Podcast

Caroline Bicks on Stephen King, Maria Adelmann on Adjunct Labor

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

This week, we begin with a look at how Stephen King’s work strikes at the heart of our most basic fears. Caroline Bicks takes us inside Stephen King’s private archives to explore how horror works, and why King’s stories continue to haunt us. Her book is Monsters In The Archives.

“He doesn’t just write about monsters. He’s really writing about human emotions of grief and trauma and using horror as a way to help us metabolize our own very human experiences and fears.”

Then, another kind of fear: the dizzying precarity plaguing so many college graduates. Novelist Maria Adelmann joins me to talk about Adjunct, her darkly funny and deeply unsettling novel about exploitation, debt, and survival inside higher education.

“I wanted to make the point that a few things go wrong — a medical issue, no family support — and you can, even as a professor at a good college, become so poor that you don’t have a place to live.”

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: Stephen King, Monsters in the Archives, Caroline Bicks, Stephen King archive, Pet Sematary, Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, horror writing craft, adjunct professor, Marie Adelmann, Adjunct novel, contingent faculty, academic precarity, student debt, university adjuncts, adjunct pay, adjunct crisis, Writer’s Voice podcast,

Love good coffee that’s also Fair-Trade? Want to support Writer’s Voice? Head on over to Larry’s Coffee using this LINK, and you’ll earn $30 for the show!

You Might Also Like: Anthony Horowitz, THE SENTENCE IS DEATH, Brian Goldstone on THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US

Continue reading →

Podcast

Women Who Changed Journalism + Nature’s Hidden Relationships

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

This week’s Writer’s Voice features two new books that take us into very different realms of hidden history.

First, Julia Cooke joins Francesca to talk about Starry and Restless, her vivid group portrait of Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Emily Hahn, three adventurous women writers who expanded what journalism could be, often while battling the constraints placed on women in their time.

“Women were central to voice-driven narrative journalism for at least the last century and a half.”

Then, we move from literary history to natural history, as nature journalist Sophie Pavelle takes us into a very different realm with her book To Have or To Hold. It’s a fascinating exploration of symbiosis, parasitism, and the intricate relationships that sustain the living world.

“The natural world is structured and founded upon these really intricate, complicated, ancient relationships.”

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: Julia Cooke, Starry and Restless, Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, Emily Hahn, women journalists, Sophie Pavelle, To Have or To Hold, symbiosis, ecology, biodiversity, Writer’s Voice podcast,

Love good coffee that’s also Fair-Trade? Want to support Writer’s Voice? Head on over to Larry’s Coffee using this LINK, and you’ll earn $30 for the show! Buy today and get a FREE pair of Handmade Grass Coasters from their fair-trade artisan partners in Guatemala! A $15 value, yours free with purchase.

You Might Also Like: Ethel Payne, First Lady Of The Black Press, Slippery Beast: Ellen Ruppel Shell on Eels, Ecology, and the Global Wildlife Trade

Continue reading →

Podcast

Bill McKibben on Solar’s Breakthrough, Anne Fadiman on the Hidden Life of Ordinary Things

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

What if the energy transition is arriving faster than anyone imagined? And what if paying attention to the smallest things can change how we live?

This Earth Day, Writer’s Voice revisits our interview with Bill McKibben about Here Comes the Sun, a bracing and hopeful argument that cheap, abundant solar power could reshape geopolitics, weaken authoritarianism, and help us meet the climate emergency. 

“About five years ago, we crossed some invisible line where it became cheaper to generate power from the sun and the wind than from burning coal and gas and oil.” 

Then, Anne Fadiman turns our attention from planetary systems to intimate acts of noticing. In her acclaimed essay collection Frog, she finds wonder and moral inquiry in a neglected pet frog, the burden of literary inheritance, pronouns, grammar, and other seemingly modest subjects that open into large human questions — along with a good dose of humor.

“I’m interested in writing about things that other people haven’t noticed.” 

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Love good coffee? Want to support Writer’s Voice? Head on over to Larry’s Coffee using this LINK, and you’ll earn $30 for the show!

You Might Also Like: Bill McKibben, Here Comes The Sun (full interview), Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows

Tags: Bill McKibben, Anne Fadiman, Here Comes the Sun, Frog essays, solar power, climate solutions, renewable energy, they/them pronounce, literary essays, Writer’s Voice podcast, climate politics, energy transition, literature podcast, interviews with writers, book author interviews, author interviews,

Continue reading →

Podcast

Free Press 2026, Media Censorship & Daniel Ellsberg’s Moral Legacy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with Andy Lee Roth of Project Censored about the State of the Free Press 2026, marking 50 years of tracking underreported stories.

“Censorship by proxy… corporate entities… are in effect doing the dirty work of the government.” 

Then, Michael Ellsberg discusses Truth and Consequence, a powerful collection of writings by his father, whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, exploring moral responsibility, war, and resistance.

“What do you do as an official when you realize that the policy that you are enacting is crazy or immoral or evil?”

Together, these conversations examine the forces shaping what we know—and what we don’t—and the landscape of moral choice in confronting injustice.

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: free press 2026, media censorship, Project Censored, independent journalism, ICE surveillance, Meta censorship, climate crisis news coverage, Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers, media consolidation, Writer’s Voice podcast, literature podcast, interviews with writers, book author interviews, interviews with authors,

Love good coffee? Want to support Writer’s Voice? Head on over to Larry’s Coffee using this LINK, and you’ll earn $30 for the show!

You Might Also Like: Daniel Ellsberg, THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE, Andy Lee Roth, STATE OF THE FREE PRESS 2024

Continue reading →

Podcast

Climate Fiction & Plastic Pollution: Stories of Survival and Solutions for a Warming World

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, two powerful voices explore the climate crisis from complementary perspectives.

Novelist Ellen Meeropol imagines communities navigating climate disruption in Sometimes an Island.

“The challenge is enormous. How do you dramatize doom?… You have to find a balance between the science and the story… the story can inspire action through empathy with the characters.”  

Then, environmental leader Judith Enck exposes the systemic forces behind plastic pollution—and what we can do about it—in The Problem with Plastic.

“This is a climate change issue. This is an environmental justice issue. This is an ocean issue… mostly, this is a health issue, because none of us should have microplastics in our bodies. But we all do.”  

Together, these conversations reveal both the human stories and structural realities shaping our environmental future.

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: climate fiction, climate change novels, plastic pollution, microplastics health effects, Ellen Meeropol, Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics, literature podcast, interviews with writers, book author interviews, interviews with authors, women authors interviews, 

You Might Also Like: Ellen Meeropol, HER SISTER’S TATTOO, Jennie Romer, CAN I RECYCLE THIS?

Continue reading →

Podcast

Philip Schultz’s ENORMOUS MORNING: Life, Poetry & Freedom

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Philip Schultz joins Writer’s Voice to discuss his new collection, Enormous Morning. Writing from the vantage point of his 80th year, Schultz reflects on aging, memory, family, regret—and the possibility of transcendence.

“Age has… given me a kind of love of my life and the lives of others that I always didn’t have.”

In this conversation, Schultz explores how perspective changes over time, how poetry can transform suffering into insight, and why creativity itself can be a source of resilience and even joy. He also reads several poems from the collection, including “Enormous Morning,” “Good News,” and “My Mistakes.”

The conversation moves from the personal to the political, as Schultz reflects on democracy, moral courage, and the ethical questions raised by our current moment.

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: Philip Schultz, Enormous Morning, poetry interview, contemporary poetry, Writer’s Voice podcast, Pulitzer Prize poet, American poets interview.

You Might Also Like: Philip Schultz, LUXURY, Philip Schultz, The Poet & His Dyslexia

Continue reading →

Podcast

The Women Who Changed Journalism & A Novel of Extinction

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Julia Cooke discusses Starry and Restless, her group biography of Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Emily “Mickey” Hahn—women journalists whose restless lives and innovative writing helped shape modern literary journalism, even as their contributions were later minimized.

“Women have been central to voice-driven narrative journalism for at least the last century and a half.”

Then, Iida Turpeinen explores extinction, empire, and the ethics of science in her novel Beasts of the Sea, beginning with the tragic story of the Steller’s sea cow and expanding into a meditation on memory, loss, and the human relationship to the natural world.

“They had no idea that species can go extinct.”

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: women journalists, literary journalism history, Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, Emily Hahn, Julia Cooke interview, Beasts of the Sea novel, Iida Turpeinen interview, extinction history, Steller sea cow, women in science history, Writer’s Voice podcast

You Might Also Like: Eiren Caffall, ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD, Ellen Ruppel, SLIPPERY BEAST

Continue reading →

Podcast

Better Than AI? Expanding the Boundaries of the Human Mind: Justin C. Key + Nelson Delles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

On this episode of Writer’s Voice, we talk with novelist Justin C. Key about The Hospital at the End of the World, a gripping speculative story that explores the ethical and human stakes of AI in medicine.

“Technology is best when it’s a tool wielded by humans.”

Then, memory champion Nelson Dellis joins us to talk about Everyday Genius—and how ordinary people can train their minds for sharper memory, deeper focus, and far-reaching intuition.

“I never had a good memory growing up. It was something that I was inspired to change and learned all about it and really started to work on it about 15 years ago. And my mind has been different ever since.” 

Two conversations that explore what the human mind can do — and what AI never will.

Read or Listen to A Sample from The Hospital At The End of the World

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Read The Transcript

Tags: AI ethics, AI in medicine, speculative fiction AI, human vs machine intelligence, physician patient relationship, memory techniques, memory palace, cognitive training, intuition, remote viewing, Writer’s Voice podcast, Nelson Dellis, Justin C. Key,

You Might Also Like: Silvia Park, LUMINOUS, Bruce Holsinger, CULPABILITY

Continue reading →

Podcast

Victoria Woodhull’s Radical Life + The Booksellers  Who Defied America’s Most Powerful Censor

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

This week on Writer’s Voice, two authors explore fascinating episodes from women’s history—stories of bold individuals who challenged the boundaries of power, speech, and social convention.

Journalist Eden Collinsworth discusses The Improbable Mrs. Woodhull, her biography of Victoria Woodhull—an astonishing figure who rose from poverty to become a stockbroker, newspaper publisher, and the first woman to run for President of the United States in 1872.

“I, like you and most Americans, knew nothing of her.”

Then novelist Shelley Noble joins us to talk about The Sisters of Book Row, a historical novel set in 1915 New York during Anthony Comstock’s aggressive crusade against books and information he deemed “obscene.” Noble’s story centers on three sisters running a bookstore in Manhattan’s famous Book Row, where booksellers faced censorship, raids, and the threat of imprisonment.

“My thing as an author is to find those little niches of people who actually make history that we should know about, but we very often don’t know about.”

Together, these conversations illuminate forgotten histories about the power of books and the struggle for women’s rights.

Read or Listen to A Sample from The Improbable Victoria Woodhull

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Read The Transcript on Substack

Tags: Victoria Woodhull, Eden Collinsworth, Shelley Noble, The Improbable Mrs. Woodhull, The Sisters of Book Row, Writer’s Voice podcast, women’s history,

Continue reading →

Podcast

Jung Chang on Fly, Wild Swans: China, Freedom + the Fight for Truth

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with bestselling author Jung Chang about her memoir Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself, and China, the long-awaited sequel to her landmark book Wild Swans.

Chang recounts how her parents — once devoted Communists — became disillusioned by famine, repression, and the violence of the Cultural Revolution. Their refusal to betray their beliefs shaped her own commitment to truth and integrity.

“My mother was made to kneel on broken glass… but she still refused to denounce my father.”  

She also reflects on her extraordinary journey from Mao’s isolated China to becoming one of the first Chinese students to study in Britain, and how that experience transformed her thinking.

“I must only follow the evidence and arrive at conclusions from the evidence gathered.”  

Finally, Chang discusses the resurgence of authoritarianism under Xi Jinping and why she still believes China’s people ultimately desire freedom.

Read A Sample from Fly, Wild Swans

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Read The Transcript on Substack

Tags: Jung Chang interview, Fly Wild Swans, Wild Swans author, Chinese history memoir, China under Xi Jinping, authoritarianism China, Writer’s Voice podcast

Continue reading →

Podcast

Dignity or Survival? Two Writers Confront Freedom Under Pressure

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with political philosopher Lea Ypi about Indignity: A Life Reimagined, a genre-blending work of memoir, history, and philosophical inquiry that explores dignity under authoritarian regimes.

“I think of [dignity] as a property that is really what makes us human.” — Lea Ypi

Then novelist Eleanor Shearer discusses Fireflies in Winter, a lyrical historical novel following Jamaican Maroons exiled to Nova Scotia after the Second Maroon War. Through the story of Cora, Agnes, and Thursday, Shearer examines freedom, queer love, grief, and the moral tension between survival and solidarity.

“You were only ever a kind of set of stolen papers away… from having your freedom snatched from you.” — Eleanor Shearer

Together, these conversations probe enduring questions:

  • What is dignity?
  • What does it mean to be free inside systems designed to deny freedom?
  • How do we maintain moral agency when our survival is at stake?

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Read The Transcript on Substack

Tags: Lea Ypi interview, Indignity book, Eleanor Shearer interview, Fireflies in Winter novel, Jamaican Maroons history, historical fiction about slavery, queer historical fiction, Writer’s Voice podcast.

You may also like: Jacob Mikanowski, GOODBYE EASTERN EUROPE, DaMaris Hill, A Bound Woman Is A Dangerous Thing

Continue reading →

Podcast

Daring To Be Free: Sudhir Hazareesingh on Slave Rebellion & Resistance

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

Resistance Is the Story

When we tell the history of slavery, too often we tell it as a story of suffering relieved by benevolent reformers. But what if resistance — not submission — was the central thread all along?

This week on Writer’s Voice, we begin with historian Sudhir Hazareesingh, whose groundbreaking book Daring to Be Free reframes the history of Atlantic slavery as a history of rebellion: from African defense militias and shipboard revolts to maroon communities and the Haitian Revolution. He restores enslaved women and men to the center of their own liberation struggles — not as passive victims, but as strategists, spiritual leaders, and revolutionaries.

“From the very moment slave raiding parties are sent out… people begin to resist.” — Sudhir Hazareesingh

Then we revisit my 2012 conversation with novelist Jacqueline Sheehan about The Comet’s Tale, her powerful work of historical fiction about Sojourner Truth. Through Truth’s childhood in bondage, her spiritual awakening, and her emergence as a fearless abolitionist and women’s rights advocate, we explore resilience, moral courage, and the making of a revolutionary life.

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: Sudhir Hazareesingh, Daring to Be Free, Atlantic slavery, slave resistance, Haitian Revolution, Solitude of Guadeloupe, maroon communities, Sojourner Truth, Jacqueline Sheehan, The Comet’s Tale, Abolition movement, Black history, Writers Voice podcast,

You May Also Like: Aaron Robertson, THE BLACK UTOPIANS, Ben Passmore on Black Resistance

Read The Transcript

Continue reading →

Podcast

Human Fracking? The Attention Liberation Movement vs. Big Tech

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

Episode Summary

Something feels wrong with our attention — and with reality itself.

In Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement, editors D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt argue that this crisis is not about individual willpower. It’s about a multi-trillion-dollar industry built to monetize human attention.

They call it “human fracking.”

“These phones are the final node in a… $7 to $14 trillion industry that’s all about maximizing the amount of time that we engage with these devices… capturing our attention and turning it into money. And we call that ‘human fracking.’” — Peter Schmidt

In this conversation, we explore how the commodification of attention reshapes nearly every aspect of our lives.

We talk about attention as relational and ethical — not just measurable. And we examine why reclaiming attention must be a collective political movement, not a private detox.

Then, we listen to an excerpt from our 2025 conversation with Cory Doctorow about his book Enshittifcation.

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: Attention Liberation Movement, Attensity book, D. Graham Burnett, Peter Schmidt, Alyssa Loh, human fracking, attention economy, digital capitalism, social media harm, attention activism, Cory Doctorow enshittification, attention sanctuaries, Writers Voice podcast

You may also like: Cory Doctorow, Enshittification, Cory Doctorow, Picks and Shovels

Read The Transcript

Continue reading →

Podcast

Andrew Burstein on Thomas Jefferson: Slavery, Democracy, & The Idea of America

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

Episode Summary:

Historian Andrew Burstein joins us to talk about his biography, Being Thomas Jefferson. It’s an intimate portrait that looks beyond the marble statue and into the emotional life of one of America’s most influential founders.

Burstein explores Jefferson as a political moralist, a lyrical writer, and as someone who imagined democracy while profiting from slavery, who preached equality while exercising enormous power over others, and as someone who believed passionately in the nation’s destiny while fearing the forces of centralized power that could tear it apart.

“The Jefferson that I write about in this book is a political moralist who converts knowledge into feeling.” — Andrew Burstein

We’ll talk about Jefferson’s psychological world, his relationship with Sally Hemings, his battles with Federalism, and how his inner life helped shape our nation and the ideals we’re struggling to protect today.

Then, we listen to an excerpt from our 2014 conversation with Danielle Allen about her book Our Declaration, A Reading Of The Declaration of Independence In Defense of Equality.

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Burstein, Being Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, slavery, Founding Fathers, Federalism, Jeffersonian democracy, American Revolution, Writer’s Voice, Danielle Allen, Declaration of Independence,

You Might Also Like: Danielle Allen, OUR DECLARATION, Sojourner Truth, Her Story & Meaning,

Read the Transcript

Continue reading →

Podcast

Coyote: Robert M. Dowling on Sam Shepard and the American Psyche

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

Episode Summary:

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with biographer Robert M. Dowling about his biography, Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard.

Dowling explores Shepard’s groundbreaking theatrical innovations, his jazz-inspired rhythms, and his shamanistic approach to performance — along with the deep fear that powered his work. 

“He feared the estrangement — our estrangement from the earth, from ourselves, from reality even.” — Robert Dowling

Another writer who loved the deserts of California, as Sam Shepard did, was the poet Forrest Gander. We re-air a conversation with him from April of 2025 about his book-length poem, Mojave Ghost.

And finally, Francesca reads a powerful ode written by former US Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman to Renee Nicole Good, “For Renee Nicole Good Killed by I.C.E. on January 7, 2026.”

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: Sam Shepard biography, Robert M. Dowling, Coyote, American playwrights, Forrest Gander, Renée Nicole Good, Amanda Gorman, Writer’s Voice podcast

Read the Transcript

Continue reading →