

Otherppl with Brad Listi
Brad Listi
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly books and culture podcast featuring in-depth conversations with today's leading authors. Literature, screenwriting, the creative process, pop culture, and more. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on Bluesky and Instagram.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 14, 2026 • 20min
Excerpt from 'He's the Devil,' by Tobi Coventry
Vol. 7 of Story Time, a new series on the program featuring an author reading aloud from his work. In this episode, Tobi Coventry reads aloud from his debut novel, He's the Devil, available from Abrams Books. It was the official February 2026 pick of the Otherppl Book Club.
For the past ten years, Coventry has worked as a book scout for film and television production companies. In 2023, he produced an award-winning short horror film, Blood Rites, based on a story by Daisy Johnson. He lives in East Sussex, UK.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Mar 12, 2026 • 1h 43min
AWP, DUI, DOA, JFK, WW3, WTF, SMH
Volume 82 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad reviews his AWP 2026 experience in Baltimore...accidentally dropped his winter hat in a toilet...traveled with large amounts of avocados and tangerines...fasted daily...didn't pee...worked out at dawn in hotel gym...Mira goes to the Frieze LA, now hates art...gets a severe migraine in the aftermath...goes to Disneyland...Trump starts WWIII to distract from the fact that he's a psychotic child rapist...Britney gets a DUI in Ventura....Florida woman shoots at Rihanna's house...JFK Jr., Carolyn, Love Story...Ryan Murphy is unafraid to insult the dead...& more...
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Mar 10, 2026 • 1h 22min
1025. Namwali Serpell
Namwali Serpell is the author of On Morrison, available from Hogarth Press.
Serpell was born in Lusaka and lives in New York. Her debut novel, The Old Drift, won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, The Furrows, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was selected as one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year. Her book of essays, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. She is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, the Caine Prize for African Writing, and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award. She is a professor of English at Harvard University.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Mar 8, 2026 • 1h 10min
REPLAY: Mark Leidner on Aphorisms, Belief, Purpose, and Loss
Today on the program, a trip into the archive and a return to Episode 545, my conversation with author, poet, and screenwriter Mark Leidner.
Air date: October 3, 2018.
Mark Leidner is the author of two feature films: the sci-fi noir Empathy, Inc. (2019) and the relationship comedy Jammed (2014). He is also the author of the story collection Under the Sea (Tyrant Books, 2018), the poetry collection Beauty Was the Case That They Gave Me (Factory Hollow, 2011), and the book of aphorisms The Angel in the Dream of Our Hangover (Sator, 2011).
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.
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

Mar 5, 2026 • 1h 21min
REPLAY: Michael Finkel on The Last True Hermit
Today on the program, a trip into the archive and a return to Episode 461, my conversation with author and journalist Michael Finkel about his book The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit (Knopf).
Air date: April 12, 2017.
Michael Finkel is the author of True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa, which was adapted into a 2015 major motion picture. He has written for National Geographic, GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine. He lives in western Montana.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Mar 3, 2026 • 1h 11min
1024. Tobi Coventry
Tobi Coventry is the author of the debut novel He's the Devil, available from Abrams Books. It was the official February pick of the Otherppl Book Club.
For the past ten years, Coventry has worked as a book scout for film and television production companies. In 2023, he produced an award-winning short horror film, Blood Rites, based on a story by Daisy Johnson. He lives in East Sussex, UK.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.
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

Mar 1, 2026 • 1h 15min
REPLAY: Tess Gunty on Mysticism, the Midwest, and Winning the National Book Award
Today on the program, a trip into the archive and a return to Episode 847, my conversation with National Book Award-winning author Tess Gunty from 2023.
Tess's debut novel, The Rabbit Hutch, was a New York Times Bestseller and the recipient of the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction. It has been translated into a dozen languages. The novel also received the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the Open Bank Vanity Fair Award for best new author in Spain, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and the British Book Award for Debut Fiction. The Rabbit Hutch was named one of twelve Essential Reads by The New Yorker, and a best book of the year by: The New York Times, People, TIME, Oprah Daily, the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and others. It is currently a finalist for the inaugural Inside Literary Prize, the first literary prize in America to be determined by a panel of incarcerated judges.
I spoke with Tess as she was celebrating the publication of the paperback edition of The Rabbit Hutch.
Air date: June 28, 2023.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.
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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 28, 2026 • 16min
Excerpt from 'Clutch,' by Emily Nemens
Vol. 6 of Story Time, a new series on the program featuring an author reading aloud from her work. In this episode, Emily Nemens reads aloud from her sophomore novel, Clutch, available from Tin House / Zando.
Nemens’s debut novel, The Cactus League, was a New York Times Book ReviewEditors’ Choice and named one of NPR’s and Lit Hub’s favorite books of 2020. Her stories have appeared in BOMB, The Gettysburg Review, n+1, and elsewhere; her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker and in collaboration with Harvey Pekar. Emily spent over a decade editing literary quarterlies, including leading The Paris Review and serving as co-editor and prose editor of The Southern Review. She held the 2022-23 Picador Professorship (University of Leipzig) and teaches in the MFA program at Bennington College. She lives in central New Jersey with her husband and dog.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Feb 26, 2026 • 1h 42min
The 400 Bros
Volume 81 of Brad & Mira For the Culture...Brad plants a beautiful garden...continues tedious AWP preparations...binge-watching UFO docuseries...the aliens are probably in the ocean...Mira still hasn't set up her hummingbird cam...is now invested in a new conspiracy theory involving the late Queen Elizabeth...Marty Supreme loses huge at the BAFTAs...the Tourette Syndrome vs. Racism online circular firing squad...Prince Andrew gets arrested...screams "I AM THE QUEEN'S SON"...Bonnie Blue gets knocked up by one of 400 men with whom she had unprotected sex in a 24-hour period...& more...
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."
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

Feb 24, 2026 • 1h 14min
1023. Emily Nemens
Emily Nemens is the author of the novel Clutch, available from Tin House.
Nemens's debut novel, The Cactus League, was a New York Times Book ReviewEditors’ Choice and named one of NPR’s and Lit Hub’s favorite books of 2020. Her stories have appeared in BOMB, The Gettysburg Review, n+1, and elsewhere; her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker and in collaboration with Harvey Pekar. Emily spent over a decade editing literary quarterlies, including leading The Paris Review and serving as co-editor and prose editor of The Southern Review. She held the 2022-23 Picador Professorship (University of Leipzig) and teaches in the MFA program at Bennington College. She lives in central New Jersey with her husband and dog.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.
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


