Kurt Vonnegut Radio with Gabe Hudson

Thank you to the following people:

Mary Bergman, Maureen Clarke, Lola Deneault, Hank Deneault, Erica George, Alena Graedon, Gabrielle Griffis, Andrew Leland, Julia Madsen, Sanchia Semere, Peter Semere, Akhil Sharma, Gary Shteyngart, Deborah Treisman, Jackie Welham

We miss you, Gabe. Thank you for being our teacher and forever a student of life and the craft.

-Jude Brewer

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Welcome to episode #39 of Kurt Vonnegut Radio 👀

Today on the show we’ve got the amazing writer Anne Kadet. Anne Kadet writes the beloved newsletter CAFÉ ANNE. Anne Kadet has forged a new kind of journalism to cover New York City.

Gabe Hudson talks to Anne Kadet about her beloved newsletter, Caffe Anne, and how she uncovers fascinating stories in New York City that reveals our humanity and accurately reflect our reality but are often overlooked. What makes Anne’s newsletter Cafe Anne so remarkable is that she writes about New York City in a completely new way: it is delightful, heart-expanding, full of humanity and wit, and at times laugh out loud funny. And nobody else is doing anything like it.

Why you want to listen to this episode: The way Anne lives in alignment with the dynamic force of narrative in NYC and the way she is attuned to intersecting stories all around her is something you really need to hear in her own words in order to fully understand and appreciate. It is profound and fun and eye-opening.

(Side note: in addition to being a fabulous writer, Anne has one of the best laughs I’ve encountered. And I don’t think these two qualities are unrelated.)

Quick question: Can you guess what fictional character Anne Kadet most strongly identifies with?

Hint:

Some notable Anne Kadet quotes

On the role that her readers play in the stories she writes for her newsletter

A third of my ideas or even more come from readers. They’re like, “Anne, you gotta check this thing out!”

On the feeling she gets when she goes somewhere and feels the tremors of a story for her newsletter coming into being

Like you’re not supposed to be here, but you are supposed to be here.

On why she believes the best way to tell a story is the easiest way

So I feel like just straightforward chronological order. Talking about what happened and what it was like for me is not only the best way to deliver the story, it also happens to be the easiest way. And I love when the best thing and the easiest thing are the same thing.

On her storytelling maxim “don’t push, don’t pull”

I feel the great story is the story that wants to come out all by itself without me pushing or pulling it. If I'm pushing or pulling, that means I have something specific in mind.

On what she is delivering to readers of her newsletter, CAFÉ ANNE

I simply have a nice ability to deliver an unusual way of looking at the world, on unusual topics, in a professional way.

Show Notes

Subscribe to Anne Kadet’s newsletter CAFÉ ANNE

Other Kurt Vonnegut Radio episodes for your enjoyment:

Dave Eggers

Jen Taub

Maggie Smith

Michael Estrin

Merve Emre

Subscribe to Kurt Vonnegut Radio newsletter/podcast

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Today's guest, Mark Wynn, is the subject of a new documentary film called, This is Where I Learned Not to Sleep, made by award-winning filmmakers Anne de Mare and Kristen Kelly. So who is Mark Wynn? Well he's a former police officer in Nashville who – after listening carefully to the women of Nashville in a way that nobody else was – he started the largest domestic violence prevention unit in the country. Mark also a survivor of domestic violence, as was his mother, as were his siblings. And the essence of the story is that he had a stepfather who committed horrible violence against them all in the state of Texas. And on one occasion, this stepfather attacked Mark's mother. She grabbed a baseball bat, hit that man over the head and Mark's family fled back to Nashville. And in the course of this film, Mark returns to that very house in Texas and revisits that trauma bravely and courageously. The other narrative strand that extends through the film is that Mark has spent the last 30 plus years of his life devoted to trying to make the world a safer place for children and women. He has traveled to every state in America and other countries around the world. Speaking to various law enforcement agencies about the need to address interpersonal violence.

I think you'll be mesmerized within minutes of hearing Mark Wynn tell his story and hear the humility, the compassion, the wisdom in his voice. I have never met anyone exactly like Mark Wynn.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

view the doc This is Where I learned Not To Sleep

visit the website for doc This is Where I Learned Not To Sleep

Learn more abt The Mary Parrish Center (founded in honor of Mark’s mother)

Learn more about the filmmakers

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233

Learn more about Mark Wynn

For media related to film, contact Page One Media

Other episodes of Kurt Vonnegut Radio for your enjoyment:

Dave Eggers

Jen Taub

Maggie Smith

Michael Estrin

Merve Emre

Rate/Review Kurt Vonnegut Radio

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Jen Taub is an acclaimed author, legal scholar, and podcaster extraordinaire. Gabe talks to Jen about why she is putting her whole heart into her podcast Booked Up. This conversation contains many treasures, including the story of how Jen discovered who she was and what was most important to her.

Jen Taub, choice quotes from convo

On why she started her podcast

"Ever since COVID and beyond, we've just been impoverished. And I wanted to rebuild that. I think I started this podcast. I wanted to do this for a while. Because I realized when my second book came out, there weren't that many opportunities to talk to people about it. And I thought I want to be that opportunity for people."

On how being a podcast host requires certain level of improv

"You just may have maybe listened to the Michael Lewis interview, but I didn't realize I was going to say to him, ‘Oh, so you write.’ And like, he went with it."

On the art of asking a question ( by not asking a question)

"I don't typically ask a direct question. I'll say something about myself. I'll make a random comment. And the next thing, you know, someone's told me their life story. People really want to be seen and they want to be heard. And I really want to hear and see them."

On her idea of heaven

"Talking with the authors is heaven."

Subscribe & listen to “Booked Up with Jen Taub” on Apple or Spotify

Subscribe to Jennifer Taub’s newsletter Money & Gossip

Visit Jennifer’s website and follow her on twitter & instagram

Buy Jennifer’s critically acclaimed book Big Dirty Money

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This is the 2nd and final part of Gabe's conversation with Dave Eggers

Dave opens up and gets candid about his own artistic impulse to pivot with each writing project. He talks about his early days in art school, and what drew him to certain artists. He talks about Lorrie Moore, George Saunders, , and why he thinks Percival Everett is probably the rightful heir to the more radical writers of the 60’s.

For Gabe, this conversation was somewhat emotional (but in a good one). As Dave notes at the end of our convo, they've been friends now for 25 years. Also, at some point in here, the writer Michael Lewis comes up: and Gabe talks about how he heard Michael Lewis on the podcast Smartless, talking about in the aftermath of losing his daughter: his friend Dave Eggers showed up on his porch with food, and told Michael, “I’m going to be right there in that car in front of your house, for the next 24 hours.” And then Michael Lewis talked about he had never experienced grief and loss like that, and what he learned from Dave in that gesture is that that is the best and most compassionate thing you can do for someone.

Anyway, if this episode has a theme it is definitely capital F friendship.

Dave Eggers quotes

On Lorrie Moore and her new book

I've been reading Laurie Moore's new book. I'm only in the second chapter, but she's always been one of my favorite writers for the same reason. She's so funny. She writes beautiful sentences, but she was not afraid to throw in One liners every paragraph. And they're really one liners. They're really tightly written. They're very funny and they're not afraid to go for the laugh. She’s a national treasure, one of our best writers, every bit as funny and important as Mark Twain was in his time.

On Kurt Vonnegut

I think that people should know that he was the guy that you'd want him to be. He was every bit as generous, and kind. And, we asked him to do the intro to the Best American Non Required Reading, which I used to edit. And he wrote a fax back. He used to fax and he wrote back, Dear Believer. Cause he got it mixed up , he's like, I wish I could do the intro. That would have been a gas or something like that. It sounded like he didn't either didn't sound like he 100 percent meant it, joking like boy, , what fun that would have been. But I'm, old and tired and I can't do it. Something like that. It was very him. And, we've kept and framed this fax by him and, but you know, he was exactly the guy that he was on the page and that's not that common.

Buy Dave Eggers’ new novel The Eyes and the Impossible (with wooden cover) from McSweeney’s

Buy Dave’s new novel (without wooden cover) from Bookshop

Visit the McSweeney’s website

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Gabe and Dave Eggers have been friends for the last 25 years: since Dave first popped up on the national stage, with his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. And his indie publishing juggernaut: McSweeney's. 

This interview is, in part, to support Dave's new novel, The Eyes and the Impossible. A novel that’s for all ages. And for the ages. This book is written in the first person, from the perspective of a dog named Johannes. (Go ahead, take a second to reread that last sentence.) This book is wondrous, beautiful, hilarious, and somewhat heartbreaking. It also has gorgeous illustrations. And some editions have a wooden cover.

Dave Eggers quotes

On having lunch with Kurt Vonnegut

Gabe: Vonnegut was obsessed with the idea, and I know you know this because I have always known that you love him, too –Dave: I met him.Gabe: You met him? Well can you tell me about that?Dave: in New York. His wife, Jill Krementz, reached out and she was a photographer. So she did a photo thing of me in Central Park. And she said, Oh, you know, you’ve got to come over. And it was a lunch, I think, in their house in the twenties. And it was me. This was 2002. And it was me and Colson Whitehead and, I think John Leonard. And then there was a jazz writer. And then Vonnegut and Jill. And what was funny was… (click the above podcast device to hear the rest)On early McSweeney’s event with David Byrne

We did one “happening” in San Francisco at a place called Cell Space. Which is this cavernous sort of event hall slash living environment. It was like a pirate ship, with people living in the rafters and under the stage. It was really old timey San Francisco hippie space, but most of the people there were youngish. And we had an event there where David Byrne might have been out here for his book, The New Sins, that we published.We said it would be a panel. And it was Byrne and I on the panel. And then we got an FBI agent, who I don't know why or who he was. I can't remember how we found him. And then a local professor who was an expert on ancient Sumerian iconography, I think.And we planted a bunch of people in the audience, so that the Q&A – because I think we went straight to Q&A – was all directed to the Sumerian iconography experts. So that you have David Byrne sitting there, silent, for an hour. Because every last question was somebody like, “Well, in AD 540, the Sumerian, poet…” We had all of these questions written by the expert himself beforehand.And then the whole thing ended, we had booked, I think with David Byrne's knowledge, but maybe without. We had booked a band called the Extra Action Marching Band, which was a big sort of anarchic marching band with tattoos and piercings and weird clothes. But drums and a majorette and everything. And they broke into the place and then just shut the whole event down by playing in the crowd until it was over. So the event was crazy.

Buy Dave Eggers’ new novel The Eyes and the Impossible (with wooden cover) from McSweeney’s

Buy Dave’s new novel (without wooden cover) from Bookshop

Rate/review Kurt Vonnegut Radio on podcast platform of your choice

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Gabe interviews special guest author, Michael Estrin , who writes the beloved newsletter, Situation Normal . Around which a big community of fervent super-devoted readers has sprung up. Michael’s comic stories from his life are big-hearted and sometimes weird. When you talk to him about the community of readers that gather around his words, his deep affection for them shines through. The other cool thing about Michael's writing endeavor is his creative partnership with his wife.

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Merve is renowned critic, scholar, contributing writer at the The New Yorker, and Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University. Gabe and Merve discuss Merve's new piece “What is Mom Rage Actually?” in this week’s The New Yorker.

Read Merve Emre’s new piece “What is Mom Rage, Actually?” in this week’s The New Yorker

Read Merve’s interview with Diane Williams in The New Yorker

Read Merve’s recent piece on Italo Calvino in The New Yorker

Buy Merve’s book The Personality Brokers

Buy Merve’s book The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway

Buy Merve’s book The Ferrante Letters

Visit Merve’s website

Attend Merve’s guest Speaker series The Critic and Her Publics at Weslyan University (free & open to the public)

Follow Merve’s work as Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism at Weslyan University

Rate/review Kurt Vonnegut Radio on podcast platform of your choice

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Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful; the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: and author of the beloved, world famous poem, "Good Bones." Maggie Smith’s memoir is truth-telling of the highest order. This book chronicles the peaks and valleys of her odyssey in recent years. How her poem, “Good Bones,” went super viral, and her marriage dissolved, and she found herself in frightening terrain. And how she stepped up and responded by writing two books, and through her artistry and creativity: she was able to insure that she and her kids would be OK and continue to live in their house.

Show Notes

Buy Maggie Smith’s new memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Subscribe to Maggie’s newsletter For Dear Life

Buy Maggie’s recent book Keep Moving

Buy Maggie’s poetry collection Good Bones

Visit Maggie’s website and follow her on twitter and instagram

Rate/review Kurt Vonnegut Radio on podcast platform of your choice

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A.M. Homes is author of 13 books including most recently a novel: The Unfolding.  Homes' 2013, May We Be Forgiven, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and her memoir, The Mistress's Daughter was published to international acclaim. Her work has been translated into 22 languages. Gabe talks to the iconic writer A.M. Homes about her new novel, The Unfolding, her renowned Barbie story, "A Real Doll," teaching at Princeton, and her position in the Writers Guild and the WGA strike.

Quotes from the episode

Why she wrote a Barbie story back in the day

I wrote it while I was a graduate student at the University of Iowa, and I was really just interested in how, when I was growing up, my mother was like, Barbie's not an appropriate toy for girls to play with, you can't have a Barbie, she's too sexual. And so I wanted to write this theoretically innocent story about a boy who was dating a Barbie doll.

How ppl responded to her Barbie when she was in U. of Iowa MFA

I went and got one, and I put it on the mantle in my apartment in Iowa City. And everyone who came over started doing things to Barbie and the first thing every person did was they took off her clothes and I was like, weird, like you come into my house and you undress my Barbie?

And then they would confess. They would tell me things that either they had done to their Barbie or that their sibling had done to Barbie. And so it immediately became a much more complicated and darker story about... Men and women, to sexuality, to all this kind of stuff that's just under the surface.

On why her latest novel, The Unfolding, is a political novel set in 2008

I also am very interested, as one sees in The Unfolding, in the domestic. And so this was a chance in this book to write big and small. Large scale American political landscape, and also American familial landscape, and how that all evolves. Because the novel is really about how we got to now. And the choice to set it in this period between the election inauguration in 2008, I wanted to begin to illustrate how the racism and sexism that was always latent, obviously, and had never really gone away, but when Obama was elected, it also became Much brighter and louder. I think older white men got really scared. And so there absolutely is this sense of what is the underlying threat.

Buy A.M. Homes’ new novel The Unfolding

Buy A.M. Homes’ The Safety of Objects

Read about A.M. Homes’s fictional encounter between Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger

Read about A.M. Homes’ Embrace the Absurd public art project w Laurie Anderson

Visit A.M.’s website and follow her on twitter

A.M.’s book recs:

Buy Randall Keenan’s Black Folk Could Fly

Buy Maria Popova’s Figuring

Buy Henry Hoke’s Open Throat

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Enjoy more Kurt Vonnegut Radio episodes:

Sam Lipsyte: Interview

Mike Sowden: Interview

Sari Botton: Interview

Alex Dobrenko: Interview

Andrew Leland: Interview

On Sinead O’Connor

On George Saunders

]On Kurt Vonnegut

Follow Kurt Vonnegut Radio on podcast app of your choice

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Contact me at gabehudsonpod(at)gmail.com

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