featuring John Freeman and Sarah Smarsh Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 17: “Emily Raboteau and Omar El Akkad Tell a Different Kind of Climate Change Story” Denis Johnson Barry Lopez Wendy Chen Li Qingzhao Li Po Debra Gwartney Michael Salu Colson Whitehead Jon Gray Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Rebecca Makkai joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about new accusations of sex crimes or sexual misconduct, this time leveled against comedian Russell Brand, actor Danny Masterson, and Spanish Soccer Federation president Luis Rubiales. Makkai observes that since the start of the #MeToo movement, more people are willing to take such accusations seriously, but also describes the repetitive nature of the abuse as discouraging. She reads from her recent novel, I Have Some Questions for You, which, in part, asks readers to reconsider the way they think of sex, class, and race.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.Rebecca Makkai I Have Some Questions for You The Great Believers The Hundred-Year House The Borrower Music for Wartime Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 1, Episode 2: “Jia Tolentino and Claire Vaye Watkins Talk Abuse, Harassment, and Harvey Weinstein” Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 1, Episode 22: “Alice Bolin and Kristen Martin on the Problem With Dead Girl Stories” “Russell Brand’s Timeline of Scandal and Controversy,” by Alex Marshall, New York Times “Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life in prison in rape case,” by Alli Rosenbloom, CNN “Luis Rubiales resigns as Spanish soccer president following unwanted kiss with World Cup winner Jennifer Hermoso,” by Issy Ronald, Homero De la Fuente, Patrick Sung and Zoe Sottile, CNN StoryStudio Chicago Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer, programmer, and tech consultant Alex Reisner joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his recent Atlantic articles on Books3, a massive data set that includes hundreds of thousands of pirated e-books, and that Meta and other companies have used to train generative AI. Reisner explains how he extracted book names and titles from long strings of text in Books3 to create a searchable database, and why not finding yourself in the database doesn’t mean your work is safe. He also reflects on the dangers of metaphorical language in discussing AI, what he’s heard from legal experts, what publishers are and aren’t doing, and how piracy has shifted from benefiting individuals to helping corporations profit. Reisner reads from his groundbreaking Atlantic coverage.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.Alex Reisner in The Atlantic “These 183,000 Books Are Fueling the Biggest Fight in Publishing and Tech” “What I Found in a Database Meta Uses to Train Generative AI” “Revealed: The Authors Whose Pirated Books Are Powering Generative AI” Others: Open Letter to Generative AI Leaders (The Authors Guild) Practical Tips for Authors to Protect Their Works from AI Use (The Authors Guild) “Some writers are furious that AI consumed their books. Others? Less so,” by Sophia Nguyen, The Washington Post  Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 6, Episode 17: “Chatbot vs. Writer: Vauhini Vara on the Perils and Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence” “My Books Were Used to Train AI,” by Stephen King, The Atlantic “Murdered by My Replica?” by Margaret Atwood, The Atlantic “My Books Were Used to Train Meta’s Generative AI. Good.” by Ian Bogost, The Atlantic Alice Munro Rebecca Solnit Meghan O’Rourke George Saunders  Ta-Nehisi Coates Martin Amis “Sarah Silverman is suing OpenAI and Meta for copyright infringement,” by Wes Davis, The Verge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In anticipation of Banned Books Week, Brooklyn Public Library’s collections manager Leigh Hurwitz joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss how the recent, dramatic rise in book bans disproportionately affects young people, and why BPL has chosen to offer access to its half a million eBooks and audiobooks to every person in the U.S. between the ages of 13 to 21. Hurwitz, one of the librarians behind the groundbreaking digital library card program launched in April 2022, talks about how in its first eighteen months, Books Unbanned has helped more than 7,000 users in all 50 states to access the books they need. Hurwitz unpacks the range of reasons teens cite for needing the cards, including privacy, lack of transportation, and—in some places—the requirement to get a parental signature or use a deadname to acquire a physical card at the local library. They also explain the positive responses from Books Unbanned readers who are able to see marginalized aspects of their identities portrayed on the page for the first time. Hurwitz reads from their Vice article about the program.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.Leigh Hurwitz “I Helped Thousands of Teens Impacted By Book Bans. Here’s What They Had To Say” | Vice Blog posts by Leigh Hurwitz | Brooklyn Public Library Others: Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor | PEN America Books Unbanned | Brooklyn Public Library “Brooklyn Library’s ‘Books Unbanned’ Team Wins Accolades,” by James Barron, New York Times   How the Brooklyn Library Helped Fight Book Bans in Oklahoma by James Barron, New York Times, Sept. 12, 2022 Introducing: Borrowed and Banned | Brooklyn Public Library PEN America & BPL Freedom to Read Advocacy Institute BookMatch and BookMatch Teen Reddit AMA with Freedom Forum Libraries for the People Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 6, Episode 45: Celeste Ng on the GOP’s War on Children Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 5, Episode 12: Intimate Contact: Garth Greenwell on Book Bans and Writing About Sex Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 6, Episode 13: Censoring the American Canon: Farah Jasmine Griffin on Book Bans Targeting Black Writers “Readers Can Now Access Books Banned in Their Area for Free With New App,” by Christopher Parker, Smithsonian Magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eighteen months into the invasion of Ukraine, Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko, hosts of the podcast Explaining Ukraine, return to talk to co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan about how the war has affected Ukrainian artists and how they’re responding. They talk about the actions of deeply engaged writers and intellectuals they know, like Yaryna Chornohuz, a young poet who’s an activist and has joined the army as a paramedic. They also give an update on what’s happening at the front and the possibility of the formation of an international war tribunal to investigate crimes of the Russian Federation.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.Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko Explaining Ukraine (podcast) Ukraine in Histories and Stories Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 2: “How Dostoevsky’s Classic Has Shaped Russia’s War in Ukraine, with Explaining Ukraine’s Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko”  Yaryna Chornohuz "Being a poet and a woman on the frontline - with Yaryna Chornohuz" (Explaining Ukraine) Timothy Snyder "Timothy Snyder: Freedom as a Value and a Task - a Talk in Kyiv" (Explaining Ukraine) Joseph Heller Thomas Pynchon All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young,” by Wilfred Owen “Remembering Ukrainian novelist Victoria Amelina, killed by a Russian missile,” by Joanna Kikissis Kateryna Kalytko Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Leila Aboulela joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan on their 200th episode to talk about the fighting between rival military factions in her native Sudan, which has displaced millions of civilians. She compares the situation of Sudan, which underwent a coup in 2019, with the six other African countries that have experienced coups since 2020. Aboulela explains the historical precedents and particularities and reflects on how, when a country’s military is its mightiest institution, a coup can be the only way to change leadership. She also reads from her new novel River Spirit, which covers the period of time leading up to the British occupation of Sudan. 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.Leila Aboulela River Spirit Bird Summons Elsewhere, Home The Kindness of Enemies Lyrics Alley Minaret Coloured Lights The Translator Articles in The Guardian Others: “What’s behind the wave of coups in Africa,” Al Jazeera “Chaos in Sudan: Who Is Battling for Power, and Why It Hasn't Stopped,” by Declan Walsh and Abdi Latif Dahir "How To Write About Africa," Granta, by Binyavanga Wainaina, 2005 “Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan Writer And LGBTQ Activist, Dies At 48,” by Colin Dwyer, NPR, May 22, 2019 Sudan, a coup laboratory - ISS Africa Khartoum (1966 film) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer Maurice Carlos Ruffin joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the literary and historical antecedents to Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who has filed a RICO case against Trump and 18 co-defendants for their illegal attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He discusses the long history of Black women who have challenged the white establishment when it comes to issues like political corruption, incarceration, and violence. He reads from his forthcoming novel The American Daughters, historical fiction about an enslaved woman who joins a society of spies.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.Maurice Carlos Ruffin We Cast a Shadow The Ones Who Don’t Say I Love You The American Daughters (forthcoming in 2024) “Returning the Gaze” | VQR Online Others: Ida Bae Wells on X: "Once again, it is Black people who are the greatest agents of democracy the United States has ever seen." / X “Fani Willis Took On Atlanta’s Gangs. Now She May Be Coming For Trump.” The New York Times Magazine Maurice Ruffin, First (Literary) Citizen of New Orleans (Literary Hub) Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s Creative Journey from Lawyer to Award-Winning Writer (Literary Hub) Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 3, Episode 26: “The Past Is Never Dead: Maurice Carlos Ruffin and Michael Gorra on the ‘New South’ and Whether Faulkner Still Belongs There” Toni Morrison The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, by Janet Dewart Bell   Sojourner Truth Angela Davis Harriet Tubman Ida B. Wells Phillis Wheatley Nikole Hannah-Jones Maya Angelou Zora Neale Hurston Ernest J. Gaines The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kansas Reflector editor-in-chief Sherman Smith joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the police raid on the tiny Marion County Record. He explains the newspaper’s investigation of the DUI history of a local restaurant owner who’d applied for a liquor license, which led to an August 11 raid of both the newspaper’s office and publishers’ home. The local magistrate, with her own DUI history, signed the warrant that alleged possible identity theft by one of the reporters. Sherman explains what the police took, why it was ultimately returned, and why he’s encouraged by the national and international response that sends the message that this treatment of journalists will not be tolerated. He also reads from the Reflector’s initial reporting.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.Sherman Smith Kansas Reflector “Police stage ‘chilling’ raid on Marion County newspaper, seizing computers, records and cellphones,” by Sherman Smith, Sam Bailey, Rachel Mipro, and Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector “Sheriff's office agrees to destroy evidence obtained from raid on Kansas newspaper,” Kansas Reflector Others: Marion County Record MacGyver Carl Hiaasen “Judge who approved raid on Kansas newspaper has history of DUI arrests,” by Chance Swaim, Wichita Eagle Hunter Biden Kris Kobach American Press Institute Rachel Maddow States Newsroom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As summer draws to an end, Thurber Prize-winning novelist Julie Schumacher joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the state of the American vacation and how holidays are portrayed in literature. Schumacher discusses her new comic novel, The English Experience, a sequel to Dear Committee Members that focuses on university professor Jay Fitger leading a study abroad trip to England. She reflects on favorite travel narratives, how technology has changed the way we vacation, and the ethics of tourism in relation to colonialism and climate change. She reads from The English Experience. 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.Julie Schumacher The English Experience The Shakespeare Requirement Dear Committee Members "Was This Student Dangerous?"- The New York Times, June 18, 2014 Others: The Parent Trap (1961) Henry James The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton Voyage Around My Room by Xavier de Maistre  Baby-sitters on Board! by Ann M. Martin Little Women by Louisa May Alcott The British Museum Rich in Love by Josephine Humphreys A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid The 31 Places to Go in 2010 - The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Award-winning journalist and professor Samuel G. Freedman joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about what progressives today can learn from an unexpected source: Democratic politician Hubert Humphrey. Freedman explains how today’s battles against far-right bigotry parallel the fight for civil rights Humphrey engaged in alongside Jewish and Black Americans in the 1940s. Freedman talks about the importance of progressive alliances and reads from his new book, Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights.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.Samuel G. Freedman Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights Breaking the Line Letters to a Young Journalist Others: Robert Caro Michael Shapiro A Campus Divided by Riv-Ellen Prell Sam Scheiner Cecil Newman Charles Lindbergh Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota The Call Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 6: “Nancy Pelosi’s Majority: Matthew Clark Davison’s San Francisco Take on a National Leader” “75 years ago, Hubert H. Humphrey called for Dems to ‘walk into the bright sunshine of human rights’” by Cathy Wurzer and Gretchen Brown | Minnesota Public Radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices