Open Book
Live Wire Radio presents Open Book with Elena Passarello, our new limited-series podcast. Eight new episodes will be released every Wednesday within our usual podcast feed.
Open Book is distributed by Peabody-winning public media organization PRX and sponsored by Powell’s Books.
The series features conversations with a series of acclaimed writers, cracking the spine on their most intimate relationships: the ones they have with books.
Award-winning writer and Live Wire announcer Elena Passarello steers candid conversations covering all things bookish, from reading habits and book recommendations to controversial literary opinions. The podcast invites listeners to eavesdrop on the kind of passionate book talk that’s typically reserved for late nights and second glasses of wine, with guests including Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell (The Antidote), novelist Omar El Akkad (What Strange Paradise, One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This), Maintenance Phase podcaster Aubrey Gordon, culture writer Scaachi Koul (Sucker Punch), and bestselling essayist Melissa Febos (Girlhood, The Dry Season).
“I knew talking to writers about books was going to be fun, but I had no idea how fun,” said Passarello. “Seriously, our guests have been offering up some insightful, silly, and very opinionated thoughts on reading, and I think listeners will have a blast, too. They’ll also get about six thousand ideas about new books to add to their ‘to be read’ piles!”
Episodes
Episode 1: Karen Russell
Award-winning author Karen Russell (Swamplandia!) chats about the joy of reading a book you love written by someone you love, how Stephen King led to sleepless nights as a child, and those “little black dress” books you always loan to a friend. Plus, Elena reveals her latest vacation read as a murder mystery starring "existential sheep."
For a full transcript and show notes, click here.
Podcast star Aubrey Gordon (Maintenance Phase) discusses what a bookstore’s poetry section reveals about its true nature, the thrill of a literary "rug pull," and how sometimes the solution to "too much work reading" is… more reading? And Elena shares her go-to hack for getting your reading mojo back.
For a full transcript and show notes, click here.
Episode 2: Aubrey Gordon
Slate writer Scaachi Koul (Sucker Punch) reveals her delinquent beginnings as a serious reader and which reading behavior she finds inexcusable. Plus, Elena unpacks “hysterical realism” as a literary genre, and Scaachi explains why the Bible's biggest sin isn't its content.
For a full transcript and show notes, click here.
Episode 3: Scaachi Koul
Music critic Ann Powers (Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell) dishes about her oddball reading journey, from staging puppet shows as a library-dwelling misfit kid to struggling to keep up with her favorite writers on Substack.
For a full transcript and show notes, click here.
Episode 4: Ann Powers
Journalist and author Omar El Akkad (One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This) explains why book clubs don’t work for him and how growing up in media-censored Qatar led him to read anything he could gets his hands on — from Little Women to Dennis Rodman’s autobiography. Plus, Omar and Elena bond over the power of the perfect book title.
For a full transcript and show notes, click here.
Episode 5: Omar El Akkad
Author Sloane Crosley (Grief Is for People) confesses the origin of her aversion to audiobooks, plus tells us which adaptations are better than their literary source material and reveals the first adult book that made her bawl her eyes out.
For a full transcript and show notes, click here.
Episode 6: Sloane Crosley
Open Book is brought to you by Powell’s Books!
Shop books recommended on the show here.
