This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Cara Blue Adams, author of You Never Get It Back, which is published by our friends at University of Iowa Press.  Topics of conversation include teaching creative writing, Marilynne Robinson, Arizona, the personification of loss, Kafka, novels vs. linked story collections, Y2K, Vermont, Dante, Hemingway and abortion, and much more.  Copies of You Never Get It Back can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Karen Tucker, author of Bewilderness, which is published by our friends at Catapult.  Topics of discussion include teaching at the University of North Carolina in 2021, scraping more out of life than most, trust, a 30mg moon, the record number of reported drug overdoses in the USA in 2021, Charlotte vs. Atlanta, addiction, Reddit and censorship, and much more.  Copies of Bewilderness can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.  

For this special Christmas week episode, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Benjamin M. Friedman, the William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy and former chair of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, who discusses his new book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, which is published by our friends at Alfred A. Knopf.  Topics of discussion include the perception that any challenge to a market-centered conduct of economic affairs is a fundamental threat to our lives, how economic thinking is rooted in religious thinking, belief in free markets, England's bishops as "Retainers to Superstition", why some low-income Americans don't want higher taxes on high-income Americans, how Adam Smith inspired Ronald Reagan, cryptocurrencies, and much more.  Copies of Religion and the Rise of Capitalism can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Jeremy B. Jones, author of Bearwallow, which is published by our friends at Blair.  Topics of discussion include planning literary festivals during a pandemic, the life of a place, how ancestors can be like leprechauns, how entering a teacher's lounge is like being backstage at a concert, normal teacher behavior, bears, "the pull", the Civil War, and much more.  Copies of Bearwallow can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Makiia Lucier, author of Year of the Reaper, which is published by our friends at Clarion Books.  Topics of discussion include plagues, ghosts, librarians, arranged marriages, religion (or lack thereof) during trying times, traveling by horse, lynx, Guam, and much more.  Copies of Year of the Reaper can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Farah Ali, who discusses her new book People Want to Live, which is published by our friends at McSweeney's.  Topics of discussion include shootings in the media, desensitization, whether parents can ever truly know their children, whether corporate news organizations are alarmist by nature, the evil eye, tourism, Dubliners and much more.  Copies of People Want to Live can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Ed Southern, Executive Director of the North Carolina Writers' Network and author of Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South, which is published by our friends at Blair.  Topics of conversation include the North Carolina Writers' Network, the ACC tournament, Mark Cuban and the cancellation of an NBA season due to COVID-19, change, the Bookmarks Festival, whether you should marry an Alabama football fan, books about sports fandom, Wake Forest University football, Lou Holtz, Hanif Abdurraqib, and much more.  Signed copies of Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.   

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean Emeritus of the Yale School of Management, former Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in the Clinton administration, and a managing director of the Blackstone Group.  His new book is Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy, which is published by our friends at Harper.  Topics of conversation include the gold standard, a pinned dollar, the climate surrounding Nixon's presidency vs. Biden's presidency, the long term societal effects of a deemphasis on education, cryptocurrency, what the paper dollar is worth, and much more.  Copies of Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Sean Avery Medlin, author of 808s & Otherworlds, which is published by our friends at Two Dollar Radio.  Topics of conversation include Hades, the 808 drum machine, Erykah Badu, Arizona, the Trickster, BET, Kanye West and Donald Trump, and much more.  Copies of 808s & Otherworlds can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Daniel Levin Becker, Senior Editor at McSweeney's and editor of Dear McSweeney's: Two Decades of Letters to the Editor from Writers, Readers and the Occasional Bewildered Consumer, which is published, of course, by our friends at McSweeney's.  Topics of conversation include the reasons why people write and read, shoring oneself against oblivion, a hissing armadillo named Andrew Jackson, raccoons, chicken nuggets, Michael Crichton, writing economically, Hanif Abdurraqib, and much more.  Copies of Dear McSweeney's: Two Decades of Letters to the Editor from Writers, Readers and the Occasional Bewildered Consumer can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Reid Forgrave, author of Love, Zac: Small-Town Football and the Life and Death of an American Boy, which is published by our friends at Algonquin Books.  Topics of conversation include what football means to America, guns, when football passed baseball as the most popular sport in America, CTE and concussions, whether professional football is sustainable or not, sports books, Ray "Voodoo" Tatum, and much more.  Copies of Love, Zac: Small-Town Football and the Life and Death of an American Boy can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Amy Koppelman, author of A Mouthful of Air, which is published by our friends at Two Dollar Radio.  Topics of discussion include adapting a novel into a screenplay, Indie bookstores, Barnes & Noble and Amazon, postpartum depression, Kurt Cobain and David Foster Wallace, anti-depressants, Roe vs. Wade, breastfeeding, organic cookies, and much more.  Copies of A Mouthful of Air can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Mike DeCapite, author of Jacket Weather, which is published by our friends at Soft Skull Press.  Topics of conversation include Lou Reed, Spotify Playlists, the Manhattan Bridge, Ray Barretto, acid, Lez Zeppelin, "Don't Stop Believin'" and The Sopranos, solitude, Hot Tuna, The Rolling Stones, and more.  Copies of Jacket Weather can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Wiley Cash, New York Times-bestselling author of When Ghosts Come Home, which is published by our friends at William Morrow.  Topics of conversation include independent bookstores, ghost stories, The Andy Griffith Show, writing about technology, the confederate flag, racism, the Pterodactyl Club, the New York Times Book Review, and much more.  Copies of When Ghosts Come Home can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.   

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by New York Times-bestselling author Joe Posnanski, who discusses his new book The Baseball 100, which is published by our friends at Avid Reader Press.  Topics of discussion include falling in love with baseball, Ichiro Suzuki and Shohei Ohtani, statistics that are not recorded, Ozzie Smith, Bullet Rogan, Mad Max Scherzer and the Los Angeles Dodgers, whether 'catcher' is the most important and complex position in baseball, GOAT sports books, fathers and sons, baseball cards, the importance of steering ones loved ones away from Orioles fandom, Barry Bonds and steroids, Buster Posey, and much more.  Copies of The Baseball 100 can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

For our 150th episode, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning, National Book Award-winning, and New York Times bestselling author Richard Powers, who discusses his new novel Bewilderment, which is published by our friends at W.W. Norton & Company.  Topics of discussion include medicating children, Physics vs. English, the search for life in outer space, video games, William T. Vollmann, Buddhism, the idea that we are living in a simulation, homeschooling, and much more.  Copies of Bewilderment can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Eric Powell and Harold Schecter, authors of Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, which is published by our friends at Albatross Funny Books.  Topics of conversation include David Fincher and Mike Mignola, the Milwaukee Bucks, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, how a pirate story is different from a bible story, religious fanaticism, at what age kids may realize something is wrong with their parents, and much more.  Copies of Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by award winning author Cadwell Turnbull, who discusses his fantastic new novel No Gods, No Monsters, which is published by our friends at Blackstone Publishing.  Topics of discussion include books set in Raleigh, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, bookstores, eternal return, werewolves, police shootings, comic books, and much more.  Copies of No Gods, No Monsters can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by New York Times bestselling author John Grisham, who discusses his newest book Sooley, which is published by our friends at Doubleday Books.  Topics of discussion include the ongoing crisis in Sudan, basketball novels, offense vs. defense, Manute Bol, ethnic conflict, technology and the lack thereof, and much more.  Copies of Sooley can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club Plus+.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Alex Pheby, winner of the Republic of Consciousness Prize and author of Lucia, which is published by our friends at Biblioasis.  Topics of conversation include Lucia and James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, Egyptology, Harry Potter, fan fiction, the likelihood that current authors will be studied in one hundred years, and much more.  Copies of Lucia can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Bela Koe-Krompecher, founder of Anyway Records and author of love, death & photosynthesis, which is published by our friends at Don Giovanni Records.  Topics of conversation include Columbus, Ohio, punk rock, Mudhoney, time shifts, vinyl, the shifting retail landscape as it relates to record stores and bookstores, the Dead Milkmen, and so much more.  Copies of love, death & photosynthesis can be ordered from Quail Ridge Books with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.    

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Tom Lin, author of The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, which is published by our friends at Little, Brown and Company.  Topics of discussion include writing a novel as a college student, the outlaw western persona, living a traceless life, railroads, dangerous memories, Cormac McCarthy, magical realism, and much more.  Copies of The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club +.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by New York Times bestselling author and Hugo and Nebula award winner Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries, which is published by our friends at TOR dot com.  Topics of discussion include binging television series, how Murderbot doesn't actually do that much murdering, learned behaviors relative to television and other media, machine rights, video games as literary devices, and much more.  Copies of all of the books in the Murderbot Diaries, including the most recent novel Fugitive Telemetry, can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers Club+.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by New York Times bestselling author Jason Mott, who discusses his newest novel Hell of a Book, which is published by our friends at Dutton Books.  Topics of conversation include Nicolas Cage, invisibility, bullying, meta-narratives, call center culture, naturalism, the militarization of police, and much more.  Copies of Hell of a Book can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by New York Times bestselling author Andy Weir, who discusses his newest novel Project Hail Mary, which is published by our friends at Random House.  Topics of discussion include rum old-fashioneds, isolation in outer space (and during COVID-19), whether or not humanity would band together to help one another during a planetary catastrophe, why aliens might look like spiders, buddy stories, problems of communication during first contact, and much more.  Copies of Project Hail Mary can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by John Freeman, editor of The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, which is published by our friends at Penguin Press.  Topics of discussion include what "Modern" means, genre fiction, academia, The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, Alice Walker and Kamala Harris, Emergency by Denis Johnson, and much more.  Copies of The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by legendary guitar player and singer Richard Thompson, author of Beeswing, which is published by our friends at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.  Topics of discussion include cover songs, a disregard for school, Les Paul, Lady Chatterley's Lover, the author as celebrity, spirituality, Jimi Hendrix, when you know a song needs to be retired, and much more.  Copies of Beeswing (with signed bookplates) can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Steven Petrow, author of Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old, which is published by our friends at Citadel Press.  Topics of discussion include the pursuit of dreams, crowdsourcing, double-spacing after periods, preparing for a fall, ageism, "organ recitals", and much more.  Copies of Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Gina Nutt, author of Night Rooms, which is published by our friends at Two Dollar Radio.  Topics of discussion include using horror films as a framing device for life experiences, whether Titanic is a horror film, the shifting of the public perception of sharks between Jaws and Sharknado, beauty pageants, home buying courses, and much more. Signed copies of Night Rooms can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers Club+.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Rosecrans Baldwin, author Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles, which is published by our friends at FSG.  Topics of discussion include The Morning News, whether or not one would choose to watch a movie called Revenge City, The Arcades Project, M.I.T.T., cults, secession, Octavia Butler, and much more.  Copies of Everything Now can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers Club+.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Jonathan Ames, author of A Man Named Doll, which is published by our friends at Mulholland Books.  Topics of discussion include eating fish with Veganaise, sadistic-daddy books with a military angle, the difference in writing a novel versus writing for television, police-related violence, payphones, drugs, deep Googling, and much more.  Copies of A Man Named Doll can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers Club+.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth, which is published by our friends at Riverhead Books.  Topics of discussion include parenting with a sense of helplessness, othering, being a queer and out parent in Florida, PE clothes that smell like dead feet, Walt Disney World, hearing your favorite music on insurance commercials, and much more.  Copies of With Teeth can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers Club+.   

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer, and most recently, The Committed, which is published by our friends at Grove Press.  Topics of discussion include what it means to be American in 2021, mutants, Hollywood propaganda and Vietnam, how America is like Coca-Cola, tie-dyed t-shirts, whether belief in Capitalism or Communism necessitates extremism, blood oaths, colonization, and much more.  Copies of The Committed can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers Club+. 

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by PEN New England and Story Prize-winning author Jim Shepard, who discusses his newest book Phase Six, which is published by our friends at Alfred A. Knopf.  Topics of discussion include pandemic novels, environmental catastrophes, why we don't listen to scientists, John Snow, and much more.  Copies of Phase Six can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers Club+.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Ian Manuel, author of My Time Will Come: A Memoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope, and Redemption, which is published by our friends at Pantheon Books.  Topics of discussion include Just Mercy, the criminal justice system, solitary confinement, forgiveness, the redemptive power of poetry, how Maya Angelou is like Eminem, whether children should be sentenced to life in prison, and much more.  Signed copies of My Time Will Come can be ordered here (while supplies last).

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Booker Prize nominee Avni Doshi, who discusses her novel Burnt Sugar, which is published by our friends at The Overlook Press.  Topics of discussion include great first lines, memory loss, thriftiness, what makes a person who they are, when televisions conspire against us, and much more.  Copies of Burnt Sugar can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers Club+.    

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Kate Messner, author of Sloth Wasn't Sleepy, which is published by our friends at Sounds True.  Topics of discussion include school visits in the COVID-era, why there are so many children books about sleeping, sloths, anxiety, meditation, adult response to children's books, and much more!  Copies of Sloth Wasn't Sleepy are available here with FREE SHIPPING.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Salamishah Tillet, author of In Search of the Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece, which is published by our friends at Abrams Press.  Topics of conversation include Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker as the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 (and who should have won it before in the preceding years), Boonville, California, how perceptions of our favorite books change over time, whether or not you should meet your heroes, and much more.  Copies of In Search of the Color Purple can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Clover Hope, author of The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop, which is published by our friends at Abrams Image.  Topics of conversation include whether labeling someone a "female rapper" is problematic, Yo MTV Raps, Debbie Harry, how Yo-Yo is like Alice Walker, Salt-N-Pepa vs. DJ Spinderella II, the sophomore slump, Nicki Minaj, Little Simz, and much more.  Copies of The Motherlode can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Sesshu Foster and Arturo Ernesto Romo, authors of ELADATL: A History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines, which is published by our friends at City Lights Books.  Topics of conversation include writing poetry vs. writing prose, City Lights Books, art installations, pirate radio, Area 51, chickens, krakens, and much more.  Copies of ELADATL can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin At the End, which is published by our friends at Henry Holt and Company.  Topics of discussion include choosing a job in order to be surrounded by books, independent booksellers, biblical references, To Kill a Mockingbird, allegory, Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite, and much more.  Copies of We Begin At the End can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Larry Olmsted, author of Fans: How Watching Sports Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Understanding, which is published by our friends at Algonquin.  Topics of discussion include how sports fandom is like religion, the stereotype of the sports fan, how sports fandom benefits mental health, Nelson Mandela, superstitions, how watching a game is similar to attending a Grateful Dead concert, and much more.  Copies of Fans can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING!

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Sam Cohen, author of Sarahland, which is published by our friends at Grand Central Publishing.  Topics of discussion include the fluidity of identity, how college boys are like cockroaches, Radiohead's Kid A, writers writing about writers, whether it is possible to live a life that is uninfluenced by media, and much more.  Copies of Sarahland can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Nick Greene, author of How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius, which is published by our friends at Abrams Press.  Topics of discussion include Bay Area sports fans, aliens, game designers, how Julius Erving is like Jackson Pollock, the current state of college athletics, whether Chris Paul is magic, how the inventor of the shot clock is like Jesus, and much more.  Copies of How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by S.B. Divya, author of Machinehood, which is published by our friends at Saga Press.  Topics of discussion include equality between humans and sentient machines, life as performance, performance enhancing drugs, the current state of the dystopian novel, and much more. Copies of Machinehood can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.  

This week, Melanie Finn joins host Jason Jefferies to talk about her new novel The Hare, which is published by our friends at Two Dollar Radio.  Topics of discussion include the intersection between (visual) art and literature, celebrity encounters, Steely Dan, Donald Trump, victims of sexual assault, money, whether James Joyce is just Hemingway in a frilly shirt, the Two Dollar Radio tattoo club, and much more.  Copies of The Hare can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Kate Russo, author of Super Host, which is published by our friends at G.P. Putnam's Sons.  Topics of discussion include Air BnB, Roots Manuva, whether older men should be embarrassed to listen to hip hop, how artists are supposed to survive if their art can't be sold until after their death, D.A.R.E., and much more.  Copies of Super Host can be purchased here with FREE DELIVERY.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Katherine Seligman, winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.  Her new novel is At the Edge of the Haight, which is published by our friends at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.  Topics of discussion include homelessness at the border of Golden Gate Park and the Haight, how tech companies have affected the wealth gap in San Francisco, what happens when people don't trust the police, Amoeba Music and the Booksmith, social work, how trauma can influence one to drop out of society, and much more. Copies of At the Edge of the Haight can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.