Vulgar Geniuses

Jonathan Escoffery's stellar debut If I Survive You takes the short story genre and turns it on its axis to show the multidimensional underbelly of racism, generational discord, and the toll that a series of bad luck takes on the family dynamic. Escoffery presents a family that has migrated to South Florida to forgo political unrest in Jamaica to make a life in the "land of possibility." The story begins with its center on the youngest American-born child, Trelawny, who has found himself homeless and attempts to find financial freedom by taking unusual jobs on Craigslist. Jonathan Escoffery joins us on the podcast to talk about his personal experiences living in Miami and why readers must allow for space for imagination to thrive within a story. 

This week on the Vulgar Geniuses Podcast, we get to sit down with Cree Myles, the culture creator and influencer who has built a life sharing her love of Black literature. As the official curator of Penguin Random House's Instagram account, ALL WAYS BLACK, Cree uses creative and innovative ways to celebrate and highlight Black writers. We talk to Cree about her bookstagram origin story, the one thing she will never compromise herself on, and what it is like to be a part of the all-mighty infamous Libra collective. 

Yuyi Morales has captivated children for over 20 years with her vibrant illustrations and beautiful stories. Her most recent release, Bright Star, is a moving story about a young fawn living with her mother in a desert borderland. As the fawn is confronted with obstacles, its mother reassures her to continue in spite of the hardships that arise. 

We spoke to Yuyi about her art exhibit Soñadora previously on tour at the Orlando Museum of Art, which closed this past December. She also talked about how a trip to the library with her son sparked an entire career that blended her love for art, storytelling, and the rich culture and history of her country Mexico. 

The bumper may be dragging, and the engine may be on fire, but we made it to the end of a rollercoaster ride of a year. Most importantly, we ended the year with you! Grab a glass of champagne, sit back, and toast the end of 2022 as we look to see if the resolutions we made in 2021 actually happened and which guest made our top 10 favorite podcasts of the year!  

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.