logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2022
8m 35s

Octavia Butler imagines a world without ...

NPR
About this episode
During Black History month, Book of the Day is bringing you some interviews from the archives, including this one with author Octavia Butler. Butler wrote many sci-fi classics, like the Parable series and Kindred, so she's accustomed to imagining different worlds. NPR's Scott Simon asked her back in 2001 to imagine a world without racism. Butler believed that in racism's place we would have to have absolute empathy. But she told Simon that this would most certainly present its own challenges – and we would probably just find something else to fight about.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy
Up next
Today
In the novel ‘Loved One,’ an ambiguous friendship is further complicated by loss
Aisha Muharrar’s debut novel Loved One is about a woman’s effort to understand her relationship with a friend who’s recently died. Julia had been friends with Gabe for nearly a decade after the two briefly dated – but their relationship became complicated right before his death. ... Show More
8m 52s
Yesterday
‘Dinner with King Tut’ follows experimental archaeologists as they recreate the past
To write his latest book Dinner with King Tut, Sam Kean joined a group of experimental archaeologists who learn by doing. These researchers aim to recreate the sites, sounds, smells and tastes of lost civilizations in order to solve mysteries about how people lived. In today’s ep ... Show More
9m 39s
Aug 25
For her 25th book, Karin Slaughter wanted to capture life in small-town Georgia
Karin Slaughter’s new book opens on a hot summer night in Georgia. It’s Madison Dalrymple’s 15th birthday and she has a big night planned with her best friend. But both girls go missing and there’s no easy answer to what happened to them. We Are All Guilty Here is the crime write ... Show More
9m 6s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2023
Octavia E. Butler: Visionary black sci-fi writer
In 1995, Octavia E Butler became the first author to receive a MacArthur “genius” award for science fiction writing. From a young age she dreamed of writing books, but faced many challenges, including poverty, sexism and racism in the publishing industry. She died aged 58 in 2006 ... Show More
8m 58s
Feb 2021
Lauren Oyler Talks About Deception Online
Lauren Oyler’s debut novel, “Fake Accounts,” features a nameless narrator who discovers that her boyfriend has a secret life online, where he posts conspiracy theories. The novel is about that discovery, but also more broadly about how the time we spend online — especially on soc ... Show More
1h 7m
May 2021
A Desperate Writer Steals 'The Plot'
Jake Bonner, the protagonist of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s “The Plot,” writes a novel based on someone else’s idea. The book becomes a big hit, but Jake has a hard time enjoying it because he’s worried about getting caught. On this week’s podcast, Korelitz says that Jake’s more genera ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 2021
Echoes of a Fairy Tale in a Devastating Novel
Omar El Akkad’s new novel, “What Strange Paradise,” uses some fablelike techniques to comment on the migrant crisis caused by war in the Middle East. El Akkad explains that he thinks of the novel as a reinterpretation of the story of Peter Pan, told as the story of a contemporary ... Show More
1 h
Dec 2021
Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction‬
Today we are wrapping up Science Fiction Week with a very special episode from our friends at NPR's history podcast Throughline. As a part of their Imagining New Worlds series, they dive into the life of visionary science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Octavia crafted cautionary ... Show More
1h 4m
Oct 2022
Black reality in a world of fantasy
Why build a fantasy world that still has racism? B.A. Parker moderates a discussion on Black science fiction and fantasy with authors Tochi Onyebuchi and Leslye Penelope at the National Book Festival. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Priv ... Show More
29m 15s
Sep 2021
Melissa Daniels-Rauterkus, "Afro-Realisms and the Romances of Race: Rethinking Blackness in the African American Novel" (LSU Press, 2020)
From the 1880s to the early 1900s, a particularly turbulent period of U.S. race relations, the African American novel provided a powerful counternarrative to dominant and pejorative ideas about blackness. In Afro-Realisms and the Romances of Race: Rethinking Blackness in the Afri ... Show More
2h 28m