- 1 hour 14 minutesREPLAY: Chantal V. Johnson on Trauma, Adulthood, and Contemporary Survival
Today on the program, a trip into the archive and a return to Episode 780, my conversation with Chantal V. Johnson, author of the debut novel Post-Traumatic (Little, Brown).
Air date: July 6, 2022.
Chantal V. Johnson is an attorney and writer whose fiction explores gender, personality, friendship, and all forms of art, but particularly music. Her debut novel, Post-Traumatic, was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and selected as a New York Public Library book club pick. She has received fellowships and support from The Center for Fiction, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Chantal graduated from Stanford Law School and worked as a tenant lawyer for several years.
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21 June 2026, 8:08 am - 20 minutes 57 secondsExcerpt from 'The Scoop,' by Erin Van Der Meer
Vol. 12 of Story Time, featuring an author reading aloud from her work. In this episode, Erin Van Der Meer reads aloud from her debut novel, The Scoop.
Erin Van Der Meer is a writer and former journalist whose work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and Elle. She was a Spruceton Inn Artist Resident in 2024. Born in Sydney, Australia, she now lives in Brooklyn. The Scoop is her debut.
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 June 2026, 8:08 am - 1 hour 25 minutesThe Golden Sacrifice
Volume 94 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Mira experiences multiple traumas in a single week...Disclosure Day nightmare...a rat in her kitchen...witnesses attempted human trafficking...talks to live human cops...buys Brad a Jerry Garcia tie-dye....Brad attends the World Cup...gets kinda drunk...Geoff from Tennessee weighs in...Angry Adam at his most authentically hostile and aggrieved...Spencer Pratt "graciously concedes"...acts like an insane drama queen on adderall...deranged tirade...calls Nithya and Karen "commie animals"....Elon Musk, low-key trillionaire man of the people...Knicks win the title...the bandwagon is packed...Timmy-Tim in the locker room...Mira, child of Venice Beach, claims fandom...the magical Mamdani Effect...& more...
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18 June 2026, 8:08 am - 1 hour 8 minutes1040. Ben Fountain
Ben Fountain is the author of the novel Rasputin Swims the Potomac, available from Flatiron Books. It is the official June pick of the Otherppl Book Club.
Fountain’s work has received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction, and a Whiting Writers Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He lives in North Carolina.
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
16 June 2026, 8:08 am - 2 hours 1 minuteREPLAY: Lili Anolik on Eve Babitz and the Secret History of LA
Today on the program, a trip into the archive and a return to Episode 763, my conversation with Lili Anolik, Vanity Fair contributing editor and the author of Hollywood's Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of LA (Scribner).
Air date: March 16, 2022.
Lili Anolik is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a writer at large for Air Mail. She is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller Hollywood’s Eve and Didion and Babitz. Her last podcast, Once Upon a Time…at Bennington College, was produced by Cadence13. In 2024, she was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for profile writing. She lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
14 June 2026, 8:08 am - 1 hour 30 minutesBrad vs. The Volcano
Volume 93 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...the podcast is huge in Vietnam...Mira's male antagonists go low, Mira goes lower...evaluating the Twitter fallout of her Twitter clash with musician Ariel Pink...Mira lobbies Brad to help her get into the Toy Story 5 premiere....Brad triumphs on Acatenango in Guatemala....completes a round-trip ascent and descent in less than 6 hours...serves as the guide, translator, and consigliere for his 80-year-old parents...Nithya Raman heads to the run-off...Spencer Pratt dies slowly, like a rat in a sewer...Trump gets booed at MSG...Gwyneth comes out as a 'centrist'...Brad and Mira formally and respectfully ask MacKenzie Bezos to fund their literary media venture...& more...
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
11 June 2026, 8:08 am - 1 hour 7 minutes1039. Anne Enright
Anne Enright is the author of Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World, available from W. W. Norton & Co.
Enright is the author of eight novels, most recently The Wren, the Wren. She has been awarded the Man Booker Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. In 2022, Enright was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. She lives and works in Dublin.
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 June 2026, 8:08 am - 1 hour 12 minutesREPLAY: Rex Pickett on 'Sideways,' Hollywood, and Adventures in Wine Country
Today on the program, a trip into the archive and a return to Episode 33, my conversation with Rex Pickett, author of the novel Sideways, which was adapted for the screen to great acclaim by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. (Payne and Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.)
Air date: January 7, 2012.
Pickett is the critically acclaimed author of the novel Sideways, which was adapted into the iconic film of the same title. Sideways was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning for Best Adapted Screenplay, among 350 other plaudits. Pickett is the author of three Sideways sequels--the IPPY Gold Medal-winning Sideways Oregon (previously published as Vertical), Sideways Chile, and now Sideways New Zealand. He is also the author of The Archivist. Pickett is currently working on a post-Sideways New Zealand trilogy. A Southern California native, the Rex Pickett Papers are currently enshrined at Geisel Library on the campus of his alma mater, the University of California San Diego.
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Instagram
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
7 June 2026, 8:08 am - 1 hour 7 minutes1038. Tracy Lynne Oliver
Tracy Lynne Oliver is the author of the debut novel Magician, available from Roxane Gay Books.
Oliver is a writer based in Los Angeles. She has been published online at a variety of places such as Medium, Fanzine, and Occulum. She co-authored the graphic novel, The Sacrifice of Darkness, with Roxane Gay. Her story, "This Weekend" included in Best Microfiction 2019.
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
6 June 2026, 8:08 am - 1 hour 33 minutesNobody Puts Mira in a Corner
Volume 92 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Mira is on muscle relaxers again...and 150mg of THC...watched Dirty Dancing for the first time...experiences a sexual awakening...Brad contemplates Guatemala on the eve of his departure...has learned that you can't flush toilet paper there...Mira wins the Travis and Taylor bet...a discussion of the Travis and Taylor wedding invite drama...Dua Lipa marries Callum Turner...Trump passes his physical with flying colors...a picture of robust good health...the America 250 Concert fiasco...does Erika Kirk have a new boyfriend?...Sydney Sweeney announces a new career move...& more...
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Merch
TikTok
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
4 June 2026, 8:08 am - 1 hour 5 minutes1037. Luke Goebel
Luke Goebel is the author of the novel Kill Dick, available from Red Hen Press.
Goebel is also the author of the debut novel, Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours. And he co-wrote the screenplays for the films Eileen and Causeway. He is known as well for his role as co-editor at The New York Tyrant and work with Tyrant Books. He lives in Los Angeles.
***
Today's episode is brought to you by Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit www.rula.com/otherppl to get started.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Get How to Write a Novel, the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors.
Subscribe to Brad's email newsletter.
Merch
TikTok
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2 June 2026, 8:08 am - More Episodes? Get the App