First Edition

Scaachi Koul joins Jeff to talk about her new book, Sucker Punch with a new little format for First Edition called "10 Notecards With..." Jeff has picked out 10 things from the new book — words, ideas, stories, etc. — written them on notecards, and then has Saachi pick them at random (at least at the start order). Turned out to be a lot of fun, so expect to hear more of these. Subscribe to First E...

Liberty Hardy joins Jeff to talk about hosting 500 episodes of All The Books! and a host of other reading-related topics. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. Discussed in this episode: All The Books! Liberty Hardy on Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebecca Romney joins Jeff to talk about her new book, Jane Austen's Bookshelf. They talk about personal book collecting, rediscovering literary history for yourself, a few of the writers Austen admired, and more. Jane Austen's Bookshelf is out now. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. This content contains affi...

Sarah Chihaya joins Jeff to talk about her new memoir, Bibliophobia. They talk life-ruining books, the enormous weight of all the books that are out there and how we cannot read them all, and other less-talked about parts of the reading life. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. This content contains affiliate...

Jeff talks to Professor Shigehiro Oishi about his new book, Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life. Books and reading play a central role in the book, both as examples but also as avenues towards living a psychologically rich life. I really enjoyed this book and this conversation. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotif...

John Warner joins Jeff to talk about his new book, More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI. We talk about the teaching of writing, what we might want to save for humans, what kinds of things LLMs expose about how we think about writing, and what the present and future of living with AI could be. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras...

Bookshop.org Founder Andy Hunter joins Jeff to talk about Bookshop now offering ebooks. Then, Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, comes on to talk about her bookish reading challenge: read for 25 in '25. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy throug...

Jeff uses Susie Dumond's piece for Book Riot about 2025 predictions as a framework for taking stock of where we are and what the year may hold for publishing and reading. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Discussed in this episode: Book Trend Predictions for 2025 Bed and Break-Up by Susie Dumond Learn more about your ad ch...

Jeff talks to Nnedi Okorafor about her life as a reader. Her new book, Death of the Author, is out now. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

Jeff is joined by Adam Vitcavage of Debutiful to talk about covering debuts, new authors, and all that entails. Discussed in this episode: Debutiful (website) Debutiful (podcast) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was my favorite 2024 episode of First Edition, so I thought I'd repost it for you this holiday week. Join me to explore the reading life of U.S. National Poet Laureate Ada Limón. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Discussed in this episode: You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited by Ada Limón In Praise of Mys...

Book Riot's Sharifah Williams joins Jeff to talk about her piece, "The Books Won't Save Us." Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. Discussed in this episode: The Books Won't Save Us by Sharifah Williams Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A couple of segments here ported over from The Book Riot Podcast. First, Brooke Nagler tells us what it's like to break into the world of literary agenting. Then, Franklin Leonard and Randy Winston talk about their project, The Black List. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. Discussed in this episode: The Book...

Book Riot editor Danika Ellis joins Jeff to talk about how she tracks bestsellers for Book Riot, how growing up online was sort of great, and what we see (or don't) when we read. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. Discussed in this episode: The Best-Selling Books of the Week The Most Read Books on Goodreads T...

An audio version of a post I wrote for Book Riot recently, The 10 Most Interesting Questions in the World of Books and Reading. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is from our old podcast series Annotated, and it seemed fitting to bring it out of the archive this election season. In this episode: A woman with no prior political experience decides to run for city commission in her small college town. So she goes to the library and checks out a book called How to Win a Local Election. And she wins. This is her story and the story of the book that...

While I am out on vacation, I am bringing something out from the vault. I have done a couple of "Reading Life" episodes here on First Edition with Adam Limon and James McBride, and that format got started as its own, sadly ended, podcast series: Reading Lives. While I was doing that show, I got a bunch of requests for my own episode, which I tried recording as a solo act. So here is that episode,...

Jeff is joined by Brenna Connor, Director & Industry Analyst for U.S. books sales for Circana. She has the goods: what is selling, what is trending, how retailers are doing, and much more. I learned a TON, and I bet you will too. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...

In this episode of First Edition, the reading life of U.S. National Poet Laureate Ada Limón. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Discussed in this episode: You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited by Ada Limón In Praise of Mystery by Ada Limón, illustrated by Peter Sis. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podc...

Jeff O'Neal talks with Ayana Mathis about her latest book, The Unsettled. The Unsettled was a 2023 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a Best Book of the Year selection by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, and others. The Unsettled is now available in paperback. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Su...

In this episode, Jeff talks with Claire Messud about her new novel, This Strange, Eventful History. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Jeff talks with Rachel Khong about her new novel, Real Americans. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For episode extras, subscribe to the First Edition Substack. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

40 years ago, Sandra Cisneros published what would become a contemporary classic: The House on Mango Street. To mark the occasion, Everyman's Library has released a new edition. The introduction to that edition was written by Professor John Philip Santos, a fellow writer and long-time friend of Cisneros. He joins me on this episode to talk about the origin, meaning, and legacy of this modern maste...

Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last, joins Jeff to debut two new First Edition segments: Anatomy of a Scene and Hardest/Easiest. In the first segment, they each pick a scene to dissect from Anita de Monte Laughs Last. In the second, Gonzalez talks about what part of the book was the easiest to write....and which was the hardest. Subscribe to First Edition via RSS, Apple Podcasts...

Jason Snell of sixcolors.com, and ereader connoisseur, joins Jeff to talk about the state of ereaders, what makes a good ereader, a couple of interesting, oddball new devices, and more. Check out sixcolors.com and The Incomparable. Want to make your book club the best club? Sign up for our In the Club newsletter. In the Club will deliver recommendations for the best books to discuss in your book c...