Nikki Payne, debut author of Pride and Protest, is a cultural anthropologist by day who spends her time thinking about big questions and how to answer them. On this episode, she joins Adam to discuss one of the questions she's spent her life thinking about: What does it mean to be "ugly".

She opens the conversation by explaining how her fascination began with the movie, The Color Purple and has continued to this day. Nikki has even taught a college course about the idea of ugliness and how it's portrayed.

Another one of Nikki's fascinations is the work of Jane Austen, which is how her debut novel came to be. It's a must-read modern reconfiguring of Pride and Protest that you're going to love.

Books mentioned in this episode

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich

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