Otherppl with Brad Listi

Lenore Zion is the guest. She is the author of two books, the first of which, a humor collection called My Dead Pets Are Interesting, was published by TNB Books in 2011. And now her debut novel, Stupid Children, has just been published by Emergency Press. Necessary Fiction raves "Stupid Children is a bildungsroman of twisted proportions told with startling clarity through the filter of a smart, psychoanalytic perspective. No character is safe from Zion’s unapologetic examinations. She bestows her protagonist with an open mind, a sharp intellect, and a sweltering imagination—all of the requisite ingredients for a disturbing, fascinating novel." And Jonathan Evison says “Stupid Children surprises and dazzles at every turn. You will not forget this book.” Stupid Children is the March selection of The TNB Book Club, the official book club of The Nervous Breakdown. For only $9.99 a month, you can get a brand new title delivered to your door every 30 days. And all book club authors are interviewed on this program. Monologue topics: psycho-digital crises, dinner invitations, key parties, manners, overthinking it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Lipsyte is the guest. His new story collection, The Fun Parts, is now available from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. Ben Fountain raves "Lipsyte expertly works the line between hilarity and pathos." And Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, says “In this second story collection, fierce satire mingles with warmth and pathos as Lipsyte (The Ask) showcases his knack for stylistic variety and tangles with the thorny human experiences of moving beyond one’s past or shedding one’s personal baggage . . . Lipsyte’s biting humor suffuses the collection, but it’s his ability to control the relative darkness of each moment that makes the stories so engrossing.” Monologue topics: mountain rescue, urban heroism, mail, ménage-á-trois clarifications.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christine Sneed is the guest. Her new novel, Little Known Facts, was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review last week. It is available now from Bloomsbury. Booklist, in a starred review, calls it "An ensnaring first novel that delves into the complex challenges and anguish of living with and in the shadow of celebrity. Sneed’s wit, curiosity, empathy, and ability to divine the perfect detail propel this psychologically exquisite, superbly realized novel of intriguing, caricature-transcending characters and predicaments…As Sneed illuminates each facet of her percussively choreographed plot via delectably slant disclosures—overheard conversations, snooping, tabloids, confessions under duress, and journal entries, among them—she spotlights ‘little known facts’ about the cost of fame, our erotic obsession with movie-star power, and where joy can be found." Also this episode: a conversation with Stephanie Barber, author of the new book Night Moves, available now from Publishing Genius Press.  Kenneth Goldsmith says "This is a sad and powerful book of love poems. Stephanie Barber understands how things are supposed to work and recognizes that they are broken, and NIGHT MOVES is a screenshot for the help desk in the sky. It's a conceptual ode to Internet philosophy, solidifying the transient nature of online conversation." Monologue topics: ménage-á-trois, third wheels, Darwinian processes, self-awareness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bernie Glassman is the guest. He is a pioneer in the American Zen Movement, an accomplished academic and businessman, and the founder of the Zen Peacemakers. His new book, co-authored by Jeff Bridges, is called The Dude and the Zenmaster. A New York Times bestseller, it is available now from Blue Rider Press. Sheila Heti, writing for the Financial Times, says “The Dude and the Zen Master [is] a wonderful book of conversations...about acting and Zen and the long, fond relationship between these men.” And The Dudespaper calls it “[A] good conversation between good friends...One of the unexpected treats of The Dude and the Zen Master is the insights into who Jeff Bridges is behind the Dude persona...touching remembrances of his parents, his reflections on life as a devoted family man, and his behind-the-scenes stories of movies he’s worked on [and] profound little Zen observations and insights sprinkled throughout the book.” Monologue topics: Zen, meditation, discipline and lack thereof, losing my shit, my daughter, guilt, the Oscars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lesley Arfin is the guest. She was a staff writer on the first two seasons of the hit television show Girls, starring Lena Dunham, and she also writes on the MTV series Awkward.  Her book, Dear Diary, is based on a column of the same name that originally appeared in Vice magazine.  It was published by Vice Books/MTV Press in 2007. Sarah Silverman says “Here’s your chance to have all the benefits of a tortured adolescence without the shitty childhood. Congratulations!” And Chloe Sevigny says "What I love about Dear Diary is how strongly it resonates with all girls. We all went through a bitch phase that makes us cringe when we remember it. We tried being good; we tried being bad; we made other girls feel like shit before we knew what it felt like...It seems like the world is ending when you're 17 and in the middle of it, but looking back now I realize that's what adolescence is all about: making mistakes. And that's why I love Dear Diary." Monologue topics:  tweets, mail, alt-lit, Internet literature, Jordan Castro, Mira Gonzalez, Megan Boyle, Sam, women, vaginas, feminism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Jordan Castro discusses his poetry collection 'Young Americans' with rave reviews. Podcast covers phone sex, addiction and recovery, punk music influence, work experiences, and book tour adventures. Castro reflects on past struggles, creative peaks, and gratitude to listeners.

A conversation with Megan Boyle, Mira Gonzalez, and a guy named Sam.  Recorded late at night on February 13th/14th, 2013.  Megan, Mira, and Sam were in Tao Lin's apartment in New York City.  (Tao was not there; he was out of the country at the time.) I was here in Los Angeles, in the home office.  Things got interesting.  Enjoy. -BL Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terry Tempest Williams is the guest. She is the author of several books, including the environmental literature classic, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Her latest book is called When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice.  It was published in hardcover by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux in 2012, and the paperback edition is due out from Picador on February 26, 2013. Susan Salter Reynolds, writing for The Daily Beast, says "Williams is the kind of writer who makes a reader feel that [her] voice might also, one day, be heard….She cancels out isolation: Connections are woven as you sit in your chair reading---between you and the place you live, between you and other readers, you and the writer. Without knowing how it happened, your sense of home is deepened." And The San Francisco Chronicle raves "Williams displays a Whitmanesque embrace of the world and its contradictions....As the pages accumulate, her voice grows in majesty and power until it become a full-fledged aria." Monologue topics: media diet, news, minimum wage, operating, ambition, fear, power, nausea, juice, scams, beautiful crazy people.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Robbins is the guest. His debut poetry collection, Alien vs. Predator, was named one of the best books of 2012 by The New York Times, Slate, Commonweal, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and The Millions.  Dwight Garner of the The New York Times says "Mr. Robbins's heart is not lovely but beating a bit arrhythmically; not dark but lighted by a dangling disco ball; not deep but as shallow and alert as a tidal buoy facing down a tsunami. Yet it's a heart crammed full, like a goose's liver, with pagan grace. This man can write." And Sasha Frere-Jones says "You may notice the cultural references first -- Guns N' Roses, Eric B. & Rakim, Fleetwood Mac, M*A*S*H, Star Wars -- and be tempted to tie Robbins to these anchors. But there are as many contemporary references in Eliot and Pound and Horace as there are in Robbins: carbon-dating isn't what distinguishes these poems. Robbins works in traditional and nontraditional forms that pivot on the beat, which he turns around, seamlessly and ruthlessly. The thread here is a long-distance conversation crammed into the available enjambment, as charged as the pop songs that play beneath the words." Monologue topics:  Patrick Swayze, tweets, drones.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joyce Johnson is the guest. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is called The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac, available now from Viking.  Kirkus calls it “An exemplary biography of the Beat icon and his development as a writer…Johnson [turns] a laser-sharp focus on Kerouac’s evolving ideas about language, fiction vs. truth and the role of the writer in his time…there’s plenty of life in these pages to fascinate casual readers, and Johnson is a sensitive but admirably objective biographer.  A triumph of scholarship.” And Russell Banks says "This is quite simply the best book about Kerouac and one of the best accounts of any writer's apprenticeship that I have read. And it should generate a serious reconsideration of Kerouac as a classical, because hyphenated, American writer, one struggling to synthesize a doubled language, culture, and class. It's also a terrific read, a windstorm of a story."  Also in this episode:  Joshua Mohr, author of the novel Fight Song, now available from Soft Skull Press.  Fight Song is the February selection of The TNB Book Club.  Publishers Weekly calls it "an interesting mix of Charles Bukowski and Tom Robbins, with a cinematic heaping of the Coen brothers for good measure." Monologue topics:  doubt, doubting doubt, mental downward spirals, confusion.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices