Happy To Be Here

This month's GRETAGRAM book club selection is Exit Part y, the new novel from Station Eleven author Emily St. John Mandel. Like her other novels, this is a story that spans genre and time. It opens with Ari Waker, the villain from Emily's novel The Singer's Gun , as she goes to a party at the end of the world. Some very strange things happen at that party, and Ari is haunted by them for decades to...

The September GRETAGRAM book club selection is Mary H.K. Choi’s Pool House , an exquisitely claustrophobic novel about a TV family and the mess that lies just under the surface. Host Greta Johnsen unpacks the novel with Inkoo Kang, a TV critic for The New Yorker . She brought many wonderful insights to the book, including this one:  “We’re coming out of this era of increased representation of...

This month's GRETAGRAM book club selection is Mary H.K. Choi's Pool House, a novel about mothers and daughters, about seeing and being seen, and about desiring and being desired. This novel isn’t necessarily soapy, but it’s definitely MESSY, and it's quite a ride. Mary has written several YA novels, but Pool House is her first book for adults. It's about Stevie, a young woman who lives in the llon...

The 87% Club is a series of episodes that explore the case for giving less energy to things that don't matter, so we have more time to spend on things that do. This week, host Greta Johnsen talks to writer Priyanka Mattoo, the author of the wonderful essay collection How To Be Less Useful: The Joy of Inefficiency. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at htt...

This week, host Greta Johnsen talks with Ayurvedic doctor, coach, and podcast host Sweta Vikram, who "helps high achievers move through burnout, grief, and overwhelm." Today’s episode is largely about perfectionism when it comes to rest. So many of us think that time off is an all-or-nothing deal -- take a long vacation, or be strung out and constantly in your email inbox. But Sweta encourages a g...

As part of a monthlong series about doing less, host Greta Johnsen talks to a theater director and an author about attention, achievement, effort, and ease. First, Greta speaks with Michaela Goldhaber, a Bay-Area playwright, director, and dramaturg who is also involved in disability justice work through her theater company Wry Crips Disabled Women’s Theater Group .  Then, she talks to Cathy H...

Host Greta Johnsen starts a month-long miniseries for the 87% club with an interview with author Veronica Roth . She’s written more than a dozen books, most notably the Divergent series. Her latest book is called Seek the Traitor’s Son ( print | audio ), a book that she approached very differently from her other projects. Here’s what she says about it in the acknowledgements: “I started writing th...

The July GRETAGRAM book club selection is Paige Lewis' Canon , a nonbinary hero's journey that has all the elements of an epic: Good Guys vs. Bad Guys, a fickle god, and, of course, a talking whale! Host Greta Johnsen discusses the book with Molly McGhee, the author of Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind . They discuss structure, narrative presence, earnestness, and the futility of glory. SHOW CREDITS...

Host Greta Johnsen talks with City Cast Chicago host Jacoby Cochran and Margaret Willison , the newest member of the Culture Study newsletter and podcast team. They play the extremely low-stakes game Burden or Delight with three of the biggest pop culture touchstones of the summer: The World Cup, Taylor Swift’s wedding, and Christopher Nolan’s newest blockbuster, The Odyssey . (Did Margaret make a...

Host Greta Johnsen talks with Sarah Wilson about her new book, I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World . As the title suggests, Sarah's book explores the idea of sysrem collapse, a metacrisis we're already experiencing through climate crises, political upheaval, cultural isolationism, and fossil fuel consumption. This book isn't necessarily easy to read -- after al...

Today’s episode is about public television, classic literature, and an extremely charismatic Jack Russell Terrier. Yes, we are talking about Wishbone , the iconic children’s PBS show that aired from 1995 to 1998.  It was about Wishbone the dog, who imagined himself as the star of many canonical texts such as The Odyssey , Romeo and Juliet , Oliver Twist , and Cyrano de Bergerac . The shoe air...

Host Greta Johnsen talks to author and poet Paige Lewis. Their novel Canon is the GRETAGRAM book club selection for July. Canon is difficult to describe -- it pays homage to many classic epics and is deeply rooted in the Bible, But it’s also extremely irreverent, funny, and weird. Ultimately, it’s a nonbinary hero’s journey with Good Guys and Bad Guys and a wonderful talking whale.  Greta and...

The June GRETAGRAM book club selection is Julia Langbeing’s Dear Monica Lewinsky , a novel that explores sainthood, desire, the legacy of Monica Lewinsky, and the history of horny nuns.  Host Greta Johnsen discusses the book with Gwen Kirby, the author of the wonderful short story collection Shit Cassandra Saw . Together, we unpack what makes this book SO GOOD, from tone to topic to setting t...

It’s the first Friday of the month, which means it’s time for a new book to read! This month’s selection is Julia Langbein ’s phenomenal novel Dear Monica Lewinsky, and Julia is today's guest on the show. The book is about Jean, whose life was derailed the summer after her sophomore year in college. When she travels to France to study medieval religious history, she meets a charismatic professor a...

It’s the last Friday of May, which means it’s time to discuss T Kira Madden’s novel Whidbey ! Host Greta Johnsen talks to self-professed T Kira stan Kristen Arnett, the author of several novels. (Her most recent book, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One , is especially wonderful!) They unpack what makes this complex novel so readable: nuanced themes, compelling characters, tangible sense of place, an...

Host Greta Johnsen talks to two of her favorite readers -- MJ Franklin , an editor at the New York Times Book Review and host of The Book Review Book Club podcast, and Traci Thomas , who hosts the wonderfully bookish podcast The Stacks . Even though the three of them have WILDLY different reading tastes, they also have an abundance of respect for each other, so these conversations are always a tre...

WXPN morning host and assistant music director Kristen Kurtis offers host Greta Johnsen three songs to enjoy this summer, and they are all BOPS:   Zinadeplhia, “River” Parlor Greens, “Eat Your Greens” Allison Russell, “Cold April” ft. Kara Jackson, Denitia, and Explore! Pop Choir SHOW CREDITS Creator and host: Greta Johnsen Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jere...

Host Greta Johnsen talks with profesisonal organizer Kelly Brask about how Swedish death cleaning can help you live better by getting rid of the things that no longer fit int your life and keeping the things that are useful and joyul for you. She also offers hints for how to organize your space and encourages you to embrace cleanliness while avoiding perfectionism. See Privacy Policy at https://ar...

Host Greta Johnsen talks with T Kira Madden, whose novel Whidbey is the GRETAGRAM Book Club selection for May. (TW: Child sexual abuse.) Whidbey is told from the points of view of three women who are all connected to Calvin, a sexual precator: Mary Beth, his mother, and Birdie and Linzie, who victims who approach their trauma in very different ways.  T Kira talks about the book’s enticin...

Host Greta Johnsen talks with Roxana Jullapat, head baker and co-owner at the Los Angeles restaurant Friends & Family . Her new cookbook is Morning Baker : Recipes and Rituals for Breakfast and Beyond . In 2019, she wrote Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution , a thorough compendium of heritage grains and everything they have to offer.  Roxana says the new cookbook is just as de...

Host Greta Johnsen talks to author Rufi Thrope, whose novel Margo’s Got Money Troubles was just adapted into a series on Apple TV+ . The show’s cast is stacked -- it stars Elle Fanning as Margo, a young woman who becomes pregnant after an affair with her college professor. She decides to keep the baby, much to the chagrin of her own single mom Shyanne, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Margo’s absentee...

Greta’s guest today will be familiar to longtime Nerdette listeners -- her name is Kate Schatz, and she’s an activist and author. She co-wrote Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book with W Kamau Bell, and she’s the author of Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide . Now, she’s back with her first novel for adults! Where the Girls Were takes place in the Bay Area in 1968. It’s about Baker,...

An unimportant investigation into the difference between cupcakes and muffins with Bon Appetit test kitchen editor Shilpa Uscocovic . SHOW CREDITS Creator and host: Greta Johnsen Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal Tile art: Mac Maclean See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info...

For this deep-dive discussion of Tayari Jones’ novel Kin , host Greta Johnsen talks with Traci Thomas, who hosts The Stacks podcast .  They talk about the exquisite pleasure of reading a book that does exactly what it sets out to do, the beauty of female friendship, and the different ways the main characters are mothered despite the absence of their actual mothers.  Warning: this is a sp...

Greta Johnsen and Kristen Meinzer discuss the finale of My So-Called Life -- “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities”  -- with Pop Culture Happy Hour host Linda Holmes and Ronald Young, Jr. , who hosts Weight for It.  They talk about the centrality of Angela and Rayanne’s friendship, the power of Patty’s nostalgia trip, and how the episode works as both a season and series finale.  Plus,...