“I really wanted to depict the ways that young Black girls are made adults by a culture that sees us as that. And I wanted to show the way that that pressure piles on and what it does to teenage Black girls, who are really often forgotten in our culture.”   Nightcrawling is a powerful story of family, grief and justice with an unforgettable teenage narrator (and equally unforgettable author), and it’s out now. Leila Mottley joins us on the show to talk about writing her first novel at 14, sibling dynamics, the importance of published Black authors, the portrayal of young Black girls in the media, gentrification in Oakland, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.    Featured Books: Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy There There by Tommy Orange   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“Tracy never went away. So yes, you can say I'm bringing her back, but the culture kept her in circulation in a way that was really interesting to me, and at times a little alienating. It’s like you create a character and, suddenly, she's played brilliantly by Reese Witherspoon, and in a sense, that becomes the public's image of the character — and I love that performance as much as anybody. But then Tracy got picked up by political journalists and by the internet as a kind of shorthand for an overly ambitious woman… In a sense she became a kind of touchstone and a shorthand and sometimes a bit of a stereotype, caricature, whatever.” Tracy Flick Can’t Win is the first time Tom Perrotta (Election, Little Children, The Leftovers, Mrs. Fletcher) has revisited a character from one of his bestselling novels, and his timing couldn’t be better. Tom joins us on the show to talk about comic (and counterintuitive) openers, why he returned to Tracy’s orbit, how our own stories change over time, mental gymnastics, why he doesn’t see himself as a satirist, adapting his work for the screen and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Featured Books: Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perrotta Election by Tom Perrotta   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I missed it so much. And definitely didn't get it or appreciate the specialness of it, or this particular beauty of it … until you have to show up at a party full of strangers. And answer that, where are you from question so many times. I'm not sure I would have written this book, if I didn't have to do that over and over and over again, in so many different places.” That’s Katie Runde, riffing on the Jersey Shore; it’s more than just the setting for her debut novel, The Shore, it’s a character in its own right. Katie joins us on the show to talk about writing a coming-of-age novel for an entire family, homesickness, grief, sisterhood, jump-starting her own writing career with help from Jami Attenberg’s #1000wordsofsummer + a Catapult class + a Tin House workshop, her literary inspirations for this book and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the show with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his guest bookseller, Becky.   Featured Books: The Shore by Katie Runde Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong Wild by Cheryl Strayed   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I was very, very unintentionally smart in that I started it as a short story, I genuinely believed it was a short story, which was good, because if I hadn't sat down and said, I'm now going to write my first novel I'd probably still be working on it, but because it was a short story that got longer and became a long story, and then became a novella. And then like, Oh, I'm writing the book that I want in the world, both as a person and as an editor.” David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy is one of the most charming rom-coms we’ve ever read, and David joins us on the show to talk about his development as a writer and editor, the power of story, his creative process, his writing partnerships with Rachel Cohn (Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares) and others, his literary influences, Heartstopper, what he’s learned from his readers and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the show with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his guest bookseller, Rhys. Featured Books: Boy Meets Boy (B&N Exclusive Edition) by David Levithan Every Day by David Levithan Answers in the Pages by David Levithan Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A full transcript of this episode is available here.  

“I didn't want it to be just a very overwhelming dark book. I mean, it has so much tragedy that I had to balance that I wanted to make it part of, you know, light and airy and fun and frothy and feminine to contrast with what's going to happen. I think there's power in that contrast ... I felt like it can't all be this very goth all the time, this very gothic world, the kind of fog-on-the-Moors kind of thing…” We were utterly thrilled by Sarai Walker’s debut novel, Dietland—inspired in part by beauty culture and in part by Fight Club (yep, that one)—and we’re delighted by her newest, The Cherry Robbers. Sarai joins us on the show to talk about sisterhood, love, marriage, romance, feminism, her literary inspirations (including Emily Dickinson and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life), and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his bookseller guest, Becky.   Featured Books: The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker Dietland by Sarai Walker Life After Life by Kate Atkinson   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

"And I had to actually give up and say, Okay, maybe I'll go to the grave not having written a novel, and I don't have to carry around shame about that. I can just do the kind of writing that I'm maybe better at or that it is my calling to do, and the moment I stopped putting so much pressure on myself and stopped making it a big ego drama about me, that actually opened up space in my creative life for me to enter the hearts and minds of all these characters who were all keeping secrets from one another.” Steve Almond—bestselling author, co-host of The Dear Sugars podcast, writing teacher—has just published his first novel, All the Secrets of the World, and he joins us on the show to talk about revisiting California in the 80s, keeping empathy for all of his characters, his literary influences (including Kurt Vonnegut, George Saunders and Lorrie Moore), share some great writing advice, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: All the Secrets of the World by Steve Almond William Stoner and the Battle for Inner Life by Steve Almond Stoner by John Williams   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I'm always coming back to Chicasetta, in the same way that Ernest Gaines always comes back to Bayonne parish. And William Faulkner always comes back to that county that I cannot pronounce, your top or whatever it is, right. You know, in the same way that Louise Erdrich returns to the particular reservation, I'm always coming back to these characters.” Finalist for the National Book Award, poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has conjured an epic and indelible story of an American family with The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois; beautifully written, it’s a story we never wanted to end (and you won’t either). Honorée joins us on the show to talk about love and home and family, the legacy of slavery, colorism, feminism, writing about Black joy, Lucille Clifton, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his bookseller guest, Becky. Featured Book: The Long Songs of W.E.B Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I had a dream about them. I have like these really cinematic dreams. And I woke up from this one. And I was like, this is a fantastic, messy little story, this is a love triangle that I want to read about. I want to—as a reader, as a viewer—I want to see this play out. And the only way I could get it to play out was to you know, write it.” Critically acclaimed author Akwaeke Emezi (Freshwater, The Death of Vivek Oji, and Pet, among other novels) delivers a page-turning modern romance in their fabulous new novel, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty. They join us on the show to talk about their love of romance novels and belief in love at first sight, grief and growing up, celebrity and food, fun and sex, their own work in the visual arts, the writers and artists who inspire them, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Book:  You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“…You have to have so much primary source material that you are drowning, you think you can never get through it all. That's the only way you get dialogue, you get all those details, you know, that really make you feel like you're there and kind of at you just like sinking into the story and forgetting everything else.” We’ll follow bestselling author Candice Millard anywhere at any time—her latest book, River of the Gods, takes us on the epic search for the head of the Nile River with Sir Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke and Sidi Mubarak Bombay, the man who helped them succeed (and stay alive). Candice joins us on the show to talk about the stories and the characters behind “one of the greatest mysteries in this history of human exploration,” her field research and writing process, human nature, disease and disaster, the writers who’ve inspired her and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations featuring Marc and his bookseller guest, Erin.   Featured Books: River of the Gods by Candice Millard The River of Doubt by Candice Millard   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“That was really what I wanted to get at. The relationships that you have with the people who you love so much, and who you're so close with that you don't have to talk to them all the time.” All of Emma Straub’s novels have big beating hearts, no matter who or what or where or when she’s writing about. This Time Tomorrow is her “autobiographical time travel novel” and it’s an absolute delight. Emma joins us on the show to talk about why she writes, giving herself permission to try something new, how she set her rules for time travel (and how she stays grounded), her horrifying teenage diaries, bookselling and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and bookseller guest Becky.   Featured Books: This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures by Emma Straub The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead Desperate Characters by Paula Fox   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“But then when I read that Raymond Carver said he didn't have the ability to write, you know, a full novel. He was a sprinter and I thought, Oh, maybe I could do it. Is there any such thing as a half a paragraph short story, because that was all I had the focus for. So, it took me a long, long time to write this book.” Actress (Cruel Intentions, Hellboy, Legally Blonde), model, muse to Karl Lagerfeld, mom to a young son, subject of an indelible documentary (Introducing, Selma Blair on discovery+), now author of the memoir Mean Baby, Selma Blair joins us on the show to talk about the title of her book, her relationship with her mother and mentors Ingrid Sischy of Interview Magazine and Carrie Fisher, her love of Joan Didion and C.S. Lewis, the village that came together to help her get her memoir into the world, living with multiple sclerosis and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his bookseller guest Becky.   Featured Books: Mean Baby by Selma Blair The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“For me, part of the fun of coming-of-age novels, both reading and writing, is getting to have that adult perspective on these youthful moments and kind of allow you to make sense of them in a way you couldn't before; it can allow you to forgive yourself for some of the things maybe you did, it can allow you to laugh at some of the things that horrified you, and that can bring peace and joy and resolution.” It’s been a minute since Alison Espach’s debut novel The Adults — she joins us on the show to talk about the inspiration behind her new novel, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, writing love stories, sitting with grief, her obsession with the passage of time in life and in books, Lorrie Moore’s Self-Help, and much more with Poured Over’s Host, Miwa Messer. And we end the show with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach Self-Help by Lorrie Moore   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I was thinking about caretaking. And I was thinking about mothers because I lost my mom last year, but just the places that feel familiar and how they almost become characters in our heads. Like when I think about the house where I grew up, and I can remember it so specifically right down to the way like the closet smelled or when I think about all the time I spent in Cape Cod, the way the sand on the beach feels at low tide or the way the wind sounds when it's late at night.” Bestselling author Jennifer Weiner (Mrs. Everything and That Summer, among others) joins us on the show to take us behind the scenes of her newest novel, The Summer Place, and talk about love and loss, family and home, motherhood, money and much more with B&N’s Marie Cummings. And we end the show with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Book:  The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Marie Cummings and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (and occasional Saturdays)   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

"…It's like if Tim Burton decorated Versailles for Halloween…” Heather Walter’s queer retelling of Sleeping Beauty kicked off with Malice, which we think of as more than just a remix to a familiar story—It's a complex, character-driven story with action, political intrigue, betrayal, and of course, a slow burn romance ... Heather’s closing out her Malice duology with Misrule, and she joins us on the show to talk about good vs. evil, why readers love morally grey characters, the fun she has writing her novels, what she’s reading and recommending now, what’s next (hint: Anne Boleyn) and much more with B&N’s Kat Sarfas. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Misrule by Heather Walter Malice by Heather Walter   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Kat Sarfas and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“For me, the novel form is the greatest expression because it has that room, that latitude to really explore for the full complexity of human existence and psychology and diversity, and there's no other single format that I think comes close, even with the amazing ways in which television drama has grown and become more complex and more satisfying, I still think that it's the novel form that did it first, and still does it best.” Monica Ali made a splash with her Booker-nominated debut novel, Brick Lane — and she's back with a new novel, Love Marriage, a story of love and family and manners set in modern-day London. Monica joins us on the show to talk about her unforgettable characters, balancing comedy and tragedy, Jane Austen's influence, what screenwriting taught her about novel writing, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff featuring book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Love Marriage by Monica Ali   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“And the title, of course, has this double meaning, the financial meaning of trust, and let's call it, emotional meaning of trust … To what extent can I trust this voice and the book, to a large extent is questioning the contracts we enter into as readers.” Hernan Diaz follows up his acclaimed debut novel, In the Distance (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), with Trust, a stunning book-about-a-book, an exploration of capital and greed and the making of myths. Hernan joins us on the show to talk about how the stories of Great Men influenced his latest, bringing women back into the story of American business and capital, authenticity, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and other literary influences, why he writes, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the segment with a TBR Topoff segment featuring book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Trust by Hernan Diaz Frankenstein by Mary Shelley                Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I grew up hearing The Ramayana over lunch. My grandma would tell me little bits and pieces to me and my younger sister, she would tell us little bits and pieces every day. And we would ask to hear the same stories over and over again.” If you’re a fan of imaginative retellings like Circe, Ariadne and The Witch’s Heart, you don’t want to miss Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi. Vaishnavi joins us on the show to talk about the origins of her debut novel, her love of retellings and epic fantasy, what writing her first novel taught her about herself, balancing law school with writing fiction, Season 2 of Bridgerton and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured books: Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel The Ramayana The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.   A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

“And so then, I felt like that's when I had to go back to the beginning of telling my story of sort of rediscovering the young Viola, who definitely may have been traumatized, but was pure.” Multi-award-winning actress Viola Davis has poured herself into the characters she portrays on the big screen and on stage. And, now, in her most deeply personal and inspiring role yet, as author, she has released her memoir, Finding Me — out now. Viola joins us on the show to talk about rediscovering the younger version of herself in order to write this book, the impact of Miss Cicely Tyson and August Wilson, the magic of artistry, the Black best friend role, the freedom and bravery that came with playing Annalise Keating, the connection between joy and peace and trauma, the radical act of forgiveness and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff featuring book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Finding Me by Viola Davis Educated by Tara Westover The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown Native Son by Richard Wright Black Boy by Richard Wright A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry A History of God by Karen Armstrong   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“And I think it's just overall her humanity and her recognition of what other people could accomplish. If you just say the right things, if you create the right chemistry, that really drove me to her. And she does—she has her own chemistry with everyone in the book.” That’s Bonnie Garmus talking about Elizabeth Zott, the unforgettable center of Bonnie’s debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry. Bonnie joins us on the show to talk about her spectacular characters, never giving up (and the writing advice that helped her the most when she was stuck), having empathy for all of her characters (even the evil ones), a most extraordinary dog, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, rowing, what she’s reading now, how writing a novel is scarier than open water swimming, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff featuring book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus On Animals by Susan Orlean Rationality by Steven Pinker The Friend by Sigrid Nunez The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro The Secret History by Donna Tartt Moby-Dick by Herman Melville The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I didn't want that more traditional kind of arc of childhood to a certain stance of wisdom or resignation or triumph. I wanted—partly because I felt with Negroland, and very much with this book—that ability to change persona, change my position, to acknowledge that one was performing at times, and that one played many, many roles … I wanted to be able to take in all of that, and a traditional memoir structure wasn't going to allow it.” Margo Jefferson is one of our most astute and elegant cultural critics, full stop. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize for criticism, she’s also the acclaimed author of several books, including her latest, Constructing a Nervous System. Margo joins us on the show to talk about finding a new language for criticism, engaging with art on her own terms, Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald, investigating herself as a critic and a teacher, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with another set of TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson Negroland by Margo Jefferson Song of the Lark by Willa Cather   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“There's an intense pleasure in viewing the flaws of the people around you and saying, I'm not a part of that, even if maybe at the beginning you want to be or even maybe you still do, but you learn to come from where you stand. And that's part of what Jordan is doing. She's very comfortable in her discomfort…” Nghi Vo won the Hugo Award for Debut Novella with The Empress of Salt and Fortune, the first volume of her Singing Hills Cycle. Nghi’s remixed and remastered The Great Gatsby for her new paperback, The Chosen and the Beautiful, and she joins us on the show to talk about re-imagining an American classic with a layer of magic, taking Gatsby out of the male gaze and putting Jordan Baker in the center of everything, the art of Vietnamese paper cutting, interesting arc of her career (starting with the slush pile), her next novel, Siren Queen (based on the life of Anna May Wong) and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff featuring book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo Siren Queen by Nghi Vo Pussy, King of the Pirates by Kathy Acker   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“Leonard Cohen is like my all-time favorite musician … I, all my life, have had this reaction to sad music, of not feeling sad at all when I listened to it. Instead, what I feel is a kind of sense of uplift, and a sense of wonder and awe that a musician could take pain and turn it into beauty. And most of all, a kind of sense of connection with the musician and with all the other people who are listening to it. It's a kind of like beautiful acknowledgement that the state of being human involves loss and involves sorrow.” Susan Cain changed the way we think about introverts with her first bestseller, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, and now she’s going to change the way we approach some difficult feelings with Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole. Susan joins us on the show to talk about the thinkers and poets who influenced the new book, the veneer of effortless belonging, resolving her own grief, impermanence, collective creativity (and shifting our communal thinking), Susan David’s concept of Emotional Agility, how writing this book changed her and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff segment featuring Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain Gold by Rumi   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“I knew that after writing this sweeping family portrait that goes over about 40 years in the Bain family's history, that for my next novel, I wanted to write something that was very focused, that was quite propulsive, and quite edited in the scope and the time that we spend with the characters. And so, for me, it was about romance. It's about that love between these two young men.” Douglas Stuart has charmed more than a million and a half readers with his National Booker Award and Booker Prize-winning debut novel, Shuggie Bain. Douglas joins us on the show to talk about his incredible new novel, Young Mungo, optimism, writing about the working class and being gay, masculinity, love, mobility, Margaret Thatcher’s legacy, the importance of having a plan before you sit down to write, the writers who inspire him, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff segment featuring Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy   Poured Over is hosted and produced by Miwa Messer. This episode was mixed by Chris Gillespie. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“You know, beauty is such an interesting term. I think it's really important how vast and complex it is … we call people beautiful, I call my dog beautiful every day. I call food I eat beautiful, I call bitter, bitter coffee, beautiful, I call an idea beautiful. A mathematical concept can be beautiful, a sunset, the natural world, a performance, a song, certainly works of art, but … I've heard myself say, What a beautiful attempt, a failed attempt, but a beautiful or like a beautiful mistake, what a beautiful mistake that was, a beautiful error or a beautiful cutting remark even, so it's such an interesting term, because we can use it in so many ways.” Easy Beauty is Chloé Cooper Jones’ first book, and it’s an incredibly smart and provocative combination of memoir, travel essay and philosophical treatise on beauty and our experience with beauty, and it’s out now. Chloé joins us on the show to talk about what beauty looks and feels like to her, how it feels to live in a body that people stare at (and touch without invitation), how we talk and think about disability, vulnerability and self-acceptance, and so much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff segment featuring Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer. This episode was mixed by Chris Gillespie. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).   A full transcript of the show is available here.

“True Biz is an ASL idiom. It doesn't have one direct translation into English, but a few of the things that it could mean: seriously, literally. Real talk is one that I think gets used a lot. No kidding. Like, if someone says like, No, you made that up, no true biz, you know, and I thought that it was a good title for the book, because it doesn't quite translate directly into English.” We’ve been fans of Sara Nović since her page-turning, coming-of-age debut, Girl at War. Sara’s back with a new novel, True Biz, which she calls both a “coming-of-age and a coming-of-middle-age” story set at a school for the Deaf. She joins us on the show to talk about CODA’s Oscars, Deaf culture and degrees of Deaf experience, punk rock, the fluidity of ASL and how best to represent it on the printed page, giving her Deaf characters agency and the space to be real teenagers, writing joy into her story and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff segment featuring Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: True Biz by Sara Nović Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer. This episode was mixed by Chris Gillespie. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I really wrote it for me, I didn't think anything would come about — I wanted something that could bring me a bit of joy, where Asian American characters could live their lives and do something as fun and ridiculous as robbing art museums across the world.” Grace D. Li loves a caper flick, and now she’s written Portrait of a Thief, a caper novel with a very fun Chinese American cast. Grace joins us on the show to talk about the true story that inspired her debut, the Chinese diaspora, calling Texas home, the movies that inspired her fiction, the books she’s reading and recommending now, being a medical student who writes fiction on the side, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff segment featuring Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li Chemistry by Weike Wang Joan is OKAY by Weike Wang The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok Fault Lines by Emily Itami   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

"In the end, all the good ideas and sort of fancy craft approaches get you absolutely nothing if there's no emotional content. That's what it is. I mean, fiction is about going inside other people's minds and consciousnesses and looking through their eyes and living their lives in a way and that's all about emotions.” Jennifer Egan challenged the way many of us thought about how (but not why) we tell stories in A Visit from the Goon Squad—which went on to win the Pulitzer. She joins us on our 100th episode of the show to talk about her latest, The Candy House, which she describes as a “sibling novel” to Goon Squad, along with truth and time and space and memory and nostalgia, the interplay between tech and story (including finding poetry in elliptical, 140-character tweets), finding inspiration in slightly unexpected places like baseball and Dungeons + Dragons, returning to characters she never really left (including the peripheral ones), and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books: The Candy House by Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust The Three Pigs by David Weisner The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, introduction by Jennifer Egan Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

“I love being immersed in the grand project of a novel. When I was a kid, I was drawn to books about secret worlds, like The Secret Garden, or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where you disappear to the back of a wardrobe…” How many times have you re-read Emily St. John Mandel’s genre-blending novels Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel? Emily joins us on the show to talk about her latest novel Sea of Tranquility — our April 2022 Barnes & Noble Book Club pick­ — along with what she loves most about writing, breaking the rules of time + space, how character development makes an imaginary world real, the writers and books who inspire her, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with a TBR Topoff segment featuring Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu The Executioner’s Song by Normal Mailer Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky White Teeth by Zadie Smith   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“…Cynical as he is of the world that he encounters, he's also pretty cynical and critical of himself. And that manifests itself in that sense of humor that you're talking about not a light-hearted sense of humor, but a very cynical and dark sense of humor, a sense of the absurd.” Viet Thanh Nguyen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer and The Committed (now out in paperback), among other books, joins us on the show to riff on the return of his unnamed narrator, why he followed his prize-winning spy thriller with a crime novel set in 1980s Paris, how his novels are in conversation with Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the American canon, his literary inspirations and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books: Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee American Spy by Lauren Wilkerson The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carré The Land at the End of the World by António Lobo Antunes Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison The Quiet American by Graham Greene   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us her for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays.)   A full transcript of the show is available here.

“As you might imagine, over the years, many people heard stories about my family. And they said, Hey, why don't you write a memoir? I really wasn't very interested in writing a memoir as I perceived a memoir to be, so the idea of spending years working on a book about the issues in my immediate family, which I grew up with, and was intimately familiar with, it felt like I would be locked in a closet with that somehow. And then I became sort of interested in looking backward...” Maud Newton used to believe her research into her family’s genealogy was just a distraction from the novel she’d been working on. Not so. Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation is just out, and Maud joins us on the show to talk about where her curiosity took her, DNA sleuthing, facing her family’s legacies (genetic + historical + behavioral), epigenetics, what Harry Crews taught her about writing, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Featured book: Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton And a few of the books that Maud mentions in hers: Where I Was From by Joan Didion The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould The Mistress’s Daughter by AM Homes Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love by Dani Shapiro Touched with Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora by Emily Raboteau Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Poured Over is produced and hosted Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays.)  

“They're not all villains and all heroes, I think a lot of people are very morally gray…” The atmospheric and haunting Wild and Wicked Things is a beautifully written tale of queer love in an alternative post-WWI England that invokes the glittering world of Gatsby with a blend of blood magic and gothic mystique. Francesca May joins us on the show to talk about the appeal of The Great Gatsby, the power of community, the thin line between good and wicked, reinventing the ideals of class and privilege, spirit animals and so much more.   Featured in this episode: Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier The Lighthouse by Fran Dorricott Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth The Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan   This episode of Poured Over was hosted and produced by Elani Wilson and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“We should call no future unthinkable and no future unimaginable. We have to be willing to think about the hard things and ready ourselves for them, we also have to free ourselves from the limitations of the present so that we can find refuge in the future that we want.” Futurist and game designer Jane McGonigal wants to help you change your brain with her new book, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything — Even Things That Seem Impossible Today, and she joins us on the show to talk about when the future starts, Dator’s Law (any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous), normalcy bias, how our future selves are strangers to us, curiosity + empathy, mental time travel, the writers who inspire her, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured in this episode: Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything — Even Things That Seem Impossible Today by Jane McGonigal Rebecca Solnit’s books Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes Saturdays.)

“The original impulse to write a book for this age was knowing that this is a time of identity formation for me, curiosity about the outside world. And I guess I wanted to make an offering in that space … I just wanted to write a book with an Asian American protagonist. And I thought, how cool it would have been for me at that age to see that at the library.” Actor John Cho (Searching, Better Luck Tomorrow, Star Trek, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) steps into a new role, author, with the publication of Troublemaker, his first book for middle grade readers. John joins us on the show to talk about why he needed to write this book now (it wasn’t what he originally pitched to his editor); the legacy of 4/29 in the Korean American community and the murder of Latasha Harlins; his fondness for the Little House series; the elasticity of the English language (and not using italics to call out Korean words) and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books: Troublemaker by John Cho The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder IQ by Joe Ide Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha   Poured Over is hosted and produced by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“My book starts in my brain with me telling myself a story. And I choose not to write it down, as I'm thinking about it. Sometimes for months, sometimes even maybe for a couple of years. My feeling is that if I stop thinking about it, or stop daydreaming about the story, then it's died a natural death in my brain and shouldn't make it to the page.” Nine strangers, one determined detective and plenty of devious ways to die; Peter Swanson’s latest whodunnit, Nine Lives, is a creepy, entertaining ride, and he joins us on the show to talk about Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell and his other literary influences, Maine, trading poetry for crime fiction, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books: Nine Lives by Peter Swanson Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“And within that time, I realized that the story needed to be about regular citizens. But because so much had been written, I found myself needing a new way of telling the story, a story that was very public, that was on everybody's lips.” In 2017, Robert Mugabe was deposed in coup, an act that novelist NoViolet Bulawayo never thought she would see in her lifetime. She joins us on the show to talk about her fantastic new novel, Glory, the distance she needed to write a novel about the fall of a freedom fighter turned dictator and the chaos that followed, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and other literary influences, the power of story and social media, her faith in a new generation and hope for the future, and more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books: Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo Animal Farm by George Orwell   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“The thing that really sort of blew me away, one of the reasons why we have sort of the type of poetry that we have today and the type of literature that we have today — it bloomed and was, I think, seeded in some ways by Sylvia Plath and her experience.” Lee Kravetz joins us on the show to talk about his unexpected and entertaining debut novel, The Last Confessions of Sylvia P., part literary mystery, part portrait of an immensely talented young woman and her impact on the world around her. Lee tells us about re-reading The Bell Jar, what he learned about poetry in order to write his new novel, the connection between confessional poetry of the 1960s and grunge music of the 1990s, the writers who’ve influenced him, and much more.   Featured books: The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. by Lee Kravetz The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Life Studies and For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes Saturdays).

“The book's title comes from Josephine Baker’s speech at the March on Washington … she was speaking to a crowd that was younger, and maybe did not know her from her heyday of performance. And she compels them to go and ask their parents and grandparents about her and the system, They'll tell you that I was a devil and they'll be right. I was a devil in other countries. And I was a little devil in America, too.” Hanif Abdurraqib ­— MacArthur genius grant recipient, National Book Award finalist and winner of a Carnegie Medal from the American Library Association — joins us on the show to talk about his latest book, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, which is dedicated to the iconic Josephine Baker and just out in paperback. Hanif riffs on what joy sounds like to him, magician Ellen Armstrong, the line between consumption and affection, what performance means for himself and others, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books: A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes Saturdays).

“…A big part of this book is to have a more whole picture of our history here. It is the last 30 years, 90s to now, but we do devote a big chunk of the before as well because we want to plant those roots and say This began a long time ago. Let's at least start this conversation where we acknowledge and have a more deep understanding of our history. It doesn't all end with this book either." Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang join us on the show to talk about their fabulous, beautifully illustrated new book, Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the 90s to Now, which covers all things—not just East—Asian American. Jeff, Phil and Philip riff on where we’re really from, things we love, what the words Asian American and representation really mean, Vincent Chin, Fresh Off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians, Jeff and Phil’s podcast They Call Us Bruce, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Book: Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the 90s to Now   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“If you want to create art, and you want to create art the way you want to, and it's just for you, that's fine. But if you want to have a writing career, then my advice is...” Olivie Blake’s dark academic fantasy debut, The Atlas Six, has a cult following for a reason (believe the hype!) and she joins us on the show to talk about her character-driven epic (and which of her characters appeared first), her writing process and what she’s learned over time, her daydream playlists, what she’s reading and watching, and so much more.   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Kat Sarfas, and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes Saturdays).   Featured Books: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake Book of Night (Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition) by Holly Black

“I'm writing about group creativity, which is not something we often do … what's interesting to me is what happens in the friction between people's minds through conversations, through discussion, through the exchange of ideas, through debate, through sort of egging one another on … bringing about any idea that's going to sort of undermine the nature of reality as we know it.” Gal Beckerman of The Atlantic joins us on the show to talk about his fascinating new book, The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas, including the story behind the Ph.D. he earned in order to write it, how he found the people who drive his narrative from 17th-century France to present-day Minneapolis, how technology helps (or hurts) the exchange of ideas, and so much more.   Featured Books: The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas by Gal Beckerman Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 by Taylor Branch At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 by Taylor Branch King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays.)

“I sketched out some of these pool scenes a long, long time ago, maybe 15 years ago, but just you know, a few paragraphs. And then I don't know, I put them in a drawer somewhere...” It’s been 20 years since Julie Otsuka’s sublime debut, When the Emperor was Divine, almost 10 since the collective voice of The Buddha in the Attic. Julie’s third novel, The Swimmers, is just out, and she joins us on the show to talk about her elegant, witty and elegiac new book and its “soft beating heart,” the joy (and comedy) she found writing about this community, writing in pencil (and more of her creative process), silence and memory, and more.   Featured books: The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway Intimacies by Katie Kitamura   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays.)

“It's a great question. And no one has ever asked me that question. I think it's taught me about how to construct the arc of a narrative.” We’ve learned so much from Debbie Millman and her fabulous interviews on her long-running podcast Design Matters. Since 2005, Debbie’s introduced us to incredible thinkers from a variety of disciplines, and now 55 of the more than 500 interviews she’s done are collected in a beautiful (and provocative) new book, Why Design Matters. Debbie joins us on the show to talk about what design has taught her about interviewing, how she never really planned to be a designer (and what changed), her research process, the stories we tell ourselves about images, what’s next for her, and much more.   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).   Featured Book: Why Design Matters by Debbie Millman

“Believe me, there probably was not a day that went by where I didn't say to myself, What on earth am I doing? And why did I take this on? Early on in the process, I was talking with a Churchill expert over breakfast in Washington, DC, and he was basically asking me, Why on earth are you doing this? And my answer to him, which stuck throughout the whole project, is that it's all in the telling.” The Splendid and the Vile spent most of 2020 and ‘21 on top of the bestseller charts, and it’s just out in paperback. Erik Larson joins us on the show to talk about the craft of writing, how his background in journalism prepared him for a career writing bestselling books, how he conducts his research, the fiction that inspires him, the surprises he uncovered while writing about one of the world’s most-documented men, and more. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.  Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).   Featured books:           The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson The Alienist by Caleb Carr

“There's a reason why all our old stories are fantastical and mythological, and why our fairy tales are so old. Because I think there is something in these mythologies and these folklore stories that tell us something about ourselves. And we've always done it, we've always put it into fantastical to explain the real.” Marlon James returns with Moon Witch, Spider King, the second installment of his Dark Star trilogy, and this time, Sogolon the witch is center stage. Marlon joins us on the show to talk about the reality behind fantasy and the fantasy behind reality, false starts, his fascination with court intrigue, WWBD? (What Would Boo Do?), handing the story over to his characters, his playlist and his podcast (Marlon and Jake Read Dead People), and more. Featured books: Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Restoration by Rose Tremain Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo East of Eden by John Steinbeck   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.  Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“...It means the world to me to witness any kind of massive scale love of books.” Sarah J. Maas knows how to build worlds that readers never want to leave. The second installment of her fiery (and spicy) Crescent City series, House of Sky and Breath, is just out and Sarah joins us on the show to riff on #booktok, fandom, the screen adaptation she’s working on with Ron Moore, her love of Lord of the Rings and Jane Austen, her playlists, and more.  Featured Books:  House of Sky and Breath and House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen   This episode of Poured Over was produced by Miwa Messer, hosted by Kat Sarfas, and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays.)

“I wrote The Sum of Us in the hopes that people would read it together, that people from all walks of life, different backgrounds, whether they're connected by something, a community, a school, a workplace, would pick it up and find for each person, a way into the story of America's troubled history with racism, and then a way out together.” Trained as a lawyer, and an expert in economic and social policy, Heather McGhee also excels at getting Americans to tell their stories — and look for solutions. Her urgent, important book, The Sum of Us is just out in paperback and she joins us on the show to talk about The Zero-Sum Hierarchy, The American Dream and other stories (and stereotypes) we tell ourselves, where we can go from here, the writers who inspire her, and more. Featured Books: The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with bonus episodes on occasional Saturdays).

“You know, when I wrote the book, I sort of thought it would resonate with a fairly narrow… I was writing it for people who are more or less like me, you know, little girls who grew up in junkyards and didn't go to school, and then going to college and everything changed.” Tara Westover’s memoir was a massive hit with readers everywhere when it was first published; four years later, Educated is out in paperback, and Tara joins us on the show to talk about choices and boundaries, family and home, how excited she is for new readers to come to the book in paperback, what’s next for her and much more. Featured Books: Educated by Tara Westover Second Place by Rachel Cusk Playing and Reality by D.W. Winnicott Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus eps on Saturdays).  

“The Nineties were the last decade that we're ever going to talk about as a decade…” Chuck Klosterman has been challenging how we think, see and hear since his first book, Fargo Rock City, in 2001 to 2016’s But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. He joins us on the show to talk about his new book, The Nineties, Gen X, the end of monoculture, the rise of independent moviemaking, The New Sincerity, Nevermind + Exile in Guyville and more.   Featured Books: The Nineties, Fargo Rock City and Eating the Dinosaur, all by Chuck Klosterman.   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.   Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus eps on Saturdays).