[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.