TW: miscarriage Today's guest is one of our most beloved writers: the one and only Malorie Blackman. She joins me to talk about how her setbacks have helped her define who she is - from being evicted and made homeless as a child, to the early years of writing rejection when over 80 publishers turned her down and the devastating loss of her second pregnancy. ... Show More
Aug 20
Failure Throwback: Glennon Doyle
Author of Untamed and fierce truth-teller Glennon Doyle joins me for a raw and revelatory episode, first recorded in July 2020. We dive into: Why we chase approval instead of trusting our inner voice Her struggles with body image, love, and emotional resilience The failures that ... Show More
1h 7m
Nov 2022
Malorie Blackman with Nihal Arthanayake
This week on the Penguin Podcast, Nihal is joined by Malorie Blackman, author of the critically acclaimed and internationally renowned Naughts and Crosses series. She joins us to talk about her new memoir, Just Sayin': My Life In Words.
Malorie also discusses her approach to, and ... Show More
35m 55s
Dec 2020
Books (with Louise Penny, Stacey Abrams, and Marley Dias)
Books: They can transport us, entertain us, show us who we can be, and even get us through hard times. In this episode, Hillary sits down with three fellow book-lovers: mystery novelist (and friend) Louise Penny; return guest Stacey Abrams in her capacity as romance writer (!); a ... Show More
47m 17s
May 2022
EP298: How Mark Twain Helped a Bankrupt and Dying Ulysses S. Grant, I Lived Through The Depression And Didn’t Even Know It! and Overcoming the Loss of Both My Arms
On this episode of Our American Stories, Christopher Klein tells the story of how Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, the former president and Civil War hero, raced to complete a literary masterpiece that saved his wife from destitution. Donald Sturm tells the story of how his paren ... Show More
38m 15s
May 2024
Book Club Meets: Career pivots, true crime, and 70s nostalgia, with Jennie Godfrey
Would you choose uncertainty over unhappiness? Happy Place Book Club novel, The List of Suspicious Things, is the first book Jennie Godfrey has written. She was working in a corporate job before she had a moment of clarity and quit her job with no plan B to become a writer. In th ... Show More
27m 1s
Mar 2023
Congratulations, You’re a Failure! Stephen Marche on Enduring the Life of a Writer
Stephen Marche is the author of six books, has been a columnist at Esquire, has taught Shakespeare at the college level and has contributed to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other publications. By any reasonable measure, his career is an unmitigated su ... Show More
1h 11m