Ghosts of Books Past and Future (AKA 2024 Wrap-up and Look Ahead)
Release Date: 12/16/2024
Why I Hate Saturn: Anything Goes
This Book Made Me
If you need a reminder that you can write anything you can conceive of, this interview is for you. My guest, Bryan Thao Worra, explains how his experience as a first generation Asian American, reading his way through high and low American culture, made him the writer he is. Along the way we talk about poetry, democracy, and Kyle Baker's under-examined graphic novel Why I Hate Saturn. Bryan Thao Worra is an award-winning Lao American poet based in Minneapolis and one of the first to come to the United States after the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago. The author of 10 collections,...
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Voltaire's Candide: Coping in Impossible Times
This Book Made Me
If you think that classic novels are irrelevant, my guest is here to change your mind. In this conversation, Diego Dela Rosa explains how the French novel, from the 18th century, provides hope against impossible circumstances, and makes the case for irreverent humor and community. Diego Dela Rosa is your classic Los Angeles based multi-hyphenate: arts programmer, writer, archivist, playlist maker, line dancer, gamer, Real Housewives aficionado, and tinned fish enthusiast. He holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere from the USC Roski...
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The English Understand Wool: We Can All Do a Little Bit Better
This Book Made Me
If you're looking for a short book that packs a wallop, we have just the one for you! In this episode, my guest Matt Davis happens upon a book at his local bookstore, and it grounds our conversation about the state of reading in our current attention economy, the perils of the publishing industry, and how we can push ourselves to break out of our reading ruts. If you're not familiar with Helen DeWitt--a real writer's writer--you're in for a treat. We're talking about her tiny but powerful novel The English Understand Wool, and its savvy and subversive protagonist. Matt Davis is a...
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Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye: A Story of Survival
This Book Made Me
It's Black History Month and we are celebrating!! My guest, Kat Calvin, does a deep, personal dive in to The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, and we wrestle with this question: How do we learn to survive in a hostile world, and with a generational history of violence? We talk about the world of 1960s America, who is protected and who is not, and Morrison's authorial gift, which encourages us to wrestle with how we participate in unjust systems. Kat Calvin is the Founder and Executive Director of Spread the Vote + Project ID and the Co-Founder and CEO of the Project ID Action Fund. A lawyer,...
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The Story of Ferdinand: Smell the Flowers
This Book Made Me
Can you be yourself when everyone around you wants you to be something else? My guest, author Marjetta Geerling, AKA Mara Wells, walks me through the deep wisdom of the classic children's book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. We talk about how children's books use language and art to teach us how to be ourselves, and let others be without judging or trying to change them. In doing so, Marjetta argues, it makes us better human beings. While this conversation was recorded in December, it's being released as the devastating Los Angeles fires are still ongoing. If you feel moved to...
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Ghosts of Books Past and Future (AKA 2024 Wrap-up and Look Ahead)
This Book Made Me
What did we read in 2024, and what are we reading next? In this end-of-year episode, I invite 5 former TBMM guests to reflect on their reading past and future. We've got book recommendations, a list of our best reading experiences, and what we're doing to read more and better in the new year. Join me, Sadie Forkner, Dice Moreno, Pat Harrigan, Mary Trunk, and Lisa Metzgar to reflect and to look ahead. Also on this episode: DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa has a special super-sized vol 3 of This Mixtape Made Me, featuring their favorite projects and artists of 2024. It's called , and you can...
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Love in the Time of Cholera: Life Will Never Be the Same
This Book Made Me
It's a book about love! But is it, really? In this episode, acclaimed fantasy author Robert V.S. Redick explains how Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera exploded his previous ideas about what writing can and should do. Author Robert V.S. Redick's most recent epic fantasy, Sidewinders, has been called “a brilliant fever dream of a novel that is bound to impress” by Grimdark Magazine and “a breathtaking work” by two-time World Fantasy Award winner C.S.E. Cooney. His previous novel, Master Assassins, was a finalist for the 2018...
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The Hotel New Hampshire: Grief, Hope, and Making Better Humans
This Book Made Me
Sometimes, a book meets you at exactly the right moment in your life. My guest this week, Russ Finkelstein, tells us how John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire found him, and surfaced some foundational truths: that life, and people, are messy; that we can find ways to persevere in the face of great tragedy; and that books can make us better humans along the way. Russ Finkelstein is a social entrepreneur, advisor, and coach. He writes for The Washington Post that documents people's unexpected career pathways, because "one of the great challenges we have in the world is that we think...
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Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking and Being a Better Communicator
This Book Made Me
Can a book help us have more meaningful conversations? Can we learn how to hear each other better, even, or especially, when we don't see eye to eye? What could we need more, as we enter election season?! My guest—Learning and Development leader Brandon Roberson of Riot Games—explains how the strategies in the best-selling Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High, have helped him build better relationships in his work and personal life. You can find out more about Brandon on LinkedIn: And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: ...
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The Giver: Memory, Community, Love... and Banned Books
This Book Made Me
What can literature--especially dystopian, young adult literature--teach us? My guest—artist, LGBTQIA+ mentor/activist, and makeover maven Dice Moreno—takes us through Lois Lowry's best-selling novel The Giver, and talks about its sneakily complex and moving themes of memory, community, and love. As we dig in, we can't help but discuss why these ideas are so dangerous, and how book bans are on the rise. If this issue resonates with you, has a terrific report detailing which books are most threatened, and in what places: Banned in the USA: You can find more about Dice here: Instagram: ...
info_outlineWhat did we read in 2024, and what are we reading next? In this end-of-year episode, I invite 5 former TBMM guests to reflect on their reading past and future. We've got book recommendations, a list of our best reading experiences, and what we're doing to read more and better in the new year. Join me, Sadie Forkner, Dice Moreno, Pat Harrigan, Mary Trunk, and Lisa Metzgar to reflect and to look ahead.
Also on this episode: DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa has a special super-sized vol 3 of This Mixtape Made Me, featuring their favorite projects and artists of 2024. It's called Reflect, and you can find it on Spotify.
And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:
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