Morgan Talty's debut, Night of the Living Rez, is a short story collection set in Maine within the community of the Panawahpskek (Penobscot) Nation. The stories focus on David as a young boy adjusting to living on the reservation to him as an adult figuring out life in a community reeling with the aftermath of drug addiction. Talty flawlessly uses time and death to tell a story about family, relationships, and what is lost and found while aging. 

We talked to Talty about how he had no interest in reading in his youth, only to become a best-selling author, writing stories that don't center on the white gaze, and his favorite show to binge to help him unwind after a long day of work. 

JP Perez & Jeremy Ocampo bring excitement and magic to children and adults that visit the wonderful world of Walt Disney every day with their beautiful artwork. They helped to design the newest nighttime show, Enchantment, to commemorate Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom's 50th anniversary. In the stage show Finding Nemo: The Big Blue and Beyond, spectators can also view Ocampo's magnificent illustrations.

In this episode, we talk about the power of Filipino representation in powerful places, which superhero would be the best one to be Filipino, and Dennie presses them to confess to naming their favorite Tito and Tita.

Journalist, and author, Albert Samaha talks to us about his book Concepcion: Conquest, Colonialism, and an Immigrant Family's Fate. Samaha takes his family's immigration stories and intertwines them with the fraught history of colonization in the Phillippines. His conversations with family members reveal the oppressive and violent chokehold on a nation that began with Spain and continued to flourish in the hands of the United States. 

Samaha spoke to us in September prior to the paperback release of Concepcion and discussed the depth in which colonization has done everything in its power to erase the history of a people and his mission to gather up the stories of his family and ancestors so that the world may know the truth. 

In 1995 OutKast won the Source Award for Best New Group. This win prompted boos from the crowd, but it also signaled to the world that Big Boi and André3000 had just ushered in a wave of music that would change the musical landscape for years to come. Dr. Regina N. Bradley's Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South details how music, literature, and film takes a critical eye to the post-civil-rights movement rule book and the expectations for those raised in the 80s and 90s.  

Dr. Bradley talks to us about the song that ultimately pulled her into the OutKast universe, her refusal to place whiteness in conversation with Black Southern literature, and how a Google hangout with her friends sparked the beginnings of this brilliant book. 

Marriage of a Thousand Lies author SJ Sindu returns to the Vulgar Geniuses Podcast with their sophomore novel, Blue-Skinned Gods. In India, people make pilgrimages to an ashram to visit Kalki, a Tamil child born with blue skin believed to be the incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. His parents make money from the blessings and miracles Kalki grants to the believers, but he soon doubts his divinity as he watches his relationships fall apart. 

Sindu shares with us the dynamics of intertwining religious history with gender and sexuality, their newfound adventure after being in lockdown during the start of the pandemic, and whatever became of their beer-making aspirations.

We are celebrating a monumental milestone with a special episode of the Vulgar Geniuses Podcast. For our 100th show, we sit down with New York Times bestselling novelist Celeste Ng as we talk about her recent book, Our Missing Hearts. 

Bird Gardner is a 12-year-old boy who lives alone with his father after having their lives suddenly interrupted years prior when his mother, Margaret, a Chinese-American poet, is snatched away from their home. Book banning and kidnapping children from the homes of dissidents is the norm as America has shifted into a time of dystopian restlessness to maintain "American Culture" after economic peril and violence befall the nation. 

We speak with Ng about the similarities in her novel to the outside world, her hobby that helps her to unwind, and an item she was able to take from the set of Little Fires Everywhere. 

LARK & KASIM START A REVOLUTION is the recent release from bestselling author Kacen Callender. Lark is a Black, queer, nonbinary, and neurodivergent teen who hopes to snag thousands of Twitter followers and a book deal for an unfinished novel. Kasim accidentally uses Lark's phone to send tweets from their account confessing unrequited love. When they go viral, Lark takes credit for the tweets and uses them to their advantage to get a date with their crush. However, the tweets Kasim made were all about his love for Lark. 

Stay with us as we speak with Kacen speaks about why they write books for the young and marginalized, their love for art, and the peace found in detaching themselves from social media. 

Belinda Huijuan Tang's A Map for the Missing is a story that centers around the possibilities of what could have been as it converges with the limitations of a family and country in turmoil during the Cultural Revolution in China. Family secrets, unrequited love, and a father's sudden disappearance are ingredients that make this debut novel an unforgettable tale.

We speak with Belinda about what is lost when discussing the immigration story and the gaps formed when children are not raised in the country of their parent's birth. She reveals the advice given that was instrumental to the formation of her novel, and how a night of drinking and confession making pushed her into writing this epic story.

My Monticello is an ingenious and vividly written novella from debut author Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. She brings all our fears and anxieties to the reading table and asks that we hold them and look at them from all angles. Such as in her story "Buying A House Ahead of the Apocalypse," where a mother makes a list of things she will need when she considers what will be lost during the end of the world. Jocelyn joins us on the show to discuss how the violent Unite the Right white supremacist rally inspired her titled story. We also chat about how her opening story Control Negro made it into the hands of Roxane Gay and read from the lips of the Lit King himself, Levar Burton. 

Elisa A. Bonnin masterfully builds worlds where fantasy and Filipino culture coexist in her debut novel Dauntless.  We follow Seri as she vows to help protect her people from the Beasts that hide in the trees that Seri calls home.  Seri soon discovers that her people are not the only ones to exist in the world, as she meets Tsana. They team up to help keep their nations from entering into a deadly war. We speak with Elisa about the importance of pulling away from the European perspective and centering stories through a Filipino lens featuring queer characters, how her love of fantasy began, and how she unwinds after a long hard day with Japanese sword-fighting.