Kurt Vonnegut Radio with Gabe Hudson

Thank you to the following people: Mary Bergman, Maureen Clarke, Lola Deneault, Hank Deneault, Erica George, Alena Graedon, Gabrielle Griffis, Andrew Leland, Julia Madsen, Sanchia Semere, Peter Semere, Akhil Sharma, Gary Shteyngart, Deborah Treisman, Jackie Welham We miss you, Gabe. Thank you for being our teacher and forever a student of life and the craft. -Jude Brewer Learn more about your ad c...

Welcome to episode #39 of Kurt Vonnegut Radio 👀 Today on the show we’ve got the amazing writer Anne Kadet. Anne Kadet writes the beloved newsletter CAFÉ ANNE. Anne Kadet has forged a new kind of journalism to cover New York City. Gabe Hudson talks to Anne Kadet about her beloved newsletter, Caffe Anne, and how she uncovers fascinating stories in New York City that reveals our humanity and accurat...

Today's guest, Mark Wynn, is the subject of a new documentary film called, This is Where I Learned Not to Sleep, made by award-winning filmmakers Anne de Mare and Kristen Kelly. So who is Mark Wynn? Well he's a former police officer in Nashville who – after listening carefully to the women of Nashville in a way that nobody else was – he started the largest domestic violence prevention unit in the...

Jen Taub is an acclaimed author, legal scholar, and podcaster extraordinaire. Gabe talks to Jen about why she is putting her whole heart into her podcast Booked Up. This conversation contains many treasures, including the story of how Jen discovered who she was and what was most important to her. Jen Taub, choice quotes from convo On why she started her podcast "Ever since COVID and beyond, we've...

This is the 2nd and final part of Gabe's conversation with Dave Eggers Dave opens up and gets candid about his own artistic impulse to pivot with each writing project. He talks about his early days in art school, and what drew him to certain artists. He talks about Lorrie Moore, George Saunders, , and why he thinks Percival Everett is probably the rightful heir to the more radical writers of the 6...

Gabe and Dave Eggers have been friends for the last 25 years: since Dave first popped up on the national stage, with his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. And his indie publishing juggernaut: McSweeney's.  This interview is, in part, to support Dave's new novel, The Eyes and the Impossible. A novel that’s for all ages. And for the ages. This book is written in the first person, fr...

Gabe interviews special guest author, Michael Estrin , who writes the beloved newsletter, Situation Normal . Around which a big community of fervent super-devoted readers has sprung up. Michael’s comic stories from his life are big-hearted and sometimes weird. When you talk to him about the community of readers that gather around his words, his deep affection for them shines through. The other coo...

Merve is renowned critic, scholar, contributing writer at the The New Yorker, and Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University. Gabe and Merve discuss Merve's new piece “What is Mom Rage Actually?” in this week’s The New Yorker. Read Merve Emre’s new piece “What is Mom Rage, Actually?” in this week’s The New Yorker Read Merve’s interview with Diane Willi...

Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful; the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: and author of the beloved, world famous poem, "Good Bones." Maggie Smith’s memoir is truth-telling of the highest order. This book chronicles the peaks and valleys of her odyssey in recent years. How her poem, “Good Bones,” went super viral, and her marr...

A.M. Homes is author of 13 books including most recently a novel: The Unfolding.  Homes' 2013, May We Be Forgiven, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and her memoir, The Mistress's Daughter was published to international acclaim. Her work has been translated into 22 languages. Gabe talks to the iconic writer A.M. Homes about her new novel, The Unfolding, her renowned Barbie story, "A Real Doll," te...

Alex Dobrenko is a writer, comedian, and actor. He writes humorous and vulnerable personal essays on his hugely popular Substack, Both Are True. Alex writes about his life as a new father and being a sorta hopeful Millennial in a dying empire. His work is hilarious, but it’s also shot through with real grace and vulnerability. He’s like a millennial David Sedaris, or Larry David. Gabe talks to Ale...

Gabe Hudson talks about how as someone whose official job title in Marine Corps was "rifleman," he believes we should ban AR-15's now. He explains how if it's harder to get ahold of an assault rifle in Marine Corps than in regular society, then America has lost its mind. He talks about the white supremacist who killed 3 Black people this weekend. And how the myth of the "lone wolf" is a complete l...

Gabe reads one of George Saunders' early stories out loud and explains some of George's ingenious writing techniques. For anyone who writers stories, or who is in the storytelling trade, what you learn on thisd podcast episode might turn out to be the most important thing you know in your life. It will probably change your life. Because it completely changed Gabe's life. Gabe also explains how by...

Gabe Hudson talks about what Sinead O'Connor's truth-telling remains contagious. He talks about the recent documentary about her life, Nothing Compares to You. Referred to in episode: Sinead singing This is to Mother You Sinead O'Connor documentary Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram Rate/Review Kurt Vonnegut Radio Subscribe to Kurt Vonnegut Radio's Substack Other episodes for you to enjoy: 1st Sin...

Akhil Sharma is the author of Family Life and A Life of Adventure and Delight. He’s a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and has won a bunch of awards including the PEN/Hemingway Award, Guggenheim, and International Dublin Literary Award. He’s also a professor at Duke University. Buy Akhil Sharma’s novel Family Life Buy Akhil’s story collection A Life of Adventure and Delight Read Akhil’s Why...

Sari Botton is the author of memoir, And You May Find Yourself: Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen X Weirdo. Sari is the editor-in-chief of the beloved publication, Oldster Magazine, which publishes such luminaries as Cheryl Strayed, Deesha Philyaw, Maggie Smith, and Lauri Stone. Sari and Gabe compare Gen X notes about growing up as feral children in the 70’s. They discuss the challenges Sari over...

Sam Lipsyte is the author of many beloved books, a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and faculty member at Columbia University’s MFA program. Gabe and Sam dig into his recent non-fiction piece in The New Yorker which is, in part, about the classes he took from the legendary editor Gordon Lish.* They also discuss Sam’s recent novel, No One Left To Come Looking for You, which is a Gen X masterp...

Gabe Hudson talks about what Sinead O'Connor's songs and activism meant to him. And how she changed Generation X. He talks about her ripping up the Pope's picture on Saturday Night Live. Her performance at the Bob Dylan Benefit concert at Madison Square Garden. And why she sang covers of Bob Marley's song War. Gabe also talks about what he is doing with his grief about Sinead's passing. Youtube cl...

Andrew Leland is author of the new memoir, The Country of the Blind: a Memoir at the End of Sight and he is an editor at The Believer. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and 99 Percent Invisible, and he was host and producer of the podcast, The Organist. Gabe and Andrew have a fun and open-hearted conversation about Andrew’s experiences in blind communities acros...

Host Gabe Hudson talks about how George Saunders gave him some writing advice that changed his life. Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram Rate/Review Kurt Vonnegut Radio Subscribe to Kurt Vonnegut Radio's Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Gabe Hudson gets personal and talks about what Kurt Vonnegut's writing has meant to him. Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram Rate/Review Kurt Vonnegut Radio Subscribe to Kurt Vonnegut Radio's Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tressie McMillan Cottom is the author of Thick and Other Essays, a columnist for the New York Times, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a 2020 McArthur Fellow. Tressie talks to Gabe about the kind of freedom she wants for all Black women. And how her mother was a member of the Black Panther Party in Winston Salem, NC. We learn about Tressie's 18 stages of essay wri...

Qian Julie Wang is the New York Times Bestselling author of Beautiful Country and a Yale-educated litigator. Qian Julie has one of the most incredible life stories you have ever heard. But Qian Julie's personal philosophy and inspired worldview may well be the most extraordinary thing about her. Qian Julie tells Gabe what it was like for her and her family to give up everything in China and move t...

Rebecca Makkai is the author of 3 novels and her newest novel, I Have Some Questions for You, will be published in February. Rebecca's last novel The Great Believers, a novel set in Chicago at the height of the American AIDS epidemic, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Rebecca and Gabe talk about having ADHD, and the challenges of having a brain that's like Times Sq...

Stephanie Land didn’t take the traditional path to writing a New York Times Bestselling memoir (MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive). And she didn’t take the traditional path to having her memoir be adapted into a Netflix Emmy-nominated series (MAID). Stephanie and Gabe talk about her struggles as a single mother living in public housing with two children and her determination...