Chloé Cooper Jones (Easy Beauty) joins Jordan to talk about avoiding mandates, about writing through pain and trauma, and about finding the neutral room in one's own mind. MENTIONED: "Everything is copy" -- Nora Ephron sacral agenesis Richard Serra Chloé Cooper Jones is a writer based in New York City. In 2020, Chloé was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Feature Writing for “Fearing for His Life,” a profile of Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed the killing of Eric Garner. She was the recipient...

Jordan talks with poet/performer/advocate Kay Ulanday Barrett about their decision to get top surgery, the intersection of family and food, and writing through health crises. MENTIONED: Grey’s Anatomy Swype The Asian American Writers Workshop Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Kay Ulanday Barrett aka @Brownroundboi is a poet, performer, and cultural strategist. Their second book, More Than Organs (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) received a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book Award by the American...

It's the end of our 'ghosts' capsule and not a moment too soon! Those days sure are getting shorter... FEATURED: Patrick Cottrell on his change-of-seasons vibe this year A thematically-appropriate clip from our long-ago episode with Lynn Steger Strong (whose new book Flight is out soon! pre-order it!) Threshold alum highlights!! Scary-season book recommendations from the October Country, courtesy of Drew See you in a couple weeks! for more Thresholds, visit us at...

Samantha Hunt joins Jordan to talk about The Unwritten Book, what it means to believe in ghosts, grieving the death of her father, and confronting the darkness out there in the woods. MENTIONED: geodesic domes slasher movies Flash Count Diary by Darcy Steinke If Not, Winter by Sappho, translated by Anne Carson One Direction Samantha Hunt is the author of the non-fiction book The Unwritten Book, the story collection The Dark Dark and the novels Mr. Splitfoot, The Invention of...

Jordan talks with Ingrid Rojas Contreras (The Man Who Could Move Clouds) about the accident that left her with amnesia, grappling with the decision to write about her family, and the importance of offering healing. MENTIONED: A black Vera Wang gown Curanderos Topographical disorientation INGRID ROJAS CONTRERAS was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her latest book, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, was longlisted for the National Book Award in Non-Fiction. Her first novel Fruit of the...

Jordan talks to Amy Fusselman about writers who perform, getting out of your own head, and the agonies and ecstasies of comedy. It's a laugh-out-loud kind of episode. MENTIONED: McSweeney's Internet Concern "Hawk" by Joy Williams Second Position Amy Fusselman is the author of five books. Her latest, The Mean$, is her first novel. Fusselman’s previous four books, all nonfiction, have been translated into several languages. Her work has been nominated for The Believer Book Award and the...

Celeste Ng joins Jordan to talk about her new book Our Missing Hearts, motherhood and parenting while writing, and the big questions of what kind of place art can have in the fight against fascism. MENTIONED: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan #DontLookAway / #NoKidsInCages Hamlet by William Shakespeare Celeste Ng is the number one New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, will be...

It's the end of a 'Family' capsule of episodes and the last before our summer break, so we really pulled out all the stops this time. FEATURED: an outtake of Crystal Hana Kim talking about her next novel a voicemail from Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore about how she does August Threshold alum highlights (like a bunch of them) summer reading recommendations from Jordan & Drew See you in September, with fresh pencils and notebooks and interviews! For more Thresholds, visit us at...

Jordan talks with Michelle Tea about her new memoir (Knocking Myself Up), making the decision to get pregnant, her tarot practice, and creating a queer family. MENTIONED: The Rider-Waite Tarot Valencia by Michelle Tea XOJane.com Buddhism Michelle Tea is the author of over a dozen books, including the cult-classic Valencia, the essay collection Against Memoir, and the speculative memoir Black Wave. She is the recipient of awards from the Guggenheim, Lambda Literary, and Rona Jaffe...

Jordan talks with Keith Gessen about his new memoir of fatherhood, Raising Raffi: The First Five Years, and the challenges -- and wonders -- of being a parent and a writer, and what he thinks Raffi will think of the book when he's older. MENTIONED:  Raising America by Ann Hulbert "Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City" by Nikole Hannah-Jones Emily Oster, economics professor and parenting advisor The Kazdin Method Keith Gessen is a founding editor of n+1 and a...

Jordan talks with Crystal Hana Kim (If You Leave Me) about the ultimate unknowability of another person's story, about motherhood as a writer, and about how a friend's validation and encouragement helped her get serious about her craft. MENTIONED: The Korean War Post-partum depression Reproductive justice Ceramics class Crystal Hana Kim is the author of If You Leave Me, which was a Booklist Editor’s Choice title and named a best book of 2018 by over a dozen publications. Kim is the...

Jordan talks with Lydia Conklin about bucking the conventions of queer storytelling, how a childhood Oregon Trail reenactment led to one of the most memorable stories in Rainbow Rainbow, and the excitement of making big moves in life and art. MENTIONED: * The Oregon Trail (play here) * Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates * Intimacies by Katie Kitamura Lydia Conklin is an Assistant Professor of Fiction at Vanderbilt University. Previously they were the Helen Zell Visiting Professor in...

Jordan talks with Ashley C. Ford (author of the memoir Somebody's Daughter) about how writing made her into more of herself, about the systems that we live under, and about finding joy in new community. MENTIONED: Dr. Jill Christman, professor at Ball State paying off lunch debts (check out All for Lunch!) Onsite Workshops in Tennessee Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their...

It’s the end of our ‘Inheritance' capsule of episodes! MENTIONED: Marie-Helene Bertino shares her summer reading plans (hint: they involve Ursula K. Le Guin) Jordan and Drew answer some more listener questions, and Jordan describes the horror of hearing her own voice over and over again updates about cool Thresholds alums like Ryka Aoki, Ed Yong, Fernanda Melchor, Sarah Manguso, and Fariha Roisin a flashback to Jordan's conversation with Ocean Vuong We'll be back with our next capsule...

Jordan talks with Jhumpa Lahiri about her new collection of essays (Translating Myself and Others), how Ovid helped her navigate her mother’s death, and how translating her own new story collection is an exciting way to edit. MENTIONED: the Roman god Janus the novels of Domenico Starnone (translated by Jhumpa Lahiri) Ovid's Metamorphoses "je est un autre" -- Arthur Rimbaud Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of Translating Myself and Others as well as four works of fiction including the...

Jordan talks with Elissa Washuta (White Magic) about the transformative nature of narrative, avoiding vs. thinking about painful things, why she takes more notes, and the power of a good video game. MENTIONED: Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return Dorrie the Little Witch by Patricia Coombs The Craft Red Dead Redemption 2 Elissa Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and a nonfiction writer. She is the author of White Magic, My Body Is a Book of Rules, and Starvation Mode....

Jordan talks with Jessamine Chan about the ways having a kid changed her writing, about the difficulties mothers face in America, and about the one very good day of writing that led to The School for Good Mothers. MENTIONED: "Where is Your Mother?" by Rachel Aviv (The New Yorker) Cost of Living by Emily Maloney SCOTUS draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization The Ragdale Foundation Jessamine Chan's debut novel is The School for Good Mothers, an instant New York...

Jordan talks with Morgan Talty in advance of his debut story collection about moms, storytelling, writing from a teen point of view, and the villain of colonialism. MENTIONED: The Lowering Days by Gregory Brown "The Blessing Tobacco" The Penobscot Indian Nation Superstore Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation where he grew up. He received his BA in Native American Studies from Dartmouth College and his MFA in fiction from Stonecoast’s low-residency program. His...

Jordan talks to Stephanie Foo about Complex PTSD, what it takes to accept and understand a diagnosis, and the transformative power of Google Doc Therapy. MENTIONED: * Brooklyn Botanic Garden * Dr. Jacob Ham * Hershey's Cookies'n'Cream * Google Docs Stephanie Foo is a writer and radio producer, most recently for This American Life. Her debut memoir is What My Bones Know and her work has aired on Snap Judgment, Reply All, 99% Invisible, and Radiolab. A noted speaker and instructor, she has...

It’s the end of our ‘The World Around Us' capsule of episodes! MENTIONED: Jordan calls up Ross Gay to talk about his garden and something called a goumi an outtake from our convo with adrienne maree brown, on the power of expressing the thing that needed to be expressed updates about cool Thresholds alums like Alex Kleeman, Melissa Febos, Margo Jefferson, and Susan Orlean some book recommendations from Typo's dad, Ed Yong our audio engineer/composer Lora-Faye Åshuvud whips up a sonic...

Jordan talks with Jeff VanderMeer about the process of re-wilding his backyard, his initial obsession with uprooting air potatoes, learning to see more of the natural world, and where his fiction is headed next. MENTIONED: Air potatoes The Atlanta Botanical Garden Florida House Representative Anna Eskamani "How to Rewild Your Balcony" from Esquire Jeff VanderMeer is the author of Hummingbird Salamander, Dead Astronauts, Borne, The Ambergris Trilogy, and The Southern Reach Trilogy, the first...

Now celebrating its fifth season, Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by 2021 KCRW Radio Race winner Jude Brewer, Storybound presents the voices of today’s best writers, like Mitchell S. Jackson, Tamara Winfrey-Harris, and Clint Smith, reading accomplished works of fiction and non-fiction. You’ll also hear original music specially composed for the respective text. Needless to say, it’s an immersive storytelling experience. The episode we’re sharing...

Jordan talks with N. Scott Momaday about the Stanford fellowship that changed his life, the importance of taking the natural world into your heart, and the genius of Emily Dickinson. MENTIONED: The Stanford Creative Writing Fellowship (now the Stegner Fellowship) "My Cricket" by Emily Dickinson The Pueblo of Jemez N. Scott Momaday is an internationally renowned poet, novelist, artist, teacher, and storyteller whose works celebrate and preserve Native American heritage. He won the Pulitzer...

Lulu Miller joins Jordan to talk about heartbreak and building back from it, about making writing the healthy choice, about relating to David Starr Jordan -- and a little bit about fish. MENTIONED: Radiolab The 1906 San Francisco earthquake Lisa Frank Lulu Miller is the cohost of Radiolab, cofounder of NPR’s Invisibilia, and a Peabody Award–winning science journalist. Her first book is Why Fish Don't Exist and her writing has been published in The New Yorker, VQR, Orion, Electric...

adrienne maree brown joins Jordan to talk about the moment she learned what her style of leadership looked like, about the power of saying things aloud, and about her love of Octavia Butler and finding her way to writing fiction. MENTIONED: The League of Young Voters (or The League of Pissed-Off Voters) AK Press Left Turn Magazine's 2010 issue "Other Worlds are Possible: Visionary Fiction, Culture, and Organizing" edited by Walidah Imarisha Octavia E. Butler's archive at the Huntington...