Poured Over

Latest Episodes:

N.K. Jemisin on THE WORLD WE MAKE Nov 03, 2022

Show notes

"…The idea just kind of spun itself into existence in my head, the world started to form almost immediately — when my creative brain kind of immediately kicks in like that, I've learned to listen to it, because usually, that means something, something good is trying to come out." N.K. Jemisin — winner of three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel (each of the Broken Earth books) and now a fourth for Best Graphic Story or Comic (Far Sector), and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient — is one of our favorite writers, and we'll follow her anywhere. She joins us on the show to talk about closing out her Great Cities duology with The World We Make, adaptingthe Broken Earth series for the screen, the challenges of writing about a city massively in flux, NY pizza, Ozymandias the cat, her literary inspirations, what's she's reading and more with guest host Kat Sarfas. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson.

Featured Books (Episode):

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin

Monstress by Sana Takeda and Marjorie Liu

Witch King by Martha Wells

Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jean Anders

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

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).

Louise Kennedy on TRESPASSES Nov 01, 2022

Show notes

"…It was at the end of an exhibition called The Art of The Troubles. And that had been a little controversial (as these things very often are in post-conflict societies). Some people felt it had gone too far. Other people felt that it hadn't gone far enough. It just made me think about how maybe art could be used to say things that are really unsayable in a place where people are obsessed with language and obsessed with identity and where languages are so problematic."

Louise Kennedy joins us on the show to talk about her US debut, Trespasses, a story about love, loss and identity that's so unforgettable, it's our newest Discover pick. Listen in as Louise riffs on the layers of her debut: coming of age, class, searching for safety, rewriting matinee idols, transgression, mothers and daughters, her literary influences and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book reviews from Marc and Madyson.

Featured Book (Episode):

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Wolf Den by Elodi Harper

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).

Marjorie Liu on THE NIGHT EATERS: SHE EATS THE NIGHT Oct 29, 2022

Show notes

"We don't know our parents, I mean, we think we do; you know, all of us have a practice of dealing with contained worlds. And that practice begins with our families, it begins with our parents, because these are individuals that we don't fully understand, but we are completely dependent on for our survival... And so it creates this really interesting situation where, you know, we take them for granted in a certain way, we think we understand them, but we don't. I want to see if I could get that crossed in some small way, by showing these alternate realities…" Marjorie Liu joins Poured Over guest host Kat Sarfas to talk about her latest graphic novel, The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night, the first volume in a new series, along with their shared love of comics and graphic novels, how the story evolved for Marjorie, family, inherited trauma, the importance of play, sibling relationships, Dungeons & Dragons, creepy dolls and much more.

Featured Books (Episode):

The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

The Monstress series of graphic novels by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples by Colleen Doran and Neil Gaiman

Bunny by Mona Awad

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).

Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan on MAD HONEY Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

"I was always writing, and I think it goes back to that Charlotte's Web thing when I had that experience of something taking me out of this world. It was mysterious, and transcendent, and glorious. And I'm still searching for that every day — if I can find a story that will do that to me and just kind of mystify me and leave me a slightly different person than I was before." Jennifer Finney Boylan and Jodi Picoult joined us on stage at our flagship store on Union Square in New York City to talk about their bestselling novel, Mad Honey, along with keeping bees (and secrets), what they learned from their collaboration, why they write, their literary inspirations and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer.

Featured Books (Episode):

Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan and Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

I'm Looking Through You: A Memoir of Growing Up Haunted by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Liberation Day by George Saunders

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).

Siddhartha Mukherjee on THE SONG OF THE CELL: AN EXPLORATION OF MEDICINE AND THE NEW HUMAN Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

"People write medical histories, people write personal case histories, I didn't want to do either. People write memoirs; I wanted to do all of them in the same book. And I wanted to do that without blurring the boundaries between any and all of those… I consider those parts of living history." Siddhartha Mukherjee is an oncologist, a professor, a bestselling author and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his first book, Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. He joins us on the show to talk about his latest book, The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, along with gene therapies, balancing the future of science with current patient care, the excitement that comes with scientific discovery, his literary influences and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer.

Featured Books (Episode):

The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris

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).

Ross Gay on INCITING JOY Oct 22, 2022

Show notes

"We were doing all of this for people we did not know and could not imagine. And as is the case, too, like, when you're planting trees, you hope that they're gonna outlive you. And the trees that were planted have outlived some of the people who are deeply involved in that project. Which is, you know…it's both this sorrow and it's a gratitude. We were addressing our needs. And our needs were actually to care for one another, and to join each other, and to love each other and to come to love to love each other, by making this thing for people who we did not know who may or may not be us." So many of us have found pleasure and solace — and joy — in The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. He's back with a new variation on that riff, Inciting Joy, and he joins us on the show to talk about variations on gardening, the connection between sorrow and joy, cover songs, football and footnotes, community, the pleasures of not doing anything, what's he's been reading and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson.

Featured Books (Episode):

Inciting Joy by Ross Gay

Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay

The Bluest Nude by Ama Codjoe

Or, On Being the Other Woman by Simone White

Under the Sign of Saturn by Susan Sontag

Notes on Sontag by Philip Lopate

War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges

Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

How to Love the World by James Crews

Film for Her by Orion Carloto

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).

Nicholas Dawidoff on THE OTHER SIDE OF PROSPECT: A STORY OF VIOLENCE, INJUSTICE, AND THE AMERICAN CITY Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

"When I came back, I was thinking about how to tell the story. And I wanted to meet people who, in one way or another, resembled the young people who I'd known as a kid and I was talking to various people, and I had some ideas. And then I got a call from a lawyer, whose name is Ken. And he called up and he said, You know, I've heard about what you're doing. And I have a client whose experience, I think, speaks to what you're trying to do…" Writer Nicholas Dawidoff (The Catcher was a Spy) spent eight years immersed in the story at the heart of his new book, The Other Side of Prospect: A Story of Violence, Injustice and the American City, and he joins us on the show to talk about the evolution of New Haven (and if it's possible to go home again), inequality and the American Dream, racism and generational poverty, class, justice, his friendship with acclaimed poet Reginald Dwayne Betts and more with Poured Over's host Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson. Featured Books (Episode):

The Other Side of Prospect by Nicholas Dawidoff

Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts

Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude MacKay

Featured Books (TBR Topoff)

The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

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.

George Saunders on LIBERATION DAY Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

"By making a certain voice, then I'm going to force myself to do new things in that story. The voice is for me, very measured and realistic and regular, regular. But it's almost like DNA. Once you do that, then you're committed to continuing to do it, which means you're committed to finding some kind of power, even in that somewhat limited mode, which is great fun." The only thing better than reading a short story by George Saunders is listening to him talk about how — and why — he does it. Liberation Day is his first collection of stories since The Tenth of December (a finalist for the National Book Award), and George joins us on the show to talk about his love of the short story form, how writing A Swim in a Pond in the Rain changed his work, learning to be comfortable with uncertainty, voice as ethos, keeping his readers from of mind as he writes (and rewrites), what's next and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff Book Recommendations from Marc and Madyson.

Featured Books (Episode):

Liberation Day by George Saunders

The Tenth of December by George Saunders

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

Boys, Beasts, and Men by Sam J. Miller

The Cabinet by Kim Un-Su

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).

Lydia Millet on DINOSAURS: A NOVEL Oct 15, 2022

Show notes

"There's kind of an aspect of melancholy that I love as a reader… But I can't write a book that I wouldn't want to read… Although I am interested in just sadness and like a certain beautiful quality…I can't write books that I don't want to live in, and I don't really want to live in just a depressed book. I don't want to just live in a depressed world, there has to be more fire than that." Lydia Millet — finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize (Love in Infant Monkeys) and the National Book Award (A Children's Bible) — joins us on the show to talk about her latest, Dinosaurs: A Novel, including how the story morphed while she was writing, illusions of normalcy, literal and figurative dinosaurs, how we talk to each other through books, and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson.

Featured Book (Episode):

Dinosaurs: A Novel by Lydia Millet

Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

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).

Constance Wu on MAKING A SCENE Oct 13, 2022

Show notes

"I was always in a play, always in rehearsals. And if I wasn't in a play, I was counting the hours 'til I could be in a play. Because it was the first time I felt a sense of belonging, a sense of community." In Making a Scene, actress Constance Wu (Lyle, Lyle Crocodile) takes readers backstage in her own life in often hilarious — and always real and relatable — essays. She joins us on the show to talk about authenticity and big emotions, love, her big break (and what happened next), her literary inspirations including Elena Ferrante and Lily King, and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky. Featured Books (Episode):

Making a Scene by Constance Wu

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

Featured Books (TBR Topoff)

Hello, Molly! by Molly Shannon

All the Women in My Brain by Betty Gilpin

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).

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