On Episode 36 of Radio Free Mike, Annabelle Gurwitch talks about cancer and its platitudes — and her new book, The End of My Life is Killing Me.

Meg Smaker was held hostage in Colombia by an anti-FARC militia for about ten days in 2003. She explains how her short kidnapping led her to the topic of her most controversial film, Jihad Rehab / The UnRedacted.

For Episode 34 of Radio Free Mike I talked to novelist Ed Park about his dreamlike stories, and the allure of (early) REM

Daniela Gerson and Talia Inlender talk about The Wanderers, and the strange coincidence among their grandparents who all fled the Nazis from Poland (not together) in about 1940.

This week on Radio Free Mike I talked with Elizabeth Crane about her new book of short fiction, That Might Not Mean What You Think, as well as the horrors of dating apps, and what to call her slightly frantic first-person stories.

Andrea Pitzer on Radio Free Mike, discussing Trump’s detention camps. She’s written a history of modern concentration camps called ONE LONG NIGHT, and you do not want to miss this episode.

On Episode 30, Thomas Blubacher talks about his book WEIMAR UNDER THE PALMS, which revisits the Europeans who fled Hitler and landed in L.A. It was the worst of times, but it had an unusual grace.

Tom Jennings talks about his New Yorker doc ROVINA’S CHOICE, which covers the sudden destruction of USAID and its instant effect on a mother from South Sudan.

Now that he has a memoir out in India called Hijacked, I compared notes with Pralav Dhyani about being a hostage of Somalia pirates.

On Episode 27 of Radio Free Mike, Adam Skolnick talks about his new novel AMERICAN TIGER, about a large cat on the loose in California. Based on real events!

Deborah Kapchan, American folklorist and ethnographer, on her new memoir TAKING LEAVE, about her complicated relationship with Judaism, Christianity, and Sufi Islam.

Kenneth R. Rosen talks about his book POLAR WAR and the politics of the Arctic — including, obviously, Greenland.

I had a great time talking to Mo Ogrodnik about her novel GULF, which follows five very different women moving through Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Abu Dhabi. We focus on craft, but also on human trafficking and the gulf between classes in the Middle East.

Delighted to chat with Jonathan Lethem on Radio Free Mike about Kafka, talking animals, and his new book of collected stories, A DIFFERENT KIND OF TENSION.

Ben Weissenbach recently spent time adventuring through cold & isolated parts of Alaska, and his book NORTH TO THE FUTURE takes a look at migrating forests, melting glaciers, and thawing permafrost to examine the effects of climate change in a corner of the world where the climate has changed the most: temperatures in Alaska have risen more than twice as fast as the global average since about 1970.

On episode 21 of Radio Free Mike, Francisco Cantú talks about working for — and leaving — the Border Patrol, as well as mission creep north of the wire.

On Episode 20 of Radio Free Mike, the author of CORRUPTIBLE, Brian Klaas, talks about political corruption, how it festers, and how it dries up.

I had a great time talking to Tom Zoellner about his new book THE ROAD WAS FULL OF THORNS, and the odd-sounding legal theory that forced Lincoln’s hand during the Civil War. Episode 20 of Radio Free Mike.

Sonia Kennebeck on her film REALITY WINNER, and the unfashionable topic of interference in the 2016 election. On Episode 18 of Radio Free Mike.