Episodi

  • S9, Ep. 14 Jessica Lopez Lyman on the History of State Violence in Minnesota

    S9, Ep. 14 Jessica Lopez Lyman on the History of State Violence in Minnesota
    Jan 22 2026
    Interdisciplinary performance artist and Xicana feminist scholar Jessica Lopez Lyman joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about Minnesota’s history with state violence and local resistance to it, as well as ICE’s intensified presence in recent weeks. Lopez Lyman, the author of a new book, Place-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin Cities, discusses immigration in Minnesota and how the increased ICE presence is affecting immigrant and BIPOC communities. Lopez Lyman speaks about the January 7 death of Renee Nicole Good, a white woman and legal observer who was shot and killed by an ICE officer, and compares the current situation to the time following police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd in 2020. She notes the pervasiveness of the harm wrought by ICE’s presence throughout Minnesota, a state with a romanticized, pastoral, and sometimes inaccurately homogenous image. She considers the importance of mutual aid, community care, and legal observers, and explains the term “movidas,” which refers to subversive knowledge and “small, hidden actions that are not public protests, that are really foundational for creating larger social movements.” She reads from Place-Keepers. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Jessica Lopez LymanPlace-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin CitiesOthers:One State, Two Very Different Views of Minneapolis The New York TimesGloria AnzaldúaAudre LordeLittle House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls WilderMaria Isa“Video shows woman dragged from car by ICE agents in Minneapolis as she tells them she's autistic” CBC News"Family of man killed by off-duty ICE agent in LA demands charges: ‘The ache will never go away’" The GuardianNYTPitchbot- Jan. 15, 2026"Native Americans are being swept up by ICE in Minneapolis, tribes say"- The Washington Post"The killing of Daunte Wright and trial of Kimberly Potter" 2021 MPR News"The murder of George Floyd" 2020 MPR News"The death of Philando Castile and the trial of Jeronimo Yanez" 2016 MPR News "Right-wing, anti-Islam protest draws large group of counter demonstrators" MPR News "The Miracle of Minneapolis" 2015 The Atlantic"AMERICAN SCENE: Minnesota: A State That Works" 1973 TIMESee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    53 min
  • S9 Ep. 13: Vauhini Vara with Karan Mahajan on “What If Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?”

    S9 Ep. 13: Vauhini Vara with Karan Mahajan on “What If Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?”
    Jan 15 2026
    Award-winning writers and longtime friends Vauhini Vara and Karan Mahajan join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V. V. Ganeshananthan to discuss Vara’s recent New Yorker essay “What If Readers Like AI-Generated Fiction?” Vara explains recent research by scientist Tuhin Chakrabarty, who has attempted to fine-tune large language models to produce better writing by feeding them authors’ entire oeuvres. She considers what it means that when Chakrabarty ran the results by some creative writing graduate students, they preferred AI imitations of writers like Junot Diaz, Sigrid Nunez, and Tony Tulathimutte to the writers themselves, or could not tell the difference. She and Mahajan talk about their decades-long connection and familiarity with each other’s writing. They muse on what it means that, when Vara talked Chakrabarty into letting her compete with a large language model, even Mahajan could not separate her original work from what it produced. Mahajan and Vara debate ways in which this technology will and won’t change how literature is written and received, the importance of style, reading as a collective experience, and if there is anything AI will never be able to capture about writing. Vara reads from the essay. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Vauhini Vara“What If Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?” | The New Yorker Searches: Selfhood in the Digital AgeThis Is SalvagedThe Immortal King RaoKaran MahajanThe ComplexThe Association of Small BombsFamily PlanningOthers:Pedro Paramo by Juan RulfoBeloved by Toni Morrison“In the Penal Colony” by Franz KafkaNgugi wa Thiong'oSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    50 min
  • S9 Ep. 12: Matthew Pearl on What We’ll Do For the Prize

    S9 Ep. 12: Matthew Pearl on What We’ll Do For the Prize
    Jan 8 2026
    Bestselling and award-winning writer Matthew Pearl joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new novel The Award. Pearl explores the relationship between cultural prizes and ideas of nationhood, as well as imposter syndrome and external validation, like MFAs, literary awards, and being seen writing in coffeeshops by and with other writers. He reflects on developing the character of David Trent, an aspiring young writer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Pearl himself formerly lived and participated in cafe culture. He talks about the ethical lines David is willing to cross to achieve success and how he rationalizes these choices to himself. He also explains the larger-than-life character of Silas Hale, the famous and mercurial novelist who lives downstairs from David, controls their shared thermostat, and has no interest in mentoring his young neighbor. Pearl considers how David’s life changes when he publishes a book and wins a prize. He reads from The Award. This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Matthew Pearl● The Award● Save Our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder● The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America● The Dante Chamber● The Last Bookaneer● The Technologists● The Last Dickens● The Poe Shadow● The Dante Club Others:● Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 19: Jacinda Townsend and James Bernard Short on American Fiction● Erasure by Percival Everett● Rabbit, Run by John Updike● The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz● The Wife by Meg Wolitzer● Yellowface by R.F. Kuang● The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris● Young Lions Fiction Award | The New York Public LibrarySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    43 min
  • S9 Ep. 11: Elizabeth McCracken on Writing About Writing, At Last

    S9 Ep. 11: Elizabeth McCracken on Writing About Writing, At Last
    Dec 18 2025
    Acclaimed fiction writer and long-time creative writing professor Elizabeth McCracken joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V. V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her ninth book and first volume about craft, A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction. McCracken reflects on her long-held reluctance to attempt such a project and the impossibility of creating absolute rules for writing. She explains why she doesn’t believe in “show don’t tell,” “write what you know,” “write every day,” and other classic canards of craft. McCracken talks about the importance of imagining characters’ physicality; well-executed present tense; how time can shape narrative; justifying flashbacks; and writing outside one’s own identity. She reads from A Long Game. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Elizabeth McCrackenA Long Game: Notes on Writing FictionThe Hero of This BookThe Souvenir MuseumBowlawayThunderstruck & Other StoriesAn Exact Replica of a Figment of My ImaginationNiagara Falls All Over AgainThe Giant’s HouseHere's Your Hat What's Your Hurry?Others:Tinkers by Paul HardingThe Gates of the Alamo by Stephen HarriganAffliction by Russell BanksGilligan’s IslandAllan GurganusSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    48 min
  • S9 Ep. 10: Maya Angelou Book Award Winner Alison C. Rollins on the Poetics of Sound, Space, and Image

    S9 Ep. 10: Maya Angelou Book Award Winner Alison C. Rollins on the Poetics of Sound, Space, and Image
    Dec 11 2025

    2025 Maya Angelou Book Award winner Alison C. Rollins joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V. V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her 2024 poetry collection Black Bell. She explores the history and symbolism of a bell-laden iron device used to control and torture enslaved people and describes the replica she created after studying metalworking. She also recounts the story of Harriet Jacobs, who spent seven years hidden in her grandmother’s attic before escaping slavery. Rollins talks about how her poems engage in call and response with other texts, including the music of Sun Ra and Stevie Wonder and images connected to ornithology, anatomy, Afrofuturism, and the history of slavery. She reflects on who has historically been granted the title of “poet” in America and discusses the archival research behind her writing. Rollins rings a glass bell and reads several poems from Black Bell.


    To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

    This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Amelia Fisher, Victoria Freisner, Wil Lasater, and S E Walker.


    Alison C. Rollins

    • Black Bell
    • Library of Small Catastrophes


    Others:

    • Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
    • The Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso by Dante Alighieri
    • The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
    • The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
    • Wu - Tang Clan - Enter The Wu - Tang (36 Chambers) [Full Album Mix]

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    37 min
  • S9 Ep. 9: Sven Beckert on the Global History of Capitalism

    S9 Ep. 9: Sven Beckert on the Global History of Capitalism
    Dec 4 2025

    Pulitzer Prize finalist Sven Beckert joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new book, Capitalism: A Global History. Beckert describes capitalism as an ongoing process comparable in significance to geological forces; he examines the way it shapes our interactions with the world and notes its presence in every aspect of daily life. He recounts how it has been influenced and defined for the past thousand years by people all over the world, ranging from merchants to CEOs to rebels resisting enslavement. He unpacks capitalism’s devastating global effects as well as its role in technological innovation and revolution. He explains that capitalism is a product of not only cities, but also the countryside. Finally, he addresses the idea that capitalism breeds inequality and argues for more nuance in understanding it as a human-made order that can be changed. He reads from Capitalism.

    To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

    This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, MaryClaire Dunagan, Emani Guerin, and Sarah Feldmann.

    Sven Beckert

    • Capitalism: A Global History
    • Empire of Cotton: A Global History
    • American Capitalism: New Histories
    • Global History, Globally: Research and Practice Around the World
    • The American Bourgeoisie: Distinction and Identity in the Nineteenth Century
    • The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850-1896


    Others:

    • Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
    • Capitalism named one of 100 NYT Notable Books for 2025


    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    44 min
  • S9 Ep. 8: Jacob Silverman on the Tech Bros’ Gilded Rage

    S9 Ep. 8: Jacob Silverman on the Tech Bros’ Gilded Rage
    Nov 20 2025
    Journalist Jacob Silverman joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new book, Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley. He discusses the rightward shift in ideology among leading tech giants and their companies, partially attributing the change to an interest in doing business with governments, including the U.S. and Israel. He speaks about the influence of Saudi Arabian wealth on the U.S. tech industry and how Saudi Arabia uses access to cutting-edge technology to remain in power and conduct mass surveillance on its people. Silverman addresses the calculated way today’s tech leaders have taken control of the idea economy as they increasingly interfere with what information the public sees, such as Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X). He gives examples of imagined and attempted tech-utopias, discussing communities such as California Forever and Próspera and their impacts. Silverman also discusses the alliance between the tech right and discontented moderate Democrats in San Francisco, explaining their involvement in recall politics and the transactional nature of tech politics. He reads an excerpt from Gilded Rage. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Emma Baxley, Elleanora Meman, Hope Wampler, and Brianna Wilson. Jacob Silverman Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley “How Shaun Maguire Became Silicon Valley's Most MAGA Firebrand,” Business Insider Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection Others: California Forever The Diversity Myth by Peter Thiel & David Sacks ‘Go home’: Honduran islanders fight against crypto colonialists| The Guardian Elon Musk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    40 min
  • S9 Ep. 7: Kathryn Nuernberger on Mutualism, Climate, and Finding Family at the End of the World

    S9 Ep. 7: Kathryn Nuernberger on Mutualism, Climate, and Finding Family at the End of the World
    Nov 13 2025
    Poet and essayist Kathryn Nuernberger joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her new collection of lyric essays, Held: Essays in Belonging, which is about symbiotic mutualisms, and grief and joy in an era of worsening climate change. She discusses COP30, the United Nations climate gathering currently underway in Brazil, and considers the global failure to keep warming below 1.5 °C. She reflects on the nature of symbiotic relationships and offers several examples, noting that over several cycles even parasitic relationships might achieve the balance of mutualism. Nuernberger places her work in the larger tradition of climate and nature writing, which previously tended to celebration and in recent years has turned more elegiac, and also talks about writing personal grief in relation to societal grief. She explains new vocabulary developed to address emerging climate concerns and emotions and identifies several concepts that need new words. She reads an excerpt from Held. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Graham Ballard, Courtenay Kantanka, Katelyn Koenig, and Bayleigh Williams. Kathryn Nuernberger Held: Essays in Belonging The Witch of Eye Rue Brief Interviews with the Romantic Past The End of Pink Rag & Bone Others: The Bureau of Linguistical Reality Cop30 Coverage | The Guardian The Aquarium by Phillip Henry Gosse John Hickel Raphel Lemkin Annie Dillard Barry Lopez The End of Nature by Bill McKibben Edward Abbey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    53 min