In an immigration novel not like others, a Nigerian daughter wants to try life in America, and so once more she enters the visa sweepstakes. Her mother says nothing, though she has been forewarned by a conduit of the oracle, “this time, the order of things will be shaken. The souls will lose their own way.” These are the tensions within Olfunke Grace Bankole’s first novel, The Edge of Water.

There are matters here of faith in self and faith in matters larger than the self, as well as events that outstrip all planning and vision—including the failure to envision some real possibilities. What comes from this is a novel with a linear narrative constructed across an arc whose parts are anything but linear—where the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.

The Edge of Water was a finalist for the New American Voices Award given by the Institute for Immigration Research, which is presented at the Fall for the Book festival.

Olufunke Grace Bankole is a Harvard-educated lawyer and recipient of the Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship, and her original writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, AGNI, Michigan Quarterly Review, New Letters, the Antioch Review and Stand. Her work won first place in the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers, and she was a Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholar in Fiction at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She also has been awarded an Oregon Literary Fellowship in Fiction, a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant, a residency-fellowship from the Anderson Center at Tower View, and a Pushcart Special Mention for her writing. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Find out more about Grace on her website.

Connect with Grace on Instagram.

Purchase a copy of The Edge of Water on Bookshop.org.

• A powerful exploration of fate vs free will, and how belief systems shape the choices we make.
• Redefines “home” in immigrant stories—less about place, more about identity, community, and peace.
• Moves beyond the typical American Dream narrative, showing the emotional and psychological realities of immigration.
• Highlights women’s resilience and agency, especially within patriarchal and cultural expectations.
• Examines how generational trauma and relationships between mothers and daughters shape identity.
• Shows how small decisions during major life moments can completely alter someone’s path.
• Blends spirituality, Yoruba tradition, and modern life, creating a layered, immersive world.

“We like to think we’re in control—until life reminds us how much of it was never ours to decide.” - Olufunke Grace Bankole

#UpstartCrowPodcast #BookPodcast #AuthorInterview #OlufunkeGraceBankole #TheEdgeOfWater #ImmigrantExperience #AfricanAuthors #WomenWriters #LiteraryFiction #BookRecommendations #ReadersOfInstagram #WritersOfInstagram #Storytelling #FateVsFreeWill #MotherDaughterStories

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Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Be sure to check out our website for more information about our hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show: UpstartCrow.org

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Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio.

© 2026 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

It is Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001. The Sunday after 9/11. Five days after the Tuesday when hijacked planes are flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in DC, and a field in Pennsylvania. As searchers still comb through smoldering wreckage, a cruise ship that should have left from New York’s Passenger Ship Terminal in Manhattan instead sets off from Boston for a cruise to Bermuda. Aboard are more than 600 passengers, and in Jung Yun’s new novel, All the World Can Hold, we follow three passengers in particular. Three who, as they travel on this voyage that is anything but mundane, undergo experiences that will leave them never the same again.

Jung Yun joins host William Miller to talk about the origins of the novel, her writing of it, her own insights into the characters, and how the book is different from yet similar to her previous two novels.

Jung Yun was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. Prior to All the World Can Hold, she published Shelter (2016) a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Great New Writers Award and also long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First-Novel Prize; and O Beautiful (2021), a New York Times Editor’s Choice book as well as a Times Group Read book, and a San

Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year choice. Currently, Jung Yun lives in Maryland and teaches in the George Washington University creative writing program.

Key Takeaways

1. Turning personal history into fiction

Author Jung Yun discusses how her novel All the World Can Hold was inspired by her own experience taking a cruise shortly after the September 11 attacks. Rather than focusing directly on the tragedy, the novel explores how ordinary people process and move forward after a world-altering event.

2. A cruise ship as a literary “crucible”

The story follows three strangers whose lives intersect aboard a cruise ship headed to Bermuda. By placing characters in an enclosed environment where they cannot escape their pasts or their choices, Yun builds tension and explores how people confront regret, ambition, and unresolved relationships.

3. Characters shaped by their own flaws and decisions

Yun explains her fascination with flawed characters who carry the seeds of their own undoing. Across her novels—from Shelter to O Beautiful—she often writes about disasters people create for themselves and how those pressures reveal their deepest motivations.

4. Writing about disasters—personal and societal

A recurring theme in Yun’s work is how individuals react when systems or circumstances collapse, whether it’s the housing crisis, an oil boom, or national trauma. Her stories focus less on the event itself and more on the human responses that follow.

“I’m always writing about disaster… the disasters we create for ourselves and how people respond when you put them into these pressurized situations.” - Jung Yun

#JungYun

#AllTheWorldCanHold

#AuthorInterview

#LiteraryFiction

#UpstartCrowPodcast

Learn more about Jung Yun and her books here.

Purchase a copy of All the World Can Hold or any of Jung's other books here.

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Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Be sure to check out our website for more information about our hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show: UpstartCrow.org

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Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio.

© 2026 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

The subtitle of Cristina Jimenez’s memoir is, “How we turn fear into pride, power, and real change.” In the book, she defines “home” as a place of self-acceptance, which was not an easy place for her to find after she, her parents and her brother, fled the chaos of her hometown in Ecuador and settled in New York in 1998. She tried to be a “good” immigrant, but because she was undocumented, what is sometimes called an “illegal” immigrant, it didn’t matter how hard she worked, how much she studied, how well she did in school, how observant she was about rules and regulations, she was not accepted, not acceptable. But she kept at it. She endured. She persevered. Dreaming of Home tells the story.

Cristina Jimenez is the cofounder and, for a time, was executive director of United We Dream, the largest immigrant-youth-led organization in the country. She played a leading role in getting approval of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. She also received a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, was named to Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people, and became a distinguished lecturer at City University of New York.

With host William Miller, she discusses her memoir and the life experiences that led her to write it, including what it’s like to be an unwelcome immigrant, and what compelled her family to go to such a length.

Find out more about Cristina Jimenez on her website.

Key Takeaways

1. The meaning of “home” goes beyond geography.

Cristina Jimenez reflects on how immigrating from Ecuador forced her to rethink the concept of home. Over time she came to see home not just as a place, but as a sense of belonging found in community, self-acceptance, and the people who make you feel seen and valued. UC - Christina Jimenez

2. Personal stories are central to social movements.

Cristina discusses how undocumented immigrant youth built a powerful movement by sharing their stories publicly, organizing together, and advocating for policy change—including helping push forward protections like DACA.

3. Economic and political forces often drive migration.

Her family’s journey from Ecuador was shaped by poverty, political instability, and the influence of international corporate and political decisions that affected working-class families and forced many to leave their homes.

4. The U.S. economy relies heavily on immigrant labor.

The conversation highlights the contradiction of industries depending on undocumented workers while those same workers face exploitation, wage theft, and the threat of deportation.

#ImmigrantStories

#ImmigrationPolicy

#DreamingOfHome

#SocialJusticeVoices

#UpstartCrow

#Author Podcast

“Home is the place where you can look in the mirror and like what you see.”

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Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

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© 2026 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

In 2006, when this novel is set, American immigration law allows students, scholars, trainees, teachers, etc., on temporary visas to have a year of practical training not required by the person’s basic program. Optional Practical Training. The novel covers just such a year in the life of Pavitra, a young woman from Bangalore, India, who has finished her bachelor’s degree in physics and gotten a job teaching at a private high school near Cambridge, Massachusetts. Told through a series of conversations Pavitra has with various people as she shapes her life, the novel provides a more nuanced portrait of the immigrant experience than that often featured in novels.

Optional Practical Training (Graywolf Press) is Shubha Sundra’s first novel. It won the 2025 New American Voices Award sponsored by the Institute for Immigration Research and presented at the annual Fall for the Book festival. She also is the author of an earlier short story collection, Boomtown Girl, set in her hometown of Bangalore, India. That book won the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award.

Her individual stories and essays have appeared in Catapult, The Common, New Letters, Crazyhorse, and Narrative Magazine. Her work has received notable mentions in the Best American Short Stories anthology. She teaches in the creative writing MFA program at UMass Boston.

Borders are made without our permission and we really don’t have control over border crossing — we’re essentially at the mercy of the border guards.” - Shubha Sunder

Hosted by William Miller

Find out more about Shubha Sunder on her website.

You can purchase a copy of Optional Practical Training from Bookshop.org here. Or you can buy a copy at on independent bookseller near you. Check out the link here.

This episode is also available on our YouTube channel.

Key Takeaways

1. Immigration as a Liminal State

The novel explores the precarious “in-between” status of Optional Practical Training (OPT), where identity, stability, and future plans all hinge on visa structures beyond one’s control.

2. Free Will vs. Systems of Power

Through the historical case of Bhagat Singh Thind, the book examines how institutions shape identity — and how personal agency often exists within forces much larger than the individual.

3. Home Is Situational — Borders Are Not

While home can feel portable and internal, legal borders are rigid realities. The novel powerfully contrasts the emotional idea of home with the political reality of border enforcement.

4. Identity Is Formed in Conversation

Structured around pivotal conversations, the novel shows how what others say to us — and assume about us — shapes our evolving sense of self, especially as immigrants navigating unfamiliar systems.

#OptionalPracticalTraining

#LiteraryFiction

#ImmigrationStories

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Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio.

© 2026 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

With the intrusive, catalytic forces of two wars, World War II and Vietnam, Margaret Hutton’s debut novel, If You Leave, tells of two women who mother one baby girl into her own young womanhood. Each of the three discovers the strength of herself as an individual as well as the strength of unity. Thus does this quietly vibrant story illustrate the way one life impacts others, decisions made either quickly or slowly can have similarly devastating consequences, and the need of the human heart for love competes with the need to find meaning.

Margaret Hutton’s short fiction has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including The Sun, The South Carolina Review, The Chattahoochee Review, the Antioch Review, and Abundant Grace. She earned an undergraduate degree with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MFA from George Mason University. She is a native of North Carolina and formerly was an environmental reporter. She divides her time between Washington, DC, and her art studio in Chester County, PA. If You Leave was published by Regal House Publishing and is available wherever books are sold.

Hosted by William Miller

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Key Takeaways

1. War as a Turning Point for Women
2. If You Leave examines how World War II and Vietnam temporarily expanded women’s independence and opportunity—while exposing how fragile those gains could be.
3. Art, Agency, and Interruption
4. Through Audrey’s life as a painter, the novel explores how women’s creative ambitions are often disrupted, underestimated, or constrained by social expectations.
5. The Power and Cost of Leaving
6. Every major character is shaped by acts of leaving—home, relationships, or identity—revealing how personal choices ripple across generations.
7. Interiority and Empathy in Fiction
8. Margaret highlights fiction’s ability to reveal inner lives, inviting readers to understand characters beyond surface-level judgment.

“The novel gives us access to another person’s interior life—and that’s something we never fully have in real life.” - Margaret Hutton

#LiteraryFiction

#HistoricalFiction

#WomenWriters

Find out more about Margaret Hutton on her website.

Purchase her book here.

Follow her on Instagram.

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© 2026 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Linda Chavez began working on The Silver Candlesticks after appearing on the PBS series Finding Your Roots during which she discovered that members of her family were Converso Jews who fled Spain in 1597. Using details the PBS researchers uncovered as well as her own work on the Spanish Inquisition, she created a fictional weave of love and faith, and the perils of ardent religious faith transformed by the obdurate endurance of a persecution.

Earlier, Linda spent decades in politics and the media, having served as a White House official in the Reagan administration and been a syndicated columnist. She is the author of three previously published nonfiction books and individually published short stories. She earned her MFA from George Mason University.

“No matter how good you think your life is, it isn’t unless you are actually free.” — Linda Chavez

Hosted by William Miller

The Silver Candlesticks is published by Wicked Son, an imprint of Post Hill Press. You can purchase a copy on their website here, or anywhere that books are sold.

Key Takeaways

1. History brought to life through fiction
2. Linda Chavez discusses how The Silver Candlesticks uses meticulous historical research to humanize the Spanish Inquisition, revealing how fear, power, and persecution shaped everyday lives.
3. Hidden identity and inherited trauma
4. The novel explores the dangers faced by Jewish converts in 16th-century Spain and how secrecy, forced assimilation, and inherited identity ripple across generations.
5. Villains, morality, and belief systems
6. Chavez unpacks the challenge of writing morally complex antagonists—especially religious figures who commit atrocities while believing they are acting righteously.
7. Personal history as creative catalyst
8. The story is rooted in Chavez’s own family history, uncovered through archival research and her appearance on Finding Your Roots, demonstrating how personal discovery can inspire powerful storytelling.

This episode is also available to watch on our YouTube channel: @upstartcrowpodcast

Check out more about Linda on her Substack.

#HistoricalFictionPodcast

#SpanishInquisitionHistory

#AuthorInterview

#TheSilverCandlesticks

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© 2025 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Some today would cross off the Mississippi Delta as a backwater beyond redemption or a region where bad history happened, but W. Ralph Eubanks drives the area roads and small-town streets, meets the people who live and work there, some of whom strive hard to make it more than it is, and through his evocative writing he portrays not just the economic oppression but also the area’s resilience.

In his newest work of nonfiction, Eubanks, a son of Mississippi, looks at the region with a clear, if not dispassionate eye. Seeking further knowing about this particular area, he finds insights into the soul of America. Slavery got turned into sharecropping. Civil rights were cruelly suppressed under Jim Crow. Poverty became so entrenched, it has resisted any number of efforts to eradicate it—even the spending of millions of dollars.

He finds the pervasive inequality that hinders the expansive possibilities. As he writes, “The story of the Delta is not just a Mississippi story. Nor is it just a Southern story. At its very core, the Delta’s story is an American story. The idea of American exceptionalism has rendered the Delta and other places like it invisible since the story of the Delta is exceptional in only disturbing ways. By reckoning with the story of the Delta, we as Americans, can also begin to confront the other disadvantaged places like it that dot the American landscape, from sea to shining sea.”

W. Ralph Eubanks is a faculty fellow and writer in residence at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, where his work focuses on race, identity, and the American South. He is the author previously of two other works of nonfiction, Ever Is a Long Time and The House at the End of the Road, as well as A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow, as well as a recipient of the 2023 Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award for excellence in literature.

“To change what we see on the landscape, we have to change what we know about it.” — W. Ralph Eubanks

Hosted by William Miller

Key Takeaways:

1. The Mississippi Delta is not an isolated regional problem but a national mirror, reflecting economic, racial, and political systems found throughout the United States.
2. Race in America operates as an economic construct, with policies after slavery preserving inequality by separating political rights from economic power.
3. Romanticized narratives of the Delta obscure the structural forces that created generational poverty, allowing poverty to be blamed on individuals rather than systems.
4. Lasting change depends on sustained local leadership and historical truth-telling, not outside saviors or short-term philanthropic fixes.

#MississippiDelta #AmericanPoverty #RaceAndEconomics

You can also watch this episode on our YouTube channel here.

Find out more about Ralph Eubanks and his books, you can visit his website here.

His books for sale here.

Follow and connect with him on Instagram, and Facebook.

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© 2025 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Mary Kay Zuravleff is the author most recently of the novel American Ending, a story inspired by the experiences of her grandparents, Old Believer Russian Orthodox emigres. She combined those experiences to tell the story of immigrants recruited into the dangerous work America needs to have done but which workers are reluctant to do. The book seems entirely appropriate to our times.

Her characters live in the Appalachian mining town of Marianna, Pennsylvania, during the early years of the twentieth century. The narrator of the novel, Yelena, wants more for herself than the limited life patterned out for her. This is a place where the girls are married off by the age of 14, soon start to have babies and try to manage their households with limited incomes and young husbands who themselves dropped out of school to go work in the coal mines. Their story is one of compromised goals and dreams, and grasping at whatever opportunities come along.

The title suggests a simple divide that may not always be so visible in the world: In the American ending, stories end happily. The prince rushes in, slays the dragon, and he saves the princess. That’s versus the Russian ending, where things are not so happy. There is at least compromise, loss, diminishment. The prince might rush in and slay the dragon but he might find the princess is beyond saving in some way.

Mary Kay Zuravleff is the award-winning author of the previous novels Man Alive, which was a Washington Post notable book; The Bowl is Already Broken, which the New York Times called a “tart, affectionate satire of the museum world’s bickering and scheming;” and The Frequency of Souls, a story of love, electricity and life after death. She has won the American Academy of Art’s Rosenthal Award, the James Jones First Novel Award, and multiple artist fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts.

“If your people aren’t on the shelf, you need to write that book.”

Key Takeaways

• Immigration stories are American stories. American Ending explores the lived experiences of Russian immigrants in early 20th-century coal towns and how questions of belonging, labor, and citizenship echo into the present.
• Identity is shaped by place and pressure. Though Elena is born in America, her sense of self is constantly challenged by family, religion, labor systems, and cultural expectations.
• Historical fiction requires restraint and rigor. Mary Kay discusses how deep research—rather than limiting creativity—opened new narrative possibilities while grounding the story in reality.
• Community memory matters. The novel has sparked powerful conversations in book clubs and communities across the country, revealing how many families still carry untold immigrant histories.

#ImmigrantStories

#HistoricalFiction

#AmericanIdentity

Connect with Mary Kay Zuravleff:

Website

Book

Instagram

LinkedIn

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© 2025 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Hosted by William Miller

Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom

In this special edition of Upstart Crow, host Jennifer Disano visits the Fairfax Regional Library for the Local Author Festival, recorded November 15, 2025 in Fairfax, VA. Jennifer sat down with 16 talented authors and received submissions from 2 additional writers, exploring a wide variety of books, from memoirs and children’s stories to historical fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. Each author shared insights into their creative process and delivered a captivating synopsis of their work.

Authors and Featured Books:

• Carolyn Belefski – Curls, Black Magic Tales (artwork), Adventures of Roxy and Dean
• Kristen Amundson – Grandparent Effect: Helping Children Thrive Through Love, Support and Connection
• Rebecca Hayden – Murder of Maggie Slipper, The Second Life of Brencie Jessup
• Kacy Cooney – Seeking Solace, In the Maze of Imagination
• Roy Whitehurst – Teaching Media Literacy with Social Media News
• Karma Shri P Murti – Lanka’s Forgotten Lives, Lully series
• Kayla Sanders – Mojada: Memoir of a Honduran Immigrant
• Leslie Lautenslager – My Time with General Colin Powell: Stories of Kindness, Diplomacy, and Protocol
• Jerry Markowitz – Hugs Poetic Life, Exploring Kindness and Respect
• Henry Brinton – War Bug
• Rick Spees – Capital Gains, Capital Losses
• Eric Smolinski (E.R. Smo) – Accrue's End series: Affliction, Provenance
• Kat Needham – Shepherd Girl: A Dog Story, Una and the Fox
• Beka Wueste – The Unsent Letters of Lucy Pryor, Fireflies in a Jar, My Side of the World and Other Tales of Death
• Keisha Strand – I Need a Friend, What If We Went?
• Dave Hatcher – Son of the Heartland: On the Way to the Promised Land
• Deanna Reina – MENtal: A Preposterous Pursuit of Love
• Janet Macreery – The Falls

List of all authors at the festival here.

Fairfax County Public Library and the Fairfax Library Foundation made this festival possible, supporting local authors and ensuring the community could engage with these incredible stories.

#FairfaxLocalAuthors

#LibraryAuthorFestival

#CommunityReads

#FairfaxVA

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© 2025 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Hosted & Recorded by Jennifer Disano

Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Andy Shallal has been a voice for social causes in and around Washington, DC, so consistently and for so many years that many who stop in at one of his Busboys and Poets restaurants, bookshops and event spaces may think of him more as a social activist than as a restauranteur. But he grew up in a restaurant. His father, who came to the U.S. as a diplomat, bought a pizza restaurant in Northern Virginia when Andy was 13. His father hired someone to run the restaurant six days a week, but on Sundays, Andy, his brother, and his sister helped their father run the place. Andy would do whatever task had to be done and dream of what he would do if the restaurant were his own.

Some years later, after working for several other restaurants, he indeed was running his own place. In those days, the food might have come first. Even if the political activism was not far behind as a consideration. Today, 20 years after he opened the first Busboys, Andy now operates eight locations, each of which is a haven for writers, thinkers, performers of the literary and musical arts—as well as people who like well-prepared, congenially served food and drinks. In his memoir, A Seat at the Table, he tells how it all came to be, and how he came to create and helm it.

You can get a copy of Andy Shallal’s memoir at any of the bookstores in Busboy’s or from the publisher, O/R Books (orbooks.com). https://orbooks.com/catalog/A-seat-at-the-table/ and is also available in audiobook.

Hosted by William Miller

“Food is basically a way to bring people together to the table… people remember experiences much more than they remember the actual food.” -Andy Shallal

Key Takeaways

• Andy’s lifelong relationship with restaurants began at 13, helping his father run a small family pizza shop on Sundays.
• His early experiences as an immigrant shaped his worldview and later inspired his commitment to building inclusive, human-centered gathering spaces.
• After years of working in different restaurants, Andy opened his own spaces—each blending hospitality with art, community, and social engagement.
• Busboys and Poets was created as a place where food, conversation, books, and civic dialogue could thrive together.
• His memoir A Seat at the Table explores not just the creation of Busboys and Poets, but the deeper cultural, political, and personal forces that guided his journey.

#BusboysAndPoets #ImmigrantStory #SocialEntrepreneurship

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© 2025 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Sad Grownups is Amy Stuber’s first book of fiction. Her stories have appeared separately in literary journals and magazines, including Ploughshares, Tri-Quarterly, American Short Fiction, New England Review, Idaho Review, Cincinnati Review, Flash Fiction America, Joyland, and others. She received the 2023 William Peden Prize in fiction from the Missouri Review and the 2021 Northwest Review Fiction Prize, and she was runner-up for the 2022 CRAFT Short Fiction Prize. She has a Ph.D. in English, has taught writing, and has worked in on-line education for several years. Rebecca Burke is editorial manager-production for Science Advances, for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where she has worked since 2021, not long after finishing her MFA at George Mason. She received her BA from Mason in 2017, majoring in government and international politics with minors in intelligence analysis and international security. She graduated summa cum laude.

At Stillhouse, Rebecca has been a consulting editor, submissions and acquisitions manager, and graduate professional assistant. In addition to Amy Stuber’s book, she also edited In Between Spaces: An Anthology of Disabled Writers (November 2022) and was an assistant editor for Catherine Klatzer’s book You Will Never Be Normal (May 2021), Michelle Ross’s Shapeshifting (November 2021), Phil Goldstein’s How to Bury a Boy at Sea (2022), and Josh Denslow’s Super Normal (2023). As a writer, she has published in several outlets, including Peatsmoke 2021 and Homology Lit 2019, where her work was a Best of the Net nominee. rrburkewrites.com

Amy Stuber’s book Sad Grownups can be ordered directly from Stillhouse Press. The teaching press was established in 2014 as a way for the students in Mason’s MFA, BFA, MA and BA programs in creative writing and publishing to solicit manuscripts, acquire and produce and market works from independent authors, for the educational benefit of the students and alums and also, as it says on the web site, “in an effort to forge lasting relationships and foster the growth of the greater literary community.” Stillhouse Press is part of the Watershed Lit Center for Literary Arts and Publishing Practice at Mason. The other components are the Fall for the Book festival, the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, the Northern Virginia Writing Project, and the Poetry Daily on-line poetry distribution program.

You can purchase a copy of Sad Grownups by Amy Stuber at StillhousePress.org here.

“Small presses can take risks big publishers won’t. That’s where some of the most exciting writing is happening.” — Amy Stuber

Key Takeaways

• Writer Amy Stuber and editor Rebecca Burke walk through the creative evolution behind Sad Grown-Ups, from early drafts to a PEN Bingham Prize–winning debut.

• The episode reveals how collaborative editing, motif mapping, and story sequencing strengthened the collection’s emotional arc and overall cohesion.

• Amy and Rebecca break down the realities of small press publishing vs. big-house expectations, especially when it comes to debut short story collections.

• Several standout stories are explored, including “Day Hike,” “Sad Grown-Ups,” and “Little Women,” touching on themes of loss, reinvention, vulnerability, and identity.

• The conversation offers an honest look at marketing a debut, navigating rejection, and the tension between artistic integrity and marketability.

#ShortStoryCollections

#SmallPressPublishing

#LiteraryFictionInsights

Hosted by William Miller

Be sure to check out our website for more information about our hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show: UpstartCrow.org

Follow us on Facebook here.

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio.

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© 2025 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Davis argues that Rushmore likely couldn’t be built today—not only because of its sheer artistic ambition, but because of the changing cultural, political, and ethical landscape. How different communities interpret the monument varies dramatically, shaped by beliefs, culture, memory, and contested histories. The Black Hills themselves provoke discussions of land, belonging, and the legacy of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie—issues that continue to influence contemporary conversations about meaning, monuments, and national identity.

Matthew Davis is also the author of When Things Get Dark. His work has appeared in leading publications such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Los Angeles Times Review of Books. He has been an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at New America, a Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, and a Fulbright Fellow. Davis holds an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Iowa and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins. He was the founding director of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center at George Mason University.

A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore is published by St. Martin’s Press with an official release date of November 11, 2025. It will be available through Bookshop, independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Target, and Amazon.

Key Takeaways

• Mount Rushmore’s creation was shaped not only by artistry, but by politics, ego, and American mythmaking—its origin far more tangled than most realize.
• Sculptor Gutzon Borglum was both visionary and controversial, celebrated for his art yet entangled with the Ku Klux Klan and known for a domineering temperament.
• The history of the Black Hills, including the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the U.S. government’s seizure of the land, is central to understanding the monument’s ongoing controversy.
• Contemporary movements such as Land Back demonstrate that Rushmore’s story is not finished—its meaning continues to evolve through debates about justice, memory, and national identity.
• Memorials reflect their makers. Comparing Mount Rushmore to community-led memorials like Remembering the Children in Rapid City shows how public memory can shift from domination to inclusion.

Links

Find out more about Matthew Davis:

http://matthewdaviswriter.com/

Read Matt’s Substack “About A Place”:

https://matthewdavisj.substack.com/

Purchase A Biography of a Mountain:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250285102/abiographyofamountain/

Quote of the Episode

“History isn’t confined to the textbooks in the Black Hills—it’s a living, breathing organism that you really can’t escape.” — Matthew Davis

#MountRushmoreHistory

#AmericanMonuments

#MatthewDavisInterview

Hosted by William Miller

Be sure to visit our website for more information about our hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show:

https://UpstartCrow.org

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio.

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© 2025 Upstart Crow Podcast – All Rights Reserved

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Olufemi Terry is a Sierra Leone-born writer, essayist and journalist whose short fiction has been published in Guernica, The Georgia Review, Chimurenga and The Granta Book of the African Short Story. His story “Stickfighting Days” won the prestigious Caine Prize. His essays have appeared in The American Scholar, Africa Is a Country, and The Guardian. He has been an international writer-in-residence at Cove Park, Scotland, and a writer-in-residence at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He received a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He lives in Germany and Cote d’Ivoire.

You can buy Olufemi Terry’s book Wilderness of Mirrors directly from the publisher, Restless Books, an independent publisher based in Amherst, MA, that began in 2013 as a digital publisher of international literature. The organizers say on the Restless Books website that they think readers in the U.S. are hungry for works that take them to new places, give them new experiences, offer new perspectives, and that their mission is to feed that hunger. Restless Books offers free shipping on all orders within the U.S. so visit their web site at RestlessBooks.org for more information.

Key Takeaways:

• An “anti–coming of age” story: Olufemi Terry describes Wilderness of Mirrors as an anti-bildungsroman, where experience dissolves rather than builds the protagonist’s sense of self.
• Race, class, and identity collide: The novel weaves themes of Creole identity, class tension, and post-apartheid power structures in South Africa, revealing how systems of privilege and inequality persist.
• Ambiguity as reflection: Terry embraces uncertainty—both for his characters and the reader—as a mirror of today’s unpredictable world and shifting moral ground.

“We are in a place of deep uncertainty, of deep unpredictability—and that’s precisely where Emil is going. He doesn’t even know exactly where he’s going.” -Olufemi Terry

#OlufemiTerry #WildernessOfMirrors #AfricanLiterature

Hosted by William Miller

Be sure to check out our website for more information about our hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show: UpstartCrow.org

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio.

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Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Have a child? Want to have a child? Listen to this podcast episode. The book—The American Child: The Transformation of Childhood Since World War II—by Steven Mintz and Peter Stearns, draws on a wealth of sources to bring an historical perspective to the profound transformations that have occurred in American childhood over the last 70 years, and their impact on children’s well-being.

The authors, award-winning historians, analyze how shifts in family life, education, and culture have reshaped childhood for good and not-so-good. And they suggest ways the less-than-good impacts can be improved upon.

Steven Mintz is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a past president of the Society for the History of Children and Youth and the author of many prizewinning books including Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood. He has chaired the Council on Contemporary Families, a non-partisan non-profit that fosters understanding of how and why families are changing, what needs and challenges they face, and how to meet those needs.

Peter Stearns is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at George Mason University, where he also served as provost for 14 years. He has written extensively on the history of childhood, including Anxious Parents and Childhood in World History, now in its 4th edition. In 2022, he was awarded Scholar of Distinction by the American Historical Association. He also has several kids and grandkids, which provides its own perspective.

Attentive to issues of diversity in class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and race, the authors place contemporary controversies—rising rates of anxiety, depression, ADHD diagnoses, and emotional distress—in an historical context and challenge simplistic and astigmatic explanations that blame single causes such as social media, the internet, or the decline of marriage. They look instead at the transformations in schooling, childrearing practices, children's play, kid's culture, and other areas. Their analysis reveals the deeper structural, cultural, and historical forces driving the challenges and opportunities facing children, as well as their parents and society.

The publisher, Oxford University Press, says that the historical perspective these two use “shows that concerns about the ‘kids these days’” as some disparagingly say, “are as old as civilization itself, but in truth, today's young people are healthier than in the past and less likely to drink, smoke, or engage in reckless sex. The digital age has enabled them to learn, grow, and connect with the world in ways that were previously unimaginable.

There is greater acceptance and understanding of diverse backgrounds, identities, and orientations, giving many children more freedom to express themselves and find communities that support them. Many young people are more politically knowledgeable and socially aware than previous generations, speaking out about climate change, gun control, and social justice.”

But as most everyone knows, everything is not perfect. Autism, attention deficit disorders, allergies, obesity, learning disorders, and online bullying, as well as suicidal ideation and self-harm, have become more prevalent. School shootings and the 24/7 news cycle make the world seem even more dangerous for children. This book sorts through all these things from an historical perspective and with a thorough-going analysis.

You can order their book, The American Child, directly from Oxford University Press here.

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Key Takeaways

• Childhood has fundamentally transformed since WWII— with less unstructured play, narrower independence, and a stronger influence of corporate media on children’s imagination.
• Parental risk-aversion and helicopter parenting have limited kids’ autonomy, exploration, and opportunities for growth, often replacing adventure with overprotection.
• The rise of the therapeutic and medicalization of childhood has reframed ordinary traits as disorders, affecting children’s self-image and leading to heavy reliance on medication.
• Inequality and privatization of childhood mean affluent families can better support their children’s development, while less affluent families face structural disadvantages that deepen social divides.

“Kids need friendships more than they need followers.” – Steven Mintz

“One of our big points is the decline of opportunities for children to display competence.” – Peter Stearns

#ChildhoodTransformation #ParentingTrends #AmericanChildhood

Hosted by William Miller

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Be sure to check out our website for more information about our hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show: UpstartCrow.org

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

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Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

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Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Over the course of his career, Richard Bausch has won numerous awards, including the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, the REA Award for Influence on the Short Story as a Form, two National Magazine awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

His work has appeared numerous times in The Best American Short Stories volumes, The Pushcart Prize anthologies, and The O.HenryAwards collections. His earliest stories first appeared in publications like The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and Harper’s. Three feature-length motion pictures have been made from his writings. Currently, he teaches at Chapman University in Orange, California. Earlier, he taught at George Mason University and then at the University of Memphis.

Key Takeaways:

• How playful first lines can spark entire stories
• Why context matters more than “one true sentence” in short fiction
• The role of surprise in deepening the bond between writer and reader
• Themes of fate, love, and resilience that shape The Fate of Others

#UpstartCrowPodcast #RichardBausch #ShortStoryFiction

“In almost every good story, there is a moment that it all really turns on. And sometimes you don’t even know what it is until a reader points it out later. That’s the intimacy of fiction—the writer is as surprised writing it as the reader is discovering it.” - Richard Bausch

Hosted by William Miller

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Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

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Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Historian Robert Luckett joins to discuss the sorts of changes in society, public awareness, and the justice system that allowed for the trials’ outcomes—including the addition to the juries of blacks, both men and women, and on the white side, the addition of women. They also discuss another well-known case from that time that stands out for its lack of a conviction, the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a case many liken to the George Floyd case of modern times.

As the Till case nears its 70th anniversary, Jerry and Robert discuss what these outcomes and situations mean for the country’s future and what might determine the course of that future.

Jerry Mitchell, a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award, worked for three decades for the Clarion-Ledger Mississippi newspaper and in his book Race Against Time details the reporting he did while with the Clarion-Ledger that led to re-opening four major murder cases from the Civil Rights era, and the trials that ended with convictions. He founded the non-profit Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, dedicated to exposing injustices, investigating cold cases, and giving voice to the voiceless. Currently he is associated with Mississippi Today, an on-line non-profit news outlet that boasts one of the largest newsrooms in Mississippi.

Robert E. Luckett Jr. is a history professor at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., where he also directs the Margaret Walker Center and the COFO Civil Rights Education Center. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and carefully researched works, including a book that focuses on Joe T. Patterson, the Mississippi attorney general from 1956 to 1969. Robby and his work on Patterson were the focus of Upstart Crow episode No. 21. The book, Joe T.

Patterson and the White South’s Dilemma: Evolving Resistance to Black Advancement, offers a close read on the life and work of a dedicated white segregationist.

Hosted by William Miller

“To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.”

–William Faulkner

Special thanks to Liz Egan of Millsaps College for the introductions and help with logistics.

#CivilRightsJustice

#EmmettTillLegacy

#InvestigativeJournalism

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Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

The title of his most autobiographical novel occurred to David Baldacci the day he penned the first words. And it was literally penned—he started the book in a blank notebook his wife gave him on Christmas Day, 2011. He wrote that title and about 150 pages. He wasn’t even sure himself what the phrase a calamity of souls meant. He set it aside. Several years and novels later, he came back to this unfinished work. In the swirling events of 2020, he picked up the manuscript to finish it and ready the book for publication.In this episode of Upstart Crow, David joins host William Miller to talk about this novel, how it connects to and springs from his own life.

This hugely successful writer talks candidly and quite personally about his youth in the Richmond, Va., area, examples of racism he has witnessed, and, in very personal terms, what it was like to be among the busloads of White children bused to a formerly all-Black school in order to achieve integration some 20 years after the U.S. Supreme Court first ruled for it in its landmark Brown decision. He speaks of the confusion, the uncertainty—the fights he got into nearly every day. Why he set the novel in 1968. And the connection between this novel and his reading of James Baldwin while he wrote it.

David Baldacci is a global number-one bestselling novelist who began scribbling stories as a child in a notebook his mother gave him to keep him engaged and quiet, in order to give herself a break. Now, his total number of works is quickly approaching 60 titles, which have sold more than 150 million copies, in more than 45 languages, in more than 80 countries. His books have been turned into feature films as well as television adaptations.

He and his wife have cofounded the Wish You Well Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America—reading being an activity that he believes builds empathy and enriches the lives of those who practice it.

He lives in his native Virginia, where he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia Law School, two noteworthy public institutions. He was a practicing lawyer with a DC firm before beginning his career as a writer.

“I've always thought that books were body armor against bigotry.” — David Baldacci

#DavidBaldacciInterview

#ACalamityOfSouls

#BooksAgainstBigotry

Where to Buy David Baldacci’s Books:

A Calamity of Souls on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Calamity-Souls-David-Baldacci/dp/1538750634

David Baldacci’s full catalog on Bookshop.org (supports independent bookstores):

https://bookshop.org/contributors/david-baldacci

All titles by David Baldacci on Barnes & Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/contributor/david-baldacci/_/N-2k0b

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Be sure to check out our website for more information about our hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

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Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

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Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Catherine studied classics at Cambridge University and works as a journalist at The Economist. Her writing also has appeared in The Times and the Financial Times. Her two books are: The Darkening Age, which was an international bestseller and a New York Times notable book and which won a Royal Society award for non‑fiction; and, her more recent one, the first U.S. edition of which was published last year, Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God.

The daughter of a former nun and a former monk, Catherine was reared a Catholic. She developed a deep curiosity about religion and the nature of the church and its teachings. In her books, she draws on the research and writings of scholars, philosophers, primary text investigators—and she identifies big questions.

The Gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the Word,” but while this sentence and the others in the four Gospels are central to the teachings of the Christian church, the truth is, there was not one word in the years right after the death of Jesus. There was not “one word” for centuries after the death of Jesus. Indeed, there were different Jesuses. One who challenged his parents and the norms of their community. One who sold a twin into slavery. One who had someone else crucified in his stead. And there were other men who, though their names were not Jesus, wandered that same part of the world before, after and during his time, doing a lot of the same things he is reported to have done. Those others also healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead. Their stories did not make it into the main record, the Bible. While they didn’t completely fall out of history, one has to look hard to find their traces. As Catherine notes, history has been compared to fishing. What you pull out depends on where you drop the line.

“History has been compared to fishing. What you pull out depends on where you drop the line.” - Catherine Nixey

Available at major booksellers Amazon or Barnes & Noble:

https://a.co/d/ikUa2ri

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heretic-catherine-nixey/1145064532

#EarlyChristianity #HereticBook #UpstartCrow

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Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

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Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

Patterson, an avowed segregationist, tried to preserve the system of white hegemony by allowing some compromises with the civil rights movement but fighting with every legal means against others. During his time, the civil rights movement grew in power and form, and pulled the United States government and court system into a campaign to compel Mississippi and other Southern states to accept Black advancement.

But many years later, how much advancement has there been? And what of Southern exceptionalism? How has that idea born out? Robert Luckett discusses all of this and more in this episode with host William Miller.

“We are watching people today try to do the same things that Patterson and his ilk tried to do in the 1950s and ‘60s.” — Robert T. Luckett Jr.

Dr. Robert Luckett discusses how Joe T. Patterson and other segregationists used legal and political systems to block civil rights progress — and how those same strategies are being revived today.

He explains how the past isn’t just history, but a roadmap some leaders are following to suppress voting, dismantle public education, and silence communities of color.

Robbie also highlights the resilience of Jackson, Mississippi — a city pushing back against these efforts through activism, education, and a refusal to forget the truth of its history.

#CivilRightsLegacy

#MississippiPolitics

#HistoryRepeats

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Purchase a copy of Joe T. Patterson and the White South’s Dilemma on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/39ssxYw

--

Be sure to check out our website for more information about our hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

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Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

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Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom

His articles and fiction have appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta and Rolling Stone. As a journalist, Dinaw has reported on life in Darfur, Northern Uganda and eastern Congo. Dinaw is himself a native of Ethiopia who immigrated to the US with his parents when he was two years old.

In this episode of Upstart Crow, Dinaw talks with host William Miller in a wide-ranging conversation about the ways his own life story inform his fiction, how his work has developed over the years he has written, and the significance of many of the elements within each of the four novels.

"Lives are rarely good or bad. You know, we don't live in binaries. But what he is able to do is accept that he is here... and to kind of let go of this impossible return. That ability to accept—'this is my life'—still feels pretty profound to me."

— Dinaw Mengestu

The Power of Absence: Mengestu explores how silence and absence—especially of country, culture, and family—shape identity and narrative, allowing readers to feel the haunting spaces between what’s said and unsaid.

Immigrant Narratives Reimagined: His characters wrestle with displacement, the myth of return, and the trauma of migration, often facing the complex reality of accepting a new life while holding onto a lost one.

Violence and Perspective: Dinaw examines political and personal violence, not through spectacle but through subtlety—what is implied, withheld, and felt across generations.

#DinawMengestu #ImmigrantStories #UpstartCrowPodcast

Connect with Dinaw on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinaw_mengestu/

Find out more about his books and where you can purchase them here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/170308/dinaw-mengestu/

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Be sure to visit the Upstart Crow website for more information about our guests, hosts, and ways you can support the podcast: https://upstartcrow.org/

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

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Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom

JonDpodcom@gmail.com

In her scholarship, Dr. Bliss researches, writes about, and speaks about—as she puts it on her website—“the personal and social significance of new genetic sciences.” Her work “is centered at the intersection of sociology, psychology, and technology, offering a full-spectrum understanding of how our social worlds shape our personal worlds, affecting the health and quality of our lives.”

She brings her years of scholarship and observations to What’s Real About Race?

Published recently by W.W. Norton, the book looks at historic perspectives on race, views of race currently, and factors shaping the future view of race.

In the year 2000, President Bill Clinton and a half-dozen other world leaders joined to celebrate the finding of a science research project—an effort to map the genome of humans from around the world determined, as Dr. Bliss says, that “humans were 99.9 percent (genetically) the same.” Because people had conflated race and DNA, this finding challenged a lot of thinking.

But did it change minds? Following that declaration by scientists, there came another—“if race is not biological, what is? A social construct.” What does that even mean? Dr. Bliss answers that question, as well as what race being a social construct means given that people observe differences between themselves and other people. Where do those differences come from? What is the reality of race?

For the future, Dr. Bliss says we need “a new paradigm of race as well as a new language for talking about race”—but where would that come from, and how would those elements solve the race-related problems we see around us? She has ideas, which she discusses here.

One thing, she says, stop calling race a “social construct” and think of it as a “social reality.”

"We are all one family. So this idea of continental difference or division... it really cancels out any ability for us to recognize that we are all brothers and sisters." — Dr. Rina Bliss, author of What’s Real About Race

Check out Dr. Bliss’s website: https://www.drrinabliss.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.rinabliss/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rina-bliss-28263714/

Visit Upstart Crow on the web for more information about our hosts, guests, and how you can support the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

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Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom

JonDpodcom@gmail.com

The story she tells us of Amaya Lin, a Jamaican living and working in the United States, who is leaving the office where she works with her lawyer husband and his partner, rushing off to gather in her elderly aunt for the evening, when a younger woman approaches Amaya’s car, saying she is Amaya’s sister.

But Amaya thinks that is not possible. Since she was 17, she has had no family other than after she married - her husband and their son.

Why would this woman say that? Who was she really? She did have a familiar look, but, still—

Thus is Amaya - launched onto a journey into her past, a past she had forgotten, or suppressed. This is the novel Carol spins for readers, weaving three narrative lines through the U.S., Jamaica and Trinidad—the immigration experience; the challenge of constructing a successful life in a complex, sometimes tragic world; experiences of loss and rediscovery.

Hosted by William Miller

“I wanted to write a woman who wasn’t perfect. Who didn’t know everything. Who had to go back and recover parts of herself she didn’t even know she’d lost.” – Carol Mitchell

#CaribbeanFiction

#WhatStartBadAMornin

#WomenWhoWrite

Find out more about Carol on her website: https://carolmitchellbooks.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writewithcarol/?hl=en

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Visit Upstart Crow on the web for more information about our hosts, guests, and how you can support the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

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Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom

JonDpodcom@gmail.com

Why are people less interested in discovering new music? In this episode, we explore how nostalgia, technology, and cultural shifts shape our listening habits with guest David Rowell and his new book The Endless Refrain. From the dominance of classic hits to the impact of streaming algorithms, we break down the forces that keep us clinging to the familiar while new artists struggle to break through.

David Rowell is a seasoned journalist, editor, and author with a deep understanding of cultural trends. He spent nearly 25 years at The Washington Post Magazine, covering entertainment, music, and societal shifts. His writing has explored the ways we consume art and culture, making him the perfect voice to tackle this topic. With years of experience analyzing trends, Rowell offers a thought-provoking perspective on why we may be turning away from new sounds and what that means for the future of music.

Join us for a deep dive into the changing landscape of music consumption - why we love what we already know and whether there's still room for something new.

Hosted by Ken Budd

Key Takeaways:

• The power of familiarity: Why audiences react more strongly to old favorites than fresh tracks.
• The rise of nostalgia-driven music consumption and the impact of streaming algorithms.
• Concert holograms and AI artists: Are we embracing the past at the cost of innovation?
• What this trend means for independent musicians trying to break through.

#MusicTrends #NostalgiaEffect #NewMusic

You can learn more about David on his website and purchase this book or his other writings here:

https://www.davidrowellauthor.com/

Be sure to visit the Upstart Crow website for more information about hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show:

https://upstartcrow.org/

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

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Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom

The result is an engaging novel, highly artful in conceit and execution, one his publisher, the Santa Fe Writers Project, calls “an epic novel about life, death and the world in between.”

In this episode of Upstart Crow, Sam discusses where the idea came from, the research, the writing, and how he was able to pack so much into a little over 300 pages.

Hosted by William Miller

Check out Samuel's website, where you can purchase his book and learn more about him:

https://www.samuelashworth.com/

Follow Samuel on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelashworth/

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Be sure to visit our website where you can learn more about the hosts, guests, and ways you can support the show:

https://upstartcrow.org/

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Recorded and Produced by Jon D. PodCom / AmberTree Media

In this episode of Upstart Crow, Steph and Upstart Crow host William Miller look at some of the pieces published in the first two issues and discuss her goals for In Short, how it operates, and why it is an on-line rather than in-print journal and probably will remain that way.

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Follow Steph and In Short Journal online: https://inshortjournal.com/

Their latest issue: https://inshortjournal.com/issue-2-winter-25/

In Short's submissions page: https://inshortjournal.com/in-short-home-page/submissions/

In Short's X account: @inshortlit

Steph Liberatore on X: @stephliberatore

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Be sure to visit the Upstart Crow website:

https://upstartcrow.org/

Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom / AmberTree Media

Those experiences led him to start an addiction and recovery organization called The Phoenix, which uses, as he puts it, “The inherent transformative power of sport and activity and social events to build a supportive community that helps on the path to recovery.”

Today the Phoenix has about 500,000 members nationwide.

Scott tells the story of his dramatic transformation—from his traumatic childhood to his innovative nonprofit work—in a powerful new memoir: Rise. Recover. Thrive. How I Got Strong, Got Sober, and Built a Movement of Hope.

Hosted by Ken Budd

Order Scott’s book on his website: https://www.scottstrode.com/

Learn about The Phoenix: https://thephoenix.org/

Find out more about Upstart Crow: https://upstartcrow.org/

Follow Upstart Crow on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/upstartcrowpod.bsky.social--

Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom / AmberTree Media

The book works from the premise that the gender binary presents a paradox for organization leaders and raises the question of how to forge new paths and confront gender-based stereotypes. The authors observe that many leaders outside of the gender binary remain absent from critical research and leadership studies.

They also observe that societal expectations and stereotypes influence the journeys of all gender identities across professions and that challenging beliefs about leadership may allow organizations to break through the gender binary and embrace gender-fluid leadership styles.

Written during a time when our world feels increasingly divided, this book brings together different voices and experiences to help restore authentic leadership. It's not just about theory - it's about solutions that work in organizations.

Chapters covered in this discussion include:

"Leadership 'Qualities' and Gendered Social Cues: An Intersex Perspective" by Seri Robinson

"Sharing Power Willingly" by Jack Harris and Rocco Capraro

"The Individual Within the System" by Lydia Loizides

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Note: There is a third author of the book, Jenna Konyak Terrel, who is not present for this discussion.

About your host's:

Debra Lane, is a veteran educator with over 30 years of experience leading schools in the U.S. and abroad. She has taught from pre-K to graduate-level courses and directed talent development and equity initiatives in numerous school settings and systems.

With advanced degrees from Baylor, Virginia Tech, George Mason, and U.Va., her research on bullying prevention has guided schools and government agencies. A sought-after speaker and consultant, Dr. Lane is dedicated to leadership development, curriculum innovation, and inclusive education worldwide.

Ann Marie Luce, is a globally experienced educational leader who recently joined Citibank as vice president in Enterprise Risk Management Training programs. Her two decades in international education include work as associate director of the Centennial Center at Hobart and William Smith College, where she shaped leadership and entrepreneurship programs for students. With a doctorate from Gonzaga University focused on cultural intelligence and women's leadership, Dr. Luce champions global competence, diversity, and inclusion through humanistic leadership and systems thinking.

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The authors see the book as not just another academic text but as a practical guide for creating change in how people think about and practice leadership. By sharing stories and solutions, they hope to help organizations move from talking about inclusion to making it happen.

Join Upstart Crow for an engaging discussion about how leadership is changing, and learn practical ways to create more inclusive workplaces where everyone thrives.

You can purchase a copy of the book or single chapters at: Building Inclusive Leadership Beyond the Gender Binary

Please, visit the Upstart Crow website for more information about what we do, our hosts, guests, and how you can support the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Copyright 2025 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Edited & Produced by Jon D PodCom / AmberTree Media

Reflecting on those works, she discusses what it was like:

• to write that many novels so quickly
• how she wove into the first book the craft techniques that made readers enthusiastic for the second and third
• how she wants to manage production of the fourth
• plus her ideas for the next phase of her creative life, as well as how she is deliberately laying plans to achieve her goals

In the course of the discussion, she also reveals the source for her recurring demon character, Althacazur.

Hosted by William Miller

Connect with Constance on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constancesayers/

Be sure to visit her website: https://constancesayers.com/

Find out more about the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

Copyright 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Recorded & Produced by Jon D PodCom in association with AmberTree Media

Paula is a distinguished curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, whose work has brought iconic stories of American culture to life. Most notably, Paula played a key role in preserving the legacy of culinary legend Julia Child. In 2001, she was part of the team that collected Julia Child’s home kitchen and later developed the celebrated exhibition Bon Appétit! Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian, which captivated audiences from 2002 to 2012.

Paula shares behind-the-scenes stories about curating Julia’s kitchen—a treasure trove of culinary history—and how this exhibit became a landmark celebration of food’s role in American culture. We also explore her broader work, including co-curating FOOD: Transforming the American Table, 1950–2000, and her passion for connecting people to history through objects and storytelling.

Don’t miss this fascinating discussion about Julia Child’s enduring impact, the art of curation, and Paula’s remarkable career in preserving American history.

#JuliaChild #SmithsonianStories #AmericanFoodHistory

Pick up a copy of Paula's book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Julia-Childs-Kitchen-Design-Stories/dp/141977008X

Visit Julia Child's Kitchen at The Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

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Copyright - 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

Edited & Produced by Jon D. Miller / AmberTree Media

As he notes, the history of America is one of immigration, where migrants often have fulfilled many of the country’s needs for both talent and labor. But, he says, the newest of those to immigrate are less well known and less well appreciated than were generations before them.

This veteran journalist crossed the country and listened to the stories of those migrants, hearing them in their own voices. He presents their stories alongside broad-scale facts, with focus and analysis, and a sharp eye for ironic detail.

He notes, for example, that 50 percent of the home health care workers in America today were born in another country. That means, he says, some people are being cared for—fed, given their medications, bathed—by people they would prefer not to live next door.

**During the program, you'll hear a partial recording of a "Question & Answer" session. While some of the questions are not fully audible, Mr. Suarez's thoughtful and insightful responses have been preserved, providing an even further in-depth perspective on his expertise.**

Get your copy of Mr. Suarez's book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ray-suarez/we-are-home/9780316353878/?lens=little-brown

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https://upstartcrow.org/

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Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio.

This episode was presented in association with the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University.

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Copyright 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved

Edited & Produced by Jon D. Miller/AmberTree Media

The discussion touches on everything from the initially proposed cover art—which could have misrepresented the novel—to the metafictional elements woven into the narrative and Baxter’s long-held thoughts on the power of computers, an idea he’s contemplated for over 20 years. He even addresses how the novel aligns with the guidance he outlined in his craft essays from Burning Down the House.

Get a copy of Blood Test: A Comedy or any of Charles Baxter's writings here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000AQ4H12

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Be sure to check out the Upstart Crow website to learn more about our guests, meet the hosts, and discover ways to support the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

Copyright 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Edited & Produced by Jon D. Miller/AmberTree Media



They discuss the challenges of bipartisan cooperation on climate action, Henderson’s perspective as a conservative voice in the environmental space, and her insights on effective climate advocacy. Tune in to learn how climate policy shapes our future and what individuals can do to contribute.

Get a copy of Chelsea's book on Amazon here: Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics

Visit the the republicEn website to learn more about them: https://republicen.org/

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Be sure to check out the Upstart Crow website to learn more about our guests, meet the hosts, and discover ways to support the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

Copyright 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Edited & Produced by Jon D. Miller/AmberTree Media



Set in the Caucuses during and right after War War II, the three novellas capture the coming-of-age story of the narrator, a boy named Sadyk, but also the struggles of the village and its people, notably the women who were left behind when the men went off to war and who must deal with their return after both they and the men have been changed by what has happened. This translation captures the rich subtleties of the story, the characters, the situations they confront, their conflicts both internal and external, and it makes these far-away events real and important to understanding today’s world. The volume is available from Plamen Press.

The conversation also covers the life situation confronting Aylisli, now almost 87, still writing, and living in the Azerbaijani capital as a political detainee after another story, published in 2012, offended some of his countrymen and their leaders. Katherine E. Young also has translated that work, and she discusses it and the larger issue of Aylisli’s political plight, as well.

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Learn more and connect with Katherine E. Young here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherine.young.338/

X: @KEYoung_Poet

website: https://katherine-young-poet.com/

Bluesky: @katherineeyoung.bsky.social 

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Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

Copyright 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Recorded & Produced by Jon D. Miller / AmberTree Media

Visit Nicholas Delbanco's website to learn more about him and find his works: http://nicholasdelbanco.com/

Learn more about the Upstart Crow podcast, it's hosts, and how you can support the show here: https://upstartcrow.org/

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Thank you for listening to the Upstart Crow podcast!

copyright - 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Recorded, Edited, and Mixed by Jon D. Miller / AmberTree Media

Dr. Ranganath, a Guggenheim Fellow and director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at UC Davis, has spent over two decades researching how the brain forms and recalls memories. In Why We Remember, he redefines the way we think about memory, showing it as an active, transformative force that shapes our identity, decision-making, and emotional well-being. His work reveals how memory is not just a record of the past but a tool for understanding the present and preparing for the future. The conversation delves into this groundbreaking research and offers practical tips on harnessing memory’s strengths, healing from trauma, and even using memory to improve focus and growth.

The second half of this episode offers a Q&A with Dr. Ranganath. Viewers who saw the episode live when it was recorded sent questions through a group chat, exploring topics from everyday memory hacks to the science behind forgetting. Join Upstart Crow for an engaging journey through the science of memory and its profound implications for personal growth and resilience.

Find out more about Dr. Charan Ranganath on his website: https://charanranganath.com/

Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thememorydoc/

Visit the Upstart Crow website to learn more about us, the podcast, and how you can support the show: https://upstartcrow.org/

Also, follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upstartcrowpodcast/

Leave a review on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts. It helps others find the show!

Thanks for listening!

Copyright 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast

Edited & Mixed by Jon D. Miller / AmberTree Media

Thompson first explains the true start of country music in the 1920's. Then beginning in the 1940's and 50's, how it grows in part through military support. With artists performing for troops worldwide, crafting a sound that embodied American values into the Cold War. He discusses how these efforts influenced the genre's trajectory, impacted race relations within the music industry, and contributed to country music’s image as a symbol of American patriotism. This conversation uncovers the lesser-known intersections of culture, politics, and military strategy, showing how entertainment and national interests often aligned in unexpected ways​.

Learn more about Joseph M. Thompson on his website: https://www.josephmthompson.com/

Be sure to visit the Upstart Crow website for more information on episodes, hosts, and other news: https://upstartcrow.org/

Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/upstartcrowpodcast/

Editing and Mixing by - Jon D. Miller/AmberTree Media

Copyright 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

Described as “bold” and “masterfully crafted,” Stuck’s work has drawn praise for its unflinching look at race, identity, and belonging. Known for his unique ability to blend dark humor with uncomfortable truths, Stuck reveals how he channels personal experiences to create characters that resonate with readers on multiple levels.

Recognized by O, The Oprah Magazine, and a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection, Give My Love to the Savages cements Stuck as a powerful voice in contemporary fiction.

Learn more about Chris Stuck on his website: https://www.chrisstuck.com/

Follow Chris Stuck on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/super_biracial_man/

Be sure to visit the Upstart Crow website for more information on episodes, hosts, and other news: https://upstartcrow.org/

Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/upstartcrowpodcast/

Recorded October 25, 2024

Recording, Editing, and Mixing by - Jon D. Miller/AmberTree Media

Copyright 2024 - Upstart Crow Podcast, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

The Most by writer Jessica Anthony lives up to its title—it takes place in a day but it is about all the days that have gone before in the lives of Kathleen and Virgil, and all that they have done wrong, dramatized in a slim, perfect novel.

Long listed for the National Book Award, it is the fourth by Ms. Anthony, one of the most innovative, imaginative writers working today. Here, she talks at length about The Most as well as the earlier works, and a bit about what might be next.

Visit Jessica's website to learn more and purchase a copy of The Most, or any of her works:

https://www.thejessicaanthony.com/

Follow and connect with Jessica on IG: https://www.instagram.com/entertheanthony/

Go to the Upstart Crow website for more information about us:

https://upstartcrow.org/

Follow our social media, more to come soon:

https://www.instagram.com/upstartcrowpodcast/

Thank you for listening to the Upstart Crow podcast, a part of Watershed Lit Radio

Recording and Production by Jon D. Miller/AmberTree Media

Copyright - Upstart Crow Podcast, 2024

Is that a big stretch or not so much? While Ben was one of the United States’ founders and earliest statesmen and diplomats, he also was a scientist—remember his experiment with the kite and key?—and a writer—Poor Richard’s Almanac, remember that? But what else did he do? A lot, as it turns out, some of it little known and some of it just so little known as to be forgotten. Not all of it was great or brilliant but some of it was both of those things and more.

Writer Eric Weiner set out to discover as much as he could about old Ben and to use what he learned to help himself lead his own long and useful life, as it seemed Ben had done. In this episode of Upstart Crow, Eric discusses the resulting book, Ben and Me, with host William Miller.

To learn more about Eric Weiner visit his website: https://ericweinerbooks.com

Visit our website to connect and find out more about Upstart Crow here: https://upstartcrow.org/

Social Media links coming soon!

Thank you for listening to Upstart Crow, a part of Watershed Lit Radio.