Kurt Vonnegut Radio with Gabe Hudson

Gabe Hudson gets personal about what Sinead O'Connor's songs and activism meant to him And to Generation X

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Gabe Hudson talks about what Sinead O'Connor's songs and activism meant to him. And how she changed Generation X. He talks about her ripping up the Pope's picture on Saturday Night Live. Her performance at the Bob Dylan Benefit concert at Madison Square Garden. And why she sang covers of Bob Marley's song War. Gabe also talks about what he is doing with his grief about Sinead's passing.

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Andrew Leland is author of the new memoir, The Country of the Blind: a Memoir at the End of Sight and he is an editor at The Believer. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and 99 Percent Invisible, and he was host and producer of the podcast, The Organist. Gabe and Andrew have a fun and open-hearted conversation about Andrew’s experiences in blind communities across America, his recent Radiolab piece where he joined a crew of disabled people in a training program for astronauts, the meaning of the word “disability,” how to be an ally to blind people, writing journalism for The New Yorker, and what it's like to be the grandson of the playwright Neil Simon.

Follow Andrew Leland on Twitter and Instagram and visit his website

Buy Andrew’s new memoir The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight

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Jude Brewer was Executive Producer and Editor for this episode

Other episodes for you to enjoy:

Kurt Vonnegut

George Saunders

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Host Gabe Hudson talks about how George Saunders gave him some writing advice that changed his life.

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Host Gabe Hudson gets personal and talks about what Kurt Vonnegut's writing has meant to him.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom is the author of Thick and Other Essays, a columnist for the New York Times, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a 2020 McArthur Fellow. Tressie talks to Gabe about the kind of freedom she wants for all Black women. And how her mother was a member of the Black Panther Party in Winston Salem, NC. We learn about Tressie's 18 stages of essay writing. And why are white audiences more comfortable thinking about Black people in a historical context?

Visit Tressie McMillan Cottom's website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram

Read Tressie's column in New York Times

Buy Tressie's nonfiction book Thick and Other Essays

Watch Tressie on The Daily Show

More episode resources and links

Email Gabe Hudson: [email protected]

Follow Gabe on Twitter and Instagram

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Merve Emre (contributing writer at The New Yorker)

Charles Yu (National Book Award Winner)

Diksha Basu (author of Destination Wedding)

Qian Julie Wang (NYT's bestselling author of Beautiful Country)

About the Host:

Gabe Hudson is the author of 2 books published from Knopf. His honors include being named one of Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists,” PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist, the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction from Brown University, a fellowship from Humanities War & Peace Initiative at Columbia University, and Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His writing has appeared in Granta, The New Yorker, The Believer, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. He was Editor-at-Large for McSweeney’s for 10+ years. He served in the Marine Corps. He teaches at Columbia University.  

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Qian Julie Wang is the New York Times Bestselling author of Beautiful Country and a Yale-educated litigator. Qian Julie has one of the most incredible life stories you have ever heard. But Qian Julie's personal philosophy and inspired worldview may well be the most extraordinary thing about her. Qian Julie tells Gabe what it was like for her and her family to give up everything in China and move to Brooklyn when she was seven years old.

Visit Qian Julie Wang's website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram

Buy Julie's memoir Beautiful Country

Read Qian Julie in New York Times

Watch Qian Julie on YouTube

More episode resources and links

Email Gabe Hudson: [email protected]

Follow Gabe on Twitter and Instagram

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Stephanie Land (NYT's bestselling author of Maid)

Tressie McMillan Cottom (NYT's columnist)

Merve Emre (contributing writer at The New Yorker)

Charles Yu (National Book Award Winner)

About the Host:

Gabe Hudson is the author of 2 books published from Knopf. His honors include being named one of Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists,” PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist, the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction from Brown University, a fellowship from Humanities War & Peace Initiative at Columbia University, and Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His writing has appeared in Granta, The New Yorker, The Believer, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. He was Editor-at-Large for McSweeney’s for 10+ years. He served in the Marine Corps. He teaches at Columbia University.  

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Rebecca Makkai is the author of 3 novels and her newest novel, I Have Some Questions for You, will be published in February. Rebecca's last novel The Great Believers, a novel set in Chicago at the height of the American AIDS epidemic, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Rebecca and Gabe talk about having ADHD, and the challenges of having a brain that's like Times Square. But also the ways in which ADHD can be a creative superpower. Rebecca talks about her impossibly glamorous grandmother who wrote 30 novels in Hungary.

Visit Rebecca Makkai's website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram

Buy Rebecca's novel I Have Some Questions for You

Watch Rebecca on PBS Books

Read about Rebecca in New York Times

More episode resources and links

Email Gabe Hudson: [email protected]

Follow Gabe on Twitter and Instagram

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Tressie McMillan Cottom (NYT's columnist)

Merve Emre (contributing writer at The New Yorker)

Charles Yu (National Book Award Winner)

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (NYT's bestselling author of Friday Black)

Joe Hagan (author of Sticky Fingers: the Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone)

Diksha Basu (author of Destination Wedding)

Qian Julie Wang (NYT's bestselling author of Beautiful Country)

Tod Goldberg (NYT's bestselling author of Gangster Nation)

Gabe Hudson is the award-winning author of 2 books published from Knopf. His honors include being named one of Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists,” PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist, the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction from Brown University, a fellowship from Humanities War & Peace Initiative at Columbia University, and Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His writing has appeared in Granta, The New Yorker, The Believer, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. He was Editor-at-Large for McSweeney’s for 10+ years. He served in the Marine Corps. He taught at Princeton University, and currently teaches at Columbia University.  

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Stephanie Land didn’t take the traditional path to writing a New York Times Bestselling memoir (MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive). And she didn’t take the traditional path to having her memoir be adapted into a Netflix Emmy-nominated series (MAID). Stephanie and Gabe talk about her struggles as a single mother living in public housing with two children and her determination to become a writer.

Produced by Lit Hub

Visit Stephanie Land's website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram

Buy Stephanie's nonfiction book Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

Read about Stephanie in New York Times

Watch Stephanie on YouTube

More episode resources and links

Subscribe to Twitter Verse

Rate/Review Twitter Verse

Email Gabe Hudson: [email protected]

Follow Gabe on Twitter and Instagram

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Merve Emre (contributing writer at The New Yorker)

Tressie McMillan Cottom (NYT's columnist)

Charles Yu (National Book Award Winner)

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (NYT's bestselling author of Friday Black)

Joe Hagan (author of Sticky Fingers: the Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone)

About the Host:

Gabe Hudson is the author of 2 books published from Knopf. His honors include being named one of Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists,” PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist, the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction from Brown University, a fellowship from Humanities War & Peace Initiative at Columbia University, and Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His writing has appeared in Granta, The New Yorker, The Believer, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. He was Editor-at-Large for McSweeney’s for 10+ years. He served in the Marine Corps. He teaches at Columbia University.  

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Charles Yu is an author who has won the National Book Award. He's also a screenwriter who has written for Westworld. Charles gets real about the surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans in recent years and the psychic toll these attacks have had. Charles explains why it feels like something in our society is either broken or it was always there and has just been recently revealed. And how is the adaptation of Charles' novel Interior Chinatown (for Hulu) coming along?

Visit Charles Yu's website and follow him on Twitter

Buy Charle's novel Interior Chinatown

Read about Charles in New York Times

Watch Charles on The Daily Show

More episode resources and links

Email Gabe Hudson: [email protected]

Follow Gabe on Twitter and Instagram

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Tressie McMillan Cottom (NYT's columnist)

Merve Emre (contributing writer at The New Yorker)

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (NYT's bestselling author of Friday Black)

Stephanie Land (NYT's bestselling author of Maid)

Qian Julie Wang (NYT's bestselling author of Beautiful Country)

Rebecca Makkai (author of The Great Believers)

About the Host Gabe Hudson:

Gabe Hudson is the award-winning author of 2 books published from Knopf. His honors include being named one of Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists,” PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist, the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction from Brown University, a fellowship from Humanities War & Peace Initiative at Columbia University, and Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His writing has appeared in Granta, The New Yorker, The Believer, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. He was Editor-at-Large for McSweeney’s for 10+ years. He served in the Marine Corps. He teaches at Columbia University.  

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