Sylly

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode 20, we dig into criticism as a practice and what actually separates a critique from a review, a hot take, or a close reading, using Tembe’s review of Marlon James’s The Disappearers for Vulture as our jumping-off point. We talk about Saidiya Hartman’s concept of critic...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . Today’s episode looks back at a conversation that I (Mbiye) had with Sierra Greer, the author of Annie Bot. Annie Bot is a book that has haunted me since I read it. It tells the story of Annie, a robot companion purchased by Doug, a human male. The book explores several themes, b...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode 18, we’re talking about the books that have actually captured our attention this summer, and what we’re hoping to finish before summer ends. We talk about why we’ve both sworn off reading blurbs and watching trailers, what it means to read outside your own identity wit...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode 17, we’re thinking about freedom using Gathering Blossoms Under Fire as a primary text. The journals of Alice Walk offer us insight into what it means to be a free woman, and a free Black woman at that. Tembe and I discuss how people misinterpret freedom, confusing it...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In this episode, I (Mbiye) sat down with acclaimed writer Kiese Laymon to talk about his novel Long Division , among other things. Kiese and I had a wide-ranging conversation, using Long Division as our primary text, alongside the fable of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse, to...

Welcome back to Sylly , a podcast for the curious and critical. Today’s episode is a solo with just me, Mbiye , and I come bearing a gift: a summer playlist. Tune in to the episode to hear me chat about the highlights of my summer so far, which include watching DRC’s national team play in the World Cup soccer and reading as widely and voraciously as I can while still being as outside as possible.&...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode 14, we’re coming to you with our annual summer reading special. Before we get to the books, we take stock of summer as a season and a feeling: the joy, the pressure, the ennui, and why August is, as Tembe puts it, “the Sunday of the year.” We also get into the song of...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode 13, we’re making the case for contemporary fiction and engaging with the present. Our culture is obsessed with nostalgia, and it often feels like we’re stuck in a loop of reboots and sequels. In the literary world, that nostalgia manifests in a reflexive distrust of co...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode 12, we’re taking stock of 2026 so far, and it’s been a disrespectful ass year, to say the least. Jerome Powell revised jobs numbers and told us what we already knew: there are no jobs . White ladies are playing majhong (again) and celebrating the Lunar New Year . Watch...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In today's episode, we're reflecting on 2025 and giving winter reading recommendations. Thank you for listening. Stay tuned for more in 2026! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode 11, we’re discussing the transactional nature of modern dating. We’ve noticed a trend of women online who post content about finding rich men to date and marry, alongside conversations about how couples split their finances, and we wanted to explore the macro trends th...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode ten, we’re diving deep into our favorite contemporary fiction read of 2025 so far: Dominion. In this spoiler-filled episode, we delve into the book’s intricate characterizations, thematic complexity, and how it offers a rich commentary on patriarchy and gender roles wi...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst . In episode nine, we’re throwing it back to the very first podcast we ever recorded together. I (Mbiye) interviewed Tembe for my book podcast Unbound last summer. We dove deep into Tembe’s debut novel, Homebodies, her early reading habits, and her writing practice. As always, if t...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. In episode eight, we each share three book recommendations perfect for summer reading in August, emphasizing literature that explores deep relationships, identity, and personal transformation. As always, if there’s anything you want us to talk about on the pod during our office ho...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. This week we’re talking about legibility from a different perspective, thinking through how it protects us. We do this by examining the work of two artists: Simone Leigh and Amy Sherald, thinking of what they’re work is saying and how it impact us. It’s worth mentioning that Amy S...

Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. This week we’re thinking about legibility and what it costs us, as human beings and more specifically, as Black women. To investigate we dove into two primary texts. Tembe brought Sula to the table (again), and Mbiye analyzed a TikTok by kadencecentana , which asks the question—is...

Welcome to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. This week, we talked about community. more specifically, we spent some time with Mbiye’s primary text, What is Community Anyway, an article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In a world where community is diluted by the internet and weaponized by brands to get us to buy stuff,...

Thank you for listening to Sylly! Keep up with us on Substack . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.