INTERVIEW WITH ELECTRIC LITERATURE

I’ve been interviewed by Electric Literature, which has some really nice things to say about the podcast. Many thanks to Julia Jackson, editor of the Electric Dish.

Here’s the intro to the interview:

A few weeks ago, I first listened to a new literary podcast: Other People with Brad Listi, which I found through Melissa Febos‘ Facebook profile. She was interviewed on it, as well as other people that I admire and am interested in: Victoria Patterson, Megan Boyle, Steve Almond, Emma Straub, and more. While I expected the podcast to be interesting I was blown away, finding it downright enjoyable — and now I’m hooked. In a world full of distractions — where almost everything I encounter is practically begging me not to write — Brad Listi’s podcast has made me hit the pause button on my iTunes, blow off social obligations, and sit my ass down in a chair and write. The show is funny, insightful, entertaining, affirming, and, more than anything — inspiring. It easily one of the best podcasts on the web. Because I am now such a fan I wanted to ask Brad a few questions, and he kindly obliged.

To read the rest, just click right here.  

EPISODE 19 — ELISSA SCHAPPELL

The guest is Elissa Schappell, author of the story collections Use Me (William Morrow), which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the brand new Blueprints for Building Better Girls, available now from Simon & Schuster.

A former senior editor at The Paris Review, Elissa is a contributing editor and the Hot Type book columnist at Vanity Fair. She is also the co-founder and editor-at-large of Tin House magazine.

Topics of conversation include: feathers, taxidermy, pigeons, Mike Tyson, Tin House, face tattoos, Delaware, Joe Biden, social identity, elegant segues, the Lower East Side, talking in circles, chameleons, empathy, social graces, George Plimpton, The Paris Review, New York City, temporal lobe epilepsy, Berlin, Portugal, Spy magazine, Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, and the abundance of good writers in the world.

If you haven’t subscribed to the show over at iTunes, please do. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too. 

Okay then.

Thanks, as always, for tuning in and listening.

Enjoy…

-BL

EPISODE 18 — KATIE ARNOLDI

Today’s guest: Katie Arnoldi, the bestselling author of three novels: Chemical Pink, The Wentworths, and Point Dume.

This one’s gonna blow your mind, people. Just trust me. It’ll make you want to buy a plane ticket. It’ll make you want to stow away on a boat. It’ll make you want to go undercover and rescue a POW in a war-torn Third World country.

Topics of conversation include: marijuana, Mexican drug cartels, surfing, surf Nazis, art, discipline, lighting one’s hair on fire while making a quesadilla, southeast Utah, road trips, books on tape, experiential learning, Blackhawk helicopters, wanderlust, field research, sharks, kids, Tasers, camping, the Venice Biennale, the artist Paul McCarthy, and getting out of one’s own way creatively.

Please subscribe to the show over at iTunes, if you haven’t done so already. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too.

Many thanks & enjoy…

-BL

EPISODE 17 — JOSHUA MOHR

Joshua Mohr is the guest. He’s the author of three novels: Some Things That Meant the World to Me, Termite Parade, and, most recently, Damascus. All are available from Two Dollar Radio, one of America’s finest independent presses.

“The bard of the underbelly,” says Jonathan Evison.

A rave for Damascus from The Rumpus: “It’s as if [Mohr] is standing over your shoulder lighting each page with a match as you read.”

A very good talk with a rising star writer. We discuss things.

Topics of conversation include: teaching, San Francisco, the benefits of insomnia, Hubert Selby Jr., coffee, punk rock, gentrification, creatively permissive cities, Arizona, Kurt Vonnegut, kids, monkishness, priorities, readerships, addiction, The Big Lebowski, fairy tales, reality television, and poets who live in their cars.

If you haven’t subscribed to the show over at iTunes, please do. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too. 

Many thanks. Enjoy the show….

-BL

EPISODE 15 — JILLIAN LAUREN

The guest is Jillian Lauren, author of the memoir Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, a New York Times bestseller, and the brand new novel Pretty, both available from Plume Books.

Kirkus calls her a “deft storyteller,” and Antoine Wilson, author of The Interloper, calls Pretty “a harrowing journey from darkness to light to real life.”

Topics of conversation include: youth, addiction, fearlessness, the difference between dull experience and dull writing, sex work, billionaire psychology, New Jersey, Vietnam, the Prince of Brunei, rehab, therapy, parenthood, beauty college, the Big Apple, LA, transcendental meditation, Weezer, discipline, sobriety, compulsive documentation, Instagram, the vibration of a publicity cycle, bowling, versatility, and acting.

If you haven’t subscribed to the show over at iTunes, please do so. It’s free.

Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too.

Many thanks for listening. Enjoy.

-BL  

EPISODE 14 — SHANN RAY

The guest is Shann Ray, author of the critically acclaimed story collection American Masculine, now available from Graywolf Press.

A very impressive guy. A college basketball star. A doctorate in psychology. A professor of leadership studies (with an emphasis on forgiveness). And now, the author of a story collection that won the 2010 Bakeless Prize for Fiction.

“Shann Ray’s prose brings to mind Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx but is, thankfully, entirely his own,” says Dave Eggers. “His work is lyrical, prophetic, brutal yet ultimately hopeful.”

Topics of conversation include: Spokane, the medical-industrial complex, Montana, hunting, hunting knives, field-dressing an antelope, taxidermy, the Finca Vigía, mountain lions, crossbows, dogs, basketball, Jack Kerouac, John Edgar Wideman, Pepperdine, Hank Gathers, leadership, Rwanda, forgiveness, John Wooden, Bobby Knight, discipline, vertical leap, cowboys, horses, spirituality, addiction and recovery, family, and what it was like to go to high school on an Indian reservation.

If you haven’t subscribed to the show over at iTunes, please do so. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too.

Many thanks for listening.

Enjoy.

-BL

EPISODE 13 — MEGAN BOYLE

Megan Boyle is the guest. She’s the author of selected unpublished blog posts of a mexican panda express employee, an unorthodox debut poetry collection from Muumuu House.

At the time of this interview, she had been up for 36 hours and was staying at her dad’s place in Baltimore.

Topics of conversation include: Baltimore, Applebee’s, Tao Lin, Las Vegas, Beanie Babies, Brooklyn, Chicago, green juice, juicing, meditative activities, seclusion, Orion’s belt, aliens, acting, awkwardness, relationships, shyness, Internet literature, MDMA, MDMA films, LSD, Bebe Zeva, Jordan Castro, Noah Cicero, Twitter, blogging, iMovie, Brandon Gorrell, Carles, AOL chat rooms, documentary film, birds, social anxiety, adderall, sleeplessness, and accidental books.

You can push PLAY below. You can subscribe for free at iTunes. Or you can subscribe for free at Stitcher.

Many thanks for listening.

-BL

EPISODE 11 — ADAM LEVIN

Adam Levin is the guest.

He’s the author of The Instructions, a 1,030-page novel published by McSweeney’s in late 2010 to great critical acclaim.

“Evocative of David Foster Wallace,” writes Rolling Stone, “full of death-defying sentences, manic wit, exciting provocations and simple human warmth.”

Topics of conversation include: page counts, cigarettes, discipline, work schedules, exotic fowl, McSweeney’s, readings, paranoia over readings, Facebook, Dave Eggers, Flannery O’Connor, the sound of writing, whispering birds, psychotic muttering, sentient beings, day jobs, teaching, Chicago, metalheads, punk rockers, George Saunders, bad posture, back pain, Hemingway, Nabokov, caffeine, hemorrhoids, Mary Gaitskill, fear of doctors, pedophiles, thyroglossal duct cysts, and more.

You can listen at otherpeoplepod.com. You can subscribe for free at iTunes. Or you can subscribe for free at Stitcher.

Thanks for listening.

-BL

PS. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Email me at letters [at] otherpeoplepod [dot] com.

MCSWEENEY’S RECOMMENDS ‘OTHER PEOPLE’

Good news! The editors at McSweeney’s have included Other People in the latest edition of their ‘McSweeney’s Recommends’ column. Some very kind words about the show:

My thanks to the folks at McSweeney’s!

And: humbling to have the show compared to WTF. Marc Maron is brilliant. If you’re not listening to him, something’s wrong with you.

-BL