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Nathan spoke with novelist Anna Julia Stainsby, author of The Afterpains. It’s the story of Rosy, whose grief over the loss of her infant daughter nearly twenty years ago has all but cut her off from her husband and teenage son. And it’s about Isaura, an immigrant from Honduras raising her daughter in Toronto and trying to keep her out of the grip of a centuries-long curse.
Anna Julia Stainsby on ugly truths, isolation, and The Afterpains

Nathan spoke with novelist Shilpi Somaya Gowda, author of the 2012 international bestseller Secret Daughter. Her new book is A Great Country. It’s about the Shah family, recently moved to the well-to-do neighbourhood of Pacific Hills. While Ashok and Priya catch up with friends at a dinner party one Saturday evening, their children are each, separately, experiencing things that will leave their family forever changed.
Shilpi Somaya Gowda, author of A Great Country

Michael spoke with journalist Michael Finkel, author of True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa, and The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit as well as numerous articles about extreme places and unlikely people for Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, GQ, and the New York Times Magazine. His latest book The Art Thief is the story of Stéphane Breitwieser, a man whose theft of over 200 artworks from the sleepy museums of central Europe showed a singular obsession for possessing works of art that grab his attention—and the talent to bring them home.
Journalist Michael Finkel on seeing through the eyes of The Art Thief

Nathan spoke with novelist Kiley Reid, author of the 2020 novel, Such a Fun Age. Her new book, Come and Get It is set on the campus of the University of Arkansas, specifically at a dormitory called Belgrade, and it follows Millie Cousins, a 24-year-old Resident Advisor or RA to folks familiar with dorm life, who’s launching a second run at the final year of her degree after taking time off to look after her mother, while quietly inching towards buying a little house.
Kiley Reid on writing realistically about people and money

Nathan spoke with Dr Jen Gunter, OB/GYN and bestselling author of several books on health, anatomy, and medicine: The Vagina Bible, The Menopause Manifesto, and most recently a new book called Blood: The science, medicine, and mythology of menstruation.
Dr. Jen Gunter on writing books about bodies for people 

Nathan spoke with R. F. Kuang, author of the epic historical fantasy trilogy The Poppy War, as well as the 2022 novel, also a work of historical fantasy called Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution.
R. F. Kuang’s latest novel is Yellowface. It’s the story of June Hayward and Athena Liu, a pair of writers on the rise—one of whom is rising significantly faster than the other, until a fatal freak accident leaves the survivor holding an unfinished manuscript and facing a very tempting proposition.
 R. F. Kuang on seeing herself in Yellowface