This month's GRETAGRAM book club selection is Exit Party, 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 come.

In this spoiler-free interview, host Greta Johnsen talks with Emily about her inspiration for the novel, her writing process, and how she keeps track of all the interconnected characters from her books.

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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 diversity in Hollywood, and that has been really nice,” Inkoo said. “But a lot of it has been really sanitized. So reading something where the motivations seem really human and the author seems so wonderfully unconcerned with how likeable the characters are was incredibly refreshing to me.”

Greta and Inkoo talk about the book as a coming of age story, the themes of surveillance and identity, and, yes, that ending.

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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 llong shadow of her mom Moon, an aging former TV star. Their lives are deeply intertwined with Adam, who played Moon’s stepson in the TV show they were both in. When we meet this trio, they've just learned that Mac, who plated the TV dad, has died by suicide, and each of them reckons with his death in very different ways.

In this spoiler-free interview, host Greta Johnsen talks with Mary about the origins of the novel, the obvious metaphor of living in a glass house, and what it's like to write a novel for "grown ups."

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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.

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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 gentle, incremental approach. Even 15 minutes of down time once or twice a day can make a big difference for your brain and body. 

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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 Haynes, the author of The Fullness of Time: Marking the Day by Birdsong, Blooms, Shadows, and Stars.

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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 this book almost six years ago with no intention of publishing it. I had it in my head that a book that made all the pleasure centers of my brain fire at once just couldn’t be a serious project. But when I told two of my friends about it, they pointed out that there was no reason that should be the case. The world is too dark, and life is too short, to spend it resisting things that bring you joy. So why not write a big, romantic, indulgent, genre-straddling story?” 

This conversation perfectly embodies many of the questions that define the 87 percent club -- What if work was also fun? What if I could stop caring about what other people think? How can I turn down those critical voices in my head?

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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

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Tile art: Mac Maclean

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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 quiz based on her rigorous examination of every possible photo of confirmed attendees? YES. Yes she did.) 

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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 all, it presents a pretty grim future for our current way of life. But Sarah also points out that many of the systems that are currently collapsing have been oppressing us from the beginning. And to that end, this book is an invitation to consider what to prioritize as humanity moves forward.

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Tile art: Mac Maclean

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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 aired for 50 episodes, and won 5 Daytime Emmys. 

There’s a new documentary out about the show -- it’s called What’s the Story, Wishbone?. Host Greta Johnsen talks to two of the documentary’s producers, who also worked on the original show --  Betty Buckley, who also produced Wishbone, and Larry Brantley, who played the voice of Wishbone himself.

As the documentary explores, the show wasn’t easy to make. The adaptations were ambitious, the production schedule was intense, and nothing like it had really been made before. But at the same time, there’s a tangible sense of curiosity and joy. 

And of course, a charming dog in pantaloons is always a delight. 

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Tile art: Mac Maclean

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