Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with poet and novelist Aaron Kreuter. His new book is Lake Burntshore, which tells the story of the summer of 2013 at a Canadian Jewish summer camp that’s just fired a several camp counsellors after they're caught smoking (then-illegal) marijuana. The enterprising son of the camp's owner springs into action and comes up with a surprising solution to their sudden staffing needs: a group of charming and very young Israeli soldiers.

Aaron Kreuter finds new possibilities in summer camp

Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with Elyse Graham, author of Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War Two. It’s the true story of how the United States, as war raged in Europe, quickly built an organization staffed with intelligence officers recruited not from the military—but from the ranks of the bookworms—the academics, librarians, and archivists found in universities and libraries across the US. After being trained in the art of espionage (and mortal combat) they were sent off to faraway places as exceptionally well-read spies.

Elyse Graham tells the story of WWII's scholarly spies

Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with Liann Zang, author of the new novel Julie Chan is Dead. In it, Julie Chan is in fact very much alive but her estranged twin sister Chloe, a wildly successful social media influencer, has suddenly died and it just so happens that Julie is for just a moment the only person in the world who knows Chloe is dead. So she decides to pick up and start living Chloe’s apparently fabulous life, letting the world believe it's Julie Chan's body being carried out of Chloe’s apartment on a stretcher.

Liann Zhang on satirizing social media influencers from the inside

Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with novelist Jon Hickey, author of Big Chief. It’s takes place in an Anishinaabe reservation called Passage Rouge Nation during the last weekend before a Tribal Presidential election. Incumbent president Mack Beck is coasting to another term happily overseeing tribal governmental matters as well as the Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel when his rival, activist Gloria Hawkins begins gaining steam in the home stretch. Gloria’s campaign, by the way, is being run by Mack’s estranged sister Layla, while his own campaign is run by his childhood friend and local boy made good in law school Mitch Caddo, who by the way seems to have almost had a thing with Layla back when they were kids.

Jon Hickey on the politics of apocalypse

Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with Claire Cameron, author of the novels The Bear and The Last Neanderthal. Her new book is How to Survive a Bear Attack. It’s a memoir of family, of illness, of love, and the author’s ongoing fascination with a 1991 bear attack that happened in a wilderness she knows so well.

Claire Cameron on what she's learned from studying monsters

Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with mystery novelist Nita Prose, author of the international bestseller The Maid. It’s the story of Molly Gray, a 20-something hotel maid whose job perfectly suits her need for order and predictable routine. As tends to happen in mystery novels set in hotels, Molly discovers a dead guest and finds herself a suspect in the ensuing murder investigation—an investigation which she undertakes in parallel, with the help of her friends.

In Nita’s latest book, The Maid’s Secret, Molly is riding high: she’s been promoted to Head Maid & Special Events Manager, she’s engaged to the love of her life—the dashing Juan Manuel, and she’s just learned that she’s the owner of a piece of art that might be worth millions… If, that is, she can find out who stole it on the day it was supposed to be sold at auction.

Nita Prose on saying goodbye to Molly Gray

In our latest installment in this series, hosts Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj caught up on a book whose author they're not going to get to interview.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Meta's problem with an ex-employee's tell-all memoir
• The cognitive perils of being a billionaire
• The publishing perils of nonfiction
• Moving fast and breaking things as sage wisdom from the elders of Silicon Valley
• LibGen and the fight in the courts over Faire Use in AI models

Books mentioned:

• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism - A Memoir by Sarah Wynn-Williams
• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with podcaster Nate DiMeo about his book The Memory Palace, based on the podcast by the same name. In The Memory Palace, history comes in vignettes, as short stories, as jewels carefully mined from a variety of sources. Nathan and Nate talked about history as story, how Nate realized the thing that made him the best guy to sit next to at the bar was a great idea for a podcast, and the making of The Memory Palace's star-studded audiobook.

Nate DiMeo on shaking up the past in The Memory Palace