Author: Erica Jong

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Taking care of fish-related housekeeping.

Winner of Philosophical Contest: John Barlow

Subjects Discussed: Maintaining a conversational and confessional tone, finding a voice, being known for Isadora Wing vs. poetry, Pablo Neruda, the current status of poetry, on sleeping with Martha Stewart’s husband, personal mistakes, why Jong wrote about Andy Stewart, sexism in the publishing industry, Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei, reader misconceptions of Fear of Flying, the chick lit ghetto, Jennifer Weiner, Molly Jong-Fast, on the lack of serious reviews of women’s fiction, the 1970s publishing environment vs. the 2000s publishing environment, the gender gap in literary fiction and the Canadian loophole, Mary Gaitskill, Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx, Kelly Link, American vs. international reputation, literary trends over the years, writing Toni Morrison her first fan letter, and Erica Jong the closet linguist.

[AUDIO NOTE: At one point, the conversation was interrupted by a vacuum. It only appears for about a minute and we’ve filtered most of it out. But just so you know.]

Author: Jay McInerney

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Furious and defensive, defending himself against the acrimonious charges from Miss Snark

Subjects Discussed: The Bretster and the Jayster, Lunar Park, McInerney’s notion of “the upper class,” the culterati, on writing about 9/11 in less than ten years, the three-act structure, genteel prose, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John P. Marquand, James Gould Cozzens, bestsellers, the publishing industry, public life vs. literary respectability, credibility in light of the Warren St. John article, responding to Blake Bailey’s review, satire vs. love story, investment bankers as human beings, the lack of thematic elements in The Good Life, the burden of plot, bodies washing bodies.

[NOTE: This podcast includes a free book giveaway of Spiotta’s Eat the Document. Listen to the podcast for details.]

Author: Dana Spiotta

Condition of Bat Segundo: Self-important and sleep-deprived, but surprisingly generous.

Subjects Discussed: Katherine Ann Power as inspiration, the ambiguities of terrorism, comparisons and similarities between Eat the Document and Lightning Field, witty political activists, the Billboard Liberation Front, cinematic influences, Don DeLillo, plotting, reader expectations, on stopping just short of September 11th, justifying pop cultural references, food as a Balzacian character indicator, the Beach Boys, literary influences, dialogue, how people talk in restaurants, the rise in contemporary novels dealing with 1960s & 1970s activism, innocence, and unanswered questions for the reader.

Author: Liz Perle

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Vengeful and nostalgic for bad investment decisions.

Subjects Discussed: The quiet contract, what power means, responding to Ariel Levy’s review, the emotional middle class, lying to partners about money, conspicuous consumption, status, the two tiers of women-centric economics, guilt, women not being allowed to talk about money, describing women with aesthetic qualifiers, money and marriages, how younger women view money, gender income disparities, political obstacles, Caitlin Flanagan, value shifts over the past thirty years, on being a Target and IKEA queen, materialism, working class economics, Larry Ellison, David Denby’s American Sucker, and the “exclusivity” of quotes.

Authors: Dan Wickett and Kirstin Allio

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Snubbed and pining for Beelzebub.

Subjects Discussed: The ideal of the perfect sentence, Faulkner, research, New Hampshire, 1920s vernacular, the controversy of Mrs. Heald, drafting Garner, agents and literary fiction, literary influences, Wallace Stegner, naming names, cemeteries, the difficulties of writing about girlhood, and being skeptical about craft.

Authors: Megan Sullivan, Rupert Thomson, Scott Esposito and Edward Falco.

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Looking for answers in British science fiction.

Subjects Discussed: How the idea came about, relentlessly cheery Swedish girlfriends, how Rupert Thomson processes his prodigious research, Ian McEwan, inspiration vs. craft, the trappings of being a “speculative fiction writer,” entertaining novels vs. literary novels, the difficulties of first-person narration, George Orwell, Anthony Burgess’ The Wanting Seed, Mikhail Bulgakov and literary influences, definitive grit in rural settings, disturbing characters, sex and death, decorum in fiction, what’s not talked about in fiction, manhood vs. multicultralism, Catholicism, the influence of personal background, Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, World War II, realism vs. postmodernism, hypertext fiction, compulsions, experimental fiction, literary vs. commercial fiction, and writing in longhand vs. writing on computer.

Authors: Sam Jones, Ander Monson, C. Max Magee and Elizabeth Crane.

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Snubbed and self-righteous.

Subjects Discussed: Visceral voice vs. conceptual voice, the book’s origins, the Monson universe of stories, snow, self-help books, postmodernism, the war on ambitious fiction, John Barth, the original expansive form of Other Electricities, Twin Peaks, book design, Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves, experimental fiction, how Other Electricities was almost published by McSweeney’s Books, Rick Moody, Monson’s obsession with snow, mashed potatoes, Jonas Hanway, umbrellas, comparisons with Elizabeth McKenzie’s Stop that Girl, writers named Elizabeth, blatant autobiographical fiction vs. entirely invented fiction, Owen Wilson, the influence of pop culture upon Crane’s writing, numerology, three-minute films, Maury Povich’s sadism, writing for Nerve, the horrors of blueberry bagels, the influence of David Foster Wallce, Michiko Kakutani, the credibility of “by the way” in dialogue, being categorized as chicklit, dicklit, Nick Laird, on being reviewed, the pros and cons of being a woman writer, and New York vs. Chicago.

Author: Dave Barry

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Reduced to second-string narrator.

Subjects Discussed: Suze Orman, footnotes, Donald Trump, lawsuits, phone calls from Paul Anka, daily affirmations, indices, sex with ducks, buzz cuts (1960 vs. 2005), the boomerang generation, getting reviewed in the NYTBR, Dave Barry deconstructs our Young, Roving Correspondent’s baroque speaking style, snobbery, humor, Lee Eisenberg, commuting, podcasting, reading books and farting, quitting his column, reader expectations, and working with Jeff McNelly.

[LISTENER’S NOTE: This podcast is probably the strangest one we’ve put out.]

Author: Mark Ames

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Relaxed and possibly malingering.

Subjects Discussed: Falling asleep during interviews, online terror threats, myspace.com, language as a source of enslavement, using linguistics to prove a thesis, the similarities between slavery and MBA management theory, the advantages of being both an expatriate and anthropologist, Hunter S. Thompson, conformity, rage murders, Columbine, the torture of high school, on being “strange” in American society, reaching out to the fringe, Stalin, September 11th, compassion, the American people vs. the American government, Katrina, nice people, Nat Turner, happiness and sickness in terrible situations, Kelly Bennnett and Al Deguzman, finks as heroes, Linda Tripp, Judith Miller, the framework of inner-city riots, the “let’s move on” mentality, zero tolerance, “bowling,” filing grievances, Ward Cleaver as metaphor, the film Office Space as propaganda, the opportunism of Morgan Spurlock and Eric Schlosser, preaching to the converted, Kuntsler’s The Long Emergency, on writing a polemic without a conclusion, Edward Limonov, the National Bolshevik Party, the Black Panther Party Platform, the advantages of Russian expat journalism, Rep. Henry Bonillo’s threats, the current state of American journalism, prudishness, whores, William T. Vollmann, the evil of Chuck Klosterman, Ames’ response to Klosterman’s claims at Zulkey, Klosterman’s revisionism, and co-opting the “loser” mentality.

Author: Lydia Millet

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Repentant, perpelxed and adjusting to a sudden change.

Subjects Discussed: Beer at 11:30 AM, Richard Rhodes, Wold Newton, American Prometheus, getting biographical details wrong, the influence of fiction vs. nonfiction, the displacement of major historical figures, narrative juggling acts, freakishness in literature, Lynda Barry, obstacles in being a woman writing dark humor, the gender divide in the publishing industry, outlining novels, finding humor in Hiroshima, humorless book reviewers, lip service in government, ignorance, literature which reassures, fiction that reaches a mass audience, Richard Nash as publisher, the I Am Charlotte Simmons paperback, Richard Nash as editor, how characters are named, meterologists, cigarettes, Lydia Millet’s father, the various pronunciations of “missile,” Leo Szilard, Eminem, blindness, compassionate satire, John P. Marquand, Kirby Gann’s Our Napoleon in Rags, Ignatius Reilly, porn culture, working at Hustler, Jonathan Ames, imaginary figures in literature, on whether Dave Eggers deserves to be punched, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, substance in fiction, authenticity, the endless McSweeney’s lists, irony and cynicism.