fiction/non/fiction

Award-winning fiction writer T. Geronimo Johnson joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about his new novel, The Occidental Book of the Dead. He discusses how the book addresses white supremacy and the United States’ deep-seated and racist mythology through the perspective of George Washington Jonson, a black police officer working in a fictional version of Atlanta. Johnson talks about researching police work but almost entirely avoiding depicting scenes of it on the page, and also explains why the book transitions from third to first person. He reflects on how structures of The Egyptian Book of the Dead and other classics are incorporated into the story. He reads from The Occidental Book of the Dead.

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 podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Archer Walsh, Elizabeth Willis, and Eric Thong. 

T. Geronimo Johnson

• The Occidental Book of the Dead
• Hold It 'Til It Hurts
• Welcome to Braggsville

Others

• A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
• The Egyptian Book of the Dead,  translated by E.A. Wallis Budge
• The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
• Confessions by St. Augustine

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Poet James Richardson joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Christian Barter to talk about his collection of new and selected poetry, Within the Hour. Richardson discusses how his early fascination with science and his enjoyment of science fiction has influenced his poetry and considers the way his aphorisms counterbalance his more lyric poems. He reflects on the role that literary criticism has played in his career as a poet and gives listeners a rare glimpse into his process of inspiration and composition. He speculates on the increasing role that politics has played in his new work, particularly since 2016, and reads from Within the Hour.

This podcast is produced by Christian Barter, Whitney Terrell, Valen Williams, Ashley Holmes, Rylee Adamson, and Lucien Hockaday. 

James Richardson 

• Within the Hour: Poems and Aphorisms, 1971-2026
• For Now
• During
• By the Numbers
• Interglacial: New and Selected Poems and Aphorisms  
• Vectors:  Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays 

Others

• “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

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Fiction writer and popular YouTuber Sam A. Miller joins co-hosts Christian Barter and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his debut story collection, Still Lost: Tales from the Year 2080, as well as his educational and comedic videos. Miller reflects on how he got started on YouTube a decade ago, when he was an adolescent, and amassed 4.8 million followers by developing Sam O’Nella Academy, a channel with a scrappy, homemade feel and distinct illustrations. Miller discusses the genesis of the unusual aliens who set the stage for most of Still Lost’s human-centered stories by solving potentially world-ending problems like climate change right off the bat. He explains why he decided to self-publish the science fiction collection and how it found its way to a traditional publisher. He also shares his science fiction influences and talks about how his personal history with addiction shapes the book’s final story. He reads from Still Lost. 

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 podcast is produced by Christian Barter, V.V. Ganeshananthan, AJ Abernathy, Grace Workman, and Sienna Hoopingarner. 

Sam Miller

• Still Lost: Tales from the Year 2080 by Sam A. Miller
• Sam O'Nella Academy - YouTube

Others

• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang 
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 
• Blindsight by Peter Watts
• Wheelers by Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen

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Fiction writer Emily McBride joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her debut novel, Queen Mab, and maternal mental health. McBride talks about the media frenzy around the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts woman charged with killing her three children, and considers how Clancy’s insanity defense has seized the public imagination, prompting new conversation about postpartum psychosis. McBride reflects on Queen Mab’s protagonist, a 23-year-old graduate student of Victorian and modernist literature, who struggles to bond with her baby and begins to fear that her child is a changeling. McBride explains the narrative shifts she uses to portray the character’s fluctuating reality and why literary allusions to changelings and fairies make sense in the context of the pressures of new motherhood. She also discusses how the most infamous “bad mothers” in folklore have skewed society’s perception of postnatal depression. She reads from Queen Mab. 

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 podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Emily Farris, Sydney Perkins, and Emma Ware. 

Emily McBride 

• Queen Mab by Emily McBride 

Others

• Inferno by Catherine Cho 
• Lucky Jim By Kingsley Amis 
• Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare 
• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 
• Medea by Euripides 
• Labyrinth (1986) dir. by Jim Henson
• Cottingley Fairies: How Sherlock Holmes's creator was fooled by hoax | BBC (2020)

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Nonfiction writer Robert Moor joins co-hosts Christian Barter and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to talk about his new book, In Trees, and the power of “tree thinking,” a concept developed by the evolutionary biologist Robert J. O’Hara. Moor explains how this form of thought emphasizes branching, growth, and pruning, as opposed to hierarchical ordering, and shows how these principles can be identified in the work of writers like Tolstoy and Wordsworth. He explores the role the giant sequoia played in founding modern conservatism and takes listeners on a tour of his own experiences in the trees from Papua New Guinea to Vancouver, Canada, where he participated in a tree sit with activists protesting an oil pipeline. He discusses the ethics of climate activism and how tree thinking might help us re-imagine the environmental movement for a new age. He reads from In Trees.

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 podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell.

Robert Moor

• In Trees by Robert Moor | Moon Palace Books 
• On Trails by Robert Moor | Moon Palace Books 

Others

• The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
• “The Trouble with Wilderness” by William Cronon
• On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
• Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 9, Episode 56: Matthew Wolfe on the Secret History of Radical Environmentalism
• 
  

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Nonfiction writer G’Ra Asim joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about his new book, 99 Problems Finding the 1: a love story (sort of). Asim discusses Afropessimism, heteropessimism, and their relationship to his pursuit of love as a cis straight black man; defines the idea of “thinkful wishing”; and recalls the ways in which black couples in his family, including his parents, have modeled relationships for him. He explains how—inspired by the viral New York Times essay “The 36 Questions That Lead to Love”— he came up with a series of inquiries that push two participants to reflect on their experiences of gender and race. He talks about how culture influences understanding of romance, mentioning Destiny’s Child, Dexter, and Minor Feelings. He reads from 99 Problems Finding the 1.

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 podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

G'Ra Asim

• 99 Problems Finding the 1: : a love story (sort of)
• Boyz n the Void: a mixtape to my brother

Others

• “On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character,” by Phillip Lopate from To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction
• “Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?” | Vogue
• Dexter (TV Series 2006–2013) - IMDb
• Atlanta (TV Series 2016–2022) - IMDb
• Destiny's Child - Soldier ft. T.I., Lil' Wayne
• “The 36 Questions That Lead to Love,” by Mandy Len Catron,  The New York Times
• Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
• Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

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Novelist Aruni Kashyap joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to talk about the surprising surge of a new youth movement in India. Kashyap, the author of a new novel, How to Date a Fanatic, about young queer academics navigating the Indian campus protests of the mid-2010s, explains how the Chief Justice of India likening unemployed youth to “cockroaches and parasites” has prompted the rise of a wildly popular satirical group. He shares the history of the Cockroach Janta Party or Cockroach People’s Party, whose followers now number in the millions and whose political demands have become well known. Kashyap discusses those demands and the historical significance of campus politics in India, considers how a satirical organization is pushing real reform, and recalls his own experiences with campus protests in India, where he grew up and previously taught. Kashyap reflects on writing about political violence, love, and queer life in India. He reads from How to Date a Fanatic.

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 podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Aruni Kashyap

• How to Date a Fanatic
• How to Date a Fanatic excerpt from LitHub
• The Way You Want to Be Loved
• The House with a Thousand Stories
• How to Tell the Story of an Insurgency 

Others

• The rise of the Cockroaches - The Hindu

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Poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine joins co-hosts Christian Barter, Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Whitney Terrell to talk about her new book Triage.  Rankine outlines the decades-long relationship between the book’s narrator and a character she names “the theorist,” who, as college students, develop the habit of collapsing whenever they greet each other. She talks about how each character interprets collapse differently, the theorist prescribing action while the narrator fights for her “silences, routines, and quietude.” Rankine discusses how their “conversation” echoes Antigone and is rooted in our current reactions to the war in Gaza and the second Trump Administration. She reflects on the role that visual imagery has in her work and reads from Triage.

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 podcast is produced by Christian Barter, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, and Whitney Terrell.

Claudia Rankine

• Triage
• Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric
• Citizen: An American Lyric
• Just Us: An American Conversation

Others

• Antigone | Sophocles
• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 51: Omar El Akkad on Gaza and Western Empire
• Julia (1977) dir. Fred Zinnemann

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Entomologist Dino Martins joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the Cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of people across the U.S., as well as the New World screwworm that has been affecting the cattle population. Martins, the author of a new book called Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites, discusses the benefits and dangers of parasites and reflects on his own lifelong interest in bugs, beginning with his childhood in Kenya. He explains how living alongside other animals has taught him to observe the world differently. Martins reads from Hidden Creatures.

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 podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Dino Martins

• Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites
• Grasses of East Africa
• Turkana Basin Institute

Others

• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 45: Jasmin Graham on Understanding Sharks
• Fiction/non/Fiction Season 9, Episode 7: Kathryn Nuernberger on Mutualism, Climate, and Finding Family at the End of the World
• Alien (1979) dir. Ridley Scott 
• The Fly (1986) dir. David Cronenberg 
• Stand by Me (1986) dir. Rob Reiner 

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Non-fiction writer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Christian Barter to talk about the life of performer and activist Harry Belafonte, who died in 2023. Jelly-Schapiro, the author of a new biography of Belafonte, considers the entertainer’s distinctive combination of mainstream appeal and radical politics. He notes how Belafonte’s vault to stardom and success with the first LP to sell a million copies, Calypso, positioned him to speak across racial lines in a segregated society. Jelly-Schapiro discusses Belafonte’s nation-changing impact on the Civil Rights Movement, and his unique position as the only member of Martin Luther King’s inner circle who could also be asked to guest-host The Tonight Show. He reflects on how Belafonte, the son of Jamaican immigrants who grew up between Harlem and his parents’ country, navigated the performance of authenticity. Jelly-Schapiro reads from his book, Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made.

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 podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Christian Barter.

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

• Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made
• Names of New York: Discovering the City's Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-Names
• Island People: The Caribbean and the World
• Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas with Rebecca Solnit
• Pòtoprens: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince with Leah Gordon and Katelyne Alexis 
• Cuba Then, Cuba Now
• Chris Ofili: Paradise Lost with Chris Ofili

Harry Belafonte

• Calypso
• Island in the Sun
• Buck and the Preacher
• “We Are the World”

Others

• Beetlejuice
• Sing Your Song (2011)
• Following Harry (2024)

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