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

Today we explore what it really means to share the planet with other forms of life. We’ll talk with writer Bridget Lyons about her acclaimed book, Entwined: Dispatches from the Intersection of Species, a collection of essays that invites us to see animals, plants, and even ourselves in a radically more connected way.

“Part of the reason I wrote this book was to encourage people, inspire people to just go outside and look around and see who else is living around you.” — Bridget Lyons

And then we’ll hear an excerpt from our conversation with ecologist and author Carl Safina about his book Alfie and Me, the extraordinary story of a baby owl that helped him rethink what animals know — and what humans believe. 

“People have often said humans are the only logical animals, but I think that’s almost completely backward. We’re really the only illogical animals.” — Carl Safina

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Key Words: Bridget Lyons, Entwined, Carl Safina, Alfie and Me, Writers Voice podcast, animal intelligence, anthropomorphism, biodiversity, environmental ethics, sea stars, interspecies relationships

You Might Also Like: Adam Nicholson on BIRD SCHOOL, Richard Louv, OUR WILD CALLING & Carl Safina, BEYOND WORDS

Read the Transcript on Substack

Segment One — Bridget Lyons on Entwined

Bridget Lyons describes how her essays begin with encounters with other species — kelp, whales, sea stars, fireweed, octopuses — and expand into questions about value, empathy, humility, and how humans might live differently on the planet.

She explains that real connection begins with paying attention:

“Part of the reason I wrote this book was to encourage people, inspire people to just go outside and look around and see who else is living around you.”

Lyons argues that wonder leads to empathy and responsibility:

“As you become more connected to them, you feel more empathy for their life situation and what’s going on with them.”

One of the book’s core themes is rethinking value — not just in economic terms, but in terms of being:

“Can I, as a person, learn to value this creature for just being who it is, rather than for how it serves me, how it bothers me, etc.”

Lyons also speaks about humility in the face of ecological complexity:

“We all need a hefty, hefty dose of humility.”

And about how curiosity builds respect across species:

“The more you learn, or the more you learn that you don’t know, or the more that you marvel at something that another creature is doing, the more I think you’re creating a bridge.”

Segment Two — Carl Safina on Alfie and Me (archival excerpt)

Carl Safina tells the story of raising a baby screech owl named Alfie and what that relationship revealed about how animals experience the world — and how humans misunderstand it.

Safina challenges the idea that humans are uniquely rational:

“People have often said humans are the only logical animals, but I think that’s almost completely backward. We’re really the only illogical animals.”

He explains how human beliefs often override evidence:

“We’re the only ones who carry on through the world based on our beliefs rather than on evidence about how the world is and what the world around us is.”

Safina describes why freedom matters even when safety is available:

“That is not life. It’s pure safety, but there’s no shot at being part of the world or part of the future.”

And he reflects on what it means to witness another being’s full life unfold:

“I got to know something about these birds, and then I started to ask myself, well, why are we so blind to all of this?”

Key Topics

Key Topics

• The “intersection of species”
• Anthropomorphism and connection
• Wonder, humility, and ecological awareness
• How humans assign value
• Extinction and regeneration
• Animal intelligence and culture
• What owls — and other animals — reveal about how the world works

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

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Eric Lichtblau joins Writer’s Voice to discuss his new book, American Reich, a gripping investigation that begins with the murder of Blaze Bernstein in Orange County and expands into a sweeping analysis of white nationalism in 21st-century America.

“We’ve seen an enormous surge in hate crimes across the board… and this is horribly symptomatic of the rise of the neo-Nazis in the 21st century.” — Eric Lichtblau

Lichtblau traces how online extremism, political normalization of hate, and leaderless neo-Nazi networks have collided to shape a dangerous new era—one that has produced waves of hate crimes, radicalized young white men, and emboldened supremacist movements.

Lichtblau also explores the role of Trump-era politics, the mechanics of recruitment and radicalization — and what gives him hope for resistance and solidarity.

We also re-air a clip from our 2017 interview with photojournalist Zach Roberts about his viral photos of the brutal beating of De’Andre Harris by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia during the Unite the Right rally on August 12 of that year.

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Key Words: American Reich, Eric Lichtblau, Writer’s Voice podcast
white supremacy, neo-Nazis, hate crimes, online extremism
replacement theory, Trump white nationalism

You Might Also Like: Zach Roberts on Charlottesville attack, Michael German on POLICING WHITE SUPREMACY

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Key Topics

• The murder of Blaze Bernstein as a window into national extremism
• How Trump-era rhetoric normalized white supremacist ideology
• Historical cycles of xenophobia and racism in America
• Online radicalization & social platforms as recruitment engines
• Atomwaffen Division, James Mason, and leaderless resistance
• Replacement theory explained
• Why young white men become targets for recruitment
• The reality of modern hate-crime statistics
• Community resistance and hope

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

What does a 2,000-year-old epic have to say to us today about exile, duty, love, power, war, misinformation, and the fragile hopes of human community?

A great deal, say translators Scott McGill and Susannah Wright, whose new English translation of Virgil’s Aeneid captures both the grandeur of the epic and its deeply human emotional core.

“We were really keen to try to capture…the humanity of the poem, the deep pathos that Virgil generates, the power of the emotional world of the poem.”

In this conversation, they talk about collaboration, emotion, translation craft, and why the Aeneid remains one of the most morally and politically provocative works ever written—wrestling with migration, empire, trauma, rage, resilience, and the cost of duty.

They also explore unforgettable characters like Aeneas and Dido, the role of Rumor as an ancient “fake news engine,” and what we gain when we keep engaging with the classics today.

We also play clips from some of our favorite episodes of 2025: Links to episodes

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

Key Words: Virgil, Aeneid translation, Scott McGill, Susannah Wright, Aeneas and Dido, Roman empire, epic poem, Writer’s Voice podcast,

You Might Also Like: James Romm, DYING EVERY DAY & Robert Knapp, INVISIBLE ROMANS, James Romm, THE SACRED BAND

Key Topics

• Why translate the Aeneid now
• Collaboration and co-translation
• Emotional depth vs. epic grandeur
• Aeneas’s duty, sacrifice, and humanity
• Dido’s heartbreak and power
• Ambiguity of empire & colonialism
• Refugees, displacement & war
• Rumor as ancient misinformation
• Violence, morality & the troubling ending
• Why the classics still matter today

Read Interview Transcript

The ending of 2025 allowed us to reflect on some of our favorite episodes of the year. We had so many rich conversations in 2025 that this is by no means a complete list, but merely a sampler.

February — Aaron Robertson, The Black Utopians

Explores the hidden history of Black utopian communities in America—visions born from struggle, fueled by hope, political imagination, and self-determination, from Promised Land, Tennessee to radical Black movements in Detroit. Listen.

March — Amanda Becker, You Must Stand Up

Examines the fallout from the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, documenting legal chaos, ongoing threats to reproductive rights, and how activists, doctors, and voters continue the fight for abortion access. Listen

March — Omar El-Akkad, One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

A powerful critique of empire, media silence, and Western complicity in violence, written through the lens of Gaza; a deeply personal reckoning with responsibility, morality, and witnessing atrocity in real time. Listen

Ray Nayler, Where the Axe Is Buried

A dystopian novel about AI-ruled governments, mass surveillance, and the dangers of unchecked technological power—raising urgent questions about ethics, capitalism, and resistance. Listen

Silvia Park, Luminous

A haunting, philosophical novel questioning what happens when AI blurs the boundary between human and machine, exploring slavery, autonomy, inequality, and whether true human-robot equality is even possible. Listen

Bruce Holsinger, Culpability

A deeply human story about a family shattered by a self-driving car tragedy, exploring AI ethics, responsibility, grief, and who bears moral accountability when machines make life-altering decisions. Listen

May — Brian Goldstone, There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America

A devastating and deeply reported portrait of working families experiencing homelessness in the U.S., revealing how poverty, prosperity inequality, and policy failures create a humanitarian crisis far larger than official counts admit. Listen

Reality Winner — I Am Not Your Enemy

A gripping conversation with the NSA whistleblower about why she leaked evidence of Russian election interference, the government’s harsh punishment, and what her case reveals about secrecy, democracy, and justice. Listen

November Double-Bill — Cory Doctorow, Inshittification

Explains how tech platforms decay from user-friendly tools into exploitative corporate machines—and what systemic solutions like antitrust enforcement and tech worker resistance could change. Listen

November Double-Bill — Bill McKibben, Here Comes the Sun

A surprisingly hopeful conversation about how renewable energy is reshaping global power, offering real potential for economic justice, climate repair, and a rebalanced world.

1000th Episode — Julian Brave Noisecat, We Survived the Night

A moving memoir weaving Indigenous oral tradition, history, and contemporary struggle, exploring land, culture, trauma, resilience, and what we can learn from Indigenous ways of connection and community. Listen

We hope you’ll join us in 2026 for more of Writer’s Voice — compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

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

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, we explore the what’s going on with the current resurgence of psychedelics. My guest is Joe Dolce, whose new book, Modern Psychedelics: The Handbook for Mindful Exploration, dives deep into what these substances really do, why so many people are using them, and how science, politics, medicine, and culture are reshaping the conversation.

Dolce tells us why this is both an “exciting and confusing time” in psychedelic history—a time when reliable guidance is urgently needed in a moment of expanding access and misinformation. 

“I thought it was a good opportunity… there’s still so much confusion and so much misinformation about what these are, how they work, why they work, who they don’t work for, who should take them, who shouldn’t take them.” — Joe Dolce

We talk about what psychedelics can help heal — from PTSD and addiction to  depression and traumatic brain injury, why set and setting matter so deeply, how to micro dose psychedelics and how these substances can change not only individual consciousness, but maybe even how we relate to each other, to nature, and to the world we’re trying to save. 

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Key Words: Writer’s Voice podcast, Francesca Rheannon, Joe Dolce interview, Modern Psychedelics book, psychedelics research, PTSD psychedelics, traumatic brain injury psychedelics, microdosing, ibogaine therapy, MDMA therapy, psilocybin depression, psychedelics and spirituality

You Might Also Like: David Goodman, AN AMERICAN CANNABIS STORY & Carl Hart, DRUG USE FOR GROWNUPS, Alexandra Chasin, ASSASSIN OF YOUTH & Mason Tvert, MARIJUANA IS SAFER

Read Interview Transcript

Episode Summary

Joe Dolce traces the renewed psychedelics movement from cultural taboo to scientific renaissance. He explains why psychedelics are not like traditional pharmaceuticals, discusses risks, cautions, and who shouldn’t take them, and explores compelling new research into “critical periods of brain learning,” microdosing, mystical experience, and emotional healing. The conversation also looks at capitalism, policy battles, the underground psychedelic community, and the deep spiritual questions these substances raise.

Listen to or Read A Sample

Key Topics

• Why psychedelics are returning to medicine and culture
• The difference between psychedelics and pharmaceuticals
• Preparing for a psychedelic experience: set, setting & safety
• Psychedelics and trauma healing
• Spiritual experience and meaning
• Microdosing: myth vs reality
• Policy, legality & capitalism
• The underground psychedelic community
• How people are accessing psychedelics today

Resources

The Fireside Project

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

Francesca speaks with Jonathan Slaght about his remarkable book Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China.

Slaght tells the story of the 35-year Siberian (Amur) Tiger Project, one of the longest-running wildlife studies in the world, and how science, persistence, and cross-border collaboration helped bring a species back from the edge of extinction.

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Key Words: Jonathan Slaght interview, Tigers Between Empires, Amur tiger conservation, Siberian Tiger Project, wildlife conservation Russia China,
endangered species recovery, human–wildlife conflict

You Might Also Like: Adam Hart, DEADLY BALANCE, Gloria Dickie, EIGHT BEARS

Read Edited Interview Transcript

About the Episode

Jonathan Slaght recounts the extraordinary history of the Amur (Siberian) tiger’s decline and recovery, drawing on decades of field research conducted by Russian and American scientists working across political boundaries.

Our conversation opens with the story of Lidiya, a tigress whose seven-year reproductive record illustrates how a single animal can anchor population recovery when conditions are right. Slaght explains how the Siberian Tiger Project broke new ground by tracking individual tigers across their entire lifespans, yielding insights into reproduction, survival, territory size, and the pressures that most threaten the species .

The conversation traces how 19th-century border treaties between Russia and China fragmented tiger habitat, accelerating hunting and habitat loss—only for those same borders, decades later, to become sites of coordinated protection. Slaght discusses the pivotal role of Soviet-era hunting bans, protected areas, and later rapid-response teams that reduced human-tiger conflict by intervening quickly when tigers approached villages .

He also reflects on the conservation philosophy of “green fire,” inherited from Aldo Leopold and championed by early project leaders, which treats top predators as essential to ecosystem health rather than threats to be eliminated.

Finally, Slaght looks ahead, emphasizing that government commitment and international collaboration—including newly coordinated Russian-Chinese protected areas—are essential to sustaining the Amur tiger’s recovery in a time of climate change and geopolitical strain .

Read An Excerpt

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

This week on Writer’s Voice, we look at two stories from history that illuminate the choices people face as they confront evil: collaborate or resist?

First, independent scholar Charles Dick joins us to discuss Unknown Enemy: The Hidden Nazi Force That Built the Third Reich — the first full account of Organisation Todt, the massive construction arm of the Nazi regime that operated across Europe with lethal brutality. His book reveals how ordinary engineers and builders became central participants in enslavement and murder — and how much of this history remained hidden for decades.

“If you’re told… your prisoners are subhuman, you’re more likely to work them to death.” — Charles Dick

Then, in Segment Two, biographer Carla Kaplan returns to Writer’s Voice to talk about Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford. Kaplan brings to life the incomparable “Decca” Mitford — aristocrat, Communist, civil-rights activist and bestselling muckraker.

“If she believed in something, she was unbending — and always willing to pay the price of her convictions.”  — Carla Kaplan

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

Key Words: Unknown Enemy Charles Dick, Fritz Todt, Holocaust studies, Jessica Mitford biography, Troublemaker Carla Kaplan, The American Way of Death, muckraking journalism, civil rights history, Freedom Rides, Mitford sisters,Francesca Rheannon interview,

You Might Also Like: Carla Kaplan, MISS ANNE IN HARLEM, Andrew Nagorski, THE NAZI HUNTERS

Read the transcript

SEGMENT ONE — Charles Dick on Unknown Enemy

Historian Charles Dick exposes the full scope of Organisation Todt (OT) — the Nazi regime’s massive, understudied construction force. OT built the Autobahn, the massive North Atlantic coastal fortifications and Hitler’s underground weapons factories; oversaw millions of enslaved laborers; and carried out brutal operations across occupied Europe.

Despite its central role, OT escaped the scrutiny that fell on the SS and Wehrmacht — leaving its crimes obscured until now.

Dick explains how:

• Engineers, builders, and architects became perpetrators.
• Death rates in OT camps often equaled or exceeded those under the SS.
• The organization expanded across Europe into a continent-wide system of forced labor.
• OT leadership — including Fritz Todt and Albert Speer — held immense power and largely avoided justice.

He shares harrowing survivor accounts revealed in the book — from Ukraine, Alderney, Estonia, Stutthof, and the Kaufering/Dachau subcamps — stories long buried in archives.

SEGMENT TWO — Carla Kaplan on Troublemaker

Biographer Carla Kaplan returns to discuss Jessica Mitford — aristocrat-turned-revolutionary, Communist organizer, civil-rights witness, and author of the groundbreaking exposé The American Way of Death.

Kaplan traces Mitford’s transformation from an eccentric, cloistered, aristocratic childhood among the infamous Mitford sisters — including Nazi sympathizers Diana and Unity — to her self-invented life as a radical activist and bestselling writer in the U.S.

Kaplan shares:

• Mitford’s early sense of injustice.
• Her refusal to compromise with editors over The American Way of Death.
• Her experiences during the Freedom Rides — including witnessing John Lewis’s beating.
• Why she and her husband joined and later left the Communist Party.
• Her complicated relationship to feminism.
• Her deep belief in political loyalty, humor, and collective action.

Read An Excerpt

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

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with Susana M. Morris, acclaimed scholar of Black feminist thought, about her new biography Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler.

Drawing on interviews, archival materials, and Butler’s own journals, Morris shows how Butler’s discipline, political analysis, and upbringing shaped some of the most influential speculative fiction of our time.

“Now there is such a plethora of Black folk… writing science fiction and fantasy. It’s really exciting. And we have Octavia to thank for it.”  — Susana Morris

The conversation covers Butler’s formative years; her neurodivergence and self-diagnosed dyslexia; her relationship with her mother; the creation of Kindred; and her prophetic insights into climate collapse, fascism, hierarchy, and the contradictions of American democracy.

Then, we air a clip from our 2012 interview with the late, great science fiction master, Ursula K. Le Guin.

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

Key Words: Octavia Butler biography, Octavia Butler interview, Positive Obsession Susana Morris, Parable of the Sower prophecy, Black women writers, Afrofuturism, science fiction history, Black feminist literature, Francesca Rheannon interview,

You Might Also Like: Ursula K. Le Guin, THE UNREAL AND THE REAL, Cory Doctorow, THE LOST CAUSE.

Read the Transcript

Main Segment: Susana Morris

Main Segment — Susana M. Morris on Positive Obsession

Morris reveals how Octavia Butler’s childhood experiences—especially witnessing the humiliating treatment of her mother, a domestic worker—shaped her lifelong political and creative vision.

She explains Butler’s “positive obsession,” the relentless work ethic that drove her writing; her rigorous research process; her early awareness of environmental crisis; and her pattern recognition around racism, patriarchy, and authoritarianism.

Morris also situates Butler within the Black women’s literary renaissance alongside Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara, and others, while emphasizing Butler’s singular contributions to speculative fiction and Afrofuturism.

Key Topics

• Butler’s “positive obsession” and writing discipline
• Neurodivergence and self-diagnosed dyslexia
• Racism, patriarchy, and the politics embedded in Butler’s fiction
• The making of Kindred
• Butler’s prescient insights into climate crisis and authoritarianism
• Black women’s literary renaissance
• Afrofuturism, legacy, and influence on contemporary writers
• Speculative fiction as social and political critique
• Butler’s research methodology and fieldwork
• The human contradiction: intelligence vs. hierarchy

Read an Excerpt from Positive Obsession

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

In this, our 1,000th episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon interviews Julian Brave Noisecat about We Survived the Night, his memoir weaving Indigenous oral traditions, personal narrative, political history, and  environmental insight.

Noisecat explores Coyote stories, the legacy of residential schools, intergenerational trauma, mixed-race identity, the meaning of home, Indigenous political traditions, and the contemporary struggle for land, water, and cultural continuity.

“The text itself is a woven narrative that combines different elements of nonfiction to put these different kinds of truths and storytelling in conversation with each other.”

Through humor, grief, myth, and investigative rigor, Noisecat reframes Indigenous storytelling as nonfiction — a mode of truth that Western traditions have long dismissed. This conversation highlights the power of indigenous stories to resist erasure, illuminate political histories, and recover cultural knowledge.

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

Key Words: Julian Brave Noisecat interview, We Survived the Night, Indigenous memoir, Coyote stories, residential schools history, Native American literature, intergenerational trauma, Indigenous resurgence, Salish culture, environmental justice Indigenous communities, land dispossession history,

You Might Also Like: Rebecca Nagle, BY THE FIRE WE CARRY, Tyson Yunkaporta, SAND TALK

Read the Transcript

[top image: carving by Ed Archie Noisecat]

SEGMENT SUMMARY

Francesca speaks with Julian Brave Noisecat about his memoir/history We Survived the Night, structured around a four-day fasting tradition and infused with the oral-literary lineage of Coyote stories. Noisecat discusses his father’s birth at a residential school, the silence around Indigenous trauma, his family’s weaving traditions, and how Coyote mythology offers a language for understanding survival, contradiction, and the men in his family.

He describes the interconnection between land and people in Salish languages; the role of urban Native communities in activism; the Indigenous resurgence of the late 20th century; traditional ecological knowledge; and political tensions over fisheries, pipelines, and Arctic development. He also reflects on the personal: alcoholism, relationships, mixed-race identity, and the role of his mother in keeping him connected to his community.

KEY TOPICS

• Indigenous oral traditions as nonfiction
• Coyote as ancestral, literary, and allegorical figure
• Residential schools, unmarked graves, cultural genocide
• Intergenerational trauma and family silence
• Mixed-race identity and kinship
• The meaning of home for Native people
• Indigenous political history and contemporary power
• Environmental stewardship and fisheries
• Colonization as an ongoing structure
• Survival, continuity, and cultural resurgence

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

Read The Transcript

Segment One: Bruce Holsinger

The alarms being raised about the potentially catastrophic consequences of AI are getting louder — from massive job losses to the extinction of civilization, if not the human race itself. Yet President Trump is considering an executive order that would severely restrict or ban regulation of AI by the states, after a similar attempt by Congressional Republicans was defeated earlier in the year.

Holsinger’s novel Culpability begins with a devastating car crash involving a self-driving vehicle. From that ordinary tragedy emerges a meditation on moral agency, responsibility, and family. Holsinger’s narrator, Noah Shaw, centers story around that of his wife Lorelai, a MacArthur-winning philosopher and AI ethicist whose research into “ethical artificial minds” collides with her own family’s pain.

The novel’s title reflects a central question: who is responsible when AI goes awry? As AI systems begin to make decisions once reserved for humans, Holsinger asks whether these systems can truly learn ethics — or only replicate our own flaws and biases.

The story intertwines the philosophical with the intimate, exploring drone warfare, chatbots as companions, and the alien moral landscape of machine learning. Ultimately, Holsinger insists that moral responsibility around the use of AI lies with us, no matter how powerful artificial intelligence becomes. 

We last spoke with Bruce Holzinger in 2022 about his climate change themed novel, The Displacements. His new novel spurs the reader to consider the ethical and emotional consequences of the use of AI by the deeply flawed human beings who shape it. 

Topics

AI ethics • Family and responsibility • The trolley problem • Moral philosophy in fiction • Drone warfare and automation • Chatbots and loneliness • Parenthood and fear • The black box of AI • Alignment problem • Culpability and human agency

Segment Two: Elizabeth George

In A Slowly Dying Cause, Elizabeth George brings Inspector Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers back in a story that begins far from London — in the rugged landscapes of Cornwall. The novel intertwines a murder investigation with a study of the consequences of obsessive love and unresolved grief.

As George explains, the title refers to a line from King Lear and reflects the struggle to let go of grief’s “cause.” The book’s dual narrative follows Michael, a tin miner whose secrets surface after his death, and Lynley and Havers, whose loyalty and differences continue to define one of the most beloved partnerships in crime fiction.

George also shares her meticulous creative process: building layered characters, tracking storylines with color-coded notes, and revising through multiple drafts until the intricate web of clues and emotions fully coheres.

Topics

Inspector Lynley series • Class and gender in crime fiction • Grief and redemption • Setting as character • Character-driven mysteries • Writing process and structure • Humor in dark fiction • Environmental themes (Cornish mining and lithium extraction)

Read A Sample

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

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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

Read The Transcript

Segment One: Adam Nicholson

Adam Nicolson’s Bird School began with a dead raven on a Cretan roadside—and a realization that he’d been “blind and deaf” to the birds that lived around him. Determined to learn, he built an octagonal hide on his farm, complete with nest boxes in its walls, and spent two years quietly sharing space with birds, bats, and dormice.

Through that experience, Nicolson came to see birds not as objects of study but as fellow beings whose lives mirror our own in complexity, deceit, love, and song. He challenges the cultural notion that humans are separate from nature, proposing instead what he calls “fuzziness”—a recognition of the continuous flow between ourselves and the living world.

The conversation ranges from the intelligence of birdsong and the ethics of bird feeding to the return of ravens after a century’s absence, signaling the restoration of ecological wholeness.

Topics

Bird observation • Human–nature connection • Philosophy of nature • Birdsong and intelligence • Cultural ecology • Fuzziness and “the severing” • Intermediate disturbance hypothesis • Repair vs. rewilding • Language and perception • Ethical bird feeding

Segment Two: Isabella Tree

In this archival segment, Wilding author Isabella Tree describes how she and her husband transformed their intensively farmed estate at Knepp Estate into a thriving ecosystem by letting natural processes take over. Using free-roaming herbivores to mimic the ecological roles of extinct megafauna, they discovered how “scrub”—once dismissed as wasteland—is a keystone habitat supporting birds, insects, and mammals.

Tree reflects on how cultural aesthetics of control blinded us to true ecological beauty, and how witnessing the return of nightingales and other wildlife changed even her skeptical neighbors’ minds.

Topics

Rewilding • Ecological restoration • Biodiversity • Thorny scrub habitats • Changing aesthetics of nature • Farmland transformation • Wildlife revival