Monthly Archives: November 2025

Podcast

Bruce Holsinger on AI’s Moral Dilemmas and Elizabeth George’s New Inspector Lynley Mystery

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

This week on Writer’s Voice, Bruce Holsinger tells us about his new novel Culpability, a story about a family shattered by a self-driving car accident — and about the ethical and emotional consequences of artificial intelligence.

Holsinger, whose earlier novel The Displacements explored climate catastrophe, turns his sharp eye to the ways technology mirrors human flaws, illuminating our collective complicity in shaping the systems that govern us.

“For all that we talk about the ethics of AI, the systems themselves are completely indifferent to our fates.” — Bruce Holsinger

Then Elizabeth George, the beloved creator of the Inspector Lynley series, talks about her new book A Slowly Dying Cause. It’s a masterful mystery that explores grief, obsession and moral reckoning. Set in Cornwall, it interlaces complex storylines around a suspicious death, a fractured family and the consequences of unresolved grief.

“The whole book is about grief — and letting go of grief.” — Elizabeth George

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Key Words: Bruce Holsinger, Elizabeth George, Culpability, A Slowly Dying Cause, AI ethics, mystery fiction, artificial intelligence novel, Inspector Lynley series 

You Might Also Like: Bruce Holsinger, THE DISPLACEMENTS, Elizabeth George, SOMETHING TO HIDE

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Podcast

The Wisdom of the Wild: Adam Nicolson on BIRD SCHOOL & Isabella Tree on Rewilding

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

This week on Writer’s Voice, we turn our attention to the living world—and our place within it.

First, writer Adam Nicolson joins us to talk about his luminous new book, Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood. It’s the story of how he built a shed in his Sussex woods and spent two years learning from the birds who shared it with him. In the process, Nicolson discovered not just the intelligence of birds, but also a new way of seeing the world—a way that erases the hard line between humans and nature.

“To tend to the reality of the birds’ minds is to find yourself in a completely renewed world.” — Adam Nicholson

Then we replay an excerpt from my 2020 interview with Isabella Tree, author of Wilding: The Return of Nature. Nicolson counts her as a friend and fellow traveler in reimagining how we live with the natural world.

“We’ve grown up with a picture-postcard idea of beauty—neat edges, canalized rivers, everything controlled. We’re just beginning to understand that it’s not sustainable.” — Isabella Tree

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

Key Words: Adam Nicolson, Bird School, birds, ecology, wildlife observation, biodiversity, Writer’s Voice podcast, Isabella Tree, Wilding, Knepp Estate, rewilding, biodiversity, habitat restoration,

You Might Also Like: Isabella Tree (full interview), The Minds and Lives of Animals with Joe Shute and Brandon Keim

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Podcast

Ben Passmore on Black Resistance & David Baron on the Martian Craze

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

In our first segment, comic artist Ben Passmore takes us on a time-bending, darkly funny journey through more than a century of Black resistance in his graphic history Black Arms to Hold You Up. It’s a story of struggle, rebellion, and what liberation really means when the fight never ends.

“We’re in a life-or-death struggle, and I think we need to accept that.” — Ben Passmore

Then, science journalist David Baron joins us to talk about The Martians — the true story of how turn-of-the-(last)-century America fell in love with the idea of life on Mars. From telescopes to tabloid headlines, Baron shows how our dreams of other worlds reveal who we really are.

“It was a time of great unrest… and so the idea that maybe Earth was clearly turning out not to be a very perfect place — and that maybe there was a better civilization on the planet next door — really captured the public’s imagination.” — David Baron

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

Key Words: Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon, Ben Passmore, David Baron, Black Arms to Hold You Up, The Martians, graphic novels, civil rights, alien craze, Black resistance, Mars, Percival Lowell, H.G. Wells, podcast author interview,

You Might Also Like: Tamara Payne on Les Payne’s THE DEAD ARE ARISING, Aaron Robertson, THE BLACK UTOPIANS.

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Podcast

Cory Doctorow on Big Tech’s “Enshittification” & Bill McKibben on Solar Hope for the Planet

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

This episode of Writer’s Voice features two leading voices confronting the defining challenges of the 21st century — corporate monopolization and climate breakdown.

  • Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification, reveals the hidden mechanics behind the digital decay of our online platforms — how they move from serving users to exploiting them, and what systemic reforms, from antitrust enforcement to tech worker unions, can reverse the trend.
  • Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes The Sun, shares an unexpectedly hopeful vision for the climate movement, documenting how plummeting solar and wind costs are reshaping economies worldwide and creating a moral turning point for civilization itself.

Together, these conversations show that both the digital and planetary crises share a root cause — the concentration of power — and that the path forward lies in collective action, technological democratization, and the reclaiming of our common future.

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

Key Words: Cory Doctorow, enshittification, Big Tech, Amazon, Google, Facebook, antitrust, AI bubble, Electronic Frontier Foundation, EFA, digital rights, surveillance capitalism, Bill McKibben, Here Comes The Sun, climate change, renewable energy, solar power, wind energy, batteries, climate justice, energy transition, balcony solar, climate hope

You Might Also Like: Bill McKibben, OIL AND HONEY, Cory Doctorow, PICKS AND SHOVELS

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