Monthly Archives: May 2025

Podcast

The New Face of Homelessness: Brian Goldstone on THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US

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

Episode Summary

This week: journalist Brian Goldstone joins us to talk about his powerful new book, There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America. It’s an eye-opening, deeply reported portrait of families who work full-time yet are unhoused, navigating a system that often punishes them for being poor.

It’s a conversation that will challenge how you see housing, inequality, and what it means to live on the edge in one of the richest countries in the world.

“We have allowed housing in America to basically become a luxury, to become a commodity that can just be hoarded by the few at the expense of the many.” — Brian Goldstone

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

You can support our show and the others you listen to by contributing through Lenny.fm. Your support helps us bring you more of the episodes, like this one, that you look forward to. Thanks for being a vital part of our community!

Key Words: Brian Goldstone, There Is No Place For Us, working homeless, housing crisis, homelessness in America, racial housing inequality, housing policy reform, affordable housing crisis, tenant rights,

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You Might Also Like: Bernadette Atuahene, PLUNDERED

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Podcast

Jennifer Haigh on RABBIT MOON and L. Annette Binder on CHILD OF EARTH AND STARRY HEAVEN

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

Episode Summary

Novelist Jennifer Haigh joins us to talk about Rabbit Moon, her atmospheric and emotionally complex novel set in Shanghai. It follows an estranged American family reuniting after a tragedy—and a daughter living a secret life abroad.

“Writing is having a conversation with the best friend you’ve never met.” — Jennifer Haigh

Then, L. Annette Binder returns to discuss Child of Earth and Starry Heaven, her deeply moving memoir of caring for her mother through Alzheimer’s. It’s a story of love, loss, and learning to live fully in the present.

“The two things I carry with me is the love that my mom was capable of feeling and that I felt for her survived her cognitive decline.” — L. Annette Binder

Connect with WV:

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

You can support our show and the others you listen to by contributing through Lenny.fm. Your support helps us bring you more of the episodes, like this one, that you look forward to. Thanks for being a vital part of our community!

Key Words: Rabbit Moon, Jennifer Haigh, literary fiction China, Child of Earth and Starry Heaven, L. Annette Binder, Alzheimer’s memoir, dementia caregiving, elder care,

You Might Also Like: Jennifer Haigh, MERCY STREET, Jennifer Haigh, NEWS FROM HEAVEN, Jennifer Haigh, FAITH, Jennifer Haigh, THE CONDITION, Jennifer Haigh, HEAT AND LIGHT, L. Annette Binder, THE VANISHING SKY

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Podcast

Kingdoms Lost & Myths Undone: Dolen Perkins-Valdez on HAPPY LAND and Nancy Reddy on THE GOOD MOTHER MYTH

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

Episode Summary

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, we speak with two authors who excavate buried truths and challenge dominant cultural narratives.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez discusses her historical novel Happy Land, inspired by a real African American community founded after the Civil War in North and South Carolina—an intentional kingdom that embodied Black sovereignty, only to be undermined by systemic land theft.

“Even though we have them in the history books as a monarchy, there must have also been a kind of shared power, a kind of egalitarianism that they participated in.” — Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Then, Nancy Reddy talks about The Good Mother Myth, her nonfiction book/memoir dismantling the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers, tracing them to flawed psychological theories and cultural constructions that ignore caregiving as a collective act.

“The good mother isn’t really a person—she is a subject of capitalism.” — Nancy Reddy

Connect with WV:

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

You can support our show and the others you listen to by contributing through Lenny.fm. Your support helps us bring you more of the episodes, like this one, that you look forward to. Thanks for being a vital part of our community!

Key Words: Nancy Reddy, The Good Mother Myth, motherhood, parenting, attachment theory, communal parenting, book about motherhood, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Happy Land, African American history, Black land loss,

You Might Also Like: Dolen Perkins-Valdez, TAKE MY HAND, Aaron Robertson, THE BLACK UTOPIANS

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Podcast

Muse, Myth & Murder: Mich​èle Gerber Klein on Gala Dalí and Anthony Horowitz on THE MARBLE HALL MURDERS

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

Episode Summary

Mich​èle Gerber Klein discusses Surreal, her revelatory biography of Gala Dalí, the forceful and fascinating woman behind surrealist master Salvador Dalí. Gala emerges not just as a muse, but as a powerful shaper of modern art and identity.

“She wasn’t just a muse, she was an artist in her own right… she created a persona and curated a life.” — Michèle Gerber Klein

Then, Anthony Horowitz returns to the show with The Marble Hall Murders, the latest installment in his popular Atticus Pünd series. Blending classic mystery style with postmodern flair, Horowitz discusses the literary sleuthing of character Susan Ryland and the Agatha Christie-inspired brilliance of fictional detective Atticus Pünd.

All the tropes of the murder mystery are in there, but because of the nature of these books, which are both modern and old fashioned, I always have a certain self-questioning aspect going on. — Anthony Horowitz

Connect with WV:

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

You can support our show and the others you listen to by contributing through Lenny.fm. Your support helps us bring you more of the episodes, like this one, that you look forward to. Thanks for being a vital part of our community!

Key Words: Gala Dalí, Michèle Gerber Klein, Surreal biography, Salvador Dalí, women in surrealism, surrealist movement, Anthony Horowitz, The Marble Hall Murders, Atticus Pünd mystery series, Susan Ryland, metafictional crime novel, British mystery fiction,

You Might Also Like: Anthony Horowitz, MAGPIE MURDERS, Anthony Horowitz, MOONFLOWER MURDERS

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Podcast

Borders and Backlashes: Boris Fishman, THE UNWANTED & Sophie Gilbert, GIRL ON GIRL

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

Episode Summary

Novelist Boris Fishman talks about The Unwanted, a novel of migration, betrayal, and survival set in an unnamed, war-torn country. Fishman explores how lies—meant to protect—can fracture a family even in the face of collective trauma. It’s a moving portrait of a child’s resilience, a father’s compromise, and a mother’s reckoning, all raising one urgent question: What would you do to survive?

“There’s an implicit question in the novel: what would you do, you, person living in comfort and privilege?” – Boris Fishman

Then, journalist Sophie Gilbert joins us to discuss Girl on Girl, a searing critique of how pop culture has shaped—and often undermined—feminist progress. Gilbert analyzes the commodification of “girl power,” the rise of reality TV, and the mainstreaming of misogyny through media and porn. Through sharp insight and personal reflection, she maps the cultural backlash against women and explores how we might reclaim agency and rewrite our story.

“Porn kept showing up in my research. It was always there, shaping the messaging.” — Sophie Gilbert

Connect with WV:

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

You can support our show and the others you listen to by contributing through Lenny.fm. Your support helps us bring you more of the episodes, like this one, that you look forward to. Thanks for being a vital part of our community!

Key Words: Boris Fishman The Unwanted, Sophie Gilbert Girl on Girl, Feminism and pop culture, misogyny in pop culture, emigration narratives, porn and backlash to feminism

You Might Also Like: Boris Fishman, A REPLACEMENT LIFE

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