Other People with Brad Listi

May 16, 2012

Episode 70 — Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel is the guest. Her latest novel is called The Lola Quartet, and it is available now from Unbridled Books.

Library Journal, in a starred review, raves:

In this transcendent third novel, Emily St. John Mandel combines her most compelling characters with a breath-taking, tension-filled story as she examines again questions of identity, the surprising pull of family, the difficulties of being the person one wants to be, guilt, and the unforeseen ways in which a small and innocent action can have disastrous consequences. The Lola Quartet is a work that pays homage to literary noir and jazz, Django Reinhardt, economic collapse, love and loss, Florida’s exotic wildlife problem, crushing tropical heat, the leavening of the contemporary world, compulsive gambling, and the unreliability of memory.

Great to have Emily on the program.

Topics of conversation include: British Columbia, citizenship, dual citizenship, Canada, Brooklyn, modern dance, Toronto, home schooling, Vancouver Island, Black Swan, steroids, Montreal, break-ups, auditions, octogenarian agents, New York City, Emily Jacobson, Curtis Brown, past lives, vintage fashion, fedoras, good manners, population density, formality, editing, publishing, perfectionism, discipline, part-time jobs, readings, self-promotion, gypsy jazz, Django Reinhardt, Florida, reptiles, Zone One, Colson Whitehead, The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt, and Last Night in Montreal.

Monologue topics: airports, hunger, bad food, travel, fatigue.

This episode of Other People is sponsored by MP Publishing. Be sure to check out Johnny Future, the new novel by Steve Abee, and Growing Up Dead in Texas, by Stephen Graham Jones.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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May 13, 2012

Episode 69 — Etgar Keret

Etgar Keret is the guest. He’s the author of several books, the most recent of which is called Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, now available from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.

Jonathan Safran Foer calls it

Keret’s greatest book yet—the most funny, dark, and poignant. It’s tempting to say these stories are his most Kafkaesque, but in fact they are his most Keretesque.

And Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life, says:

Etgar Keret’s stories are funny, with tons of feeling, driving towards destinations you never see coming. They’re written in the most unpretentious, chatty voice possible, but they’re also weirdly poetic. They stick in your gut. You think about them for days.

So pleased to have Etgar on the program.

Topics of conversation include: stuff, materialism, grandfather clocks, Warsaw ghetto, Holocaust, books, Poland, bedtime stories, whores, drunks, the British, holes, Jews, Nazis, geniuses, adolescence, orthodox Judaism, religion, agnosticism, activism, truancy, the military, science, math, computers, philosophy, writing, not wanting to be a writer, asthma, guns, the Middle East, Israel, optimism, pessimism, government, Hamas, Arab Spring, fundamentalism, tyranny, opportunity, education, cinema, Jellyfish, Cannes, Camera d’Or, mango juice, work ethic, forcing oneself to make art, and the dangers of self-obsession.

Monologue topics: road trips, punctuality, barfing, nuclear reactors, children, microorganisms, and the dark art of concealment.

This episode of Other People is brought to you by the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the largest open-enrollment creative writing and screenwriting program in the nation.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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May 9, 2012

Episode 68 — David Rees

David Rees is the guest. He’s the author of How to Sharpen Pencils, a practical and theoretical treatise on the artisanal craft of pencil sharpening, for writers, artists, contractors, flange turners, anglesmiths, and civil servants, with illustrations showing current practice, now available from Melville House. He is also the creator of the comic strip Get Your War On, which has appeared in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine.

Amy Sedaris on How to Sharpen Pencils:

Of all the great artisanal crafts, hat blocking, cobbling, and trolloping, I think I was most disheartened to see pencil sharpening relegated to the dusty bin of history. That is why I am so thrilled David Rees is picking up the reins of the forgotten art of manual graphite-encased-in-wood point-crafting. I love my pencil!

A thrill and an honor to have Mr. Rees on the program.

Topics of conversation include: Hollywood Boulevard, Roosevelt Hotel, celebrity mummies, pitch meetings, Facebook, Scrabble, the visual beauty of phone numbers, Chapel Hill, Wisconsin, Manitowoc, cranes, America Club, Sheboygan, Porsche posters, Lamborghini Countach, bullying, Transformers 3, Michael Bay, American doom, Oberlin, Jesus and Mary Chain, physics class, pencils, social cohesion theory, learning your limits, feigning indifference, philosophy, Norman Care, Wittgenstein, how to live a good life, how to be a good person, how to honor the advantages you’ve been given by making sacrifices for the betterment of other people, losing religion, ethics, Kant, Minutemen, punk rock, Reagan, progressive Christianity, mastery, simplicity, complexity, Get Your War On, clip art, 9/11, George W. Bush, Soft Skull Press, the census, pencil sharpening, and the golden age of pencil use.

Monologue topics: dreams, intruders, locking the door, bad sleep, prank calls, subconscious thought, and inescapable neurotic obsessions.

This episode of Other People is brought to you by Luminarium, the critically acclaimed novel by Alex Shakar, now available from SoHo Press in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. Recently, the book was awarded the LA Times Book Prize for Fiction. Dave Eggers calls it “Dizzingly smart and provocative…. Shakar is committed throughout with trying, relentlessly, to flat-out explain the meaning of life.” To see the full list of reviews, and to get your copy of the novel, please visit www.sohopress.com.
Otherwise…

Please remember to subscribe to this podcast over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like what you hear? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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Tagged as Alex Shakar, America Club, artisanal pencil sharpening, author interview podcasts, author interviews, authors, books, Brad Listi, bullying, Chapel Hill, Christianity, complexity, cranes, David Rees, dreams, ethics, Facebook, George W. Bush, Get Your War On, Hollywood Boulevard, How to Sharpen Pencils, humor, Jesus and Mary Chain, Kant, Lamborghini Countach, locked doors, Luminarium, Manitowoc, Mann's Chinese Theater, Melville House, Michael Bay, Minutemen, neurotic obsessions, Norman Care, Oberlin, Other People with Brad Listi, pencil sharpening, pencils, philosophy, phone numbers, pitch meetings, podcasts, Porsches, punk rock, Reagan, religion, Roosevelt Hotel, Scrabble, Sheboygan, simplicity, social cohesion theory, Soft Skull Press, Soho Press, subconcious mind, Transformers 3, Wisconsin, Wittgenstein, writers, writing

May 6, 2012

Episode 67 — Chloe Caldwell

Chloe Caldwell is today’s guest. She’s the author of a debut essay collection called Legs Get Led Astray, now available from Future Tense Books.

Raves Cheryl Strayed:

Chloe Caldwell’s Legs Get Led Astray is a scorching hot glitter box of youthful despair and dark delight. Tender and sharp, wide-eyed and searching, these essays have a reckless beauty that feels to me like magic.

Nice to have Chloe on the program.

Topics of conversation include: living with your parents, music stores, bilingualism, voice lessons, Gwen Stefani, Shakira, George Michael, Hudson, marijuana, singing, dancing, fear of dancing, bongo lessons, memoir, New York City, distractions, alcohol, The Strand, writing workshops, secrets, perspective, productivity, assimilation, hippie culture, selling jewelry, Seattle, alienation, passivity, raising children in big cities, Cheryl Strayed, cat-sitting, writing for cash, keeping it enjoyable, the depression of publication, stunt memoirs, mediating one’s experience, hiking, yoga, hangover recovery, Kripalu, moving to Portland, and the womb of goodness.

Monologue topics: spankings, riding crops, Burning Man, the Santa Claus dominatrix, participation, pain, and mediating one’s own experience.

This episode of Other People is brought to you by the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the largest open-enrollment creative writing and screenwriting program in the nation.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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Tagged as alcohol, author interview podcasts, author interviews, authors, books, Brad Listi, Burning Man, Cheryl Strayed, Chloe Caldwell, debut nonfiction, dominatrix, drugs, essay collections, essayist, essays, Future Tense Books, Gotham Writers Workshop, hiking, Hudson, Kevin Sampsell, Kripalu, Legs Get Led Astray, literature, memoir, New York, Other People with Brad Listi, podcasts, Portland, publishing, Seattle, spankings, The Strand, writers, writing, yoga

May 2, 2012

Episode 66 — Kris D’Agostino

Kris D’Agostino is the guest. He’s the author of the debut novel The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac (Algonquin), which was the March selection for the TNB Book Club.

Raves Brock Clarke, author of Exley:

A singularly funny, bitter, bold book about what it’s like to resemble people you want badly to be better than. This is a remarkable book about a remarkable family with disturbingly familiar problems.

Great to have Kris on the program.

Topics of conversation include: film school, New York, The Hunger Games, reading, Boston University, loneliness, Boogie Nights, Dirk Diggler, Paul Thomas Anderson, failure, Dungeons & Dragons, J.R.R. Tolkien, living at home, anxiety, mothers, therapy, break-ups, routines, music, band practice, New School, pre-school, energy, relaxation, Woody Allen, A Separation, cinematic literature, acting, class comics, Italian, public transportation, testing, Children of Men, Never Let Me Go, organ harvesting, coming of age stories, and realist science fiction.

Monologue topics: coffee shops, coffee meetings, Larry Charles, social awkwardness, forgiveness, Jesus, and birthday parties.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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Tagged as A Separation, Algonquin Books, anxiety, author interview podcasts, author interviews, authors, Boogie Nights, books, Boston, Brad Listi, BU, debut fiction, Dirk Diggler, Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy, film school, interviews, Italian, Kris D'Agostino, literature, music, Never Let Me Go, new fiction, New York, novels, Other People with Brad Listi, Paul Thomas Anderson, podcasts, publishing, science fiction, The Hunger Games, The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac, therapys, Woody Allen, writers, writing

April 29, 2012

Episode 65 — Matt Bell

Matt Bell is the guest. He’s the author of several chapbooks, a fiction collection called How They Were Found, and his most recent book is a novella called Cataclysm Baby, now available from Mud Luscious Press.

Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!, raves:

In extraordinary language, with deep feeling, Matt Bell has crafted a baby name book for the apocalypse, a gorgeous, brilliant, often darkly hilarious and always moving novella. Written with an ingenuity and joy that call to mind Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, each chapter is a treasure: Here are beast of burden children, larval girls, subterranean daughters and choirs of sirens, combustible baby boys. I loved this book and want to recommend it to every human parent and child I know; if trees, rocks, and stars were literate, I would recommend it to them, too. ‘Where do babies come from?’ children ask their parents, and Cataclysm Baby has an alphabet of answers as beautiful and mysterious as that ancient question, while always posing its haunting corollary: ‘Where do they go?

Wonderful to have Matt on the program.

Topics of conversation include: dissertating, Michigan, kids, parenthood, the Great White North, Canada, family, boredom, storytelling, Lord of the Rings, Bill Murray, repetition, Meatballs, Denis Johnson, Jesus’ Son, Louis Ferdinand Celine, groupthink, individualism, time, isolation, travel, Jim Morrison, An American Prayer, bad poetry, midlife crises, exercise, real experience vs. mediated experience, empathy, pregnancy fears, Dzanc, The Collagist, violence, The Man with Two Brains, nudity, Stephen King, The Shining, adolescence, writing rituals, stamina, self-doubt, long periods of uncertainty, validation, learning from the slush pile, and genre vs. literary.

Monologue topics: dinner with a friend, leaving the car running, The TNB Literary Experience, and an excerpt from my novel-in-progress.

This episode of Other People is brought to you by the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the largest open-enrollment creative writing and screenwriting program in the nation.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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Tagged as academia, adolescence, author interview podcasts, author interviews, authors, Bill Murray, books, boredom, Brad Listi, Canada, childbirth, Denis Johnson, Dzanc, genre vs. literary, interviews, isolation, Jesus' Son, Jim Morrison, kids, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Matt Bell, Meatballs, mediated experience, Michigan, Other People with Brad Listi, parenthood, podcasts, publishing, real experience, repetition, self-doubt, Stephen King, teaching, The Collagist, The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience, The Shining, time, uncertainty, violence, writers, writing

April 25, 2012

Episode 64 — Noah Hawley

Noah Hawley is the guest. He’s the author of several books, the most recent of which is a novel called The Good Father, now available from Doubleday. He’s also an accomplished writer and producer in film and television. He wrote and produced the television show Bones, and created the shows The Unusuals and My Generation. He also wrote the screenplay for the feature film Lies and Alibis.

Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, has this to say about The Good Father:

The father of a man who assassinates a presidential candidate tries to make sense of his son’s crime in Hawley’s gripping new novel…With great skill, Hawley renders Dr. Allen’s treacherous emotional geography, from his shock and guilt to his growing sense that he knows far less about his son than he thought…Hawley’s complicated protagonist is a fully fathomed and beautifully realized character whose emotional growth never slows a narrative that races toward a satisfying and touching conclusion.

Great to have Noah on the program.

Topics of conversation include: San Francisco, screenwriting, pitch meetings, getting to yes, speakerphones, being good in a room, sales, storytelling, segues, humor, efficiency, character, universality, commercial fiction, Mark Leyner, Hollywood, New York, My Generation, cancellation, adversity, fear, risk, conformity, bitterness, industriousness, Austin, ABC, BBC, studios, networks, notes, collaboration, show runners, Mississippi, specificity, break-ins, Stripes, anti-heroes, Bill Murray, age, teaching, exit strategies, fickleness, and selling fruit on the side of the road.

Monologue topics: neurotic thinking, second-guessing, elevators, conversation, and micro-expressions of pain.

This episode of Other People is brought to you by the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the largest open-enrollment creative writing and screenwriting program in the nation.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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Tagged as ABC, adversity, Austin, BBC, Bill Murray, elevators, England, fear, Hollywood, humor, Mark Leyner, My Generation, networks, neurotic thinking, New York, Noah Hawley, pitch meetings, sales, San Francisco, screenwriting, show runners, storytelling, Stripes, studios, teaching, television, The Good Father, The Unusuals, Yes Man

April 22, 2012

Episode 63 — James Bernard Frost

James Bernard Frost is the guest. He’s the author of the novel A Very Minor Prophet, now available from Hawthorne Books.

Raves Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club:

To date only Gus Van Sant has depicted the grim, dim, greasy, cramped world of Portland, Oregon. Now James Bernard Frost has given us the best novel, ever, about this strange underground world of misfits and heroes.

Raves Tom Robbins, author of Another Roadside Attraction:

Bucking a headwind of despair, Frost pedals his verbal bicycle into the belly of the Beast, only to return bearing a brand-new Gospel illuminated with Voodoo cream and composed in the edgy vernacular of Portland’s thriving freak scene.

A pleasure to have Jim on the show—he’s been a contributor at The Nervous Breakdown for the past several years, so it’s especially nice to see a book of his make its way into the world.

Topics of conversation include: Portland, Oregon, perseverance, George W. Bush, failure, agents, unorthodoxy, zines, hybrids, political outrage, Ayn Rand, self-righteousness, religion, shame, lectures, Catholicism, agnosticism, serendipity, awfulness, creative pain, discipline, perspective, outlining, structure, expertise, readings, quantifying success, marketing, the accuracy of social media, guidebooks, vegetarians, rental cars, dot com boom, food criticism, the impossibility of not writing, fantasy fiction, facilitating, time management, adaptability, screenwriting, and the quest.

Monologue topics: Coachella, festivals, public nudity, the 1960s, Woodstock, and Segway bubbles.

This episode of Other People is brought to you by the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the largest open-enrollment creative writing and screenwriting program in the nation.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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Tagged as agnosticism, author interview podcasts, author interviews, authors, awfulness, Ayn Rand, books, Brad Listi, Catholicism, Chuck Palahniuk, discipline, failure, fantasy fiction, food writing, George W. Bush, guidebooks, Hawthorne Books, hybrids, James Bernard Frost, literary agents, literature, new fiction, Oregon, Oregon writers, Other People with Brad Listi, outrage, Pacific Northwest, perseverance, podcasts, politics, Portland, Portland authors, publishing, religion, screenwriting, serendipity, shame, social media, story, time, Tom Robbins, vegetarian restaurants, writers, writing, zines

April 18, 2012

Episode 62 — Heidi Julavits

Heidi Julavits is today’s guest. She’s the author of four books, the most recent of which is a novel called The Vanishers, now available from Doubleday. And she’s also the co-editor of The Believer magazine.

Here’s what The New York Times Book Review has to say about The Vanishers:

Darkly comic….sharp-eyed, sardonic, hilarious….Julavits is at her acrobatically linguistic best here. Nearly every page contains a showstopping description or insight…narrative voice is superb. Funny, self-deprecating, exquisitely attuned… Vivid… Remarkable… Heartbreaking.

So great to have Heidi on the program.

Topics of conversation include: Los Angeles, road trips, Boulder, Dartmouth, ex-boyfriends, balding tires, Choate, fraternities, The Ivy League, Columbia, feminism, children, body image, Harvard, editing, literary power couples, Ben Marcus, reality television, Susan Faludi, Vendela Vida, Dave Eggers, The Believer, emails, womby-watery women’s writing, Hillary Clinton, Yoko Ono, lazy-mindedness, women and their mothers, female relationships, psychic attacks, random discovery, the pain of writing novels, when a novel doesn’t work, and learning to savor the good moments.

Monologue topics: psychic experiences, earthquakes, uteruses, and streetlights.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the show…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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Tagged as author interview podcasts, author interviews, authors, Ben Marcus, Boulder, Brad Listi, Columbia, Dartmouth, Dave Eggers, feminism, Harvard, Heidi Julavits, Hillary Clinton, literary power couples, Los Angeles, new fiction, novels, Other People with Brad Listi, podcasts, publishing, Susan Faludi, The Believer magazine, The Ivy League, The Vanishers, Vendela Vida, writers, writing, Yoko Ono

April 15, 2012

Episode 61 — Rosecrans Baldwin

Rosecrans Baldwin is the guest. He’s a co-founder of The Morning News and the author of a new memoir called Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down, available on April 24th from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.

Kirkus, in a starred review, calls it “great fun and surprisingly touching.”

Very excited to have Rosecrans on the program.

Topics of conversation include: girls with boy names, boys with girl names, the Mayflower, Paris, French military might, French films, Eagle Scouts, books, movies, identity, escape, advertising, Sofia Coppola, Louis Vuitton, fashion crises, OCD, trench coats, hoodies, Bonobos pants, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Good Omens, Colby, Frank O’Hara, poetry, despair, the Internet, The Morning News, good cheer, novels, consciousness, blogging, zines, book tour, golf shirts, and indie situations.

Monologue topics: Paris Hilton, Paris, idiocy, George Whitman, Shakespeare & Company, pigeons, bird shit, luck.

This episode of Other People is brought to you by the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the largest open-enrollment creative writing and screenwriting program in the nation.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free.

Or just push PLAY below.

Many thanks, everybody. Enjoy the program…

-BL

PS. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you!

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Tagged as & Giroux, author interview podcasts, author interviews, authors, books, Brad Listi, Farrar, fashion, France, francophile, Frank O'Hara, Good Omens, Louis Vuitton, Mayflower, memoirs, Neil Gaiman, new memoirs, nonfiction, novels, OCD, Other People with Brad Listi, Paris, Paris I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, podcasts, publishing, Rosecrans Baldwin, Sofia Coppola, Straus, Terry Pratchett, The Morning News, UCLA Extension Writers' Program, writers, writing

Episode 70 — Emily St. John Mandel

Episode 69 — Etgar Keret

Episode 67 — Chloe Caldwell

Episode 66 — Kris D’Agostino

Episode 65 — Matt Bell

Episode 64 — Noah Hawley

Episode 62 — Heidi Julavits

Episode 61 — Rosecrans Baldwin

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