fiction/non/fiction

Latest Episodes:

S8 Ep. 22: Novelists Suzette Mayr and Kai Thomas on Canada Versus Trump Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

Canadian authors Suzette Mayr and Kai Thomas join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the repercussions of President Trump’s recent threats to annex and tax Canada. They talk about the possible empowerment of the Canadian right as a result of Trump’s extreme remarks, as well as measures their communities are taking to unify in the current political environment. Mayr and Thomas read from their recent novels, The Sleeping Car Porter and In the Upper Country.

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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Suzette Mayr

Kai Thomas

In the Upper Country

Others:

2025 4 Nations Face Off | NHL.com | NHL
Justin Trudeau's speech in response to Trump's tariffs | CBC News
The Last Black Town in the West |The Daily Yonder
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters | Library of Congress
There's only one winner in a trade war... | This Hour Has 22 Minutes (YouTube)

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S8 Ep. 21: Nicholas Fandos on New York Politics, Eric Adams, and Trump Feb 20, 2025

Show notes

New York Times reporter Nicholas Fandos, author of a recent article titled “An Emboldened Trump Seeks to Bend New York City to His Will,” joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about why President Trump wants to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Officials in Trump’s Department of Justice say they want Adams to be free to aid Trump’s immigration crackdown in the Big Apple, which since 2014 has been a sanctuary city. But conservative federal prosecutors like Danielle Sassoon and Hagen Scotten say this amounts to a quid pro quo and have resigned rather than drop the case against Adams. Fandos reflects on what might happen next and the larger implications for the Department of Justice.

This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Nicholas Fandos

Others:

Who Is Danielle Sassoon, the Prosecutor Who Quit Over Eric Adams’s Corruption Case? | New York Times
Danielle Sassoon’s Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Annotated | New York Times
Here Are the Charges Eric Adams Faces, Annotated | New York Times | September 26, 2024
Read the Resignation Letter From Hagan Scotten | New York Times
Read The Letter From Emil Bove Accepting Danielle Sassoon’s Resignation, Annotated | New York Times

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S8 Ep. 20: Journalists Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker on Trump and his Tech Oligarchs. Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

New Atlantic staff writers Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, authors of a recent article called “The Tech Oligarchy Arrives,” join host Whitney Terrell to talk about tech oligarchs’ influence over President Trump’s administration. They discuss the significance of prominent billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos attending Trump’s inauguration as visible supporters, how these tech leaders have changed their opinion of Trump over time, and the regulatory and legal benefits they may gain from their close association with the new administration. They also discuss Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the fallout from that group’s efforts to access Treasury data and dismantle USAID.

This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Ashley Parker & Michael Scherer

The Tech Oligarchy Arrives |The Atlantic |January 20, 2025
Trump Advisers Stopped Musk From Hiring a Noncitizen at DOGE |The Atlantic |February 4, 2025
Trump Takes Over the Kennedy Center |The Atlantic | February 7, 2025
Trump’s Conquest of the Kennedy Center Is Accelerating |The Atlantic | February 8, 2025

Ashley Parker

The Memo That Shocked the White House |The Atlantic | January 29, 2025

Michael Scherer

Why Meta Is Paying $25 Million to Settle a Trump Lawsuit |The Atlantic | January 29, 2025

Others:

DOGE task force gains access to U.S. Treasury Department data, payment systems |CBS News |February 3, 2025
Doge v USAid: how Elon Musk helped his acolytes infiltrate world’s biggest aid agency |The Guardian |February 5, 2025
Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity – The White House |The White House |January 21, 2025
Meta Goes Full MAGA as it Kills Off DEI Programs |Daily Beast|January 10, 2025
The Tech Oligarchy Arrives |The Atlantic |January 20, 2025
Trump, a populist president, is flanked by tech billionaires at his inauguration | AP News | January 20, 2025
Zuckerberg Turns Facebook Full MAGA and Smears California Staff

|Yahoo! News |January 7, 2025

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S8 Ep. 19: Thomas Dai on Mapping, Naming, Borders, and Immigration Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

Essayist Thomas Dai joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new collection, Take My Name But Say It Slow, in which he writes about place and identity. Dai talks about the imperialist impulse behind Trump’s attempt to turn the Gulf of Mexico into the “Gulf of America,” the power of naming, and the appeal and uncertainty of mapping. He also reflects on the surprising history of border policing, queer cartographies, and the sometimes paradoxical relationship between inner self and physical space. Dai reads from Take My Name But Say It Slow.

This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Thomas Dai

Take My Name But Say It Slow

Others

National Archives, The Chinese Exclusion Act
“Queering the Map”
Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
Peter Ho Davies, The Fortunes
“Think There’s Nothing You Can Do to Stop ICE? Think Again.” | The Nation

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S8 Ep. 18: Lan Samantha Chang on the Risks and Rewards of Literary Personas Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

Acclaimed novelist and Director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Lan Samantha Chang joins Fiction/Non/Fiction hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the role that literary personas may–or may not–have played in recent revelations about Alice Munro, Neil Gaiman, and Cormac McCarthy. Chang discusses how writers often develop literary personas as their public profiles grow. Chang also discusses how personas can be both protective and damaging when they no longer align with the writer's true self, the impact of personas on writers' privacy and the industry's role in shaping and maintaining these personas. She reads from her novel All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost.

This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Lan Samantha Chang

The Family Chao
Hunger
Inheritance
All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost
Writers, Protect Your Inner Life |Lit Hub|August 7, 2017

Others:

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S8 Ep. 17: Sarah S. Grossman on the Los Angeles Wildfires Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

Novelist and former Huffington Post climate reporter Sarah S. Grossman joins Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the Los Angeles wildfires. Grossman, who lives in Los Angeles and whose 2024 novel A Fire So Wild centers on a wildfire in Northern California, discusses how communities are coming together to support each other in the wake of the devastation. She reflects on the damage to the historically Black neighborhood of Altadena; the fact that people are differently affected by climate change, even as wealth cannot completely shield anyone; the factors that contributed to the wildfires; and what it is like to prepare to evacuate, or, alternatively, to offer shelter to others. Grossman reads from A Fire So Wild.

This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Sarah S. Grossman

A Fire So Wild
The Antidote To Climate Dread | HuffPost Impact | The Huffington Post | Aug 25, 2021
More Americans Than Ever Understand Climate Change Is Real And Harmful | HuffPost Impact | The Huffington Post | Nov 18, 2021
Nearly 30% Of Americans Aren't Worried 'At All' About The Deadly Climate Crisis | The Huffington Post | April 19, 2022

Others:

New wildfire concerns in Los Angeles: Strong winds could return next week. | USA Today

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S8 Ep. 16: Charles Baxter on the Dangers of Knowing the Future Jan 16, 2025

Show notes

Acclaimed novelist Charles Baxter joins Fiction/Non/Fiction hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his recent novel Blood Test: A Comedy. Baxter talks about turning to humor in dark times, the burden of expectations, and writing a protagonist, Brock Hobson, who some readers love and others detest. He discusses how seeing websites and ads that predicted his likes and dislikes led to him inventing a fictional company, Geronomics, which predicts a certain future for Brock and is invested in that scenario playing out one way or another. Baxter also analyzes the craft of writing an antagonist who is a Trumper, but who is never explicitly identified as such. He reads from Blood Test.

This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Charles Baxter

Blood Test: A Comedy
Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature
Gryphon
Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction
There’s Something I Want You to Do
The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot
Shadow Play

Others:

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S8 Ep. 15: Ream Shukairy on Syria After Assad Jan 09, 2025

Show notes

Following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, novelist Ream Shukairy joins Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the country’s future. Shukairy, who grew up in California and spent summers in Syria, reflects on the long history of Syrian resistance to oppression, as well as how parts of her family emigrated. She also talks about how it feels to emerge from a culture of fear and surveillance, what it’s like to revisit what she previously wrote about Assad, and the places she wants to see when she returns to Syria for the first time in years. Shukairy reads from her young adult novel The Next New Syrian Girl.

This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Ream Shukairy

Others:

Return to Homs
For Sama
The White Helmets (film)
The White Helmets (organization)
Last Men in Aleppo
Cries from Syria
Still Recording
The Cave
Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War by Leila Al-Shami and Robin Yassin-Kassab
Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy by Yassin al-Haj Saleh
Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family’s Lust for Power Destroyed Syria by Sam Dagher

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S8 Ep. 14 REBROADCAST: Jacinda Townsend and James Bernard Short on Percival Everett and American Fiction Jan 02, 2025

Show notes

Novelist Jacinda Townsend and writer James Bernard Short join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the movie American Fiction, which is based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. Townsend and Short discuss how the film addresses race in the publishing industry via its central character, Black author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, who tries to make an ironic point by writing a book exploiting Black stereotypes and finds, to his dismay, that it’s received in earnest and a bestseller. Townsend and Short analyze director Cord Jefferson’s approach and the film’s themes of family dysfunction, freedom in storytelling, and the importance of portraying the complexity of Black lives.

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Jacinda Townsend

James Bernard Short

Others:

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S8 Ep. 13: Ellie Palmer and Elle Everhart on the Rise of Romance Dec 26, 2024

Show notes

In this holiday re-broadcast, Romance novelists Elle Everhart and Ellie Palmer join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the genre’s increasing popularity. Everhart, the London-based author of the new book Hot Summer, featuring a protagonist who joins the cast of a reality show only to realize she’s interested in a fellow contestant, discusses coming to romance writing as a fourth grader fascinated by kissing, and wonders why as sales boom, the U.S.—but not the U.K.—is seeing more romance-specific bookstores. Palmer, the author of the new book Four Weekends and a Funeral, whose main character is a carrier of the BRCA1 mutation, recalls falling in love with the genre as she prepared for her own preventative double mastectomy. She reflects on how the genre’s structure promises positive endings for those who need them at challenging moments, and how the language of romance gave her a way to think about her own body and sexuality. Everhart reads from Hot Summer and Palmer reads from Four Weekends and a Funeral.

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Elle Everhart

Ellie Palmer