Poured Over

Latest Episodes:

Julie Otsuka on THE SWIMMERS Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

"I sketched out some of these pool scenes a long, long time ago, maybe 15 years ago, but just you know, a few paragraphs. And then I don't know, I put them in a drawer somewhere..." It's been 20 years since Julie Otsuka's sublime debut, When the Emperor was Divine, almost 10 since the collective voice of The Buddha in the Attic. Julie's third novel, The Swimmers, is just out, and she joins us on the show to talk about her elegant, witty and elegiac new book and its "soft beating heart," the joy (and comedy) she found writing about this community, writing in pencil (and more of her creative process), silence and memory, and more.

Featured books:

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

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 bonus episodes on Saturdays.)

Debbie Millman on WHY DESIGN MATTERS Feb 22, 2022

Show notes

"It's a great question. And no one has ever asked me that question. I think it's taught me about how to construct the arc of a narrative." We've learned so much from Debbie Millman and her fabulous interviews on her long-running podcast Design Matters. Since 2005, Debbie's introduced us to incredible thinkers from a variety of disciplines, and now 55 of the more than 500 interviews she's done are collected in a beautiful (and provocative) new book, Why Design Matters. Debbie joins us on the show to talk about what design has taught her about interviewing, how she never really planned to be a designer (and what changed), her research process, the stories we tell ourselves about images, what's next for her, and much more.

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

Featured Book: Why Design Matters by Debbie Millman

Erik Larson on THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE Feb 19, 2022

Show notes

"Believe me, there probably was not a day that went by where I didn't say to myself, What on earth am I doing? And why did I take this on? Early on in the process, I was talking with a Churchill expert over breakfast in Washington, DC, and he was basically asking me, Why on earth are you doing this? And my answer to him, which stuck throughout the whole project, is that it's all in the telling." The Splendid and the Vile spent most of 2020 and '21 on top of the bestseller charts, and it's just out in paperback. Erik Larson joins us on the show to talk about the craft of writing, how his background in journalism prepared him for a career writing bestselling books, how he conducts his research, the fiction that inspires him, the surprises he uncovered while writing about one of the world's most-documented men, and more.

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 bonus episodes on Saturdays).

Featured books:

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Marlon James on MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING Feb 17, 2022

Show notes

"There's a reason why all our old stories are fantastical and mythological, and why our fairy tales are so old. Because I think there is something in these mythologies and these folklore stories that tell us something about ourselves. And we've always done it, we've always put it into fantastical to explain the real." Marlon James returns with Moon Witch, Spider King, the second installment of his Dark Star trilogy, and this time, Sogolon the witch is center stage. Marlon joins us on the show to talk about the reality behind fantasy and the fantasy behind reality, false starts, his fascination with court intrigue, WWBD? (What Would Boo Do?), handing the story over to his characters, his playlist and his podcast (Marlon and Jake Read Dead People), and more. Featured books:

Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Restoration by Rose Tremain

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

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 bonus episodes on Saturdays).

Sarah J. Maas on HOUSE OF SKY AND BREATH Feb 15, 2022

Show notes

"...It means the world to me to witness any kind of massive scale love of books." Sarah J. Maas knows how to build worlds that readers never want to leave. The second installment of her fiery (and spicy) Crescent City series, House of Sky and Breath, is just out and Sarah joins us on the show to riff on #booktok, fandom, the screen adaptation she's working on with Ron Moore, her love of Lord of the Rings and Jane Austen, her playlists, and more.

Featured Books:

House of Sky and Breath and House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

This episode of Poured Over was produced by Miwa Messer, hosted by Kat Sarfas, and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays.)

Heather McGhee on THE SUM OF US Feb 12, 2022

Show notes

"I wrote The Sum of Us in the hopes that people would read it together, that people from all walks of life, different backgrounds, whether they're connected by something, a community, a school, a workplace, would pick it up and find for each person, a way into the story of America's troubled history with racism, and then a way out together." Trained as a lawyer, and an expert in economic and social policy, Heather McGhee also excels at getting Americans to tell their stories — and look for solutions. Her urgent, important book, The Sum of Us is just out in paperback and she joins us on the show to talk about The Zero-Sum Hierarchy, The American Dream and other stories (and stereotypes) we tell ourselves, where we can go from here, the writers who inspire her, and more.

Featured Books: The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with bonus episodes on occasional Saturdays).

Tara Westover on EDUCATED Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

"You know, when I wrote the book, I sort of thought it would resonate with a fairly narrow… I was writing it for people who are more or less like me, you know, little girls who grew up in junkyards and didn't go to school, and then going to college and everything changed." Tara Westover's memoir was a massive hit with readers everywhere when it was first published; four years later, Educated is out in paperback, and Tara joins us on the show to talk about choices and boundaries, family and home, how excited she is for new readers to come to the book in paperback, what's next for her and much more.

Featured Books:

Educated by Tara Westover

Second Place by Rachel Cusk

Playing and Reality by D.W. Winnicott

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis.

Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.

Chuck Klosterman on THE NINETIES Feb 08, 2022

Show notes

"The Nineties were the last decade that we're ever going to talk about as a decade…" Chuck Klosterman has been challenging how we think, see and hear since his first book, Fargo Rock City, in 2001 to 2016's But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. He joins us on the show to talk about his new book, The Nineties, Gen X, the end of monoculture, the rise of independent moviemaking, The New Sincerity, Nevermind + Exile in Guyville and more.

Featured Books: The Nineties, Fargo Rock City and Eating the Dinosaur, all by Chuck Klosterman.

Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.

Chang-rae Lee on MY YEAR ABROAD Feb 05, 2022

Show notes

"And fiction is all about obstacles. It's all about misapprehension, misunderstanding, lack of information, lack of connection, and the problems that come up, arise out of those things." Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Chang-rae Lee's most recent novel, My Year Abroad, is now out in paperback and it's unlike anything he's written before. Chang-rae joins us on the show to talk about homecomings and hunger, the limitless imagination of a new generation of immigrants, his 20-year-old narrator and the sense of play at the heart of this new book, what's on the syllabus for his Asian American autobiography class at Stanford, and much more.

Featured books: My Year Abroad, Native Speaker and Aloft, all by Chang-rae Lee.

Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.

Lan Samantha Chang on THE FAMILY CHAO Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

"But I do feel like I was on a quest as a writer, for my work to get bigger. I just wanted it to contain a larger portion of the world than it started off with… I tried to make it large in its emotional scope, as well as in the amount of action that happens in it." Lan Samantha Chang did, in fact, have as much fun writing our February 2022 B&N Book Club pick, The Family Chao, as we had reading it. She joins us on the show to talk about her post-immigrant novel, the brothers Chao themselves and the debt they owe to The Brothers Karamazov, wanting to throw away the rules of writing she'd been taught, Philip Roth's fiction, a dog called Alf, and more. Featured Books: The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected