fiction/non/fiction

Writer Briallen Hopper joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about in vitro fertilization and the recent Alabama State Supreme Court ruling declaring that frozen embryos have the same rights as children. Hopper speaks about the science and thought behind freezing embryos versus eggs, as well as the religious language embedded in the court’s decision. She reads an excerpt from a 2019 Washington Post essay about her choice to freeze embryos as a single person and reflects on repeating the process later, with a partner.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.Briallen Hopper Hard to Love: Essays and Confessions Gilead Reread (forthcoming, Columbia University Press) “Single Women Looking to Extend their Fertility Usually Freeze Eggs. I Froze Embryos.”|Washington Post, May 10th, 2019 Others: James LePage, et al. v. The Center for Reproductive Medicine and Mobile Infirmary Association | Supreme Court of Alabama  The Human Life Protection Act | Alabama - May 15, 2019 Tammy Duckworth | Access to Family Building Act   Dobbs | The Supreme Court - June 24, 2022 The Radical Freedom Of IVF by Krys Malcolm Belc, Romper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Bitecofer, author of the new book Hit ’Em Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game, joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk shop about the election strategies Democrats should implement to combat Republicans and prevent fascism. Bitecofer discusses how Republicans use “negative partisanship” to win elections by slamming Democrats as a whole, and argues that Democrats must turn the tables and attack the GOP’s now-extremist brand, which poses an urgent threat to Americans. Bitecofer reads from a section of Hit ’Em Where it Hurts that describes what it means to “wedge” an issue, and talks about how Democrats can do this. 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.Rachel Bitecofer Hit ’Em Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game, with Aaron MurphyOthers: Dobbs | The Supreme Court State of the Union Address 2023  Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project Stephen Miller (Southern Poverty Law Center) "At CPAC, Stephen Miller Describes His Plan to Round Up Migrants into Camps and Deport Them" | MediaMatters for America "The Benghazi Timeline, Clinton Edition” by Eugene Kiely, June 30, 2016 | factcheck.org Hur Report | The Justice Department "Trump vows to end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants in US illegally" by Ted Hesson | Reuters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the 2024 Presidential race heats up, award-winning fiction writer Margot Livesey joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the value of seeing the future in politics and in family life. Are the polls right? Will Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden in the November election? Livesey talks about the role predictions play in our political landscape and in her new novel, The Road from Belhaven, in which a young woman named Lizzie Craig, raised by her grandparents in 19th century Scotland, has the gift of second sight. Livesey discusses the ways that literature has handled the concept of “seeing the future” over time, including the role second sight plays in Macbeth. She reads from her novel. 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.Margot Livesey The Road From Belhaven The Boy in the Field Homework Eva Moves The Furniture The Flight of Gemma Hardy Others Daniel Deronda by George Eliot Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 3, Episode 24: “Summer Books Extravaganza: Margot Livesey and Jaswinder Bolina on Beach Reading When the Beach is Closed” Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 5, Episode 35: "Boris Johnson: Margot Livesey on British Politics, the Brexit Blunder, and the Prime Minister’s Lies"  No Great Mischief  by Alistair MacLeod  The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis  Macbeth by William Shakespeare Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon L.M. Montgomery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, novelist, journalist, and veteran Matt Gallagher joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the current state of the Russo-Ukrainian war and why the country desperately needs the emergency aid in a bill currently under consideration in Congress. Gallagher, whose new novel Daybreak is set in Ukraine, weighs in on where the U.S. stands on the war by comparing it to military conflicts of the past, from World War II to more recent involvements in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. He also reflects on how reporting and training civilians in Ukraine influenced Daybreak, in which an Army veteran explores his own motivations for aiding the country’s fight for freedom as well as the flawed, messy realities of war. He reads from the novel. 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.Matt Gallagher Daybreak Empire City Youngblood “This is no time to give up on Ukraine” by Matt Gallagher | Boston Globe “There Are Only Two Options Left in Ukraine” by Matt Gallagher | Esquire, Nov. 20, 2023 “The Secret Weapons of Ukraine” by Matt Gallagher | Esquire, Feb. 23, 2023 “My Advice for American Veterans Who Want to Get On a Plane to Ukraine” by Matt Gallagher | The New York Times, April 10, 2022 “Notes from Lviv” by Matt Gallagher | Esquire, March 31, 2022 Others: “Ukraine is resorting to attacking Russia with small drones because it's running out of artillery ammunition” by Tom Porter | Business Insider “Ukraine and Israel Aid Bill Inches Ahead as Divided G.O.P. Demands Changes” by Karoun Demirjian | The New York Times, 2024 The Forever War by Joe Haldeman The Forever War by Dexter Wilkins “What Should a War Movie Do?” by Whitney Terrell | The New Republic, Nov. 21, 2016 Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 1: The Art of Taking a Knee: Colin Kaepernick Edition Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 13: Cancellation or Consequences? Meredith Talusan and Matt Gallagher on Accountability in Literature Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, Episode 9: Anton Troianovski and Marci Shore on a Possible Russian Invasion of Ukraine  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 Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 51: Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko on How Artists Are Responding to the War in Ukraine  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Jacinda Townsend and writer James Bernard Short join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the movie American Fiction, which is based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. Townsend and Short discuss how the film addresses race in the publishing industry via its central character, Black author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, who tries to make an ironic point by writing a book exploiting Black stereotypes and finds, to his dismay, that it’s received in earnest and a bestseller. Townsend and Short analyze director Cord Jefferson’s approach and the film’s themes of family dysfunction, freedom in storytelling, and the importance of portraying the complexity of Black 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.Jacinda Townsend Mother Country Saint Monkey James Bernard Short “Aqua Boogie” | Blood Orange Review “Rootwork” | Blood Orange Review “Flash, Back: Langston Hughes’ The Simple Shorts” | SmokeLong Quarterly Others: American Fiction (movie) | Official Trailer Erasure by Percival Everett An American Marriage by Tayari Jones Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward The Color Purple by Alice Walker Thelonious Monk Ralph Ellison Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison “The Little Man at Chehaw Station” by Ralph Ellison | The American Scholar, 1978 The Tuskegee Institute White Negroes by Lauren Michele Jackson “The White Negro” by Norman Mailer | Dissent, 1957 “Dragon Slayers” by Jerald Walker | The Iowa Review, 2006 “The Hidden Lesson of ‘American Fiction’” by John McWhorter | The New York Times Origin (movie) | Official Trailer Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 11, “Annihilation, Adaptation: What's It Really Like to Have Your Book Made Into a Movie” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 11, “Brit Bennett and Emily Halpern on Screenwriting’s Tips for Fiction” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 33, “The Stakes of the Writers’ Strike: Benjamin Percy on the WGA Walkout, Streaming, and the Survival of Screenwriting” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 38, “Jacinda Townsend on Why Democrats Are Skeptical of President Biden—and How He Can Win Them Back” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With AWP’s annual conference headed to Kansas City next week, poet and activist Glenn North joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to tell incoming writers where to find the best food and coolest hangouts in the city. North discusses Kansas City’s diversity, its history of racial covenants, and its newly rejuvenated Crossroads Arts District, which is near the convention site. North and Terrell, who also lives in Kansas City, highlight a variety of spots to check out, including the Green Lady Lounge, Swordfish Tom’s, The Blue Room, the American Jazz Museum, and Kansas City’s not-to-miss barbeque scene. North reads his poem, “Harmony on the Vine,” about the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District, where he is the current poet laureate, as well as an excerpt from his poem for the 25th anniversary of the American Jazz Museum.  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.Glenn North City of Song Check Cashing Day Love, Loss, and Violence: A Visual Dialogue on War Others: American Jazz Museum Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Kansas City Museum The Arabia Steamboat Museum World War I Museum Union Station Kansas City Public Library BLK + BRWN Bliss Books & Wine Rainy Day Books Wise Blood Booksellers Writer’s Place Green Lady Lounge Afterword The Mutual Musicians Foundation 21c Corvino Farina Extra Virgin Anton’s Soriée Lulu’s Jarocho Prime Social Earl’s Premier River Market Country Club Plaza Gates Bar-B-Q Jack Stack Barbeque Bryant’s Barbeque Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que Q39 LC’s Bar-B-Q Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Ed Park joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the role of alternate histories and counternarratives in popular culture, public record, and the general consciousness, via his new novel, Same Bed Different Dreams. Park talks about depicting and reimagining well known events and eras, including the Japanese occupation of Korea between 1910-1945; Korean resistance to that occupation in the form of the Korean Provisional Government; the post-World War II division of Korea into North and South, which became sovereign nations in 1948; and the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to until 1953. He reflects on writing about more recent history, as well as his hometown of Buffalo, New York. The conversation suggests that positive alternate timelines, like the one Park creates, invite readers to learn more about actual events, whereas a more pernicious spin on the past may edit for the benefit of a particular group. Park reads from the novel.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.Ed Park Same Bed Different Dreams Personal Days Weird Menace Others: Charlie Kaufman Philip Roth Richard E. Kim Jack London on Korea Thomas Pynchon BTS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Nate Rawlings, who spent a stint as a speechwriter for then-Vice President Joe Biden, joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the politics (and nuances) of plagiarism. Rawlings discusses how plagiarism accusations derailed Joe Biden’s presidential run in 1987. He examines how the right-wing activist-led plagiarism accusations against former Harvard President Claudine Gay fit into the context of prior plagiarism scandals, and considers the possibility that new technologies like AI will intensify future politically motivated attacks. He also reflects on why some plagiarism allegations stick and shift opinion, and others don’t.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.Nate RawlingsNate Rawlings | TIME.comOthers:"The North’s Jim Crow" by Andrew W. Kahrl|The New York Times, May 27, 2018"How We Squeezed Harvard to Push Claudine Gay Out" by Christopher Rufo | Wall Street JournalGrace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America by Cody Keenan  What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer"Plagiarism charges downed Harvard’s president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage" by Collin Binkley and Moriah Balingit | APElise StefanikClaudine Gay“Echoes of Biden’s 1987 plagiarism scandal continue to reverberate” by Neena Satija | The Washington Post, June 5, 2019Democratic Primary Debate, August 23, 1987Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 46, “Samuel G. Freedman on What Hubert Humphrey’s Fight for Civil Rights Can Teach Us Today”Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 16, “Chatbot vs. Writer: Vauhini Vara on the Perils and Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence”Nadia Schadlow, Small Wars JournalPeggy Noonan“Boys of Pont du Hoc” speech by Peggy Noonan for Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984“I see the boys of summer,” by Dylan Thomas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Lauren Groff joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the new independent bookstore she and her husband are planning in Gainesville, Florida. The Lynx, which Groff aims to open this spring, will feature banned books, an act of resistance in a state where more than half of school districts have seen book banning activity over the past two years. Groff reads from her recent novel, The Vaster Wilds.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.Lauren GroffThe Monsters of Templeton Arcadia Fates and Furies MatrixThe Vaster WildsDelicate Edible BirdsFloridaThe Lynx, A Bookstore in Gainesville, FL | IndiegogoOthers:"Gainesville author Lauren Groff hopes new downtown bookstore will 'link' community together” by Lillian Lawson | The Gainesville Sun"A new report shows how corrosive book banning is. Novelist Lauren Groff is fighting back" by Emily St. Martin | Los Angeles Times"A Look Ahead to 2024: Laws and Book Bans in Florida, Iowa, and Illinois | Censorship News" | School Library Journal"Spineless Shelves: Two Years of Book Banning" | PEN America"Thousands of books were banned in Central Florida in 2023. Here's what to expect in 2024" by Danielle Prieur | NPR"Nearly 700 books, including celebrity bestsellers, banned in Orange County, Florida" | PEN America“Why Toni Morrison’s Books Are So Often the Target of Book Bans” by Olivia Waxman |Time |January 31, 2022“Florida County Bans 673 Books, Including ‘Paradise Lost,’ ‘The Color Purple’ to Comply With State Law” by Alec Dent | The Messenger“Book Bans Are Rising Sharply in Public Libraries” by Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter | The New York TimesFlorida Freedom to Read ProjectHernan DiazFiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, Episode 12: “Intimate Contact: Garth Greenwell on Book Bans and Writing About Sex”Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 52: “Brooklyn Public Library’s Leigh Hurwitz on Helping Young People Resist Censorship” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Indian American reporter and memoirist Prachi Gupta joins the podcast hosts to discuss the rise of Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy as Republican presidential candidates. They explore the myth of Indian American exceptionalism, the role of class and caste in immigration, and the impact of gender on diaspora politics. Gupta also reads from her memoir, They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies that Raised Us.