Mason Out Loud

In the final episode of the season, Bernardine (Dine) Watson sits down to discuss her journey with kidney disease and her two transplants. A nonfiction writer and poet, Watson talks about healthcare disparities, finding community, and accepting her diagnosis of FSGS in this conversation about Transplant: A Memoir, which won the inaugural Washington Writers' Publishing House Creative Nonfiction Award.

Comedian Sally Chaffin Brooks talks about her through hike on the Appalachian Trail. From the funky trail names, to the memorable characters along the way, to the lessons the AT served up for her career in comedy, Chaffin Brooks shares the funny, difficult, and thoughtful stories from her life-changing hike.

Jen Soriano, author of Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing talks about chronic pain, ancestral trauma, and finding joy and support through community. Soriano is a Filipinx-American writer, independent scholar, and performer who has long worked at the intersection of grassroots organizing, narrative strategy, and art-driven social change.

Jennifer Brice talks about Another North, her essay collection about growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska and moving through the world, understanding herself as a woman, mother, daughter and granddaughter. In the essays, she looks for answers in family lore, personal experience, and conversations with friends, and beloved books in this wide-ranging and poignant collection.

Greg Wrenn discusses his book Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis, a story of personal and global healing. He touches on the importance of coral reefs to the journey to heal from complex PTSD through the administration of a psychedelic tea called ayahuasca, and so much more in this book that blends memoir with cutting-edge science.

Edwin B. Henderson II discusses his book, The Grandfather of Black Basketball, about his grandfather and namesake, Dr. E. B. Henderson. A local Civil Rights leader, athletics game changer, and prolific writer, E. B.'s legacy is both a local and national story.

Praveen Herat joins Fall for the Book to talk about his debut novel, Between This World and the Next, a gripping exploration of power, identity, and how far one must go to uncover the truth. Herat was born in London to Sri Lankan parents and educated at Oxford and the University of East Anglia. He lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for several years, a period that marked him profoundly and prompted his research for what would become Between This World and the Next.

Shirley M. Marshall talks about the suffragist movement and the 19th Amendment in this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast. Her book, A Radical Suffragist in Washington, D.C.: An Inside Story of the National Woman’s Party is local, national, and international look at the strategy and politics of the suffragist movement.

Mythology, identity, motherhood, and more discussed in this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast with poet K. Avvirin Berlin, author of the collection Leda's Daughters. the collection is full of salt-of-the-earth poems that traverse and transgress the temporal, re-envisioning African American and Native American women’s history as a history of poetics.

Eliza Knight talks fantastic flappers, star studded dancers, and incredible female stars in this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast. From the underappreciated legacy of Adele Astaire, sister to Fred Astaire, to Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe's unlikely friendship. She is the author of Starring Adele Astaire, Why Can't We Be Friends, and many other titles.

Edward Cahill discusses his novel Disorderly Men, which follows three gay men in pre-Stonewall NYC, who find their fates thrown together during the police raid of a Village bar. Cahill talks identity, shame, 'disorderly conduct, and James Baldwin, in this episode of the Fall for the Book podcast.

Vandana Khanna sits down to talk about her poetry collection Burning Like Her Own Planet, the ancient Hindu text The Ramayana, women's rage and power, and of course, Beyonce.

Nicole Glover discusses her genre bending Murder and Magic series - The Conductors, and The Undertakers. Set in post-Civil War society, they feature Hetty and Benji - two former Conductors on the Underground Railroad, as they solve murders using celestial magic.

Annie Rains stops by in this bonus holiday episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast to talk about her novel "Through The Snowglobe," a mashup of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Groundhog's Day." Romance, Christmas, and second (and third and fourth) chances shape this heartwarming novel.

M.P. Woodward talks about his own experience in the Intelligence community, and how it helped him write his new espionage thriller, Dead Drop, where international nuclear negotiations turn allies into enemies.

Caty Borum talks satire, humor, and the power of uplifting voices through comedy in this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast. Borum is Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact, and the author of The Revolution Will be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power.

Mojgan Ghazirad discusses her autobiographic novel, The House on Sun Street, about a young girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution. She talks about the power of storytelling, changing identities, and the dangers of book banning.

Vanessa Riley talks about her novel Queen of Exiles, about the first black queen of Haiti after the Haitian Revolution. Marie-Louise Christophe then lived in exile where she became the first 'media-stalked' royal in an impressive tale.

Kathryn Savage, author of the debut lyric essay Groundglass, breaks down Superfund sites, the “body burden” of pollution, and the importance of hearing those whose voices often are silenced.

Salar Abdoh discusses martyrdom, (in)humanity in war, and dichotomies of art, peace, and violence in the Middle East, in his powerful novel Out of Mesopotamia. Abdoh was born in Iran and splits his time between Tehran and New York City. He is the author of the novels Tehran at Twilight, The Poet Game, and Opium; and he is the editor of Tehran Noir. His latest novel is Out of Mesopotamia.