Slate's The Afterword

June Thomas talks with Pam Belluck, author of Island Practice: Cobblestone Rash, Underground Tom, and Other Adventures of a Nantucket Doctor.

June Thomas talks with Edward Humes, author of Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash.

June Thomas talks with Alison Bechdel, author of Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama.

June Thomas talks with Lynn Sherr, author of Swim: Why We Love the Water.

June Thomas talks with R.J. Smith, author of The One: The Life and Music of James Brown.

June Thomas speaks with Jonah Lehrer, author of Imagine: How Creativity Works.

June Thomas speaks with Maggie Anderson, author of Our Black Year: One Family's Quest To Buy Black in America's Racially Divided Economy.

June Thomas speaks with Thomas Thwaites, author of The Toaster Project, Or a Heroic Attempt To Build a Simple Electric Appliance From Scratch.

June Thomas speaks with David Treuer, the author of Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life.

June Thomas speaks with Patricia Cohen, author of "In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age."

June Thomas speaks with Matthew Polly, author of Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor: An Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts.

June Thomas speaks with Robert Neuwirth, author of Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy.

In the debut episode of her new podcast, June Thomas speaks with Steve Kleinedler, the executive editor of the American Heritage Dictionary.