This week’s Writer’s Voice features two new books that take us into very different realms of hidden history.

First, Julia Cooke joins Francesca to talk about Starry and Restless, her vivid group portrait of Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Emily Hahn, three adventurous women writers who expanded what journalism could be, often while battling the constraints placed on women in their time.

“Women were central to voice-driven narrative journalism for at least the last century and a half.”

Then, we move from literary history to natural history, as nature journalist Sophie Pavelle takes us into a very different realm with her book To Have or To Hold. It’s a fascinating exploration of symbiosis, parasitism, and the intricate relationships that sustain the living world.

“The natural world is structured and founded upon these really intricate, complicated, ancient relationships.”

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Tags: Julia Cooke, Starry and Restless, Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, Emily Hahn, women journalists, Sophie Pavelle, To Have or To Hold, symbiosis, ecology, biodiversity, Writer’s Voice podcast,

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Segment One: Julia Cooke, Starry & Restless

Julia Cooke’s Starry and Restless brings three remarkable women journalists back into focus: Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Emily Hahn.

These writers refused to stay within the limits set for women in the early twentieth century. They traveled widely, reported from conflict zones, and wrote with a voice and authority that helped shape what we now call literary journalism. Yet despite their influence and fame in their own time, their contributions were later minimized or left out of the canon.

In our conversation, Cooke makes a strong case that women were not peripheral but central to the development of narrative, voice-driven reporting. She points to the sheer scale of women’s contributions, from immersive reporting to stylistic innovation, and shows how constraints, like being barred from the front lines of war, actually pushed women journalists to tell different kinds of stories. They focused on civilian life, domestic spaces, and the human consequences of conflict, expanding what counted as news.

We also talk about how these writers challenged the idea of objectivity. By inserting themselves into their reporting and questioning authority, they offered a broader, more inclusive view of the world. Cooke highlights how they paid attention to people often overlooked, women, children, and working-class lives, and in doing so widened journalism’s field of vision.

The interview also explores the tension between creative work and domestic life, a thread that runs through the book and still resonates today. Cooke reflects on the ways motherhood, partnership, and economic necessity shaped these women’s careers, and how their “restlessness” was both a personal drive and a form of resistance.

Segment Two: Sophie Pavelle, To Have Or To Hold

In To Have or To Hold, science journalist Sophie Pavelle takes us into the intricate and often surprising world of symbiosis, the relationships between living things that make life possible.

From parasites to pollinators, from microbes in our bodies to complex marine ecosystems, Pavelle shows that life on Earth is not built on isolation, but on constant interaction, dependence, and exchange.

In our conversation, Pavelle explains that symbiosis is far more complex than the simple idea of mutual benefit. These relationships can be cooperative, exploitative, or somewhere in between, and they are always shifting. She shares vivid examples, like the “mint sauce worm,” a tiny creature that hosts algae inside its body and lives partly like a plant, and parasites that move through multiple hosts, shaping entire ecosystems in the process.

We also talk about how deeply embedded humans are in these systems. Our own bodies are ecosystems, dependent on microbes for health and survival, and our relationship with the natural world is itself symbiotic. Pavelle challenges the idea that humans stand apart from nature, arguing instead that our survival depends on recognizing and respecting these connections.

The interview also turns to what’s at risk. Climate change, habitat loss, and even light pollution are disrupting these delicate relationships. But Pavelle also offers a hopeful perspective. By paying attention to how nature operates, taking only what we need, allowing complexity and balance, we might begin to repair some of the damage and build a more sustainable relationship with the living world.

What if the energy transition is arriving faster than anyone imagined? And what if paying attention to the smallest things can change how we live?

This Earth Day, Writer’s Voice revisits our interview with Bill McKibben about Here Comes the Sun, a bracing and hopeful argument that cheap, abundant solar power could reshape geopolitics, weaken authoritarianism, and help us meet the climate emergency. 

“About five years ago, we crossed some invisible line where it became cheaper to generate power from the sun and the wind than from burning coal and gas and oil.” 

Then, Anne Fadiman turns our attention from planetary systems to intimate acts of noticing. In her acclaimed essay collection Frog, she finds wonder and moral inquiry in a neglected pet frog, the burden of literary inheritance, pronouns, grammar, and other seemingly modest subjects that open into large human questions — along with a good dose of humor.

“I’m interested in writing about things that other people haven’t noticed.” 

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You Might Also Like: Bill McKibben, Here Comes The Sun (full interview), Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows

Tags: Bill McKibben, Anne Fadiman, Here Comes the Sun, Frog essays, solar power, climate solutions, renewable energy, they/them pronounce, literary essays, Writer’s Voice podcast, climate politics, energy transition, literature podcast, interviews with writers, book author interviews, author interviews,

Segment One: Bill McKibben, HERE COMES THE SUN

Bill McKibben can finally see a path forward, and it’s lit by the sun.

Last November, I sat down with Bill McKibben to talk about his new book, Here Comes the Sun, and what he told me then feels even more urgent right now. With global oil supplies disrupted by the Iran conflict, the case for solar has never been stronger.

And even though Donald Trump has dismantled federal incentives for renewable energy, states are stepping up, communities are moving fast, and the economics of solar have already crossed a point of no return.

McKibben explains that for the first time in the history of the climate fight, the technology to fix the problem is also the cheapest option on the market. Solar and wind have crossed the threshold where they cost less than fossil fuels, and the world is producing a third more energy from the sun this year than last. 

We talk about Pakistan’s solar revolution driven by ordinary people with YouTube tutorials, California running on 100% renewables for stretches of the day, and why McKibben thinks the barriers to change are no longer technical or financial. They’re political and bureaucratic. And he’s working to fix that, too.

Segment Two: Anne Fadiman, FROG

Anne Fadiman can turn a household frog into a meditation on love, guilt, and what we owe the creatures we barely notice.

Anne Fadiman’s new essay collection, Frog, is exactly the kind of book I love most: deeply intelligent, full of wit, and somehow able to make you care passionately about things you never knew you cared about.

The title essay follows Bunkie, her family’s African Clawed Frog,  a creature she now realizes she didn’t appreciate nearly enough while he was alive.

But don’t let the humble subject fool you. This book is a collection of essays that move from a pet frog, to the grammar wars over the singular ‘they’, to what it means to be the literary child of a famous literary parent, and to the poetic beauty of lists.

Sam Anderson of the New York Times Magazine, who wrote the foreword, says Fadiman has a gift for finding the universe hidden inside the ordinary. I think that’s exactly right. And I think you’re going to love this conversation. 

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with Andy Lee Roth of Project Censored about the State of the Free Press 2026, marking 50 years of tracking underreported stories.

“Censorship by proxy… corporate entities… are in effect doing the dirty work of the government.” 

Then, Michael Ellsberg discusses Truth and Consequence, a powerful collection of writings by his father, whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, exploring moral responsibility, war, and resistance.

“What do you do as an official when you realize that the policy that you are enacting is crazy or immoral or evil?”

Together, these conversations examine the forces shaping what we know—and what we don’t—and the landscape of moral choice in confronting injustice.

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Tags: free press 2026, media censorship, Project Censored, independent journalism, ICE surveillance, Meta censorship, climate crisis news coverage, Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers, media consolidation, Writer’s Voice podcast, literature podcast, interviews with writers, book author interviews, interviews with authors,

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You Might Also Like: Daniel Ellsberg, THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE, Andy Lee Roth, STATE OF THE FREE PRESS 2024

Segment One: Andy Lee Roth — Project Censored, State of the Free Press 2026

Fifty years after its founding, Project Censored continues to document the most important underreported stories in U.S. media. Andy Lee Roth discusses how media consolidation, “censorship by proxy,” and algorithmic control are reshaping the information landscape.

He highlights key censored stories, including ICE surveillance of critics, Meta’s mass takedown of pro-Palestinian content, underreported police violence, and the climate crisis.

Roth also warns of growing threats to press freedom and emphasizes the vital role of independent journalism.

 Read A Sample

Segment Two: Michael Ellsberg — Truth and Consequence

Michael Ellsberg discusses Truth and Consequence, a posthumous collection of writings by Daniel Ellsberg, best known for releasing the Pentagon Papers.

The book explores Ellsberg’s central moral question: how ordinary people become complicit in massive harm—and how they can resist.

From nuclear war planning to Vietnam, Ellsberg’s writings challenge readers to confront the ethics of power, obedience, and dissent—and to embrace moral courage in the face of injustice.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, two powerful voices explore the climate crisis from complementary perspectives.

Novelist Ellen Meeropol imagines communities navigating climate disruption in Sometimes an Island.

“The challenge is enormous. How do you dramatize doom?… You have to find a balance between the science and the story… the story can inspire action through empathy with the characters.”  

Then, environmental leader Judith Enck exposes the systemic forces behind plastic pollution—and what we can do about it—in The Problem with Plastic.

“This is a climate change issue. This is an environmental justice issue. This is an ocean issue… mostly, this is a health issue, because none of us should have microplastics in our bodies. But we all do.”  

Together, these conversations reveal both the human stories and structural realities shaping our environmental future.

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Tags: climate fiction, climate change novels, plastic pollution, microplastics health effects, Ellen Meeropol, Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics, literature podcast, interviews with writers, book author interviews, interviews with authors, women authors interviews, 

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Segment One: Ellen Meeropol — Sometimes an Island

What does it take to imagine survival in a world shaped by climate disruption? Ellen Meeropol’s climate novel unfolds as a “mosaic” of interconnected lives shaped by migration, memory, and environmental upheaval.

Set against the backdrop of a worsening climate emergency, the book follows three communities—from an island in Maine to an off-the-grid cooperative—seeking new ways to live sustainably and collectively.

Meeropol explores the parallels between past migrations—like Jewish refugees fleeing pogroms—and present-day climate displacement. At the heart of the novel is a belief in storytelling as a force for empathy and transformation.

In our conversation, Meeropol explores:

Key Themes

• Climate migration and historical memory
• Community resilience and cooperation
• The role of storytelling in shaping action
• Multigenerational activism, especially elder leadership
• Balancing realism and hope in climate fiction

Listen to our other conversations with Ellen Meeropol.

Segment Two: Judith Enck — The Problem with Plastic

Judith Enck argues that the global plastic crisis is not an accident—but a strategic shift by the fossil fuel industry. As demand for fossil fuels declines in energy and transportation, companies have turned to plastics as a new growth market.

Enck breaks down the myths of plastic recycling, the health impacts of plastic pollution, and the policy solutions needed to reduce plastic production and waste. She emphasizes local and state-level action as key leverage points for change.

Judith Enck was the Regional Administrator of Region 2 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Enck is the founder of Beyond Plastics, a national organization that works on  the problem of plastic pollution,

Key Themes:

• Plastic as a fossil fuel “Plan B”
• The myth of widespread plastic recycling
• Health impacts of microplastics and toxic chemicals
• Environmental justice and “Cancer Alley”
• Policy solutions: reduction, reuse, refill, rethink

Learn more about the plastics crisis and solutions.

Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Philip Schultz joins Writer’s Voice to discuss his new collection, Enormous Morning. Writing from the vantage point of his 80th year, Schultz reflects on aging, memory, family, regret—and the possibility of transcendence.

“Age has… given me a kind of love of my life and the lives of others that I always didn’t have.”

In this conversation, Schultz explores how perspective changes over time, how poetry can transform suffering into insight, and why creativity itself can be a source of resilience and even joy. He also reads several poems from the collection, including “Enormous Morning,” “Good News,” and “My Mistakes.”

The conversation moves from the personal to the political, as Schultz reflects on democracy, moral courage, and the ethical questions raised by our current moment.

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Tags: Philip Schultz, Enormous Morning, poetry interview, contemporary poetry, Writer’s Voice podcast, Pulitzer Prize poet, American poets interview.

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Episode Summary: Philip Schultz

Philip Schultz is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Failure and one of America’s most distinctive contemporary poets. His work has long explored the inner life—its doubts, contradictions, and longings—with a rare mix of emotional honesty, philosophical depth, and, often, surprising humor.

Now, in his new collection, Enormous Morning, Schultz writes from a new vantage point: his 80th year. These poems take on aging, memory, family, and mortality—but also something else: renewal. The possibility of gaining a new, more joyous perspective on life

The book opens with a walk through a cemetery—yet what emerges is not just a meditation on death, but a vivid sense of continuity. The past and present coexist. The living and the dead are in conversation. And throughout the collection, Schultz moves from the particulars of daily life—a movie, a memory, a friendship—into larger questions about meaning, suffering, and what it means to live ethically in a troubled world.

We talk about how age changes perception, how poetry can transform regret into something like forgiveness, and how creativity itself can be a form of resilience—even joy.

We also talk about the political dimension of the book—poems that grapple with democracy, moral courage, and the unsettling forces shaping our current moment. For Schultz, poetry is not an escape from reality—it’s a way of entering it more deeply, asking harder questions.

As he puts it, writing a poem can be a way of confronting even the most difficult truths—and finding, if not answers, then a kind of clarity, or even transcendence.

About the Poet

Philip Schultz is the founder and director of the Writers Studio in New York. He is the author of numerous poetry collections, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Failure, as well as The God of Loneliness: Selected and New Poems.

His work often explores personal history, family, and Jewish and immigrant experience, including his father’s struggles, which he addressed with striking honesty in Failure. He lives in East Hampton, New York, with his wife, sculptor Monica Banks.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Julia Cooke discusses Starry and Restless, her group biography of Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Emily “Mickey” Hahn—women journalists whose restless lives and innovative writing helped shape modern literary journalism, even as their contributions were later minimized.

“Women have been central to voice-driven narrative journalism for at least the last century and a half.”

Then, Iida Turpeinen explores extinction, empire, and the ethics of science in her novel Beasts of the Sea, beginning with the tragic story of the Steller’s sea cow and expanding into a meditation on memory, loss, and the human relationship to the natural world.

“They had no idea that species can go extinct.”

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Tags: women journalists, literary journalism history, Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, Emily Hahn, Julia Cooke interview, Beasts of the Sea novel, Iida Turpeinen interview, extinction history, Steller sea cow, women in science history, Writer’s Voice podcast

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Segment One: Julia Cooke – Starry and Restless

Julia Cooke reexamines the legacy of three pioneering women journalists—Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Emily Hahn—arguing that women were not peripheral but central to the development of literary journalism.

Cooke explores how constraints placed on women—barred from war fronts, dismissed as “sob sisters”—actually pushed them to innovate, expanding the scope of reporting to include domestic life, civilian experience, and overlooked voices. Their work challenged conventional ideas of objectivity, incorporating first-person perspective and a broader understanding of who counts as a subject.

The conversation also traces the tension between ambition and domestic life, the role of restlessness as both personal drive and cultural force, and the ways these writers navigated financial, professional, and social barriers.

Read An Excerpt

Segment Two: Iida Turpeinen – Beasts of the Sea

Iida Turpeinen discusses her novel centered on the Steller’s sea cow, a massive Arctic animal driven to extinction within decades of its discovery in the 18th century.

The novel begins with a museum skeleton—an entry point into questions of memory, loss, and scientific history. Turpeinen examines how imperial expansion, scientific inquiry, and extraction were deeply intertwined, and how early naturalists lacked even the concept of extinction.

She also introduces overlooked figures like Hilda Olsson, a 19th-century scientific illustrator whose work—once erased—has been rediscovered. Through her story, the novel contrasts modes of seeing: possession versus attention, extraction versus care.

At its heart, Beasts of the Sea is an elegy—and a call to remember the many species lost without notice.

On this episode of Writer’s Voice, we talk with novelist Justin C. Key about The Hospital at the End of the World, a gripping speculative story that explores the ethical and human stakes of AI in medicine.

“Technology is best when it’s a tool wielded by humans.”

Then, memory champion Nelson Dellis joins us to talk about Everyday Genius—and how ordinary people can train their minds for sharper memory, deeper focus, and far-reaching intuition.

“I never had a good memory growing up. It was something that I was inspired to change and learned all about it and really started to work on it about 15 years ago. And my mind has been different ever since.” 

Two conversations that explore what the human mind can do — and what AI never will.

Read or Listen to A Sample from The Hospital At The End of the World

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Read The Transcript

Tags: AI ethics, AI in medicine, speculative fiction AI, human vs machine intelligence, physician patient relationship, memory techniques, memory palace, cognitive training, intuition, remote viewing, Writer’s Voice podcast, Nelson Dellis, Justin C. Key,

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Segment One: Justin C. Key

What happens when artificial intelligence becomes more than a tool—and starts making decisions for us?

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Justin C. Key’s gripping novel imagines a world where AI controls medicine, exposing the ethical and human stakes of technological dependence.

The Hospital At The End of the World is a speculative novel set in a near-future America where an AI corporation controls not only medicine but society at large. The story follows a young medical student forced to flee New York for a human-centered hospital in New Orleans—the last city resisting AI dominance.

Key explores the tension between machine efficiency and human intuition, the risks of technological dependency, and the political forces shaping how technology is used.

Segment Two: Nelson Dellis

What if the reason you forget things has nothing to do with your memory — and everything to do with how you retrieve information?

Nelson Dellis, six-time USA Memory Champion and author of Everyday Genius, joins Writer’s Voice to explain how ordinary people can develop extraordinary mental skills.

Dellis — who grew up with no exceptional memory — began studying memory techniques 15 years ago and transformed his mind entirely.

In this conversation, he breaks down the ancient method of the memory palace, explains why multitasking is a myth built on dopamine, offers practical tricks for anyone who fears numbers, and describes his unexpected encounter with a classified government program that trained psychics to gather Cold War intelligence.

His book, Everyday Genius, covers memory, focus, number sense, creativity, decision-making, and intuition — making the case that every one of us has an inner genius waiting to be developed.

Check Out Nelson Dellis’ YouTube Channel

This week on Writer’s Voice, two authors explore fascinating episodes from women’s history—stories of bold individuals who challenged the boundaries of power, speech, and social convention.

Journalist Eden Collinsworth discusses The Improbable Mrs. Woodhull, her biography of Victoria Woodhull—an astonishing figure who rose from poverty to become a stockbroker, newspaper publisher, and the first woman to run for President of the United States in 1872.

“I, like you and most Americans, knew nothing of her.”

Then novelist Shelley Noble joins us to talk about The Sisters of Book Row, a historical novel set in 1915 New York during Anthony Comstock’s aggressive crusade against books and information he deemed “obscene.” Noble’s story centers on three sisters running a bookstore in Manhattan’s famous Book Row, where booksellers faced censorship, raids, and the threat of imprisonment.

“My thing as an author is to find those little niches of people who actually make history that we should know about, but we very often don’t know about.”

Together, these conversations illuminate forgotten histories about the power of books and the struggle for women’s rights.

Read or Listen to A Sample from The Improbable Victoria Woodhull

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Read The Transcript on Substack

Tags: Victoria Woodhull, Eden Collinsworth, Shelley Noble, The Improbable Mrs. Woodhull, The Sisters of Book Row, Writer’s Voice podcast, women’s history,

Segment One: Victoria Woodhull: Radical Reformer – Eden Collinsworth

Victoria Woodhull was one of the most remarkable and controversial figures of the nineteenth century. Born into poverty with little formal education, she reinvented herself repeatedly—first as a spiritualist, then as a stockbroker on Wall Street, a newspaper publisher, and eventually the first woman to run for President of the United States.

Journalist Eden Collinsworth first encountered Woodhull’s story in an unlikely place: the archives of the British Museum. There she discovered the transcripts of a lawsuit Woodhull brought against the museum—a discovery that opened the door to a life story filled with audacity, ambition, and reinvention.

In this conversation, Collinsworth explores Woodhull’s complex legacy. Woodhull was a fierce advocate for women’s rights, labor reform, and what she called “free love,” arguing that women should have control over their own bodies and marriages. Her ideas shocked Victorian society and earned her both devoted supporters and bitter enemies.

Woodhull’s run for the presidency in 1872 was largely symbolic—women could not even vote at the time—but it made her a national sensation. Her life intersected with many of the major social movements of her era, from suffrage to spiritualism to the labor movement.

Collinsworth’s biography brings new attention to this extraordinary figure and examines why Woodhull’s story has largely been forgotten despite the boldness of her achievements.

Segment Two: The Sisters of Book Row – Shelley Noble

In her novel The Sisters of Book Row, Shelley Noble recreates a vanished literary world: Manhattan’s famous Book Row, a stretch of Fourth Avenue that once housed dozens of rare and secondhand bookstores.

The story takes place in 1915, when Anthony Comstock’s anti-obscenity crusade cast a long shadow over American publishing. Comstock, a powerful moral reformer and postal inspector, used federal law to seize and destroy books, artworks, and even information about women’s health.

Noble’s novel follows three sisters who inherit their father’s bookstore and struggle to keep the shop alive amid increasing censorship and social pressure. As the sisters navigate their own ambitions and secrets, they become entangled in the broader struggle over knowledge, books, and freedom of expression.

Drawing on the rich history of Book Row and the world of early twentieth-century bookselling, Noble portrays a vibrant community of merchants, collectors, and readers who believed deeply in the cultural importance of books.

The novel also touches on the underground circulation of information about women’s health during the era of the Comstock laws, connecting the story of censorship with the emerging fight for reproductive rights.

Through the lives of ordinary people—booksellers, printers, activists—The Sisters of Book Row shows how cultural change often begins with individuals quietly resisting authority.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with bestselling author Jung Chang about her memoir Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself, and China, the long-awaited sequel to her landmark book Wild Swans.

Chang recounts how her parents — once devoted Communists — became disillusioned by famine, repression, and the violence of the Cultural Revolution. Their refusal to betray their beliefs shaped her own commitment to truth and integrity.

“My mother was made to kneel on broken glass… but she still refused to denounce my father.”  

She also reflects on her extraordinary journey from Mao’s isolated China to becoming one of the first Chinese students to study in Britain, and how that experience transformed her thinking.

“I must only follow the evidence and arrive at conclusions from the evidence gathered.”  

Finally, Chang discusses the resurgence of authoritarianism under Xi Jinping and why she still believes China’s people ultimately desire freedom.

Read A Sample from Fly, Wild Swans

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Read The Transcript on Substack

Tags: Jung Chang interview, Fly Wild Swans, Wild Swans author, Chinese history memoir, China under Xi Jinping, authoritarianism China, Writer’s Voice podcast

Segment: Jung Chang — Fly, Wild Swans

After Jung Chang wrote her first memoir, Wild Swans, she went on to write biographies of Mao Tse Tung and the last Empress of China. 

Now, 25 years after her first book, Chang returns with Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself, and China, continuing the story after she became one of the first Chinese students allowed to leave Communist China and study in the West.

Jung Chang recounts how her parents — once devoted Communists — became disillusioned by famine, repression, and the violence of the Cultural Revolution. She describes how her father’s protest against Mao’s policies led to brutal punishment — and how her mother refused to denounce him despite immense pressure. Their refusal to betray their beliefs shaped her own commitment to truth and integrity.

She also reflects on her extraordinary journey from Mao’s isolated China to becoming one of the first Chinese students to study in Britain, and how that experience transformed her thinking.

Finally, Chang tells us about the resurgence of authoritarianism under Xi Jinping and why she still believes China’s people ultimately want to be free.

In addition to her other books, Jung Chang is the author of Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister.

Key Topics

• Jung Chang’s memoir Fly, Wild Swans

• The legacy of Wild Swans

• Mao’s China and the Cultural Revolution

• Political courage and moral integrity

• The Great Chinese Famine

• Intellectual freedom and scholarship

• China under Xi Jinping

• Resistance to authoritarianism

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with political philosopher Lea Ypi about Indignity: A Life Reimagined, a genre-blending work of memoir, history, and philosophical inquiry that explores dignity under authoritarian regimes.

“I think of [dignity] as a property that is really what makes us human.” — Lea Ypi

Then novelist Eleanor Shearer discusses Fireflies in Winter, a lyrical historical novel following Jamaican Maroons exiled to Nova Scotia after the Second Maroon War. Through the story of Cora, Agnes, and Thursday, Shearer examines freedom, queer love, grief, and the moral tension between survival and solidarity.

“You were only ever a kind of set of stolen papers away… from having your freedom snatched from you.” — Eleanor Shearer

Together, these conversations probe enduring questions:

• What is dignity?
• What does it mean to be free inside systems designed to deny freedom?
• How do we maintain moral agency when our survival is at stake?

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

Read The Transcript on Substack

Tags: Lea Ypi interview, Indignity book, Eleanor Shearer interview, Fireflies in Winter novel, Jamaican Maroons history, historical fiction about slavery, queer historical fiction, Writer’s Voice podcast.

You may also like: Jacob Mikanowski, GOODBYE EASTERN EUROPE, DaMaris Hill, A Bound Woman Is A Dangerous Thing

Segment One: Lea Ypi

A haunting honeymoon photograph of her grandmother — posted online by a stranger and met with accusations and insults — launches Lea Ypi into a philosophical and archival investigation.

Ypi’s grandmother lived through the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, fascism, communism, and neoliberal capitalism. The book asks: What does it cost to defend dignity when systems of power are dedicated to erase it?

Ypi explores:

• Dignity as a universal human capacity for moral agency
• The archive as an instrument of power
• Communist surveillance and modern surveillance capitalism
• Nationalism, fascism, and historical repetition
• The responsibility of art to “rescue dignity”

Read An Excerpt

Segment Two: Eleanor Shearer

Shearer brings to life the little-known history of Jamaican Maroons exiled to Nova Scotia in the 1790s.

Her protagonist Cora has never been enslaved — yet her freedom is deeply precarious. In Nova Scotia, she encounters Agnes, a formerly enslaved woman surviving in the forest, and Thursday, an indentured laborer whose freedom hangs by a thread.

Shearer explores:

• The ambiguity between legal freedom and lived freedom
• Indentureship and stolen contracts
• Queer love as resistance
• The moral collision between survival and solidarity
• Grief as a shaping force

Read or Listen to A Sample

Resistance Is the Story

When we tell the history of slavery, too often we tell it as a story of suffering relieved by benevolent reformers. But what if resistance — not submission — was the central thread all along?

This week on Writer’s Voice, we begin with historian Sudhir Hazareesingh, whose groundbreaking book Daring to Be Free reframes the history of Atlantic slavery as a history of rebellion: from African defense militias and shipboard revolts to maroon communities and the Haitian Revolution. He restores enslaved women and men to the center of their own liberation struggles — not as passive victims, but as strategists, spiritual leaders, and revolutionaries.

“From the very moment slave raiding parties are sent out… people begin to resist.” — Sudhir Hazareesingh

Then we revisit my 2012 conversation with novelist Jacqueline Sheehan about The Comet’s Tale, her powerful work of historical fiction about Sojourner Truth. Through Truth’s childhood in bondage, her spiritual awakening, and her emergence as a fearless abolitionist and women’s rights advocate, we explore resilience, moral courage, and the making of a revolutionary life.

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Tags: Sudhir Hazareesingh, Daring to Be Free, Atlantic slavery, slave resistance, Haitian Revolution, Solitude of Guadeloupe, maroon communities, Sojourner Truth, Jacqueline Sheehan, The Comet’s Tale, Abolition movement, Black history, Writers Voice podcast,

You May Also Like: Aaron Robertson, THE BLACK UTOPIANS, Ben Passmore on Black Resistance

Read The Transcript

Segment One: Sudhir Hazareesingh

There are many histories of the Atlantic slave trade. Few center the enslaved as agents of their own freedom.

In Daring to Be Free, Sudhir Hazareesingh challenges the myth that resistance was rare or exceptional. Instead, he shows that resistance was woven into the fabric of slavery from the very beginning.

Solitude and the Erased Women of Resistance

Hazareesingh opens with the story of Solitude of Guadeloupe — a freedom fighter who resisted Napoleon’s 1802 attempt to reinstate slavery and was executed while remaining defiant . Her story, erased for generations, symbolizes what he calls a “hidden history” of resistance.

For too long, he argues, histories focused on male leaders and major revolutions, especially Haiti. But enslaved resistance was constant — and women were central actors: strategists, healers, organizers, spiritual leaders .

Resistance Began in Africa

Hazareesingh emphasizes that rebellion did not begin in the Americas. It began in Africa itself.

From the moment slave raiders entered African villages, communities organized militias, fought capture, resisted transport, and even planned revolts while confined on the coast .

Shipboard insurrections were often planned before captives even boarded the ships. Resistance was integral to the system — not an exception to it.

Spiritual Traditions as Sources of Power

African religious traditions — including Obeah and Islam — fortified resistance movements . These spiritual systems preserved identity, offered psychological protection, and helped organize rebellion.

Under conditions of near-total domination, enslaved people carved out autonomous interior worlds — sustaining languages, faiths, and networks of solidarity .

Women as Network Builders

Women, often working inside plantation households, gathered intelligence and helped coordinate revolts . They maintained kinship networks that countered what one historian called slavery’s “social death.”

Hazareesingh discovered instead a story of social persistence: communities forming bonds across plantations, across ethnic lines, and even across racial boundaries.

Palmares and Cross-Boundary Alliances

One astonishing example: Palmares in 17th-century Brazil — a vast maroon society of thousands that developed political systems, agriculture, trade, and military defenses .

Palmares blended African and Indigenous military traditions and even attracted poor whites seeking more humane community .

Resistance was multiracial, transnational, and sustained.

Haiti: Rank-and-File Revolution

While Hazareesingh has written on Toussaint L’Ouverture, in this book he emphasizes rank-and-file insurgents .

The Haitian Revolution became a beacon of Black sovereignty — and a terror to slaveholding powers . News of the uprising spread rapidly via sailors and refugee networks .

Yet Haiti paid a devastating price: punitive indemnities imposed by France in 1825, U.S. intervention under Woodrow Wilson, and ongoing destabilization .

The Enslaved as the True Abolitionists

Hazareesingh challenges the narrative that white reformers abolished slavery. Most abolitionists advocated gradualism. The enslaved demanded — and fought for — immediate freedom .

Their revolts and persistent pressure forced political change.

Honoring Our Debts

In concluding, Hazareesingh calls for a “debt of memory” — telling the story truthfully — and for serious engagement with material reparations .

And he offers a lesson for today: unity, resilience, and moral courage in the face of authoritarianism .

Read An Excerpt

Segment Two: Jacqueline Sheehan

The Comet’s Tale — A Novel of Sojourner Truth

In our encore conversation from 2012, novelist Jacqueline Sheehan explores the inner life of Sojourner Truth.

Isabella’s Childhood in Bondage

Born Isabella Baumfree in Dutch New York, Sojourner Truth’s first language was Dutch .

Sheehan spent five years researching Truth’s early life, drawing from the dictated narrative recorded by Olive Gilbert in Massachusetts .

Her novel focuses intensely on childhood — the psychological resilience required to survive being treated as property and sold away from family .

The Power of Story

The title The Comet’s Tale comes from a fictionalized birth story told by Isabella’s mother — illustrating how oral tradition helped enslaved parents maintain connection with children sold away .

Storytelling becomes an act of survival.

Spiritual Seeking and Dangerous Faith

After gaining freedom, Isabella moved to New York City during a period of religious ferment .

She became involved in the cult of Matthias — a charismatic religious leader who manipulated followers and dictated their lives .

Later, after a profound spiritual epiphany, she renamed herself Sojourner Truth — believing God had called her to preach .

Though illiterate, she became a mesmerizing orator; newspaper accounts described the hair standing on listeners’ necks .

Florence, Massachusetts: Political Awakening

Truth eventually found community at the Northampton Association for Education and Industry — a utopian, abolitionist community based on equality of labor and one person, one vote .

There she interacted with Frederick Douglass and David Ruggles, and blended her spirituality with abolitionism and women’s rights activism .

She later supported Black soldiers during the Civil War and met Abraham Lincoln .

Resilience as Choice

Sheehan emphasizes Truth’s moral agency: despite enduring profound injustice, she chose not to live in hatred .

Her life illustrates that even under brutal conditions, individuals retain the capacity for courageous choice.

Episode Summary

Something feels wrong with our attention — and with reality itself.

In Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement, editors D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt argue that this crisis is not about individual willpower. It’s about a multi-trillion-dollar industry built to monetize human attention.

They call it “human fracking.”

“These phones are the final node in a… $7 to $14 trillion industry that’s all about maximizing the amount of time that we engage with these devices… capturing our attention and turning it into money. And we call that ‘human fracking.’” — Peter Schmidt

In this conversation, we explore how the commodification of attention reshapes nearly every aspect of our lives.

We talk about attention as relational and ethical — not just measurable. And we examine why reclaiming attention must be a collective political movement, not a private detox.

Then, we listen to an excerpt from our 2025 conversation with Cory Doctorow about his book Enshittifcation.

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Tags: Attention Liberation Movement, Attensity book, D. Graham Burnett, Peter Schmidt, Alyssa Loh, human fracking, attention economy, digital capitalism, social media harm, attention activism, Cory Doctorow enshittification, attention sanctuaries, Writers Voice podcast

You may also like: Cory Doctorow, Enshittification, Cory Doctorow, Picks and Shovels

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Segment Summary

The Crisis of Attention

• Why attention is “the key question of our moment”
• The metaphor of “human fracking”
• The internal environmental crisis of the mind

Attention as World-Making

• Attention as relational and ethical
• Simone Weil and the spiritual dimensions of attention
• How degraded attention makes reality feel unreal

Movement, Not Detox

• Converting private shame into collective anger
• Why willpower isn’t enough
• Parallels to environmental and civil rights movements

Sanctuaries of Attention

• Study, organizing, sanctuary
• Libraries, classrooms, coffee shops, Sabbath
• Reimagining civic institutions as attention infrastructure

A Positive Vision

• Designing technologies for human flourishing
• What a liberated attentional world might feel like for the next generation

Listen to or Read a Sample from the book

Read the Poem: St. Francis and the Sow

Episode Summary:

Historian Andrew Burstein joins us to talk about his biography, Being Thomas Jefferson. It’s an intimate portrait that looks beyond the marble statue and into the emotional life of one of America’s most influential founders.

Burstein explores Jefferson as a political moralist, a lyrical writer, and as someone who imagined democracy while profiting from slavery, who preached equality while exercising enormous power over others, and as someone who believed passionately in the nation’s destiny while fearing the forces of centralized power that could tear it apart.

“The Jefferson that I write about in this book is a political moralist who converts knowledge into feeling.” — Andrew Burstein

We’ll talk about Jefferson’s psychological world, his relationship with Sally Hemings, his battles with Federalism, and how his inner life helped shape our nation and the ideals we’re struggling to protect today.

Then, we listen to an excerpt from our 2014 conversation with Danielle Allen about her book Our Declaration, A Reading Of The Declaration of Independence In Defense of Equality.

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Tags: Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Burstein, Being Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, slavery, Founding Fathers, Federalism, Jeffersonian democracy, American Revolution, Writer’s Voice, Danielle Allen, Declaration of Independence,

You Might Also Like: Danielle Allen, OUR DECLARATION, Sojourner Truth, Her Story & Meaning,

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Andrew Burstein

Francesca Rheannon speaks with historian Andrew Burstein about Being Thomas Jefferson, a biography that examines Jefferson not just as a political figure, but as an emotional and psychological one.

Burstein describes Jefferson as “a political moralist who converts knowledge into feeling,” explaining how Jefferson’s seductive, lyrical writing helped forge America’s moral identity while masking deep personal fears and contradictions

The conversation explores Jefferson’s inner life, his need for control, his relationship with Sally Hemings, his rationalizations around slavery, and his enduring influence on American democracy. Burstein also traces Jefferson’s conflict with Federalism, his vision of an agrarian republic, and his belief that “the whole art of government is the art of being honest.”

It’s a candid discussion about legacy, race, power, self-deception, and what Jefferson’s emotional world still reveals about the United States today.

Andrew Burstein recently retired as Professor of History at Louisiana State University. In addition to Being Thomas Jefferson, He is the author of The Passions of Andrew Jackson, Jefferson’s Secrets, and several other books on early American politics and culture.

Episode Summary:

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with biographer Robert M. Dowling about his biography, Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard.

Dowling explores Shepard’s groundbreaking theatrical innovations, his jazz-inspired rhythms, and his shamanistic approach to performance — along with the deep fear that powered his work. 

“He feared the estrangement — our estrangement from the earth, from ourselves, from reality even.” — Robert Dowling

Another writer who loved the deserts of California, as Sam Shepard did, was the poet Forrest Gander. We re-air a conversation with him from April of 2025 about his book-length poem, Mojave Ghost.

And finally, Francesca reads a powerful ode written by former US Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman to Renee Nicole Good, “For Renee Nicole Good Killed by I.C.E. on January 7, 2026.”

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Tags: Sam Shepard biography, Robert M. Dowling, Coyote, American playwrights, Forrest Gander, Renée Nicole Good, Amanda Gorman, Writer’s Voice podcast

Read the Transcript

Robert M. Dowling

In our conversation about Coyote, Robert M. Dowling traces Sam Shepard’s evolution from “punk rock cowboy playwright” to cultural visionary, explaining how Shepard rejected realism to project inner turmoil directly onto the stage.

Dowling discusses Shepard’s use of humor as a survival mechanism, his musical sense of theater rooted in jazz and percussion, and his lifelong struggle with fear — shaped by a violent father and mirrored in what Shepard saw as America’s own self-loathing.

The episode also examines Shepard’s ideas about masculinity, political polarization, and alienation, before closing with a moving account of his final months and relentless devotion to writing.

Robert M. Dowling is s professor of English at Central Connecticut State University. In addition to Coyote, He is the author of the biography, Eugene O’Neill: A Life in Four Acts.

Listen to or Read a Sample from Coyote

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, journalist Nell Bernstein examines the decades-long movement to end youth incarceration in the United States, drawing on her book In Our Future We Are Free. Bernstein traces how incarcerated young people, their parents, lawyers, and organizers pierced the invisibility of youth prisons and achieved a historic 75% reduction in youth incarceration nationwide.

“Youth prisons are inherently abusive by design.” — Nell Bernstein

In the second segment, chef and writer Tamar Adler discusses Feast On Your Life, a deeply personal calendar-based book that explores how cooking, leftovers, sobriety, ritual, and attention can transform the ordinary into something sustaining—even during periods of despair.

“The bean broth wouldn’t let me be.” — Tamar Adler

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Key Words: youth incarceration, prison abolition, juvenile justice reform, Nell Bernstein, In Our Future We Are Free, Tamar Adler, Feast On Your Life, sustainability, leftovers,

You Might Also Like: Nell Bernstein, BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE, Katherine Harvey, The Bare Bones Broth Cookbook

Read the Transcript on Substack

Segment One: Nell Bernstein

Bernstein reflects on the evolution of her reporting from Burning Down the House to In Our Future We Are Free, documenting how youth prisons—institutions she describes as abusive by design—have been challenged and dismantled through organizing led by incarcerated young people and their families.

She explains why youth incarceration is not rehabilitative but criminogenic, how racialized fear narratives like the “super predator” myth enabled abuse, and why abolition—not cosmetic reform—is necessary. Bernstein also draws connections to present-day immigration detention and reflects on what this movement teaches us about sustained social change under authoritarian conditions.

Segment Two: Tamar Adler

Segment Two Summary: Tamar Adler

Adler describes writing Feast On Your Life during a period of depression, using daily attention to food and cooking as a way to heal. Organized month-by-month, the book reflects on sobriety, leftovers, seasonal abundance, restraint, imagination, ritual, and gratitude.

She discusses cooking “as if people mattered,” the ethical and ecological connections embedded in everyday meals, and how small rituals—packing lunches, saving bean broth, sharing fruit—create meaning and resilience. Drawing on Ursula K. Le Guin’s carrier bag theory, Adler frames her work as a quiet, gathering-oriented alternative to spectacle-driven narratives.

Read An Excerpt

Key Topics

• Youth prison abolition and organizing
• Racialized incarceration and the “super predator” myth
• Solitary confinement and institutional invisibility
• Trauma, criminogenic systems, and community care
• Cooking as attention, connection, and ethics
• Ritual, seasonality, and everyday meaning
• Sobriety, restraint, and renewal

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

• 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

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.

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

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

Subscribe (free or paid) for Substack transcripts

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

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

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.

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