Otherppl with Brad Listi: Books & Culture

Latest Episodes:

How the Horror Genre Works May 24, 2023

Show notes

In the latest "Craftwork" episode, a deep-dive conversation about the horror genre with author and story expert John Truby. His latest book, The Anatomy of Genres: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works, is available from Picador.

Truby is the founder and director of Truby's Writers Studio. Over the past thirty years, he has taught more than fifty thousand students worldwide, including novelists, screenwriters, and TV writers. Together, these writers have generated more than fifteen billion dollars at the box office.

Truby has an ongoing program where he works with students who are actively creating shows, movies, and novel series. He regularly applies his genre techniques in story consulting work with major studios including Disney, Sony Pictures, Fox, HBO, the BBC, Canal Plus, Globo, and AMC. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Leslie, and their two cats, Tink and Peanut.

For story software and courses, please visit Truby.com.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

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838. Ivy Pochoda May 21, 2023

Show notes

Ivy Pochoda is the author of the novel Sing Her Down, available from MCD Books.

Pochoda's other books include the acclaimed novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, and These Women. She won the 2018 Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and the Prix Page/America in France, and has been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Edgar Award, the Macavity Award, and the International Thriller Writers Award. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ottessa Moshfegh on Creative Inspiration, Mental Anguish, Substance Abuse, Sobriety, and Writing Into the Dark Places May 19, 2023

Show notes

Today I'm launching a new feature on the Otherppl podcast: flashback episodes from the Otherppl archives.

These flashbacks will be short-form, and they will happen on Fridays.

They will feature highlights from past conversations: bits of insight and instruction and commiseration and revelation.

Today, in this inaugural flashback episode, an outtake from Episode 532, my conversation with bestselling author Ottessa Moshfegh. Eileen, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize, and it won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. Her other novels include My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Death in Her Hands, and Lapvona. She is also the author of the short story collection Homesick for Another World and a novella entitled McGlue.

This episode first aired on July 11, 2018.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

837. Anne Elizabeth Moore May 17, 2023

Show notes

Anne Elizabeth Moore is the author of the essay collection Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes, available from The Feminist Press. It is the official May pick of the Otherppl Book Club.

Moore was born in Winner, SD. She is the author of Unmarketable (2007), the Eisner Award-winning Sweet Little Cunt (2018), Gentrifier: A Memoir (2021), which was an NPR Best Book of the Year, and others. She is the founding editor of Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics and the former editor of Punk Planet, The Comics Journal, and the Chicago Reader. She has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. She is a Fulbright Senior Scholar, has taught in the Visual Critical Studies department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was the 2019 Mackey Chair of Creative Writing at Beloit College. She lives in the Catskills with her ineffective feline personal assistants, Taku and Captain America.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

836. Samantha Irby May 14, 2023

Show notes

Samantha Irby is the bestselling author of the essay collection Quietly Hostile, available from Vintage.

Irby's other books include Meaty, Wow, No Thank You, and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. She also writes for television, having worked on shows like Shrill, And Just Like That, and Tuca & Bertie. She blogs at Bitches Gotta Eat and lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

835. Isabella Hammad May 10, 2023

Show notes

Isabella Hammad is the author of the novel Enter Ghost, available from Grove Press.

Hammad was born in London. Her writing has appeared in Conjunctions, The Paris Review, The New York Times and elsewhere. She was awarded the 2018 Plimpton Prize for Fiction and a 2019 O. Henry Prize. Her first novel The Parisian (2019) won a Palestine Book Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Betty Trask Award from the Society of Authors in the UK. She was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, and has received literary fellowships from MacDowell and the Lannan Foundation. She is currently a fellow at the Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

834. Dave Eggers May 07, 2023

Show notes

Dave Eggersis the author of the all-ages novel The Eyes and the Impossible, available in a deluxe, limited edition, wood-bound hardcover from McSweeney's, and in a traditional hardcover from Knopf Books for Young Readers. Illustrations by Shawn Harris.

Eggers is the author of many books, including bestsellers The Every, The Monk of Mokha, The Circle, A Hologram for the King, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. His work has been nominated for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the founder of McSweeney's, an independent publishing company based in San Francisco, and cofounder of 826 National, a network of educational centers around the country offering free tutoring to kids of all backgrounds. He lives in Northern California with his family.

Shawn Harris is the author/illustrator of Have You Ever Seen a Flower?, which won a Caldecott Honor Award. He is the illustrator of Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers, which received seven starred reviews, was an Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book, an ALA Notable, and a PW Best Book of the Year. His other picture books include Eggers's What Can a Citizen Do (a Time Magazine Best Children's Book), Everyone's Awake by Colin Meloy, and A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Launched in 2011. Books. Literature. Writing. Publishing. Authors. Screenwriters. Etc.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How the Bestseller Lists Work May 03, 2023

Show notes

In the latest "Craftwork" episode, a deep-dive conversation about the bestseller lists with Carly Watters, herself a longtime literary agent and the co-host of the popular writing podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. Carly is "very online"—follow her on Instagram and Twitter—with a keen understanding of the digital landscape and the challenges faced by contemporary authors. In this episode, we discuss how the bestseller lists actually work, who the decision-makers are, and what making a list can mean to a writer's career in practical terms.

Carly Watters is a SVP and Senior Literary Agent at P.S. Literary. She began her publishing career in London as an assistant at the Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency. Carly joined Toronto-based P.S. Literary Agency in 2010 and has sold over 100 books during her career. She represents award-winning and bestselling authors in the adult fiction and non-fiction categories, and select children’s books.

She is known for her long-term vision for her authors and being an excellent collaborator with a nose for commercial success. She has close ties to publishers in the major markets, is a member of the AALA, and works directly with film agents to option film and TV rights to leading networks and production companies. Her clients’ books have been translated into 40 languages, optioned for TV and film, adapted into podcasts, and have been on every bestseller list from coast to coast, including the New York Times, USA Today, the LA Times, the Washington Post, the Toronto Star, and theGlobe and Mail. Carly is also an annual judge for the Women’s Fiction Writing Association Rising Star Award.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Launched in 2011. Books. Literature. Writing. Publishing. Authors. Screenwriters. Etc.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

833. Hannah Pittard Apr 30, 2023

Show notes

Hannah Pittardis the author of the memoir We Are Too Many, available from Henry Holt & Co.

Pittard is the author of four novels. She is a winner of the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, a MacDowell Colony fellow, and a graduate of Deerfield Academy, the University of Chicago, and the University of Virginia. She also spent some time at St. John's College in Annapolis. She is a professor of English at the University of Kentucky and lives in Lexington with her boyfriend and stepdaughter.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Launched in 2011. Books. Literature. Writing. Publishing. Authors. Screenwriters. Etc.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com

The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

832. Emily St. John Mandel Apr 26, 2023

Show notes

Emily St. John Mandel is the bestselling author of the novel Sea of Tranquility, now available in trade paperback from Vintage.

Mandel's five previous novels include The Glass Hotel, which has been translated into twenty-five languages, and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, was the basis of a limited series on HBO Max, and has been translated into thirty-seven languages. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles.

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Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

Launched in 2011. Books. Literature. Writing. Publishing. Authors. Screenwriters. Etc.

Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc.

Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.

Support the show on Patreon

Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com