NonFicPod

Love letters reveal so much - especially when the writers are the people who dictate the fate of nations, but who somehow come off as a bit... thirsty? Find out why Napoleon detested being left on read, why Prince Albert used to give Queen Victoria certificates for being ‘most improved,’ and why there are two sides to every story.This archive cut includes the extended version of the show, which contains ‘Shit I Wish I’d Known’ from Dan’s perspective as an author of dozens of books, and as an experienced editor. What do editors wish writers knew? And what drives someone to write so damned much?! Find out on the extended cut. https://www.patreon.com/join/nonficpod 

Daniel Smith has written over 30 non-fiction books including the hugely successful How to Think Like… series. His book The Peer and the Gangster was described by the Observer as “revelatory and hilarious” while The Ardlamont Mystery is an “enthralling real- life murder mystery,” according to the Daily Mail. His next book, the Love Letters of Kings and Queens came out in February. 

You can find Daniel at https://www.danielsmithbooks.co.uk/ and on Twitter You can order his extensive back catalogue from the fine people at allgoodbookshop.co.uk

Works Mentioned

Joan Aiken, Arabel and Mortimer Stories

Joanna Spyri, Heidi

Rosie Wilby, The Breakup Monologues (NonFicPod episode coming soon!)

Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred (NonFicPod episode coming soon!)

Nadia Owusu, Aftershocks (NonFicPod series 1 episode 8!)

Episode transcript available here (Google doc)

Find Us Online

- Patreon: www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Bookshop: www.uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod

- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Producer Emma Byrne 

- Guest: Daniel Smith

- Producer: Beatrice Bazell

- Composer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must-reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're in the mood for reflections this week: on a girlhood spent between cultures; on the shyness of life in poetry; on resilience when writing long-form, and of dream-like watery scenes past and present. Our guest is Nina Mingya Powles, whose latest collection of essays - Small Bodies of Water - spans oceans, pools and ponds worldwide - and is currently attracting heaps of praise.                   

The extended version of the show contains ‘Sh*t I Wish I’d Known’ from Nina’s perspective as an award-winning nature writer, editor and self-described 'anxious poet'. What were the early steps in her publishing journey? How does she handle her urge to hide away? And what does it mean to have 'a career in creative writing' anyway? Hear all about it on the extended NFP cut, for Patreon subscribers at Silver Nib level and up. Join us at www.patreon.com/join/nonficpod 

Nina Mingya Powles is a poet, zine maker and founding editor from Aotearoa, with three published poetry collections to her name, as well as Bitter Melon, a small press showcasing poets from the Asian diaspora. Her latest work, Small Bodies of Water, won the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize for underrepresented voices in nature writing.

You can find Nina at www.ninapowles.com, on Twitter and Instagram @ninamingya, and through her monthly(ish) Tiny Letter, Comfort Food.

Link to transcript of this episode here (Google doc)

Organisations, Events, and Books mentioned:

- Bitter Melon website

- Nan Shepherd prize https://nanshepherdprize.com/

- Wellington zinefest https://www.wellingtonzinefest.com/

- Maggie Nelson https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maggie-nelson

- Jake Spicer, ‘You Will Be Able to Draw By the End of this Book’ 

- Usborne’s Step-by-Step Drawing books https://usborne.com/gb/activities-for-kids/step-by-step-drawing

- Cathy Rentzenbrink, ‘A Manual for Heartache: How to feel Better’, and ‘The Last Act of Love: the Story of My Brother and His Sister’

Find Us Online

- Patreon: www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Bookshop: www.uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod

- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Producer: Georgie Codd 

- Guest: Nina Mingya Powles

- Producer: Beatrice Bazell

- Composer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must-reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest

Georgie Codd has worked behind the scenes at a funeral parlour, taught English in a Himalayan nunnery, edited publications for the Tibetan Government in Exile, and shadowed drug dealers in Florida City. 

Winner of the Seth Donaldson Bursary, with an MA in Prose Writing from the University of East Anglia, Georgie’s first book is We Swim to the Shark. Described by the Times Literary Supplement as an almost spiritual mission, We Swim to the Shark blends memoir, reportage, nature writing and insights into mental health. 

You can find Georgie at https://www.georgiecodd.co.uk/ and of course, hosting Nonfic Pod! 

In this episode we talk about BBC Storyville Documentary Collective, the book The Festival Organiser's Bible and of course, We Swim To The Shark

We also talk - a lot - about wildwordsfest.com

Find the transcript here.

Books, Articles, Pods, and Organisations Mentioned:

Rebecca Foster, ‘Phobias’, Times Literary Supplement review of We Swim to the Shark

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Society of Authors

Spread the Word

National Centre of Writing

Writing Excuses podcast

Collective, documentary directed by Alexander Nanau

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/

Sherborne Literary Festival https://www.sherborneliterarysociety.com/events

Judith Spelman, The Festival Organiser's Bible: How to plan, organise and run a successful festival 

Wild Worlds Festival, wildworldsfest.com

ZimFest https://www.zimfestlive.com

Find Us Online

- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Producers: Emma Byrne, Beatrice Bazell

- Guest: Georgie Codd

- Composer: Mike Wyer

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A summer-time special recorded in Brighton, priming you with great NonFic ideas for the young folk in your life.

Note: this episode contains swearing.

Our Pick of Kids' NonFic:

Justin Hancock, Can We Talk About Consent?: A Book about Freedom, Choices, and Agreement

Clare Balding, Fall Off, Get Back On, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Be at the Top of Your Game!

Frederick Joseph, The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person 

Tiffany Jewell, This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on how to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work 

Jenny Devenny, Race Cars: A Children's Book about White Privilege

Clive Gifford, Backward Science: What was Life Like Before World-changing Discoveries?

Libby Deutsch, The Everyday Journeys of Ordinary Things: From Phones to Food and From Paper to Poo

Philip Bunting, The World's Most Pointless Animals: Or Are They?

Find Us Online

- Patreon: www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Bookshop: www.uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod

- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne, Georgie Codd and Beatrice Bazell

- Producer: Georgie Codd 

- Producer: Beatrice Bazell

- Composer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must-reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trigger warning: this episode contains brief references to sexual abuse and trauma.

With its eye-catching title, bold ambition, and cover that simply cannot be ignored, The Sex Lives of African Women is set to get temperatures sizzling this summer. Join Codd as she meets with its author, the writer Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, to discuss womanhood, writing, Africa and, ahem, SEX.

The extended version of the show contains ‘Sh*t I Wish I’d Known’ from Nana’s perspective as an author, story-collector and feminist activist. How does she approach interviews and transcripts? What advice would she give to other African writers aiming to publish? And what's the one question she wishes somebody would ask her? Hear all about it on the extended NFP cut, for Patreon subscribers at Silver Nib level and up. Join in at www.patreon.com/join/nonficpod 

Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is a Ghanaian writer, public speaker and feminist activist, working as Director of Communications and Media for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development. In early 2009, with Malaka Grant, she co-founded the award-winning blog: Adventures From the Bedrooms of African Women, as a space to focus on African women, sex and sexualities.

Her writing has been published in the Guardian, openDemocracy, and Essence.

You can find Nana at www.darkoathewriter.com, on Twitter @nas009 and on Instagram @dfordarkoa

Link to transcript of this episode here (Google doc)

People, Organisations, and Works Mentioned

- Association for Women's Rights in Development link: https://www.awid.org/

- Farafina Trust: http://farafinatrust.org/about-us/about-farafina-trust/

- Dorothy Koomson: https://twitter.com/DorothyKoomson

- Robert Caskie, Nana's agent: https://twitter.com/rcaskie1

- Sharmaine Lovegrove, Dialogue Books Founder: https://twitter.com/SharLovegrove

- It Wasn’t Exactly Love: Stories from the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop 2012 https://farafinabooks.com/books-store/it-wasnt-exactly-love

- The Pot And Other Stories https://www.femrite.org/the-pot-and-other-stories/

Podcasts and Books from Byrne and Codd's Chat:

Today in Focus podcast

The Last Archive podcast

Ronan Farrow, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators 

Emma Byrne, Swearing Is Good For You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language 

Annabelle Sami, Llama Out Loud!

Tim Guest, My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru

Find Us Online

- Patreon: www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Bookshop: www.uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod

- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Producer: Georgie Codd 

- Guest: Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah 

- Assistant Producer: Beatrice Bazell

- Composer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must-reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You know how some lines almost leap from the page? In this episode of NonFicPod, there's one that Codd can't shake: ‘When it comes to communicating details about diet, health, sex and mood, an anal gland can be surprisingly eloquent.’

Hit 'play' for a rollicking chat around our very own Emma Byrne's second book, How to Build a Human: what science knows about childhood.

For our Patreon subscribers at Silver Nib level and up, the extended version of the show contains ‘Shit I Wish I’d Known’ from Emma’s perspective as an author, scientist, and public speaker. How does she balance being a mum with being a writer? Where does she find her team mates when writing solo? How has she handled the dreaded 'burnout'? Hear all about it on the extended NFP cut. Find out how at https://www.patreon.com/join/nonficpod 

Dr Emma Byrne is an actual robot scientist – a robot scientist! – who writes for Wired, the Guardian, Forbes and the FT. She frequently appears on the BBC and Sky News talking about the future of robotics and artificial intelligence; has packed out pubs and convention halls with her talks, and in case you hadn’t noticed yet, is also the esteemed founder and co-host of NonFicPod.

You can find Emma at www.emmabyrne.net, and on Twitter at @SciWriBy and @How2BuildAHuman

Link to transcript of this episode here (Google doc)

People and Works Mentioned:

Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

Lawrence Wright, God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State

Lawrence Wright, ‘Lives of the Saints’, 2002 article on the future of Mormonism in The New Yorker [paywall] 

Find Us Online

- Patreon: www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Bookshop: www.uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod

- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Producer: Georgie Codd 

- Guest: Emma Byrne 

- Socials and transcription: Beatrice Bazell

- Composer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must-reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode's transcript can be found here

Nadia Owusu is a woman whose life story spans continents. Losses and uprootings marked her early life, leaving her with questions about her worth, her identity, even her sanity. A woman with an emotional seismometer, always attuned to the possibility of loss, she witnessed civil war, terrorism, and the ravages of colonialism and anti-blackness. She was also abandoned by her birth mother, lost her father to cancer, and fought with her widowed stepmother for the truth of her father’s memory.

Described by Margo Jefferson as “rigorous and luminous” and by Xiaolu Guo as “intense and intimate” Aftershocks is a beautiful, moving, unflinching memoir of a woman who transcends boundaries and defies categories. 

Guest

You can find Nadia Owusu on twitter at @NadiaOwusu1 on Instagram @wheresnadia and online at nadiaaowusu.com Her Whiting Award-winning memoir Aftershocks is available now.

Works & Authors Mentioned:

Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin

Ren Hang (Eponymous)

How to Build a Human - Emma Byrne

Find Us Online

- Patreon: www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Bookshop: www.uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod

- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Producer: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Guest: Nadia Owusu

- Social Team: Beatrice Bazell and Felicity Quick

- Composer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and about life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Parenting could well be the world's toughest job. On the plus side, fatherhood's giving Nikesh Shukla some great writing material. Join us as he talks about finding motivation - both as a father and an author - and speaks openly about his frustration at publishing in a pandemic.

For our Patreon subscribers at Silver Nib level and up, the extended version of the show contains ‘Shit I Wish I’d Known’ from Nikesh’s perspective as a mentor, author and comedy-writer. What role does humour play in his work? How is he processing grief through publishing? Why does he think his daughters will tell him to "F*ck off" eventually? Hear all about it on the extended NFP cut. Find out how at https://www.patreon.com/join/nonficpod 

Nikesh Shukla is an author, editor, journalist, podcaster and screenwriter with three novels to his name – including the Costa shortlisted debut, Coconut Unlimited. It’s safe to say he is something of a writing powerhouse: he has also authored two books for young adults, edited the bestselling essay collection The Good Immigrant (co-editing its 2019 follow-up for US audiences) AND co-founded the literary journal The Good Journal. 

In February 2021, Nikesh published a new true story of his own, the book Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home, which is accompanied by a weekly podcast of the same name.

You can find Nikesh at www.nikesh-shukla.com, and on Twitter and Instagram

Link to transcript of this episode here (Google doc)

Works & Authors Mentioned:

James Baldwin, novelist and essayist, essay 'The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity.' Quote cited: 'You must decide all over again whether you want to be famous or whether you want to write.'

Ta-Nehisi Coates, author and journalist

Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Nikesh Shukla, essay 'Namaste' in The Good Immigrant

Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier, Cesar's Way

Emma Byrne, How to Build a Human (forthcoming)

Find Us Online

- Patreon: www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Bookshop: www.uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod

- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Producer: Georgie Codd 

- Guest: Nikesh Shukla

- Socials and transcription: Beatrice Bazell

- Composer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's get real now, people: love may well be all around us (many thanks to Wet Wet Wet for the constant earworm), but so too are the breakups. Tonnes of them. Join Rosie Wilby, the 'breakup queen', as she shares a few snippets of what she's learned about inevitable endings everywhere.

For our Patreon subscribers at Silver Nib level and up, the extended version of the show contains ‘Shit I Wish I’d Known’ from Rosie’s perspective as a comedian who presents, writes and pods. What's her top tip for navigating an author contract? How does she fund her work? What does she really think about her book's front cover? Hear all about it on the extended NFP cut. Find out how at https://www.patreon.com/join/nonficpod 

Rosie Wilby is an award-winning comedian, podcaster and author. Her first book Is Monogamy Dead? was shortlisted for the Diva Literary Awards 2017 and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2018. Rosie presents The Breakup Monologues podcast, and has toured the world with a trilogy of shows that started with The Science of Sex and ended with The Conscious Uncoupling, which was shortlisted for Funny Women Best Show.

You can find Rosie at www.rosiewilby.com, and on Twitter and Instagram

People & Works Mentioned

Dr Qazi Rahman

Brian Earp, 'Love is the Drug'

Abigail Tarttelin, 'Golden Boy'

Patricia Wiltshire, 'Traces: The Memoir of a Forensic Scientist and Criminal Investigator'

Francesca Beauman, 'Shapely Ankle Preferr'd: A History of the Lonely Hearts Ad'

Find Us Online

- Patreon: www.patreon.com/nonficpod

- Bookshop: www.uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod

- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nonficpod

- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Hosts: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Producer: Georgie Codd 

- Guest: Rosie Wilby

- Socials and transcription: Beatrice Bazell

- Composer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical cosmologist and a campaigner for inclusion in physics. She is an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire and is working on the NASA Strobe-x mission. Dr Prescod Weinstein recently received the 2021 Edward A. Bouchet Award from the American Physical Society, in recognition "For contributions to theoretical cosmology and particle physics. The Disordered Cosmos, A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred is available now. 

You can find Chanda at http://www.cprescodweinstein.com and on Twitter

People, Articles, and Organisations Mentioned:

• NASA STROBE-X Mission
• Edward A. Bouchet Award
• Dr Prescod-Weinstein’s column in New Scientist
• Pillars of Creation, Eagle Nebula
• Windrush deportation scandal
• Joey Neilsen
• Benjamin Banneker 
• Onesimus
• Article on the Mauna Kea observatories expansion in Nature
• Haleakalā observatory
• ‘The James Webb Space Telescope Needs to Be Renamed’, article by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Sarah Tuttle, Lucianne Walkowicz, and Brian Nord
• ‘What I wanted when I called for a Strike for Black Lives’, article by Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
• Article by Selma James on founding the Wages for Housework Campaign
• Margaret Prescod and Wilmette Brown, ‘Birth Announcement’ flyer for Black Women for Wages for Housework
• S. Zainab Williams, Managing Editor at Book Riot

Books Mentioned:

• Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Emma Byrne, How To Build a Human: The Art of Parenting Like a Scientist
• Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
• Kurt Kohlstedt & Roman Mars, The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design
• Brian Keating, Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor
• Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe

Episode transcript available here (Google doc)

Find Us Online

- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thenonficpod

- Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/nonficpod (purchases here support us and independent booksellers in the UK)

- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thenonficpod

- Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/nonficpod

Credits

- Guest: Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

- Episode Producer: Emma Byrne

- Series Exec Producers: Emma Byrne and Georgie Codd

- Series Senior Producer: Beatrice Bazell 

- Composer and consulting engineer: Mike Wyer

About Us

Brought to you by author and publishing rockstar Georgie Codd and author and broadcaster Emma Byrne, NonFicPod is your home for the latest nonfiction must reads. Our premium podcast, Sh*t I Wish I'd Known teaches you the lessons that we (and our guests) have learned about writing - and about life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.