Poured Over

Latest Episodes:

Brian Broome on PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS Jul 02, 2022

Show notes

"The most important thing is the reader. I tell my students, Look, if you're writing about yourself, it's great that you want to get your feelings out. You want to maybe, you know, have some catharsis. You want to get the earliest things out. But, if you bore the reader, you're done. You know, and it's important to consider the fact that you're telling a story…this is not a therapy session, you know, you're telling a story. And hopefully that story enlightens, or maybe makes the reader think." Brian Broome's acclaimed memoir Punch Me Up to the Gods is a stunning story of love and loss, secrets and shame, sorrow and joy. He joins us on the show for a wise and often very funny conversation about spelling bees and ballet, addiction and recovery, how his memoir is in conversation with Gwendolyn Brooks and bell hooks and James Baldwin, what his students have taught him 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):

Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome

We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity by bell hooks

Featured Books (TBR Topoff)

How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones

Unprotected by Billy Porter

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).

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin on MY NAME IS JASON, MINE TOO Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

"For me, and perhaps for both of us, I think that our greatest sort of skill set is audacity. It's so funny the way people sort of negatively connote ego, but I think it's necessary to have some, because one has to have a little bit of, I mean, like, when we were 20 years old, our whole thing was we're gonna rearrange and change the way people think of the book, right?" Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin have been friends for 20 years and that friendship has led to an incredible artistic collaboration in Ain't Burned All the Bright and the now reissued My Name is Jason, Mine Too. Jason and Jason join us on the show to talk about how their collaboration works, how they make art (and when the medium matters), masculinity, the incredible range of artists and media that inspire them both, why paper and pencil is sometimes all that you need, 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:

Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin

My Name is Jason, Mine Too by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin

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). A full transcript of this episode is available here.

Patrick Radden Keefe on ROGUES: TRUE STORIES OF GRIFTERS, KILLERS, REBELS AND CROOKS Jun 28, 2022

Show notes

"It's so painful to me to feel as though the very notion of objective truth or that journalism could be a vehicle for expressing a kind of objective truth is under assault today." Patrick Radden Keefe is one of the best longform journalists working today, and we'd follow his dogged reporting anywhere, from bestselling books like Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, to his work as a staff writer at The New Yorker, some of which is collected in his latest book, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. Patrick joins us on the show to talk about the art of the write-around and why access is overrated, how one story can lead to the next (or not), writing about morally complicated people (and the stories they tell themselves), the importance of media literacy and getting the facts right, his literary influences and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.

Featured Books:

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe

Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesday and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

A full transcript of this show is available here.

Ava Reid on JUNIPER & THORN Jun 25, 2022

Show notes

"So much classic fantasy exists in this sort of timeless state where, you know, whatever fantasy world it's set in has kind of always existed....I've always been really interested in kind of disrupting that and kind of setting my books during periods of like, enormous change and upheaval, like, I'm really interested in the idea of a fantasy world that has not always been the same, because that's not how the world works, and kind of taking apart these things that are really taken for granted."

Ava Reid knows how to do unforgettable fractured fairy tale retellings with fabulous, fierce heroines, hidden magic and family ties based on Hungarian and Jewish folklore. The Wolf and the Woodsman was her debut novel and her latest, Juniper & Thorn, is a gothic horror retelling of the Grimm Brothers' The Juniper-Tree, and she joins us on the show to talk about world-building by starting from the present and working backwards, diversifying the stereotypical Eastern European fantasy setting, killing off characters for the right reason, designing the cover art, her upcoming YA fantasy debut, what she's reading right now, and much more with guest host Kat Sarfas. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.

Featured Books:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

The Juniper-Tree by Brothers Grimm

Matrix by Lauren Groff

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

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).

A full transcript of this show is available here.

Ed Yong on AN IMMENSE WORLD Jun 23, 2022

Show notes

"I sort of figured that, having been interested in science from as long as I can remember, I would be a PhD student, and make a career for myself and research. And it turned out that the one hitch with that plan was that I am catastrophically bad at doing actual research. I was the world's worst graduate student….So instead, I thought that I would find a different purpose and better joy in talking and writing about science, which is what I did. That nourishes my soul much more; I get to learn about a lot of really cool things." An Immense World is the delightful new book from The Atlantic staff writer Ed Yong, and he joins us on the show to talk about meeting animals on their own terms, the connection between Jane Austen and mice, peacocks and The Bee Gees; how hearing is also a kind of touch and how deer-like creatures transformed into whales; his pandemic puppy and his literary inspirations (including Mary Roach) 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:

An Immense World by Ed Yong

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong

How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler

H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald

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).

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

Ottessa Moshfegh on LAPVONA Jun 21, 2022

Show notes

"I wanted to write something that was going to take me away, literally and metaphorically, literally take me away from sitting with my feelings about the present moment and take me to another place and this time where you couldn't travel at all. I barely left the neighborhood to play out some imagined incredible drama … I think escapism has its purpose, you know, and so does fiction in general, if we want to live in the biggest world possible, we need everybody's imagination to be there in the ether so we can grab it and follow it and follow ourselves through this journey beyond what we know." Acclaimed author Ottessa Moshfegh (Eileen, My Year of Rest and Relaxation) joins us on the show to take us behind the scenes of Lapvona, her unexpected new novel set in a medieval village. Ottessa riffs on putting so much of what disgusts her into this new novel, writing in the third person, faith, the importance of creating a new topography, what's next for her and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his guest bookseller, Becky.

Featured Books:

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh

McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh

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).

A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

Geraldine Brooks on HORSE Jun 18, 2022

Show notes

"You know, Marlon James said something once, he said, if you're going to write about the enslaved, and you're not going to write about the resilience, and the brilliance, and the incredible ability to make a life in a brutal system, a life full of love and some joy, then he said, he's not interested in reading that book."

Geraldine Brooks, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, March, is known for her moving historical novels. Her latest, Horse, is a stunning new novel that transports readers between 1850s Kentucky and the present day following a legendary thoroughbred racehorse named Lexington.

Geraldine joins us on the show to talk about the real-world experiences of her unforgettable characters and why we still talk about slavery, growing up on the mindset that books are food, reading poetry before writing as part of her creative process, her literary influences and so 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:

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

March by Geraldine Brooks

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton

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).

A full transcript of this show is available here.

Sloane Crosley on CULT CLASSIC Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

"...A part of the point of the book was to not shy away from what we shy away from in real life. And one of the things we shy away from in real life is admitting for exactly how long we are a mess and don't know what we're doing."

From her classic essay collections, including I Was Told There Would Be Cake through her last bestselling novel, The Clasp, Sloane Crosley keeps us entertained with her trademark wit, voice and gimlet eye. Her latest, the genre-busting new novel, Cult Classic, is gobs of fun and utterly original, and Sloane joins us on the show to talk about love and relationships and finding our sense of self, the fantasy of consistency, aiming through the wood and at the chopping block, having the same editor (or therapist) for 14 years, her literary influences, and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer.

Featured Books:

Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley

The Clasp by Sloane Crosley

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman

Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

Pitch Dark by Renata Adler

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

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).

A full transcript of this show is available here.

Hannah Whitten on FOR THE THRONE Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

"And when you give people the option to kind of live inside the head of a different character … if you're doing your job, and you make it a character that they can see themselves in and they can empathize with, and then you kind of throw these things at them. And then it just changes the way that people think about something."

For the Throne is the stunning conclusion to the Wilderwood duology that invokes familiar fairy tales with sharp prose and epic world-building, and it's out now. Hannah joins us on the show to talk about what draws readers to retellings, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as a gateway to all fantasy, writing fanfiction and what she does with all those candles, The Foxglove King, her dream cast, what she's reading and watching right now and much more with guest host Kat Sarfas.

Featured Books:

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

For the Throne by Hannah Whitten

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hunter by Kerrigan Byrne

Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford

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).

A full transcript of this show is available here.

Corban Addison on WASTELANDS: THE TRUE STORY OF FARM COUNTRY ON TRIAL Jun 11, 2022

Show notes

"It was the people really, that convinced me that this was a story not just worth telling, but needed to be told, and needed to be told the right way, in a way that would actually be fun to read and engaging, that would reach broader than an academic audience that would reach deep into the community and say, you know, this is a story about ordinary people trying to get justice in a time and place in America where it's pretty hard to do that…"

Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial is the true story of an epic battle of power and justice, good and evil, with heroes to remind us that there is virtue in the world. Corban Addison joins us on the show to talk about his nonfiction legal thriller—a book John Grisham says he wished he'd written—centered on the Black and brown residents of eastern North Carolina, two million hogs and the men who run the big business of pork, along with the ways story connects and empowers communities, the hours of personal interviews and research that informed his writing, what next for him, and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer.

Featured Books:

A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

City on Fire by Don Winslow

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).

A full transcript of this show is available here.

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