fiction/non/fiction

Wake Forest University Professor of Philosophy Christian B. Miller joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to discuss his newest work of nonfiction, The Honesty Crisis: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World. Miller argues that integrity and honesty are rapidly disintegrating and we are quickly losing social norms around truth-telling. He outlines five main categories that are contributing to this honesty crisis, gives his definition of honesty, and explains how we can diminish our reliance on self-interest. He explores how a loss of integrity can affect the academic, romantic, political and technological realms. Miller also addresses contemporary politics, the recent presidential election and how honesty is in flux in our country. He reads from The Honesty Crisis.

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 Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Christian B. Miller

• The Honesty Crisis: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World
• The Character Gap

Others

• How The Washington Post Fact Checker Tracked Trump
• The Rabbit Series 
• John Updike’s Rabbit Tetralogy 

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Writer Rebecca Lehmann joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her debut novel, The Beheading Game, a work of speculative historical fiction in which King Henry VIII’s second wife, the beheaded Queen of England Anne Boleyn, comes back to life after her wrongful execution, sews her head back on, and seeks revenge. Lehmann considers the contested history of Anne Boleyn, the outlandish accusations against her, and the ways in which her image has been erased and changed over time. She outlines the reasoning behind her portrayal of Anne, explaining how it was born out of a mix of historical fact and modern perspectives. Lehmann discusses Anne’s often forgotten role as mother to Queen Elizabeth I and how that may have shaped her motives as a queen and a politician. Lehmann also talks about similarities between the chaotic courts and allegedly treasonous advisors of Henry VIII and President Trump and the importance of scapegoats in consolidating political power. She reads from The Beheading Game. 

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 Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Rebecca Lehmann

• The Beheading Game
• The Sweating Sickness
• Ringer
• Between the Crackups

Others

• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

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Veteran war correspondent and Kirkus Prize winner Scott Anderson joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to discuss his new nonfiction book King of Kings, a history of the Iranian Revolution. Anderson examines how rapid modernization, inequality, and U.S. influence destabilized Iran, and traces the rise of Ruhollah Khomeini from exiled cleric to revolutionary leader. The conversation explores key mistakes by the Shah, the failures of U.S. intelligence, and how the revolution unfolded in unpredictable ways. Anderson also connects this history to present-day tensions, discussing Iran’s current power structure under Ali Khamenei and the global rise of religious nationalism. Finally, the hosts consider parallels between the Shah’s rule and contemporary political leadership, as well as the limits of American military strategy in the region. Anderson reads from King of Kings. 

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 Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Scott Anderson

• King of Kings
• Lawrence in Arabia

Others

• Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
• Ruhollah Khomeini
• Ali Khamenei
• Iran hostage crisis
• OPEC
• Strait of Hormuz

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Acclaimed novelist Liam Callanan joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss American-born Pope Leo XIV’s recent conflicts with the Trump administration. Callanan, who is Catholic, contextualizes the pope’s critiques of the Iran war and other political comments within the long history of the Vatican’s outspokenness against social injustices. Callanan also talks about the heroine of his most recent novel, When in Rome, a realtor named Claire who finds herself torn between returning to an old flame and taking the veil. He explains Catholicism’s connections to writing and tells the story of his own surreal encounter with the magnetic Pope Francis, who passed away last year. Callanan previews the role faith plays in his upcoming nonfiction debut, Stone Age Astronaut, the biography of a record-setting aviator who becomes a priest. He reads from When in Rome.

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 Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Liam Callanan

• When in Rome
• Stone Age Astronaut: The Astonishing Adventures of America's Forgotten Flier
• Paris by the Book
• Listen & Other Stories
• All Saints
• The Cloud Atlas

Others

• Trump Attacks Pope Leo as Too Liberal and ‘Weak on Crime’ - The New York Times
• JD Vance defends Trump amid spat with Pope Leo: ‘Stick to matters of morality’
• Pope Leo responds to Trump’s attack: ‘I’m not afraid of the Trump administration’
• Author Liam Callanan’s Work Is Animated by His Catholic Faith
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Audience with participants in the Conference organized by “La Civiltà Cattolica” with Georgetown University, May 27, 2023

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Writer and scholar Caroline Bicks, the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, joins co-hosts Jennifer Maritza McCauley and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her time in King’s archives, an experience which resulted in her new book Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King. Bicks talks about meeting King and exploring his early drafts, dramatic revisions, exchanges with readers and editors, and undergraduate columns. She situates five of King’s earliest novels in the context of his personal experiences and deepest fears and also considers how she understood the books as a younger reader, as well as what it was like to revisit them. She reflects on King’s writing process and his unique use of language, showcasing how King is not just the king of horror but also a master of craft. Bicks, McCauley, and Ganeshananthan discuss their experiences with King’s novels and the intimate and personal nature of horror writing. Bicks reads from Monsters in the Archives. 

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 Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Caroline Bicks

• Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King
• Cognition and Girlhood in Shakespeare's World: Rethinking Female Adolescence

Other texts by Stephen King & screen adaptations based on his work

• The Shining
• Carrie
• "IT: Welcome to Derry" | HBO Max
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
• The Stand
• It
• Salem’s Lot
• Night Shift
• Pet Sematary 

Others

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond

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Retired astronaut and novelist Chris Hadfield joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss space exploration, geopolitics, and his new book, Final Orbit. Hadfield recalls watching the Apollo 11 Moon Landing as a child and considers how these historic missions capture public imagination. He explains the risks of reentry and splashdown for Artemis II as well as the scientific promise and political stakes of returning to the Moon in the future. Hadfield also reflects on the ethics of public versus private models of space travel and the possibility of future lunar settlement. Pivoting to fiction, he talks about using the real history of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Cold War tensions, and China’s early space ambitions to build the alternative-history world of Final Orbit. He describes his research process and how he tackles plot, reveals whether the Apollo Murders series will have another installment, and reads from Final Orbit. 

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 Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Chris Hadfield

• The Apollo Murders
• The Defector
• An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
• You Are Here
• The Darkest Dark

Others

• Artemis II
• Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
• Star Trek
• Project Hail Mary
• Astra Carta | Sustainable Markets Initiative 
• "Coming Home May Be the Most Dangerous Part of Artemis II" | The New York Times, April 11

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Psychologist, behavioral geneticist and writer Kathryn Paige Harden joins co-hosts Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book, Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness. Harden talks about the chemistry of human behavior, how society has shaped its views of different communities, the relationship between hereditability and perceived responsibility, and how those opinions shift as science unlocks more mysteries of the human genome. She also reflects on how her Christian upbringing has influenced her thinking and considers what influence new genetic information might have on our legal system. Harden reads from Original Sin.

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 Jennifer Maritza McCauley, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Kathryn Paige Harden

• Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness
• The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality

Others

• The Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso by Dante Alighieri
• “Criminal Complexity” - The American Scholar

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Writer Ana Gavrilovska joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about her recent article for Current Affairs, "Thomas Pynchon Saw American Fascism Coming." Gavrilovska reflects on Pynchon’s long career and his interest in writing about systems, how his time as a technical writer at Boeing informs his work, his classic novels Gravity’s Rainbow and The Crying of Lot 49, and his new novel, Shadow Ticket. She explains why Shadow Ticket’s fictional Airmont family seems like stand-ins for the Trumps and considers the significance of a food-stuffed film that cheese mogul Bruno Airmont watches with his daughter Daphne as many ordinary people go hungry. The three also discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-winning movie One Battle After Another, which takes inspiration from Pynchon’s novel Vineland. Gavrilovska reads from Shadow Ticket. 

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.

Ana Gavrilovska

• "Thomas Pynchon Saw American Fascism Coming" | Current Affairs 

Thomas Pynchon

• Shadow Ticket
• Vineland
• Gravity’s Rainbow
• The Crying of Lot 49
• Inherent Vice
• V.
• Mason & Dixon
• Bleeding Edge
• Against the Day

Others

• One Battle After Another (2025)

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Author Ellie Roscher joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to talk about her recent book, Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports, which explores the roadblocks transgender athletes face and the triumphs they achieve despite these challenges. Roscher discusses the harmful myths surrounding trans athletes and describes the current bans against their participation as a “solution in search of a problem.” Roscher, who interviewed 20 trans athletes for the book along with her co-author, Dr. Allie Baeth, interrogates the sex-segregation of the sports world and outlines how restrictions put in place to police the participation of trans athletes are rooted in patriarchy and tend to hurt cisgender participants as well. They consider trans athletes competing at the youth level and the negative impacts trans bans have on children who are searching for play and community. She also explains the importance of advocacy and how everyone wins when everyone is allowed to play. Roscher reads from Fair Game. 

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.

Ellie Roscher

• Fair Game (with Dr. Allie Baeth)
• The Embodied Path
• Play Like a Girl

Others

• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 9, Episode 5: Max Delsohn on the Importance of Portraying Trans Men
• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 43: Gary Shteyngart on Vera, or Faith, and American Authoritarians

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Novelist Jeff Boyd joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about his new work of literary crime fiction, Hard Times, which is set in Chicago, where he lived previously. The hosts ask about the influence of police procedurals on the portrayal of the novel’s main character, a mixed-race cop named Curtis, and Boyd considers whether there is a gray area between “good cops” and “bad cops.” He also discusses the character of Curtis’s brother-in-law, a high school teacher named Buddy Mack, and reflects on how his own experience as a teacher informed his writing of Buddy as well as the portrayal of students. He explains how his own childhood as the son of a police officer gives him insight into that profession, and shares his experience of hearing feedback from his father. Boyd reads from Hard Times. 

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.

Jeff Boyd

• Hard Times
• The Weight

Others

• Law & Order
• The Wire
• Chicago PD
• Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

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