fiction/non/fiction

Writer Jane Roper joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss cancel culture and her new book, The Society of Shame. Roper teases out some of the similarities and differences between the group in her novel and the real-life “Gathering of Thought Criminals” as recently covered in the New Yorker. She discusses what social and moral offenses can and cannot be forgiven. She reads from her book as well as the New Yorker article by Emma Green. 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.Jane Roper The Society of Shame Double Time Eden Lake Others: “The Party is Cancelled” by Emma Green, The New Yorker “‘Central Park Karen’ Amy Cooper Loses Lawsuit Against Former Employer” by Patrick Reilly “Florida Women Plead Guilty in Sex Sting Involving Patriots Owner Robert Kraft” Associated Press Thomas Sowell Tyler Fischer “‘Nobody imagined it would go on this long’: Bud Light sales continue to plummet over Mulvaney backlash” by Rob Wile Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 1, Episode 2: “Jia Tolentino and Claire Vaye Watkins Talk Abuse, Harassment, and Harvey Weinstein” Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 4, Episode 13: Cancellation or Consequences? Meredith Talusan and Matt Gallagher on Accountability in Literature ‹ Literary Hub “Uber’s Diversity Chief Put on Leave After Complaints of Insensitivity” by Kellen Browning Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial correspondent and podcast host Felix Salmon joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the debt ceiling crisis and his new book The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal. Salmon unpacks the political and financial ramifications of our current debt ceiling crisis—and compares the present impasse to prior debt ceiling fights. He also discusses the underappreciated and unexpected economic effects of the COVID pandemic, including an increase in the financial health of lower income Americans and a redistribution of population away from major cities. Salmon reads from The Phoenix Economy, and explains how the pandemic will continue to change our economic lives.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.Felix Salmon The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal Slate Money podcast Others: “A Brief History of Debt Ceiling Crises” by Raymond Scheppach Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist, screenwriter, and Writers Guild of America member Benjamin Percy joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the Hollywood writers’ strike, which began May 2. Percy talks about several WGA contract proposals tied to streaming services’ rise in popularity, and reflects on how streaming has upended the traditional 22-episode television season, causing writers to scramble for work every 10 weeks. He explains how writers end up doing unpaid labor before shows are greenlit and highlights how a lack of transparency regarding streaming viewership numbers leads to writers being underpaid. He also analyzes why the WGA wants to limit the use of artificial intelligence on its projects. Finally, he talks about his own experiences writing screenplays, including his recent movie Summering. The group listens to the trailer and Percy recalls the genesis of the film, as well as how being on a set changed his understanding of the economics of movies.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.Benjamin Percy Summering Trailer #1 (2022) | Movieclips Trailers The Sky Vault Red Moon  The Wilding  The Ninth Metal The Unfamiliar Garden Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction Others: WGA proposal "You're Not Making Jet Engines, You're Making Art" | The Distraction: A Defector Podcast "2023 Writers Guild of America Strike: What You Need to Know" - The New York Times Writers Guild of America West: Mini-Rooms Are Writers’ Rooms. Period. “These are the TV shows and films affected by the Hollywood writers' strike so far,” by Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz "Writers strike: What TV shows are being affected" by Brahmjot Kaur, NBC "WGA strike 2023: Hollywood’s writers walked off the job. What happens now?" - Vox "Conan lauded for his support of writers in old video amid new writers strike: 'Man is a legend,'" by Aditi Bora "The last writers’ strike, when streaming was new and Conan grew a beard" - By Sonia Rao and Michael Cavna, The Washington Post Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU | The American Reader by Carmen Maria Machado Story by Robert McKee Save the Cat by Blake Snyder Screenplay by Syd Field Near Dark, directed by Kathryn Bigelow Chinatown William Goldman The Princess Bride All the President’s Men Quentin Tarantino Drew’s Script-O-Rama Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 17: Chatbot vs. Writer: Vauhini Vara on the Perils and Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2 Episode 11: Brit Bennett and Emily Halpern on Screenwriting’s Tips for Fiction  Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1 Episode 11: What’s It Really Like to Have Your Book Made Into a Movie? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Kerri Arsenault joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the recent derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. Arsenault is the author of Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains, an investigative memoir about her hometown, Mexico, Maine, where a paper mill released dioxins into the environment for decades. Arsenault talks about the effect dioxins had on Mexico, which was nicknamed “Cancer Valley,” as well as the history of dioxin poisonings in America. She discusses how government and industry responses in East Palestine parallel the cover-up in her hometown. She also 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.Kerri ArsenaultMill Town: Reckoning with What RemainsOthers: “Texas to New Jersey: Tracking the Toxic Chemicals in the Ohio Train Inferno” by Hiroko Tabuchi “Whose Test Results Should East Palestine Believe?” by Gabrielle Gurley  “Leaked audio reveals U.S. rail workers were told to skip inspections as Ohio crash prompts scrutiny to industry” by Michael Sainato White Noise by Don DeLillo “Living and Breathing on the Front Line of a Toxic Chemical Zone” by Eric Lipton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writers B.J. Best, Andrew Ervin, and Brittney Morris join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell live from the Unbound Book Festival in Columbia, Missouri to discuss the narrative realms of video games and the evolving space they inhabit. The group reminisces about their first experiences playing and talks about nostalgia, reflects on ludology vs narratology in game design, and analyzes the way video games include players in the storytelling. Ranging from the text-based games of early days to the AAA and blockbuster franchises like Red Dead Redemption and World of Warcraft, this episode considers the necessity of play after childhood. All three authors 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 Cheri Brisendine and Anne Kniggendorf.B. J. Best Birds of Wisconsin State Sonnets But Our Princess is in Another Castle Interactive Fiction Andrew Ervin Burning Down George Orwell’s House Extraordinary Renditions Bit by Bit: How Video Games Transformed Our World Electric Lit Lit Hub Brittney Morris SLAY The Cost of Knowing The Jump Spider-Man 2 for the Playstation 5 Subnautica: Below Zero The Lost Legends of Redwall Others: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Video Game History Timeline The Evolution of the Video Game Controller What is Ekphrastic Poetry? The Starry Night by Anne Sexton The Playstation 5 Shortage is Over Ludology vs Narratology Teleology Play Doesn’t End With Childhood Josh Hawley Hates “Manipulative” Video Games Games: Madden NFL (gameplay) Super Mario 64 (gameplay) Alpiner (gameplay) Munch Man (gameplay) Super Mario Bros Red Dead Redemption (gameplay) Simulacra The Watson-Scott Test Cicada 3301 (4chan puzzles) The Last of Us (gameplay) Passage Doki Doki Literature Club! Cuphead (gameplay) Gris (gameplay) World of Warcraft (gameplay) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Visual artist and poet José Faus, journalist C.J. Janovy, and writer Desideria Mesa, join host Whitney Terrell live from the Unbound Book Festival in Columbia, Missouri, to discuss Kansas City’s literary legacy and its future. The group focuses on new book ban legislation, as well a white homeowner’s recent shooting of Black teenager Ralph Yarl, who mistakenly knocked on his door. Mesa reflects on the Mexican boxcar community and how that history is still relevant and present in the city today. Faus talks about the Latino Writers Collective and The Kansas City Defender, two prominent Kansas City literary forces. Janovy discusses recent legislation restricting the rights of transgender people in Kansas and Missouri and a vote by the Missouri House of Representatives to defund libraries. Each author reads a short section of 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 Rachel Layton and Anne Kniggendorf.José Faus The Life and Times of José Calderon “This Town Like That” C.J. JanovyNo Place Like HomeDesideria MesaBindle Punk BrujaOthers: Unbound Book Festival Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 5 Episode 12 - Intimate Contact: Garth Greenwell on Book Bans and Writing About Sex Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 5 Episode 13 - Censoring the American Canon: Farah Jasmine Griffin on Book Bans Targeting Black Writers “In Kansas City, Wrong Door Shooting Reopens Questions About Racism” - New York Times “Missouri House Republicans Want to Defund Libraries. Here’s Why” - PBS News Hour Latino Writers Collective Dan Jaffe Sharat Chandra Michelle Boisseau David Ray Ernest Hemingway Langston Hughes Gordon Parks Gwendolyn Brooks William Stafford Evan Connell Glenn North Hadara Bar-Nadav Anne Boyer The Kansas City Star Calvin Trillin The Kansas City Defender Emanuel Cleaver II Quinton Lucas Richard L. Berkeley Kansas City (Movie) Jay McShann William (Count) Basie Bennie Moten Charlie Parker Strawberry Hill “ACLU Sues Missouri Over Book Ban Law that Pushed School Libraries to Remove Hundreds of Titles” - KCUR “Racism and Fascism” by Toni Morrison “Kansas Bans Transgender Athletes from Women’s, Girls’ Sports” - Associated Press Westboro Baptist Church “Caitlyn Jenner: The Full Story” - Vanity Fair “Local Organizations Promote Understanding of Transgender Residents with Billboard” - The Collegian, Kansas State University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new novel, Romantic Comedy, which begins behind the scenes at a television show similar to Saturday Night Live, where a female comedy writer is gobsmacked that her schlubby straight male co-workers keep dating famous women seemingly out of their league. Sittenfeld discusses dating up, women in the workplace, and the similarities between SNL and the Iowa Writers Workshop. Sittenfeld and Ganeshananthan crack up while reading from Romantic Comedy, and Sittenfeld discusses the surprising turn in her heroine’s love life, the complications of writing sex scenes, and how she dealt with the pressure to be funny when describing comedians. 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 Ryan Reed and Anne Kniggendorf.Curtis Sittenfeld Romantic Comedy Rodham Eligible American Wife “Gender Studies,” from The New Yorker Others: Live from New York by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller Bossypants by Tina Fey Pete Davidson on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen David Spade on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend Podcast How to Write a Sketch for SNL from the Working it Out Podcast Saturday Night: Documentary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer Jeff Boyd joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his debut novel, The Weight, a coming-of-age story about a young Black musician who struggles with romance, religion, and racism in predominantly white Portland. Boyd talks about his personal struggles with and admiration of faith, the difficulties of developing an identity, and his own experiences as a Black man living in Oregon. He reflects on the dynamics of bands, as well as his protagonist’s romantic relationships and ability to forgive. He reads an excerpt 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 Amanda Trout and Anne Kniggendorf.Jeff BoydThe WeightOthers: Ghostbusters (1984) Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin In the Soup: Sean McDonald and Monica West on Publishing During, and After, a Pandemic Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 18 Revival Season by Monica West The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin “On Becoming an American Writer,” by James Alan McPherson from The Washington Post Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 20: “Remembering an American Writer: Anthony Walton on James Alan McPherson’s Essays and Legacy”  “A Region Not Home: Reflections From Exile,” by James Alan McPherson from Publisher’s Weekly Ralph Ellison Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Black Lives Matter The King of Kings County by Whitney Terrell “In 2021, 10 Hate Groups were Tracked in Oregon,” from the Southern Poverty Law Center  “Why Iowa Has Become Such a Heartbreaker for Democrats,” by Trip Gabriel from the New York Times Mutual Musicians Foundation Portlandia (2011-2018) “The Geometry of Love,” by John Cheever from Journal of Humanistic Mathematics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Dina Nayeri joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new nonfiction book, Who Gets Believed?: When the Truth Isn’t Enough, an examination of whose narratives are considered trustworthy and why, with a focus on refugees and asylum seekers. Nayeri, who was born in Iran and granted asylum to the U.S. when she was 10, talks about the case of a Sri Lankan Tamil man who sought asylum in the U.K. in 2011, and how British officials failed to believe his story of torture. She also describes her childhood feeling of performing a role in her new American home, as well as the origins of her own skepticism—and how a personal tragedy led her to reassess how much she could trust even herself. She reads from her new 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 Thomas White and Anne Kniggendorf.Dina Nayeri Who Gets Believed The Ungrateful Refugee Refuge A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea Others: The Iranian Revolution at 40: Jasmin Darznik and Dina Nayeri On the Anniversary of the Republic Fiction/Non/Fiction Podcast The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi “In the Penal Colony” by Franz Kafka  Freedom from Torture Innocence Project Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 1 Episode 23: Jasmin Darznik and Dina Nayeri on the 40th Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Will Sommer joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new book Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America, a history of the rise of the cultish right-wing group. Sommer, a reporter for The Daily Beast, has covered QAnon since its inception and explains its origins, what—and who—drives it now, and how he handles interviewing people who believe the world is controlled by a satanic cabal of celebrity pedophiles. He also reads an excerpt 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 Cheri Brisendine and Anne Kniggendorf.Will Sommer Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America “Fever Dreams” (The Daily Beast) Others: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson “What is QAnon, the Viral, Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory?” by Kevin Roose Thomas Pynchon George Soros T.S. Eliot The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot Ezra Pound Wallace Stevens Q by Luther Blissett Bhagavad Gita Wu Ming Foundation “Who is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints” by David D. Kirkpatrick Clerks Army of Darkness Franklin Leonard Slumdog Millionaire Ron Paul “The only guide to Gamergate you’ll ever need to read,” by Caitlin Dewey, The Washington Post David A. Fahrenthold at The Washington Post; David A. Fahrenthold at The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices