

Otherppl with Brad Listi
Brad Listi
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly books and culture podcast featuring in-depth conversations with today's leading authors. Literature, screenwriting, the creative process, pop culture, and more. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on Bluesky and Instagram.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 19, 2025 • 1h 20min
997. Vincenzo Latronico
Vincenzo Latronico is the author of the novel Perfection, available from New York Review Books. Translated by Sophie Hughes. Perfection was longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature and is a finalist for the International Booker Prize.
Born in Rome, Vincenzo Latronico studied philosophy at the University of Milan and has since published numerous books in Italian, including The Conspiracy of Doves and Gymnastics and Revolution. In addition to his own writing, he has also translated the work of many writers into Italian including work by George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, and Alexander Dumas. He lives in Milan.
Sophie Hughes is a translator of Spanish and Italian literature. Her translation of The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2019, and her translation of Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season was shortlisted for the same prize. Her writing and translations have appeared in McSweeney’s, The Guardian, The Paris Review, The White Review, Frieze and The New York Times. She lives in the United Kingdom.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 16, 2025 • 1h 37min
Where in the World Are Mira's Psych Meds?
Volume 64 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Mira's psych meds drama...Mira's grandma broke her hip...Mira's flu recap...her mushroom trip at the Chappell Roan show...a hummingbird update...the great Diane Keaton has left us...the inevitability of A.I.-generated dead celebrity threesome porn...the vile politics of nude bike rides...Mira weighs in on Life of a Showgirl...Hilaria Baldwin's DWTS meltdown...blames defeat on 'mean girls'...Alec crashes the Range Rover in the Hamptons...& more...
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 14, 2025 • 1h 5min
996. Angela Flournoy
Angela Flournoy is the author of the novel The Wilderness, available from Mariner Books. It was longlisted for the National Book Award and is a finalist for the Kirkus Prize.
Flournoy's debut novel, The Turner House, was a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Indie Next pick, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Flournoy has taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, and UCLA. She lives in New York.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 12, 2025 • 1h 8min
What Does It Mean to Be a Minor Writer?
What does it mean to be a “minor writer” in a world obsessed with major success? In this episode, I talk with Jeff Alessandrelli about his essay 'Minor, Minor, Minor Writer,' and what it has to say about literary ambition, obscurity, ego, and the quiet reality behind most books. We discuss BookScan recon, indie lit fame, the collapse of serious readership, and the stubborn hope that keeps writers going anyway.
Alessandrelli lives in Portland, OR, where he directs and co-edits the non-profit book press/record label Fonograf Editions. His latest book is And Yet (Future Tense Books, 2024). “Minor, minor, minor writer” is an excerpt from an essay that will be included in a forthcoming collection to be published by Autofocus Books in late 2027/early 2028. His new Substack is https://substack.com/@jalessandrelli.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 9, 2025 • 1h 6min
The Life of a Showboy
Volume 63 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Mira is out sick...Angry Adam and Gene Morgan sit in...Brad and Gene took their kids to One Battle After Another...the Sanchize blacks out in Indianapolis...three middle-aged white men review The Life of a Showgirl...Trump greenlights his own ultimate fighting birthday party...and more...
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 7, 2025 • 1h 27min
995. Jade Chang
Jade Chang is the author of the novel What a Time to Be Alive, available from Ecco Books.
Chang’s debut novel, The Wangs vs. the World, won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and has been published in a dozen countries. Her journalism and essays have recently appeared in The Best American Food Writing, and in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times magazines. She also writes for film and TV. She lives in Los Angeles.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 5, 2025 • 1h 23min
994. Melissa Febos
Melissa Febos is the author of The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex, available from Knopf.
Febos is the national bestselling author of five books, including Abandon Me, Girlhood—which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, and, most recently, The Dry Season. Her awards and fellowships include those from the Guggenheim Foundation, LAMBDA Literary, the National Endowment for the Arts, The British Library, The Black Mountain Institute, MacDowell, the Bogliasco Foundation, The American Library in Paris, and others. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Sun, The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Essays, Vogue, The Best American Travel and Food Writing, and New York Review of Books. Febos is a Roy J. Carver Professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program. She lives in Iowa City with her wife, the poet Donika Kelly.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 2, 2025 • 1h 32min
Brad Bunny
Volume 62 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...prayers for Dolly...Mira experiences personal triumph in a Soul Cycle class...the unified theory of protein and fascism...Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio...trying hard to imagine Baron Trump's hot date at Trump Tower...Lionel Richie fans are the tip of the revolutionary spear...and more...
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 30, 2025 • 1h 21min
993. Jason Diamond
Jason Diamond is the author of the debut novel Kaplan's Plot, available from Flatiron Books.
Diamond is the author of Searching for John Hughes, The Sprawl and co-author ofNew York Nico's Guide to NYC (with Nicolas Heller). His work has been published by the New York Times, Esquire, The New Yorker, GQ, The Paris Review, and many other outlets. He publishes the newsletter The Melt, was born in Skokie, Illinois, and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. Kaplan’s Plot is his first novel.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 28, 2025 • 58min
Special Episode: DeepDive Sneak Preview!
Today’s episode is a special preview of How to Write Autobiographical Fiction, a brand-new DeepDive course featuring acclaimed novelist Hannah Pittard, author of Listen to Me, Visible Empire, The Fates Will Find Their Way, Reunion, and If You Love It, Let It Kill You.
The course, hosted by Brad Listi, explores the art and craft of autobiographical fiction: what it is, how it differs from memoir, how to shape persona and voice, how to navigate the ethical challenges of writing about real people, how to revise effectively, and how to bring your work into the world. Along the way, Hannah shares candid stories, practical exercises, and hard-won lessons from her own writing life. The course also features conversations with Michael Wheaton, founder of Autofocus Books, an independent press dedicated to publishing autobiographical writing.
How to Write Autobiographical Fiction launches on October 1, 2025, exclusively from DeepDive. You’ll be able to stream the course online or listen in the DeepDive app, which also gives you access to the DeepDive Community — a space to ask questions, get feedback, and connect with other writers.
In this episode, you’ll hear Episode One of the course in its entirety.
Learn more at www.deepdive.audio or download the DeepDive app in the App Store.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices