I sat down with actor Liz Wasser to talk about Neil Gaiman's American Gods (2001). This was a totally bizarre and fascinating book and I loved talking about it and hearing why Liz picked it. We cover mythology with plenty of healthy digressions into drag, writing quirks, and the elusive main character Shadow. Follow Liz on Twitter @TheLizWasser!

In this episode, I talk with Mike Middleton about Harpo Speaks (1961), Harpo Marx's autobiography written with Rowland Barber. We get into everything from the Marx Brothers' Vaudeville career to the fame of figures like Alexander Woollcott and Oscar Levant to how I personally am dismantling civilization by purchasing books off Amazon. It's a great conversation!

Mike is a photographer, playwright, and filmmaker, and just recently co-founded a video game and filmmaking studio, SeedBolt Studios.

Becky chose Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) by Maria Semple, a really funny book that tracks the aftermath of a mother's disappearance in an affluent Seattle neighborhood. We cover the book's innovative structure, what we learned about Antarctica, and what Becky and I would title our respective autobiographies. Becky is a comedian who performs at UCB and with the sketch groups Girls With Brown Hair and OSFUG, and I frankly insist that you follow her on Twitter at @Beckychicoine.

We get into Junot Díaz's book The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao which was published in 2007. We talk about whether you can escape your family's curses, why Mike related to the book as the child of immigrants, and my youthful crush on a certain former Secretary of State.

Rosie Wennberg joins me to talk about two essays from Judith Butler's Precarious Life (2004): "Violence, Mourning, Politics" and "Indefinite Detention," both of which deal with different post-9/11 American phenomena. The first touches on the universal experience of grief and how it can inform politics, and the second addresses the indefinite detention of humans in the prison at Guantanamo Bay. We try to understand Butler's analysis and Rosie shares some of the more memorable passages.

In this episode, I sit down with Jean-Hervey to talk Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. We talk about the incredible insights of Dr. Ian Malcolm, we explain how Martin Shkreli got his inspiration from John Hammond, and we give advice to budding scientists.

I talk with Courtney Laird about the book she chose, In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman Waberi. We talk about some of the interesting ways in which Waberi flips traditional narratives, hear about Courtney's project to read a book by an author from every African country, and have an all around wonderful time.

I talk with James Wells about the book he chose, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. We get into Pirsig's theory of Quality, we talk about James's motorcycle, and we - this is the undiluted truth - have a lot of fun.