

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

Dec 23, 2025 • 36min
Best of 2025 - Part 1
Today on the program, we'll begin a countdown of the top 10 most-listened-to episodes of 2025. Please note that the countdown will unfold in two installments. Today, we'll be covering #10 through #6, and then on Christmas Day, a breakdown of the top 5 episodes of the year.
Happy Holidays to all! Enjoy!
***
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

Dec 21, 2025 • 1h 30min
1015. Carla Kaplan
Carla Kaplan is the author of Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford (Harper Books).
Kaplan is an award-winning professor and writer who holds the Stanton W. and Elisabeth K. Davis Distinguished Professorship in American Literature at Northeastern University. She has published seven books, including Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters and Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance, both New York Times Notable Books. A recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities “Public Scholar” fellowships, Kaplan has been a fellow in residence at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute; is a fellow of the Society of American Historians; and serves on the board of Biographers International. She divides her time between Boston and Cape Cod.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Dec 20, 2025 • 22min
Excerpt from 'A Silent Treatment,' by Jeannie Vanasco
Vol. 4 of Story Time, a new series on the program featuring an author reading aloud from her work. In this episode, Jeannie Vanasco reads from her new memoir A Silent Treatment, available from Tin House. Official December pick of the Otherppl Book Club.
Jeannie's other memoirs are Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl and The Glass Eye. Born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio, she lives in Baltimore and is an associate professor of English at Towson University.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Dec 18, 2025 • 1h 47min
We're Already in Hell: Our Year in Review
Volume 73 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Christmas shopping confusion...Brad anesthetizes himself with Ken Burns documentaries...Brad's friend has a gun....Mira's dog almost dies?....might adopt a feral cat...all planets are in retrograde...the darkest weekend in memory....a cascade of terrible news...Alec and Hilaria, house-hunting in Jersey?...Bennie and the Jens...Dick Van Dyke turns 100....looking back on 2025...the year in review...and more....
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Dec 16, 2025 • 1h 37min
1014. Susan Straight
Susan Straight is the author of the novel Sacrament, available from Counterpoint Press.
Straight has published nine previous novels, including Mecca, A Million Nightingales, and Highwire Moon, and one memoir, In the Country of Women. She’s been a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the National Book Award, among other honors, and received the Lannan Prize, the O. Henry Award, the Edgar Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. Her fiction has been translated into ten languages. She was born in Riverside, California, where she lives with her family.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Dec 14, 2025 • 1h 43min
1013. Jeannie Vanasco
Jeannie Vanasco is the author of the memoir A Silent Treatment, available from Tin House. It is the official December pick of the Otherppl Book Club.
Vanasco is the author of the memoirs Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl and The Glass Eye. Born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio, she lives in Baltimore and is an associate professor of English at Towson University.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Dec 13, 2025 • 16min
Excerpt from 'Only Way Out,' by Tod Goldberg
Vol. 3 of Story Time, a new series on the program featuring an author reading aloud from his work. In this episode, Tod Goldberg reads from his latest work of crime fiction, a novel called Only Way Out, available from Thomas & Mercer.
Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels, including the Gangsterland quartet: Gangsterland, Gangster Nation; The Low Desert, and Gangsters Don't Die. His short fiction and essays have been anthologized in Best American Mystery and Suspense and Best American Essays and appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Alta. Tod is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, where he founded and directs the low-residency MFA program in creative writing and writing for the performing arts.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Dec 11, 2025 • 1h 31min
Don't Take Your Shoes Off
Volume 72 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...police helicopters interrupt Brad's pre-dawn routine...almost sneezing in the dental chair...Brad gets weepy watching the Jeff Buckley documentary...Mira helps her friend Alex organize a holiday orgy...the Baldwins plotting a move?...Tarantino attacks Paul Dano...all of Hollywood retaliates...the most annoying A-list auteur in history...Dame Judi calls for the liberation of Harvey....an update on Tara Reid's hotel bar fiasco...Trump hosts his first Kennedy Center Honors...and more....
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Dec 9, 2025 • 1h 28min
1012. Jordan Castro
Jordan Castro is the author of the novel Muscle Man, available from Catapult Press.
Castro is also the author of The Novelist, and two poetry books. His fiction and non-fiction has been published in Harper’s, The Point, Tin House, Muumuu House, and more. He is the Deputy Director of the Cluny Institute, and on the board of the Giancarlo DiTrapano Foundation for Literature and the Arts.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Dec 7, 2025 • 1h 20min
1011. Lauren Rothery
Lauren Rothery is the author of the debut novel Television, available from Ecco Books.
Rothery was born in London and raised in San Diego. She spent her twenties writing and directing short films and music videos between New York and Los Angeles. In 2020, she moved to Europe and began writing fiction. Television is her first novel.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
"This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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


